Page 78 of Monsters of Air

I held up a hand, trying to not let their bitter emotions take me over. “No offense, but neither of you help. You’re both too Alpha and right now he doesn’t need that attitude pushing on him. I can already hear him landing. He really isn’t that far. I’ll be fine.”

“This is a bad idea,” Philit said. “But then again you seem to just do what, and who, you want.”

“Nice, Philit. Tell you what, you decide to stick around and I’ll let you fuck me too.” I snapped the words out before I took off. This whole thing really wasn’t up for debate anyway.

Landers really didn’t make it far. He was leaning up against a tree, his face pale as he stared into the range of mountains that stretched before us. It would have been pretty, if we didn’t have to hike through it all. His tail was curled around his feet, his wings still coiled tightly to his body. He looked like he was waiting to be punched.

It was weird seeing him like that. I’d only ever seen confident Landers. The way he spoke, the way he acted, it was a hundred percent that of a spoiled rich kid. He was used to getting what he wanted, but all I saw as I walked up to him was vulnerability.

I could feel it so clearly from the other two, their worry and anxiety. Their frustration, and their softness whenever they thought of me. Every so often, I thought our bonds even thrummed whenever they wanted to see how I was doing.

“I can smell you,” Landers said, not looking at me.

“What do I smell like?” I asked, stumbling over a branch to reach him. He turned as if he heard it, his hand already stretched out to grab me.

“Like earth and freshness,” he said as he pulled me up, his hand tight around my wrist.

“Not like sex?”

He didn’t respond right away.

“Maybe I should take a bath if you can smell me from that far away.”

“You always smell of earth and freshness,” he whispered, turning back to the overlook even though he didn’t let go of my wrist. “Your smell is like everything is okay with the world, like freedom is right there in my grasp.”

“You aren’t free now?”

“I’m not stupid, Rayna,” he turned to me again, his thumb running over the back of my wrist. “Maybe if I stayed as a human, everything would have been fine. If I remained a human, I would have gotten everything I ever wanted, never having to work for anything. My future was all laid out. I was to take over my father’s business, build his empire. I would have wives in every port. No end to money or women. But now, even before I have a chance to learn what being a dragon is, my wings were already clipped.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Harshness slipped back into his voice. “Why are you here?”

“You shouldn’t be alone, especially when we’re this exhausted. So it was me or the other two.” It was a lie, but I had a feeling if I told him I was here to talk he would clam right up. This was the most open I’d seen him and I didn’t want to mess it up. Besides, we would get to the needed topic anyway.

“At this point, I’d take the other two.”

“Yeah, nice try, I don’t believe that.” I shook my head, trying to bite back as much of my laugh as I could.

“I’d only want your company with me if you plan on riding my dragon and seeing if we’ll bond.” His eyes blazed into mine. I pressed my lips together, it took less time than I thought to get there.

I shook my head, trying to break from his grip. He only held on tighter.

“I might consider that if you stopped acting like an asshole.”

“You can leave,” he said, in true asshole form as he released me.

“I’m asking you seriously. Ever since that first night, when Zilon kept me warm, you’ve been a dick. We didn’t even do anything that night, he just got a hard-on, same as you when you found me in the hall.”

“In the hall you were mine. But since then, all I’ve seen is you batting your eyes at everyone. I’ve never felt about someone the way I feel about you. It hurts not to have you.”

“So you decided to treat me like… like… a whore.” I hated the word, I hated more that Landers’ was just as much of the spoiled rich boy as I thought. I wanted to believe Zilon, that they were trying, but none of them were acting like it.

“I’m sorry, okay. I’m sorry. I’m not used to rejection and I certainly am not used to feeling this way. I usually take the pussy I want and leave them, but you… I wanted you, all of you. And then I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to handle that.”

“Clearly.” I folded my arms before he could grab my wrist again.

“I’m sorry, Rayna.”

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