Page 66 of Stolen By Dragons

And here I was, tangled up in a web of emotions I never saw coming, caught up in some mess with two men.

"Some chosen one I turned out to be," I muttered, stroking my dragon's scales. "I can't even figure out my own heart. How am I meant to help you save the world? Become a dragon rider or something? It’s crazy.”

I needed to figure out this mess with Ossian, that was my first step, then I’d figure it out.

One step at a time.

26

ARIA

Asoft knock on my door jolted me from my miserable moment. For a moment, I considered ignoring it, not feeling up to facing anyone. But the knock came again, more insistent this time.

I shot up abruptly, realizing it might be Ossian. I was planning to wait a little longer before I went to find him before dinner.

But what if it was Chris coming back? I had no idea what to say to him.

I rose and paused before the door, my heart racketing.

I glanced back at my dragon still on my bed, watching me silently. I sucked in a breath, preparing myself, but the air whooshed out of me when I found Ossian waiting outside the door.

“I think we need to talk,” he said as he stepped inside, his own dragon nowhere in sight.

“Where’s your dragon?” I asked instantly as I closed my door.

“Morveen is in my room, he’s letting me speak to you alone,” he stated. So his dragon was male, and was talking too. How delightful.

“Okay, I think we do need to talk,” I said and he nodded, although he made no move to enter my room further.

“What happened was a feeding thing, Aria. I shouldn’t have allowed it to get to the point it did, but when there are emotions underlying, feelings…” his jaw clenched as he glanced at my dragon for a moment, “it becomes difficult to control or fight. You’re feeding and your being driven by primal instinct and urges.”

“So it didn’t mean anything?” I whispered, my heart plummeting as I searched his face, hating the hurt coursing through me.

This should have been good news then, although fixing things with Chris wasn’t going to be an easy thing, if even possible in all honesty.

He stared hard at me, a war raging behind his eyes.

“It shouldn’t,” he said, his voice low.

“Shouldn’t or doesn’t?” I found myself saying.

“I’m a vampire, Aria,” he stated, and I just arched a brow as he shook his head. What on earth did that mean? Was he doing the whole immortality over mortality thing or ‘I’m a danger to you’ crap? I’d seen my vampire love movies as a teen, I knew the spiel.

“We have bigger things going on to deal with than this,” he said after a strained moment. “And you have your wolf.”

His words hit deep, and I nodded as I pursed my lips.

“Well, that doesn’t take back what happened, Ossian.”

“I told you what could happen, and you wanted to do it anyway,” he shot back quickly, and I stiffened.

“Yes, I know… did it work?” I mumbled.

He sighed as he pulled his sleeve up to show me his perfect skin, no hint of the blistering burn he’d sustained. It was completely healed.

“Thank you. Your blood helped me, Aria. But right now, I need to focus on keeping the vampires in check. Marcus has shown an interest in you, and I’m the only thing standing in his way. If he thinks there’s more between us, he’ll take it as an even bigger challenge, and we don’t need that right now.” Those dark eyes held mine as I nodded.

“So you want to keep your distance to protect me?” I said slowly.

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