Page 13 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

Cyrus didn’t miss that; he cocks his head lightly and narrows his eyes.

“Go on…” He says slowly.

“I—I thought that they might have been going for Sarah in particularbecauseshe is human,” I reply, “so I thought she’d be safer if I could imbue her with some dragon aura to protect her.”

“Meaning?” Cyrus asks.

“I married her.”

There’s a rattling gasp from onlookers. Many in the crowd look at one another. Everyone looks vaguely confused except for Kaius, who looks like Christmas has come early.

But I only worry about Cyrus’s expression. It’s completely stoic, and I have no idea what he thinks about that.

“You made this decision before informing any of us…” Cyrus states in a monotone—again, not giving his thoughts away.

“I know I should have brought everyone else into this decision,” I say, “But it didn’t feel like there was any time.”

Is that really the reason?A voice in my head murmurs,Or is it because you knew the Alpha would say no?

I cram down the voice as Evander snaps:

“Why would you do something like that before coming to meet with us?! That’s soreckless!”

I hang my head.

“I know,” I reply.

But Cyrus doesn’t speak for a moment more. He simply looks over at Lena—his own wife—and then sighs.

“You should have consulted the rest of us before bringing another human into this with marriage,” Cyrus says, “But I can’t criticize you about being reckless without being a hypocrite.”

He looks to Evander.

“The more important thing is that Eclipse seems to have changed their plans,” he states grimly, “We need to know why and how. This is a very bold move on their part—it doesn’t seem like they’re even trying to hide anymore. If this isn’t a rogue dragon, that is. Either way, we also need to figure out why they want Sarah. Why would they kidnap her rather than—”

I know what he’s about to say, but he looks down at Lena and stops himself before he says it; she doesn’t need any more stress with her pregnancy.

Evander nods his head.

“Yeah. I agree. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next,” Evander says to Cyrus.

“Um,” I interject, making them both look at me, “I just came back to let everyone know what was going on. I told SarahI’d be back to keep her safe overnight—I figured that the dragon who attacked her might come back since I failed to kill him.”

Cyrus nods.

“I can see that. Fine, you go guard Sarah and keep us updated throughout the night,” Cyrus orders, “Evander and I will discuss this, and we’ll come up with our own plan.”

I nod, and they leave. As soon as Cyrus and Evander have left, Lena comes over to me.

“Are you sure she’s okay?” she asks me worriedly, “Sarah has a bad habit of pretending she’s okay when she’s not.”

I chuckle lightly.

“Trust me, I know,” I laugh, “She’s proud, our Sheriff. But the one good thing about the fact that they drugged her is that I don’t think she remembers much about it.”

I put a hand on Lena’s shoulder and speak more seriously.

“But I promise, I’ll make sure she’s all right.”

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