Page 74 of Dragon's Honor

“No. She’s not ready and frankly neither am I. There’s too much to do right now. Claiming a mate will only make that harder.”

“You losing yourself to the craze will make that harder. Asher, what the fuck are you doing?”

“It’s not happening right now.”

“You’re going to lose her and yourself if you don’t get your shit together.”

“What’s going on?” Ash tried to focus the conversation off him.

“The conclave have deemed Tristian a threat. They’re waiting at Sea Glass. Gavin has had everyone looking for you.”

“Fine. We’ll be there shortly.”

“We?”

“I can’t leave her alone.”

“Just get there,” Henrik said.

Ash sighed and ended the call. He turned to find Finley fiddling with her phone looking worried.

“Did you get a hold of Olivia?”

Finley nodded.

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know. She sounded weird. Not really herself. She’s home. She wasn’t supposed to come home for a while. Once she gets to Milan it’s almost impossible to get her home.”

“Shall I take you to see her?”

“What are you going to do?”

“I need to go take care of some dragon business.”

“Tristian?”

He nodded.

“I don’t want to go home and put Olivia in danger.”

He flinched. The truth was Olivia was probably already in danger. He didn’t know what the right answer was.

“I don’t think I should take you to the conclave. If they see me with a human mate, it’s going to distract from the real problems.” He hated the idea of leaving her alone without his mark, but at least she’d have his tourmaline. And he could probably bribe her security guard to not let anyone up.

“They’re going to see me as a problem?”

“I don’t know.”

She deflated a bit. “Then take me home.”

Her tone was a little cold. Ash didn’t like the sound of it. He didn’t know what to say to her though. He didn’t want to lie to her.

He drove her to her apartment building and insisted on riding the elevator up to with her, not ready to leave her alone yet. The lift ride was quiet, and he could feel tension coming off her. The doors parted.

“I’ll see you later, Ash.” She stood in front of the lift doors blocking her entrance to her home.

“Finley…”

---