Page 43 of Primal Dragon

Beth shook her head. “None of us pretend to know what the hell is going on, but whatever it is, it threatens other women. Those guys, those…they were vampires, right? We’ve heard you talking. There was a dragon and there were vampires. We’re living in some weirdGame of Thrones—True Bloodreality. We didn’t know it was real before, but we do now. We want to help.”

Nash growled. “You’re too valuable to be put at risk.”

Beth turned and eyed Nash. “I appreciate that, but we don’t care. We’re not going to be benched. We want to help.”

Quinn put her hand on Henrik’s. When he met her gaze, he knew he was fucked. “Let them help.”

11

Worshipping the Females

Quinn could tell the moment she’d won Henrik over. His bright green eyes locked in on hers.

“You all were just put through the wringer,” Warren countered. “You’re not up for this.”

Syrena held up her hands before a real argument broke out. “Frankly, Warren, I don’t know if we’ll have the luxury of turning down help. We don’t know how big this thing is yet. We might need all the people we can get on this.”

“You can’t honestly be suggesting putting a bunch of females in the line of fire after we just got done rescuing them?” Cillian barked.

“Enough.” Henrik didn’t raise his voice, but he put his demand in there all the same. “Nothing is happening tonight. We don’t know anything. I’m going to take Quinn home. The rest of you, figure out a plan.” He looked at Quinn for a moment and then turned back to the rest of the crowd, standing up as he did so. “I don’t like the idea of sending females in to fight either, but the truth is, they were held in captivity by these monsters and if they want to help, they’ve earned the right.” He turned and looked at Beth. “Forgive us, females are important to each of our kind. It’s not a matter of disrespect or thinking you can’t handle yourselves. We worry because you’re human and more fragile than any of us, really. But tonight, if it wasn’t for one of you human females, I may not have made it out of there in one piece. While I would’ve happily sacrificed myself to make sure all of you were freed, I didn’t have to, thanks to Quinn. You all should rest and eat your fill before going into battle.”

Beth smiled. She glanced around at everyone and then turned on her heel and headed back to where all the women were resting.

Quinn’s attraction to Henrik had never been stronger than watching him nearly worship at Beth’s feet. He did appreciate women and even though he didn’t want them in danger, he was man enough to admit they could be helpful.

Sebastian met her gaze. “I can see why fate would bring the two of you together.”

Quinn blushed. The whole fate thing still bothered her. She used to envy it when James spoke of it, but now that fate was playing with her life, she wasn’t sure how she felt about any of it.

She glanced around the room at all the big, strapping men. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were all dragons or if they were something else. She’d been so exposed to James’s world, but he wasn’t here to tell her about it.

Henrik reach his hand out for hers. “Let me take you home.”

Quinn put her hand in his and let him help her to her feet. The truth was she didn’t feel great. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the exhaustion and pain of the evening’s events had settled into her muscles and bones. She was sore and tired.

Once they were outside in the bitter cold, Henrik wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her up over the ice.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the hospital? What if something more serious is wrong?” Henrik asked.

“I’m very in tune with my body. I’m just bruised. I didn’t even hit my head. I’m okay, I promise.”

Henrik let out a defeated sigh and helped her into the car. Henrik drove like it was a lazy Sunday afternoon in his rumbling muscle car. Looking at all the quiet, dark houses through the residential area was almost like she’d never know that normal again. For a long time after she met James, she was scared. There were all these creatures of the night just lurking in the shadows, but after a while she realized it wasn’t any different than the monsters of the human world lurking. And the vampires and the shifters and the fae didn’t lurk. They had to live their own lives, but they had to do it in secret.

“Do you really think the human race wouldn’t be happy to find out that all of you guys exist?”

“If we could inform them one at a time and show them what we really are, I have no doubt, for the most part it’d be okay. But we won’t get to control the message.”

“Yeah and there will be plenty of people who are terrified. And probably a horde of people who will be crazy fans. You’ll have groupies showing up in your beds.”

Henrik’s lip curled in disgust. “What? Why?”

“Just trust me,” she teased.

“I don’t want anyone showing up in my bed but…” He left the invitation hanging in the air.

Quinn blushed and turned her gaze out to the world again as they passed it by. She continued to play the action of the evening over in her head. Vampires had tried to tear Henrik apart and they tore into her neck like she was a hamburger. How was she going to survive all of this?

Why couldn’t she be something powerful like a vampire or a dragon shifter? Being a human was obscenely useless in times like these.

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