Page 50 of Dragon Exposed

“Thank you, Ash.” Michelle smiled softly. “I’ll tell you our story later, if you want to hear it. I’m just glad you’re all willing to talk to us. The other dragons we’ve tried to discuss things with haven’t exactly been receptive.”

One of her mates nodded softly, and added in an accent that sounded Middle Eastern, possibly Egyptian, “She’s being kind. My father, the king of our clan, tried to kill us all for heresy.”

19

More Problems

IZOBELLE

Ididn’t like how tense Levi felt sitting next to me, like having this many dragons here was causing him more stress than taking on a vampire had. Or having to deal with a mate who was scared of him.

It made me want to drag him back into the house, away from all of these guys, away from everything that had interrupted our tenuous peace together.

Sure, there were still humans who thought dragons were fire-breathing monsters come to destroy everything and everyone. And whatever was going on with the council and with Darius’s father couldn’t be good.

But when it was just the two of us, before Declan had crashed the party, I wasn’t afraid of what Levi would do to me as his mate. Hell, if we’d been left alone even another day, I probably would already be wearing his bite somewhere on my body.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it was something permanent, like a tattoo or a birthmark, which would be visible to everyone, or if it was more like something I’d be able to feel but no one else would know existed. I couldn’t see anything that looked obviously like a mating mark on any of the women around the table, but I doubted that meant much. Levi was possessive, and he liked to use his mouth entirely too much to think that he’d mark me somewhere innocuous like my bicep. If the other men at the table were anything like that, I didn’t think I’d get the chance to see any of their marks unless for some reason we all ended up naked.

Even though the area in front of the cabin looked like a commune, I really hoped that wasn’t the sort of family I was considering joining.

“Jerrick was the first dragon to actually believe what we were saying, and that I’d mated to both Darius and Khal.” Michelle reached for her mates’ shoulders, like she couldn’t bear not touching them.

It seemed to be a pretty consistent thing with all the women at the table except for Krystana. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was just because she hadn’t found her mate yet.

Or…mates. Could that happen to me and Levi? I couldn’t imagine how he’d react, how either of us would react, if some other shifter walked up and tried to claim me as their own. Truth be told, I didn’t want another one. One possessive, hot as fuck dragon was plenty.

A man across the table nodded once at Michelle and stood. His mate had a brilliant ring on her left hand, glowing in the dim light of the tent. I could only assume it was his heartstone.

“The council refuses to hear reason, and they refuse to see what’s happening to all of us. The garnet king has put a price on the heads of any clan members who mate with humans, going so far as to send guards and other creatures out to hunt us down. I knew our father wouldn’t take having all his sons mated to humans well, but this is far worse than we could’ve expected.” He reached down and squeezed his mate’s hand. “If it weren’t for Anya’s prosthetic, they would’ve gotten ahold of her. I could’ve lost my mate, because prejudice and hatred have driven older males, men who haven’t ever seen their own heartstones alight for the woman the fates have chosen, to dangerous places.”

Anya scowled. “It was the best leg I had, and I had to ditch it to get away.”

Her mate, who I assumed was Jerrick, leaned down and stole a kiss that would’ve made me jealous if it weren’t for the fact that I had a dragon of my own who was kissing the breath out of me. “We’ll get you a new one, just as soon as we can find someone to make it to your exacting specifications.”

Ash spoke up. “I could see if Syrena can weave something together. It could be better than anything a human could cobble together.” With a glance at me, he said softly, “Not that humans are incapable.”

The woman next to him rolled her eyes as she rested her hands on her pregnant belly. She looked so in love, even with her irritation at his words.

Michelle spoke again, drawing all the attention back to her. “Things wouldn’t be so bad if someone hadn’t leaked that list all over the internet.”

Another guy, one who looked enough like Ash, Declan, and Levi that he had to be one of the brothers, said, “I’m doing everything I can to scrub the records, but it’s been shared too many times. Too many people have seen it. We’re all at risk. If they’re not people who think they can kill one of us, they think they’ll be able to, I don’t know, tame us?” He sighed. “We’d all be best off to relocate, take up pseudonyms, until all this passes.”

Levi snarled, drawing everyone’s attention squarely on us. “I’m not running and hiding like a scared youngling with his tail between his legs. I did this to protect my mate, but I’m not afraid of vampires or a council of geriatric dragons refusing to see the way the world is improved by having human mates among us.” He gestured at Ash’s mate. “Dragon populations are growing again for the first time in decades. If Finley is blessed with a daughter, she’ll be the first female dragon born of any clan since Krystana. And having the power of obsidian dragons on our side again, even if it’s only a few, can only be a boon for dragonkind.”

“More than a few. All our mates have shifted. This tent has the largest number of female dragons in a century, all in one place.” Jerrick grinned at his mate, looking at her with pride.

“The obsidian line was once made entirely of human mates turned into dragons, and led not by a king, but a queen with multiple mates.” Michelle bit her lip. “I’m not saying that I want to take on a crown at any point soon, but I think we need to consider the possibility that I might be the first of many women to mate with more than one, and that the obsidian line will need a voice, a centralized person to lead.”

Another woman, someone I didn’t know yet, nodded and looked around the table. “I’ve waited centuries to find that other women could become dragons, that I wasn’t an anomaly. Gavin and I have been looking into all the history we can get our hands on, using a few dragons still loyal to their prince within the garnet clan to sneak us old tomes. All evidence we’ve found so far, even though it’s not much, and more of it’s driven by what I’ve been able to see myself, with the women in this room, points to the fact that humans turning into dragons tend to be stronger, and they make their mates more resilient too. I don’t mean to sound heartless, but I really can’t wait to meet Finley and Myra’s babies, to find out just what they can do. The scientist in me really wants to test their limits, find out if they have the same ones as other dragons, or if they can do more.”

Levi leaned in and whispered, “That’s Pru. She and Gavin have been mated longer than I’ve been alive, and they’ve had to hide, conceal the fact that she was a dragon, since the moment he claimed her.”

I squeezed his hand, looking around the table at all the women in the tent. All of them except Krystana had been human, but if what I was hearing was accurate, all of them were dragons now too.

“I…I think I need some air.” I pushed my chair back, stepping out of the tent into the night, trying to wrap my head around everything I’d heard.

Footsteps that were way too light to be Levi’s followed behind, and when I turned, I saw his sister looking at me with that same curiosity, but also with worry wrinkling her brow. “Everything okay?”

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