Page 63 of Dragon's Code

Jerrick and I both nod. “Just like that. You deserve better. Any information you have regarding the Elders and their secrets would be great, but if you want to keep them, I’ll accept that as well.”

Her entire body sags and she sits down. She covers her face with her hands. Her shoulders shake with silent tears. It’s then I realize just how much is put on the shoulders of these women.

* * *

Athena is thankfully backin her room when I get up to mine. I know that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself, but it scares the crap out of me that she wants to go with Raphael. It scares me even more that I might have to let her.

I don’t know what will happen with this mess of humans and Grey still trying to eradicate us all. I don’t know what will happen with any of this bullshit, but now that I have Athena, now that I know what she tastes like, now that I know that she’s my mate and wants me as much as I want her, I will not give her up again.

My dragon would never forgive me. We’ve been in pain for a long time thinking we’d never have her, never be able to claim her.

She looks up from her laptop. “I’ve been hacking the street cameras, ATM cameras, and anything else I can find a way into trying to figure out where they’re posted and see if I can figure out what they’re up to. As far as I can tell there are already a few people captured.”

“Captured? Holy shit, Athena.” I sit down next to her and look over her shoulder at her computer screen. She’s got multiple video feeds up, she’s jumping between each of them.

Somehow, probably with Jonathan’s help, she’s turned her suite into a fucking command center, the TVs tuned to some of the security cameras, and she’s in control of it all.

“Wait, is that Raphael?” I ask, seeing him show up on every camera feed.

“Yes, that’s what I’ve been tracking. He shows up in every feed that I’m watching. Some of them are blocks apart from each other, and he’s there in seconds.”

I watch her bounce from feed to feed. In each one, her ex-boyfriend pops up.

“He can travel on radio waves. He knows you’re watching. He’s trying to get your attention.” My stomach twists with fury. How dare he try to get her attention. He scares her, follows her across the country, and now he’s showing up wherever she is looking. I want to kill him.

“That’s quite a trick. Traveling on radio waves. How?”

“He’s fae. I’m not sure how it works. It’s magic though, not science.”

Her brow furrows in concentration, her eyes narrowing, all while she chews on her bottom lip. She’s working out the science in her head. This is how she looks whenever she has a hard problem in front of her. Usually, it’s math or a computer issue that’s stumped her for a short while.

“That’s the guessing game, right? Magic to someone is science to someone else. I’m not sure I can just write it off until I know more.” Her voice is a little distant. Another quirk I’m all too familiar with.

“I’ve counted a couple hundred men and women who I’ve guessed are part of this ridiculous army. There are a lot of them and there are a lot of blindspots. If they’re at all intelligent, they’ve done their scouting ahead of time and know exactly where those blindspots are.”

“We should get this information to Jerrick.”

She chuckles. “Jonathan is already getting all my information so he can get the video feeds up on bigger screens. Hopefully, they’ll be able to see more. It’s just easier to work off my laptop then someone else’s.”

“You’re so hot when you’re working.”

That catches her attention. She looks up and over at me from her position where she’s laying on her stomach. “Hot?”

“Yeah, it’s always fun for me to watch you work. You were really never that aware of what was going on around you and I could stare at you for as long as I liked and you were never the wiser.”

The blush tints her cheeks. She shakes her head. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

“What?”

“You thinking that I’m hot, that the shit I do all the time is somehow attractive. Most of the guys I’ve dated–”

My dragon and I both growl at her. “Never again do I want to hear about your past where men are concerned. We don’t like it.”

She frowns and turns to her side. “We?”

“Most of the time the dragon and I are one, but occasionally the dragon’s needs, wants, or grievances are more pronounced. Neither one of us like to think of you with another man. We’re not mad that you have a history, we just don’t want to think about it. It makes us a little possessive. And as much as I want to claim you fully, we can’t do it here. Not when there is an army outside that is trying to oust dragons.”

She sits up and crosses her legs in front of her. “There’s another presence in your head?”

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