Page 64 of Dragon's Code

“Not really. It’s hard to explain. It’s more like the dragon helps me feel more primal things, things that being human suppresses, but the dragon allows because it's ancient, even if I’m not.”

Her lips part and her eyes stare at me unblinkingly for a moment. “Sounds amazing. I can’t believe you had this piece of you I never got to see. I feel like I’m just now learning so much about you and we’ve been friends for so long.”

“Does it bother you that I kept it a secret?”

She immediately shakes her head. “Of course not. You’re allowed to have secrets and this is a whopper of a secret. And I understand that you were doing it to protect us both. With everything I’ve heard about your government, they wouldn’t look too kindly upon me knowing about you, even if I were only a friend. I’m sure thinking I was your mate only compounded those fears.”

“I didn’t think you were my mate, Athena. I knew you were and I know you are now. Fate may have shown me the way when I was a child, but I fell in love with you many years ago. That love has only grown stronger.”

“Holy shit. Kashton.” She gets up onto her knees and moves toward me on the bed until she’s kneeling right next to me. She crawls into my lap and straddles me. “I wish we could’ve spent more time together knowing the truth, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been time wasted. I feel like we’ve only grown closer.”

I smile, because I can’t help myself. She’s in my arms after years and years of keeping myself from her, not giving her everything that I wanted to give. I don’t know how I resisted her all this time. If I’d even had a clue of how wonderful it would feel to be with her, touch her, kiss her, and see her lost in pleasure, I wouldn’t have been able to resist a moment if she returned my attraction.

The moment I can, and she’s willing, I will claim her and make her mine. Until then, I’ll be content to hold her, to fuck her, to have every part of her that I can, and give her every part of me in return.

ChapterSeventeen

ATHENA

Another couple of hours pass and Kashton sits on the bed next to me, touching me, caressing me, basically driving me mad as I hyperfocus on trying to figure out exactly where the army outside is located and what they’re doing while waiting for supernatural creatures to turn themselves in.

I don’t know how they got the handful of them that they managed to, but I’m looking for weak spots so we can set them free.

When I glance over at Kash, he’s staring at me again, or possibly still. He’s right, I’m oblivious most of the time. I never had a clue that he was ever staring at me. But I always used to watch him at his games when we were in college as an excuse to stare. Not that I was ever really honest with myself.

When Kash helped me through my trauma, I ended up with a crush on him for a short while. He was amazing and he’d been amazing before and every day since. I really appreciated his friendship. He got me through so much. But now I wonder just how much we’ve cared for each other and for how long? Did fate really decide, or did we just decide when we met each other that we were going to be special to each other somehow.

I don’t know. Fate has always been this thing from Greek mythology, this mysterious force that no one could control. When you try and stop your future, you usually play right into the gods’ hands, as it were, and the ending you were running from becomes your story anyway. Fighting fate, giving into fate, making your fate…Kashton and I have a choice. And we choose to be together. Fate doesn’t decide, we do.

I see Raphael again in one of the videos I just pulled up. He’s holding up a piece of paper. It says, “Meet me in the lobby in an hour, Athena.”

I stare at the note until he disappears from the screen. It’s nearly evening again. The sun is setting already. With the days being shorter, Las Vegas’s lights take over the strip and the army outside is lit up with the glamor.

I sit up and close my computer. I’ve hacked into as many cameras as I could and managed to get the live feeds to Jonathan who is setting up a command station in the state of the art security station in the basement of this place.

“What’s up?” Kash asks me.

I smile over at him. “I need a break.”

He moves over to the bed next to me as I slide the laptop onto the floor. He wraps his arm around my waist and hauls me into his body. He lifts me with such ease.

“Just how strong are you?” I ask.

“Super strength is a shifter trait. The other shifters are strong too.”

“When I become a dragon, will I have super powers then too?”

He stares at me for a long time. “Is that what you want? To be a dragon?”

“Do you have any idea how amazing it sounds to be a shapeshifter and a dragon to boot?”

“Amazing? You don’t think it sounds scary or anything?”

“The idea of turning into a giant reptile with fire breathing abilities and psychic abilities and super human abilities when in your human form…sounds like a fun time to me. I feel like I wouldn’t have to be scared of anything ever again.”

“Dragons are not invulnerable.”

“I wouldn’t think they were, but they’re helluva a lot tougher than a human. If I were a dragon when I was kidnapped, I could’ve killed them all myself. Instead, you took care of it for me. Do you have any idea how much it means to me that you did that? My own father didn’t give a small fraction of his money to save his only daughter. But you risked your life, your secret, and burned them all to ashes for me.”

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