Page 26 of Sass Me

“Are you shitting me?”

“No.” The shock and awe of everything that had happened had him shaken. But, at the same time, he felt a new sense of power, of purpose.

Dax set two whiskey glasses on the bar and pulled a flask out of his back pocket. He poured two fingers of the red and amber liquor into each glass.

“This calls for some Dragon Spirit.” Dax blew a puff of fire, lighting each of the drinks up. What did he say?”

Steele stared at the glass and frowned. “He called me a dumbass for dying.”

“Uh, that’s weird. I mean, that was a pretty dumbass thing to do, but does the First Dragon even know words like that? He died in the 1300’s. Didn’t he call you like a crooked-nosed knave or something? That’s what my dad always called me.”

“Maybe that’s just the way my mind translated it.” He took a swig from the bottle. “The White Witch was there too. At least, I think that’s who she was.”

“Holy shit. What did she say?”

“I don’t think she ever spoke directly to me. She spent most of the time chastising the First Dragon. They argued. A lot. I can’t really remember it all very well.”

It was like a dream, fading already the second he woke up. He had the feeling that they’d laid some pretty heavy truths on him, but he couldn’t grasp them in his memory.

“She argued with the First Dragon?”

“Yeah, like an old married couple.”

“I’m so uncomfortable with this entire conversation.”

“He also gave me sex advice.”

“Dude, stop. He’s our great-great-great grandfather. He should not be giving anyone sex advice. Not to mention the fact you were both dead at the time.”

The First Dragon and his mate, Ina, I-something, hadn’t seemed dead. Especially when he’d been giving Steele instructions. Wake up. Claim. Protect. Orgasm.

Or something like that.

Wake-up and protect were as far as he’d gotten. Fleur wouldn’t let him come even close to claiming her.

“Alright, dickheads, I mean dragons. What the fuck is going on, and if we kill you will it go away?” Aric swaggered out of his office, flanked by his four less than happy looking wolf-shifter A-team.

All five of their faces were barely human, more wolf. Their eyes glowed golden around the edges. They were in protection mode, and Steele completely understood.

He stood and balled his fists at his side. Fighting with the wolves would not help him win Fleur. But it would make five less of them to be sniffing around her.

It would not help him defeat the demon dragons, but kicking their asses would feel pretty damn good.

“If you kill us, you’ll have a shitload of demon dragons in your backyard. I don’t think you want their death and destruction wyrming it’s way into your mating ritual.”

Dax poured each of the wolves a shot of their own whiskey and breathed just enough fire to set them all alight. “I’ve already contacted Match, the red Wyvern, he making arrangements to fly here in time for the ceremony tonight.”

If the red Wyvern himself were coming the situation was more grim than Steele had first thought. His next call had better be to his own Wyvern, Jakob.

“We need less dragons, not more.”

“Unless you want less wolves, you need more Dragons.” As Dax spoke his voice got lower, and darker. “The demon dragons are the purest evil in the world, and now that they are here, they’d like nothing more than to murder each and every one of your mates and spread a plague throughout your town.”

The fire in each of the little cups grew from a tiny flame to a full on blaze, reacting to the heat coming off Dax.

Steele put his hand on Dax’s shoulder, bringing his friend back from the darkness in the soul of every red dragon.

“Well shit,” Mason said, “Mom will kill us if we let anything happen to screw up this scenting ceremony. Just ask them to help us, Aric.”

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