Page 10 of Dallas

“With the dragons, though? Can we not avoid such prolonged contact with them? I might avoid them by hiding out in here, but there’s no hiding once we’re in the world.”

“Why would you hide here, in your chambers?” She looked around with a slight shrug. “Pleasant enough for what it is, I suppose, but hardly what I wish for you. Perhaps this journey is for the best in more ways than one.”

“It doesn’t—it isn’t—” I turned away before she could stroke my hair again.

“What is it?” She took me by the shoulders and turned me toward her. “What aren’t you sharing with me? I sense something hidden.” Her forehead creased, her eyes narrowed. “But I can’t quite find it.”

The sensation of her poking around in my head made my skin crawl. “Please, enough. You don’t have to pry into my mind. I’ll tell you. I don’t like them, I don’t like living with them, and I certainly don’t like the thought of traveling with any of them. It’s beyond belief! We’ve gone from avoiding them at all costs to deliberately walking into situations which demand we remain in close quarters. It’s a major adjustment.”

“I realize this.” Her shoulders slumped. “Though I admit, I have not given it as much thought as I should, and for this, I apologize. I’ve failed to ask for your opinion on our activities.”

I sighed. “As if I would go against anything you’d decided was for the best. I do see the advantages of this arrangement, don’t misunderstand me. I’m doing everything I can to get along—truly,” I added with a flush of guilt when she fixed me with a stern look.

“Why did I overhear you arguing with one of them this morning? Dallas, I believe?”

More guilt, with anger behind it. Anger toward him. “What of it?” I challenged, even though I quaked inside.

“You know how crucial it is that we keep the peace.”

“All I did was bring up a problem that I feel needs to be resolved.”

“Why not bring it to me, then? Or to Alan? Dallas has no say in these affairs.”

“Alan was nowhere to be found. Too involved with his human mate.” I wrinkled my nose in distaste.

“Be that as it may, I’m sure the matter could have waited. Are you certain you weren’t in the mood to start an argument?” She followed my gaze as it darted around the room, unwilling to meet hers.

How did she manage to make me feel like a child? No matter how many years I lived, there was always the sense that she knew my motives and saw through my excuses. I could freeze a dozen men in place and leave them until they rotted if it suited me, but let my mother look at me in that certain way, and I was nothing.

“I suppose I was,” I admitted. “What can you expect, though? Everyone comes to me with complaints. Electra can’t get a hot shower. Callie is continually sickened by the stench of meat coming from the kitchen. Iris wants to fight everyone all the time. And those are just the most recent complaints.”

“Why have I heard nothing of this?”

“Because none of them wants you to know how uncomfortable this arrangement has made them. I didn’t want you to know, either, which is why I’ve stayed quiet until now.”

“Quiet in front of me,” she corrected with a knowing smile. “Not quiet in front of the clan.”

“Well, if anyone is going to fix things, it ought to be them.”

“There is nothing for them to fix!”

“I know that, but I thought I should at least try to smooth things over as best I can before bringing you or Alan into it.”

“You didn’t seem to be smoothing much of anything over, judging from what I overheard.”

“I suppose… he pushes my buttons. Dallas, I mean. I like him least of all of the dragons.”

“You were wrong to goad him about the incident.”

My cheeks darkened when I heard the words I’d already thought to myself. She didn’t need to tell me I was wrong. I’d felt wrong the instant I brought it up, but at the moment I’d flailed about for something to say. Some sort of comeback. What I’d come up with was beneath me. “I know.”

“We were just as much at fault for allowing it to come to pass.”

“I disagree.” When I turned my back, she made no attempt to stop me. “It was Gavin’s fault. Gavin should have done everything in his power to prevent a rupture between us. He fell short, and look what became of him. Gunned down, when we might have been able to protect him and his clan.”

“I do not disagree—and yet…” The bed shifted slightly as she sat.

I kept my back to her. “And yet?”

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