Page 31 of Consorting with Dragons

I looked in surprise at the dragon who was looking right back up at me.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.”

“Then why did you do it?”

I was far too exasperated to have this conversation. I blew out a long and furious breath and looked back at Rylan. “Are you ready to go? I need to get back to base.”

“Go?” The little dragon cried out. “But you just got here!”

“It’s all right,” Rylan told him. “You’re coming with me this time.”

“No, he isn’t! Don’t promise him things like that!”

He stood up and faced me. “Yes, he is. You owe me, Quinn and you know it. If you don’t let me have him, right here and now, then as soon as we get back to your base, I’m calling my grandfather and telling him I want to come back home, but you won’t let me. And then you can work the rest of it out with him.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” I growled at him.

“I’ll stay if you give me this dragon. I promise I will. Consider it part of my mate price. Only this part will be paid directly to me.”

“In other words, you’re blackmailing me.”

“No other words—that’s exactly what I’m doing. You give me this dragon, and I’ll agree to marry you. If not, then I’ll get my grandfather, King Davos, to come and get me. Don’t think I won’t. I think I can even squeeze out a few tears for him. I’ll tell him how you beat me and keep me locked up all the time.”

“This is outrageous.”

“Maybe so, but those are my terms. Take them or leave them. What’s it going to be?”

As I stood there glaring at him in complete fury and astonishment, he nodded with satisfaction.

“That’s what I thought.” He found the little vetami’s harness and slipped it on him. Then he took the end of the leash, came out of the enclosure and began leading him quickly toward the exit, with the dragon trotting happily along beside him.

I hesitated only a few seconds before I followed him.

****

As I imagined it would be, it was an awkward ride back, to say the least. I was seething with anger while Rylan sat with the Golden—whom he had already begun callingTalon—in his lap, smiling happily because he’d gotten his way.

Actually, the vetami’s broad backside was sprawled in the floor beside Rylan’s seat, and his front paws were draped over Rylan’s legs. He had grown that much in the past few days and was already too large to sit in his lap. Now that he was eating again, he’d grow a great deal more and rapidly too. This would probably be his last time inside a vehicle, because soon he wouldn’t fit. He was babbling now about how he justlovedhis new name and how clever Rylan was to think of it.

I dreaded the uproar that this would cause with the training facility, although, in truth, I felt like some of the trainers had been a little too harsh in their dealings with the vetami. Perhaps it was time for them to realize they didn’t “own” them either but were simply tasked with their training and well-being. Some of the top trainers, like that Colonel Bentine, seemed to have grown a bit complacent and a little too comfortable in the job, as evidenced by the way he’d acted when I’d come to see Talon earlier in the week.

On the way back to the base, I decided it would be best to detour away from the hospital and just take Rylan and his vetami both straight to my family home outside the capitol city, in the foothills of the eastern mountain chain called the Kramons. It was where I’d grown up and where I kept Sulamon, in a large field beside the house. He had his own attendants and his own enclosure there, fully heated in the harsh winters. There would be plenty of room for little Talon there too. And because Talon was so young, I didn’t think Sulamon would try to fight him, even though males didn’t get along too well, as a general rule with other male dragons.

I would have brought Rylan here soon, anyway, which I knew would be a necessity because of his high rank and status. Perhaps it would all be for the best anyway. I’d be gone often on various missions and duty related trips, and having Talon here would be good company for Rylan while I was gone. It would help keep him occupied.

“I’m going to take you and Talon to my home in the hills. I’ll have your things brought over to you.”

“I don’t have any things.”

I glanced over at him in surprise. “I’m so sorry, Rylan. I’ve been preoccupied since we got back, but I told the doctors to provide whatever you needed. Whatever you asked for.”

He shrugged and kept staring out the windshield.

“If you’ll make a list of everything you want, I’ll get it for you. Or I can take you shopping. Just tell me what you want to do.” Rylan continued to stare straight ahead while I was telling him all this, and I couldn’t read his mood at all. It irritated me a little that I had to worry about such things now, but having a mate changed everything.

“What do you think?” I prompted him. “Would that work? Will you go there to my home and live with me?”

“I don’t know. Do you intend to marry me right away? You keep talking about a mate contract, but I haven’t seen one yet. I won’t stay there unless there’s a wedding, you know.”

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