Page 35 of Firedrake Betrayal
He lifts his fingers to my chin. I pull away before he can touch me. That’s something I willneverlet him do to me again. What happened between us in the cell more times than I should have let it was a mistake. It’s time to correct those mistakes by never letting it happen again.
As the plane rolls to a stop, Dominik lowers his hand. “A firedrake does not share his woman. He is possessive.”
A rumbling purr outside my window captures my attention. I focus on the black car with tinted windows waiting outside. For us probably, since it looks identical to the one that took us to the airport in New York.
The engine falls silent as the driver in a black suit climbs out of the car to stand beside it, resting his arms by his side. I turn away, needing Dominik to understand something before we get out. Something important.
“We arenotfriends, and I amnotyour woman.Youtied us together. It isn’t what I wanted then, and it’s not what I want now.”
“And our child?” His expression is blank.
If I’m not careful, a man like Dominik will take over my life. That isn’t happening. Not after I wasted six years in an attic. I refuse to waste any more of it tied with someone who doesn’t make me happy. Iwillbreak this bond. Somehow.
“We are having a child together but that doesn’t mean I have to like you. In time, we can learn to be friends for the sake of our child to make co-parenting easier.”
“Co-parenting?”
I nod, pretending I don’t hear the bite of anger in his voice. “I’ve grown up without my mom and I wouldn’t wish my child to go through that, so we can co-parent. Even if we don’t becomefriends, I can learn to be civil for the sake of our child unless you lock me in your hoard again. Then I won’t even try to stop my dad or Shep, Isaiah, and Patten from trying to kill you. And they will. Or maybe I’ll be the one doing the killing.”
If I ever get a handle on this famous House of Kaida power I’m supposed to have.
“You’ll want more,” Dominik says so confidently I have to look away before I give into the urge to force him out of the window.
I focus on the mountains in the distance. It looks perfectly normal, though we’re too far away to see anything.
There should be a lot to see. Namely cops and fire engines putting out Dad’s fire in the mountains of Wilkerson.
“I wonder what everyone is saying about Dad. Maybe we’re too far away for anyone to have seen him in the sky,” I mutter.
“There was an explosion in the mountain caused by some unexpected lava activity,” Dominik says. “Any smoke drifting from Wilkerson is being attributed to that.”
I whip my head toward him. “What?”
He’s currently reading from his cell phone.
I watch him for several seconds. “How do you even know how to use that?”
Technology has to have changed substantially. Would he even know what an app is? Did they have apps twenty years ago?
Focus, Jade. Focus on the here and now.
“It is a cell phone,” Dominik says slowly. Like I’m an idiot.
“I know that,” I bite out, “but you spent the last twenty years growling like you were feral.”
A door whooshes open before he can respond, and the pilot’s trim figure fills the open doorway. “Mr. Alarik, are you and your wife ready to dismount?”
It takes concerted effort not to grind my molars together. “I amnotyour wife.”
“It’s been an exhausting flight.” Dominik smiles at the pilot. “She is tired.”
The pilot nods. “Then I’ll see about getting your bags to your driver.”
“Excellent.”
Dominik tucks the cell phone into his pocket and unbuckles his seatbelt before he rises, holding his palm out toward me.
I unbuckle my seatbelt and stand, refusing his offer to help me up. “Do you think Atticus paid off the cops to hide what he gets up to in the mountains?”
