Page 38 of Firedrake Betrayal
Patten grunts. “You see what I meant.Thisis why you never tell a girl she smells anything except perfect.”
How did the way I smell become the focus of the conversation and not on the life-changing thing I just yelled out?
I look at Shep, Patten, and Isaiah, and I wait for them to decide they don’t want me anymore. “You’re not mad.”
“We are,” Isaiah says.
“Yes,” Shep agrees.
“At the dragon for kidnapping you after we saved his lazy ass.” Patten glares over my shoulder.
“Oh,” I say.
Patten adds, “You want to move aside beautiful so we can kill the guy?”
I’m so surprised, I nearly do it. “There’s no need to kill him. I mean, the pregnant thing wasn’t his fault. The bonding was...” I think I said the wrong thing again. Or the right things in the wrong order.
“What bonding?” Shep’s eyes narrow.
I have completely messed this up. It isn’t like I didn’t have hours to plan exactly what to say to cause the least amount of conflict. I scrub a hand over my face, frustrated and annoyed at myself.
Things were simple in the attic. I don’t miss being in it, but things were different. Now what I say—and what I do—has an impact on someone other than just me.
I’m not sure when I’ll get used to that feeling. If I ever will.
“It’s okay. I can explain,” I say when I don’t think I can.
Dominik decides now is the perfect time to step forward, lifting his chin. “Jade is mine, and our bond is permanent. She will be returning to New York with me.”
Blond fur sweeps over Sheps’s cheeks, and his eyes flare to a brilliant gold. Signs his wolf will ravage Dominik if I don’t do something. “Whatdid you say?”
I lift my arms between them, desperate to put an end to this before blood starts flowing.
“We’ll break the bond, and then I want to go back to Chicago. That’s all I want. For Atticus to die so he can’t hurt anyone else ever again, and to just gohome.”
“Jade…” Dominik rests his hand on my arm.
I wrench it free. “No. I told you not to touch me again. I don’t trust you after what you did, and I don’t much like you either.”
A slow smile of satisfaction is stretching across Patten’s lips when a female voice distracts me. “Jade?”
A curvy blonde woman with olive skin and tired blue eyes, wearing a green floral dress, smiles in relief as she steps out of a bedroom. “He asked about you.”
“He…” Then I see him. The man in the bed behind her, covered by a pale blue sheet.
My biggest reason for wanting to return to Wilkerson.
“Dad!” I sprint across the room, skidding to a stop just inside the doorway. My eyes widen in shock. “His veins are silver.”
“A bolt was slowly poisoning him. My spell is working, but the poisoning was extensive, and he’s still not out of danger.” The woman who stepped out of the doorway before I couldslam into her moves to the other side of Dad’s bed, drawing my attention to the tiny glass bottles on the bedside table.
“Who are you?” I ask, though I don’t turn to look at her.
“Meliah.”
“Jade.” I’m careful not to disturb Dad as I perch on the edge of the bed.
He looks bad. I’ve never seen Dad sick before. In fact, I didn’t believe he ever got sick. I lift my hand, let it hover over his pale skin, and lower it again without touching him. I’m too afraid anything I do would hurt him. “How could a bolt hurt him this badly?”
