Page 55 of Firedrake Betrayal
Adoor clicks behind me as the sun edges up a dusky blue-gray sky.
The small sound briefly distracts a small red fox at the bottom of the garden.
I keep my eyes trained on the fox pissing on a tree. The fox finishes and looks up at the house before it darts away, leaves rustling until it disappears from view.
“I’m curious about your reason for watching us last night.” There’s a growl in Shep’s voice when he speaks. I assume he’s growling at me until he mutters, “Fox did that on purpose.”
Is there some kind of territorial fight going on here I neither understand nor care about? Shep is in a pair of shorts, bare chest, no shoes, and his shoulder-length blond hair is sleep rumpled as he glares at the bottom of the garden.
And he smells like Jade.
Jade, who is mine.
She defended the vampire for feeding on her, something I should have killed him for, and she chose the wolf as a lover when she has me.
She has me.
Yet she still chose the wolf.
How do I convince her that she wants me andonlyme?
I look away from Shep to the sun illuminating more of the garden. “You are mistaken.”
Lies.
Jade is everything I craved all this time. Not just a firedrake, but a beautiful mate. The mother of my child.Family. To keep her, do I have to share her with men who are beneath her?
Shep crosses his arms, his gaze boring into the side of my face. “You must have known what we were doing, yet you hung around. I smelled you.”
“She is not yours.” Words I hadn’t intended to utter slip out. Hard-bitten, and in a tone that lets him know exactly what I think of him. Not good enough.
Not deserving of Jade and not deserving of my time.
“Perhaps not,” Shep surprises me by agreeing. “But she’s not yours in the way you seem to think she is.”
I turn to go inside before the taste of smoke and fire in my mouth grows stronger.
And before I can give into this urge to kill him.
Footsteps thump down the stairs and a voice yells. “Shep? Where the fuck are?—”
Dom turns away from me, the door swings open, and I come face to face with the demon who’s been salivating in his smugness when.
Fully dressed, he either slept in his clothes or he was up earlier than I was. He glares at me. “Oh. You.”
“Don’t, Patten,” Shep warns.
“Move,” I order him.
He stays right where he is, blocking my way.
My vision flickers: red and orange.
A slow smile stretches his lips. “Go ahead, dragon guy. Give Jade another reason to hate you.”
“You think I won’t?”
He steps up to me, his smile sliding off his face. “What I think is irrelevant. Jade wants you gone.” His eyes sweep over me. “You know it. I know it. Do everyone a favor and leave.”
