Page 31 of Bound to the Dragon
She stops mid-step and whirls to look at me. “What now, Blaze?” The exasperation in her tone gives me pause, and I almost forget the whole thing.
Pressing my lips together, I suck in air through my nose and approach her. “Look. We can’t live like this.”
She rolls her eyes. “Well, we don’t have much of a choice, do we? You only hear what you want to hear, even when I try to explain myself.”
I’m taken aback by her assessment. “That’s not true!”
She stares at me as if I just proved her point.
My hand reaches up to touch that stray strand of hair that always seems to be falling in her eyes. “There’s always a choice.”
“No, Blaze, not in your world. Your world is always black and white. One way or another. You don’t have a way of seeing things any other way.”
Her eyes half-close as she follows my palm to tuck her hair behind her ear. “That’s not true. I heard what you said about the invitations.”
“Only because I had to force you to see the logic in it. You say I’m the one fighting, but it’s you. You only hear what you want to hear. I don’t see a way forward when you’re so set in your ways.”
I leave my hand on her cheek, and she doesn’t move it. “I do. I can listen more, and so can you. We can work together. Isn’t that what we’ve been preaching to the pack all along?”
“I want that, too.” She lowers her eyes, and my chest tightens.
I bring my lips to Madison’s, and she eagerly returns my kiss, her hands cupping my face. A pleased titter behind us draws us apart, and two staff members flutter by, covering their mouths with embarrassment.
“Excuse us, Alpha, Luna.”
I wait until they pass before I say what’s on my mind.
“It’s better when we’re showing a united front,” I murmur. “It’s better for morale.”
“I don’t want to feel like I have to be careful about everything I do here either, Blaze.”
I pull her back against me, savoring the scent of her hair. She’s making me hard again, and I want to bring her back to my suite, but before I can suggest it, Lillian appears with Vigo at her side.
I stifle a groan. I’d forgotten he was coming. “I’ll meet you in my office.” I nod toward the space and reluctantly release my mate with a sigh. “Will I see you later?”
“I hope so.” She lowers her voice. “Maybe there will be a surprise waiting for you in your suite.”
That gets me aroused again, and this time, I do let the groan escape my lips. “I can’t wait.”
I join my Beta in the office and close the door. We sit, and I get right to it. “We need to discuss stronger safety protocol measures for the ceremony. I find it unbelievable that we still have no inkling of who perpetrated the attack or why or who it was even directed at.”
“There is some talk about a rogue group, tied to no particular pack?—”
I stop him mid-sentence. “I don’t want rumors and innuendos. I need real facts, leaders, and paper trails. I want someone’s head to roll for what happened, the invasion of my privacy, of ruining my mating ceremony. The fact that we have to do it again makes me livid.”
“And we’re working on it, around the clock, Blaze, but we’re out of leads. I don’t know what else to do.”
It’s true. They can’t find what isn’t there, but after almost two weeks, it’s probably safe to say that any evidence from that day is long gone. But that group is still around, lurking in the shadows.
“We have volunteer night guards working around the clock with our regular enforcers.” Vigo is already telling me information I have, but I don’t want to discourage him.
“Good. We’ll keep them in place until at least after the ceremony. Maybe we should add some more enforcers.”
Vigo frowns. “I don’t know. If not for this group, what else would we need them for?”
He has a valid point. Once this group is caught, we’ll have a bunch of extra enforcers lingering around for no good reason,but I’d feel better knowing we have them. Madison’s voice whispers in my ear, “But are you just adhering to an old way of doing things, or is this necessary?”
“Let me think on it.” At least Madison would approve of that answer, even if it wasn’t a full rejection of the proposal.
