Page 112 of Drawn By Dragonblood
He lifted his broken expression upward, the agony radiating off him drawing on my empathy I hated in that moment, same as the beast did inside me, calling me weak. “To find her.”
The hurt Dolyn had caused fell over me once more like the weight of a mountain. I fought to keep from buckling beneath its heaviness.
How could he possibly forget the truth considering all we’d been through together?
“There is no her for us Dolyn. We searched together for years. Years and found no trace of a dragonblood female to force a bond with.”
“But I just hoped…” Dolyn’s eyes implored me to hear him out. “You yearned for her more than anything, including me, and I felt sure that if I could just locate a female, gift her to you, that you would finally relent and accept me as your alpha. That we could live out the rest of our years as we are meant to.”
“You were never born to lead, Dolyn,” I stated, my voice finding some of its strength at his audacity to continue to insist he was my alpha.
A shuddered sigh wracked his body at my feet. “I’m home and ready to submit to what fate has demanded, seeing as we’re the last two Blood Born to walk this earth,” he whispered without a hint of true submission or joy in his voice.
No. Not ours.
The scent of Jon and Dakota wafted up the stairwell from where I’d left them, sending another harsh ache through my chest but one that flooded my soul with peace instead of pain.
Dolyn and I had never experienced the kind of connection I did with my intended mates. Yes, I’d cared for him, attempted to help him accept who he was, but he’d denied me at every turn, refusing to accept his place, which would have brought a sense of fulfillment he still fought hard to find.
He had never been meant for me, merely a companion to pass the time while Jon and Dakota became of age. Still, my heart hurt at the memory of all the years Dolyn and I had shared and how neither of us had enjoyed a hint of true satisfaction in playing the roles as we had with each other.
“Our stations in this life are determined by dragonblood,” I reminded him with a soft tone, hoping to ease the further disappointment awaiting him. “There’s no changing what has been destined by fate.”
Another musk and sweet scent ghosted past my nostrils.
Yessss. They are ours.
Dolyn’s nostrils flared as though his heightened sense of smell had alerted him we weren’t alone. He scrambled back to his feet, his gaze flitting over my shoulder. I didn’t doubt he sensed my two lovers down in the dungeon. His eyes hardened, erasing what little light he’d had left shining in his amber orbs, but I couldn’t rouse a single shred of empathy for the pain I was about to inflict on his heart.
Hands fisted at his sides, he glowered. “What?—”
A low growl rumbled my chest, and I moved to stand in front of the doorway, although no trace of aggression lined Dolyn’s face, no suggestion he readied to sprint down the stairs and hurt my lovers or take for himself what belonged to me.
He raised his nose and sniffed, brow furrowing deeper. The confusion dissolved as he blinked, his eyes widening. “You’ve actually allowed others into our home?”
“My home,” I corrected him, my tone firm.
Dolyn ignored the truth I’d spoken, his focus intent over my shoulder. “They’re…human.” His golden eyes I used to get lost in hardened like stone as they jerked toward me. “You’ve chosen them? Over me? They’re…they’re nothing! Completely unworthy of you!”
I bared my teeth, my body tensing with the need to shift, the need to rip Dolyn limb from limb for saying such things about Jon and Dakota. “I’ve not yet claimed them,” I growled, “but I will—if they’ll have me.”
“They aren’t of the same blood!”
“They are,” I snapped as awareness they approached swept over me. “They are my fated mates, Dolyn.” I fought off the dragon shrieking beneath my skin with every ounce of strength I possessed. Shifting and revealing my real shape before telling them the truth of who we were could ruin everything. “They’re mine. My beta. My female. A trace of the dragonblood flows through their veins?—”
“It’s not possible!”
“It is truth,” I spat, my insides burning like the earth’s core. “Perhaps you can’t recognize it because they aren’t yours to love!” As for me, I could sense the ancient blood approaching, and it called to me on a primal level. To cherish and bring pleasure.
Protect.
Dolyn snorted, his chin lifting in a tilt haughty enough he peered down his nose at me. “Even if they do carry a trace of our superior DNA, they’ll never shift. We are the only two left of the original lineage, Elijah. Whoever they are, they’re not good enough. How can you possibly believe them to be?—”
“No. Fucking. Way.” Jon swore from behind me at the same time a horrified gasp left Dakota’s lips.
My inner beast whimpered at the sudden flare of emotion swarming my senses from Dolyn in front of me and both of my true mates behind me.
I was alpha, the one meant to lead us, but in that moment, I knew nothing but bafflement and complete unrest.
