Page 14 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
I stalked into my study and shut the door behind me, eyeing the phone on my desk as I sunk into the chair behind it. I hadn’t, strictly speaking, been lying to Kaylee when I’d told her I had work to do. I couldn’t avoid Gaheris’s call forever. I was isolated here—the exact way I liked it—but that meant sometimes changes in the greater world passed me by. I wasn’t opposed to that, either, but sometimes those changes impacted me, my lands, or my finances, and I had a vested interest in protecting all three.
I plucked up the phone and jabbed at the keypad, drumming my fingers impatiently on the desk’s surface as it rang.
“Rook,” the too-smooth voice traveled down the line. “I was starting to get the feeling you were avoiding me.”
“That’s not a feeling, Gaheris,” I grunted. “What do you want?”
“There’s trouble in the east.”
“There’s always trouble in the east.”
“Yes, well this time I think it’s spreading.”
“You think? You called me up to say youthinkit’s spreading?”
“This isn’t just idle gossip, Rook. The Borderlands—”
A distant crash sounded from the dining hall and I pulled the phone away from my ear, listening. A moment later, I heard thesound of someone cleaning up broken plates. I shook my head. Clumsy shifter.
“Rook, are you listening?” Gaheris squawked down the line.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m listening. Rebel plots and rogue dragons. Must be Tuesday.”
“You can try to brush this off all you want, Rook. I’m calling you because we go back a long way. Uther has his tail in a twist about this. He’s moving against anyone he thinks is harboring rebels, and you haven’t exactly been quiet in your criticism of him.”
“Not been quiet?” I frowned at the phone. “I haven’t spoken to anyone other than you in thirty years. How much more quiet can I be?”
“You know what I mean, Rook. I’m warning you as a friend. You can’t stay impartial forever. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to choose a side, and it might be a whole lot sooner than you’re expecting.”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
I dropped the phone back in its cradle and massaged my temples. Gaheris might be a paranoid, ass-kissing little shit, but his intel was usually good. Good enough that he was one of the few people I tolerated coming into my home. Ideally not more than once every few decades, though. Still, it was as close as I came to trusting any of my kind. If he was worked up about this, then it likely wasn’t without merit. Which was the last thing I needed. Especially if… Shit.
I picked up the phone and mashed the buttons. He answered almost at once.
“I don’t hear from you in a decade, and then you call twice in one day. It must be love, Rook.”
“I’d love to kick your ass, Gaheris.”
“You mispronounced ‘kiss’.”
“Funny,” I said dryly. Everyone’s a fucking comedian. “You said there was noise in the east. Human or shifter?”
“Shifter. Wolf shifters again. That’s why I called. Everyone knows your stance toward the wolves is benevolent.”
“Everyone doesn’t know shit. Lack of interest is not the same as benevolent. I don’t look after them, I just don’t waste my time policing them.”
“From the outside it looks like the same thing.”
“Just because I’m not taking pleasure in tormenting a lesser species does not mean I’m supporting some kind of rebel uprising. I claim my damned Tribute, what more does Uther want?”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” I paused and looked toward the door, but there was no sound of anyone creeping around in the hallway beyond. “I just picked up a new one two days ago, in fact.”
“And how much blood have you spilt breaking her in?”
“None,” I spat. “I’m not a fucking barbarian.”
