Page 50 of Gold Sector
Because she’s not here.
Her missing scent… is no longer satisfying. It’s troubling instead.
I miss her, I realize, startled by the epiphany.How can I miss someone I just met?
Drakonians are covetous by nature, and we’re strongly possessive of our mates. But she isn’t mine. Not yet.
I’m not even sure I want to claim her.
Which is a lie, I suppose. I’ve already marked her in a way I’ve never marked anyone.
Fuck. My dragon growls as though agreeing with the curse. Then he growls for an entirely different reason as a pair of silver wings flash in the rising sun.Onyx.
It’s not uncommon for my brother to join me on a flight, but not quite like this. And especially not this early in the morning.
Sighing, I tell my dragon to follow his.
And naturally, my brother leads us to the landing outside my office.
I inhale deeply as I shift back into my human form, my short flight nowhere near satiating my animal’s needs. Yet he appears to be pacified by something else entirely now—our Omega’s scent.
Because we’re right below my suite here.
There’s even a set of stairs outside that leads up to the outdoor platform framing my quarters.
“Sorry,” my brother says as he grabs some pants from the stash in my closet. He tosses a pair to me before bending to pull the other up his long legs, our sizes nearly identical. “I wouldn’t interrupt your flight without cause.”
I hum, aware that he obviously has something important to share. But I can’t help ribbing him a bit. “The last flight you interrupted was to tell me an Alpha was requesting an audience with the court to discuss his Omega daughter. And look how that turned out.”
“You smell like her, so I’m going to say it didn’t turn out all that badly,” my brother returns.
I grunt. Although, he’s not wrong. I do smell like her. Fuck, I can still taste her on my tongue. Just thinking about it has me very carefully zipping up my pants, my knot throbbing to life in an instant. “What’s happened now?” I ask, needing his news to distract me from thinking about the Omega lying in my bed.
He takes a deep breath, telling me without words that this is going to be bad. “Our scouts in Azores Sector reached out. Obsidian Sector just claimed Lanzarote as their own.”
I was halfway to my office bar when my brother dropped that last sentence, causing me to stop mid-step and spin toward him. “What? How the fuck did they get through Gibraltar?” Because I know Riordan didn’t letPrince Basalt and his merry band of Alpha fuckwits through.
“It’s unclear,” my brother hedges, clearing his throat. “But I think they went through Djinn Sector.”
My stomach clenches at the mention of the infamous smokelike creatures known for having taken over the deserts of the North Africa region.Djinn Sectorwas commonly considered to be the center of that world, Alpha Aisha the renowned Queen of the Djinn.
“If Aisha and Basalt have aligned,” I begin, swallowing as an array of possibilities slam into my thoughts, none of them good. I sum them all up with a succinct “Fuck.”
“Yes.” My brother walks around me to the bar and pours both of us a double shot of lavaball. I down the drink in one go, slamming the glass on the gold-coated counter. Onyx instantly refills it, then drinks his own.
It’s not even eight in the morning, and we’re both drinking the hard shit. “We need to talk to Riordan.”
“I’ve already reached out. Just waiting for him to call back.”
I nod and stalk over to my desk, my screens appearing in the air as I sit down. There are four of them, all translucent until I reach for one. They’re sensitive to touch, their magic tangible as I call up my messages.
Nothing from Riordan.
But I know he’s seen and read my latest missive. The Alpha practically lives on his devices, making it impossible for him to have gone this long without seeing my note.
Hmm. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that Riordan sent us his spy and Basalt has somehow slipped through the seas to reach Lanzarote, all at the same time?” I ask my brother.
“I really don’t think Riordan let him throughGibraltar,” my brother says. “He hates Basalt even more than we do.”
