Page 32 of Hidden Dragons

“Lady Tildeth?”Isabelle sent silently to the female dragon. When the sky blue dragon’s head rose from the sand pit at the center of their suite and Isabelle knew she had the female dragon’s attention, she continued.“I need your assistance. Can you convince Bear to stay here today? There is something we need to clear up, and there has been no time to do it. I know your duty comes first, but could you at least delay him so we can hash this out?”

“Answer me one question first. Do you truly love my knight?”Tilly’s pale aquamarine eyes pinned Isabelle where she stood.

Isabelle took a deep breath before answering honestly.“I do. It’s his feelings for me that we need to clarify.”

“Has he not told you?”Tilly looked confused in a way that only a dragon could.

Isabelle shook her head, a bit of her sadness and distress entering her mental tone.“No, he hasn’t.”

“Silly boy,”Tilly commented in an indulgent, chastising way.“Never fear, we will get this straightened out. I think I feel a strain in my wing that needs to be seen to right away.”

Buoyed by Tilly’s agreement to stay in the Lair this morning, Isabelle smiled and thanked the massive dragon who was now her partner in crime.

Bear went back to their suite a half-hour later, after seeing Tilly to Princess Adora’s workshop. He was still shaking his head over what had happened there, but doing as he was told.

Robert was just eating a bit of toast, his day starting a lot later than Bear’s, owing to the work schedules they had been assigned. Isabelle was sitting with Robert in the conversation area near the side of the dragons’ wallow. Robert’s plate was on the low table as he sat on one of the overstuffed chairs, and Isabelle was seated on the couch, facing him. Bear flopped down on another chair at the side of the arrangement, between them.

“I thought you would be long gone by now,” Robert said around a mouthful of toast. “What’s amiss?”

“Tilly said her wing was strained and wanted to have Princess Adora check it, but when we got to Adora’s chamber, Growloranth showed up and all three of them told me to leave.” Bear literally scratched his head in confusion.

“I was wondering where he’d gone,” Robert said, finishing his toast.

“If I was a suspicious type of person, I might think they were plotting something,” Bear finally voiced his concerns. Something about Tilly’s supposed injury didn’t seem right. Tilly was usually the last one to complain about anything.

“Your instincts are correct,” Isabelle floored him by saying. Both Robert and he looked at her with surprise. “I asked Tilly to keep you here today, Bear.”

He liked it when she called him Bear. She had stuck to using Sir Bernard for a very long time, but he didn’t want any formality between them. In fact, he wanted nothing between them—as it had been that one glorious time when they had been together. But he and Robert had agreed. They wouldn’t pressure her. And they wouldn’t try to make love to her again unless they were all together.

Like now?

Bear started to consider the possibilities. Why did she want him to stay in the Lair today? Well. There was only one way to find out. He needed to ask her.

“Why?”

Robert beat him to the punch, but it was all right. They both needed to know what was on their potential mate’s mind.

“Because I can’t keep going like this,” Isabelle said in a rush. Bear’s heart almost stopped. Did she want to leave? “I need to know where we all stand and if we can make this work. I feel like you’ve been avoiding me the past few days. I know your duty comes first,” her voice filled with tears and Bear wanted to go to her, but she held up a hand, palm outward, as if trying to hold them back until she was done with whatever it was she wanted to say. “I understand. But the past few days, things have quieted down. Everyone says so. And you have still been avoiding me. I need to know if you still want me or if you want me to go and are being too polite to say it to my face.”

Bear was out of his chair and at her side within seconds. So was Robert, on her other side. Luckily, the couch was built for three.

“We want you here, Isabelle,” Robert whispered, holding one of her hands. Bear took her other hand, squeezing gently.

“We really do,” he added. “We don’t ever want you to leave. We want you to be our mate.”

Bear wasn’t an eloquent man, but he knew when he needed to say certain things. This seemed to be their time of reckoning—engineered by the woman they wanted to be part of their lives forever. He wouldn’t have thought she would ever be so bold, but he really liked it. He was so proud of her. She was finding her inner strength. That was something she would need if she was going to be their mate in truth.

“Why?” She echoed Robert’s earlier question and Bear was a bit confused.

Didn’t she already know that they were destined to be together? Didn’t she feel the same pull whenever they were near to each other? Didn’t she know they loved her more than life itself?

A frisson of doubt crept over him. If she didn’t feel those things, did it mean she wasn’t their mate? Could they have fooled themselves so completely into believing she would feel the same things they did? Did she not care for them at all? Did she not love them—at least a little?

Bear’s heart sank. He knew he had to lay it all on the line, but suddenly he was truly unsure of the entire situation. He could lay his feelings bare and be rejected.

But he had to do it. He had to try. He took a deep breath and plunged in, knowing this time, Robert would be even more reticent than he was to take that final step.

Bear reached out and stroked her hair, drawing her attention to him, holding her gaze with his own. She was so beautiful to him.

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