His nose did an adorable scrunch as his head reared back slightly. “I mean, he does call me brother a lot, I guess?”
My chest expanded as I took a deep breath and slapped my hand across my forehead, rubbing at the skin there. “You’re so clueless, Theo, it’s actually crazy. Not everyone in the world isout to get you, despite what your upbringing has conditioned you to believe. It’s okay to let people in when they’ve proven their loyalty.”
He hummed as his hand came up to rub at his jaw. “Who is the other person in your life besides Tillie?”
“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing, changing the subject off of yourself,” I stated, pursing my lips. “But to answer your question, the other person is named Brenson. We grew up together, and he was the only one willing to teach me how to use a sword and train me. He’s one of the commanders in our army now.”
Instantly, Theo’s dragon surged to the surface, his pulsating blue eye locked onto me. The veins in his neck and forehead bulged and his fist clenched at his side making my core tighten. “And this man…is one you were fighting me to say goodbye to before we left?”
Was he…jealous? No, that wasn't not possible. The drackya had literally denied my attempt to kiss him yesterday, as much as I tried to black out the memory from my mind. A part of me was relieved when I thought about it, because I had been heavily under the influence and not thinking clearly. If I was being entirely honest with myself, his words at the time weren’t completely wrong, despite the callous way he’d said them. It did hurt to be rejected so completely, as if I wasn’t good enough to be his dragon’s mate, even if I didn’t want that. At all.
I turned to grab my heavy coat from the bed as I answered, “Yes, I guess you could consider him my Lucius. He’s shown up again and again to help me, and he’s like family. He’s the one who gave me the cut on my arm you asked about.”
As I tugged the coat on, I jumped with the answering growl to my admission. After pushing my hands through the sleeves and fastening the buttons down the front, I turned on the heel of my boot to see what had ruffled the dragon’s proverbial feathers.
I found Theo pacing back and forth on the balcony with his hands clasped behind his back. “He hurt you, yet you still care for him? Why?”
It had never been as clear to me as it was now, how little Theo knew about love and friendships. It actually made me feel a sense of sadness for him.
“Calm down,” I breathed out as I approached the prickly king. “It happened during a sparring match when I wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t wound me with the intention of making me suffer. It was my own fault.”
His pacing came to a stop with my words, but as his eyes trailed up my body before landing on my face, I shivered from the wrath exuding from his tense frame and calculating eyes. “I’d like to meet this Brenson one day.”
Men.
“Alright dragon boy, let’s get going,” I said, clapping my hands together with a bit of excitement. Now that I wasn’t pissed at him anymore, my joy was palpable.
It was time to ride a dragon.
His lips thinned as they turned down in a frown and he regarded me with disgust. “I am not a boy. Stop calling me that.”
I couldn’t help but wink at him. “As soon as you stop calling me a wench.”
He had nothing to say back to that, so for now it seemed that we’d just be a dragon boy and his wench.
Well, nothiswench, just a wench.
Theo began to remove his tunic and I quickly averted my gaze, giving him privacy despite the urge to peek. I focused on the room, wondering if I’d ever return here.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to get this saddle and the packs onto me?” he questioned for the umpteenth time and I bristled.
“Theo, I’m far more capable than you think! I can do this.”
Those were officially my famous last words. An hour later, I stood at the front feet of the massive silver beast who was stomping around in annoyance, it seemed. I could hardly imagine how much more insignificant and small I’d feel around a full-blooded dragon, considering the drackya were slightly smaller.
As it was, I barely came up to the bottom of his knee.
So it seemed that I may have underestimated his height and my ability to climb him while carrying the heavy saddle at the same time. The only help I had to propel me up the steep slope from his tail to his rump was from the protruding, gleaming silver spikes that ran down his spine to the tip of his tail.
“Stop looking at me like that! And stop all of your stomping while you’re at it!” I yelled, dropping the saddle to the ground as my arms shook from the exertion of hefting it for the past hour. “I’m trying my best here, and you’re not making it any easier with your little temper tantrums.”
A slitted tongue snaked out of his large mouth in my direction, and I glared. This wasn’t what I pictured at all when I’d thought of what it might feel like to stand at the foot of a dragon while I’d been sparring with Brenson. I thought it would involve a lot more fear and a whole lot less silent bullying from the beast in question as it lost its patience with me.
“Did you just stick your tongue out at me?” I asked, popping my hip out as I placed my hand on it.
I felt him prodding at my mind and I let my walls down to allow him access. Lowering my mental walls while still at the drackya’s castle wasn’t ideal, but how else could he speak to me in this form if not in my mind? He’d yet to try to do this the entire hour I’d been struggling, so I’d been left to simply yell at him and try to interpret his movements and sass.
“Are you giving up, wench?”
