I narrowed my eyes at him. “That felt like an insult.”
He smiled. “It was. But all jokes aside, Jalisa’s never been impressed by you.”
“Are we still joking?”
“I was going to say that you basically had to jump in front of her face to even get her to talk to you. Used to drive you crazy how she seemed to ignore you when she was in the military with us. She was never into you because of status, looks, or being an alpha. It seemed she liked you despite those things. Stop trying to be perfect. You’re not a burden to her. Remember what you did to meet her?”
I wracked my brain to all those years ago, but it was fuzzy. I recalled memories of us but not our first time meeting. Panic seized me. This wasn’t simple forgetfulness. Sure, forgetting things that were minor or unimportant to me was not so worrisome, but the day Jalisa and I first officially met was neither of those things.
I stood up in a panic.
Aaron looked up at me with raised brows. “Where are you going?”
I sat back down. “I don’t know. I feel like I have to do something. I can’t remember how we first met.”
He pointed between us. “How you andIfirst met?”
I scrunched my face. “No, who cares about that? I’m talking about how I first met Jalisa.”
“Rude, but yes, that would be worrisome. But maybe it’ll take time for you to fully heal. Don’t go making yourself crazy.”
“What are you talking about, mate? This could be forever. Me forgetting important moments.”
Aaron picked up his glass of ale. “Just a random question but do you happen to remember how you met me?”
I glared at him. “Yes, in basic training. You were my roommate. Although I would trade that memory over forgetting Jalisa.”
“You don’t have to be so hurtful.”
Xander leaned forward, picking up a skewer of spicy grilled meat from his plate. “You’ll heal, friend. You’re an alpha. Just don’t stress about it. That’ll just make it worse. Focus your energy on who could have done this in the first place.”
I rested my head in my hands, elbows propped on the table. “We don’t have any proof that anyone at the wedding or the banquet hall staff was involved. Any gifted fae could have put up that ward, or at least one with money to afford another to put it up could have done it. We have plenty of people with motive. I can’t trust anyone, including my family.” I straightened up. “I trust you guys.” I seesawed my hand in Xander’s direction. “Well, the verdicts still out on you. But I trust Luca, Yosef, and Lila.”
Xander narrowed his eyes. “You just named my whole pack, why not me?”
“I think you know the answer to that.”
He nodded in understanding. “I do. But if I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t do something as weak as setting a trap. I’d wait outside your place in a dark corner and then jump you, stabbing you with several knives in major arteries so you’d bleed out quickly.”
I scooted my seat closer to Aaron. “And the fact that you already have that scenario ready in your head is why I wasn’t sure about you. Not taking you off my list of suspects.”
He shrugged, unbothered. “Fair enough.”
I knew he was joking. At least I hoped.
The rest of dinner was less depressing, although I couldn’t forget about what happened to me. As we walked to our transports that evening, my mind was still swimming in a frustrated buzz. Whoever had tried to kill me or Jalisa with that ward, would likely not give up and that made us extremely vulnerable. What happened to me wasn’t a random thing, I was smarter than that. If I was going to keep us safe, then I had to put my focus on figuring this out.
Of course, when you were struggling with brain injury and extreme stress and your mind was focused on a big problem to solve, it also left you vulnerable to paying attention to things around you. Fortunately for me, I had dragon senses and, in most scenarios, I could feel immediate danger before I could see it. So, when my senses tingled and fired every nerve in my body, I shifted into my hybrid dragon form without thinking. Thus, the impact from the transporter was less severe than it could have been when it rammed into me.
I looked to my left too late to see the large transporter before it barreled into my now hardened scaled skin. The force rammed into me, stopping the car and effectively destroying the front part. The impact tossed me in the air and dropped me to my side on the ground, but not before I saw that the hover car hadno driver. My ribs felt like they were cracked and on fire, but I would heal, thanks to my armored skin.
I jumped to my feet, waiving off Aaron as I ran to the transporter. With the transporter damaged, Xander jumped in and took on control, breaking the magic that allowed it to move on its own. No driver meant that this was no accident. We weren’t facing a situation where I jumped into a busy street. No, someone had sent a transporter out without a driver and that was not normal. But there was something even more suspicious.
Xander searched around the inside. “It didn’t slow down. We may not need to navigate these but that’s because they know when to stop so they don’t collide into anyone or anything. It purposefully hit you without slowing.”
I opened the passenger side door, tearing it off its hinges in my zealous anger, and swept a clawed hand over the seat. As a dragon, I was sensitive to magic and the car was covered in it. However, that didn’t mean anything because all hover transports moved because of magic. Yet, there was a mix of scents that I wasn’t used to smelling in hover vehicles. Something vaguely familiar under the louder scented notes hit me, and it took no time to find out why I knew that smell. “It’s bespelled with my scent.”
Aaron, who had been looking through the back of the vehicle, paused his movements and looked to the front. “Are you certain?”
