Page 52 of Microburst

I grabbed his arm when he went to leave. “She told you? Seriously?”

He blinked at me like he couldn’t believe me and then disgust filled his eyes. “No, you need to be serious, man. You have no idea who she is if you even just asked that. She would never.” He yanked his arm away from me and shoved me into the wall again. “I’m not a fucking moron and pay attention. Of course I know. I would bet Ayao and a few others know too.”

I swallowed loudly.

He jabbed his finger in my chest. “Which isdangerousfor her. All you care about is you. Your uncle is popular and powerful. You’re acting like a fucking child putting this on her, Thorn.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I seethed and smacked his hand away.

“Pathetic.” He took a step back and was shaking like he really wanted to end me. “Your uncle isn’t stupid. He knows you would want to do this. So what would have stopped Sagan from helping right away? Think for a moment, asshole.”

“She didn’t have enough backing. She told me that,” I growled. “She’s only helping because he’s corrupt. I know that. It’s not about me.”

“Yeah, except now she’sgotpower and more backing. And that means you’re both a risk to your uncle. He sent you here to be locked in as her mate so you couldn’t come at him laterwhen she had the power to get him out. He’s immediately undermining her. He’s now her biggest threat and you’re doing nothing but taking advantage of whatever happened to her to get sex.”

He turned on his heel and stormed off looking like he was having trouble not shifting.

I asked my dragon if that was why he’d been so mad at me. If he’d felt the same and had been trying to tell me. He said not like that and he didn’t know if Onyx was actually correct or just Uncle would always keep power away from Sagan, but he thought I ignored that part too much, yes.

I was too focused on the way I was wronged instead of the collateral damage for what I wanted—asked from and of others. And this was a huge gamble for her and I hadn’t appreciated that enough.

And that was something I was going to fix right away. I still thought the rest was Onyx’s jealousy or—he had piles of his own fucking issues and was projecting. Ifanyoneshould stay away from Sagan it was her abusive ex-boyfriend’suncle.

Especially when she was suing their family. Like… I wasn’t the main problem candidate.

By. Far.

“Can I have a minute?” I asked when I found her building her breakfast.

“For?” she checked, not even sparing me a glance.

“To apologize,” I admitted, not caring who was around. “I realized some things and—”

“It won’t change things,” she said quietly and moved closer. “You waited too long and I would prefer to just leave it alone since the outcome is also the same.”

I leaned in even more. “We do need to talk about that still, but that wasn’t what I meant. I left it too long because you won’t talk to me. You would turn and walk the other way when—”

“This is actually cute even if I hate it reminds me how single I am,” Velle interrupted, looking at us from across the buffet. She was studying us closely and then focused on me. “I didn’t think it would work but—yeah, I guess I really don’t know dragons or relationships. Good job, bro.”

I swallowed a sigh. I actually didn’t hate Velle as much as others did, but she really needed to learn some fucking tact.

“What would work?” Sagan asked, her voice ice cold. She was staring at me with my death in her eyes, chuffing when I froze, completely just frozen at her reaction. Then she slowly looked to Velle. “What worked?”

She glanced between us and then squirmed a bit. “The card. The credit card in your name.”

We all jumped when the plate in Sagan’s hand broke, shattering loudly in the dining hall that was now completely focused on us.

“Are you fucking kidding right now?” Sagan breathed.

“Why are you surprised?” I asked, my heart beating in my ears. “You didn’t tell her?”

I swallowed a groan when I heard that question echoed… ByVelle.

Sagan dropped whatever was left of the plate in her hands and walked out of the dining hall without a backwards glance. Oh fuck.

Just…Oh fuck.

And to top it off, I met Onyx’s gaze which made it clear that my ass was grass the minute he caught me alone again.