Page 74

“Why?”

“Because Ash is apparently being blackmailed, you're furious enough to go charging over there and demand answers, and I've just told you something that calls into question almost everything you think you know about being lifebound.” His expression softened. “One crisis at a time, Max.”

I hated that he was right.

Again.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Go home.”

I frowned.

Every instinct I possessed rebelled against doing nothing while someone was hurting Ash, but Ignatius wasn't asking me to do nothing. Doryu was working on it, and if Ash was in immediate danger, everything changed. Until then, charging into his apartment with information he'd never chosen to give me was more likely to make him shut me out completely than persuade him to trust me.

I looked toward the door.

“If you want Ash to trust you with the ugliest parts of himself,” Ignatius said quietly, “eventually you're going to have to decide whether you trust him with yours. Until then, I'd be very careful how loudly you demand honesty from him.”

I left without answering.

By the time I reached my car, my anger had settled into something colder and considerably more useful.

Ash's father had been taking money from him for years.

He'd threatened me because he'd discovered I mattered to Ash, and Ash had responded by trying to cut me out of his life rather than risk whatever his father intended to do.

I couldn't fix that tonight without risking making it worse.

Apparently I couldn't fix the other problem tonight either.

I opened the car door, then stopped with one hand on the roof.

Not in the way you think.

I still didn't know what the fuck that meant.

What I did know was that somewhere in the council's records were lifebound dragons who had lived before me. Dragons who had loved people. Dragons who had found their mates.

For fifteen years, I'd built my entire life around avoiding attachments because I'd believed I knew exactly what I was capable of doing to someone who got too close.

Now, for the first time, I knew there were things my father hadn't told me.

That should have made me feel better.

Instead, I thought about Ash asleep against me, trusting me enough to let his guard down when he didn't even know he was doing it.

I thought about the way my dragon reacted to him.

And I thought about the question Ignatius hadn't answered.

What if I've already affected him?

I got behind the wheel and started the engine.

Ash first.

Then I was going to find out exactly what the hell my father had neglected to tell me.