Page 96 of Knotted By the Triad

“I shifted.” I looked between the three of them, hardly believing the words even though I could still remember the sensation of my wings catching the air. “I actually turned into a dragon.”

Zian's fingers tightened around mine. “You were beautiful.”

“Beautiful and destructive, like your alphas.” Daemin leaned back against the bedpost. “You destroyed half a tower. It was a wonderful sight to see. But we have to pay the county for the damage. Don’t worry, we’ve got the funds.”

I laughed, then immediately grabbed my side. “Ow. Don't make me laugh yet.”

Kai pulled the blanket higher around me, his attention dropping toward the wounds beneath my nightclothes.

“The punctures from Mei Lin's claws are almost healed. Your dragon has been working on them since you shifted back.”

“Gotta love dragon healing,” I said, settling carefully against the pillows.

Damn, these pillows were so soft. I loved them.

Daemin's mouth curved, but Kai didn't smile. He was staring at me with an expression that made me uncomfortable for an entirely different reason. I remembered looking through the air while falling and seeing three dragons coming toward me. They had been too far away to catch me, but they had been coming.

“You saw me fall,” I said quietly.

Kai looked away first. “Yes.”

Zian's thumb moved over my knuckles. “We couldn't reach you.”

There was so much contained inside those four words that I stopped smiling. Zian didn't need to explain what that flight had been like for them. I could imagine seeing someone I cared about falling from that height and knowing I couldn't get there in time.

“But you did it,” Daemin said, and his hand settled over my ankle beneath the blanket. “Before we could reach you, you shifted. You didn’t need us to save you, my love. You saved yourself.”

That’s right. I saved myself from the tower, from Mei Lin, from a tragic ending. I was my own protector.

“My dragon kept telling me to release my fear and let her take over.” I rolled my eyes. “Which was not particularly useful while a homicidal woman was trying to kill me.”

Zian's lips twitched. “You figured it out.”

“Gravity was very motivating.”

That finally got a quiet laugh from Kai, and I looked at him. Something between us still felt unfinished. Maybe it would for a while. Two days of revelations and near-death experiences couldn't erase how badly our relationship had started, and I didn't want them to.

If Kai and I became something real, I wanted it built on what actually happened between us, not some convenient version where being mates magically fixed everything.

His expression sobered again. “There's something else you should know,” Kai said. “Zeyan received the evidence concerning Orion. The Bane Clan has been stripped of its lands and holdings, and the clan has been exiled from the capital. You and Daveah were specifically exempted from the decree. Zeyan recognized you as the victim of what Orion did, and Daveah had no involvement. Plus, she married out of the family and has cut all ties with them.”

Orion had sacrificed his own child because he believed doing so would advance the Bane Clan. Now the clan he'd valued more than me had been stripped of everything he'd tried to build. Good. He would live in exile knowing the daughter he’d sold was living as a princess. A fitting punishment for someone like him. Death would’ve been too merciful.

“And the Prime Minister, what happened to him?” I asked.

“He’s dead,” Zian said. “He died Triad style.”

“Kai removed his head and both arms,” Daemin explained.

I stared at Kai. “Impressive,” I whispered.

Kai smiled. Daemin chuckled, and even Zian smiled. I opened my mouth to say something else, but a strange wave of heat moved through my body. At first, I ignored it. The room was warm.

Three large men were crowded around my bed, and I'd apparently spent hours healing after turning into a dragon for the first time. Feeling overheated didn't seem particularly alarming after everything else that had happened.

Then another wave hit. This one started low in my stomach and spread outward so quickly that I sucked in a breath. Daemin stopped smiling. Zian's head lifted. Kai went completely still.

“What?” I asked, looking between them. “Why are all three of you looking at me like that?”