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“Yeah,” I said, my throat suddenly hoarse. Why dideveryone of these guys have this effect on me? “I guess I was kind of a pain in the ass yesterday,huh?”
Aaron chuckled. “Not at all. It was totally understandable. I like a girl who wants all the facts instead of just accepting whatever she’stold.”
So he likedmethen? Oh, why did I even care? But I did. There I was peeking at him through my eyelashes while I tried to figure out the best response to make him laughagain.
“I like a man who has all the facts,” I settledon.
That got me a grin. I’d take it. “Maybe not all of them,” Aaron said. “But I do like to learn as much as I can about our people and our history. The way I see it, the only way you can avoid future mistakes is if you understand yourpast.”
A sound theory. “That gets harder when you don’t even remember your past,” Imuttered.
“I have to think those memories will start to come back now that you’re back in the fold, so to speak. Your mother wouldn’t have wanted you to be cut off from your powers permanently. She must have expected that we’d help you recoverthem.”
He tossed the pancakes onto the waiting plates, two each, and drizzled them with maple syrup. My hands snatched up the first plate when he offered it to me, but there was one question I had to ask before I stuffed anything in mymouth.
“I still don’t understand—howdidmy mother let you know to find me? I get that it had something to do with the locket, but other thanthat...”
Aaron led me out of the kitchen into a dining room that was way too big for the two of us. Fourteen chairs stood around a massive rosewood table. Aaron set his plate down at the foot of the table, but he turned to me instead of sitting. I put down my plate too and leaned my elbow on the top of the chair beside me, waiting for hisanswer.
“When we’re named alpha, there’s a full ceremony involved.” Aaron held out his left hand, palm up, revealing a scar like a sunburst of lines in the middle of his palm. “This mark ties us to our kin-group, and to the dragons. The moment you opened that locket, whatever magic your mother worked on it activated. I felt it right there, in the middle of my hand, with a sense of direction. But I’d guess any shifter who was closer enough would have been able to feel it. From what I understand, that’s how Marco sent his lieutenant ahead to track youdown.”
This time, I let my impulses take over. I took Aaron’s hand in both of mine. “May I?” I said, abruptly breathless. He nodded, his clear blue eyes fixed on my face. I felt it then, with the thump of mypulse.
He might notexpectanything from me, but he wanted things. The same kinds of things I found myself wanting when we stood this closetogether.
I dragged my gaze away from his to his palm. My thumb skimmed across it to trace the lines of his scar. He held still, but the muscles in his arm flexed. The breath he took sounded slightly ragged. I wondered how he’d react if I kissed that spot. Just the thought sent a pulse of heat between mylegs.
I swallowed hard and yanked my mind back to our conversation. There was something he’dsaid...
“You said this mark ties you specifically to the dragons,” I said. “Why? I mean, shouldn’t we have our own alpha or something? Wherearethe other dragon shifters?” My heart leapt with a sudden hope. Did I have other family—grandparents or cousins or who knew what—that Mom and I had leftbehind?
Aaron turned his palm over, engulfing my slender hand in his larger one. He traced his thumb over the delicate skin on the back, sending a pleasant shiver up myarm.
“Dragons have always been the rarest of the shifters, as well as the most powerful,” he said, even more quietly than before. Almost reverent. “To the best of our knowledge right now, you might be the lastone.”
“Thelast?” I repeated. The words struck a chord in me, but it was hard to think clearly with his careful thumb sliding back and forth over myskin.
Aaron nodded. “Which is why it was so important to your mother that she protect you. As long as shifters have walked this earth, the dragons among us have played a special role, one no one else canfill.”
“Great. No pressure there.” My laugh came out shaky. “So what exactly does thatmean?”
The corner of his lips curled up. “The dragon shifters are the core of all shifter-kind. They unite the kin-groups with one common tie, by taking all four alphas as theirmates.”
Chapter 8
Ren
Aaron’slast comment was not the kind of revelation anyone should drop on a girl before she’s even had breakfast. I stared at him, my fingers closing around his to stop the caress of his thumb—but not letting go. Because even as the shock rippled through me, some part of me leapt to accept theidea.
Yes. They weremine, all ofthem.
I shook that thought away. “Hold on. Just so I’m clear, you’re saying that if I’m the last dragon shifter there is, my ‘role’ is to hook up with the four of youalphas?”
The corner of Aaron’s lips crooked up. “Not just ‘hook up with.’ The mate-bonds shifters form are lifelong. You’d be partnered with all of us, ‘til death do uspart.”
“That seems kind of... greedy, grabbing the four most important”—and hottest, I added silently—“guysaround.”
“Like I said, it’s considered right because it unites the four kin-groups. I’ve looked back through the old records, as far back as shifters have kept them, and from what I’ve seen, our community has always worked that way. It’s so natural it’s woven into ourbeings.”
