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“This is amazing, Levi,” I gushed around a mouthful of food.Real smooth, Farren.
His cheeks turned a ruddy pink, making his pale skin and freckles stand out even more starkly. He bit back a smile and looked up at me with earnest emerald eyes. “Thank you, I thought this would be something you’d like. I try to keep an eye on what everyone eats, but even without that, I’m pretty good at guessing.”
“You were definitely on the money,” I told him as I scooped up some of the dip on a chip and popped the whole thing in my mouth, moaning at the flavors he’d packed into it. “You’re a fucking wizard in the kitchen.”
“You know, I used to think I wanted to run a restaurant. Now, I think I’m perfectly happy just cooking for you guys,” he said.
“Did you cook for your brood?” I asked. “Before everything went south, I mean?”
“No, I was still young enough that I helped wherever they threw me, which was usually cleaning or doing grunt work in the barracks,” he said. “Our cook was this really sweet old dragon who loved to tell us all kinds of stories. I think we clung to those because she talked about all of the places she’d traveled to, whereas we all grew up stuck in the brood. I’m not glad about what happened, but can you imagine if we’d lived that life?”
That thought had me shaking my head. “I’d be miserable. Can you imagine me living up to those strict standards? Being forced to marry some dragon I hated just to play into some political show?”
He growled in protest. “I don’t want to think about you with any other man. But no, I can’t imagine you toeing the line.”
“So what happened after you escaped?” I knew this line of questioning wouldn’t lead to a happy conversation, but it was an important one.
“Before the university, which we kind of caught you up on, I was with Niko. We lived in a small town, but I loved that life. His family is amazing,” he admitted. “When all this is over, maybe you can meet them. They’d love you.”
“She knew you were mates? And a dragon?” I gasped.
He grinned. “She’s the one who gave me my tattoo and a band for my arm that kept me hidden, like you were by your necklace.” I reached down to it, a nervous tic I’d apparently never broken. Even if it did nothing magical for me anymore, it made me feel connected to who I was.
“That’s amazing. I can’t imagine what that’s like.” I smiled sadly as my hands cupped my stomach. “But they’ll never have to know that pain. I’m thankful for that.”
“Were you surprised? Since he's a witch?” I asked, changing the subject.
He laughed at that. “This conversation always kills me, but no, I wasn’t surprised. In my brood, it was common knowledge that our mates could be anyone. Maybe yours perpetuated that lie because you’re from the royal line. It was probably some kind of propaganda about the fate of the brood coming before actual fate. I think they likely fooled themselves into thinking that duty and love couldn’t work together for the better.”
“That’s a very real and sad possibility. I’m morbidly glad that I didn’t have to live that way, but obviously not happy about the rest,” I admitted with a wince. It sounded heartless, but living that life would have sucked the fire out of me. “I barely got a childhood as it was. Every day was filled with political meetings and lessons on how to run a brood properly and the best way to present myself for royal visitors. It was exhausting.”
“My brood put us to work, but they also let us be kids,” Levi said with a sad look. “Some of my best memories were from school, though I don’t have too many of those before the dark times started. The wars started when we were still pretty young.”
“I remember the night my dad told us about it. He looked panicked. That stood out to me because I’d never seen my father show any emotion, let alone something like that. It was all hard stares and brooding intimidation. He’d have given Kane a run for his money.”
“Gross,” Levi said. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It was my life. I’m alright, and we made it through those wars. Now, we’re about to have our own dragonlings. We get to do right by them.”
“You know, I keep trying to imagine what they’ll look like. I don’t remember much about dragonlings,” he admitted. “I’m kind of scared we’ll fuck them up.”
“I think that’s just how it is for parents,” I said with a chuckle. “We have a whole brood to help us figure it out. We’re all young, but I don’t think we could fuck up our babies if we tried. We all care too much.”
“And they won’t have the worries we did if we can figure things out with this monster of a former Arch Mage before they’re born.” I reached across the table and put my hand on his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “We almost lost you all. I can’t go through that again.”
My heart broke for the man across from me. For all of my mates.
“You won’t have to. We’ll figure this out. Even if he comes for us first, he won’t be successful. We’re the biggest brood around.”
“And growing every day,” he said as he latched onto the hope I was dangling before him. “Another group of dragons came up this afternoon.”
That caught me off guard. “What, really?”
He frowned at my reaction and obvious upset. “Yeah, I think it was while you were napping. It’s understandable that you’re not on guard all the time. You’re growing our eggs, Farren.”
“I’m also supposed to be a queen,” I countered. “I’m so damn disconnected. They barely know me, and I couldn’t name half of them.”
“You could before. They’re not all strangers.” It was meant to be reassuring, but it was the opposite.
