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Then again, I already knew his personality was trash. Still, he was an intimidating man. But I had no intention of crumbling under his scrutiny.
“Hmm . . .” The side of his mouth curved, moving his scar. “So you can speak after all.”
“I can,” I responded.
He stepped towards me, once more looking me up and down. “Why have you not chosen either of the men you’re mated to?”
"Excuse me?" I clasped my arms behind my back. "My relationship with my mates has nothing to do with you.”
“It does when one of them is my son.”
“Rumir is my mate, not yours. Our relationship is between us.”
Cedrik inhaled deeply, his chest puffing out as he did so, and then he released it. "While Rumir might hide it from you, he can't hide it from me. I know the toll this relationship is taking on him. Dragons don't share their mates. We share nothing that is valuable to us. It's not in our nature."
“Rumir isn’t only a dragon.”
At that, Cedrik’s aura darkened, and I smirked inwardly. “That I’m very aware of,” he grumbled.
I shrugged. "And he's perfect exactly as he is," I added. "Well, the people who actually care about him think so, at least."
His eyes narrowed, and he closed the space between us. I tilted my head back to hold his stare, and his eyes changed from green to yellow while his pupils became vertical.
"Be very careful, girl." Black wings shot outward from his back, but I neither blinked, nor flinched. "Spirit will only take you so far. Listen to me, and listen well. Even if my son is a hybrid, you are not good enough for him. Rumir is of the Fafnir bloodline. You're so far beneath him, he shouldn't be able to see you."
He glared at me. “Do you honestly think this travesty you call a relationship will end well? Are you clueless enough to believe sharing the same woman isn’t eating away at your men as we speak?" He leaned down, so his face was closer to mine. "Wake up, girl! The Goddess is treating the three of you like little playthings she can manipulate into whatever outcome pleases her. You can keep playing her sick little game, but leave my son out of it. Or I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands."
He flapped his wings, generating a powerful wind that pushed me backward as he leaped into the air.
I stood there, watching as he flew away, my claws digging into my flesh, and the smell of my blood growing stronger as it dripped onto the grass beneath my feet.
* * *
Natalie
“Excuse me? Are you okay?”
I blinked a few times and cleared my throat as I sat up. I was sitting in the lobby with a new soul, waiting with her while her agent went to gather the necessary documents.
Today was my first day as an agent at the S.R.F., and after two hours of training, I had been told to lend a hand wherever I was needed. However, I wasn't really here, not mentally.
After my conversation with Cedrik yesterday, I'd gone home and locked myself away. His words had taken hold in my mind, and I couldn’t seem to shake them. I was hurting Rumir and Lucian. I'd known that from the very start, but I'd been selfish, trying to force things to work.
"I am, yes," I told the Gorgon sitting beside me. "I'm fine, sorry about that."
Gorgons were women who had snakes for hair, descendants of the cursed Greek priestess Medusa. Apart from the snakes on her head, she had patches of scales on her body, and her eyes were like those of a snake, her pupils vertical and her irises light green.
She had legs, but upon shifting, they conjoined and turned into a snake's tail.
Finola nodded understandingly. “You seem to have a lot on your mind.”
She looked sixty-five years old in human years but was two hundred years old in Gorgon years. She was excited to be in the God Realm but, as expected, she was nervous, too. Unfortunately, I’d been too preoccupied and hadn't heard half of what she’d said about the life she’d lived on Earth.
"I do," I told her truthfully. "The God Realm, this afterlife, it can be incredible, but things can still go wrong. It's one of the things that make this place more like Earth."
“I’m not surprised about that,” Finola replied as a snake flicked its tongue at her cheek, begging for her attention. She caressed its head. "I knew that the moment you mentioned having to be careful around the native creatures. At least I won’t be bored living here for all eternity."
I laughed. “Right.” I heaved a sigh. “The thing is—I found my mates when I arrived here.”
