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“Don’t mention it,” Risa said. “Now, I need to get back to work.”
“Of course,” Jade said, watching after the woman as she scurried back into the shadows.
“I believe her,” Tally said softly.
“Me too,” Rafe said. “She’s a straight shooter. What now?”
“Now, we head back to talk to Tag,” Jade said.
“He would have been willing to do whatever it took to get that spring,” Tally decided. “Maybe even murder.”
“Not necessarily,” Jade told him. “Remember, innocent until proven guilty.”
“Or it could be that he wants to stop someone else from taking it,” Rafe said. “Someone who would block it off and stop him from accessing the water. There are laws here about streams and larger bodies of water, but springs aren’t part of that.”
“If that’s the case, Tag may just give himself away,” Jade said. “Either way, let’s go find him.”
She wasn’t looking forward to this talk with Tag, but no one was putting her in a cage again, not if she could help it.
18
RAFE
By the time they got back to the barn, Rafe was calming his dragon.
The long walk out in the tundra, where his mate’s scent was diffused by gusts of frigid air had helped to clear his mind.
Though he was still mad with lust, and aching with a soul-deep hurt from her rejection last night, he was also able to engage with the mystery they had to solve together.
Jade herself marched along at a determined pace, the boy and bot trailing behind in her wake like fledglings. Sunlight glinted in her golden hair, making her look almost otherworldly.
His heart squeezed again at the sight of her.
Why wouldn’t she accept him?
His brothers-in-arms ribbed him for having so many women fawning over him at every port. It seemed that even among the Invicta, who were known to be handsome, Rafe was something special.
But he had never cared about that, until now.
And, as the fates would have it, the one female he desperately needed to attract was content to let him go.
I just can’t…
Her words wouldn’t stop echoing in his head. She had probably blurted them out without thinking, but something in the statement troubled him.
She hadn’t said she didn’t want to, or she wouldn’t.
She had said she couldn’t.
Couldn’t implied an obstacle. And obstacles could be removed.
If Rafe could make it so that she could accept him, would she?
Idiot, it’s just a turn of phrase, the dragon hissed. Take her anyway. She will rejoice when she is yours, whether she chose it or not.
The dragon’s ancient kind was born of a time when such things might have been done that way. But Rafe knew that no decent man would ever take a woman by force, or even coerce her with threats or bribe her with gifts, especially when a mate bond was involved.
No. Rafe would take her when she begged for him, and not a moment before.
