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Lord Brantley nods respectfully, but there is hate in his eyes when he looks at me. I glance at Aiden, who remains calm even as he returns Lord Brantley’s gaze with a steely look of his own.
“In the case of a partnership between dragons and humans,” I continue, “Dragons bring vast knowledge and exceptional wisdom to the table. Your long lifespans and love of knowledge allow you to retain and understand far more than any human is capable of, and your libraries are probably the greatest single repositories of history on Earth. There is no doubt that the wisdom dragons bring to the table is critical for the advancement of both of our races.
“What humans bring is a problem-solving and creative thinking ability that is as impressive in its own right as the wisdom that dragons bring. When humanity faces something that is impossible, we make it possible. When we are told that there is no way to accomplish something, we make our own way.
“We cannot fly, so we invented machines that allow us to fly, and now we can fly higher and farther and faster than dragons. We are not strong, so we created tools that can multiply our strength so that a single human at the controls of the right tool can reshape mountains. We are not long-lived, so we’ve created media that allows us to preserve the lessons we’ve learned for future generations, media that even dragons use to store your own extensive wisdom.
“I don’t suggest, nor will I ever suggest that humans are superior to dragons, but we are not inferior, and it’s a mistake to suggest that we are.”
Lord Brantley’s eyes narrow slightly when I say that.
“Fighting each other, we can only suffer,” I conclude. “Working together, there is absolutely no limit to what we can achieve.”
There is silence for a long moment. Then there’s a thunderous applause. The king nods approvingly at me. Even Lord Brantley grudgingly joins in.
The best look, of course, is the one Aiden gives me. We manage to survive the rest of the meeting, but our clothes are on the floor before the hotel room door closes behind us.
* * *
Aiden
“Am I your first human?” Brooke asks. Then, she turns a deep shade of pink. “I don’t know why I asked that. For fuck’s sake, it’s not like I was a virgin when I met you.”
“But you asked,” I say. “Why? Am I your first dragon?”
She stares at me and then lets out a burst of laughter. It thrills me. I won’t go so far as to say that dragons are overly serious but the contemplative nature of our being makes spontaneous, joyful laughter a rarity. I feel like laughter whenever I’m around her, though. There is a constant thrill of discovery when she is around, and that thrill is almost impossible for me to dismiss. I don’t know how to live without that now.
“You were not my first human,” I say, “but you were the first that mattered. There was something different about you from the beginning, and that is unheard of in my world.”
“Romance,” she says, “but tell me something. Is there never romance between dragons?”
“What do you mean?”
She rolls over and on top of me. The feel of her body against me is wonderful, and my response to her isn’t just physical. She brushes hair from my forehead and says, “You marry for political reasons and humans are just sexual playthings or ways to have children. A wife only thinks her husband is cheating if he’s with another dragon. So, you’re not in love when you’re married, and you don’t love humans. Do dragons not experience love?”
I smile at her. “You’re very perceptive but what you’re describing applies only to royalty. Most dragons find their mates the same way humans do. They fall in love; they marry for love. I suppose some in arranged marriages grow to love each other. Many, perhaps. You are different.”
“But why am I different. Maybe I’m not. Maybe you’re different.”
I sit up, adjusting our position. She throws her arms around me to keep from falling back. “Damn!” she says with a laugh, “Warn me when you’re going to do that.”
“There are legends of fated mates,” I say, “where a relationship between a human and a dragon is more than what you’ve described. Most dragons don’t believe that. I spoke to Valentia about you.”
“Valentia?”
“The oldest remaining of our kind. I said I thought perhaps you were my fated mate. He said it was possible, but it could also be that I’m just the Chosen One.”
She laughs. “The Chosen One? That’s hilarious!” She reddens and says, “Sorry. I don’t mean to laugh. IT’s just… the Chosen One?”
“Believe me,” I say, “If I could have chosen the name, I would have picked something else.”
She blushes again. This time, the blush is just as much a flush as anything else. “You… you talked to him about me because you think we’re special…”
I lift her chin so she stares directly at my eyes. “I talked to him because you are everything to me. I talked to him because the thought of life without you terrifies me. The thought of a day existing in a world where you do not exist frightens me more than you can imagine. I talked to him because I could spend a century contemplating your smile and would not exhaust the different things I could think.”
Her jaw drops and her eyes open widely. She seems stunned, and I guess I’m a little stunned by what I say as well. “If he is right and I am the Chosen One, I am the Chosen One only because we met.”
She takes a breath and then whispers, “What is the Chosen One.”
