“Totally the opposite,” I whispered, my throat tight with emotion as I considered all he’d learned to cope with as a child neglected by his parents. “I love you, River. Knowing you better only serves to make me love you more. But... you know it will happen eventually, right?”
To say I was nervous about what his reaction might be to this was an understatement. None of the other guys had really had any choice in being changed. It was either change or die for all of them. River wasn’t in that position, so what I really meant by this was that if he was to be my dianoch, then it would need to happen. Because to bond, he couldn’t remain human.
My fear, though, was that he was afraid enough of the beast inside him that he might walk away from this. From me.
“I know.” He gave me a small, sad smile. “And I know that when that time comes, you and the boys will be strong enough to handle whatever comes out. Fair?”
Relief rushed over me in a dizzying wave.
“Absolutely.” I kissed him then, trying to convey all my crazy, overwhelming, and conflicting feelings. Whether he understood them all, I had no idea, but he kissed me back just as hard.
The next morning I was tired and cranky again, but for the best possible reason. It didn’t take me long to cheer up when first Cole cornered me in the hallway to chastise me for keeping him up half the night—oops—and then let me apologise with a quick makeout against the wall. My mood only improved further when I found fresh coffee already prepared for me when I came into the kitchen for breakfast.
Sadly, my mood plummeted again when Austin stomped in with a face like a thundercloud.
“Lesson was due to start ten minutes ago, Christina,” he snapped in a caustic sort of voice. “If you fuck around any more, I’ll have to consider it sabotage on our bet, and you’ll forfeit.”
“Like hell,” I muttered, topping up my cup again quickly and hurrying to catch up with him as he stalked through to the den, which had become our magic center for the past week. “Teach me, sensei; I am ready to learn.”
Austin simply leveled a glare at me, and I felt nothing but anger and irritation from him. Tyson huffed a big kitty laugh though, and I rewarded him with a scratch behind the ears. At least someone thought I was funny.
“Sit down, Christina. We have a lot to get through today.” Austin’s voice was scornful and thick with... disgust?
“Hold the fuck up.” I frowned at him. “What the hell is going on? Have I done something to offend you in the past twelve hours? Because if so, I’d love to know what it was so I can rub it in your face. When I piss you off, I prefer it to be deliberate.”
His sexy green eyes just narrowed at me, and his lip curled in a slight sneer.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Princess. I just didn’t sleep well.” He turned away quickly, but not before I caught the hints of jealousy radiating from him.
Oh, he was good. We still hadn’t worked out how to block each other’s feelings, so he was literally smothering his true emotions in what I expected to feel from him.
But I’d seen it. Austin was jealous.
Suppose that explains why he didn’t sleep well then.
For once in my life, I made the mature decision and didn’t rub it in. Instead, I sat my tired ass down in my seat and set up the ink and paper as Austin had shown me the day before.
“Let’s do this then,” I announced. “Day seven.”
For the next ten hours solid, Austin drilled information into me at a punishing pace, but come dinnertime, even he had to concede defeat. I was actually a little surprised that he didn’t try to cut any corners and pretend we were done, but Austin was as meticulous with magical training as he had been with target practice. Maybe even more so.
“Say it again,” I teased as he flopped backward onto the couch with his hands over his face.
“No,” he growled back, and I poked him in the leg with my marker pen.
“Do it! Say it again,” I ordered. “Once more and I’ll leave it alone. For now.”
He glared at me from between his fingers before muttering in a sullen voice, “You win, Princess.”
“Hell yeah, I do,” I nodded, grinning at him and doing a little victory dance in my seat.
Austin muttered something under his breath, then pushed up off the couch once more. “Whatever, you gracious winner. You can’t tattoo me until after you finish magic training and then I teach you how to use the equipment properly. Maybe in the meantime you should Google some pictures you can trace to make it easier.”
I snorted. “Not necessary, but thanks for the tip.”
I already knew exactly what I was going to tattoo on him and where. Oh, revenge definitely was a dish best served cold after all.
We both headed back out to join the rest of the guys, me with a grin plastered to my face that left no room for doubt as to who had won our bet.
“Oh, bro,” Caleb laughed when he saw us. “She beat you at your own game. Shit...”
“Shut the fuck up, Cal,” Austin muttered, but it lacked any real heat. My link to his emotions told me he was ticked off at best, but really not too concerned. Maybe because he already had so many tatts that he figured mine would just be lost? Silly man. Always underestimating me.
“Vali,” I greeted the dark and dangerous Romanian as I slid into my seat at the table opposite him. “I feel like I haven’t seen you all week. How is dragoning going?”
His granite eyes flicked to Cole and then settled back on me before he smiled.
“Very well, Regina mea,” he dipped his head with a small smirk. “Cole and I have come a long way, I think.”
Surprised, I glanced at Cole, who just gave a small shrug and turned back to his food.
“That’s really great to hear,” I said carefully, not totally sure if Vali meant that he and Cole had come a long way or if their dragon magic had. Maybe I’d need to get one of them alone later to ask.
“Actually, we wanted to discuss something with you after dinner, if that would be okay?” Vali continued, polite as ever, and I narrowed my eyes at him. Despite his insistence that he couldn’t read my mind, his intuition hit dangerously close to mind reading sometimes.
“Sure thing,” I replied, spearing Cole with another suspicious look, but he just avoided my gaze and cut into his steak. Rare, of course. God forbid a dragon be a vegan or something.
“Will you be finished with Kit’s magic instruction tomorrow, Austin?” River asked, and my surly magic teacher nodded sharply.
“Tomorrow or the day after,” he agreed.
“Good. Wesley and I have made some progress with our research into Omega and Director Pierre, so we’ll have more concrete info to share in a couple of days. Then we can look at forming a plan of where to go from here.” River delivered this as a statement, but there was a small question in his eyes as he met my gaze down the table, like he was making sure I was on board with this. I supposed I did have a small history of going a bit rogue, so I gave him a small nod of acceptance, and the tension around his eyes seemed to ease.
“Shit,” Caleb swore, glancing at his watch. “I need to go, or I’ll be late.” He shoveled the last of his food into his mouth and hurried to drop his dirty dishes into the kitchen. “I’ll catch you later, Kitty Kat,” he whispered, kissing me quickly, then disappearing inside a rune circle a few feet away from the dinner table.
“He is getting really good at that,” Wesley commented as we all watched the runes glittering on the floor before fading to nothing.
“Good,” Austin snapped. “Maybe he can stop seeing this mystery teacher who demands so much secrecy from him.”
For once, I agreed with him.
“Any luck on breaking the spell?” River asked Austin, who shook his head.
“Nothing that is worth trying, yet. I’ll work it out though.” His mouth was set with stubborn confidence, and I one hundred percent believed him. If anyone could help Caleb break this magical NDA, it was his twin.
14