“I don’t want to. I don’t want them looking at you.” He felt a moment of surprise at that. He’d never been an overly possessive man when it came to his romantic partners, and now here he was wanting to throw every single man bodily out of the cabin. And off the ship, for that matter.
“Why?” Sophea asked, looking more curious than annoyed by his statement. “You weren’t like that before… oh. It is something dragony?”
“Yes,” Baltic answered, pushing himself away from the wall. He gestured to the others. “And the former Dragon Breaker is right—we should not be here while he adapts to being a dragon. A wyvern. Such is not an easy task, and less so when he was not born to it, as we were.”
The other wyverns thought about that for a few seconds, then all nodded.
“He has a point,” Drake said.
“Not to be rude, but why, exactly, are you all here?” Sophea asked, and Rowan could have kissed her. In fact, he planned on doing that the second the annoying other dragons left.
“The First Dragon,” May and Ysolde said together.
“Ysolde said that she and May were told by the First Dragon—somehow, I’m not quite sure on whether it was a psychic thing because they both have a link to him or just an ordinary phone call—he told them that something was up and that it was important to the weyr that there be witnesses. And they told me and Aoife and Bee, and we told our men, and they complained, but because they’re smart and know we are wise to the ways of the First Dragon, they agreed we should all pop into the Underworld and see what it is the First Dragon was making such a fuss about.”
“The birth of a new sept is an important event,” Drake said, looking somewhat skeptical. “But I’m not sure it needed all the wyverns present to witness.”
“But that’s just the point, I think,” Gabriel said. “We have witnessed that the Dragon Breaker—Rowan—is now the wyvern of the red dragons, and Sophea, formerly the mate of Jian, is now his mate. We will accept them as such, and the red dragons will be reborn and thus rejoin the weyr.”
“You know,” Sophea said in a conversational tone of voice, “just once I’d like to understand what’s being said without wishing I had a dragon dictionary. What’s a weyr?”
“I like you,” Jim the demon dog said, snuffling at her sandals. “I like the sword, I like the whole Xena role play thing, and I like that you smell like someone who would give a starving dog some treats. Got any, as we’re on the subject?”
“Rawr,” Sophea told the demon, sending a little ball of fire to his feet.
“Gotcha,” Jim said, nodding and giving her toes one last sniff. “You both need some alone time. Luckily, I’m happy to chill in the buffet line. Ash, babe, lead me to the buffet!”
“We aren’t staying, silly,” Aisling told her demon. “We’re just here for a little bit. Although I do agree that the First Dragon seems kind of high-handed in asking us to come all the way to the Egyptian Underworld just to see a new wyvern made.”
Drake shot her a look. “Mate, you should not speak of the First Dragon in that manner. He is a god.”
“Demigod,” Rowan said without thinking, then made a face. “And if you’ve looked long enough at my mate—”
“I am so not your mate. Or maybe I am… I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, other than I like you a lot, but I’m really thinking that this is not the time or place to try to work out a blossoming relationship, especially since my first husband—wyvern—whatever—didn’t last an hour after we were married.”
“You’re getting married?” Bee asked. She turned to Constantine. “We should do that.”
“We should?” he asked, looking startled.
“Kostya and I are getting married in St. Petersburg,” Aoife told Bee. “In September. He says it’s really pretty then, and it sounds very romantic.”
“Oh my gosh,” Gary the head said, bouncing up and down slightly in his jeep. “You three should totally have a group wedding! All the siblings together! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I can see it now—all the ladies in white, and the gentlemen in tuxes, and Jim and me leading the way with flowers. And afterward, we could have a ripping party!”
“I wouldn’t mind, if Bee didn’t,” Aoife said slowly.
“Hmm.” Bee appeared to think about this. “I suppose we could…”
“No,” Rowan said, and made shooing gestures again, this time with broader sweeps of his hands. “We want no part of your plans.”
“Well… hold on. Maybe we do. I mean, I’m not big on weddings at all, which is why Jian and I had ours at the courthouse, but I have to admit that a group party with your family sounds kind of fun,” Sophea said. “Not that I’m saying I want to marry you, because honestly, I still have a suspicion that there’s some sort of kiss of death thing going on with men I marry. I mean, the First Dragon was all set to off you before we winnowed down the number of deaths you owed him, and he decided to take you as one of them.”
“Ah, is that how this came about?” Drake nodded. “I wondered why he chose to forgive the debt.”