“I thought I knew that,” Nate said in a low voice. “But after what happened the other night, I’m sure you can understand we need to be absolutely sure of all of you. If something is bothering you, you can tell us.”
Orion’s choice of words hadn’t escaped me. He’d picked them very carefully. He hadn’t known about the attack. He hadn’t done anything to hurt his kin. That left a whole lot of other things he might have known or done—or that he might mean to.
“Orion,” I said, as gently as I could manage, “you can obviously tell we singled you out for a reason. Something is eating at you. Something that wasn’t a problem for any of the other guards. I don’t know if you realized, but one of a dragon shifter’s abilities is a sensitivity to people’s emotions and motives. I know you’re scared of me. I just want to know what it is you’re afraid I’m going to do.”
He wet his lips. “Isn’t it normal to be a little nervous of someone who can transform into a mythical creature a gazillion times bigger than me?”
Damn it, he had me smiling again. “My dragon form isn’t quite that enormous. And actually, from what I’ve seen, your reaction isn’t normal. Most of your kin and the other kin I’ve talked to know that my job as dragon shifter is to look out for all of you. I’m on your side. An ally, not an enemy. Unless you’ve been doing something you know would make you my enemy.”
The muskrat shifter looked at his hands. His fingernails had ragged edges, as if maybe he’d been nibbling on them. His mouth twisted. “I haven’t done anything,” he said.
“But maybe you’ve been thinking about it?” I suggested. “I’ve got to assume that if the rogues got to Keith, they’ve tried feeling out some of the other guards too. Maybe you’ve talked to them. Maybe you’ve considered doing more.”
His shoulders tensed. He didn’t need to say anything. I could read his guilt as clearly as if it was printed on his shirt.
It radiated off him strongly enough that Nate picked up on it too. He stood up, looming over his guard. His voice came out in a growl.
“If you’ve had any contact with the rogues at all—”
I held up my hand, and Nate swallowed the rest of his threat with a rumble.
“Just tell us,” I said to Orion. “We’ll figure out the truth one way or another. If you really are loyal to your kin and your alpha, then after what the rogues did here today, you should know that helping them at all is going against everything you’re supposed to stand for.”
“I just wanted to hear what they had to say,” Orion blurted out. “Some of the things they said, it sounded as if they had ideas that would make things better for all of us kin, not just them.”
He snapped his mouth shut as if he hadn’t meant to say even that much. His fingers dug into the seat cushion.
“Okay,” I said. “Fine. Like what? I want things to get better for all the kin too.”
Orion shot me a frantic glance. I felt the emotion in that too. “No,” I added, “I’m probably not going to like your answer. But I still want to hear it. I swear on my blood as dragon shifter that I’m not going to punish you just for sharing your thoughts. All right?”
The forcefulness of my oath seemed to convince him to speak. “I’m still deciding what I agree with,” he said. “I had to meet you first, I had to see— They’ve been saying things like maybe we shouldn’t be ruled by a shifter who doesn’t have any ties to any of our kind. That—” His eyes twitched toward Nate. “That maybe our alphas should be focused completely on us and not on trying to make all the other groups happy.”
“Doesn’t have any ties?” Nate said, his voice rising. “The woman you’re looking at is the daughter of the alpha who ruled our kin before me. Hell, Orion, we don’t even have a kind other than not being one of the other main kinds of shifters. And you were ready to see blood spilled—”
“No!” Orion protested with a squeak. “I told you, I didn’t know—I never wanted—”
“Now look,” Nate said, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. Energy rippled over him as if he were about to shift. I jumped up too. This wasn’t how I’d wanted this talk to go.
I pushed Nate back with a hand on his shoulder. His anger rolled over me, but his expression softened when he met my eyes.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I asked for those answers. I can handle it. Maybe you should wait outside for a few minutes? I think it might be better if I talked to Orion alone.” Without an alpha’s temper in the room with us.
Nate let go of Orion’s shirt. The muskrat shifter cringed in his chair. Nate’s hands closed into fists at his sides and opened again. “We can’t trust him. I don’t want to leave you alone with that traitor.”
“He hasn’t betrayed anyone yet,” I pointed out. “And I can turn into a dragon, remember? I think I can handle one muskrat.”
“I’d bet she can too,” Alice put in. She strode over and motioned to Orion. “Stand up. I just need to make sure you haven’t got any weapons on you.”
He stood stiffly as she patted him down. She stepped back, setting her hands on her hips. “All clear. Come on, Mr. Grizzly. What’s he going to do—batter her with books? We can wait right outside the door.” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Scream if you need us.”
Nate grumbled wordlessly, but followed her out. As the door shut with a thud behind them, Orion sank into his chair. I sat back down too. He peered at me with eyes that suddenly looked flat and hopeless.
“Are you going to fry me now?” he asked. “Like you did the rogue you caught?”
Ah. I guessed I knew what he was most scared of now.
I leaned forward. “I wasn’t planning on it, but I will if I have to. It doesn’t hurt—at least not much. Not enough to kill you.” He didn’t look all that comforted by those facts. Moving on... “I only used it because your rogue friend wouldn’t talk to us at all. What matters the most to me is protecting all the kin. I don’t want one more person dying on my watch.”
Orion rubbed his mouth. “He isn’t my friend,” he said. “I’d never associate with anyone who’d do what they did.”
“But you’re still not sure you want to turn your back on the rogues completely,” I said, reading his body language. “You still think they might have a point. About me.”
He sucked in a ragged breath. “We haven’t had a dragon shifter since I was five years old. I only just met you half an hour ago. I don’t know.”
But he wanted to. I felt it underneath the uncertainty and the fear. He wanted me to convince him that he could believe in me. As much as he’d probably hoped the rogues would offer guidance he could believe in when he’d entertained their ideas.
I didn’t know how to give him that. The best I could think of was to be honest.
“Can I tell you a secret, Orion?” I said.
His expression turned puzzled. “All right.”