“Maybe you should stop coming up with plans that look idiotic.”
I bit my lip, swallowing my frustration, and West’s gaze dropped to my mouth. The heat between us flared in an instant. God almighty, why did he have to act like a jerk when I knew there was so much compassion—not to mention plain old passion—underneath that front?
Every muscle was urging me to just grab him and plant one on him. To draw out the desire I knew he was keeping locked down inside.
But we’d gone down that road already, and that blazing physical encounter hadn’t made things any better. Actually, the moment we’d shared in the avian estate garden had only made me more on edge when I was with him, now that I knew how good the two of us could be together.
This game of snarking at each other and dancing around our attraction was getting old. I was ready to be done with it, one way or the other.
I turned my hand, sliding it against his arm until my fingers could curl around his. “West,” I said, “I think we should talk. Really talk. We’re not getting anywhere like this. Whatever doubts you still have about me, you can just tell me about them. We’ll hash them out. I know I’m still learning here. But I need to know what the problem is before I can fix it.”
The sense I got from my wolf shifter then was completely bizarre, as if a rush of tangled emotions had blown open a door inside him—only to be yanked back in and the door slammed shut. And deadbolted for good measure.
West took another step back, his posture rigid. His hand slipped from mine. “I don’t think this is exactly the time for chatting, Sparks,” he said. “We’ve got a full-blown rebellion to stop.”
And for some reason you’re just as important to me as stopping it, you blockhead, I thought but didn’t let myself say. I’d had my fill of verbal sparring for the day.
“Fine,” I said. “When you get your head sorted out, you know where to find me.” I turned and stalked away without a backward glance. Because I did have bigger things to think about up ahead. Like whether one of my other mates was going to come out of tonight’s confrontation with all limbs and vital organs intact.
Chapter 16
Ren
The guest suite Kylie had been given looked a lot like my set of rooms, other than her bed was only a regular king sized one and not wide enough to comfortably fit five. I guessed the shifter kin didn’t expect anyone other than their dragon shifter to be calling multiple mates into their bed. Or else they expected those other people to squish.
“Is everything settled now?” Kylie asked me, bobbing on her feet. She’d only managed to sit on the elegant settee for about ten seconds before she’d bounced back up again with her irresistible energy.
“As settled as it can be,” I said. “Marco still has to fight that guy. But he seems sure he can take him. I just hope he’s prepared for anything. The rogues definitely don’t mind fighting dirty.”
“They haven’t tried anything that big so far, though, right?” Kylie said. “I mean, there were the three that attacked us at West’s people’s village, and then it sounded like you took on that bunch near Nate’s estate no problem.”
My heart sank with the weight of all the things I’d been avoiding telling her. I should have told her everything sooner. Maybe if she’d realized just how dangerous my life had gotten, she wouldn’t have rushed down here on this visit.
On the other hand, maybe she’d just have rushed down sooner.
“There’ve been a couple of other... incidents,” I said slowly. “When we were traveling to Sunridge, a bunch of them ambushed us. That was when I managed a full shift the first time. And the rogues who attacked Nate’s estate—they killed four of the kin before the guards managed to stop them.”
“Oh!” Kylie’s eyes went wide. “The thing at Sunridge—that was weeks ago. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I worried my lower lip with my teeth. My fingers shivered with an itch I hadn’t felt in days—the urge to find some object to pilfer, to take control. I curled them into my palm instead. I wasn’t that street rat thief anymore. I was a freaking dragon shifter now.
“I knew you’d be worried,” I said. “We came out of the ambush fine, and the attack on the estate was over before I even got there.”
Kylie was still looking at me with a hesitant expression. “I’d rather be worried and know what’s really going on with you than be kept in the dark. You should know that, Ren.”
I had. But I’d kept her in the dark anyway. There wasn’t really any way I could justify it.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “There was so much going on... Keeping quiet about it and focusing on the good stuff just felt like the best way of handling it at the time. But you see why I’m worried.”
Kylie nodded. “I guess if those asshole rogues do turn up, you can go full dragon mode on their assess,” she said, more of her usual cheerfulness coming back.
“That’s the plan.” I groped for a change in subject—to a subject that wouldn’t make me want to pocket every valuable in the building. “Marco’s people will be summoning us to dinner soon. I should put on something nicer. If there are rogues around, I want them remembering who’s in charge here.” I managed to grin. “You want to help me pick out a dress?”
“Want to?” Kylie said, clapping her hands. “I’ve been dying to since you sent me that photo of you at Aaron’s place. All right, let’s do this thing.”
We ducked into the hall and passed a few doors to my rooms.
I opened one wardrobe and then another. Kylie made a squeeing sound as she pawed through the offerings. “Oh, this is amazing. You’re going to look like a boss, all right. Forget princess—you’re going to be the empress of all shifters.”
I laughed and held out my arms to take the first dress she tossed to me. By the time she’d gone through all three wardrobes, my arms were aching and my face buried in silk and satin. I hefted the heap onto the bed. “Um, I think we need to do a little narrowing down here.”
“Yes, yes.” Kylie tapped her lips. She grabbed a couple out of the pile. “I don’t know what I was thinking with this one. And now that I’m looking at them all, black is definitely too dour. The rest you’ll just have to put on so I can ogle you.”
She shot me a bright smile as she went to put back the discards. I shook my head and stripped out of my T-shirt and jeans. As I shimmied into one of the dresses from the top of the heap, a simple pale green silk number, Kylie sat down on the edge of the bed. She glanced across its width, her eyebrows arching in amusement. “Hmm, I can’t imagine what you’d need a bed this big for… No, wait, actually I can.”
My face flushed at her teasing. But when she turned back to me, a shadow had crossed her face.