Page 34 of Hoarded By the Dragon

She raises her brows. “That’s a pretty small inner circle.”

I twitch my lips. “It’s better for your safety. And when you live as long as I have, it’s advantageous to keep connections few and far between.”

“That sounds like it would be lonely.”

“There are worse things to be than lonely.” My voice goes soft when I don’t mean for it to.

Katarina tilts her head in thought, and an uncomfortable silence falls between us. I get the sense that I’ve shown her more than I’ve meant to. I’m about to talk about something else, anything else, when she breaks it. Blessedly changing the topic.

“If I need to be here for the majority of the time, I need to have my friend be able to visit me,” she says.

I want to agree because that’s reasonable, but I hold back. “Is this friend involved in anything dangerous?” I ask.

“Oh, no! Not at all. I met her after leaving that life.”

I nod. “Then of course.” I think on it. “And have Ben be the one that transports her in too.”

She agrees and takes a bite of her food.

I mentally check off all the items as a way to keep my mind from wandering to the urge to have her on my lap and feed her. It’s an instinctual response, nothing more.

“After the child is born—” I clench my jaw on the words that they should live elsewhere. My dragon is causing more trouble than I know how to deal with. I’m tapping my talons, trying to think of what he’ll accept, trying to set expectations.

Katarina places her hand on mine, scales and all. “We don’t need to decide now. We can wait until we know each other better.”

I nod. Knowing each other better shouldn’t make any difference, but I accept the opportunity to stall this fight with my beast.

I move on to something that can’t be stalled. “I need you to tell me about who employed you to steal the figurine.”

She releases my hand and starts to look nervous. “Uh, I can’t tell you that.”

“Rina,” I say softly, and some tension leaves her at the shortening of her name. My dragon puffs in pride. “This is something important to your safety. What led you to take the job to break into my hoard?”

She squirms. “I wasn’t employed to do it. It was a favor for someone.”

“A favor led you back into a life that you are adamant you aren’t in anymore?” I pry.

“He was in danger, and I care about him.”

I take a moment to breathe through the explosion of jealousy in my chest that burns like dragon fire. I am more than this instinctual reaction. It’s a close thing though.

“Romantically?” I ask.

“Oh, god no!” Katarina’s horrified face soothes the burn. “Just someone who looked out for me and taught me skills when I needed them.”

She doesn’t name him, which is smart. But she doesn’t need to. Ben already gave me a report about her, which includes Nemo Wint as being the person who she worked with in thieving. I would not describe their relationship as one where he looked out for her.

I’ve mentored many people, and I’ve never put a teenager in the danger that he must have. He got to her young and used her for her skills.

And now, as an adult, she put herself in danger because of some misplaced loyalty.

It makes me want to kill him.

“Alright,” I say. I can’t discuss this anymore and remain logical.

Katarina sighs in relief. “You got a little murdery there.”

I twitch my lips. “I try not to, but my dragon can have outsized reactions.”

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