Page 41 of Hoarded By the Dragon

It’s the only way I can explain away the peace the act gives me. The way I look forward to joining her bed every night and count down the hours until I can be there again. My dragon rages at me that it’s because ofher, but that’s only a trick of my biology.

“Kalos,” Sophia says from behind me.

“I’m listening,” I lie.

“Sure doesn’t seem like it,” she mutters.

“Perhaps it would do with repeating,” her bonded mate Mace says. “It is a beautiful day outside, and he no doubt became distracted.”

That has the hair on the back of my neck rising. I turn from the window and glare at Mace, who winks back at me. He’s sprawled on the couch while Sophia sits at the edge of my desk, tossing up a glass paperweight before catching it. I narrow my eyes at her, and she drops the object back on the mahogany desk, sighing.

My eye twitches at the loud sound of the glass hitting the wood before I return my gaze to Mace.

The demon has a penchant for secrets. One that I’ve exploited from time to time, but that I’ve never been on the other side of. Can he hear Katarina laughing with her friend like I can? Dragons have better hearing. Either way, he knows something is up.

Could it be that he really can sense secrets?

Sophia arches a brow at Mace. “Behave,” she says as if she wasn’t just the one throwing around a one-of-a-kind artwork.

Wonderful. They both know something is awry. I trust them enough not to fire them in the literal sense for knowing that there’s an unknown woman residing with me. They work for me as independent contractors, and even though our relationship started contentiously, they are the loyal sort with similar ideals, but every person who knows about Katarina increases her risk.

Sophia looks at me expectantly. “The witches are not being patient. They want the figurine in trusted hands and don’t consider the Leonids as being that.”

Ah, yes, what this meeting is actually about.

I sigh. “I need more time. I will not give in to the Leonids’ demands in exchange for the figurine. Their price is too steep.”

I’d thought that being patient and waiting the shifters out would cause them to give another price I’d be willing to pay, but they are sticking to their original demand.

“What are they requesting for the figurine?” Mace asks. “Just curious of course.”

I roll my eyes and tell him anyway. I need him and Sophia in the know for their next assignment. “They want the northern fae gate. They say they are getting into imports and exports.”

“Imports and exports, of course that’s what they are after.” Mace snarls.

He has a potent hatred for trafficking and has worked hard to stomp out every ring to crop up this side of the gates. The location of the northern gate is very remote. Ideal for that use case, and I have no reason to believe they’d use it for anything else.

The gate stands unused and sealed by the magic that gives me ownership. If it were closer to civilization it could be useful to me, but I have other gates that are much better situated for actual imports and exports of goods. As it is, the presence of the northern gate is a nuisance. An indestructible nuisance crafted with forgotten magic.

“Exactly,” I say. “I need you two to get me all the information you can about the Leonids. Specifically, anything that will give me leverage to demand new terms.”

“I don’t know why you don’t just destroy them,” Sophia says. She’s a harpy. Being bloodthirsty goes hand in hand with her kind. “You’re a big, fiery baddy, aren’t you?”

I sigh with patience like I haven’t explained this to her before. “Balance is important. If I take out a whole organization without a thought to who will replace them, we could be handing the position to someone worse. I don’t want to be a dictator. I’m too old to want to spend every moment policing everyone else. I won’t do that just to get the figurine back.”

It will require the situation to become much more dire for me to risk having to deal with the Council by upsetting their “balance.”

“What do you want me to tell the witches?” Sophia asks. The witches prefer only speaking with women. With the number of power players that are like the Leonids in the game, I don’t blame them.

“I need you to convince them to be patient,” I say. “I will not abandon the figurine. Tell them the stakes are high for the safety of many paranormals if you must.”

If I’d known that letting Katarina leave with the figurine would have caused so many headaches, I’d have locked her up in the caverns under this house after that night and just kept her there.

That’s not true though. My dragon doesn’t care for these games. He gave the piece of the hoard away for the woman’s company. He only disliked when I stepped in and made sure we couldn’t continue anything resembling a relationship after that night.

Mace stands. “I think Sophia can convince them.”

Sophia raises both brows at him. “Oh really?”

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