Page 16 of Surge of Storms

After a long minute, we all pull apart. Aydan looks at Granger. “I think we should talk though.”

Granger nods.

Aydan gives me a kiss, and then they both head out of the room. I can't help but watch them go and hope that Aydan is really as okay as he seems.

FIVE

Granger

Aydan's roomis painfully silent. I might be a coward, but I miss Sam's warm, reassuring hand in mine. I even miss the presence of the other two dragons as a buffer between us.

He rounds on me, studying me in an unsettling way. “For this to work, we need complete transparency.”

I nod, swallowing hard. “Transparency. Right.”

“No lies. No softening things.”

“Just the truth,” I choke out.

His deep blue eyes lock onto me. “What happened after you became a dragon?”

I clear my throat. “I focused on Sam, because she was hurting, making her shift to heal some of her wounds.”

His eyes widen. “She was hurt?”

“The green dragon nearly tore her wings to ribbons before I shifted into a dragon and fought him off. Then, I carried her to shore, because she couldn't fly herself.”

His brows wrinkled. “You did that, after just shifting for the first time?”

It's weird. I watched Aydan and Evander struggle to learn to be dragons, but for me, it felt so natural. Almost more natural than being human. “It was… easy for me. Like I've always been a dragon.”

He seems to file that information away. “And then what happened?”

I wince, but push forward. I promised to be honest, and I can tell our future depends on it. “We had sex… a lot. I had never, I mean, it was, well, it was my first time. That added some complications, as well as dragon pheromones.”

“You were a virgin?” He gives me a funny look. “I suspected, but I wasn't sure. You never talked about it.”

My face feels hot. “I mean, I tried dating and stuff, but Sam was always in the back of my mind.”

His lip quirks. “You really always loved her?”

I feel a wave of embarrassment. “There was always her staring at you, and you staring at her, and me staring at her. It was a lonely place to be, but I accepted it. I knew deep down I could never be with her, but there was this hollow ache inside no one else could fill.”

“I'm familiar with it,” he says under his breath. “But nothing happened between you? No stolen kiss? Nothing?”

“When the green dragon dropped me near the ice, Sam and I kissed. I felt something, but I wasn't sure if it was just her being glad we weren't dead, so I tried to forget about it.” Before he can say more, I add, “Until Sam became a dragon and had multiple partners, I gave up all hope of being with her. But then, seeing her with all of you killed me. It was like there was finally a world where I could be with her, except I still didn't have a chance. I wasn't a dragon.”

He nods. “That must have been hard.”

I shrug, trying to ignore how my heart aches. “Aydan, you were always the one who was supposed to end up with her. You just had issues to work out first.”

“And you were always so sure of that.”

“Yes,” I tell him without hesitation. “It was always going to be Sam and Aydan.”

He smiles. “And Evander, Zane, and… Granger.”

My heartbeat thumps loudly in my ears. “Not me. Not Granger. Just the storm dragon.”

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