Page 51 of Surge of Storms

Dr. Duncan shakes his head. “An unknown dragon piled these here in the early hours of the morning. He wasn’t one of our tracked dragons, but he didn’t attack or cause issues either, so security didn’t inform me about this until this morning.”

“Why would anyone do this?” I ask, stroking the panels, struggling to keep my eyes off of them.

“Is it not obvious?” Zane asks, frowning.

All eyes turn toward him.

After a minute, Granger says, “No, man, we have no idea why a dragon would do this.”

Zane flashes all his teeth in an almost-smile. “The dragon dropped these here to court Sam.”

“TocourtSam?” Aydan asks, his voice a mixture of shock and irritation.

Zane nods.

“How would this… court her?” Granger looks as confused as Evander and Aydan.

Zane looks to me. “Female dragons like shiny things. I courted Sam myself by collecting gems and other pretty things I knew she would like.”

All eyes are on me.

“Do you… like these solar panels?” Evander asks, almost in disbelief.

I feel my cheeks grow hot. “I don’t know… they are kind of pretty… and shiny.”

Granger groans. “Now we all have to start buying her shiny things, or she’s going to add a fifth dragon to our group.”

I walk over and slug him in the shoulder. “I’m not that simple-minded.”

“Says the girl who was stroking a solar panel a minute ago,” Aydan mutters.

I respond with a glare.

Zane gives me a look. “If you accept the gift, you are accepting their courtship.”

“Like hell!” Evander says.

Aydan crosses his arms over his chest. “The fuck she will!”

I roll my eyes. “Obviously, I’m not being courted by another dragon. The four of you are more than annoying enough, I don’t need to add another guy to the list.” My mind starts working. “But who would have done this?”

Zane answers easily. “These gifts came from either Than or Kek. Can’t you smell them on the panels?”

I sniff deeply. There it is. A faint terrible scent, although I can’t tell which of the two the scent belongs to, or if the smell is some combination of the two of them. “Maybe they actually listened to me about trying to win me in a different way, which is a good thing.”

“Except that it’s not going to work,” Aydan says in a bossy tone that makes me glare at him.

“The thing is, I don’t want to accept their gifts, and I also don’t want to discourage them from trying to find their own female in a gentle way. Is there a way to do that?”

We all look at Zane.

“Not that I can think of.”

I frown. “If I could just talk to them without Malikay and Balor, I think I could get through to them.”

Zane suddenly bounces on his feet. “I do think there is one way we could arrange that.”

“What way?” I ask.

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