Page 17 of The Eternal Choice

“Anything I can do to help?” I ask as I step into the kitchen.

She places the big pot of spaghetti on the table and turns to face me. “Yeah, there is. Any chance I could talk to your dragon for a second?”

I frown and wonder what’s going through her head. “There is no one or the other. When you’re talking to me, you’re talking to both of us.”

Placing her hands on her hips she firms her tone when she says, “Okay, then let your dragon answer my question.”

My fucking dragon croons inside my head the way she’s referring to wanting him and only him. Great ego polishing.

“Ask,” I grit.

She likes me, my dragon croons inside my head.

I’m pretty sure the nod Lilliana gives me isn’t for the permission I just gave, but more about the fact she saw my pupils flash when my dragon spoke up.

She shoves two fingers against my shoulder and is suddenly in my face when she snarls, “You listen to me and make sure to brand these words inside your head real fucking deep, buddy. There is no way, no how, no reason, even if you think it’s the only way to save the clan that puts you in a situation where you feel the need to self-destruct. You get me, buddy? Never. I will bring you back to life even if you turn to red mist just to kill you myself. Under no circumstances are you going to off yourself, okay?”

She loves me. She doesn’t want us to leave her.I barely manage not to mentally roll my eyes at my dragon’s reaction. The fucker seriously has a bigger ego than me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you to raise our son alone.” I shoot her a wink to lighten the mood.

She grabs the front of my shirt and yanks on the fabric. “I’m not kidding here, Ernestino. How the hell do you want me to deal with the fact you have a button inside you which can be pushed at any damn moment?”

I cover her hand with mine and soften my voice to ease some of the raw emotions I feel taking over her body. “This rarely happens, darlin’. For a dragon to see no other way to get the better outcome when it comes to the clan, it needs to be a critical situation.”

Her hands are still holding the fabric of my shirt in a death grip.Promise her, my dragon urges and the overwhelming feeling to take all her worry away fills my veins.

“We promise,” I murmur.

“Thank you.” She flattens her hands against my chest. “Okay, with what you just mentioned, it makes no sense for the prisoner to self-detonate, right? Or does every torture session end in a blast?”

I cup the side of her face and lean in to brush my lips against hers. “No. In the past we’d either hold some hostage for an exchange, and if they are tortured and have given all we might get out of them, we have killed them ourselves.”

“So, not everyone is a suicide bomber,” she muses and steps back. “Do you think Nario knew what he was doing? I mean, he didn’t even give the guy a chance. Why else would he have sewn his mouth shut? We should question Nario.”

“Later.” I point at the food. “First you’re going to sit down and eat.”

She huffs and plunks down on a chair. No more words are thrown back and forth because she attacks the food, piles a load on her plate and practically inhales it. The spaghetti is amazing, and I would love to have some more, but instead I nudge the leftovers in her direction.

A few minutes later she’s patting her stomach. “I had no clue how hungry I was until the spaghetti entered my mouth.”

I shoot her a grin. “I’ll be sure to remind you to eat. You’re very driven in anything you do and seem to forget your body needs fuel for two now.”

“Driven? Bordering on obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, or so my brother keeps telling me. Of course, everything is always a contest when it comes to us, so you could say he’s to blame.” She frowns and murmurs, “Normally, I don’t have a problem with fueling my body. Everyone seems to think vampires live solely on blood.”

I take the empty plates and rinse them off. “The way your kind can’t stand the scent of garlic, doesn’t have a reflection in the mirror–”

“And have to be invited before I can enter a home?” she snorts. “Yeah, right.”

Placing the plates in the rack, I turn to face her and lean back against the counter. “Well, at least you know one of the dragon shifter’s darkest secrets. How about you? You’re not just a vampire with your mother being the one with the angelic touch. What other abilities do you have? We both know it’s you who allowed my seed to take root inside your belly, and you’re also the reason why Cleo is pregnant.”

Her eyes go wide. “Dude. I didn’t do shit when it comes to Cleo. You do know I’m a girl, and how a man supplies the sperm for the egg and all? I didn’t do shit. Ivano is the one who knocked her up.”

“I’ve been going over things inside my mind, and I have to agree with Cleo. There is no other explanation. You’re the winged protector mentioned in the legend. Hell, you basically saved my life by stepping into it. If it weren’t for you, I would have gone home and accepted the deal Tony offered.”

She points a finger at me. “You’d be a dead man and this clan would have to pick a new leader. Probably one of Tony’s highly trained men who he put in place by letting them join the foster program and therefore had a fair chance for the job.”

I slowly bob my head. “Balance, fertility, the fierce way you’re protecting this clan even if I treated you like shit the first two weeks. You didn’t say a word to your father and yet made him contact me to share crucial information. You are the protector, Lilliana.”

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