Page 24 of Tamhas

“You confirmed to her that we were dragons?” Alan snarled.

“I did no such thing—although, if you’re so certain she’s a Blood Moon Priestess, she’d already know. Wouldn’t she?”

“He has a point,” Owen murmured.

“I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself,” Alan snapped in return, then came back around to me. “Who is she to you, then?”

I barely managed to keep from squirming under his intense stare. He’d only been leader of the clan since right before our return, and I understood how important it was for him to present a good image to the rest of us—he craved our respect, not to mention a little peace and order—but that didn’t keep a rather large part of me from wishing I could remind him of how we’d come of age together and how he had very little right to speak to me as he was.

I wasn’t daft enough to challenge him, however, not when I was the reason she’d found us. No matter who she was.

“I met her online. Perhaps a year prior to the kidnapping. It was innocent,” I said, holding up my hands in defense of what I knew the two of them were about to hurl at me. “We spoke on a forum. She was performing research on our old weaponry, and I wanted to be of help.”

“And yet she’s here, with us. I suppose this means your acquaintance did not end there.”

“We emailed regularly.” I looked back and forth from one of them to the other. “How did it feel when we met Mary and her people? Granted, the circumstances weren’t desirable, but even so. Wasn’t it… different? Speaking with others? After so much time, I mean.”

Alan frowned, jamming his hands into his pockets as he did. “It was, at that.”

“You must believe me. I never thought she’d find us.”

I looked at Owen. As did Alan.

“I don’t know,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “She would know better than I would how she managed it. Our security is tighter than it ever was, so it must have been pre-kidnapping that she tracked us. Whoever did it must be quite skilled.”

“I want you to find out,” Alan commanded me. “Ask her exactly how she managed it. Exactly how. I won’t risk another outsider tracking an email.”

“I will,” I muttered, feeling just as low as I could. I’d led her straight to us. “The reason she came… according to the explanation she gave, when we disappeared—were kidnapped—she became alarmed. As I said, we had corresponded regularly. Then I dropped out of sight completely…”

“I see,” Alan whispered.

“I swear to you, I knew nothing about her. And she knew nothing about me. I told her absolutely nothing. She wasn’t even aware that I lived with anyone else, or of how I lived. I was careful at all times. You can read all of my emails if you wish.” A desperate move, to be sure. I had no intention of allowing such a thing, although I’d never been anything but friendly in my messages and Keira had followed suit. They weren’t love letters. Even so, they were personal.

Alan groaned. “I don’t know that I need to go that far. I’ll take you at your word. I cannot speak for the others, however. You’ll have to deal with them on your own.”

“I’m sure I will.” I stared at the floor, wondering how I’d manage it.

“They’re angry. Furious, in fact.”

“There’s no need to rub salt in the wound, Alan,” I warned. His wasn’t the only patience wearing thin.

“You must understand.” He stepped in front of me, the toes of our shoes nearly touching. “Don’t you think all of us wish to reach out to the rest of the world? Certainly, it must have been lovely for you to form a friendship or whatever it was with this lass. I don’t doubt the temptation was quite strong. But we’ve all had these yearnings to reach out. What do you believe made you so special that you deserved it? No matter how safe you believed yourself to be?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“I doubt you thought about it at all.”

I doubted he knew how close he was to feeling the wrath of my dragon. “All right, all right. That’s quite enough. I’m well aware of the mistakes I’ve made.”

He went to the door, but instead of opening, he leaned against it. “You’ve put me in a difficult position with the clan. They’re angry. Furious. They will not let go of this easily—and they will most definitely wish to see her questioned on every aspect of herself.”

I gritted my teeth against this reminder, but remained silent.

“Do you wish to do the questioning?” he asked. “She may be more likely to answer questions if they come from you.”

I imagined raking her across the coals, probing into her life, into her motives for developing whatever it was we’d built between us. “No. I doubt she would. After all, if her motive was always to deceive me, why would she admit it easily? I’d think she’d be better inclined to confess to a stranger.”

He took this in, finally nodding in agreement. “Fair enough. But I believe you’ll be kinder with your questioning than any of us would. She’d be more likely to respond well to kindness.”

---