Page 19 of Guardian's Dilemma

“So do people,” he said.

I frowned. That was different. Besides, I wasn’t saying that some people weren’t evil – they were – it was just that the urge to kill wasn’t baked into a person’s DNA the way it was a dragon’s.

“People should protect each other from dangerous people. They can’t protect each other from dragons, though. They needridireto do that.”

“What if people didn’t need to kill dragons at all?”

I snorted. “Then dragons would have free reign to kill whoever they wanted.”

“What makes you think dragons would kill anyone, if you left them alone to do what they wanted?”

“Haveyouever murdered anyone?”

Chapter 9: Glimmer

There was something about the way my mate spoke, then, that made my dragon prickle with awareness.

Whatever it was my dragon felt, it didn’t like it. Perhaps it was the pure disdain in my mate’s face when he spoke of dragons. That would be difficult to overcome.

“I’ve only left this territory half a dozen times, and the territory is warded to ensure people don’t wander in. How am I meant to have killed people if I don’t go out and they don’t come in?”

“When you left your territory, did you kill anyone?”

“I’ve never killed a human.”

He was clever. Too clever. I could see that it would be difficult to hide things from him, which was basically my MO. I was the Guardian. I was separate from the rest of the clan. I stayed out here, on my own, and protected them and they didn’t have to think about me at all day to day.

When they did think of me and wanted to talk, I could easily avoid giving them the answers they wanted. Even without lying. Some of my clan were not as clever as they thought they were.

My mate, though? His dark eyes were taking in every movement and assessing me. He knew already that I was… not lying, but misdirecting him.

It was frustrating that I wouldn’t be able to deceive him as easily as I did everyone else. Also, equally frustrating, was the fact that I admired that about him.

I’d always liked intelligence, quickness, skill…

Deep inside me, at my core, where my dragon and my soul intertwined, I had always known that I longed for an equal. Someone who could challenge me.

Seren was my equal, of course, and that was why we’d been so close growing up when I’d never paid much attention to any of the others around me. Rhod was too weak to be my equal, Conley was a skilled fighter but too dumb and too rash to best me, Glenwise was smart but not a fighter, Morgan had been so weak and timid that it had genuinely never occurred to me that he could be interesting at all until I’d seen the warped iron gates he’d left behind as he fled our clan, and Alfie… Alfie might be small and squishy and scared but he made my dragon long to protect him. He was not our equal, though. He was treasure to be guarded.

No, in my whole clan, only Lord Somerville could best me. I respected his strength. That was as far as my feelings for him went.

Even Seren hadn’t been able to beat me, once I’d understood what my power was and how to access it. He’d been skilled, yes, and I loved him, yes, but…

I didn’t want to admit that he hadn’t been my equal in strength because I loved him. The fact was, though, that I knew I could defeat him. I could even defeat Dane now, something even he admitted.

There was nobody to challenge me. The biggest threat I faced was from Lord Somerville or theridire.

It wasn’t as though Iwantedto be in danger. I certainly didn’t want my clan to be in danger from theridire. My dragon prickled uneasily at the thought.

But to have one of them stand here now, studying me closely and seeing what nobody else had ever seen… this was a new challenge.

“Whathaveyou killed?”

“An enemy.”

“What enemy?”

“A dead one.”

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