Page 6 of The Alliance

I nearly leapt out of my skin when whoever-it-was spoke from just behind Edith. As soon as he spoke, I could see him. There must have been some kind of magic keeping him hidden until then. He had been sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace and he rose to greet his guests.

“Please, join me by the fire.”

He was a handsome older man with a broad smile and I saw Edith’s bond flare bright and protective as soon as I turned my eyes on him. So itwasn’tjust me who was feeling a bit weird and tense about this, then. Even Edith, with all her power and her years of being an elder, still felt the flash of unease at having another dragon elder’s eyes on her mate.

I looked away quickly in case me looking at him made her react badly.

Great Aunt Evangline settled by the fire and Uncle George sat beside her.

John turned to Blaze with a smile. “We wondered if you’d like us to keep a fire going? Are you warm enough? Please feel free to use any of the hearths in the castle.”

Blaze smiled back and I felt a wave of gratitude towards the older man. Morgan had been right when he’d told me that John was a kind, gentle man. He’d made Blaze feel cared for before he’d even sat down.

When Edith spoke, though, my dragon twisted suddenly inside me, trying to push between her and my mate. I stepped forward, blocking her view of him.

She said, “Won’t you sit down? We’ll have some refreshments.”

My dragon didn’t want to sit. Sitting meant being at a disadvantage. Sitting meant I couldn’t leap up to fight. What if someone attacked from behind me?

I was just about to descend into a full-blown panic when Blaze said, “Thank you. Will you sit with me, Alfie?”

What could I do after that? My mate wanted to sit in my lap, and I didn’t have it in me to deny him.

I sat, feeling like I wanted to push in front of all my clan and shift, release my dragon and spread my wings to shield them all from view. Blaze slid onto my lap, though, and my arms wound automatically around him, pulling him close to me,and the feeling of him there somehow made my dragon stay still. It paused its agitated grumblings and did nothing. Sometimes I wondered whether it was just a drama queen who would do anything to make Blaze snuggle up close to us.

We sat and Morgan and Seren came into the room. Our bonds were bright and strong. They were healthy. This wasn’t a trap.

Chapter 3

Alfie

Even as tea was served, I couldn’t relax. A prettycuraidhwoman came into the room and was introduced as Nadia. She flopped into a chair and looked at me with an appraising air.

“You look so like Morgan, it’s almost creepy.”

“Um, thank you?”

“You’re welcome,” she said, as though it had indeed been a compliment she’d been paying me. On the basis Morgan was great, and on the basis that a lot of my family looked alike, with blonde hair and silver eyes, I wasn’t going to complain.

When someone came near to our chair to put the teacup on the table, I tensed. In my lap, Blaze felt it and I thought he might try to get up and take the cup to stop anyone from comingnear us, but that would mean he leaned away from me, which would be the worst thing to make my dragon feel panicked… but he turned into me instead. He pressed more firmly into my lap and his fingers twined with mine, and my dragon breathed him in deeply to take comfort from his scent.

Any illusion I’d had that I’d been subtle about that vanished when someone tried to hand round biscuits and John said, “Please, let me.”

He took the plate from thecuraidhand approached us all, offering them to us and saying, “They were made fresh this morning. Brenda made them herself.”

He cast a proud look at the older woman, who blushed in a pleased way.

Blaze took one and bit into it. I didn’t look because I had a thing for my mate’s lips and watching him eat was a complete porn show for me, and I didn’t want to get hard in front of all these people. He said, “They’re delicious,” and Brenda blushed harder.

I was grateful for the distraction and for the fact that only a human was approaching us. I don’t know why my dragon was riled by the fact that we were surrounded, especially since some of thepeople surrounding us were my family and they loved me and I knew they’d never hurt me. Still, I didn’t like it.

And, what’s more, I could tell my clan didn’t like it, either.

Great Aunt Evangeline seemed the only one who was perfectly at ease, but then that made sense, if she already knew Edith and had once had an alliance with her. Her old dragon wouldn’t feel in danger.

The rest of us were tense, even though we tried to hide it behind politeness and blank faces. I knew Glimmer was fully in Guardian mode because he still was nowhere to be seen, except when I focused on our bond I knew he was nearby. I just hoped nobody else could see bonds and therefore track where he was. Or realise that one of our clan was supposedly missing.

More and more people came into the room to be introduced. I’d actually never met that many people before, which was already weird. The fact that I wasn’t sure they could be trusted wasn’t making me relax.

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