Page 30 of Consorting with Dragons

These dragons were both Reds, and Rylan was amazed by their size and by how beautiful they were. They were indeed asbig as a small building, like I’d told him, with massive bodies and a huge wingspan. They kept their wings folded neatly over their backs as a general rule. He looked impressed. He should see my beautiful dragon, Sulamon, and his impressive wingspan. I made a mental note to take him to see him soon.

We stood watching for a few minutes, but Rylan was clearly restless and anxious to go see the Golden. I took his arm again and led him down to one of the last of the large enclosures. There we found the little dragon sprawled out on his stomach, his head between his outstretched paws, and looking like he’d been crying again. I cleared my throat to let him know we were there, and he raised his head to look at us.

His face lit up with joy as soon as he saw Rylan and he leaped to his feet and came rushing toward the fence. As for Rylan, he was already opening the gate to the enclosure. I followed him in, a bit reluctantly, but I was afraid the Golden would jump on him and reinjure his ribs. I rushed over and caught hold of his harness just in time to prevent him leaping into Rylan’s arms and knocking him flat.

“You came! You came to see me! Oh, I’m glad. They’ve been so mean to me.”

“No, we have not,” I told him and then I turned to Rylan who was giving me an incredulous look. “We havenot.”

Rylan, who had plopped right down on the floor of the enclosure and was holding out his arms for the dragon’s squirming body, looked over at me accusingly.

“My goodness, dear, what have they done to you?” I let the vetami go and he plopped down in front of Rylan and tried to climb in his lap, but he was far too big.

“They don’t play with me, and they don’t pet me, and they hardly ever give me food. I’msoooohungry.”

Rylan looked at me accusingly again, and I shook my head. “He’s a little fraud. He’s been offered food every day—severaltimes a day—but he says he’ll wait for you to feed him. He says he’s on a hunger strike, though I have no idea how he even heard of such a thing.”

“Please bring him something to eat now then, and I’ll feed him right away.”

I went over to a speaker on the wall and pushed the button. When someone asked what I needed, I told them to bring food for the Golden as quickly as they could. Then I turned and leaned against the wall, waiting impatiently while Rylan and the little dragon had their reunion. The Golden babbled to him about the enclosure and what he’d been doing, and plied Rylan with endless questions over where he’d been and why he hadn’t been to see him. Rylan answered him very softly and seriously, managing to calm him down in a remarkably short time. This had gotten out of hand quickly, and I wondered if I should have ever brought Rylan here at all. I was pretty sure of the answer. This was only going to make everything so much worse.

When his food came—a shoulder of goral meat—he fell on it quickly and ate so rapidly that we both had to caution him about making himself sick. He ate every bite of his food and drank a whole bucket of water. Then he lay down with his head in Rylan’s lap and fell sound asleep.

“How can I leave him?” Rylan said softly, looking up at me as the dragon snuggled his head into his lap and began snoring.

“I know it’s hard when he carries on the way he does, but it’s really for the best that you don’t let him get even more attached to you.”

“Better? For me or for him? Please don’t make me leave him, Quinn. Besides, you owe me. You admitted that you were out of control at that warehouse on Lycanus 3, and you said you were sorry for the things you did to me. Don’t you want a chance to make it up to me? To convince me to marry you?”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was shocked by his manipulations. I had never acted the way I had on Lycanus before in my life, and the memory of it was excruciatingly embarrassing to me. I’d been hoping that particular memory of his might fade again, but no such luck.

“You know that was a huge misunderstanding,” I said, my voice stiff. “I don’t think now is the time to discuss it.”

“Then when? We’re negotiating. I’d like to talk about it now.”

“No.”

“No? That’s all I’m going to get?”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it any further.”

“Quinn Fortina, you held me in your arms, and you growled at anyone who tried to take me away from you. You ripped my trousers off, exposing my naked ass to the world and would have done more if not for the Lycans.”

I could feel my face flaming. “Why are we still talking about this? I-I didn’t mean for you to be hurt, and I’m sorry. Though if you hadn’t fought me, it would never have happened. Not so soon, anyway.”

“I asked the doctor about it, you know,” Rylan said. “About how such a thing could have happened, and do you know what he said?”

“How would I know? And I can’t believe you discussed our private business with the doctor.”

Ignoring me, he carried on talking. He was just like the chatty little dragon, never knowing when to be quiet.

“He said that with Horvathians, sometimes males feel the mating urge so strongly and it’s so powerful and undeniable that theybitethe other person to mark them as theirs. Could it be that you wanted to bite me, Quinn? Would you like to bite me even now?”

I glared furiously at him, because damn it, it was all I wanted, and I didn’t know how much longer I could wait to claim him.

“No!” I shouted at him. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

A small voice spoke up in front of me. “Why are you yelling at him? That’s not nice.”

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