Page 34 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

Ash laced his fingers with mine. “Sorry, mate, but you’re considerably older than me. Best just to accept it.”

I huffed. He wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t a few years or even a few decades older than him. It really didn’t impact our relationship at all on a day-to-day level, but once in a while, it would hit us.

“Do you know many of the other Flight Leaders?” Ash asked.

“Yeah, just about everyone,” I said, flipping open the folder I had with the information about the other teams. As always, I’d familiarized myself with most of them before the season began, but for the most part, I’d met them all a time or two over the years.

Ash opened his laptop, no doubt pulling up digital copies of the exact same information I had. I hadn’t moved into a fully digital setting. I liked the way paper felt and the ease of being able to lay everything out before me to take them all in at once. Ash insisted I could do the same thing on my screen or by setting up a multi-monitor workstation, and he was probably right. But I had no plans on changing any time soon.

“The only team I’m not familiar with is Galeclaw Academy. Their Flight Leader recently moved up from Flight Trainer.” We’d met but very much in passing. Not all teams treated their Flight Trainers as equals. It always showed in their long-term results, which was probably how there was a Flight Leader position open up for this dragon in the first place.

Ash stiffened, his back straightening. The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch.

“Is everything all right?” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Is it the eggs?”

He was only two weeks into the pregnancy, and it was possible the eggs could be laid anytime, though it would likely be a few more weeks. Dragon pregnancies didn’t last an exact amount of time. Dragonets came when they were ready. It was miraculous and wonderful, while at the same time being horrible for planning.

Ash cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Eggs are fine.”

“Then what is it?” I asked.

He let out an awkward laugh. “I interviewed with Galeclaw Academy, and, well… this is a bit weird.”

“What is it? Have they broken the rules? Or do you know something about them?”

He winced. “A little. I talked quite a bit with them about their program. Nothing that I’m not allowed to know and nothing that would give us any sort of an edge.”

“But?” He wasn’t telling me everything, and from the discomfort rolling off of him, there was something pretty big left to say.

“But you should know—”

Just then, the meeting started, showing me yet another reason to hate virtual meetings. At least with an in-person meeting, they’d have knocked, giving me a few seconds to listen to the rest of my mate’s thought.

Flight Leader Seymour—the current head of the division, which was a role that rotated to the different academy Flight Leaders—called everyone to attention. It was one of those roles that looked great on paper but rotated specifically because it was anything but. Besides the paperwork and dealing with many strong personalities, it was a time suck. I was not looking forward to my next turn, that was for sure.

“Thank you all for joining so quickly. I’m hoping to make this meeting as brief as possible.”

Yes, please.

“First, welcome, Flight Leaders, to the Elite League. As you know, we have just a few weeks before we’ll all be meeting at the Drakonspire clan territory. I trust you all have the information you need about that.”

I flipped through my folder and pulled the paper to the top. There was so much to do before the clutch was here, and the more I thought we were ahead, the more I realized we were behind.

“And I want to give a welcome to Ash Halloway with the Emberstone Clan. He’s the newest Flight Leader to join the ranks.”

There was awkward applause and waves from the other Flight Leaders, many of whom I recognized from my time as a Flight Leader. I wasn’t the longest-running Leader, but it was close. Ash waved back, a smile slapped on his face. He didn’t love being the center of attention, and for this moment, he very much was.

Flight Leader Carson from Galeclaw Academy gave me—or rather, the camera—a satisfied smile. “Ash, good to see you again.” He winked suggestively.

Now it was my turn to stiffen. Thankfully, we were muted. I fought the urge to turn to my mate and demand an explanation. Clearly Carson, the smarmy bastard, knew Ash. But how? And why did he think it was okay to act like that at all, but much less with my mate.

“I’ll explain after the call,” Ash said behind his hand so no one on the camera would see.

Gods, this meeting needed to be over now. Concentrating while knowing there actually was something that needed to be shared was near impossible.

“All right, let’s begin,” Commander Seymour said, and he began going over the details, not leaving a single one out. At the rate he was going, this meeting was going to last forever. Of course, it felt exponentially longer thanks to my anxiety over the stupid wink.

Ash took notes furiously, and by notes, I meant he pretty much treated it like dictation. Anything I missed was sure to be on his paper somewhere. This was his first time being behind the scenes for the event, so it made sense.

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