Page 26 of Dragon Unleashed
Reaching into the winter box, I withdraw a yellow block. It’s firm, though when I open the bag containing it, it appears to be soft enough to be sliced through. Turning in a slow circle, I look for a blade. With a victorious smile, I spot a wooden block boasting some knives.
After setting the yellow block on the counter, I slice a chunk off and take a bite. The taste is familiar even if the color seems—well—off.
“Strange-looking cheese,” I comment as I continue munching then return the cheese to its bag and place it back in the fridge.
A few minutes later, I’m trekking toward the couch with my bounty—more cheese, some small, square, chunks of salty, dried bread, and an ale. The baseball game is now over, and in its place is a bunch of men sitting around a table, talking about things called ‘stats’.
Curious what other forms of entertainment might be inside this small box, I hit the button Paige showed me earlier. The screen goes black less than a second before another picture appears.
A man claims a woman’s mouth, his hands on her shoulders. It brings to mind a similar moment from last night when Paige kissed me. My body warms at the thought, and I recall the memories of my dreams spent buried inside her.
Never has a woman had such an effect on me. If I were home in Astronia, I might even be tempted to consider my feelings for Paige to be the mating call. But that’s impossible. We’re from different worlds, her and I. And that’s how it must remain. Even if I had to fight the urge to slip into her room and see just how far that kiss could have taken us.
I’m ripped from my thoughts when the man onscreen pulls away from the woman.
“Did my brother kiss like that?”he demands. Brother? What the hell? A woman should not be kissing brothers!
“How dare you speak to me like that,”the woman screeches before her hand cracks across the man’s cheek.
He rushes forward and grips her arms then slams her into the wall.
Anger burns in my throat even as I am helpless to tear my gaze from the scene. How the hell do I get inside and save her? How do I—
“How dare I speak to you like that? How about the fact that you went to that ski lodge in Aspen with my brother?”he bellows.
I abandon my food on the small table then lean in closer as though somehow that might aid me in hearing clearer. Surely this woman was not traipsing off to unknown lands with this man’s brother if she’s supposed to be with him!
“I thought he was you!”
“How can you say that! After everything we’ve been through, how could you not know it wasn’t me? I am your husband!”
“You are identical twins, Micah. And he—”She closes her eyes, and a tear rolls down her cheek.“He romanced me! Bought me flowers the same way you used to! And when we were together—”
The man jumps back as though she struck him again.“You slept with him?”
The woman sniffles.“Yes. And he was a far better lover than you!”
“And now he’s dead,”the man says.“You killed him!”
She lets out a horrified scream then turns away and begins to sob.“He never saw that tree, Micah. He never saw it.”
“Damn,” I murmur, already far more engulfed in this drama than I was in the baseball. Grabbing my food, I lean back and prepare to see just how this woman manages to talk herself out of the offense of sleeping with her mate’s brother.
* * *
“What the hell are you watching?”
I turn my head to study Paige as she stands above me, arms crossed. Her hair is braided over her shoulder, her glasses perched atop a perfectly straight nose. Both dark eyes are narrowed on me.
“That woman slept with her mate’s twin brother, and then the offending man died. Then a different man impregnated his mate’s mother. It’s quite an interesting stream of events. One wouldn’t think so many lives could have these many transgressions in them.”
The corners of her lips twitch, and she reaches down and presses a button on the remote. The wordingMinutes of our Dayspops up along the top of the screen. “You’re watching a soap opera?”
“Soap opera?” The words are unfamiliar strung together that way. “Is that what this is? Either way, these people would not survive a day in my world. Most of them would have been put to death due to fear that their insanity is contagious.”
She snorts, selecting a button that mutes all sound on the screen, and sets the remote down. “It’s fiction, Aries.”
“Fiction?”
