Page 17 of Hunter

Maybe if Zoey had consumed some magicmushroomsby mistake—which she never had—she could accept that explanation. But she hadn’t eaten anything since leaving London early this morning.

She licked her lips. “What else?”

Hunter’s expression appeared to be one of relief that so far she hadn’t fainted again. “So, my two brothers and I were born in the ninth century from the same clutch?—”

“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want me to take you seriously,” she interrupted scornfully.

He frowned. “Better than the truth?”

“Being born in the ninth century would make you twelve hundred years old.” Anyone looking at this man would see that he was only aged in his early to midthirties and was physically in his prime.

“We’re all twelve hundred and ten,” he corrected.

And Zoey had thought he was probably too old for her to be attracted to when she had thought he was only thirty-two or -three!

“But we ceased visibly aging in our early thirties,” Hunter added.

“You said you and your brothers came from ‘the same clutch’?” Zoey said slowly. “Does that mean the three of you were hatched out of anegg?”

He nodded. “Separate dragon eggs that hatched at the same time, yes.”

“Okay.” Zoey nodded woodenly, already totally overwhelmed by the improbability of what he was telling her. “Rather than me picking up on every comment you make, when I don’t understand or don’t believe you, maybe you should just say what you want to say and we can discuss it afterward.”

She regretted that suggestion almost as soon as she’d made it when Hunter instantly launched into telling her how he and his brothers were all snow dragon shifters, dragons that could shift into men rather than men that shifted into dragons. That the three of them had lived in the place of their birth, in a house atthe bottom of a mountain in the Scottish Highlands, for all the centuries they had been alive.

He explained that their parents, also dragon shifters, were now dead, sadly, but the three brothers remained living together. He explained they would continue to do so, for protection as well as companionship, even after they had met their one true mate. He also, for some reason, hastened to assure her that a dragon shifter and his true mate would have plenty of time for being alone together too.

“We had almost given up on any of us ever meeting our one true mate, but Lachlan recently met his and now I’ve met mine too,” Hunter concluded with satisfaction.

“Your one true mate?” Zoey repeated skeptically.

“The one woman destined to be ours and for us to be completely hers.”

“Studies have shown that there isn’t only one woman or man for each of us, that there are always several who?—”

“We aren’t human, Zoey, and for us, there is only one true mate,” Hunter insisted.

“And Lachlan recently met his?”

“Yes.”

She eyed him warily. “Can you possibly be talking about Belle Brown?”

“I am.”

“Does she know she’s Lachlan’s true mate?”

“Oh yes,” he assured with a smile.

“And…is she okay with that?”

“Very much so.”

Zoey frowned at him. “Belle has no living family and grew up in an orphanage. It isn’t kind of the three of you to have drawn her into your delusion.”

“It isn’t a delusion?—”

“Of course it is,” Zoey snapped as she rose abruptly to her feet. “I’ve heard what you have to say, Hunter, and I think it’s bloody cruel of all of you if Lachlan has somehow convinced Belle the three of you are men who can shift into dragons and she’s the mate he’s been waiting twelve hundred years to meet.” She glared at him, although even on his knees, he was still the same height as her.

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