Page 50 of Driven By Dragonblood
“You would have accepted your alpha regardless of his lineage, wouldn’t you, Grandpapa?” I asked, my head tilted to the side while peering into eyes framed by thick lashes like my own. I already knew the answer, but wanted to hear him confess the truth.
“Eventually, yes.”
The happiness radiating from him returned the ache to my chest.
A whisper of…something other—not from the four of us met my ears.
I glanced around the room, my brow furrowed. “What is…”
New life.
I jerked my head toward Ashley, gaze settling on her lower abdomen where her hand rested. Swallowing hard, I fought to find my voice. “Are you…”
“Yes,” she murmured as our dragons silently conversed the truth. “As of yesterday, actually.” Her face flushed, and Vanni kissed her temple, tucking her against his side. Grandpapa settled his hand atop hers.
“It’s a boy,” I claimed as the whisper of dragonblood reached out to me from her womb.
“Told you!” Ashley declared with light laughter but quickly sobered. “Tell us why you’re here, Primrose, and how we might help you.”
I started at the beginning, sharing what I had encountered after leaving them months earlier, keeping the sexual encounters between me and my mates to myself. All three frowned upon learning my alpha didn’t want me—hadoutright denied me and ordered me to stay away from his presence.
“Strip down, kneel at his feet, and offer the man a flogger,” Vanni said, glancing over my simple frock.
Grandpapa leaned forward and, reaching around Ashley, backhanded his alpha’s chest.
One of Vanni’s eyebrows shot up as he glanced at my grandfather. “You’ll pay for that.”
“Good.” Grandpapa’s mutter curved my lips, but my mind went straight to seeing Jaxon tied up and taken by Patrick exactly as he’d painted the picture in my mind earlier while eating ice cream.
I shifted on my chair and glanced at Ashley.
She chewed on her lower lip, her gaze still on my face as though unaffected by the men on either side of her, the threat of violence, and the promise of sex. “Perhaps he just needs a little while to process everything you’ve told him. If I were you, I would continue to bump into him here and there, keep you fresh on his mind. A little flirting goes a long way—and if given the opportunity after he’s a bit more familiar with you, perhaps trying to seduce himmightwork.”
Vanni sat back, arms crossed. “If the man is a true dominant, one with a dragonblood’s sex drive, I doubt he’ll be able to resist. Keeping my hands to myself with Ashley was hard as fuck—pun intended—and the second she lifted her limit on physical touch, I dove in, half-crazed with lust.”
“And that’s when I slammed a fist into your face,” Grandpapa growled the words.
Vanni’s grin reminded me of Jaxon’s. “There’s been a hell of a lot ofslammingever since.”
I bit back my smile as Vanni laughed, and Ashley’s face turned red again. I’d seen evidence of Vanni’s sex drive—and Ashley’s response to him.
Because I hadn’t knocked. At least they had finished this time before I barged in on them.
“In all seriousness,” Grandpapa said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, “what about Jaxon?”
“What about him?” I asked.
“You abandoned him without explanation, and you’ve come far enough away he’ll have lost all connection to you. I can’t begin to imagine what he must be thinking right now, how he must be feeling.”
“You left us once upon a time, too,beta,” Vanni stated, rubbing Ashley’s shoulder as she leaned against his side. “It felt as though a part of me had been ripped away.”
“Like a missing limb,” Ashley murmured, the memory of hurt echoing through her inner dragon to mine.
Did Jaxon experience the same?
I stilled, barely breathing as I contemplated the results of actions I’d taken while not considering how my taking off like that would affect him.
“I learned the hard way that running—flying away—isn’t the correct choice,” Grandpapa said, his pained gaze flitting toward me once more, and his sense of continued guilt for doing so swept through my mind. “Staying and making things right, resolving issues, is what I should have done. I—I would have known your mother if I had. You wouldn’t have been alone for all those years.”
