Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Wait, he had more questions. “Were they ridiculed by the other dragons over this?”
“Uh, well, ridiculed is kinda a strong word for it.” Gregori chafed the back of his neck, grimacing. “More like, no one could understand why they were bothering to be together? It doesn’t make sense, no matter how you look at it.”
Shit. That was what he was afraid of. He handed the glass over again. “That was a ‘more booze’ answer.”
“Sorry. But without you in the mix, them as a couple did not make sense to us dragons. We let it go because with the situation being like it was, it’s not like we had a lot of hope we’d ever find our mates, y’know? So no one tried to stop them or anything. Still, we’ve always been one mage per one dragon, so it looked weird to us.”
“Ugh, so you’re telling me they’ve spent all this time getting weird looks from people. And having me appear put a finger right on a sore spot?”
“Pretty much.”
Amaru held his glass out again.
“Another ‘more booze’ answer, huh?” Gregori generously filled it again. “The good news is, you know they love each other and you don’t have to chase them both.”
“I thought the good news was they’re cute enough I won’t strangle them for this.”
“Ah. That too.”
“Okay, yeah, apparently it’s up to me to fix this. Story of my life, right there. I’m always fixing something. So what were the magic words again? ‘Stop being stupid, you’re both my mates, get over here for nookie’?”
“As an incantation, that’s not a bad one.”
Amaru drank the rest of the glass and felt the sweet burn of alcohol down his throat. “At least one thing has gone well today. I have found vodka.”
“You’re welcome. With those two, you’re going to need it.” Gregori tilted his head sideways to look at the sky some more. “Those two are flying around the lake. Are they looking for something?”
“A brain cell,” Amaru muttered, reaching out to snag the bottle. He’d empty it at this rate.
Gregori snorted a laugh. “I’m never going to let this die.”
“Even if you do, I’ll bring it back.”
Leaning an elbow on the table, Gregori looked intrigued. “So what are you going to do next?”
“You mean after those two idiots finally stop and land?”
“Yup.”
Amaru eyed him, not trusting that expression. He still looked impish. “We’re free entertainment for you right now, aren’t we?”
“Of course! And I need to know ahead of time when to have beer and popcorn at hand.”
Well, he had helped Amaru out. Plus the vodka. Eh, what the hell. “Well, when they finally do get their asses down here, I’m going to make it more obvious that I want both of them. Maybe then they’ll stop panicking and actually pay attention.”
“If it helps any, Vasily does know you’re both his mates.”
“That…actually does help, thank you. He told you that?”
“He did. As for Luka…my advice? Go slow, use small words.” Gregori took the bottle back to pour himself a glass with the rest of it. “They’re both smart, but when you get their dicks involved, they can be really stupid.”
“Trust me,” Amaru drawled, a dark eye on the sky. “That I’ve figured out.”
Now, how did he fix this?
Luka had no idea where he was.
Well, he was on a rooftop, right along the ocean shore, but other than that he had no idea. Vasily had been chasing him hard and Luka had flown blindly to get away from him. He’d hated doing it, but he also had been incapable of facing the man in that moment. He had run before making any conscious decision to do so.
And now here he sat, on the roof of the building, with no idea what to do from here. He had not felt this lost since the Dragon War, when he’d had to face the fact that he had lost most of his family and clan. The pain was just as bright, just as poignant now with the idea of losing Vasily.
Fuck, he really would not be able to stay in his clan. He might have to go live with the fire dragons after all. Losing his home and clan on top of everything else felt horrifying—like he was teetering on the edge of an abyss—but the idea of staying and watching Vasily and Amaru together made him so ill he almost lost the contents of his stomach right there.
If there was a good decision to make here, a way to mitigate the damage, Luka did not see it.
At this point, throwing himself into the ocean looked like a viable idea.
There was a flap of wings overhead. Startled, he craned his neck up and around, his first panicked thought being that Vasily had found him after all. But one glance into the sky assured him it was not Vasily. The form was more slender, the scales a soft hue of gray.