Emotions were dangerous. His control only worked when he could shut everything else down—and control was the only reason he was still alive.
“I take it negotiations to convince those dragon shifters to join our side didn’t go well?” Samael asked, ignoring his jab at Angelika.
He grunted again.
A tiny, thrilled meow sounded half a second before a runt of a cat jumped on Airk, and he barely stopped himself from growling, especially when Angelika’s muffled chuckle followed. The foolish animal curled up in a ball right in the center of his chest and set to purring.
“Meira.” That was all he said.
The tiny cat—Meira and Samael had rescued her somewhere in the journey that resulted in their mating not that long ago—seemed determined to make him her friend. Much like Angelika that way.
But unlike the cat, Angelika wants a mate.
He shoved the thought down deep where it couldn’t touch him.
“Sorry.” Meira’s voice shook suspiciously as she lifted the animal off him.
Airk dropped his arm to his side and glared at the ceiling.
Clearing her throat, Angelika squatted down not in front of him but before the female he’d saved. “Who is this?”
The woman—almost a girl, really, and probably no older than nineteen—opened and closed her mouth several times, not even a squeak of sound emerging.
“A human who is showing dragon sign,” Airk answered, carefully pushing himself to sitting, gritting his teeth against the pain in his leg. “They had her trapped in their dungeon. I gathered that she refused to mate the dragon they…assigned her.”
Samael let out a rumble of anger at that. Mates were not supposed to be assigned.
“Look.” The woman he’d saved seemed to have found her voice. “I don’t know who you people are, but—”
“We’re people who won’t hurt you,” Meira assured her, crouching beside Angelika. In that position, her simple dress stretched and pulled, revealing the beginning swell of the baby growing in her womb.
“I know this must be confusing and scary,” the newly crowned Queen of the Black Clan said. “But…we’re here to help.”
The female glanced from her to Airk, who nodded. “I guess anything is better than a dungeon,” she said.
“You know you’re bleeding pretty badly, right?”
Angelika’s question was directed at him, despite the fact he still wasn’t looking at her.
He glanced over, only to collide with blue eyes so pale they were near white, like the deepest part of a glacier, and yet still filled with impossible…warmth. Warmth that was purely her. The death of her parents, her grandparents—all slaughtered at Pytheios’s hands—that alone should have taught her the cruelty of life. Instead, the woman was a creature of silver linings, imbued with the kind of faith in others that would only get her killed.
He just hoped he wasn’t there when it happened.
Just to give himself anywhere else to look, he peeled back the leg of his black pants. They’d suggested he wear a suit to make him appear more official. He’d gone a different way, choosing combat pants with pockets for weapons, food, and other provisions, and a snug-fitting long-sleeved black shirt in a modern material that was soft against his skin.
He grimaced at the deep gash already starting to close up. That fast, he made a decision never to walk into another dragon-shifter community unless he was armed to the teeth and there to kill.
No more diplomatic missions. This was his last failed attempt. Time for a new strategy.
Suddenly Angelika was kneeling beside him, soft hands pressing at the flesh around the wound. Airk gritted his teeth as his entire body responded with a rush of lust that, if he wasn’t already on the ground, would have taken his knees out from under him.
He always reacted like this to her, and that was damn dangerous. Being around her was both heaven and hell.
Meira winced. “That’s a lot of blood.”
“I’ll take him to the infirmary.” Angelika stood and held out a hand to help Airk up. “Let’s go, tough guy.”
He scowled. She was the only person, other than the damn cat, brave enough to get this close. After all, everyone knew his dragon was feral. He could snap at any second.
So damn tempting to reach for her hand. Or her waist. Or—
No. Physical contact would be akin to setting off a spark in the middle of a forest of dead trees. He avoided touching her. Always. Ever since the first night she’d spoken to him. He’d gone so rock hard from her voice alone, her scent, that as soon as he’d made it to his room he’d had to flog his cock to keep his dragon contained. Three times. All to images of Angelika—her mouth on him, hands on him, his dick buried inside her.
Airk levered to his feet, ignoring the frustrated snort of his dragon, careful to keep his weight off his injured leg. “Describe to me the way.”
“These days we say, ‘Show me the way.’ And I’m going with you whether you like it or not.”
His nostrils flared. How did she not get offended? Wasn’t it obvious that he was trying to keep her at a distance? And why did his dragon like her stubbornness so much? If they weren’t careful, the creature would get out and kill her.
When he didn’t speak, she raised her eyebrows, and that was when he caught it.
Disappointment shadowed her eyes.
His irritation took on a whole new direction—at himself.
“Follow me,” she said and didn’t wait for him, leaving the room.
Gritting his teeth, he trailed after her.
Avoiding her had become an exercise in futility. Especially that gentle smile that perpetually hovered about her lips, ready to shine into the darkest corners of a heart. He’d only once been able to rid her of that smile and replace it with an emotion he didn’t want to identify since he’d known her.
The day he’d said no to something he wanted so much he’d ached every day since.
Chapter Two
It took a lot to get Angelika angry, but she would cheerfully throttle the dragon shifters in this mountain. Every single one of them.
Starting with the one walking behind her, but now, also everyone else. Each person she and Airk happened across on the way to the infirmary practically glued themselves to the walls of the hollowed-out tunnels carved throughout Mount Ararat. Not to scoot their cowardly ways around her. She was a curiosity.
Now that her secret was out and everyone knew she was a phoenix and not a wolf shifter, they all watched her with a different light in their eyes. She didn’t have the company of the wolf pack to hide behind anymore—they’d gone to seek safety among the Federation of Packs. Jedd hadn’t even said goodbye, still angry and hurt that she hadn’t accepted his mating proposal not long before they left. That still made her heart pinch when she thought about it.