Chapter Twenty-Five

Chloe

"Come on," Shi said, tugging at my arm.

I tore my glance away from the stairs. Silas and Caleb were long gone, I knew that, but I couldn't help watching, hoping to see them reappear.

But they wouldn't. Not yet.

With a sigh, I went after Shi, who was striding across the roof with a confidence of step I envied. Rarely had I felt so outmatched and outclassed, but living among dragons was proving to be more than just humbling. It was unsettling. With my training, including years of martial arts, I was confident I could hold my own or better against any male who lacked equivalent proficiency.

But among dragons, it didn't matter. I had to depend on Silas—or Shi, in this case—to keep me safe because there wasn't much I could do for myself. They were just too strong.

"What is it?" Shi asked, already shifting into her dragon form before I could answer. "You've got a look to your face."

I stared up at the golden-scaled snout, the yellow eyes staring down at me with focused intent. "It's just Silas …" I said, unsure where to go from there.

"You care for him," Shi said, extending one golden wing out for me to climb up.

I shrugged and started the ascent. Each time I did it, I grew more confident, and in seconds, I was seated firmly at the base of her neck.

"Yeah," I answered at last as she spread both wings and prepared to take off. "I do. I'm worried about him."

"The men will be fine," she said, launching us forward with swift, graceful strokes of her wings.

"Is that a bit of sarcasm I detect?" I asked, admiring how different riding her was compared to Silas.

Where he was all power, brute-force driving his dragon forward, Shi moved with twitch-like speed. Her body was fast. Very fast. I had to hunch down behind her neck to shield myself from the wind as she struck out into the night sky at breakneck speed. It was a muscle car against a sports car. Both could go extremely fast but did so in entirely different ways.

"Maybe just a bit," Shiloh said, the chuckle reverberating down her spine. "Though not because I think they're incompetent. They'll figure out what's going on and make sure the rest of our house is alert and safe."

"Then what is it?" I asked, curious about her outlook. From the very start, Shi had been open and kind to me, welcoming in a way most dragons seemed to find impossible with a human.

The gold dragon hesitated before responding. "I come from a different part of our society," she explained. "I'm a commoner. So, my life experience up until I fell for Caleb has been quite different."

Now I was intrigued. "How so?"

"In most of dragon society, we're an equivalent, equal species. Only in the upper echelons are women treated differently than men. Except for the current sovereign," she added thoughtfully. "But otherwise, we're expected to simply support our mates. Bear children. Be loyal. Those sorts of things. We aren't to meddle in the affairs unless given jobs. Things like fighting are almost entirely the domain of men. Even if some of us are more than capable of handling our own, especially in an aerial battle."

That time, the discontent was easy to pick up on.

I sympathized with her heavily. It had taken me a long time to break into the male-dominated world of spycraft, and even with a slew of successes to my name, I was still often looked over for some assignments simply because I had breasts and a vagina. It was ridiculous.

"I understand more than you can probably believe," I muttered, some of my own irritation slipping through.

"Don't get me wrong," Shi said as we swooped along, her head constantly turning this way and that, keeping an open eye on the sky around us just in case we weren't alone. "Life among ‘the families' isn't all that bad either."

"Maybe not for you," I pointed out. "You're still a dragon at least. I'm a ‘useless human,' as many of them have said."

Shi gave a big heaving dragon snort. "That's because they're afraid of you."

My jaw dropped. "Say that one more time? How the hell are they afraid of me? I can't do anything to them."

"Two reasons," Shi said. "One is about you specifically and the other is more generically human related."

"You've got my attention," I said, thoroughly lost as to what I could possibly have going for me. "Please elaborate if you don't mind."

"You're a woman," Shi said evenly. "A human woman. Come here to mate with a dragon man. There are many who feel like they're being replaced."

"I doubt that," I said with a roll of my eye. "All the dragon women I've seen are freaking gorgeous. Your entire species is pleasing to the eye. It's unfair, really."

"Speak for yourself," Shi said. "You're stunning. I know Silas agrees with me."

I blushed at the mention of Silas. "He does?"

The dragon groaned. "Please don't tell me you're that oblivious, are you?"

"Maybe not," I admitted. "But it's still nice to hear. Though I really don't think anyone could believe I'm here to replace someone."

"If that's not what's happening, then why did the sovereign bring you here in the first place?" Shi countered.

"To better tie our species together? To help with keeping the peace? I actually have no idea," I admitted.

"It has something to do with that, I'm sure," Shi said. "But we're a society that has never taken human women for mates to the best of my knowledge. That, in and of itself, is a massive upheaval. If she wanted us to bond, she could have invited humans here. Instead, she brought women specifically as mates. Why?"

I didn't have an answer. "I don't know. But it couldn't have been that much of a stretch. Some others must have thought it sounded like a good idea, right?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, why else would Silas volunteer to take a human mate then, if he wasn't interested in the idea?"

Shi snorted, then immediately tried to cover it up.

"What?" I asked, leaning forward. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing at all."

"No," I told her. "You can't do that. Why did you snort? What's that supposed to mean? What aren't you telling me?"

For several long moments, Shi was silent, having an internal debate with herself, judging by the twitching on her face. "It's just Silas didn't exactly volunteer for it."

"He didn't?" I frowned. "Then why else would he have been there?"

"Maybe you should ask him," Shi said uncomfortably as she angled in toward the family estate. "We're here."

"Yeah," I said, my mind elsewhere.

Silas had wanted to take me for a mate … hadn't he?