15. Adrian

FIFTEEN

"Here you are, sir," Irons said, a deep fog coating the forests around the mansion as Adrian stepped out. "Take care not to stain your suit again. I'm having the lab analyze your suit from three months ago."

Adrian shook his head.

"That was one time, Irons. And I'm just coming to pick up my car, anyway."

"If you say so, sir."

Irons nodded, driving off.

Adrian recognized his Lexus sitting where he had left it. The inconvenience of pursuing your fated mate as a dragon and taking flight on sprawling crimson wings was that you often left your vehicle behind.

A whirlwind of meetings had left him fatigued. He might have superhuman strength and incredible hearing, but he was still very prone to boredom.

"Okay," he said, willing himself forward. But as he looked at his car, then back at the mansion, he felt a very familiar pull.

Then it occurred to him that he didn't have his car keys. He had left them at the party with the valets.

As he made his way forward over the well-tended, vivid garden and back up the stone path to the front entrance, he found the front door open and unlocked. Being so far removed from civilization, Callum never did bother to lock up.

"Yep. That's definitely Chloe," he said to himself as he took another whiff of the air.

He pushed the door open, striding inside. As he did, he was greeted by a trio of shifters, who were half-dressed and walking shamefully forward. They appeared to be younger, appearing less than a century old in twenty-year-old or so human forms.

"First time?" he asked as they pushed forward out the door beside him.

One of the women simply nodded, and he smiled.

"Try not to let it get you down too much. I know it's weird at first."

"Thanks," a man among them said, holding a mask against his face despite one of the straps having broken.

They rushed out of the building before he could say anything else. As the months went by, more and more people were joining the masquerades, receiving invites from friends of friends of friends.

He was now certain Chloe was here somewhere. These weren't the lingering trails of her he was smelling but her firsthand aroma.

What the hell would she be here for?he asked himself.

Perhaps before he went after his car keys, he should investigate.

He half expected, as he pushed open the library door, to find out his senses had lied to him or even that he was merely dreaming. It made little sense why she'd be out here at Callum's mansion, completely unprompted.

But with the dim overhead light of the chandelier turned on, the faint embers glowing in the fireplace from the night below, he saw a familiar sight instead.

"What are you doing here?" he asked simply, taking several strides forward.

It wasn't meant as an accusation. But the bluntness of the statement surprised him, his suspicion and curiosity overwhelming his normal tact.

She smiled. "Lovely to see you too," she said, placing a large golden book on the side table next to the couch.

This book contained no curled figure of a dragon on its cover and looked far too old to be a romance novel.

He thought he saw the title of the book on its spine and even knew that he had read it several times. But for some faint reason, he hoped he was wrong.

"What are you reading?" he asked, now approaching the sofa in front of the dying fireplace.

"I think you know."

He sized her up, looking from the book back to her. She held a remarkable poker face.

But behind the indifferent, cold expression, he could see something that her face was trying to mask.

"Did I do something to upset you?" Adrian asked.

She chuckled, but he could suddenly hear hints of bitterness in her laughter.

She rose from the couch, picked up the book, and walked toward him. Then she pushed the book into his chest. Reflexively, he grabbed it, looking down at the blank golden cover.

"It's about you, isn't it?" she asked. "You're this generation's king. Have been for hundreds of years."

Adrian cocked an eyebrow. "How long have you been here, exactly?"

Chloe shook her head in frustration. "Can you please just answer the question?"

It wasn't a big secret. He had never intended to conceal anything from her.

"Yeah, I am," he said matter-of-factly. "But I don't really see why that's relevant or why you're upset."

"I'm not upset," Chloe said flatly before walking over to one of the tall bookshelves and leaning against the wood and metal.

Adrian could see that she was deep in thought.

"Sure you're not."

Adrian joined her, looking deep into her eyes as she looked down at the red carpet floor. He would stay beside her as long as he needed to.

Chloe backed away. "I just wish you would have told me," she said.

He laughed. "And when exactly would it have come up?"

She looked back at the fireplace and the red cinders and black ash that now filled it.

"The perfect opportunity would have been when you introduced yourself. It wouldn't have taken much. Just say, ‘By the way, I'm Adrian Dracos. King of all dragons.'"

"Well, I'm not the king of every single dragon," Adrian replied. "There are other factions, some outliers …"

She turned to him and folded her arms, clearly nonplussed.

He knew the truth of the matter. As a human having stumbled into the shifter life with no parachute, she couldn't have handled the truth.

"But you're right," he said in spite of his quiet reservations. "I should have told you."

"Yeah," she said, finally easing her stance and looking at him. "You should have." Despite calming somewhat, she still seemed very tense, pacing up and down the library as she talked to him.

"You can see why it's kind of a big deal, though," she insisted. "I mean, you're practically royalty."

He could have easily admitted he didn't see a problem and that he had never seen himself as any different from her. Instead, he let her sort out her thoughts.

"I've been reading some stuff, too," she continued.

"Yeah, I can tell. You seemed really happy when I left."

She stared at him for a moment, then took a deep breath. "It's not that common for shifters and humans to form relationships, is it?"

"You know, you wouldn't think so." He chuckled.

Though many shifters had embraced new ways of thinking, there were traditional holdouts and even extremists who believed in keeping bloodlines pure. Adrian shuddered at the thought.

"Is this a bad idea?" she asked.

He moved closer toward her, relieved that she didn't pull away. He wrapped his arms around her and held her.

"No," he said simply. "It isn't."

He could feel the rhythm of her heart as he pressed against her. Her scent was intoxicating. It took every ounce of control within him not to revert to his animal instincts.

"I don't know how you can be so calm about this," she said. "What's going to happen when people find out that you, a member of dragon royalty, bonded with a human? Isn't that going to cause real problems?"

He didn't want to think about it.

"I'd tell them what I've always told them. I'd tell them that they need to trust the bond regardless of who it chooses."

She pulled away from him briefly, looking up into his eyes. He could see faint hints of tears dampening her cheek, and he moved his finger to her face, rubbing away the moisture.

"It's really that easy?"

It wasn't that easy.

He nodded.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" he asked, trying to steer the subject away from a conclusion she might have already formed. "It sounds like you've been reading a lot."

"I've been here a few hours," she replied. "There's a lot of history in this library."

"Indeed there is," he agreed, not sure where this was going.

She hesitated. "Did you know that wars have been fought over your throne?"

He kept silent, fearing anything he said now would frighten her further, but the memory of seeing Gayle the other day flashed through his mind.

"Yeah," she said. "Apparently, a few of your ancestors had the same idea, and it caused an all-out war." He could see her probing, trying to gain insight into his thoughts.

She stared him down, looking uneasy. "You're not the slightest bit worried that might repeat itself? That I could be responsible for the deaths of your friends and family down the line?"

Again, he shook his head.

"Everybody I've known so far … everybody who matters … is perfectly fine with you, Chloe," he said honestly. "And if they're not, fuck ‘em."

"Fuck ‘em," she repeated quietly, mulling over the words.

She seemed dissatisfied with his answer.

"You could have marked me last night," she said. "Would have made me just like you. But you didn't, did you?"

"I didn't think it would have been right without asking your permission."

She strolled away from him, picking up an innocuous book on dead languages. She blew on its spine, letting dust fly off the leather cover.

"Say," she said thoughtfully. "You're a king, aren't you?"

"That is what we've established, yes." He would take all the time she needed.

"Doesn't that mean you have a castle?" she asked.

He smirked, not expecting the conversation to go in that direction but relieved to change the subject.

"In fact, I do."