Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sarah

"L ydia?" I asked, trying to stay relaxed and not give anything away.

It was a coincidence. Just a coincidence of names, that's all. It had to be. A popular dragon name.

"His great love," Yolandi said with a smile of remembrance. "I still remember the day he came home. Marched right through the front door to the dinner table and declared to the whole family she was his mate. Quite the spectacle."

"I can only imagine. Levi does have a way of making a scene." I worked to quell my stomach. The churning grew worse as the storm built inside me.

"Now, of course, he'd been fawning over her for weeks, months even. This was no surprise to any of us, we all saw it coming from a mile away, truth be told. Of course, we had to act all surprised as if it wasn't the most logical thing ever."

Cocking my head, I asked her why that was. After all, if it were so logical, then why hadn't they worked out?

"They were just perfect for one another," Yolandi said with a warm smile. "She was tall, and they fit well together, you understand? Similar desires in life as well. And the way she made him happy! That's what any mother wants to see, you understand."

My eyes flicked over to Jakub. My son and his father were currently being surrounded by the men of the family. They all were displaying various shades of dragon scales rippling up and down their arms, while Jakub darted from person to person to examine. Probably asking them if he was going to have their color of scales or not.

"I do understand," I said with a certain gravitas I would never have dreamed possible until I had a child of my own.

"That I believe," Yolandi agreed, reaching out to pat my knee. "Only those of us who have become parents truly know the depths of happiness we wish for our offspring."

"Agreed."

"That, however, is not the way it played out, unfortunately."

I wondered if Yolandi understood the insult she gave me with that statement. Judging by the far-off look in her eyes, a much darker shade of brown than her sons, I doubted it. She was lost in her own memories instead.

"So, what did happen?"

"She chose his best friend instead."

"Malakai."

Yolandi nodded. "Have you met them?"

"Yes."

Not only had I met them, but I'd seen the way Levi had acted around them. Around her. The unnatural stiffness, the eyes that looked anywhere but at her. The way she said his name and pierced that bubble of personal space ever so subtly.

I hadn't known the history between them. But now I did. Why did Levi let her act that way around him? Was he even aware she did it?

Or does he like it?

"Poor Levi, he was hit really hard by her choice," Yolandi went on, interrupting my train of thought.

"It was his best friend. I would be hurt, too. Betrayed, perhaps."

"A very human thing."

I arched my eyebrows. There was no insult in her voice, but a simple explanation. "I don't follow."

"Humans get together based on emotions. Feelings. Desires of the genitals."

I fought back a blush. Did she know about Levi's and my initial reason for getting together? Did dragon families talk about that sort of thing? I hoped not. Just thinking about Levi telling his mother what he'd done to me was unsettling. If he'd actually done so …

"Dragons don't?" I asked, thinking back to how Levi had called me his mate. It was his reason for bringing me to the island and keeping me there.

"Of course not. Has Levi not explained this to you?"

I sort of shrugged uncomfortably. "Not really?"

"My dear, dragons mate . For life."

"We get married," I said somewhat defensively.

She snorted. "Divorce is a thing. Marriage is not based on something more than hormones, pheromones, and general compatibility of personalities."

"And mating is?"

" Yes . Mating is about finding the literal other piece of yourself. The one your dragon recognizes and can't live without. Our dragons are a part of us and us them, but we are distinctly two pieces in the same body in a way. The beast is locked within. I feel her. She calls to me, talks to me in her own way. Not in words, but in emotions, desires. She's a part of me that is not me. A symbiosis, in a way. So, when my dragon found Darhell, well, she knew that within him was the other half of herself."

"So, it's love at first sight?" I asked, confused.

Yolandi threw her head back with laughter. "Oh, goodness, my child, absolutely not . I hated him at first. He was all sorts of not right for me."

"What changed?"

"Everything. Nothing." She shrugged. "Sometimes you dislike someone because they're so right for you, it's boring. Too easy. You don't want to like them because everything tells you that you should . Then you find yourself thinking about them here and there. A little more. A little more. Next thing you know, you're thinking about how you dislike them so often, you find yourself wanting to see them. You say it's ‘to tell them how much you dislike them. But then they make a joke, and you laugh. They smile, and you're smiling back. Next thing you know, you have children together, and it's been forty years."

The love she felt for her mate poured into her words, mimicked by the slow upward pull of her mouth as she smiled, the memories of a lifetime shining through bright and happy.

"What does all this have to do with Levi not feeling betrayed, though?" I asked, throwing back to the original question.

"Lydia didn't reject Levi. She didn't choose Malakai instead of him. There was no debate, no choice. If they were mates, then that's just it. They must be mated. She didn't spurn my son because she wanted to be cruel or because she didn't like him. She found her mate. There's no room for betrayal in such an action."

I thought it through, seeing her logic. "Perhaps not. But it's still understandable for him to be upset, no? After all, the dragon is only part of him. The other part has feelings, emotions, things that can be hurt."

"Oh, of course. And he was hurt. Moped around the house for ages without a purpose. It's good to see him this happy again, even if I never expected it to be because of a human." Yolandi reached over to pat my arm reassuringly. "I mean no offense from that. Until the ceasefire was announced, there were no human women here, and I still cannot understand how one can be mated to a human when they have no dragon to recognize the bonding."

"Yeah, me neither," I said, her words sinking home.

Levi had said I was his mate. Stated it with conviction. Yet, if a mating bond required two halves of a dragon soul, as Yolandi had explained, then how was it possible for him to choose me, a human, to be the other half of him?

Or was it all based on emotions and feelings? A desire to couple up simply because I had his child? Was that it?

Then, of course, there was Lydia. Whatever "choice" she might have made, her actions toward Levi could only be construed as driving the point home.

Assuming her choice had been made.

I didn't like that train of thought. After all, if Levi was over her, then why did he continue to allow her to act the way she did? Surely, he wasn't blind to it. Could it be there was a lingering seed of desire for her? After all, she was a dragon, and I wasn't. How was I supposed to compete with that?

And more to the point, did I even want to try ? Just how much did I care about whatever was going on between us?

It appeared I had some thinking to do …