my mother. It hadn’t saved her life, but it might save mine.
As Seth’s eyes landed on me a huge gentle smile pulled at his lips. My God, his acting skills were impeccable. If I wasn’t onto his plan for my demise, I’d think he was genuinely happy to see me. Note to self…have the words gullible idiot tattooed to my forehead. Never again would I trust a male Dragon. They were all bad.
Screw Nicolai, I didn’t have the luxury of his entrance as a distraction to aid in my escape. Getting past Rambo presented a challenge, but as long as he wasn’t behind me I could take him if I had to.
The midnight oil was burning and I only had seconds before Seth reached me. No time like the present to make the party more exciting.
“Move it, you uncouth, jackass guard pig,” I hissed as I shoved hard at the enormous sexy Dragon and tried to get away.
The expression of shock on his face would have made me laugh if I didn’t have to run like hell. Clearly no one had ever spoken to him as I’d just done. Asshole Dragons like him needed to be taken down a peg or two. It would be very satisfying to continue but I had death coming toward me at a rapid rate and no time to have fun.
Wait. What was happening?
The cheering had stopped abruptly and I could feel every eye in the room glued to me. The silence was deafening. This was not part of my escape plan. This was a clusterfuck. Who exactly had I just insulted?
A sick feeling rolled through my gut. I was pretty sure Rambo wasn’t just a guard.
A stupidly sexy, evil smile lit his face and his attention was focused solely on me. For the briefest moment I wished that his smile was real and that he was truly happy to see me in the way a lover would be. His lust was unmistakable. Unfortunately mine was as well. Dragons had a distinct scent when aroused—a clean scent that could be best described as the ocean after a storm. Part of me wanted to run him over and get the hell out of Dodge and the other part wanted to run to him and wrap his strong arms around me.
However, there was my life to think about.
“Dima, my dear, I see you’ve met Nicolai,” Seth said warmly as he took in the standoff in the entryway with interest.
“ This is Dima?” Nicolai demanded as the smile left his face and his eyes narrowed to slits.
“Yes,” Seth said as he stepped between me and his leader. “We spoke about this. You knew I was bringing her.”
“The guard dog is Nicolai?” I asked with unhappy shock.
“Well, I suppose you could call him that,” Seth said as he tried unsuccessfully to hide his grin.
“Seth is who you were meeting here?” Nicolai snapped as he pushed Seth aside and pinned me against the wall. “Our Seer is your mate ?” he sneered in a whisper.
“Get off of me,” I growled as I fought my death-wish of a need to press closer to him.
“Nicolai,” Elaina admonished as she grabbed the deadly Dragon leader by the ear and pulled him back. “That is no way to treat a guest of your brother.”
Nicolai and Seth were brothers?
“Mother,” Nicolai snapped. “Leave this to me. There is much you don’t understandhere.”
Oh. Hell. No. Elaina was their mother? I’d told her that her son was an uncouth jackass, guard pig. Was the sky going to fall next?
“I understand that your behavior is appalling,” she hissed as she once again yanked him by the ear, throwing him off balance. “This will stop now.”
“I was just leaving,” I said stiffly and edged closer to the door.
All of the Dragons in the room were riveted to the scene. Tendrils of smoky aggression wafted around the room menacingly. My chances of survival were getting slimmer by the second.
“You’re not going anywhere, Princess ,” Nicolai growled as his took my arm in a vise-like grip.
The hisses started low but gained volume as the crowd correctly pieced my identity
Iris Blobel
Annie Jones
Grace McCabe
Vicki Lewis Thompson
Tom Wolfe
Gregor Von Rezzori
Alex Gilly
C. P. Snow
Michael Farris Smith
Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Matt Stawicki