GWEN

Cass rubs her bruised throat, casting hurt looks in my direction as Vaan nuzzles at my neck, rumbling his pleasure.

"I'm sorry," I tell her for the tenth time as Becka pats down Mara for weapons. "He's possessive."

"I thought when you guys mated it was supposed to make everything better. Isn't that what Amy said?" She shakes her head at me. "Andrea said you left to fix him, but he's just as crazy as before."

"I'm not fixing anyone." It irks me that they think he's a dangerous mess. Wild, yes. Different in his thinking than we are, sure. But Vaan doesn't need to be fixed. He needs to be loved for who he is. "He's not broken."

"He just tried to kill me!" Cass touches her throat again, astonished. "How can you possibly defend that?"

Vaan nips at my jaw, his hand sliding along my back. I feel a shiver of excitement at his touch, which is really, really awkward considering everyone's staring at us. So not an appropriate moment, but my body doesn't care, and my dragon doesn't seem to, either. "He only acted out when you touched me. He's very…uh, protective of me." I don't know where to put my hands, so I lightly place them on his shoulders and try to peer at the others from around him. "He won't hurt anyone. Mara's been traveling with us for days. Ask her."

"Yeah, he only tried to eat me twice," Mara adds dryly. At my shocked look, she adds, "Kidding. Bad joke."

I like that she's coming out of her shell, but does she have to do it right now?

When Cass and Becka continue to watch us warily, I give Mara a look and she speaks up again. "Seriously, I've been around him for days and he's not dangerous. He's in love with her. Just no one bug her and he'll be fine." She shrugs her backpack's weight on her shoulders and looks at Cass. "I'm not familiar with this fort, but Gwen tells me we'll be safe here."

"You will," Cass says, rubbing her throat again. "You can trust her."

"Well, Gwen also told me that he won't hurt anyone." And she gives Cass an innocent smile. “I imagine we should trust her on that, too.”

That clever minx. I'm starting to think I underestimated Mara.

"We shouldn't be standing at the gate anyhow," I add, sliding out of Vaan's grip. I catch his hand as I pull away and tug him behind me, both to hide his nakedness (and erection) and to touch him in order to keep him grounded. "Not when there's a fire."

"The fire's mostly out," Cass says, moving to the gate and removing the padlock and chain. "Just a few outbuildings smoking and a couple of plants."

"Plants?" I echo, depressed at that. "Not the corn, I hope?"

"Sunflowers," Cass says.

It hits me in the gut. Sunflower seeds are just about the only thing that keeps my birds fed. "Oh."

She gives me a sympathetic look and rolls the gate back. "You should talk to Andrea, hon. She can catch you up with what's going on."

"Was anyone hurt?" I ask as she lets us in. "Any wounded? My sister?"

"Everyone's okay," Cass reassures me. "We're managing."

But managing isn't thriving, and I feel responsible once more. I'm the mayor. It's my duty to protect everyone and I can't if I'm not here.

I find Andrea squatting over the charred remains of my sunflowers, chatting in a low voice with a man in a baseball cap, both of them with their backs turned to us. "Andi?"

Andrea jumps to her feet in surprise, her face bright red as she straightens. The person next to her straightens, too, and I'm a little surprised to see it's Liam. I knew he was back in the fort, but to see him here with Andrea is startling, because I didn’t think they were close. The way they crouch together, though, their shoulders are practically touching, and their posture is that of something more than friends, something less than lovers.

Seeing Liam here, I can't help but compare him to Vaan. My dragon's lean and long where Liam seems to be all thick muscle. I think Vaan's older and his hair is shorter, his color deeper. Vaan's also completely naked to Liam's white T-shirt, baseball cap and jeans. When I see Liam like this, I don't feel so silly for thinking he was human. He always wore long, concealing clothes around us and covered his head. Today, the arm spikes are out, but I would still have to look twice to think he's something other than a cocky, handsome man. It's in the way he carries himself—he looks human. He doesn't have that twitchy feralness, the lurking ferocity that Vaan does.

Andrea steps forward, smoothing her fat blonde braid. "You're back," she exclaims.

"I could say the same for Liam," I say tartly, and then refocus. "Daniela? Is she okay? Is everyone okay?"

"Dee's fine," Andrea says, sliding over a bit closer to Liam. "She's resting in our room. And no one was hurt, I promise. We were just caught a little off-guard."

"How can you be caught off-guard if Liam's here? Aren't you a dragon?" I shake my head at him, not understanding. I'm trying to keep the accusing tone out of my voice, but it's difficult. "Can't you hear each other?"

"Drakoni," Liam corrects with a fanged smile. "And it's…complicated to explain."

"Complicated or not, I still think we deserve answers." I look over at Vaan to see how my dragon-man is reacting to the sight of the other. His gaze is locked on Liam, his brow furrowed as if he can't figure him out. I wish I knew what he was thinking. I would if we had the mental bond, but that's another problem.

"He can't hear me," Liam says, as if reading my mind.

I look over at him, frowning.

Liam taps on his pale gold brow. "Here. You're wondering why he can't sense me. My smell's covered in human clothing and masked by the scent of dozens of you. He can smell me now that I'm in front of him, but I've taken pains to change my scent over time. I eat what you eat so I smell like you, I use your toothpaste and your soaps so I can blend."

I just stare at him, then give a slow shake of my head. This doesn't add up. "But…you're not like him."

"Crazy?" Liam gives me another boyish smile and Andrea fusses with the tip of her braid, averting her eyes. "I know. It was a choice I made. I came through the Rift a prisoner of war, forced by Salorian overlords to remain in this form. I don't think they realized they were doing me a favor because when we arrived, everyone went mad except for me." He glances over at Andrea. "I realized it had something to do with the psychic link our people have with each other and closed myself off from it entirely. As long as I refrain from anything that would bring out the drakoni side in myself, I can survive like this."

"So you're not overtaken by the mating lust that’s making the others crazy?"

Andrea coughs and turns away. "Did I mention we lost all the sunflowers, Gwen? I don't know what you're going to want to do with your birds. I've been feeding them while you've been gone, but you're low on seed."

Why are we talking about my birds right now? It seems a bizarre conversation change, and I glance over at Liam. He's watching Andrea closely, and Vaan steps forward, nostrils flaring as he breathes in Liam's scent, inches away from the other man's face. Liam turns back to him and for a moment, they gaze at each other.

"I miss it," Liam says after a moment, his gaze on Vaan. "You don't know how isolating it is to be alone after you've always been connected to others of your kind. It'd be smarter for me to stay out of the forts entirely, but I need company of some kind. People to speak to. No male can do this alone."

For a moment, I swear envy crosses his face as he watches Vaan. Then, he glances over at Andrea again and moves to her side.

"We were caught off-guard," Andrea says. "That's why the plants weren't in when we were attacked. It was off schedule, and no dragon's been spotted in the area for forever, and then boom, he was right on top of us. Big male." She glances over her shoulder at me. "I thought it was you guys at first."

Vaan moves toward Liam's side and plucks the baseball cap off of his head, revealing Liam's horns and short hair. My dragon-man sniffs the cap and then tries to put it on his own head. It looks ridiculous with him standing there, buck naked except for a hat.

Ridiculous and yet it somehow makes my heart flutter. I move forward and retrieve the cap, handing it back to Liam.

"Who are you?" Andi says, her attention behind me.

"Mara. Don't mind me." The filthy woman moves past us and sits down on an overturned bucket. She arranges her muddy skirts around her as if she’s at a garden party. "Just absorbing everything."

Andrea shoots me a curious look.

"The fort was attacked by a dragon?" I prompt. We can talk about Mara later in private, when things have settled down, because I know I'm going to have questions about Liam for her, too. It seems we both have a lot to catch up on.

"Yes. So we didn't panic at first. Like I said, we thought it was you." She shrugs and plucks at one long, burned stalk, tossing it aside. "He swooped in and flamed the sunflowers, though, and we went onto red alert. Everyone started pulling in the plants and locking down the doors. You'd be proud at how quickly we responded."

"If all we lost are the sunflowers, you guys did amazing," I admit.

"That's the weird thing." She looks over at me. "We should have lost more, but he did one round and then just up and left."

"Up and left?"

"Yeah. Like he heard something. Stopped mid-flame, wheeled around, and just flew west. It was weird as shit. Liam thinks someone was talking to him up here." She taps her forehead and then moves another burned stalk aside.

"Do you think it was Amy and Rast?"

Andrea shakes her head. "He flew close enough that we saw no saddle."

"He had a torn-up face. Lots of scars, with a big tear along one nostril," Liam says, indicating with a touch to his own face. "Old one."

That's not Rast, then. "Then who called him away? And why?"

"That's the question," Andrea says, dusting her hands off on her jeans. "We were hoping when you and Vaan returned, you might have the answers."

She looks at me pointedly. From off to the side somewhere, Mara snorts.

"Things are, ah, moving slowly on that front," I manage. "No mental link yet. Vaan's picking up some English, but like I said, it's slow. He thinks differently than we do."

"Evident by the wardrobe choices," Mara murmurs.

Andrea giggles and I just shake my head. She's not wrong. "Any sign of Amy or Rast?" I ask, changing tactics. "It's been a few days, so they should be back soon."

"Nothing," Andrea says. "We've locked down the fort, and so now all there is to do is wait and see what tomorrow brings."

Sounds sensible. Sensible, but frustrating. "Tomorrow, then."