Chapter 12
Though she and Nate drove around Mungaloo for several hours, Kytrima didn’t see any sign of the blackened, scarred ute that Brad drove. It was as though he’d disappeared.
Taking the princess with him.
The town wasn’t very big. Either they’d found somewhere very good to hide, or they weren’t here anymore.
Either way she’d lost the princess. Again. Every time she thought about that, her hands clenched into fists, and she wanted to scream. Only Nate’s presence in the car prevented her from venting her frustration.
“This really isn’t achieving much,” Nate said, almost voicing Kytrima’s thoughts, though with far less rage. “I think we should stop for some lunch while we figure out what to do next.”
The fact that he had given up to the extent that he wanted to stop just made Kytrima feel worse. Stopping meant they were abandoning the chase, and that meant she’d never find the princess. She wasn’t going to give up that easily.
“Lunch? We don’t have time for lunch,” Kytrima said firmly. “We need to keep searching. The longer we stop the further away Lyrian could get. Don’t you care about finding your brother?” Impatience surged through her.
She wanted to fly, to fight, to do something, anything to find the dragon princess. But there was nowhere for all that energy to go. She knew, even before Nate spoke, that it was pointless.
“We’re not achieving anything with this,” he said firmly. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think well on an empty stomach.”
“Fine, stop if you must,” Kytrima said grudgingly.
Nate didn’t need a second invitation. He pulled over near a row of stores and stopped the car. He hesitated for a minute, then handed the keys to Kytrima. “Please don’t run off with my car this time.”
For some reason, his trust in her hit her right in the gut. “I won’t.” Her voice softened a little. She still felt guilty for taking his car without asking him. He’d taken it very well, really.
Stopping for lunch was the least she could do.
Nate nodded and disappeared into the store.
Kytrima stared up and down the street, just in case, but no blackened ute appeared. Not that she was too sure what she’d do if it did. She’d already told Nate she wouldn’t run off with his car, and it wasn’t like it had achieved anything last time anyway.
They were at a dead end. They had no clues, no leads, and no idea of where the princess was. She’d achieved nothing.
But every hour she spent searching fruitlessly was one more hour she would have to account for when she returned to her clan. She really should be considering cutting her losses and returning now. Yes, she’d have to admit to her failure, but surely the knowledge she’d gained, of the princess’s whereabouts and her baby, would count for something?
Maybe there was a way she could convince them not to demote her. To give her another chance.
She heaved a sigh.
That was what she should do.
Except she didn’t want to.
Nate arrived back with two boxes, and handed them to Kytrima. They smelled good, really good, and Kytrima realised that she was hungry. That was probably why she was feeling so down. Yes, dragons could go a lot longer without food than humans, but that didn’t mean they didn’t prefer to eat regularly.
Perhaps Nate was right, she’d think a lot better on a full stomach.
She opened one of the boxes, but Nate said, “No, wait till we sit down. There was a park a few blocks from here. We can stop there and eat and the dogs can get some exercise. They’ve been shut up in the car for too long.”
Reluctantly, Kytrima closed the box. “Well, don’t take long,” she warned. “I am hungry after all.”
Nate laughed at that, and it put a smile on Kytrima’s face.
Something about the way he laughed with genuine amusement, made her feel good.
It had been a long time since she’d just felt good about something. Especially about something that didn’t help her standing in the clan at all.
A very short time later, Nate pulled into a tiny parking lot next to a big, open, grassy space, and turned the car off. “You take the food, I’ll get the dogs.”
Kytrima nodded and carried the two boxes over to the table under a small roof. How strange, that the humans had put this little space here, just for people to sit and eat.
Nate picked up Lily, and let Luna out of the back.
For a moment, Kytrima worried that Luna was going to start barking at her again. That would look strange, and the other humans might wonder about it. Kytrima shifted uncomfortably, but though the dog’s hackles raised, she came and sniffed around Kytrima without actually barking.
“Give her a bit of the patty,” Nate suggested.
Patty? What was he talking about? Did he mean she should pat the dog? Somehow, Kytrima didn’t think Luna would be impressed.
“In the burger,” Nate prompted.
Oh, the food. Good idea. Dogs responded well to food.
Kytrima opened one of the boxes, and for a moment was distracted at the sight of the large burger. Her mouth watered.
Luna stared at her, and her tail wagged, once.
Kytrima bit down her own hunger and pulled a small bit of meat out of the middle of the burger, and held it out to the dog.
Luna looked at it suspiciously.
Lily wriggled in Nate’s arms, trying to reach the meat. She barked and whined, but that sound didn’t bother Kytrima. No one would think it was strange.
Luna sniffed the air, then gently took the meat out of Kytrima’s fingers.
That was it. Once the dog had taken the food, suddenly Kytrima was her friend. She came closer, resting her head on Kytrima’s knee, and stared up at her with big, brown eyes.
Nate let her off the lead, and put Lily down, then sat down beside Kytrima and opened his own burger. He lifted it out, a few bits of shredded lettuce falling out, and took a bite. “Mmm, that’s good.”
Kytrima couldn’t wait to try her own burger, except she had two dogs sitting in front of her, their eyes on her every move.
Lily gave a small whine.
“Oh, you’re starving, are you?” Kytrima teased. She broke off another bit of meat and handed it to the small dog.
Luna watched the food go past her, then stared up at Kytrima with those big, brown eyes.
“You’ve already had some,” Kytrima objected. But she broke some more off and gave it to the larger dog anyway.
Luna wolfed it down, then stared at Kytrima again.
“This could go on all day you realise?” Nate said with a chuckle.
Kytrima laughed too. “Yeah, I figured. They are cute though. I never quite understood why humans liked dogs so much. I mean, aside from the fact they’ll bark and warn you if someone is around. But I think I’m beginning to see it.”
Nate bent down and ruffled Lily’s fur and the little pup looked back up at him with an adoring look on her face. “I never quite got it either,” Nate admitted. “Just seemed like a big responsibility to me. Then I got Lily.”
“Why did you get a dog if you didn’t want one?” Kytrima asked curiously.
“Well, I didn’t exactly plan it,” Nate explained. He looked a little sheepish. “I was at this bachelor party, see.”
“What’s a bachelor party?”
She’d heard of birthday parties, Christmas parties, and the humans did seem to just throw parties for no reason she could see, but this was a new one.
Nate gave a laugh. “Well, this guy I knew was getting married, and its tradition to throw him one last party before he does, kind of like a farewell to the single life, you know?”
His explanation didn’t really help. “Why would anyone need a party to say goodbye to their life before mating? Isn’t being mated the thing you celebrate?”
This time, Nate looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah, it should be. But for some reason, guys got to thinking that they would be giving something up to get married, so they needed to have one last wild party. It is a bit weird, now you mention it.” He looked at her, his eyes curious. “So is everyone happy to get mated in your… clan, is it?”
His question touched a nerve.
It was easy to pretend that everyone was happy to get mated, but in reality, that wasn’t always the case. Or it hadn’t been, anyway.
Trima clan had changed that. They didn’t do things the way Rian clan did.
She was proud of that.
“No one gets mated in our clan without wanting to,” she said firmly. “It’s one of our main principles. It’s why we split from Rian clan after they refused to let Ultrima mate with Princess Sarian.”
Nate looked at her sideways for a minute, then turned back to his burger. “So what about if a dragon wants to mate with a human? Your clan is okay with that?”
Kytrima’s heart skipped a beat. Why had he changed the conversation to talk about a dragon mating with a human? Was he hinting at something? Her heart pounded. What would she say if he was?
She should be ready to turn him away before he went too far. But she couldn’t think of any good arguments. All she could think of was how wonderful it would be to be able to mate with him whenever she wanted to.
Was he thinking the same thing, or was this question about his brother? Somehow, she didn’t think so. His face was turned away from her as he ate. Was that deliberate?
Did she really want to know?
Her heart was singing out an enthusiastic yes so loudly that it was hard to hear her head urging her to say no.
Kytrima took a deep breath. It didn’t matter if he was asking for a specific reason, the answer was the same. “Yes, they’d be fine with it. Many of our clan have mated with humans. If that is who they love, then no one in Trima clan will stand in their way.”
He looked up then, and his eyes met hers, burning with a fierce desire. “That’s… good to know.”
Kytrima held her breath, waiting for him to say something more, still unsure how she would respond.
But Nate hesitated for a moment, then his expression changed. “So Rian clan doesn’t accept mating with a human? If my brother and the princess are truly in love, that will be a problem?”
Kytrima’s heart sank, but her head took over quickly. This was about his brother. Not them. She kept her disappointment under wraps while she considered her answer. Much as she wanted to paint Rian clan in a bad light, to contrast their difference with Trima clan, there was no real point in lying. Nate was already helping her. He wasn’t going to stop now.
She had no excuse for not telling the truth. And she wanted too. She already had too many lies on her conscience. “It seems they may be changing their opinion,” she said. “One of their princes, who woke recently, mated with a human woman, so it’s possible they would accept your brother.”
She could see a flash of hope in Nate’s eyes, and felt a little sorry for him. He loved his brother so much. He still believed that maybe there was a chance for him to work things out with his princess. That maybe she wasn’t just using him.
Well, technically that was possible. Maybe the princess felt the same pull for him that Kytrima felt for his brother.
She felt another twinge of guilt, and this time, it wasn’t just because she was lying.
Trima clan believed in love with all their hearts. It was almost their guiding tenant.
What if the princess and Nate’s brother really were in love? If Kytrima tore them apart, then she’d be no better than Rian clan had been.
The thought hung there, while she stared at it in disbelief for a few moments. How had it never occurred to her until now? Why had she never even considered that the Rian princess could be in love?
Suddenly, she understood why Ultrima had spared Taurian. Why he’d made the deal that forced him to marry his human love if he wanted to save his clan.
She lowered her hand with the half eaten burger into her lap, suddenly not hungry.
She’d been so focused on finding the princess that none of this had even occurred to her until now. She hadn’t even stopped to consider what it would mean if Princess Lyrian and Brad loved each other.
It was completely possible. They had a baby together.
For all she knew by now they could be mated.
If they were, it changed everything.
She needed to find out before she made a huge mistake.