Dragon's Fire: A Reverse Harem Romance Page 17

  By the time Wednesday rolls around, I’m cranky as hell. I don’t expect the dragons to dance to my beck and call, but I’m being treated like furniture, and I’m sick of it. I’m tired of being stuck here, with nothing other than my phone for company.

  I haven’t been to work in four days. I called Brooke on Monday and apologized for missing my shift on Sunday. “I expected better from you, Aria,” she’d sniffed. I lied and told her I’d been too sick to call, and she let me grovel for another fifteen minutes before she relented and told me I still had my job. “Come in on Friday,” she’d said. “You can close.”

  Of course. Trendz gets new inventory on Fridays. Brooke hates putting shit away.

  With Bea, I used a different lie. One closer to the truth. I texted her, saying that Pete had died unexpectedly, and I was comforting a broken-up Silas. “That’s terrible, Aria,” she’d replied. “You still coming to Cellar on Wednesday?”

  “Yes.”

  Which brings me to now. I wander out to the large eat-in kitchen. Nobody’s around. It was all ‘oh, you’re so precious, you’re our mate’ when they thought I might sleep with them. The moment I put the no-sex rule in place, they ran. Typical. Norm, magical or dragon princes—guys are dicks.

  With mounting irritation, I head to Bastian’s office and throw open the door. Mateo and Casius look up at the noise. “What’s wrong, tesoro?”

  “Does something have to be wrong for me to come in here?” I’m aware I sound like a whiny, snot-nosed kid. Bea and I used to babysit her younger brother Jeremy in high school for extra cash. Jeremy was eight then, and his favorite phrase was ‘I’m bored.’ Read a book, I used to tell him. Learn to entertain yourself.

  Jeremy is sixteen now. He’s excited about getting his driver’s license. What use is a car in the city? Dumb kid. Then again, I guess it’s a rite of passage. I’d been thrilled when I passed my own test.

  Both Mateo and Casius are staring at me. “Of course not, Aria,” Casius replies. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

  Really? Cause I don’t remember being invited. “I need to talk to you guys. All of you.”

  Mateo gets to his feet, stretching lazily. His t-shirt rides up, and those six-pack abs come into view, and damn my stupid hormones, I want to lick them. Even though I’m really annoyed with him. “Sure,” he says agreeably. “I could use a break. You hungry, Aria? I thought we’d order pizza for lunch. Casius and I will go pick it up.”

  “Can I pick the toppings?”

  A smile tips the corners of his mouth. “Let me guess. You want black olives, mushrooms, and spinach. And extra sauce.”

  He noticed what I like on my pizza? My cheeks heat. Okay. I guess they aren’t that bad after all.

  47

  Mateo

  The moment Casius and I are in the lobby, I pull out my phone and call Bastian. “We’re fucking up with Aria,” I say bluntly. “We’re going to lose her.”

  Bastian sighs. “Rhys told us to back off. We backed off.”

  “We might have made a mistake. Aria’s not happy, Bastian. We need to talk to her. Find out what she wants.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “On our way to pick up pizza. 57th & 6th Ave.”

  “Get her olives, mushrooms, and spinach,” he says. “Extra-sauce. Crushed red pepper on the side.”

  I open the door of the pizza parlor. “Already on it,” I reply. “Where are you? Where are the others?”

  “Right around the corner. I’ll text Rhys and Erik, and tell them to be home for lunch.” The doorbells chime behind me, and Bastian strides through. I place the pizza order, and the three of us settle into a booth.

  Bastian runs his hand through his hair. “How’s she doing?”

  “She hasn’t left the condo since the funeral,” I reply. “How do you think she’s doing? Bastian, we’re screwing up.”

  Bastian frowns. “We’re trying to do what’s best for her.”

  Casius hadn’t thought very much of our plan when we hatched it, and he doesn’t think very much of it now. “Yes, we are, and it’s not working.” He leans forward and gives us a pointed, ‘I-told-you-so’ look. “Let’s try something different this time. Let’s try asking her what she wants.”

  Of course. Dragons are long-lived. I’m three hundred and forty-five years old, but I’ve lived just over a quarter of my allotted measure. Aria isn’t Norm, but she’s not shifter either. She’s twenty-four. She’s lived as much of her life as I have mine.

  Under the guise of keeping her safe, we’ve been treating her like a child. We’ve been making decisions for her.

  It’s time to change that.

  48

  Aria

  Mateo and Casius return with three extra-large boxes of pizza. Bastian is right behind them. Huh. That’s odd. Bastian hasn’t been home for lunch all week.

  “Hey,” he says to me cautiously.

  I tilt my head to one side. “Why are you home early? Why are you looking at me that way?”

  “What way?”

  “Tentatively.” Bastian is a lot of things, but so far, tentative hasn’t been in his wheelhouse. “As if you think I’m going to yell at you.”

  His lips twitch. “Are you?”

  “Not before lunch,” I reply with a grin. “I do my best yelling on a full stomach. Did you get me spinach, mushrooms, and black olives?”

  “He didn’t,” Mateo says over his shoulder. “We did.”

  I shake my head, amused. “Either way. I have pizza. That’s all I care about.”

  The front door opens, and Rhys enters, shaking snow from his shoulders. “Hey, Aria,” he says cheerfully. “Ah, lunch. Let me guess. Mushrooms, black olives, and spinach?”

  Does everyone know my pizza preferences? Before I can ask, Silas and Erik walk in.

  I give Silas a searching look. He had a transfusion twelve days ago. He’s looking pretty good, all things considered, but he’ll be bedridden again next week. “Where have you been?”

  “Hanging out with Alpha Hyde and the Eclipse pack,” he says, taking off his jacket. “God, it’s cold outside.”

  “You were with the Eclipse pack?” I asked Silas once why he lived alone, and he told me the story of his pack’s slaughter. “I thought you didn’t like Hyde.”

  “The rest of the pack isn’t bad,” he replies with a shrug.

  It’s not just my life that’s changing. Silas’ world is being upended too. Because of Erik’s generosity, he can now have regular transfusions. He isn’t cured, but his sickness can be managed. But at the same time, his best friend Pete is dead, and I’m all grown-up, and now the mate of dragons. I’m glad he’s making new friends.

  We sit around the table and dive into the pizza. I inhale my first two slices, and then I take a deep breath. “I want to go back to work.”

  The guys go still. “To work? At the mall?” Bastian asks finally.

  “Yes. I can’t sit around all day and do nothing. You guys are off doing your own thing, and I’m stuck here. I feel useless.” I glare at Mateo. “I thought you’d teach me how to do magic, but you’re too busy for me.”

  He winces. “We haven’t been very attentive,” he says, his expression contrite. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Rhys gives me a puzzled look. “Do you enjoy your job?”

  Not even a little. I don’t know why I’m fighting to go back to Trendz. I’m like the kid who asks for five candy bars at the grocery store, just to see if I’ll get it. “Sometimes I do,” I lie. “It’s work. Nobody is one-hundred-percent-happy with their job all the time. That’s just the way it is. There’s always some amount of bullshit.”

  Bastian surveys me thoughtfully. “You’re very cynical for someone so young.”

  “I’m twenty-four.”

  His lips twitch. “Indeed.”

  Hang on. They’re dragons, and shifters live longer than Norms. “How old are you?”

  Rhys starts to cough. Bastian clears his throat. “You should know,” he murmur
s, an embarrassed look on his face. “My birth led to the curse, remember? I’m almost five hundred.”

  “No fucking way.” I made out with a five-hundred-year-old guy? This isn’t a daddy-complex. It’s a great-great-great-great-great-granddaddy complex. Eeep.

  I guess I did know that. On Sunday, they’d told me all about Gideon Zyrian cursing the dragons when Bastian’s mother died in childbirth. I just hadn’t put it together. “How about the rest of you?”

  “Erik’s the oldest,” Casius says, reaching for another slice of pizza. “He’s five hundred and fifty-two. Mateo’s three-hundred and forty-five. I’m three-hundred and twenty-three. Rhys is the baby. He’s two-hundred and eighty-nine.”

  Silas is trying not to laugh at my consternated expression. “Shifters live longer,” he says. “And dragons live the longest. You know that.”

  Sure, I knew that. In the abstract.

  Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by how different everything is in the dragons’ world. My life is changing so quickly. It’s hard to believe that last week, I was freaking out about how I was going to pay for Silas’ plasma transfusions. Seven days later, I’m the mate of five dragons whose combined age is over two thousand years old.

  I just want to be normal for a little while longer.

  “I have to work,” I repeat. “I’m not a billionaire like you guys. I need to make a living.”

  Bastian leans forward. “You have money,” he says quietly. “You are our mate. Everything that’s ours is yours.”

  I give him an exasperated look. “I don’t want you to give me money.”

  “But you’re okay stealing it, little thief?” Rhys chuckles, giving me a fond look.

  I glare at Rhys. Silas doesn’t know about my little safe-cracking attempt, and if he doesn’t stop talking, he’s going to give me away.

  Bastian’s jaw tightens. “It doesn’t matter if you want it or not. It’s yours.”

  Casius frowns. “Bastian, cut it out. Stop going master-of-the-universe on Aria.” He turns to me. “It’s not just our money that you have. It’s your own. Remember?”

  Silas looks up, suddenly intent. “What money of your own?”

  Ah. I’d forgotten about the gold bars that Raedwulf had dropped. I bite my lip, trying to figure out what I’m going to say to Silas. “Umm…”

  Silas snorts at my discomfort. “Don’t try to think up a lie. I’ve already pieced together most of the story. It wasn’t that hard. Raedwulf hired you to steal from these guys, didn’t he? And you did it so you could pay the hospital bills.” He sounds annoyed, but there’s a sheen of tears in his eyes.

  I squeeze his hand. “I’m sorry I broke my promise to you.”

  He pats me on the back, and I know he’s not angry. “You know I worry about you, little cub.”

  Silas loves to worry. Although, in this case, he was right to be concerned.

  Bastian exhales. “You’re right,” he says to Casius. “Aria, I’m sorry. If going back to your job is important to you, then we won’t stand in your way. As long as you don’t try to get away from Tomas’ guards, you can go anywhere you want.”

  I didn’t actually expect them to give in. Ugh. Now I have to go to work on Friday and listen to Brooke bitch and moan about corporate.

  Talk about maneuvering myself into a corner. Smart move, Aria.

  “Thank you. Oh, I was planning to meet Bea at Cellar tonight.”

  He nods. “Whatever you want. As long as Tomas’ men are with you.”

  Wow, he’s being so reasonable, and I feel like a temper-tantrum-throwing toddler. “Would you like to join us?” I ask them.

  An expression of pleased surprise flickers over Mateo’s face. “You want us there?”

  Would it be greedy if I ate a fourth slice? I reach for it anyway and answer his question with one of my own. “You don’t think I do?”

  Mateo’s lips curl into a small smile. “I think you feel trapped and resentful,” he says. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you don’t want to spend time with us.”

  That’s a fairly accurate assessment—I have felt trapped and resentful this week. But Mateo is wrong about one thing. I do want to spend time with the dragons. I chose them on Sunday. If they’re my mates—and the magic is pretty damn certain that they are—then I want to get to know them.

  “I’d like to have dinner with Bea first,” I tell my dragons. “But I’d love it if you guys joined us at Cellar. Bea and I should be there at nine.” A thought strikes me. “Oh, can I tell her about you?”

  “Sure,” Rhys says easily. “You know her best. We trust your judgment.”

  A warm glow spreads through me at that. “I’ll tell her about you, but I won’t tell her about the curse or the prophecy,” I reassure the guys. “Not because I don’t trust Bea, but because I don’t want to risk anything happening to her.”

  Casius raises his eyebrows. “You’re going to tell your Norm friend that you have five mates? Is that going to be okay?”

  My lips twitch. “Oh, trust me, it’ll be more than fine. Bea will totally understand the moment she sees you guys.” Thank heavens Silas isn’t an overprotective ‘date-my-daughter-and-die’ type. This conversation is mortifying enough.

  Bastian raises his eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

  I flush. They’re going to make me spell it out? “Because you’re all gorgeous,” I murmur. “I already know what Bea’s going to say. Why choose one when you can have all five?”

  49

  Erik

  Why choose one when you can have all five?

  When Aria says those words, it’s all I can do to keep myself from flinching.

  I’m the oldest surviving dragon prince. I’ve seen magic. I’ve experienced love. I believe in destiny. The fates seem determined to tug us together, weaving the six of us into one tapestry.

  I’ve lived long enough to know that it is unwise to reject your path. Yet reject it I must.

  Bastian clears his throat. “You’ve probably noticed we haven’t been around much this week.”

  “That’s something of an understatement,” Aria replies. An expression of hurt flickers across her face. “Look, if you don’t want me around, tell me. I thought you agreed that I could stay and help with the curse on Sunday, but ever since then, you’ve been avoiding me.” She takes a deep breath. “Is this about sex?”

  Silas gets to his feet. “If we’re going to talk about my daughter’s sex life,” he says pointedly, “Then I’m out of here.”

  Aria’s cheeks go pink. “Sorry, Silas,” she mumbles. “Are you coming to Cellar tonight?”

  He shakes his head. “No, I’ll just cramp your style. You kids have fun.”

  Kids. I snort inwardly. I’m hundreds of years older than the wolf-shifter. Though right now, I don’t feel it. I feel like a teenager again, awkward and uncertain, unsure of what to say to Aria. I haven’t felt this way in a very long time.

  Silas heads toward the front door. When it shuts behind him, Bastian frowns at Aria. “What do you mean, is this about sex?”

  She doesn’t meet our eyes. “Well, you know. I’m not sleeping with you.”

  “You think we’re avoiding you because you’re not putting out?” Mateo demands. “Seriously?”

  Casius just shakes his head. “I warned you,” he mutters under his breath. “I told you it was a stupid idea that would backfire on us. I told you we should talk to her. Did you listen?”

  Bastian exhales in frustration, running his hands through his hair. “Mausezähnchen,” he says quietly. “I seem to be making a habit of screwing up with you.”

  “What’s going on, Bastian?”

  “You told Rhys at the funeral on Monday that things were moving too fast and that you weren’t ready. We thought it would be a kindness to give you space.” Casius clears his throat, and Bastian amends his statement. “Okay, fine. Casius didn’t agree.”

  She stares at him. “That’s why you’ve barely been around?”

  Bastian meets her gaze sq
uarely. “I’m not going to lie. I’m still conflicted about putting you in danger. I thought if we found Raedwulf…” His voice trails off.

  “We were wrong, love, and we owe you an apology.” Rhys looks contrite. “Casius was right. You’re our mate. We need to involve you in our lives, not shelter you from it.”

  I hadn’t done that with Gisele. She’d been my mate, cherished, loved, and cosseted. I thought my honor guards were sufficient to protect her, but I hadn’t accounted for Zyrian’s burning hatred.

  Maybe this can be my role. I can teach Aria how to defend herself.

  “So you’re going to involve me now?” she asks. “For real? You’re not going to shut me out?”

  “I promise,” Bastian says seriously.

  Aria takes a deep breath, and a smile breaks out on her face. “Okay,” she agrees. “Let’s start over. Tell me what you’ve found so far.”

  “We’ve been trying to find Raedwulf and the other wolf,” Bastian says.

  “Because of the diary?”

  The diary is important, but that’s not why we want to get our hands on Raedwulf. “He tried to kill you,” I growl, joining the conversation for the first time. “Every day he’s alive, it is an affront to us.”

  She gives me a startled look before turning back to Bastian. “I went to see the fox-shifter,” he continues.

  “Nygaard?” Aria bites her lip. “That’s why Raedwulf hired me. Hagan Nygaard told him I could steal from the dragons.”

  “Yes, I know.” Bastian’s voice is grim. “The only reason Nygaard is still alive is because I didn’t want him to know that we’re connected. He gave me an address for Raedwulf in Queens, but the wolf’s no fool. He hasn’t been back there.”

  “Casius and I have been reading old manuscripts,” Mateo says. “Trying to find any clues on how to break the curse. That’s not going well either.”

  “In the hospital, Raedwulf’s associate said that the wolf-shifter went to meet someone,” Rhys says. “Whoever that was, that person told him about the Bloodstone. I’m trying to figure out who that is.”