Chapter Six
True
The front door slams and I sit bolt upright, dropping the set of weights on the floor with a house-rattling thump.
I’ve been waiting for Paxton to get home for hours, anxious to hear how his first solo shift watching Vynessa went.
He made a good point the other day. If we both accompany her everywhere, blocking any chance she has to socialize, Vynessa will look like she’s being guarded, and having her look too guarded would be as dangerous as not guarding her at all.
“Don’t worry,” he said when they left for their run. “I got this.”
I had to go in the bedroom just so I wouldn’t start shooting fog out my nostrils and blow my cover.
Paxton pokes his head through the doorway into our bedroom. “What the hell was that? Did you just punch a hole in the wall?”
No. That would be impossible. I could punch a hole in the boards, but underneath, the walls are reinforced with dragon-proof steel.
The court very strategically placed the flyers in the marketplace in their village and removed all others until Vynessa took theirs.
They dressed up the ad, lowered the price, and only accepted Vynessa’s application.
It doesn’t look like much, but that’s kind of the point.
Royals and diplomats have been staying here safely since before the dragon kingdom went into hiding. Its shabbiness is an asset.
“Where is she?” I snap.
“Relax.” Golden boy holds up his hands. “She’s right outside.”
“Outside?” I ask, bolting upright. “Who’s watching her? You’re not supposed to let her out of your sight unless one of us is taking over.”
“Calm your fire. She’s on her way in.”
I grab his shoulders, barely resisting the urge to shake him until his head erupts like a volcano.
Even after all our training, he has absolutely no concept of her importance.
That’s what happens when you live as a human all your life.
It’s a testament to my years of repression and meditation that my claws and scales aren’t sliding out and shredding the kid.
“You may have been playing pretend all your life, but we can’t risk anything happening to her now,” I snap.
“Not when we’re so close. Do you have any idea the danger she could be in? ”
He scowls and jerks out of my grip. “Okay, okay, don’t grow a second dick. I’ll go walk her in from the front porch.”
“Don’t be so careless again,” I growl, stalking after him, imagining what will happen if we walk out and she’s gone. Imagining what the Sun King’s soldiers will do to her if they find her before her before the queen’s passing.
The front door slams before we reach the end of the hall, and a wave of relief washes over me, so intense I need to stabilize myself with a hand on the wall.
Vynessa steps into view, a sheen of sweat on her tan skin, her lava red hair haloing her angular face. She’s carrying a big bag over her shoulder, and her red hair is swept up in a messy bun with a few tendrils hanging loose, just begging to be tucked into place.
I catch her silvery gaze, and her delicious vanilla-cinnamon scent fills the air.
Her skin has begun to glow with a slight sheen, meaning her power is stirring inside.
The queen’s deathday is only one mating cycle away.
That means Vynessa is getting ready for her first mating cycle, feeling especially drawn to males.
I tear my gaze away.
Inside this house, she’s safe. That’s all that matters.
“Hey, guys,” Vynessa says, “Everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” I say, straightening from where I’d sagged against the wall.
“Okay,” she says slowly, suspicion darkening her features. “Well, we survived our first week. Whoot-whoot.” She makes a little fist with each hand and shakes them like she’s doing some strange kind of dance. Must be a human thing.
“We did,” I say, grabbing my hair and twisting it up into a guard’s knot.
“So, I thought we could go out and celebrate,” Vynessa says, punching Paxton’s shoulder. “You know, our first step on the path to mastery.”
Paxton rubs his shoulder, grinning like he’s the luckiest man in the world.
He’s known her all her life and will have a bond with her that the rest of her guard will never have.
I narrow my eyes and study him. It’s possible he’s entertaining acting on his inappropriate attachment, without the self-discipline of a real soldier.
One summer was not enough training for him, but it’s all we could give him.
Pulling him away every year while Vynessa was growing up would have brought attention to him.
We had to be satisfied with checking in from afar or reading inadequate written reports that usually said little more than, “All is well.”
“What do you say?” Vynessa says, turning from me to her other guard. “Pax, I know you’re in. You’ve never turned down a party in your life. Some of the Scholars are meeting at a supernaturals bar, maybe get a peek at a werewolf or vampire. I hear liaisons are going too.”
She grins wide at him, her nose wrinkling in the most adorable way. When her gaze flicks my way, she bites her lip. “You’re invited too, of course.”
Before I can stop myself, I find my eyes skating down her body, hugging her every delicious curve. A strip of her tan belly shows between her loose shirt and skintight short-pants she wore out for her workout with Paxton. I can just make out the tight nipple buds that peek through her top.
Fuck. I can’t be doing that. I cover my eyes with a hand, hiding the gesture by rubbing my temples.
“You know I can’t say no to you, Nessie,” Pax says. “Let me get changed while True deliberates.”
“Yay,” Vynessa says with a wide, glowing grin. She turns her golden eyes on me next. “How about you, True? We can call it our first official roommate date.”
The hopeful look on her face twists my gut. She wants this so badly—to be friends, to make our little house her home, to make her roommates get along like normal humans. But we’re never going to be normal. Or human.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I say slowly. “You’ve had a long week. Lots of excitement. We should stay in tonight. Maybe we can do something next weekend. Go to a boar-elephant joust or…”
She blinks at me. “We’re going, True. I wasn’t asking for permission.”
“It’s not safe.”
The look she gives me should be illegal, especially in that nearly transparent shirt. Then, she winks. “Thanks, Father. I’ll be careful.”
I’m not her father, but I want to bend her over my knee and give her a spanking for even suggesting putting herself in that level of needless danger. “Not funny.”
“Fine.” She sighs. “I shouldn’t tease you.
You’re concerned about us, which is sweet.
But roommates don’t generally tell each other what to do.
Just like I’m not telling you that you have to go with us.
Stay in if you want. And next weekend, like you said, we can see a joust. That actually sounds great.
I’ve never been to one. Our village was too small to have such things. ”
I try to think through the possibilities, ways to convince her it’s safer here without giving anything away. But I don’t know her well enough to guess what would entice her.
“You shouldn’t go out your first weekend,” I say at last. “The scholar program is tough. You’ll fall behind.”
“I’m actually ahead,” she says, sounding annoyed now.
“I took seven placement tests this week. Look, True. If you don’t want to come, don’t.
It would be great to have you with us and get to know you a little, but I’m not trying to twist your arm.
Nevertheless, and at the risk of sounding rude, Pax and I are going, regardless of whether you join us. ”
I blow out a long breath, leaning against the doorframe entrance to the hall. “I’ll come.”
As if completely forgetting her irritation from a moment earlier, she offers me a big grin. “Really? Great! I’ll just hop in the shower. Give me ten minutes.”
I grunt at her words, but I want to roar in frustration as Vynessa disappears into the washroom.
Fifteen minutes later, the pipes clank, and there’s a rustling sound.
Vynessa opens the door, and steam billows out.
She steps through the living room, wrapped in a towel that covers her from chest to knees, but it doesn’t matter.
It would only take a single tug, and she’d be bare before me.
More than that, I can smell her sex, that sweet cinnamon scent teasing from between her golden thighs.
She climaxed in the shower again.
It makes me wonder what got her so turned on that she needed release—her time with Pax, her argument with me, or someone else entirely?
“Aren’t you going to get ready?” she asks as she passes.
“I’m ready.”
I hate this. I stand in the living room, listening to her rummaging around in her bedroom.
She emerges at last, and though I’m not her father, I want to send her straight back into her room.
Her dry hair tumbles like rivulets of lava around her shoulders.
She’s wearing a teal tunic that’s longer than the short-pants and practically conservative compared to most students, but nothing under it.
Her tight little tits push through the material, her nipples so pert my mouth waters at the sight.
“What’s taking Pax so long?” I grumble.
“Oh, he likes to look good for the ladies,” Vynessa says in a mocking tone. “Don’t worry, you look good already. Don’t feel like you have to change to compete.”
“I’m not looking to impress any ladies.”
Did she just call me good-looking?
“Oh, crap,” she says. “I’m sorry. You and Pax… Are you…?”
I give her a moment to go on, but she just looks at me like I’m missing the obvious.
Vynessa’s eyes change every time I look at them, silver to gold to dark coppery. Right now, they’re a deep golden color, matching the highlights in her hair. I can only surmise that it’s the power brewing inside her.
I shake my head. “What?”