It’s stupid, but I can’t stand the idea of being anywhere else but here.
I need to be here when they get back.
“Rough night, huh?” A soft voice says.
“You have no idea.” I don’t look up.
“Oh, I do,” a woman says, stepping out of the shadows. She comes over and motions to the step where I’m sitting. “Mind if I join you?”
“By all means. I’m Peggy.”
“Natalie.”
“You have someone out there, don’t you?”
“My friends,” she says.
“Why didn’t you go?” I ask. “No offense. I’m not trying to be rude. I had to stay because I’m not a dragon.”
“I’m not, either,” she says gently.
“What?” I look at her sharply. A human living in a dragon clan? “Are you mated to a dragon?”
“No,” she chuckles, shaking her head. “I’m adopted.”
“By dragons?”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“You can say that again. I guess I had kind of a weird childhood. For a human, you know.”
“I didn’t realize dragons adopted outside of their clan,” I tell her. I suppose I just didn’t really think about it. It makes sense, of course, but the thought never really crossed my mind.
“Fablestone Clan members are giving and caring,” Natalie tells me gently. “They’ll do anything to help the people they love.”
“I can tell.”
“You’re Cameron’s mate, aren’t you?”
I pull my hair back and lean my head back so Natalie can see the mark on my neck. She examines it silently for a minute and then smiles.
“I thought so. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
We’re silent for a long time after that. Neither one of us really has anything to say. What is there to say?
“I hope no one dies tonight”?
“I hope they all come back”?
“I hope this isn’t a suicide mission”?
So we wait in silence and we hope for the best.
Eventually, despite our best efforts, sleep claims us, and Natalie and I pass out in front of the clan leader’s office in the darkness of the night.