“His what?”
“You’re his mate. Didn’t he tell you?” Christopher seemed surprised by the fact that Zoa didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t know,” Christopher muttered. “What an idiot.”
“Hey! That’s my mate you’re talking about!” She slapped him gently on the shoulder. She still didn’t know what he had meant by “mate,” though. Was that a dragon’s way of saying “lover” or “girlfriend”? Then again, Christopher had said Declan didn’t realize that’s who Zoa was, so it must have been something a little more serious.
“You’re right,” Christopher laughed. “Sorry.”
“Christopher?”
“Yep?”
“What’s a dragon’s mate?”
“He should have this talk with you, Zoa. It shouldn’t be me.”
“He’s not here, though, is he? Declan is off putting his life in mortal peril, and I’m here.” Zoa gestured wildly around the treehouse.
She felt helpless.
Weak.
Scared.
She felt afraid that something was going to happen to Declan, and there was nothing she could do about it. How could she make Christopher understand that? Declan had been nothing but kind to Zoa. If something happened to him today, she didn’t think that she would ever be able to forgive herself. She just couldn’t.
“I’m just sitting around trying not to think about the danger he could be in,” she said. That much, at least, was true. She knew Declan could handle himself. She knew it. He was a big, strong dragon man. He was wise and clever and wild and wonderful.
Kellen was an asshole, though, and he was the type of guy who didn’t hold back. There was a part of Zoa that feared Kellen had done something terrible, like laid a trap for Declan. What if Declan and Brian were walking right into it? Then they’d die, and she’d never get to find out what a dragon’s mate was or what it was that made her feel like Declan was the most important creature in the entire universe.
“Please,” she said, pleading with Christopher.
“Well,” Christopher shifted uncomfortably on the couch. He was obviously not used to having this kind of talk, but apparently, it was one they needed to have. “It’s kind of a legend.”
“What is?”
“True mates. It’s like the human’s idea of finding your one, true love.”
“So, dragons have like...folklore?”
Wasn’t that interesting? Humans believed in true love, and dragons believed in it, too. Dragons believed in a lot of things, apparently.
It was strange to Zoa that she’d only recently learned that shifters existed. Until she’d been captured by Kellen, the world had made perfect sense to her. She was human, and to her knowledge, everyone else around her was, too. Now she knew that there were not only people who could shapeshift, but that these creatures had their own legends and their own culture. That was kind of wonderful to her.
“Pretty much,” Christopher said. He nodded, as though that was the end of it.
“Well, what did you mean when you said I was Declan’s mate? Am I his one true love? Why do you think that?”
Zoa tried not to panic. She tried very, very hard not to panic. Panicking and worrying never helped anyone. Zoa knew that. Still, she couldn’t stop the anxious feeling that was welling up inside of her.
If she was Declan’s true love, how would they know?
Without knowing anything else about the situation or the legend, she did know that the way she felt about him was very different from the way she’d felt about other people she’d been with. Zoa had figured, to a certain extent, that it was simply her trauma manifesting itself with extreme feelings and emotions.
“Declan looks at you like you’re a special prize to be cherished,” Christopher said slowly. He was being very deliberate with his words, and Zoa appreciated that. Christopher obviously knew that what he was saying was important to her. “When he called us to him, Brian and I both knew that whatever it was he needed us for was urgent.”
“How did you know?”
“Because Declan doesn’t ask for help,” Christopher said.