Call Me Fire

CHAPTER 23

MORTAL, COME BACK.

Mor—TONYA!

Damn it!'

Fire's mental rant melted upon realizing that he couldn't link with his mate. For a while there, he was confused about which of the two was more agitating—her, walking out on him so fast that one could mistake that she was escaping ten devils. Or the fact that she never obeyed or listened to anything he said.

He was more than sure that he sent his message across crystal clear. In fact, he had already lost count of how many times he repeated himself from the time they got to her lair until she closed her eyes inside his arms last night.

Was his command really that hard to understand? How many more times should he order Tonya not to touch the insolent child or keep that hex bag? The lowlife child was tainting her with its disgusting scent. Seeing his mate rush to take the child away from there—specifically from him—felt worse than a colossal slap across his face.

Who in this bloody world was Tonya to disobey an immortal like him?

She was nothing but a mere mortal.

A lowlife...

A woman...

'... who you couldn't stop coming back to and marking as yours,' a part of him scolded when the skin on his back rippled just by remembering how her skin tasted like against his tongue.

Judging his needy reaction, Fire shook his head and balled his fist. 'Dang it, mortal. Just dang it—'

"Aren't you going to fly after her, Great Fire Dragon?" Hao Long's voice was fatherly when he asked from across the table. Raising both of his eyebrows, he then tilted his head without tearing his gaze away from Fire, as if waiting for the younger dragon to say something. "You came all the way here with the mortals. That's a good first step after thousands of years."

"Stop jumping to conclusions, Hao Long." The Great Fire Dragon palmed his face to erase any trace of emotions showing on it. One deep sigh, and he smirked at his old friend before spitting, "Nothing has changed. Mortals are still trash—"

"Oh, really?" The good Water Dragon faked a curious expression before looking at the two dragonettes who remained sitting on their chairs. "How about these lizards here? How will you explain them?"

Fire took a deep breath, feigning calmness, before giving the little dragons a disinterested glance. "I asked them to come so they could fix the child."

"Ai wu, ju wi?"

"No." He straightened his back, then lifted his chin. His fingers were turning cold, but then he just wouldn't give that fact away. Why would he give Hao Long that entertainment? He was Aragon Spitfire, the Great Fire Dragon of Escovia. "I've been honestly wanting to tear that child away from my mortal—"

"Because?"

"Because she's disgusting."

"And?" Hao Long took his teacup from its saucer and gave his drink a sip. With his eyes starting to look like two upward arches above his rosy cheeks, he leaned on the table as if he were dying to hear what he would say next. "And..."

"And I didn't want my mortal to smell disgusting."

"Because?"

"Because I..." Fire shut his mouth in a thin line at that point. He was beginning to understand where the conversation was going, and he was not in the mood to dive into it. Not when his ears felt like they were about to bleed because of the excruciating silence inside his head—he needed Tonya's voice there. He knew, but then he wouldn't show it on his face.