Dragon Blood

Twenty-Two: Do You Promise?

He couldn't have heard her correctly. It couldn't be possible. He stared at her, watching as she slowly realized something was terribly wrong. That the name meant something to him, something bad. He'd thought her being a princess was the worst part of his problems, but now this? He couldn't have come up with a worse scenario if he'd tried.

"Orion?" she said softly, stepping toward him. She'd been angry a moment ago, he wasn't sure why. He'd said something that had offended her, so she'd thrown Draco's name at him. Now she was no longer angry, not after the way he'd reacted. He wasn't proud that he'd frozen up, but the name sent chills down his spine. He still hoped that he'd heard her wrong. He had to have heard her wrong.

"Orion?" she said again, now directly in front of him. He stared down at her. She had no idea what sort of danger she was in, that they were all in, if the Dragon Killer knew what they were. He was hunting her. Draco wasn't the kind of man that just gave up on something he wanted. And if he knew she was a dragon and she'd escaped? Well, he was coming after her, which meant he was coming after them all.

"Draco? King Draco of Linester?" he asked her, grabbing her shoulders. He squeezed, but didn't shake her like he wanted to. Her eyes widened in fear. He was scaring her, he needed to calm down. There was no immediate threat, Draco wouldn't find them any time soon. But his heart was still racing and his breathing was too fast. He chanted to himself to calm down, but he was well aware that the circumstances were now different; Draco knew they could disguise themselves as humans.

"Y-yes," she stammered up at him. She looked at where his hands gripped her shoulders. "Orion, you're hurting me."

He released her quickly; hurting or scaring her was the last thing he wanted to do. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"Draco scares you." She said it softly, with no judgement in her voice or eyes. In fact, there was empathy written all over her face.

Orion nodded slowly. "He's the only real threat we've ever faced, besides other dragons. He's more tenacious, and he's the only human with the ability to find us over and over again. He doesn't ever give up. And he has new cards to play now." His fingers raked through his hair and he closed his eyes. Whatever he'd been expecting in terms of a threat, it hadn't been this. He hadn't been at all prepared for that name to come out of her mouth.

"Are you going to send me away?" her voice shook slightly, and he realized that his reaction had only heightened her fear of Draco. He met her blue eyes, saw they were pleading. He realized she wanted to stay. No matter how much she wanted to leave, he saw that she realized the safest place for her was here. If she went back to her parents, Draco would kidnap her again and they would be right back where they had started. Except this time, Orion wouldn't be there to save her, and she knew where the clan was located. Sending her away was dangerous, but keeping her was as well. By keeping her, he would have two kings searching for her and, inadvertently, his clan. If she left, she would be in direct danger. The Alpha in him should have thought option two was the better one, because it would likely save his clan. But the part of him that cared about Skylar, and his dragon, who was very adamant about his feelings toward her, wouldn't be able to let her go. The thought of her being hunted and hurt, with no one around to help her, it broke his heart.

"No," he told her, his voice firm and unbending. His hands came up to gently wrap around her upper arms, his thumbs rubbing back and forth reassuringly. Their eyes met, and he studied her lovely features, which were filled with worry and fear. A primal need to make those feelings disappear washed through him, and he recalled the ancient feeling he'd gotten when their dragons had met for the first time, the pull he'd felt toward her. There hadn't been words to describe it, it was purely instinctual. It was there again, although this time it was much weaker, and she likely didn't even feel it. "I will not send you away."