Page 11 of Feathers and Scales

“She seemed just as clueless about our kind as we are hers.”

Sarah nodded. “She may be trying to research then. It might not hurt to offer one of our journals in exchange for information about her. When she’s responsive, that is.”

“It’s not a bad idea. I should have one on the plane somewhere.”

“I also wish I knew why she’s in danger and wants to get to Tennessee.”

Daxton received tendrils of emotion along the mysterious link between him and Miss Tagalong, as though they were his own. Her fear overcast his mind. He wanted to protect her.But I can’t if she doesn’t tell me what’s going on.

He sighed. “Why aren’t you throwing a fit that she’s inside you?”

Sarah tapped her chin. “I didn’t lash out because I saw her injury and sensed your Mark on her. I consider her to be dragon trusted, so I don’t fear that she knows about us.”

The back of his neck tingled. “Did you say I Marked her?”

“You hadn’t realized?” Her eyes widened. “It’s not exactly the same. Normally my Insight picks up only a dragon-caused spirit tag, but she distinctly carries your energy. How is that possible?”

His heart stopped for a moment. “I have no idea.” Keiran would never permit a Mark. “Keiran can’t find out about this, or it’ll be my head.”

“You’re telling me. I can’t remember the last time Keiran gave his permission for a human to know about our kind. And she is far more dangerous than humans are.”

“He granted me permission for a Marking at the beginning of the previous century. He wanted the face of my company, Hough Prater, to know that not only did his voice, as the company’s CEO, fight for his fellow indigenous peoples’ lives, but also our civilization’s.”

When he had Marked Hough, it had been as simple as shaking his hand and transferring enough of his spirit energy to leave a Mark on him for other dragons to sense that Hough knew about the dragons. What had happened between him and Miss Tagalong was something else.

He didn’t understand why he grabbed her, but the primal compulsion in his mind had whispered,“Mine.” And her energy had reached back to form the link between them.

He squirmed from the memory of the blazing sensation of electric fingers trailing down his chest to his cock. But even as euphoria had rushed in, another sensation like embracing a warm and familiar shadow had spread throughout his body. To distract himself from the memory, he concentrated on the billowy clouds outside the plane window.

“If I Marked her, it was instinctual, but…” He paused, rubbing his sweaty hands against his jeans as he turned back to Sarah. He forced himself to continue, wanting her opinion as a friend much older than he, one with intimate knowledge of their spirit energy because she used it to heal others. “It was with my whole being, like our spirits melded.”

She exhaled softly. “Oh, dear.” Sitting up straight and leaning forward, she asked, “Did you touch her before that?”

“While she was inside me, my dragon curled around her, and I was content.”

Her mouth gaped open. “You mean…you didn’t want to shift?”

His heart vibrated with hesitant happiness. “I felt at peace.”

He hadn’t wanted to accept the reality, but Sarah’s reaction solidified it. Few things kept him from needing to transform into dragon form. He was a wild beast trapped inside a human body. Because of his far more dominant dragon for his young age, he was always sore from rigidity, and sometimes his stomach burned when the need to shift became unbearable. Ever since the incident a year ago, he’d feared becoming Lost to his dragon side, unable to shift back to human. He’d be a danger to his kind, killing anything in sight, and the Centurion would have no choice but to end his life. And that fear was what he used to keep himself safe—to keep himself under lock and key.

Like an unruly kid, the more energy he expended, the more docile his dragon became. Since he was a Hunter—a dragon who hunted Tattered Ones—physical activity subdued his need to transform for a brief time.

For Miss Tagalong to calm him, it meant something monumental.

Her kind might be the antidote to dragons becoming Lost. He didn’t want to lose her.

But the power she had over him also made him ready to bolt from the situation.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “In no way is she calming to me. Even with my desire to help heal her, I’m only tolerating her presence. She’s very draining.” She crossed her arms.

So, she soothes me but not Sarah. That complicates things.

“How are you coping now?” Sarah asked, eyebrows pinched with worry.

He snorted, his drumming fingers taking off once more. “My dragon is acting like a puppy, wanting a bone it can’t have. Though I guess that’s better than having it claw at my insides.”

Before Daxton reached the bottom of the plane’s stairs, his Insight picked out a younger dragon’s vulnerability and fear—coppery, sharp, and a little sour, like someone chewing on nails and second thoughts. Irritation burned in Daxton’s bones, and his head throbbed. Near the end of the trip, Miss Tagalong had created a barrier along the link between them. That shield caused his dragon’s calmness to go up in flames. His dragon prowled at the shield, looking for relief only the link could provide.