Page 26 of Microburst

“What did I just witness?” Thorn asked, and I couldn’t have agreed more.

Something seriously happened with Sagan and I had no idea what was going on. It bothered me though.

It really bothered me because I felt like I was looking at a different person almost… And her family seemed worried. The ancient Belinda was equal parts amused and worried.

I did a double take when I saw one of the other ancients studying me in a way that unnerved me. He was a spirit dragon like me and I felt like I’d done something wrong almost.

The meeting was over after that, but there was clearly more to handle. Sagan just didn’t want to deal with any of us or any more idiots from what I’d heard Myriam say.

I wanted to jump right into the next project to keep busy since it would take Benson a few days to get the test flights arranged. I met up with Cosmo to get caught up and realizedhe was completely in over his head. His education was in architecture, like designing buildings and cityscapes.

But he had no real experience. Fine, he’d interned on construction sites and knew the materials, but… He didn’t know how to manage crews or really anything.

And Sagan was more than fair in saying Rigel did nothing but whine, bitch, and moan. Fucking dipshit.

So basically, I walked into a mess that couldn’t be a mess or the Alphas would try and blame her and take it over—take it from her.Butif I fixed it all and made it work, those two assholes could take the credit for it.

“You ever had Khirriln wine?” Sagan asked from my left as I stepped out onto the veranda.

I legit jumped and heard something pop as my head snapped in her direction. She was sitting where I had been before when she’d found me drinking my smuggled cognac.

“I know you like wine,” she said as she extended the bottle towards me.

“Cognac isn’t really wine,” I hedged and moved closer to accept it.

She snorted. “All made with grapes. Don’t be that ‘um actually’ dickhead.”

I snickered, liking this snarky side of her. “You good?” I took a swig when she didn’t say anything and licked my lips before taking another. “Fuck, this is good.”

“Right?”

“Yeah, glad you lifted the embargo.” I smiled when she snorted. “I’m keeping this.”

“Give me my wine,” she grumbled and held out her hand.

“You good?” I whispered as I gave it over but didn’t let go of the bottle.

She searched my eyes and seemed to come to some sort of internal decision. “Would you mate me if it was just us and no feelings involved?”

I assumed I was hallucinating. “What?”

“No others or consorts, but no falling in love like you said. Just a partnership and… Fuck buddies? Is that the right term? Just sex, but we’re partners in crime?” She snorted and yanked the bottle away. “I don’t ever want to be in love like her.”

“Who?”

She ignored my question. “Would you?” She nodded when I didn’t answer. “Yeah, I didn’t think so, and the answer could never be that simple for me.” She took a drink and then stood, handing it back over. “You can finish it.”

I ignored the bottle and grabbed her arm. “Seriously, what’s going on?” The colors around her were distracting and all over the place like I’d never seen before—never seen from her.

She stared down at my hand, but not in a bad way, more like she was surprised I cared enough to stop her. Then she slowly met my gaze. “You know that competition we were having that neither of us really wanted to win? I won. I so fucking won and I’ve never been so disappointed to be an overachiever before.”

“I have no idea what that means,” I admitted.

She shoved the bottle in my hand and yanked her arm away. “I really wish you had fucking won. I wanted to come in second for once.” She snorted. “I always come in first and that’s not—I wasn’t supposed to be first this time anyways.”

She wouldn’t answer me what she meant and shoved me away when I tried to follow after her. Seriously, something happened, and evidently it was so bad that I felt like I was watching her shatter in real time.

It just didn’t make sense though. I mean, I felt like I was looking at a puzzle I was missing a piece for, so I called Uncle.