Page 80 of Microburst

No one could ever catch my eye after her, and even if I had to walk through all the fires she would make to protect herself, I knew she would be worth it. Our life together would be worth it even if she had forty mates.

I really hoped she didn’t have forty mates… And I could start sleeping over because I wanted nothing more than for her to wake in my arms.

She tried to act like nothing was different the next morning during the run, but I could see it was for her too. Everyone else simply knew something was going on with her becausenone of uscould keep up with how fast she was jogging.

“Okay, I can’t,” Ayao groaned and slowed down. “Fucking machine. I’m pathetic.”

One by one we dropped off, and it didn’t take long. We were past the point of most trying to save our egos about how we were bigger and carried more weight and that was harder to run with.

Especially when one of the recent ancients Belinda had brought in was maybe one of the largest,widestdragons I’d ever seen and was the only one who could run with Sagan until she sprinted for real. When we tapped out, we went to the training area and jumped into what was next, breaking off into our normal cliques.

“Thank you for taking over the scholarship program and getting the rest of everything finalized,” Velle said quietly as I stretched with her, Myriam, and Princess Treena. “I really was doing my best. It’s just not something I was familiar with.”

“People were intentionally fucking you, Velle. I’m sorry my species is so blind to the lies they’ve been fed and saw only you’re a smaller flying beast instead of what you were doing for our people,” I said gently.

She looked away and let out a shaky breath, clearly needing to hear someone say that or acknowledge that things had been rough for her. I gave Myriam and Treena looks that I wasn’t kidding and they both nodded, looking ashamed almost.

“You all have had too much on your shoulders—ridiculous amounts that would have made seasoned government workers drown. It’s beyond impressive and I’m glad you have help now. I’m sorry you didn’t have it sooner or know who to trust.”

Myriam cleared her throat. “Yeah, it was a few days of tripping up and there will be some more training for sure, butdamn those women are smart. We basically got a whole team of hardworking, happy to pitch in, and dedicated help when we needed them most.”

“And loyal,” Treena chuckled. “I…” She shook her head and looked lighter.

I was glad it was going better for them. It probably wouldn’t last long, but it was a win for now.

One of Benson’s right hands who was working with us to “make us useful to protect the queen, not just to try to impregnate her like our fucked-up families wanted” came out and announced it was time for sparring. If nothing else, I loved how some of the people in the castle made it crystal clear how loyal they were to Sagan, not just the royal family.

Hopefully, that helped her heal from what she’d learned and been through.

I saw the opportunity I’d been wanting and grabbed Vigor from Clovergarde by the collar, yanking him back. “I’m stepping in.”

“You’re not who I’m paired up with,” Rigel, the Alpha of Selka’s son, said nervously as he backed away from me. “I don’t even know you. I think Kole’s a dick too and haven’t said shit about you going against your family.”

“Yeah, not about that and we both know it,” I chuckled darkly and smiled brightly at him. “This bill is long overdue.” I wasn’t sure if he thought I was fucking around with him because he stupidly rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t ever disrespect her again.”

And then I knocked him out with one punch. I let out a long breath, my dragon smirking inside of me as well. Then I spun around and locked gazes with Thorn.

“Your turn, mother fucker.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “Sure, I’ve got a few things to say as well.”

And yet we both knew we weren’t going to be talking at all.

“Hey, this isn’t for brawling,” the Queen’s Guard who was coordinating all of this called over.

It was actually amusing when we both gave him the one-finger salute as we walked towards the other.

Thorn swung first and seemed shocked when I easily blocked it. I landed a hit to the stomach that I wanted to hurt.

I wanted all of this to hurt, not just to make a point and knock him out like Rigel.

He managed to land a few shots, one to my shoulder especially that would definitely require some ice and take a bit to heal. But I was older and definitely stronger—took training andsurvivalmore seriously.

There were a few times that it was clear Thorn knew how to take a punch and that made me pause, sad for his situation because evidently his uncle wasn’t just a bastard but an abusive one. It didn’t justify what he’d done to Sagan though—wasdoing to Sagan by dragging her into his mess and not helping her enough to make it out unscathed.

I landed a particularly painful-looking shot to his face and blood exploded from his nose. It took him down to one knee and I leaned in with a smirk, lowering my voice. “That’s for whatever you did that hurt her and keeps her from waking in my arms, you piece of shit.”

Rage filled his eyes, putting it together that we’d slept together, so he didn’t even notice that I was lying that I didn’t know what happened. I wouldn’t betray Sagan’s trust that she’d told me the truth. She took keeping confidence seriously and I respected that about her.