Page 9 of Dragon AU

The person revealed on the other side of the greasy paper was none other than the tree-chained lunatic who’d bitten him.

Those icy blue eyes widened as they landed on him, shock rippling across his face and his jaw dropping. Rowan didn’t know what his own face was doing. Was there steam coming out of his ears now?

“You!” they said at the same time.

“Who?” Troy glanced between them.

“Hey,” Cornelius said. “Isn’t that—”

“Have a chicken wing, Cornelius.” Rowan slid the bag onto the table carelessly while he grabbed Milo’s arm with the other hand and tried to drag him from the room.

Only, just like at the tree, Milo would not be moved.

“What the hell, sasquatch? Keep those claws to yourself before I sue your scaly ass!”

Rowan let go like he’d been burned, if he could be burned that is, flushing as red as his eyes but still scowling.

“What are you doing here?” Rowan demanded.

“My job? What does it look like?” Milo propped his hands on his hips.

It was a normal response. Completely plausible.

Rowan was not in a normal headspace.

“Are you trying to infiltrate our meeting?”

“Infiltrate?” Milo scoffed. “Oh, of course. You’ve uncovered our geriatric spy society that gathers intel via chicken wing deliveries. How ever will we recover from this blow to our organization? We’ll all have to go on the run. Look out for us on Elderly’s Most Wanted.”

There were a few stifled laughs throughout the room, and Rowan felt his neck heat up at being publicly ridiculed and it being so obvious that he was being a moron.

“Why the hell would I want to infiltrate your stupid, stuffy meeting? There’s nothing in here that I want to see.” Milo continued to rant, gesturing wildly and freezing when he saw the slide on the board.

Which was about the destruction of his building.

Rowan felt the uncomfortable squirm in his chest turn into an all-out squeeze around his organs, especially his heart and lungs.

This was his job, so why did he want to throw Cornelius’s laptop out of the window? Why did he want to apologize? Why did he care?!

It was driving him mad.

Milo’s hands clenched into fists and he turned to Rowan with an angry flush high on his cheeks and spreading down his neck. “You’re really not going to stop, are you? After everything I told you.”

He started to close the distance between them, and Rowan found himself backing up despite his size.

Milo reached out and grabbed his tie, yanking Rowan down until they were nose to nose. Out of his periphery Rowan saw Troy stand up, as if to go get security but Rowan held up a hand to stop him, keeping his eyes on Milo’s, which were shifting wildly.

Wait…

Rowan studied his eyes closer, watching the pupil shift into a slit and back in the wake of his anger.

“I’m not going to let you destroy that building. It’ll be over my dead body, got it?”

“How is that possible?” Rowan whispered out loud, nose tingling from a crisp scent rising that was definitely not his own natural smoky one. It reminded him of pink noses in winter, the scent cold and clean like snow.

“It’s completely possible! You will have to murder my ass before—”

“How are you a dragon?” Rowan asked.