Broken Gates

Khol bared his teeth at me in a mock smile, a growl erupting from his chest. “It would serve the purpose of you being able to see if he’ll pull away from you even more. If the fact that I am your lover now too scares him away, then his love isn’t pure . . . not like mine.”

“No sane guy would be happy to find out what happened between us! Of course it’s going to bother him! You can’t tell me it doesn’t bother you to know what Bryn and I’ve done together!”

“Yes, it bothers me,” he hissed. “And it should bother him if he truly loves you, which he does, in his own way, but it shouldn’t run him off. When a dragon loves, he loves unconditionally, and if you came to me after being with a thousand men, I would love you just the same. My love for you will never change, fade, or die.”

“He’s not fully dragon!” I screeched with frustration.

Khol tugged me closer to him with the hand that was still threaded in my hair. “But you and I are. And someone like you—a full-blooded dragon—will never be satisfied unless you are loved completely. The way you deserve. I had my doubts before, even when I thought you were half human. You will crave more than he can give you.” Yes . . . more. My body seemed to call out, and fresh feelings of lust ignited in me, my eyes dropping to his lush lips on their own accord. What would happen if I initiated a kiss for the second time this evening? I hadn’t exactly minded the results the first kiss had yielded. But Khol pushed me away and stood before I could make my move. “Put your clothes back on . . . what’s left of them. It’s time for us to return.”

“But the note said—”

“That time has passed.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I just do.”

I hastened to pull my clothes back on, eager to get back to the compound and away from our fight. No good could come from it, either we’d end up saying things we didn’t mean, or I would end up letting him claim me despite my determination to stick to my plan. But I couldn’t help but wonder . . . Was Khol right? Did it matter that I was a dragon and Bryn wasn’t? Maybe I wanted things from Bryn that his genetic makeup made impossible for him to give me. I’d always thought that love conquered all. And I believed that was still true. But maybe the question wasn’t would love conquer all, but rather whose?

7

“My liege,” The short, stocky balding man said as he hunched over into a bow in front of his master. “I have news.”

“Well,” his master snapped, “stop sniveling on the ground in front of me and spit it out.”

The man shakily pulled himself up to his full height of about 5’5” and attempted to meet his master’s eyes. “There are whispers . . .”

“Spit it out,” his master interjected with anger. “Whispers of what?”

“Whispers that their queen has risen.”

“No!” His master bellowed, slamming his meaty fist into his desk. “Their queen has been gone for decades, presumed dead.” A hush fell over the large room that seemed to tick on for hours; finally the master spoke again. “What of our contact?”

The short man started shaking uncontrollable at the question. “D-dead,” he stammered. “The dragon sent only his head back, apparently—apparently—”

“Apparently what?”

“Apparently he felt very put out about the fact the girl was injured. The boy was to be our only target.”

“The girl must die,” his master growled, his human facade threatening to slip. “Find another way.”

“Yes, my liege.” The man made a hasty retreat toward the door.

“And Terrance,” his master called. “No more excuses. I’ve grown to like this planet and all it has to offer. I’m not about to let the dragons and one silly little Seer put a stop to my plans.”

The man nodded as he left, not wanting to linger for fear of having to bear the brunt of his master’s anger. He’d gotten off light this time, but he had no misgivings about what would happen if he failed a second time. The girl had to die at any cost.

8

Khol ushered me back to the compound and deposited me in his room with the order to stay put until he came to get me. He muttered something about announcing me to the dragons, which I could only take one way . . . that he wanted to declare me their queen. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that, being that I was a little wrapped up in the current deteriorating state of my love life.

As my mind wandered, I couldn’t help but wonder if the haphazard writing on my locker last year that had declared me to be a slut hadn’t been a portent of the future, instead of just the words of some mean spirited student. Was I now in fact a slut? When the number of guys I’d had sex with had gone from one to two, because it hadn’t exactly been my idea, it didn’t feel as wrong as it did to have let Khol give me his intimate kiss when I was still involved with Bryn. The fact was my body craved both of them, and my heart loved both of them, but that didn’t mean that gave me the right to have loose morals. I’d never thought myself the type of girl who would treat such intimacies with such a cavalier attitude. If not for the fact that it would have caused me to be mated to Khol, I probably would have begged him to make love to me earlier. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hard on Jenna all these years.

A knock preceded Khol’s door swinging open and I looked up from my pensive perch on the edge of his bed to see Jeremy striding into the room. He smiled, a look of relief washing over his face. “Hey, Khol told me you were back. I’m beyond relieved everything turned out okay.”

I harrumphed. “Okay. Yeah, whatever.” If okay meant that my whole world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes by my dear old Queen Mummy, then yeah, everything was okay.

His smile faltered as he studied me. “What happened?”

“Where’s Jenna?” I grumbled. “I really think she’s the one I need to talk to right about now.”

He scowled and clenched his jaw. “She’s with Macon, fighting.”

“But I thought she broke it off with him? I mean that’s the way it seemed to me.”

“He doesn’t want to let her go.” Jeremy started pacing. “And I can’t really blame him.”

“Oh, I see.” Although I didn’t. Well, not really. I mean if Jenna didn’t want to be with Macon anymore, he should just let her go, you can’t make someone stay with you. Shit. Wasn’t that exactly what I was doing with Bryn? I shook my head with uncertainty. No, it was different with Bryn and me because Bryn actually loved me. Jenna wanted someone else. Totally different. End of story. “Does he know about you two yet?”

Jeremy stopped his pacing and came to sit beside me on the bed. “No, there isn’t any us yet. Not really.” He then flopped back on the bed with a huge sigh. “I think she still wants to be with him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Besides him being a dragon and her being human puts a lot of obstacles between them. Obstacles that Jenna doesn’t seem very inclined to wanna deal with.”

Jeremy’s eyes slid shut and he spoke through clenched teeth. “I don’t wanna be her second choice just because it’s too hard to be with him. You of all people should understand that.”

“Yeah, I do.” My thoughts turned to my baby and how I hadn’t wanted Bryn to know that I was pregnant so it wouldn’t affect his choices regarding our relationship. But Khol had let that cat out of the bag, and now everything was so tangled up that I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get things unknotted. My hand rose involuntarily to my stomach. The motion comforted me for some reason. “Maybe she’s just a little confused right now, but that