Broken Gates

Dragon Queen from my vision, but little else.

“And where exactly am I going?” I grated.

“She will let us know where and when it’s time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“It means we have a lot to talk about,” Khol said as he closed my bedroom door behind him.

4

“Knock, knock,” Jenna said as she walked right into my room and flopped onto my bed.

“You know saying knock, knock and then walking right into someone’s room is not the same thing as actually knocking and waiting for a reply.” I feigned annoyance at her, even though the truth was I missed her . . . a lot. It felt like we hadn’t had any real girl time in a long while and I had a feeling that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

“Your door was open,” she retorted.

“No,” I said as I stuffed the last of my clean laundry into my dresser, “It just wasn’t locked.”

“Same thing.”

“Not really,” I grumbled.

“So . . . you and Bryn are really over, huh?” I froze with my back to her, my heart tripling in time.

“Why, what do you know?” Had Bryn already mated with Nala? Wouldn’t I somehow just know? It couldn’t all be over like that . . . could it?

“Well, he did move out of your room, didn’t he? And I’ve seen him skulking around all moody and broody. So—yeah—I connected the dots. You’re not the only one that’s known him forever.”

My knees buckled with relief, and I slid to the ground. He hadn’t mated with Nala, at least not yet. “Oh thank God,” I gasped on a sharp intake of breath. Until he did, I still had a chance, and I wouldn’t believe otherwise. I scooted around so I could face Jenna, my back resting against my dresser. “Have you seen him hanging around with any female dragons . . . like Nala maybe?” I couldn’t seem to control my morbid curiosity.

Jenna’s laugh came out sounding like a sharp bark, and she eyed me with amusement from under her black fringe of bangs. “No, he’s been avoiding all female dragons like the plague. Especially Nala. Is that what he told you? That he was going to mate with someone else?”

I averted my eyes sheepishly. “Yeah, that’s exactly what he told me. Right after he told me that he wanted me to mate with Khol.”

Jenna groaned and slapped her hand against her forehead. “Men, I swear. If they weren’t so useful in the bedroom, I don’t think we would keep them around at all.”

I couldn’t help the smile that cracked my face. “Yeah, I guess.” In an effort to think about something else— anything else—I was about to do the unthinkable: I was actually about to ask Jenna about her sex life. “How are you and Macon doing?” And that was all it took to send Jenna off on a male bashing tirade. She went on and on for no less than fifteen minutes . . . For most of it I tuned her out until the end, when something caught my attention.

“And you know male dragons aren’t any different than any other males out there. They get all weird and possessive, and they freak out if you even talk to a friend that happens to be a guy.” She sighed loudly. “I just don’t know what to do.”

I felt my lips turn up in a wry smile. “Yeah, uh-huh . . . so who is he?” Jenna batted her dark eyelashes over her large brown eyes that appeared to be limpid pools of innocence. I knew better. “Don’t give me that face. Just spill it.”

She rolled onto her back and heaved another loud sigh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Reeeally? Are you actually going to try and pull that crap with me? I may not be a Speaker, but I know you.”

Jenna rolled over again onto her stomach so that she was facing me and perched her face on her hands. “I like Macon and all, maybe even more than like him, but we can never really be together. He’s a dragon and well . . . I’m not. He can’t mate with me.”

“So? It’s not like you can mate with anyone else either—you’re human,” I said as I rolled my eyes at her. This whole dragon mating thing may have seemed like an awesome thing in the beginning but now . . . not so much.

“So? Let me explain this to you P.J.—he can. He can mate with someone. How do you think I would feel if he felt the pull of some female dragon’s powers and because he can’t mate with me went off and hooked up with her? That could happen, and no one can tell me otherwise.”

“Yeah, okay, point taken. So this other guy isn’t a dragon . . .” My mind started shuffling through the very few possibilities that could fit that bill at the moment. And then it hit me. Holy Crap! “Jeremy. It’s Jeremy, isn’t it?” Wow. I most definitely did not see that one coming.

“No!” Jenna snapped back much too quickly. She began studying my bedspread very intently. “And even if it was . . . I can’t let Macon know until I’ve broken things off with him . . . He would kill . . . whoever.”

Whoever my ass! I internally huffed. Jenna was always getting so indignant when I didn’t spill all my inner most secrets to her, and yet she wouldn’t even come out and tell me that some kind of secret relationship was blooming between her and Jeremy. “Fine, whatever. But I don’t wanna hear another word . . . ever . . . about me keeping things from you.” I stood and stalked over to my closet. I felt a small pang in my chest when I looked at the empty left side where Bryn’s clothes used to hang. Why had I come over here again?

“Don’t be mad. I can’t help it,” Jenna groused.

My attention was suddenly diverted to a delicious mouthwatering aroma that was currently wafting through the air. “What is that smell?” I lifted my head and sniffed, following the scent like one of those cartoon characters led by their noses. It didn’t take me long to find the source of the delectable aroma—it was coming from a plate that Jeremy was carrying past my room with a steak and some other sides on it. I snatched the plate from him and attacked it like a wild animal. I noted his surprised face in the back of my mind as I gobbled down the entire meal, with my bare hands, in less than five minutes. When I was all finished, as I licked at my bloodied fingers, I looked up to see Jenna and Jeremy both staring at me with worry on their faces.

It was Jeremy that spoke first. “Does Bryn know?”

“Know what?” I asked as my stomach clenched unpleasantly. I rubbed my belly and frowned as a sudden wave of nausea hit me. “Oh my God, I think I’m going to be sick again.” I scrambled to make it to the bathroom, and luckily made it just in time to throw up the entire meal I had just eaten into the sink. I was going for the toilet . . . but oh well . . . at least it wasn’t on the floor.

Both Jenna and Jeremy crowded into the bathroom seconds behind me and Jenna gathered up my hair, but it seemed like my feelings of nausea had passed just as quickly as they had hit. I rinsed my mouth out with some mouthwash and turned to face my friends with embarrassment. I really hated getting sick in front of people. “Sorry guys. I think I must be coming down with something, or maybe it’s left over ickiness from the coma.”

Jeremy studied my face for a minute with furrowed brows. He finally seemed to come to some conclusion and shock washed across his face. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Both Jenna and I asked at the same time.

“That you’re . . .” He paused to look around and pushed the bathroom door shut behind us, which clicked closed ominously. “That you’re pregnant,” he whispered.

“I’m not pregnant!” I squeaked as I felt all of the color drain from my face.

“Of course you’re not,” Jenna said reassuringly, while she shot Jeremy a nasty glare. “Why would you upset her by saying something like that?”

“Because it’s true,” Jeremy said as he eyed us both warily like we might attack him at any moment.

“And you would know that becau—?” Jenna clamped her mouth shut mid sentence and turned to deliver me a stricken look.

“What?” I squeaked, a feeling of complete and utter dread settling over me.

“Jenna just remembered how I could know. I even knew when you were a virgin, P.J., remember? Just from