The females glower at each other.
But before they can continue, Tabach interjects. “Did she touch you first, Zaeyr?”
“Yes.”
“What happened after?”
“Aida ran, and I chased after her.”
Tabach nods. “And you have brought her back to us. Thank you.”
“Only for her safety—assuming this place is safe for us. She is mine. We need a place to nest.”
“She’s yours?” Aida’s mother asks.
“Nesting? What is nesting?” Nata adds.
“We have not accepted your claim on my daughter!” Tabach stammers.
I growl. “You have no choice in the matter, old one! She is mine regardless—not yours, not anymore.” Aida shifts uncomfortably next to me. “If you knew anything about dragons, it is that once we mate, we remain with them until our dragonling is raised, protecting them, caring for them, nesting with them only. No female, femdragon or otherwise, could come between that. Even if she seeks the protection of an alpha male too, there are no others. I seeded Aida—chose her to carry my young—Delina wanted that as well. I denied her, pushed her away.” My voice darkens. “She is not honorable for coming to me when she reeks of another.”
Silence falls again between the humans. I find I do not like this or them, wanting to take Aida away, understanding now why my little human did not want to face her tribe. They ask inane questions. I have never been accused of such a thing in my life.
If I assaulted a femdragon, she would kill me. If not her, others.
“And nesting?” Nata asks again.
“A place to stay during gestation,” I snap.
Aida buries her face into her hands.
Shyn gasps. “She is pregnant? How can you know such a thing? It’s only been days!”
“If she is not yet pregnant, she will be within days,” I warn. “That is how I know.”
Some of the elders gaze at me in disbelief, some shake their heads.
“Aida… you are… you know what this means?” Shyn turns to her daughter, saying her name softly. Her face falls. “What are we going to do about your sister? Leith?”
“I don’t know,” Aida says, raising her face.
“Are you—are you happy?”
Aida smiles at her mother. “Yes.”
Tabach, still stammering, flares his nostrils. “We still have not accepted your union.”
I snarl. “Do you not listen, human?”
“Father!” Aida snaps. “Enough. We will leave if you don’t accept us.”
My heart warms at her words. She chooses me over her people, just as I choose her, humanity and all. Taking her hand, I stand, helping her rise with me. My human does not need this, these people. “You do not deserve her,” I tell them.
If her people worried about their future, they would not let us walk away. I could help them. I could extend my protection to them, for Aida’s sake, for our future offspring.
But no one says a word.
“Come,” I tell her. It is time for us to go. Any longer and I may go back on my own words and harm the others. Aida nods, and we head to the door. “We will leave.”
With silence behind us, we walk out together.
19
The Final Night
“Wait!”
Hearing my mother run up behind us, I turn and she envelopes me in her arms. Tensing, she holds onto me tighter, and I slowly ease in her embrace. Zaeyr never lets go of my hand. “Don’t go,” she begs. “Your father will come around. He… he—”
Pulling back. “He what?”
Seeing Mother cry makes me want to cry. I hold my tears back. She’s a tough woman, one of the toughest. I’ve watched as over and over she’s held Sand’s Hunters together through her grit alone. I realize I’ve already forgiven her… Was there anything to forgive in the first place?
My heart sinks.
“He thinks you’re too good for another, Aida. That there is no male the world over that deserves you.”
I stiffen at her words, at her touch. “Why would he think that?” Father and I barely have a relationship.
“He sees himself in you. He loves you.”
My anger returns and I pull out of her embrace. “Tabach only cares about the tribe.”
Mother wipes her tears away. “No, Aida. He may be a hard man, but he is not without softness. All he does is for you and his family, so you may have a home—a place to be proud of.”
I finally dare to ask the question I had been wondering all month. “Did he… did he choose Delina for Leith?”
Zaeyr growls at the mention of Leith’s name.
Mother’s eyes drop for an instant. It’s all the answer I need.
Father was the one who broke my heart, not the tribe.
I gulp, pain zipping through me. “Why?” I whisper. After everything, after spending my whole life proving myself…
“Last season,” she swallows, straightening, “when we traveled to Shell Rock for the oyster harvest. He had Leith—” Zaeyr growls again “—come to him after seeing the young male kissing mermaids. They spoke at great length.”
I remember the harvest; it wasn’t that long ago. Issa and I had roamed the isles by her home for pearls—pearls to add to my mating dress. The dress Delina wore instead…
We only procured a dozen, but it was a great day regardless, having encountered a lusty merman who followed us, bringing us the prettiest shells from beneath the waves. In the end, he’d been driven off by a sea snake. So Issa and I killed it, bringing home its glittering pink and blue skin to make coverings for her.
It was one of those rare days Issa was allowed to be free of her ward, of Leith. I recall because I wanted him to join us…
He had no interest in hunting pearls. Instead, he chose to sit by the lagoon and sharpen his spear.
“They spoke?”
Mother shakes her head. “I don’t know what they said, but his opinion of Leith fell that day. The male is young,
