Her Dragon Guardian (Dragons of Mount Valen Book 1) by Riley Storm

Author:Riley Storm [Storm, Riley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: High House Press
Published: 2020-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Ares

Things were not going well.

He’d been so caught up in worrying about how Tara would react once she found out his last name, that he hadn’t thought about how it might affect her.

“Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” he said quietly. “I…I was worried how you might react.”

“How’s that working out for you now?” she said wryly, leaning heavily on the counter.

“Um, well, it’s bad. Not the sort of bad I was expecting, but still bad.”

Tara frowned at him. “What were you expecting? I mean, I saw you looking at me first. That was not a fun feeling, being so openly judged like that.”

Ares looked away. That was twice in the span of a few minutes now where he’d wronged Tara, and it dug at him. She’d gotten up early, repaired his clothes—clothes she had bought for him—and was clearly making enough food for both of them, and he was destroying all of that in seconds.

“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it. “Normally when I tell people who I am, my last name, they react poorly. Or their opinion of me changes. I liked the way you looked at me, the way you treated me. I didn’t want that to change.”

Tara’s expression softened in understanding. “Oh.”

He shrugged. “But you’re right. I’ve already taken your measure, I didn’t mean to—and shouldn’t have—taken it again like that. Especially so blatantly. I can imagine people judging you like that is not pleasant at all.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she agreed. “But I can understand it from your perspective at least. Once you tell people your last name, they only see you for your status and your wealth I assume.”

Ares nodded. “Yes,” he agreed, watching her carefully.

There was something about what she’d said that caught his attention. The way she’d said it? What did it mean? He didn’t have time to think it over, because she pulled him back into the conversation right away.

“You told me earlier that you had no enemies,” she said quietly. “Was that true? It seems natural that a family like yours would have made enemies along the way. Others who would want to hurt you.”

“It’s tough to explain,” he said quietly. “But as far as I’m aware, no, we don’t have any that would do something like this.”

He didn’t tell her that lately the dragons of Five Peaks, all five clans, had been coming under attack from various hostile entities. The last of those had happened months ago, however, when the Cado, the criminal organization run by dragons who cared more about power than protecting humans, had been destroyed.

Since then, throughout the entire winter, things had been quiet. Uneventful. The problem with the Cado was over.

Wasn’t it?

Ares wasn’t so sure anymore. He’d initially dismissed this as being unrelated, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered. After all, someone had hired the Cado to come to Five Peaks.

So there was someone out there, someone who wanted the dragons gone. Who wanted the Gate they guarded left unprotected.

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