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“Are you going to repeat everything I say?” I asked but didn’t give him time for a response.

“I told him I would, in some ways, feel safer on Earth. Don wants me, which he made a point to say.” I glared at Kal for good measure in case he thought I’d forced his brother to be with me.

“But he wanted me to go back to where I would be the happiest. Honestly, he couldn’t accept the fact that I might not like being here in the future or resent him for staying.

“I can’t predict what I will or won’t feel,” I said. “And unlike you and Mindy, he couldn’t get past it. So we decided that we needed some space. Our relationship happened super quickly, and we both needed to think about what we want. We’re still together, but we’re taking a breath.”

Kal stared at me like I was a moron.

I stood. “You know what? I’m out.”

“Vince,” he called. “Stop. Please.”

It was the “please” that made me freeze at the door.

“I forget that humans don’t understand us, much like we don’t always understand you.”

I turned around, and Kal walked toward me. I refused to flinch or cower, not that I actually thought he would harm me. Annoying as he was, I was far more likely to punch Kal than he was me. Stupid for such a small guy as I was, but, hey, that was me.

“Dontilvynsan would give up everything for you. His happiness, his peace, his soul, and even his life would be nothing compared to yours in his mind. If you would feel safer on Earth, then of course he is going to insist you go. You are the most important thing to him.”

My pulse thudded in my ears. And I asked, even though I was fairly certain I knew the answer, “What are you saying?”

“You’re Dontilvynsan’s mate.”

I had no words, but Kal apparently did.

“We’ve known for a while, and by we, I mean myself, the rest of my brothers and Monqilcolnen.”

Those fucking fuckers of fucktown.

“Dontilvynsan told us not to tell you. He didn’t want to pressure you into staying.”

“So,” I started, holding up a hand, “he was going to let me get on a ship to Earth, knowing it might kill him?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to kill him,” I growled. “That bastard. What? Did he think you lot wouldn’t break down and tell me before I wiped my goddamn memory?

Of course you would, and then I would’ve been pissed the whole way back to him.

That selfless asshole. Why doesn’t he value himself?

I’m going to kill him. I swear I’m going to strangle him within an inch of his life, then make him promise to never lie to me again. ”

I glanced at Kal, and his expression was murderous. I took a step back, swallowing.

“You will not harm my brother,” he all but snarled, tail thrashing.

So drakcol also didn’t understand hyperbole. Fantastic. “I’m not serious, Kal. I would never hurt Don. Not ever. I love him.”

“Humans sometimes hurt those they claim to love.”

My eyes flicked to the bedroom door. Seth had lived through such situations.

I shook my head. “I’m not like them. When humans are angry, we sometimes spout things we don’t actually mean.

Ask Don yourself. I have never hurt him, and I never will.

I’m just mad—furious really. I’d give up everything for him. ”

Kal forced a smile, but I could tell he was pissed because the barest amount of light gathered under his scales, and his tail flicked incessantly.

He took a deep breath before he said, in an almost normal voice, “Dontilvynsan has always acted as if his only worth is what he can do for others. You, being his mate, would be the hardest for him to burden.”

Don being a burden? Kal had to be kidding.

Don could never be a burden. He was sweet, funny, smart, kind, and loyal to a fault.

I loved him. Something clicked in my brain, and my pulse raced.

If I didn’t think Don was a burden, then maybe, just maybe, he didn’t think me and my problems were one either.

Maybe, like me, he simply wanted me and the rest didn’t truly matter… It was too much to hope for, but maybe.

“He would hate thinking you were only staying because he needed you to,” Kal continued.

That I got. Everyone wanted to be chosen, not to be the last pick in dodgeball that someone was forced to be with. While it had been a shock, falling in love with Don had been a sequence of choices, none of which I regretted.

I nodded. “I get it.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Hmm, make him suffer.”

Kal growled, and I smirked. God, he was easy now that I knew what button to push.

“I’m going to think about how I can make sure Don knows I’m choosing him,” I said with a shrug.

He smiled, the first real one he’d ever shot in my direction, and it made me want to punch him. “Good,” he said. “You can always seek the Crystal. It’s very romantic.”

I rolled my eyes. Nothing like a floating rock to spell romance. “Yes, and when it spits out some random dude or Mindy as my mate, I’m sure everyone will be thrilled .”

“You don’t believe Dontilvynsan is your soulmate?”

“I don’t think it matters. I pick Don, soulmate or not. But if you think some mystical bond will make him assured of me, then I’ll think about it.” In some ways it would be nice if I was Don’s soulmate. I’d no longer worry about some random person showing up and trying to steal him.

Kal pursed his lips, as if he was truly thinking about it. “I believe it might comfort Dontilvynsan. He would know you are his, never to be taken away. Possession is a strong need for us drakcol.”

That I knew. Well, it might not be a bad idea, unless the Crystal screwed me over, then it would suck ass.

“I’ll think about it,” I said before slipping out the door.