Page 31

Her thoughts ran to Ninki, and she wondered if the other woman had heard that Aodh claimed her and what she thought about it.

Like Aodh, she hadn’t seen Ninki in the large hall, either.

A part of her mind taunted her with images of the two being together.

Fidelity wasn’t something preached about inside the wall.

Not when the government paid stipends for babies.

People got together with whomever they could to try and conceive.

She shoved away the wayward thought of Aodh caressing and kissing Ninki like others in the room. “So, is your boss here?”

“No. Before I left the office, Mckenna went out on his rounds, and then he was headed to the practice arena.”

Kai wanted to ask more questions, but she didn’t wish to give Yeongi the impression she missed his boss or needed to know his whereabouts every moment.

She was fine as long as Aodh wasn’t standing over her and harassing her with the nonsense of staying in his territory.

Or worse, setting his intense opal gaze on her and causing her mind to short circuit and her body to ache with need so dire all she wanted was for him to touch her, kiss, and caress her in ways that made her feel so good.

“Here’s the water.” Yeongi lifted a big pitcher.

So preoccupied with thoughts of the man, who she wasn’t trying to be distracted by, Kai didn’t realize they had arrived at the station. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. She hoped they had not been standing there for a while.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. Kai was glad Yeongi had come along because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to manage it.

She grabbed two glasses and let him fill them.

Kai wondered how children could get refreshments if the containers were so heavy.

That’s when she realized something she’d missed while staring at the couples engaging in sensuous acts: no youth younger than Eilidh and her group were present.

She figured most parents probably kept them at home in the evening if such lewd behavior happened in the hall.

“I think I can find my way back.” Kai turned toward the tables to return to her sister.

“I’m sure you can. However, I consider it an extension of my responsibility to the Mckenna to assist you where possible.”

His words reminded her of Tana’s vow. She could see it would be difficult getting Aodh’s people to comprehend she was more than capable of caring for herself and Morlie. “If you insist.”

Yeongi nodded and continued to walk with her. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to introduce you to Calida, my mate. I’m usually busy with my duties to the Mckenna, but she could be a friend for you.”

Kai smiled up at him as they walked back. “I think having a friend here would be helpful.”

Aodh’s interactions with her seemed genuine, but the man was so commanding and stubborn that having another’s perspective about things in the territory would be helpful.

Back at the table, she set one glass of water down and glanced toward the center of the floor where Morlie stood, moving to the music with her new friends.

Her sister looked a little awkward as she danced.

Morlie’s swaying hips and swinging arms weren’t as fluid as the others, but they didn’t have much time to dance beyond the wall.

It was work, work, work...and tend to the sick.

When they were younger, their mother occasionally borrowed a record player and albums from the archive room.

After dinner, she would let them dance and sing before bed, but that was before their parents became ill.

Kai turned one of the vacant chairs around so she could face the dance area. She observed the radiant joy that lit her sister’s eyes and pulled a wide smile over her lips. This was how she had always wanted to see Morlie—alive and free.

If you leave here, can you promise her that life?

“Kai, this is Calida.” Yeongi returned with a tall, curvy woman with thick, wavy, brown tresses hanging to her waist.

Kai smiled at the pretty woman, glad to get out of her head. “It’s nice to meet you, Calida.”

“Do you mind if I join you?” Calida gestured toward the empty seat beside her.

“Please do.” Once Calida had turned a chair around and sat, with Yeongi following suit next to his mate, Kai asked, “Do you work with the Mckenna, too?”

“Oh, no. My position is in Com. I help with communications for the territory and across the Great Heaths.”

Kai frowned. Staring into the woman’s face, she repeated the foreign term. “Great Heaths?”

Calida offered her a kind smile. “Yes, the deep, vast, cavernous area between the continents.”

“Ah, the oceans, you mean.” Kai figured it was simply varied terminology. She’d been taught geography during her years in the Dispatch school. The different oceans looked huge and appeared breathtaking. Kai hoped to see at least one of them eventually.

“No. The oceans, as we all knew them, no longer exist.”

What? Kai could only stare at the woman. Her mind could not seem to comprehend what the other woman was describing.

Yeongi leaned forward to look past his mate to Kai. “It is hard to explain. One day, maybe you can come by the leadership building and see the maps.”

Kai nodded and picked up her glass of juice for a drink.

Glancing back toward her happy, gyrating sister, she began to have doubts.

If what the two people beside her stated was true, that the world had changed so drastically in twenty-five years, what was in store for her and Morlie beyond Aodh’s territory?

Not only the possibility of other shifters or beasts but the land.

How would they navigate something neither of them knew anything about?

~YH~

Aodh lifted his cup and drank his beverage as he sat at the head of his table and watched Kai.

No one fucking told him Kai was there. Not that those in his thunder gave him a play-by-play of what was going on with the daily movements of his people’s lives.

But this was Kai. She was different. She was human.

Not to mention, Morlie was also there. He didn’t mind them being out of the smaller suite, but he would have preferred to introduce them to his people.

His gaze locked on Kai, who sat at the other end of his table, a short distance away.

She subtly rocked her upper body to the music as she conversed with Yeongi and Calida and kept an eye on her sister dancing in the center of the room with other youth.

Besides being thin, the young lady showed no signs of illness.

She had a broad smile as she mimicked the gestures of those around her.

The crowd on the impromptu dancefloor had grown substantially.

Some couples used it as an opportunity to incite their lust, while other unattached males used it to observe the pretty human closer.

But he didn’t miss the bold glances directed at the seated human—lust-filled eyes eager to take in Kai’s ample curves, more to their liking.

Hell, his kind would fuck either if given the opportunity. Some for the experience of being with a human, but others because dragon-shifters loved to fuck whoever and whenever.

However, none would touch either of them under his protection.

The dinner atmosphere was always lively.

Even though only a quarter of the thunder on any given day was in the meal hall of the McKenna building, there was often music and a good time.

A blazing fire burned in the big hearth.

Not because it was chilly, but dragon-shifters found the sight of flames both enchanting and relaxing after a day’s work.

He couldn’t take his gaze off Kai, but he still noticed how well Morlie was doing.

She showed remarkable strength and agility in the long hours since awakening.

He wasn’t sure if Kai had noted, but her younger sister’s movements and walk had a slight shimmer to them.

The human eye did not easily detect it unless someone understood what to look for.

Kai may have been around his people for over a week, but he wasn’t sure how much she was aware of when it came to his kind.

Aodh understood the healing smoke was only responsible for a fraction of Morlie’s changes.

It had more to do with her mark. He’d smelled it on her when he first came upon them.

Even through the rank stench of death poisoning her blood and deteriorating Morlie’s body from the inside out, the unique scent was paramount.

It was another reason several male Drahks, young and old, circled the young woman.

Unless he gave the word, no one would investigate further.

Regardless of who the mark linked Morlie to, Drahks still loved sex.

Aodh was still confident that without the word of the Mckenna, all would stay back. Besides, the way Kai watched her younger sister like a hawk-shifter, he didn’t put it past her to go up against anyone who moved toward Morlie.

And hell, that would put him in the mix.

There was no fucking way anyone would attempt to seduce Kai because they wanted a taste of human cream.

No. They would smell his scent on her, even without his dragon’s claiming.

Taking something of the Mckenna’s without permission was punishable by death.

Not that he was up to killing one of his people, but Kai was driving him to that level of madness.

“You are going to burn a hole in her back, brother.”