Page 26 of So I Dared a Dragon (The Mating Game #6)

twenty-six

. . .

Aarix

After all the grief I’d given Magnus and Luca about being glued to their new phones, the tables had turned once Calista went out of town. I couldn’t stop looking at the blasted thing, waiting for her next message. Sometimes they were detailed accounts of what she and Bibi were up to, others were pictures of places they’d stopped along the way. Or just an emoji, a concept I was having a lot of fun becoming familiar with.

But my favorite updates were when she had a chance to steal away from Bibi, usually in the bathroom of their hotel room, and send me pictures of her. She was gorgeous in all the outfits that she showcased—usually a sweater and jeans, but the most delicious ones were when she wore nothing but her scales. She looked like a warrior goddess, like the sun radiated straight from her.

“He got another message,” Luca said. “He’s grinning at his phone again.”

Bibi left me alone , the message read, and this picture was her naked on her bed, with the sheet strategically wrapped around her to just tease. The curtains were open, and even though no one could see into the room, it felt dangerous, forbidden.

I can’t wait until you come back, I typed. And we can create these stolen moments all the time.

Magnus groaned, which was his default response when the topic of Calista came up. I did my best to let it roll off my back, but it was getting harder. As much as I didn’t want to let her come between us, she was my mate.

“You shouldn’t have let them go without you,” he rumbled. “We don’t know who’s threatening her. And she’s not watching out for herself the way an experienced guardian would.”

“The places they’ve gone aren’t like Sunset Springs or Summerland. We’re lucky to have spent time in towns where humans are used to sharing space with supernatural creatures. If I’d gone with them, it would have been chaos, and they would’ve gotten nothing accomplished. Hugo’s watching them.”

Or so he said. His disdain for Calista was palpable, and it was hard to let another beast take the reins on a job that I should’ve been doing when my mate was obviously not his top concern. But Bibi was. Still, he should have insisted on going with them. He shifted completely to human, and despite being bigger and stronger than the other humans in town, he blended in with them well.

I looked at my phone again, hungry for another message from Calista. Preferably another picture of her. But my screen was blank.

When will you visit your friend? I asked. Calista and Bibi had arrived in the little town yesterday and had given themselves the evening to get acclimated.

They needed to get in and out of there fast, because Magnus was right—a gorgeous woman with scales and a drag queen wolf shifter were sure to capture attention wherever they went. And no one was there to help them if it was the wrong kind of attention.

“I’ve been putting together what I found at the museum.” Luca could always be counted on to keep the peace and bring focus back to his favorite subject—research. “The curators said they’d found the red stone at one of their excavation sites, but they didn’t have any information about it.”

“It’s fake,” Magnus growled. He’d worked with the precious gems and metals in our horde before we’d been imprisoned, and while we were in the mountain, it had been his job to find the most powerful stones to appease the Night God. “Wasting time on this is a fool’s errand.”

“I understand why you want to make such a bold claim, but we’re working with creatures who need answers they understand,” Luca said patiently. “Wendy put me in touch with a modern gemologist, who used a fascinating process called carbon dating to find out how old the stone is by studying the inclusions in it.”

“That supports Magnus’s theory,” I countered. “The Guardian Stone is the purest ruby there is. It has no inclusions.”

“All minerals carry a unique vibration. Inclusions would change their power,” Magnus added.

Luca pressed his lips together. “Of course I know that. We’ve been working with those vibrations for years. However, I think we should give this technology a chance to deepen our understanding of what we can do with the stones. The equipment available today is much more sensitive that the magnifiers we used in the past. Modern gemstones have been heat treated. The Guardian Stone is pure and raw. The specimen we found at the museum came back as what they now call a triple-A-grade stone, which is in the top one percent of stones. It’s clear with a very small percentage of inclusions. He believes the gem dates back several thousand years, but that doesn’t give us any definitive information because he can’t determine when it was mined. Only when it formed. But still, this is fantastic news. It may not have come from the heart of the Guardian Stone, but it’s possible that the Rocky Mountain thunder never had as pure a specimen as we had.”

“We won’t know anything until we get inside that mountain,” Magnus said, picking up his phone. “If that stone we found is important and potent enough to get excited about, it would’ve never been left behind.”

But Luca was far too excited about the discovery to care about any criticism. “We should really have the Guardian Stone tested—"

“There’s no need for that,” Magnus growled.

“When Calista returns, we’ll bring the stone to this gemologist.” Luca refused to back down.

“You’re right.” I expected the glare from Magnus. “But there’s no way we can let that stone out of our sight.”

“It’s out of our sight now,” Magnus reminded me. “And it has been ever since you gave it to Calista. She has no idea how powerful that stone is.”

“And so far, it’s protected her.” The tension was too thick between us. “And it will continue to do so until she returns.”

“I’ve already asked if we can accompany the stone to the lab for examination. Wendy doesn’t seem to think that would be a problem,” Luca said. “The gemologist doesn’t need to know what significance the stone holds for us. All we need is to find out if the composition in the same as the stone found on this site. Then we’ll know if this new stone holds any significance.”

Magnus threw his hands up in the air. “We’re getting distracted by the wrong things. The stone is irrelevant. That heat map that Hugo found is far more important. We know there’s life trapped inside that mountain.”

“And what if they aren’t dragons?” I asked. “We’ll be able to get inside soon—”

“How?” Magnus asked.

I had yet to share my theory with them, and I knew how much Magnus would hate it. “Calista’s power will help us find the entrance.”

“You need to be careful,” Magnus warned. “We can’t give her too much power. We don’t know what she is yet.”

“She’s my mate,” I growled, and my phone vibrated.

Someone just came to the door and gave Bibi a business card with one of those messages on it , Calista wrote.

“Fuck.” Smoke plumed from my nostrils. “They were followed.”

“Where’s the surveillance now?” Luca asked. “If Hugo is truly watching them, he should have a good idea of who it was. Doesn’t sound like there would be many places for them to hide.”

I could ask Calista all these questions, but I was too fucking far away to do anything about it. I rose from the chair, pacing the room. My temperature spiked, and it took everything I had not to crash through the window and shift into my dragon form.

“Security should’ve stopped them before they got anywhere close to the ladies.” Magnus growled.

Luca furrowed his brow. “Did she bring the Guardian Stone with her?”

“She better not have left it in an empty house,” Magnus said.

I’d been so busy admiring the rest of the picture, I hadn’t even thought to look for it. Each photo she sent tattooed itself into my memory, but I’d been too captivated with those blue eyes that looked like storm clouds on the horizon, the scales that reflected the light, and those tits…her nipples, dusky pink and pebbled.

It wouldn’t stop me from looking one more time.

“She’s wearing the necklace,” I confirmed. “I think they’re using it to track her.”

“If that’s true, we need to get it back,” Luca said. “Because if they’re tracking the necklace, it will lead them to us. We won’t let them get away.”

“The stone led us to her once. We can find her now. Make sure she and Bibi get home safely.”

“And anger Hugo,” Luca said. “By going over his head and completely disregarding his expertise.”

“We could work with him. He’s been willing to play by our rules. To get him to do what we want, we may have to compromise. Play by his rules.”

“Who are you choosing?” Magnus says. “These wolves who are in over their head or your own kind who were imprisoned….”

He didn’t finish his statement, but I knew how it ended. They were imprisoned because of me, my blind faith in something I thought was bigger than us. Something I thought would benefit our thunder.

“I’m choosing our future,” I said. “But that means choosing my mate.”

Magnus scoffed, but his gaze was glued on his phone. He frowned, and swiped several more times.

“You need to watch this before you make any decisions, Aarix.” He rose from his chair and handed me his phone. “I just checked The Mating Game forums to see if anyone had posted about Bibi and Calista. If they’d been seen while they were away. Instead, I found this.”

The thread was called Did Bibi Reject Her True Mate?

I clicked on it, expecting to see something salacious about Hugo, but instead, Calista came onto the screen.

At first I thought it was from the day that we landed in Sunset Springs, but Calista was in a black dress. The light was different. Bibi and Hannah were on stage, just like the day we arrived, but Lars was there too.

“You’re my mate, Bibi,” Calista declared.

What?

The crowd ooohed at her declaration.

Bibi shook her head. “You’re in love with a version of me that no longer exists. I never lied to you, because I was as true to myself as I could be at the time. And when I knew I needed to change, you were the first wolf I told.”

“Yes, all of that is true.” Calista shook her head, dropping her gaze. “But life in the pack was miserable without you. I thought it was just because I didn’t like the direction our new leaders were taking, then I realized it was because I missed you. I love you. Doesn’t matter who you are on the outside, I know who you are on the inside.”

I wanted to rationalize this. That Calista had been miserable because she’d been kept from her true nature. Bibi represented freedom to her. But what if…she said yes?

Someone in the audience started chanting “Give her a chance!”

I growled.

“What are these two up to?” Magnus crossed his arms. “She’d already promised herself to you.”

“There has to be an explanation for this,” I said.

“She had no idea you would ever be free,” Luca added.

I waved them both off. “Let me see how this ends. If Bibi had agreed to be Calista’s mate, then she wouldn’t have been on stage to choose a mate.”

I went back to the screen, finding Calista with her arms crossed, staring down Bibi. They looked much more like enemies than lovers. “Do you have any idea what I’ve gone through to find you?”

“I’ve been right here the whole time.”

“It’s not easy to get to you. You have security now. They’ve dragged me away on many occasions. I resorted to trusting shifters who said they could help, but they wanted something in return. They were the only ones who believed you were my mate.”

“I’m not your mate.” Bibi’s declaration earned another round of boos. “I love you, but not like that. I can help you find your mate though, if you’d be interested in having your own episode of The Mating Game. ”

“I’ll do it,” Calista said. “But I promise my episode will have an ending you don’t expect.”

“Do you think it’s true?” Luca asked, his eyes wide with astonishment. “Why would Calista say she was in love with Bibi? What if she had accepted her claim?”

Magnus snatched his phone. “They think we’re fools, and we trusted them blindly. They have our stone. We can’t trust them, Aarix. You have to stop listening to your heart and act like a leader.”

“This video could’ve been altered,” I said. “Just like those artifacts disappeared. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

Luca shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid that’s the most accurate statement any of us has made in a while.”

“Calista could be working for the Night God,” Magnus said.

“If she is, then I need to set her free,” I said. “Someone kept her from being a dragon, but I won’t let anyone keep me from claiming my mate.”