Dragon Blood

Thirty: You'll Be Safe There

"It's alright, we won't let them get to you, darling," he placed a strong hand on her shoulder, misinterpreting her words. She bristled at the assumption, that she would turn to him for safety. Her dragon snarled at the assuming man.

From the head of the table, Leo heaved out a sigh. Skylar could sense that he was about to steal her thunder, so she dove in before he could. "I don't know about that. They're the king and queen of Trael."

Whatever Kellan had been expecting, it obviously hadn't been that. Finally getting a reaction from him, Skylar sat up straighter in her chair. "Princess Skylar at your service."

His disconcerting red eyes narrowed at her. He glanced behind Skylar at Penelope and then over at Leo. "Indeed?"

Skylar smirked, but kept her face even otherwise. "Indeed. And I intend on going home."

Again, another partial lie. She intended on going home eventually, once she was safe from Draco, but she'd rather be there before taken away from her new friends and Orion. She felt safe here, finally comfortable. Her dragon was too unstable to go to yet another new clan where they would have to go through the acceptance of the clan all over again. The Western Clan members were finally comfortable with her presence; they no longer stared or gave her suspicious looks when she walked by. Daughter of the Alphas or not, she would go through that again in the Eastern Clan and she would rather not.

She also wanted to spite Kellan. Petty as it was, she had to remind him that she wasn't his property. He was a stranger to her; he could claim whatever he wanted about her blood, she couldn't dispute him. Of course there was the evidence in her hair, the color she matched with Penelope and Cassie, and the curls she got from him. And there was whatever magic he performed on her when they met. She'd felt the retracting of something but that he could have done anything; Skylar didn't know any magic. But Leo had also known who she was, or suspected. 

It bothered her that Leo hadn't warned her beforehand. He let her stew and worry about what was going to happen to her when he obviously knew that Kellan would want to take her away. Leaving her afraid and alone was simply cruel. She glanced at Orion and wondered if he knew. But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking down at Cassie, who was still talking to him. She was making a spectacle of herself, and her new sister couldn't even spare her a look. Her little sister, actually. 

"That doesn't seem wise," Jed spoke up. She spun to look at him. His emerald green eyes stared into her, judging and learning. It was obvious he was trying to match her up to the image he'd had in his head of her. She wondered how well she was doing, then realized that she didn't particularly care.

"Doesn't it? Is there a place that's safer than a fortified castle?" she asked him, focusing all of her attention onto him. He met her silent challenge easily, ready to battle. It reminded her of Orion when she first met him. She wondered if all future Alphas were like this.

"Likely not. If you're not a dragon," he stated. "Everyone there will be trying to kill you."

"I've done just fine so far. No one's tried to kill me yet."

"Before you let someone discover what you are," he snarled softly. "Which was incredibly irresponsible, by the way."

Penelope spoke up, trying to keep the peace. "I'm sure we can discuss it in more detail later. Let's just enjoy our first meal as a family, shall we?"

That bothered Skylar more than anything else. These strangers were not her family. Her family was back in Trael, probably searching the entire kingdom for her. Her mother, father, Greta, Jonathan, they were her family, the people who had taken care of her and protected her for twenty-one years. They loved her. The people around her now didn't love her, they didn't know her.