Can't Get Enough (Dragon Kin) - G.A. Aiken Page 0,9

be so easy.

“I’ll go with you.”

Ailean forced himself not to grin. He sensed she wouldn’t appreciate it and his scalp still stung. “Thank you.” With that, he took several steps back from her and extended his wings in preparation to take flight, but stopped a moment, compelled to make something very clear.

“Shalin?”

She’d just unfurled her wings, ready to follow, when she looked up at him.

“There’s something you should know.”

She merely tilted her head, waiting for him to continue.

“I am sorry this happened, and I’ll do what I can to fix it—but I’m not sorry I kissed you.” He winked as her eyes widened in surprise. “She’ll not make me regret that.”

3

Shalin had so many things that annoyed her at the moment, she wasn’t sure what topped her list.

Perhaps the dress she had to wear? A brazen dark red that was much too big for her, since it belonged to one of Ailean’s cousins. Big enough that she constantly tripped over the hem and couldn’t seem to keep both sleeves on her shoulders at the same time. Every time she adjusted one side, the other slid off and every male eye in the house seemed to focus right on her.

Or perhaps the fact she wasn’t in a lovely cave. No, she was in a…a…

Shalin glanced around and barely contained her annoyed growl.

She was in a castle. A bloody castle. What dragon willingly lived in a castle? A nice enough castle, to be sure, but a castle. If she shifted and spread her wings here, she’d take out a good portion of the Great Hall.

Or perhaps that, because she was in this castle, she had to remain human—all the time. When they’d first arrived, Ailean had actually shown her to a bedroom…with a bed in it! A bed he expected her to sleep on!

Now, true enough, she’d been living among humans for quite some time, but that had been different. A necessity. The sacrifice she’d been willing to make to further her knowledge. But to live this way on purpose irritated her.

And although all those things annoyed Shalin to the point of distraction, she’d begun to realize that what annoyed her most of all, what had her teeth grinding, her hands tightly clenched in her lap so she wouldn’t unleash her claws, and kept her gaze focused on the floor to stop herself from showing the growing rage and annoyance in her eyes…

What annoyed her—was them.

Not just Ailean’s brothers. Or an uncle or two. But all of them. The entire Cadwaladr Clan from within a league. And, even worse, they never shut up. She’d never heard anything like it. Like a tree full of hungry crows, but with much more rough language and abrupt changes of topic. Now Shalin understood why Ailean cut her off so often…they all did it to each other constantly. If one wanted to be heard among this brood, one literally had to scream.

Since Shalin didn’t scream, she merely kept her hands in her lap, her head bowed, her eyes on the floor, and her mind as far away from this place as she could imagine. While they all shouted at each other, Shalin flew in the bright bronze skies of Alsaindair. She’d only gone once to the desert lands with her father, but she’d never forgotten. And the desert dragons themselves had fascinated her. The same colors as the dragons of Dark Plains but there was a shiny bronze overlay to their scales she absolutely adored. They’d looked like jewels to her, and she’d been fascinated by their history and language and lifestyles.

So focused on her own thoughts, it wasn’t until someone gently tapped her shoulder that she realized they’d all finally gone silent. Yet she sensed that was only because they were waiting on her to say something. What exactly, Shalin had no idea.

Clearing her throat, she looked up and found them all watching her. Good gods, what exactly had they asked her?

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Now, no need to apologize, lass,” one of Ailean’s aunts told her while patting her hand. “This isn’t your doing, now, is it?”

Before Shalin could respond, the entire room erupted into angry shouts about Adienna, and Shalin lost the thread of conversation yet again.

Frustrated, Shalin pulled her right dress sleeve onto her shoulder. Of course, that only meant the left fell off the other side, hanging low on her arm. Knowing he watched her, Shalin glanced over and, as she suspected, Ailean stared at her from behind several rows of his kin.