Hidden Dragons (19 page)

It took a while, but by the time Silla was
finished sewing up Bear’s leg, he was starting to wake up. Isabelle
stood near his head and had sung her chant throughout, using clean
water and cloths to bathe the shallow wound on his temple. She had
rubbed some healing salve on lightly and then covered the cut with
a bandage. She had then wrapped another thin strip of cloth around
Bear’s head, to hold the wad of clean linen in place.

“
Isabelle?” Bear’s whisper caught
her attention.

“
I’m here,” she said, ending the
chant and allowing the magic it had called and directed, to
dissipate. “Quiet now. You are in the Lair. Safe and
sound.”

“
Tilly?” he asked. “My head is
killing me. Can’t seek her with my mind.”

“
She’s right over there, watching
everything. Princess Adora just finished working on her and said
that she’ll be good as new given a few days rest. Growloranth too.
He came in with Robert a short while before Tilly arrived.
Everyone’s going to be fine.”

“
Robert?”

“
I’m here, my friend,” Robert said,
moving closer. He had been hovering in the background, ready to
help.

The men spoke a bit while relief rushed through
Isabelle’s veins. She had been so worried. More worried than she
should have been if these men and dragons meant nothing to her, or
were merely friends. No, she had realized something vital during
those hours of waiting, and then the agony of seeing them
hurt.

The simple truth was, she loved
them.

All of them. The dragons as well as their
knights. Certainly the love in her heart for the dragons was
different than the love she felt for the men, but it was no less
real. And if the men asked her again, she would say yes to being
their mate, even though the idea of a triple mating still scared
her.

Isabelle felt a touch on her elbow as she stood
back, watching Robert and Bear talk. She turned to find Princess
Adora behind her.

“
Your magic is potent and healing,”
the older lady of royal blood began. “Thank you for sharing your
gift with us today. If your Robert and Bernard haven’t already
asked you to stay, please consider this a formal invitation to make
your home among us, whether or not you wish to mate with any of our
knights. A gift like yours is meant to be used, and we will always
make room in our Lairs for people with good hearts who can bespeak
dragons and are willing to help.”

Isabelle was flattered. And honored beyond
words.

“
I would like to stay,” she
whispered, with only minor hesitation.

Adora touched her shoulder, squeezing gently as
she smiled. “Good. I’ll keep it quiet until the boys come up to
scratch. Sometimes, I have learned, it is best to let the men think
certain things were their idea.” She gave Isabelle a conspiratorial
wink. “But I wanted you to know that you are wanted here regardless
of what happens between you, Robert and Bernard. You have options
now, Isabelle. You are not alone.”

The impassioned words moved Isabelle to tears,
and Adora gave her a quick hug of support. There weren’t a lot of
tears, but a few slipped free to run down Isabelle’s cheeks. Robert
apparently saw because a moment later he was back at her side, his
arm around her shoulders.

“
It’s okay, sweetheart,” he
crooned. “We’re all going to be okay. And we have you to thank for
it.” He bent down to kiss her cheek, rubbing his lips against her
temple and snuggling close for a moment. “You have been so good to
us today. Never have we had anyone special waiting for us when we
returned from battle. While I don’t like that you were worried, it
made it easier for us knowing we had you to come home
to.”

At that point, the tears hit her again. The
loneliness she thought she heard in his voice touched her heart.
Here were men—a Lair full of them—willing to put their lives on the
line for a country and people who had no real idea of how they
lived. She had noticed how most of the knights in this Lair were
single. Some had fighting partners, if their dragons were
established mates, but most had no wife, which meant their dragons
could not consummate their union and the knights were searching,
looking for the woman who might complete their family and bring
them all together.

She understood so much she had never even
contemplated before. Dragons and knights were just a fact of life
if one lived in Draconia, even though most people never had contact
with either. Certainly, the common folk didn’t have a clue how the
knights and dragons lived, except to know that there were things
called Lairs positioned strategically around the
country.

This Lair—the Border Lair straddling the border
between Draconia and the neighboring country of Skithdron—had
hundreds of knights and dragons living in it. The place was mostly
male, though there were a number of women who were mated to sets of
knights, and even a few children, both human and dragon. The
children she had seen were parented by both sets of adults in the
family—human and dragon—too. It was a fascinating partnership that
Isabelle found kind of beautiful.

The more she saw of the Lair and the lifestyle
of those living here, the more she wanted to be part of it. There
was just one thing holding her back now. She wasn’t sure of Robert
and Bear’s feelings. She knew they cared, but she needed to hear
the words. She needed to know for certain that they could truly
love her.

She didn’t want to be just their only choice
because they had no one better to ask. She wanted to be their
choice. Period.

And for that, she needed to hear those three
little words—I love you—from both of them. Six words total. Was
that too much to ask?

Chapter Ten

A week passed while the dragons and knights
healed, then went back to duty. The village had to be cleaned up
and the traitors dealt with. A constant presence of knights and
dragons was required in Halley’s Well and at the Valla Pass, to
maintain security in the village and along the border.

The enemy forces had been beaten back and dealt
a serious blow, but little skirmishes were still possible. Patrols
had been stepped up and mountain passes up and down the border were
being watched more carefully. Bear and Tilly were in high demand
for their ability to fly during daytime hours without being seen.
The only days they got any sort of respite was when rain threatened
and dark clouds ruined Tilly’s natural light camouflage.

While Bear and Tilly worked in the sky, Robert
and Growloranth worked in the forest and village. Isabelle had
asked about going back to see her home, but both men had objected,
claiming it was still much too dangerous. Between duty and sleep,
there wasn’t a lot of time to spare. The two knights were either
sleeping or working, and little else.

They had not tried to pressure Isabelle in any
way—either for sex or for a decision on whether she would stay in
the Lair with them. Things were at a standstill, with nothing
decided. It was a difficult way to exist, but Isabelle had come to
trust Lady Silla and had discussed her situation with the other
woman a few times. Silla’s advice had given her hope. And
patience.

Isabelle knew she couldn’t put her own needs in
front of those of the Lair. Her men had a duty they must perform
and she could not interfere with that. Coming to terms with that
idea helped her get through the trying times. But finally, after
ten days of no action on any personal issue, Isabelle had had
enough.

The next rainy day, she promised herself, she
was going to bring this situation to a head. So to
speak.

She got her wish a day later, when storm clouds
filled the skies and Bear and Tilly were given some time off from
their reconnaissance flights. They were talking about going to the
village and working alongside the knights and dragons who were
still on patrol and clean-up duty. Robert and Growloranth were
scheduled to do the same later in the day, but would be in the Lair
for the morning at least.

Isabelle realized this was her chance. She got
up her nerve and decided to enlist a little dragonish
help.

“
Lady Tildeth?”
Isabelle sent silently to the female dragon. When the sky
blue dragon’s head rose from the sand pit at the center of their
suite and Isabelle knew she had the female dragon’s attention, she
continued.
“I need your assistance. Can
you convince Bear to stay here today? There is something we need to
clear up, and there has been no time to do it. I know your duty
comes first, but could you at least delay him so we can hash this
out?”

“
Answer me one question first. Do
you truly love my knight?”
Tilly’s pale
aquamarine eyes pinned Isabelle where she stood.

Isabelle took a deep breath before
answering honestly.
“I do. It’s his
feelings for me that we need to clarify.”

“
Has he not told you?”
Tilly looked confused in a way that only a dragon
could.

Isabelle shook her head, a bit of
her sadness and distress entering her mental tone.
“No, he hasn’t.”

“
Silly boy,”
Tilly commented in an indulgent, chastising way.
“Never fear, we will get this straightened out. I
think I feel a strain in my wing that needs to be seen to right
away.”

Buoyed by Tilly’s agreement to stay in the Lair
this morning, Isabelle smiled and thanked the massive dragon who
was now her partner in crime.

Bear went back to their suite a half-hour
later, after seeing Tilly to Princess Adora’s workshop. He was
still shaking his head over what had happened there, but doing as
he was told.

Robert was just eating a bit of toast, his day
starting a lot later than Bear’s, owing to the work schedules they
had been assigned. Isabelle was sitting with Robert in the
conversation area near the side of the dragons’ wallow. Robert’s
plate was on the low table as he sat on one of the overstuffed
chairs, and Isabelle was seated on the couch, facing him. Bear
flopped down on another chair at the side of the arrangement,
between them.

“
I thought you would be long gone
by now,” Robert said around a mouthful of toast. “What’s
amiss?”

“
Tilly said her wing was strained
and wanted to have Princess Adora check it, but when we got to
Adora’s chamber, Growloranth showed up and all three of them told
me to leave.” Bear literally scratched his head in
confusion.

“
I was wondering where he’d gone,”
Robert said, finishing his toast.

“
If I was a suspicious type of
person, I might think they were plotting something,” Bear finally
voiced his concerns. Something about Tilly’s supposed injury didn’t
seem right. Tilly was usually the last one to complain about
anything.

“
Your instincts are correct,”
Isabelle floored him by saying. Both Robert and he looked at her
with surprise. “I asked Tilly to keep you here today,
Bear.”

He liked it when she called him Bear. She had
stuck to using Sir Bernard for a very long time, but he didn’t want
any formality between them. In fact, he wanted nothing between
them—as it had been that one glorious time when they had been
together. But he and Robert had agreed. They wouldn’t pressure her.
And they wouldn’t try to make love to her again unless they were
all together.

Like now?

Bear started to consider the possibilities. Why
did she want him to stay in the Lair today? Well. There was only
one way to find out. He needed to ask her.

“
Why?”

Robert beat him to the punch, but it was all
right. They both needed to know what was on their potential mate’s
mind.

“
Because I can’t keep going like
this,” Isabelle said in a rush. Bear’s heart almost stopped. Did
she want to leave? “I need to know where we all stand and if we can
make this work. I feel like you’ve been avoiding me the past few
days. I know your duty comes first,” her voice filled with tears
and Bear wanted to go to her, but she held up a hand, palm outward,
as if trying to hold them back until she was done with whatever it
was she wanted to say. “I understand. But the past few days, things
have quieted down. Everyone says so. And you have still been
avoiding me. I need to know if you still want me or if you want me
to go and are being too polite to say it to my face.”

Bear was out of his chair and at her side
within seconds. So was Robert, on her other side. Luckily, the
couch was built for three.

“
We want you here, Isabelle,”
Robert whispered, holding one of her hands. Bear took her other
hand, squeezing gently.

“
We really do,” he added. “We don’t
ever want you to leave. We want you to be our mate.”

Bear wasn’t an eloquent man, but he knew when
he needed to say certain things. This seemed to be their time of
reckoning—engineered by the woman they wanted to be part of their
lives forever. He wouldn’t have thought she would ever be so bold,
but he really liked it. He was so proud of her. She was finding her
inner strength. That was something she would need if she was going
to be their mate in truth.