Everlasting Bad Boys. Cynthia Eden

my parents can. She went out for a snack and picked up a bull instead of a cow. Its horn lodged in the roof of her mouth, piercing it. Nothing any healer did could fix it, and eventually she caught a brutal fever and died.”

      “How old were you?”

      Shalin thought a moment. “Barely thirty winters. Young.” With the puppy asleep, she rested her elbows on her knees and her chin on her fists, focusing on Ailean. “And you?”

      “Eleven winters.”

      “Och. You were a babe, Ailean. I’m so sorry.”

      Ailean stared hard at the ceiling. “It was my fault, you know.”

      “Your fault? How could it be?”

      “Because I didn’t stay put. My father took my brothers hunting and I wanted to go with them. So I followed.”

      “At eleven winters? Could you even fly?”

      “Barely. So of course my father told me to go back home. I did, but I was so low to the ground—unable to get any real height—soldiers spotted me and they thought I’d be fun to hunt.” He suddenly closed his eyes. “They had me, too. Cornered. About half a battalion’s worth.”

      “For a hatchling?” Sometimes humans truly disgusted her.

      “And then she came. A battle dragon like all the other females of her line. She decimated them, but one of them…one of them had good aim. He wounded her, and though she saved me and destroyed them all, she couldn’t save herself.”

      “And your father went on to become Afton the Cruel.”

      “Aye.”

      “Did any humans survive?”

      To her surprise, Ailean opened his eyes and smiled. Truly, the most beautiful thing about him had to be that smile. “Some. You see, my father was gone for days, but three human females found me. All sisters. One a healer, one a barmaid, and the other a servant in the duke’s castle. For three days they stayed with me. The healer, a witch, she tried to help my mother, but there was nothing to be done. So they made sure I ate and soothed me when I cried. Then my father came home. When he didn’t find us in the cave, he tracked us down. He almost killed the women until I stopped him, told him what happened. He left the villagers alone after that. They’d suffered enough, you see. The Duke, his men, they took the villagers’ food and used their women, sometimes even the young ones barely old enough to breed themselves. They left untold numbers of babes of their own lying around but they never claimed them. But that duke and his soldiers—they didn’t survive my father’s wrath.”

      “So that’s how your father got his name.”

      “Actually…no. No one thought he was cruel then—just angry. Then word spread that the duke was dead and others came to claim the land as their own. But my father always met them first, and he’d kill them all. He was still angry, you see. If it moved, he killed it. Eventually they all stopped coming and my father went into his cave and rarely came out. My uncles, my aunts, they all taught me and my brothers how to fight, how to survive.” He glanced at her and shook his head. “No, Shalin. No one among my kin ever blamed me. At least not as much as I blamed myself.”

      “You were a babe,” she reminded him fiercely, annoyed he’d even think otherwise.

      “I should have stayed put. I didn’t. And she died, all because I couldn’t fight for myself.”

      “Fight for yourself? Ailean you were too—”

      “Don’t say I was too young. A dragon can never be too young to learn to protect himself. Not in this world. My sons and daughters will be able to fight from hatching.”

      “Ailean, isn’t that a bit of a tall order?”

      “No. My brothers and I came up with a training method that will get them started early. My hatchlings will be prepared for anything.”

      Shalin felt for the future hatchlings of Ailean the Wicked. They wouldn’t have easy lives. Then she frowned for a moment when she wondered who exactly he’d fall so in love with he’d settle down and have hatchlings with. But she quickly pushed the feeling away when she realized it was none of her business.

      “Did all this happen here?” she asked, trying to distract herself.

      “Aye. Madenn’s kin were the ones who stayed with me. Her great-great-grandmother and aunts. My father wanted nothing to do with any of them. Although he spared them, he still felt nothing for them. My brothers could go either way, but I knew these people needed protection. Human males can’t stay away from unclaimed territory for long. It’s like this overwhelming need they all have to conquer anything they’ve even heard about.”

      “So you stayed.”

      “Seemed natural, really. I’d already spent so much time with them and they never told my secret. Eventually the entire village knew about me and no one said a word.”

      “But didn’t you hate them? The humans?”

      “For the actions of a few? No. Doesn’t seem fair to do that.”

      He had to be the first dragon Shalin had ever heard say something like that.

      “You look tired,” he suddenly told her.

      “No. I’m fine.” And to prove it, she yawned.

      Smiling, Ailean turned on his side and picked up the puppy from her lap, laying the little fur ball lengthwise on the bed. Then Ailean patted the mattress. “Come on now. Stretch out here.”

      “But, the puppy…” Yet she was already stretching out on her side, facing Ailean, the puppy between them, her eyes rapidly closing. The day had caught up with her so quickly.

      “He’ll be fine,” Ailean murmured, and she felt him take her hand. “And tomorrow, Mistress Shalin, we’ll discuss his diet.”

      5

      Ailean didn’t know what woke him up first. The two suns shining in his eyes—or the paw repeatedly slapping at his head.

      Yawning, he glared at the little monster trying to claw him to death. “Oh, now you’re feeling fine, aren’t you?”

      He yipped in answer and that’s when Shalin murmured in her sleep.

      That’s also when Ailean realized Shalin was asleep on his chest.

      Slightly terrified, Ailean desperately tried to remember if they’d done anything the night before. He didn’t think so and, when he looked down at her, she still wore the red gown from yesterday and the fur covering he’d brought with him still lay between them.

      He let out a breath, but still didn’t know what had come over him. He might not have touched her, but all the things they’d discussed…

      Ailean never talked about his father with anyone but his brothers, and those two never mentioned the old dragon unless necessary. Ailean definitely never discussed his mother and what happened that awful day. His own kin knew never to mention it. Nearly a century ago, one cousin drunkenly brought it up after a family hunting party and lost both his horns when Ailean snapped them off.

      But Ailean had told Shalin pretty much everything. Gods…why?

      The puppy yipped again and Shalin’s head snapped up from his chest. “Wha—where—?”

      “You’re safe, Shalin,” he told her, seeing the confusion and panic on her face. When she looked at him, her panic seemed to pass and she smiled at him with real warmth.

      “Good morn, Ailean.”

      “Good morn to you.”

      She turned a bit to look at the puppy, but she seemed more than comfortable cuddled up to his chest. “And look at you, Lord Terrify Me.”

      The dog yipped again and Ailean said, “You best let him