Dragon's True Mate (Dragons of Mount Atrox Book 1)

by Riley Storm

  His injuries being the perfect example.

  “About dragons,” he said quietly. “And why we’re here in Five Peaks.”

  Lilly stiffened in surprise. One of the biggest questions circulating since the reveal of the dragons was why Five Peaks. So far, nobody had a good answer to the question, though she’d seen some wild ideas thrown out. Now, however, it seemed that Lilly was going to learn the truth. The real truth, from the mouth of a dragon himself no less.

  “Okay,” she said. “Are you allowed to tell me this?”

  “You are my mate,” he said with a shrug.

  Lilly shifted uncomfortably at the reminder. Although Trent might think that of her, she still had no idea how she felt about him. There was interest, sure. But…mated for the rest of her life? She wasn’t ready to commit to that. Not to him, not to anyone yet. After one failed marriage, Lilly wanted to be absolutely certain before she took that plunge again. If she ever did.

  “Sorry,” Trent said, looking away regretfully. “I just meant that…that you’re trustworthy.”

  She was both flattered but also bothered by how easily he made that decision. What if she wasn’t trustworthy? How could he know that, just by knowing she was his mate?

  You’ll be going in circles with logic about something you don’t understand if you keep it up. Just let him talk.

  “Okay,” she said. “Backstory. What is it?”

  “Five Peaks is home to a Gate to the Otherworld,” Trent said bluntly.

  She stared at him, uncomprehending. “Huh?”

  “A Gate to the Otherworld. A portal to another realm. A realm of magical beings.”

  “You mean fairies?” she said.

  “The Fae are the evil, vile, vicious, brutal, death-dealing cousins of your mythical fairies, but yes, in a way, that is correct. Among other things. There are also elves, dwarves, vampires, ogres, goblins, etc. You get the point?”

  “I think so,” she said quietly, suddenly very scared. “And you’re saying there is an entrance to that place here…in Five Peaks?”

  “Yes. It’s guarded day and night by eight warrior dragons. Nothing that can come through is a match for that strength,” he said with utmost confidence.

  “Oh,” she said. That sounded formidable enough. “What does that have to do with your injuries though? I don’t follow.”

  “The Gate has been acting weird lately. Odd buildups of energy. I was able to discharge the first buildup. I grounded it, basically,” he said at her blank look. “Like a lightning strike.”

  “Oh!” She understood that. “The second time?”

  Lilly glanced at his crazed burn marks, starting to put two and two together.

  “It didn’t go as well. I got there later. The energy…there was too much of it,” he said.

  “That must have hurt.”

  Trent snorted. “You have no idea.”

  Lilly chewed on her lip, trying to process all this new information.

  “This is for you only, by the way,” Trent said. “This isn’t something you talk about with your friends. I’m trusting you here.”

  “I won’t,” she promised. “But you’re one of these…Gate Guards, then? Is that what you do?”

  Trent shook his head. “No, not anymore. I was in the past. Now I just go there for a bit as part of my punishment for the damage I inflicted on your store.”

  “Your punishment?” she whispered, feeling as if she’d been stabbed in the gut. “You were punished for it? What was the other part, Trent? If guard duty is only part, what’s the rest?”

  Trent looked away.

  “I thought you said you were helping me because you wanted to,” she said, voice trembling, as she begged and pleaded with him with her voice and her eyes to tell her that what she was thinking wasn’t true. That her assumption was wrong.

  But he didn’t. And in her heart, she knew that was because he couldn’t.

  Chapter Thirty

  Lilly

  “Tell me the truth, Trent,” she said when he finally opened his mouth to speak. “No more lies.”

  His mouth closed and he nodded, teeth clenching together visibly. “The truth is, the first day, it was punishment. My team leader sent me to come clean up, to help you fix the damage I’d done. I didn’t want to be there. You’re right.”

  Lilly took a breath in, ready to lay into him, but Trent kept talking right over her.

  “The second day, however, was different. The second day, I showed up because I wanted to, Lilly. Would I have been there anyway? Yes. But I wanted to come back. I wanted to help you.

  “It doesn’t matter Trent,” she said quietly.

  He frowned. “Of course it does. That absolutely matters. Why wouldn’t it matter?”

  “Because,” she told him, ignoring the tightness in her heart. “It’s the fact that you lied to me, from the start, about your intentions. It’s not why you did it, it’s what you did.”

  “But…”

  “No, Trent,” she said. “I trusted you. I thought you were a good guy.”

  “Just because something started off one way doesn’t mean that’s the way it is now,” he rumbled, leaning over the table, dark blue eyes pleading with her to understand.

  Lilly did understand. She understood perfectly of course. He’d showed up grumpy and uninterested in being there. It was evident in her memory of that first day. Then, things had changed between them. She knew that. She could tell he’d come around to wanting to be there. There was no doubt about that in her mind.

  However, he’d never told her the truth. In fact, he’d purposefully let her continue thinking that he’d come to help out of the goodness of his heart, when in fact he’d had no interest whatsoever in helping.

  That was the problem. The lie.

  “I haven’t told you any lies,” Trent said. “Ask me anything you want. I’m an open book to you.”

  She looked him straight in the eye, wondering even as she did why she was bothering. “Is that so?”

  “I swear it,” he said, holding a scale-burnt hand to his chest, closing it most of the way with a wince of pain.

  “Fine,” she said, crossing her arms, deciding to give him one chance and one chance only. “Then you can tell me why you were so angry that night, so upset about my store that you felt the need to lash out in such an immature way?”

  Even as she asked the question, Lilly felt a realization that this was what had really still been bothering her about Trent. The answer he gave about her exploiting his people, it never really fit. It never felt right, and it had been nagging at her ever since, though she’d not been able to identify it.

  Even as she asked the question though, Trent looked down, unwilling to meet her eyes as his mood became sullen.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” he growled.

  Lilly sighed. “You promised to talk to me Trent,” she pointed out.

  “No, I promised not to lie. I won’t. Which is why I’m not going to talk about it.”

  She could see that he wasn’t happy, but he still wasn’t talking.

  “Very well,” Lilly said, getting ready to rise. “I can see that this secret is more important to you than I am.”

  Trent wilted. “Lilly, no, that’s not it…”

  “Then what is it Trent? I’ve told you about my vulnerabilities. My worst insecurities. I told you about my failed marriage. Do you have any idea how painful that is to talk about? How embarrassing it is for me to admit that I failed. How humiliating it is? Yet I told you anyway, because I thought maybe…I don’t know.”

  Because I thought maybe there was something between us.

  “I was wrong though, I guess. You say I’m your mate, but you can’t even tell me about your past. To me, that’s not being a true mate. Being a true mate means being open. Talking about everything. Knowing one another completely, Trent. That’s how I see that.”

  Trent shook his head. “It’s not like that. I just…”

  Lilly leaned forward,
pressing her points home. “Then what is it like Trent? Because that’s how I need it to be. Complete openness and trust. Can you do that? Is that you?”

  Trent hesitated.

  “Until you can tell me the truth,” she said softly, sadly. “Until you can talk about your emotions like a real man, then there’s nothing here. Nothing between us.”

  It pained Lilly to say that. She’d only just begun opening herself up to the idea that there was something between them, and now she was forcing herself to shut it down again. Closing herself off to that idea.

  The truth was she wanted there to be something as well. There was lots of good in Trent. Lots of things she liked.

  “I’m not about to sacrifice my principals, sacrifice who I am, for you, Trent. I did that once. Not again. You have to open up to me. To trust me.”

  Trent opened his mouth and then shut it, hanging his head low. Then slowly he got up and left. She didn’t watch him go, but she heard the buzz of background conversation fade, and then resume.

  And for the second time that week, she sat at Climbers trying not to cry. This time though, there was no Trent to save her. No Trent to take her hand and walk her outside to cheer her up.

  This time, Trent hadn’t even turned back.

  It was over. They were done.

  “Patrick,” she called hoarsely, hoping he would hear her.

  Lilly needed another drink.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Trent

  “I didn’t mean to!” he snarled.

  Nobody turned to look at him. It wasn’t the first time he’d had said something. Nor would it likely be the last. The drink was having its desired effect on Trent, numbing the pain with each further glass he had. It was also starting to blur the lines between his thoughts and reality.

  “Another,” he growled from where he was sulking in the corner of The Shaft, the distillery and bar in the depths of Mount Atrox, nestled among the other community locations for his clan.

  The bartender just eyed him, shrugged, and poured another.

  “Leave the bottle,” Trent said as the drink was plunked in front of him. His words were slightly slurred, but if he finished—another—bottle, he would certainly be getting closer to speaking nonsense.

  Maybe then the pain would be gone. Maybe then he could forget the look of complete and utter betrayal on Lilly’s face. Currently, it was etched in his brain, much like the wound lines that had been etched on his skin. He couldn’t rid himself of either, though he was trying hard.

  Just like everyone around him, now Lilly was judging him. She saw the real Trent. The failure. The one who couldn’t do anything right. And she’d rejected him. How dumb he must be to think that he could actually be lucky enough to be worthy of a mate as perfect as she was.

  Flaws, pah. Lilly could think what she wanted, but Trent knew better. Her past didn’t matter. It was what made her perfect for him. He liked her the way she was, with the past hurt. With her experiences. It made her infinitely more worldly and wise, and he respected that. He would never hold that against her.

  Yet she, like everyone else, was holding his past against him. The worst part? Lilly didn’t even know about it. And yet still she judged him negatively. Trent was growing tired of it, of being judged.

  Maybe it would have been better if the Gate had killed me. Then at least I would be free of this judgment.

  Even now, Trent could feel the looks on his back. The side-eyed glances that the other dragons were sending him. He hated it. He knew what they were thinking. What they were talking about in their hushed tones that even his ears couldn’t pick up.

  It’s him. It’s Trent. He’s the one who let Victor die. The one who couldn’t do his job. Why wasn’t he there, do you think? Why wasn’t he around? If Victor died, shouldn’t he have died first?

  “I would have if I was there!” he shouted at nobody, grabbing the bottle and downing it. “I would have died for him. It was my job.”

  He finished his rant in a whisper that only he could hear, hanging his head, feeling full of hate toward nothing but himself.

  What a loser. He’ll never be worth anything.

  “Ahh, shaddap!” he roared and then belched loudly.

  “Mind keeping it down over there?” someone said.

  Once it pierced his mental fog that the voice was talking to him, Trent turned himself around, the movement needing more than a little effort in his given state. The room was spinning slightly. He couldn’t focus on the speaker.

  “I don’t know what your problem is,” Trent slurred to the room in general. “But leave me alone, okay?”

  “You’re my problem,” the speaker said, rising. “Your attitude is my problem. Your ‘woe-is-me’ bullshit. That’s my problem.”

  Trent squinted at the person behind the voice.

  It was Jacen.

  “Ah,” he said quietly. “Now I understand.”

  “Will you shut up,” Jacen growled. “I’m just trying to have a few pints with my boys before I head home to see my mate, and we’d like to have a conversation without you shouting and waving your fist at nothing, old man.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Trent spat—literally.

  “You’re an idiot, Trent. We all understand. We all know who you are. Nobody here, or in the rest of the clan, seriously thinks that we could have done any better. It’s not what happened in the past that makes us loathe you, you imbecile. It’s how you’re acting now. The constant moaning and whining and lack of self-respect. The way you drag your feet around here, refusing to give anyone the time of day because you think we hate you.”

  “You do hate me,” Trent said.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Jacen said. “We hate you for not moving on. We hate you for acting like a whiny little bitch about it. We’ve moved on. You need to as well. Please. For all of us.”

  “You haven’t moved on,” Trent sneered, getting to his feet unsteadily, knees nearly buckling twice until he propped himself up on the stool. “None of you have. We still don’t have a leader. A year later, and all that there is, is infighting. Dragons dying as they try to assume the position, battles being fought, old grudges coming to the fore. This place is a cesspool, ever since I let Victor die.”

  Jacen snarled so loudly that all the other conversations in the room abruptly cut off. “Give it a rest. Victor let himself die. He got himself killed. You weren’t even there, were you?”

  “No…” Trent said. He started to say more, but Jacen overrode him.

  “Exactly. So stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop blaming us for shit we didn’t do. You’re the one acting like a child, refusing to accept the truth, and honestly, we’re sick of it Trent. If you can’t learn to forgive yourself, nobody else ever will. You’ll always be pushing people away. Is that what you want?”

  Trent snarled wordlessly. He knew Jacen was right.

  “Now, if you don’t mind, I want to finish this drink in peace, then go home to my mate. Because I’m not too scared to let someone, anyone, care for me. Friend or lover.”

  That was too much. Jacen might be right, but to rub the fact that Lilly had pushed him away in his face? Trent couldn’t take that. He couldn’t let that one go.

  With an angry sound he launched the empty bottle of booze at Jacen. He tried to, at any rate. It flew wide, narrowly missing another shifter.

  “Ah, fuck you,” Trent spat at the look he got and stumbled toward Jacen. Lightning cackled in his palm.

  “Don’t do this,” Jacen growled. “It won’t be like before where you sucker punched me.”

  The bartender just sighed and disappeared through a doorway into the back. A moment later, a giant rock was rolled in front of the opening, sealing him away from the fight to come.

  “Fuck you,” Trent growled again. “You deserved it.”

  He thrust his hand forward to let off a lightning strike. The bolt hit the ceiling above Jacen. In return, the fireball in the other shifter’s hand smashed into Trent’s
chest and flung him back against the wall where he bounced off and fell flat faced onto the ground.

  Groaning, Trent pushed himself to his feet. It would take more than that to—

  A fist plowed into his face, and he dropped, blood spurting from his nose.

  “Stay down,” Jacen growled.

  Trent rolled onto his back and tried to launch another bolt of lightning, but he stopped as a miniature sun appeared two feet from his face. The searing heat burnt away his eyebrows and his hair, singing it and burning it to ashes. He tried to pull away, but the ground stopped him.

  “Listen to me, Trent,” Jacen said calmly without any malice. “You’re at a crossroads here. You need to move on with your life and stop with the pity party. We’ll help you to your feet even. Or you can keep going down this path. Of being a drunk. Getting your ass kicked and being humiliated in front of everyone you know until you piss someone off badly enough that they kill you. And I promise you that if you do, this will be all you know. And you’ll do it, knowing nobody did it to you. You did it to yourself. It was your own decision.”

  Trent looked away, the words biting deep into him, a burning truth that he couldn’t ignore.

  “Time to make a choice,” Jacen said and stuck out his hand. The fire disappeared.

  Trent stared at the hand. Why was Jacen doing this? Why offer to help him up?

  Maybe it’s because he’s telling the truth? That others will help you, if you let them?

  If he let them. Jacen was willing to help him up. He was giving him his own hand, offering him that assistance.

  Just like Lilly was offering to do the same. She wanted me to open up to her so she could understand. So that she could help by knowing me better.

  And he’d refused her. He’d shunned her, shut her away, and potentially lost her forever.

  Was he going to do the same now? Or had Trent learned his lesson?

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Lilly

  “What now?” she moaned, seeing the crowd gathered ahead of her as she rounded the corner onto Main Street.

  The crowd was large for Five Peaks, nearly spilling over into the street. She could hear one voice rising above the others, though she couldn’t make out the words clearly.