She ignored the first part of his statement. Her muscle? Yeah, Hunter was built like Dage, powerful and strong. But he was a scientist and much more comfortable in a lab than with a gun, although he was a crack shot. “I don’t need muscle.”
“Too bad. You drag me in here, I’m doing my job,” Hunter returned. He lifted his chin at Libby. “Hey, Libs. Long time no see. You might want Hope to find you something else to wear.” His gaze remained respectfully on her face and not the wet and see-through outfit.
All the male gazes turned to Libs. Hope winced. Libby now stood in white shorts and a pink tank top. Not see-through.
Hope straightened on the warm rock. They might as well get everything on the table now. “Nobody here is planning on mating anybody.”
“I am,” Drake said quietly. “Your parents met in dreamworlds, and you and I have as well. You want peace? The path toward peace is always the joining of a couple to bring species together. You’re eighteen and old enough to make the decision now. I’m ready.”
Her mouth dropped open.
Paxton partially turned, putting his body between them. “No.”
“Not your decision, hybrid,” Drake said.
“Wrong,” Pax said, the muscles in his back vibrating.
Drake smiled, and the sight wasn’t pleasant. “You finally making a claim, Phoenix?”
“Yes,” Pax said quietly.
Libby shot a look at Hope, her eyes wide.
Hunter groaned next to her.
Hope couldn’t speak.
Drake lost his smile. “You smell that? On the air. That scent?”
“I do,” Paxton said. “Smells like war.” He clapped his hands. Hard.
Hope sat straight up in her bed, wide awake, her heart thundering.
Holy crap. A quick glance at her phone showed that Uncle Sam had called three more times. She groaned and flopped down, pressing a pillow to her face. It was all too much.
Her window opened, and Paxton jumped inside her room.
Chapter Twenty-One
After grabbing a bottle of whiskey, Sam walked outside to sit on the cabin steps beneath the eaves, watching the rain punish the earth. The moon pierced through different cloud openings, showing pine needles scattered every which way.
“Can’t sleep?” Bear and Flynn strode up, both sweating, obviously having been out for a run.
“No.” Sam handed over the bottle to Bear, who plopped down on one side of him while Flynn did the same on the other. Great. Now he was flanked by a bear and a dragon. Life had gotten way too weird. “How are the babies?”
“We have a couple of healers with Nessa now, and so far, everything seems okay.” Bear tipped the bottle and took several deep gulps before handing it over to his brother. “We’ve been trying to figure out your fire problem.”
Sam stretched his legs to the rough ground. “Any luck?”
Flynn took a drink and then wiped off his mouth. “Not really. Fire is an element, so if we could find someone with the earth’s gifts, maybe a mate for you, it might balance the fire.”
The female sleeping in his bed wasn’t one with the earth. “How did I infect Honor with this fire problem?” Sam could feel the brothers cast a look at each other behind his back. He groaned. “Knock it off. What have you determined?”
“Try me,” Bear said, holding out his arm. “Try to transfer the fire to me like you did Honor. Or a part of it, anyway.”
Huh. Wasn’t a horrible idea. Sam grabbed Bear’s wrist and tried to force flames into it. Fire lit his arm, burning him.
“Ouch.” Bear jerked free.
Sam snuffed out the flames, which took more energy than he’d expected. “Sorry.”
Bear rolled his neck and held out his arms, looking constipated. Nothing happened. “I don’t feel the fire.”
Flynn leaned forward to study his brother across Sam’s body. “Nope. No fire there. Not even a hint of a fire. So that means…”
“There’s something special about Honor,” Sam mused. Something besides her being brilliant, gorgeous, and kind. “Flynn? As a dragon, can you quench either fire? In Honor or me?”
“Nope,” Flynn said, his voice rough. Probably from spitting fire all the time. “I can’t quench it, but if I mated Honor, I could control her fire. We’d need that connection for me to exert any power over her.” When Bear turned to look at him, he shrugged. “Little-known dragon fact. The females don’t like it, but it’s how we’ve evolved.”
The idea of Flynn mating Honor shot irritation through Sam, and flames erupted from his fingertips. “Shit.” He aimed them at the wet ground, where they were squelched.
Bear clapped him on the back. “Well, that’s an answer. What if Sam and Honor mated?”
Flynn clenched his jaw. “I don’t know. Maybe they could control each other’s fire and find a balance, or maybe they’d just blow things up all the time. My gut says that they’d be safer if they were mated. Also, the only reason folks can’t teleport any longer is because the dimensions around us, around this world, are out of whack because of what the Seven did to imprison Ulric. Or how it backfired, anyway.”
Sam sighed. The dragon was not wrong. “I went through multiple dimensions during a secret ritual I took part in. It seems the fire has followed me.”
Flynn studied Sam, his gaze going deep. “The fire in you is much more dragon than witch for some reason. Tell me about this ritual.”
Sam rolled his ankle to make it pop. His skin still felt sore from an earlier burn. “Eighteen years ago, I went on a little journey off-world that took a few centuries, and I was bitten by something that looked like a dragon.” Well, with three heads and seven legs, but close enough. “My body was on fire for a good thirty years, since time moved differently in those worlds, and then it all went away.”
“A weird infection that has lain dormant all these years. Why now?” Bear growled.
Flynn shook his head. “Because of the Seven. They screwed the laws of physics by creating three prison worlds, one to contain Ulric and two to house his guards. The latter have fallen, which has had widespread repercussions we’re just figuring out. Only Ulric’s prison world held.”
Sam jumped. “What do you know about Ulric?”
Flynn’s eyes glittered a deep black in the night. “Dragons know more than you think…or want. We arrived too late to stop the initial ritual in which Ulric murdered one hundred Enhanced women, but we helped the Seven and the witches to create the prison worlds. I’m afraid we’re at fault here too. It was a mistake. One that’s causing more disturbances than just your being plagued by fire.” He stretched out his legs as well. “We’ve been trying to get to Ulric ever since then, hoping to kill him off-world. We could never find him, and now, as you know, nobody can teleport.”