Rationally, I know that. But Jane and I are both stubborn and headstrong. She may tire of always challenging and fighting with me.
Jane’s voice prevented his dragon from replying. “Tell me what you’re saying to your dragon. You know you can tell me anything.”
He took a section of her dark hair between his fingers and rubbed the soft strands. “It’s not easy, Janey. You deserve a strong, confident mate.”
“Kai, you are a strong, confident mate. Everyone has their worries. I worry about cheating your mother and mine out of a grandchild, or if my new series will end up hurting the dragon-shifters more than helping them. Hell, I sometimes wish I wasn’t so curious and determined because I know it ends up causing you headaches. But I can’t change everything about me just because I want to. I work on some things and accept others. You need to do the same.”
His dragon grunted. She is fantastic.
Kai ignored his beast to gently kiss his female. “I’ll try. I do love you, Jane Hartley, headaches and all.”
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She smiled. “Good, because I may have one or two other minor headaches I need to tell you about.”
Before he could ask what they were, Kai’s mobile phone rang. Since the ringtone was the one assigned to Bram, Stonefire’s clan leader, Kai needed to take it.
Kissing Jane one last time, he moved from the bed to his clothes on the floor. He plucked his mobile from his trouser pocket and answered it. “Bram?”
“Aye, it’s me. Sorry to interrupt you on Jane’s big day, but something’s happened.”
“Just tell me straight, Bram.”
His clan leader hesitated a second. Bram never hesitated. The news wasn’t good.
Bram finally said, “It has to do with your sister, Delia. Come to my cottage as quickly as you can and I’ll tell you everything.”
Delia was Kai’s much younger half sister, who lived in Wales on Clan Snowridge with his mother and stepfather.
Once Bram hung up, Kai lowered his phone and stared at it. He was confident that if Delia were dead, Bram would’ve said so. His clan leader was most definitely not a coward.
Kai should be relieved at that fact, but there were worse things a sixteen-year-old dragon-shifter could get up to than death.
Stop worrying and let’s visit Bram. Only once we know what’s wrong can we think of a plan, his dragon stated.
Jane asked, “What’s wrong?”
He met his female’s gaze. “Get dressed. Something’s happened to Delia and we need to see Bram.”
Chapter Two
Fifteen minutes later, Jane tightened her grip on Kai’s hand as they entered Bram’s home office. Her dragonman might seem unaffected on the outside, but she knew how much he cared for his sister. Especially since he’d wasted so many years avoiding the Welsh clan, Snowridge, which in turn meant avoiding his family.
After all, Maggie Jones still lived on Snowridge.
Jane had never seen more than a glimpse of the dragonwoman during her previous visits. At some point, she’d like to meet the woman who had caused so much pain to Kai, more out of curiosity than anything else.
Well, and to let the woman know she’d had her chance and she had better not try to ruin Kai’s life again.
As Bram motioned for them to sit down, Jane pushed all thoughts of Maggie out of her mind to focus on her clan leader’s words. “I’ll be blunt, Kai. Delia’s missing.”
Kai frowned. “Missing? For how long?”
“A few days, although your mother received a voice mail message last night from Delia, saying she was safe. And before you demand why you haven’t been told, I didn’t know myself until right before I called you. Snowridge’s leader, Rhydian, had wanted to try locating her on his own. Your mother had been forbidden to ask for outside help.”
Kai growled. “I’m not just any outsider. She’s my little sister, for fuck’s sake.”
“Believe me, I know. But let’s focus on the facts, aye? Delia originally left a brief note for her parents saying she had a story she wanted to investigate.”