Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Wasn’t he setting himself up for more pain by allowing any soft feelings to creep in for Dimitri? Yes, the man was sexy, funny, overprotective, and smart, but those things just put him out of Samuel’s reach.
And then there was the fact that Dimitri was a dragon. They had one mate in life: a mage. At best, Samuel was a broken mage, and no dragon should be saddled with a mage who couldn’t do magic.
“That’s fucking bullshit!” Dimitri snarled.
Samuel’s head jerked up to see an ugly scowl twisting Dimitri’s otherwise handsome features. If he didn’t know better, he’d say the air around them had just dropped ten degrees and there were puffs of white frost coming out of his nose.
“How could he be such an asshole as to abandon you like that?”
“Dick bag,” Sofi muttered.
“You don’t think he was cheating on you, do you?” Gregori asked. The dragon leaned forward so he could see Samuel around Dimitri’s large frame. His long black braid slid over one shoulder. “Because if you’d like, we could postpone this trip by a couple of days while a group of us fly up to New Hampshire.”
A low, wicked chuckle rumbled from Misha. “We’d be very happy to pay him a visit. We’ll teach him not to fuck with mages.”
“Unless he is a mage,” Luka said. He tilted his head as he looked at Samuel. “You weren’t dating a mage, were you, Samuel?”
The entire group fell deathly silent as all eyes stared at him in a mix of hope and fear. The only sound was the crackle of the burning wood and the crash of the waves.
“Kevin? Oh no, he wasn’t a mage.” It was on the tip of his tongue to remind them that he wasn’t a mage either, but the sounds of their relief and the quick offers to torment his ex made him hold his tongue.
No, he wasn’t going to let anyone torture Kevin, even if it did sound tempting. It was just nice to be surrounded by other people who sympathized with him and wanted his happiness.
He chuckled and shook his head. “No threatening my ex. No postponing the trip. I was apparently enough to break the relationship. At least, according to him.”
“Sounds like a selfish bastard if he blamed a breakup entirely on you,” Dimitri muttered as he sank into his chair. He sucked on his beer and glared at the fire, leaving Samuel to briefly wonder at the warm tingle surrounding his heart.
The dragon’s grumpiness brought a fleeting smile to Samuel’s face. “Thanks. It’s taken me a while to realize he was selfish. It was still kind of my fault, too, though. I’m not…as emotive as I should be. He felt neglected because I was entirely focused on the Sousa and my research. I wasn’t in a mindset to try and balance my work with a personal life.” He flapped one hand at his companions. “But it’s over and done. No point in mourning something that was never meant to last. I’m happy to be here for the next stage of my search, and I’ve got an excellent team of dragons supporting me.” He lifted his beer bottle high in the air as he looked at each of them. “People I can depend on.”
“Damn fucking straight,” Dimitri agreed, clicking his bottle against Samuel’s.
“To finding the Sousa!” Gregori shouted, only to have each of them echo the toast.
Samuel nearly giggled, his happiness overflowing within his chest. He was in Brazil. He was one step closer to finding the Sousa. And he was surrounded by dragons.
This trip was already going better than he could have possibly imagined.
Dimitri drove the first Jeep with Sam in the passenger seat. The rest of the guys followed in the other two Jeeps. With five people and all the equipment needed to go camping, it took three Jeeps to get them fully packed and loaded.
They’d gotten a nice start. The weather seemed to be holding for now, the breeze was nice, and no one was hung over from last night’s drinking.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why aren’t we flying in?” Sam asked.
It was easy to understand him, as Dimitri had chosen to put the hard top and doors on. Air conditioning in the jungled, mountainous areas of Brazil was a blessing, according to the humans. Dimitri was never hot, not with how ice dragons ran, so he personally didn’t get it. But he was trying to be considerate.
“First, too much cloud cover.” Dimitri pointed skyward at the storm moving in. “We don’t risk flying with people if storms are coming in. It’s both dangerous and uncomfortable. Secondly, too much tree cover where we’re going. We can do broad searches from the air, but the kind of close-up information we’ll need for the trip is going to be blocked by the canopy. We need to stay on the ground for this. You’re not exactly sure where this place is, after all, and we don’t want to risk missing an important clue along the way.”