Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
“Speaking of mates, where are yours, Luka? Already need a break from them?” Gregori teased.
Luka lounged in the leather office chair and flipped Gregori off as he returned the smile. “Not at all. Vasily and I are currently taking shifts watching over Amaru. Someone…introduced him to nanotechnology,” he said with a little bit of a growl. Gregori couldn’t imagine who was insane enough to introduce Amaru to something so advanced and potentially dangerous. At a guess, it was probably Sora. Or possibly Ravi.
Yeah, it was most likely a Ravi thing. The wind dragon had likely been talking and not thinking about the ramifications of what he was saying. Particularly when it came to someone as dangerously brilliant as Amaru.
“Amaru has just gotten some working, but only at a very basic level in tandem with some exploratory spells. Right now, Rodrigo has put the kibosh on doing any kind of surgery with them, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Amaru wears him down. Besides, we’ve still got lots of Jaeggi hanging around, needing their cores fixed, and they’re all offering to be guinea pigs for Amaru. It’s a scary combination, so we’re taking turns keeping an eye on him as he works to make sure he doesn’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead,” Gregori muttered.
“Pretty much,” Luka agreed. “But on the plus side, if it works, there are a lot of people who can be helped by his discovery.”
“He’s a magical Tony Stark, and we should all be afraid,” Sam murmured.
Gregori scrubbed a hand across the top of his head and sighed. “I wish you luck. Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring Salem there one day so he can join Amaru in his chaos.”
“Are you sure you don’t want Dimitri and me to come north to help you? I can try to talk some sense into Salem. At the very least, I can try to beat some sense into his thick skull,” Sam offered.
Gregori shook his head. “Would Salem have ever been able to talk you out of going to Brazil once you got it in your head it was your only course of action?”
Sam sighed heavily and his shoulders slumped. The twins’ matching stubborn streaks were a mile wide. Dimitri reached over and wrapped an arm around his mate’s shoulders, pulling him in close.
“Not a chance,” Sam murmured.
“Plus, I’m afraid if you’re here arguing with him, it’ll just put more pressure on him. I don’t want to pressure him into agreeing to be my mate. I want him to make the choice on his own. And…he’s just not there yet.”
“Don’t lose hope, Gregori,” Dimitri urged with a gentle smile. “You’ll get there. We all believe in you and Salem.”
“Thanks. This has helped.” He straightened and grinned, feeling a little better than he had. “I should get going now. It’s late. Salem should be getting home from the hospital soon, and we need to talk.”
“Good luck!”
“You’ve got this!”
“Tell my brother I’m going to kick his ass if he doesn’t pull his head out of it soon!”
His friends’ supportive cheers buoyed him until the phone went dark and he found himself once again sitting alone in the park, kilometers away from his family. God, he missed them all. Loneliness crashed over him, and he felt small under the weight of it.
Never in his life had he felt so lost.
Salem came home feeling both tired and apprehensive. He’d not been able to contact Gregori most of the evening, mostly due to one emergency after the next at work. He’d barely had the sense to order takeout before leaving work. Frankly, he didn’t have a ton of brainpower to spare, but he was determined to fix things with Gregori.
Normally, he barely got to the door before Gregori pulled it open. Something about dragon hearing letting him know the second Salem was near. Tonight, though, he had to open it himself. It took some maneuvering to get the door unlocked and himself inside while holding a large takeout bag, but once through he realized the lights weren’t on.
Was Gregori not home?
No…wait. This wasn’t his home.
A chill went through Salem when the realization hit. This wasn’t Gregori’s home. His home was on a beautiful beach on a completely different continent. He was only here because Salem was here. No other reason.
If Salem rejected him hard enough, Gregori wouldn’t stay. He’d leave. It was as simple as that. The thought impacted him like a punch to the gut, panic quickly chasing it. Salem had resolved to try and trust Gregori, but he couldn’t very well do it if Gregori had finally gotten sick of him.
A pained breath escaped him and he looked around frantically for some sign of Gregori still being there. Surely their argument earlier hadn’t been the breaking point. Not when Salem had regretted it so, so much. Ugh, dammit, he couldn’t even blame Gregori if it had been the tipping point. They’d fought so much over the past month; today’s incident could very well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Salem wouldn’t even be mad at him for it.