"Ronson isn't the calculating sort. That's my job. He can stifle his feelings when he needs to, wear the stern mask of an alpha when it's called for, but I've never seen him feign in the opposite direction," Niall said. That bubble in my chest grew and floated a little higher, nearly choking me. "You're doing very well today, Mairwen. He is right to be proud of you."

Niall wouldn't lie to me. I wasn't sure why I knew this as a certainty, perhaps because of how wholly Ronson trusted him, but I did. I nodded, raising my chin, and turned to watch as the alphas in the field spread out in a circle, leaving plenty of room between one another.

"I've never liked this part," Helena said, wandering to my side. "All that magic at once makes my hair stand on end."

Niall and I wandered closer to the circle until the air started to shimmer around the alphas. I gasped at the sudden sizzle that ran over my skin. Helena was right! The power of so many dragons transforming at once made the fine hairs on my skin prickle and rise. I'd seen a few betas flying as dragons in the past, although only from far away. My father had never transformed—he wasn't strong enough—so the only dragon I'd been up close to was Ronson.

Damian Worthington transformed first, the air around him crackling with blue lightning, a brief glow bursting and then revealing a large and elegant dragon. He was the color of dark oil spilled, gleaming with hints of violet and sapphire but also bronze and black. With a crack and a boom, the older alpha from Dire Peakes transformed next, dwarfing Worthington's dragon with a brutal and craggy beast, all stone gray and flecked with white.

One by one, the men in the circle vanished, replaced by the magnificent and deadly forms of their dragons.

"Brace yourself," Helena said, reaching up to her carefully coiffed curls.

I was busy marveling at the dragons. Ronson was one of the larger of the group—only Seamus DeRoche and the Alpha of Dire Peakes were larger—and his dark scales shone with heat under the sunlight. The glistening Alpha Worthington raised his head high, snapping his jaw, and as one, the alphas raised their wings, stroking them through the air in unison.

Wind gusted, and I laughed as it stirred against my skirts, rifling through my hair. Ronson's head turned, one black eye with a fiery pupil sighting me. He thumped his tail—they all did—and I laughed again as the ground shook, echoing up into my legs until my bones were numb with the ringing.

"Beastly," Helena muttered, shaking her head as the dragons all raised their voices to roar together.

Beautiful, I thought, my breath freezing in my chest as the dragons' wings slashed through the air, their enormous and powerful bodies pushing against the ground, thrusting them as one into flight.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Twenty-NineMAIRWEN

Iglanced up at the sky, hoping for a hint of the alphas' return, but if the dragons were on their way back, the clouds lingering around the top of the mountains hid them from view.

"And of course, I've grown quite sick of all of last season's gowns, but Worthy doesn't hear a word I say on the matter," Helena continued, just as she had for well over an hour, her arm linked though mine as she led us in aimless circles around the field, always careful to avoid stepping too near any of the lingering beta gentlemen.

I searched them now for Niall, wondering how I might make my escape from this woman. He was in conversation with one of the dragons from Dire Peakes, a rugged and mildly terrifying-looking man who scowled at the halfling while nodding along.

"But you know, I quite fancy this new cut of yours. I had no notion that little Bleake Isle might offer anything in the way of innovation for fashion," Helena said.

The more time I spent in this omega's company, the less certain I was that she wasn't a great deal like Adelaide after all. She only seemed to wield her blade of superiority with more subtlety than my local nemesis.

"Not every dragonkin woman wants to spend hours speaking of fashion, Helena," a dry, dark voice announced from behind us, accompanied by a breeze that carried the scent of smoke and caramelized sugar.

I twisted toward the man, but Helena stiffened, her arm squeezing around mine as if prepared to drag us both away.

It was the beta from Skybern with a sly tilt to his gaze. I hadn't been introduced to him properly yet. He seemed to evaporate the moment one of the alphas turned in his direction, always lingering at the fringe of the small party. Bennett Reeves, suspected to be Damian Worthington's bastard half-brother.

He bowed to me, courtly and polite, and stepped forward. The air was heavier around him, almost as if he were on the verge of shifting into his dragon form. At my side, Helena's cheeks were splotched with bright streaks of red. Why? Because of his teasing words? They were rude but easy enough to shrug off.

"I heard you accompany Alpha Cadogan on dragonkin matters around the isle, Omega Cadogan," Reeves said, his too-keen stare piercing into me.

I opened my mouth to tell him he was mistaken, then recalled when Ronson had brought me to the Huberts', or when I'd joined him to help put out the fire on the island.

"Only occasionally," I said. I turned to Helena and smiled. "We were just discussing how often gossip amongst dragonkin seems to be made of exaggerations."

"Indeed. Excuse me, I must have a word with Omega Quigley," Helena rushed out, suddenly tearing her arm from mine as if I had her trapped at my side.

I watched her rush away toward the elderly omega, a little relieved to be free of her and yet also wondering if I might not be better off to follow.

"I am the persistent stain in Helena's otherwise pristine lifestyle," Reeves muttered darkly, but when I turned, surprised by the bitter candor of the words, I found him smirking as if his goal had been to irritate the other omega. He blinked at me, and the smile smoothed into something that ought to have been charming but left me uneasy. "It's clear Alpha Cadogan sees you as more than an ornament to display at his side."

What did this beta—barely a beta; he walked with more weight and power than many of the alphas here, certainly more than his elder brother—want from me exactly? Or did he simply take enjoyment from unsettling omegas?

I paused for a moment, deciding between the wise choice of excusing myself from his company or the impertinent choice.

"I've never considered myself very ornamental. That, at least, is gossip the isle and I might agree on," I said.

Bennett Reeves's eyes glinted with humor, although his expression remained slightly superior. He wore a mask, not unlike Ronson had at the start, but I suspected there was a man in there somewhere.

"Yet, as you mentioned, gossip is often wrong. Certainly in this case," he said with a gentleman's nod.

"A very courtly reply," I said, rolling my eyes.

And he laughed, a rattling, rough sound as startling as his own wide eyes, surprised by my response and his own laughter.

"I've always liked Alpha Cadogan," he said, eyes crinkling and some of that smug, stony mask slipping away as my eyebrows rose. "His choice of omega is another point in his favor."

"I wasn't aware you were acquainted."

Reeves shrugged, glancing around the field. "No, not at all. But I've studied the policies of all the alphas here, and their predecessors. It's rare for an alpha to chart a course so at odds with those who came before him. It takes a combination of confidence and courage. Or ego."