Taste of Darkness by Katie Reus Page A

without asking. Circumstances prevented it.”
    “Why were you flying over my compound early this morning?” The question was casual as the Alpha threw an arm back against his side of the booth. But there was no denying the edge to his words, not when his wolf glittered in his eyes.
    Conall’s frown deepened and he glanced at his sister. They hadn’t gone anywhere near the Alpha’s compound in dragon form. “Neither I nor my sister have flown over your compound. Ever.”
    The male’s eyes narrowed a fraction, but Conall wasn’t lying and wouldn’t put off the acidic scent associated with an untruth. “Then who was it?”
    “I don’t know.” But if there was another dragon in the territory, that concerned him greatly. No one knew why his brother had been locked in Hell or who had done it. Of course no one knew he’d been locked there in the first place until months ago. “What did this dragon look like?”
    “Cobalt blue body, white-gold wings.” A succinct response.
    Conall liked that the Alpha didn’t make small talk. In order to gain this male’s trust to a certain degree he needed to be forthright. Which meant revealing more about his kind than he cared to do, but it was necessary to bring his brother home. “That sounds like a Moana dragon. They live near the water, but make their homes on land. My clan is not at war with them. Was the dragon hostile?”
    Stavros shook his head.
    “They’re the least violent of all of our kind,” Keelin said, her voice shaky and he could guess why. She was still reeling from their brother’s anger toward them. “They wouldn’t attack without a reason. It’s possible they heard about a dragon living here with a shifter pack and were simply curious.”
    Keelin had been so excited and hopeful to find their brother and likely hadn’t expected the reception they’d just had. Not that he blamed his brother. And he knew without a doubt after seeing the male that they were related. Even if they didn’t look so similar, he felt the connection in his bones. Once he discovered who’d put his brother in Hell, he was going to avenge him and make the guilty party suffer for an eternity.
    “Why did it take you so long to come for your brother?” The way Stavros said the word brother made it sound as if he didn’t believe they were actually related.
    Conall reined in his anger, but Keelin shifted against the seat, her agitation clear. “We couldn’t exactly take out an ad online,” she snapped. The mini outburst was unlike her. Normally she was the most diplomatic of everyone in their clan.
    “I thought you felt him.” There was a slight edge of sarcasm in his voice.
    “We did, when he reemerged into the world. But we’re not telepathically connected on a continuous basis.” Conall’s throat tightened as he thought of how long his brother had been locked away. How none of them had known, had just been living their lives. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Their parents had gone into a deep sleep hundreds of years ago, their mother still mourning the loss of her oldest son and unable to take the grief. Conall wondered if she knew he was back. He’d never gone into a Protective Hibernation before so he wasn’t sure how connected sleeping dragons were to the rest of their clan. Though he doubted she or his father knew about Drake’s re-emergence. They would have returned by now.
    “What do you want with him now?” Stavros demanded.
    He blinked at the question. “To bring him home where he belongs. We are his family, his clan.” And he was next in line to rule since their father was in a Protective Hibernation and had stepped down. Conall was the current leader of their clan but would give the position to his brother. It was rightfully his.
    “You didn’t do a very good job of protecting him before,” the one named Gabriel said, his voice dry.
    Before Conall could respond, Keelin jumped up, shoving the round table in the half-moon shaped booth out of their