Page 94 of Consumed By Fire

“I think you’re going to want to hear this.”

I frown because I think he might be smiling.

29

Trinity

Once again, I find myself shackled to the table in the interrogation room. The light buzzes in the ceiling above us. The chair is hard and uncomfortable.

“How many times did you have sex with the Draiger?” the general asks me. The mask seems to mock me from across the table.

“I don’t see how that is even relevant,” I tell him in a voice filled with exasperation.

What! The! Hell?

“It is relevant. How many times?” he demands.

I roll my eyes. “Three, okay…just three,” I tell him.

“Three is three times too many. What were you thinking?” he snarls. “Sex with a Draiger. A Draiger!” His voice gets louder. “We have perfectly good males here on Mistveil. Unless he forced you. Did he force you?”

“No,” I tell him. “Octane is a good male. A kind male. He would never do such a thing. I wasn’t seeing him like the enemy anymore by the time we had sex. I felt like I knew him.” It’s true; despite all my bravado in that cave, I didn’t see him as my enemy. I didn’t hate him, even though I wanted to. I didn’t want to feel the things I was feeling.

“Kind?” he snorts. “You say that the Draiger is kind, but he held you captive and threatened to take your baby. How is that kind? He threatened to torture and then kill your mate. That’s not kind at all. That is barbaric, which is the true nature of a Draig Dragon. Out-of-control misfits, the lot of them,” he sneers.

“Let me think about this.” I scrunch up my face for a moment, pretending to think things through. “So, he threatened to torture my mate in much the same way as you actually physically tortured him, General? Frankly, it wasn’t the same at all. He merely made threats, whereas you actually tortured him. Who is truly barbaric here?”

Bastard!

“That was different,” he splutters.

“Not different at all. It’s exactly the same. He never intended to keep my baby. It was all a ruse to get me to talk.”

“And did you? Tread carefully, female. The male was found on Mistveil, so I pretty much know the answer to that particular question already.” He narrows his eyes.

“Not at first…no.” I tell him about the events that unfolded after that. About Octane being injured. How I thought he was dead.

“Four Reds, you say, on Draig Island?”

“Yes,” I state immediately.

He snorts like it’s an absurd notion. “Are you sure?”

I sigh. “Of course I’m sure. They searched for us, but we got away to the cave. I told you this part already.”

“Thing is, you never actually saw them, did you? And then the dragons you saw were very far away. Perhaps you were mistaken about them being Reds.”

“I didn’t have to see them. I recognized their voices, especially Titan’s voice. It was him, Ranger, and Rocky. I am sure as sure can be.”

He makes a noise that tells me he doesn’t believe me. “So, Octane was injured, and you were detained. You said that they questioned you repeatedly?”

“Yes, they tied me to a chair without food and water,” I tell him. “Much like you’re doing to me right now.”

“Let me guess, you folded.” He lifts his brows. “Just like you folded today. You told them everything.”

“No, I did not fold,” I rasp, having to work hard to school my emotions.

“When did you tell the Draigers about the tunnel?” he asks, leaning forward and glaring at me.