Forever (The Dragon Wars)(10)

They lay in silence, Devin eventually rolling off her to lie by her side. Lena stared up at the ceiling, her heart rate slowing gradually. He hadn’t bitten her. Devin had been right. On his end, there had been no mating. Males who found their mates couldn’t resist the urge to mark them, to chomp down with their teeth and leave a spot the whole world could see.

She swallowed, hoping he couldn’t scent her agony. Why had she hoped this would change things? Lena felt like such a fool. He’d told her the truth, and she’d done this to try to prove something had to be wrong. Now, she’d get to live the rest of her life knowing the pleasure her mate could give her even though she would never have a mate.

One lone tear escaped, and she quickly batted it away. She might as not have, as he’d be able to smell her distress. Trying to be as sly as she could, she glanced over at Devin, hoping he wouldn’t notice. He stared up at the ceiling, his gaze distant and removed.

She cleared her throat. “Would you like to shift and go for a run?”

Lena couldn’t think of anything she’d like better than to escape this room. He’d brought her utter and complete pleasure and then shattered her soul.

Devin rolled over, his back facing her, his head turned away. “You go ahead. I can’t shift anymore. Haven’t been able to since I came back.”

He couldn’t shift? A strange buzzing sensation filled her mind. This was important. It had to matter that Devin had been disconnected from his Wolf.

“That’s why you can’t heal your leg? You can’t shift to fix it?”

He turned to look at her, his eyes tired. “It’s pretty disgusting, I know. Trust me, no one likes looking at it less than I do. Twisted flesh, the bone poking out from where it should be—yeah, it’s gross.”

Lena wasn’t exactly certain what was going on, but she’d somehow stepped into a minefield. She hoped she could find her way out. Fast.

“I didn’t say it was gross. I just asked if that was why it wasn’t fixed.” She rubbed her eyes. “What do the doctors say about why you can’t shift?”

“Nothing. They have nothing to say.”

Okay, Lena needed to change the subject immediately, or she had a feeling he would throw her out, and she’d never get to come back in. Only minutes ago, she’d wanted out of the room, but since his announcement about his shifting problem, something had changed inside of her. Even if he wasn’t her mate, he would always be the Wolf she’d lost her virginity to.

“Before I had to leave school, I studied nursing. They taught us all kinds of massages. I could rub it if you’d like.”

“No.” He jerked farther away from her. “I’d really rather you never touch it.”

She rolled closer to him. “Did you watch the news this morning?”

“I never do. Why was there something on it I needed to see?”

Lena touched his arm with two fingers, hoping she could soothe away some of his tension. Devin acted prickly, but she started to suspect it was to cover some very strong pain.

“They said the Dragons are likely to sign the peace accord.”

Devin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they’ve said that before.”

“You don’t believe them?”

“No.” He spit the word out like it burned his throat to say it.

“The news people say it’s because you guys have been doing such a good job attacking their nesting grounds. They don’t want to lose any more eggs, so they’re finally willing to settle with us.” She grinned. Everyone felt so proud of those operations. They had really turned the tide of the war. “That’s what your unit was doing, right?”

“Before we got caught, yes.” He rolled over to look at her. His gaze seemed huge, his eyes bright in the darkness. “Lena, don’t believe them. Whatever they tell you about that—about going to the nesting grounds—it isn’t what they say it is.”

Her heart beat faster and she bit down on her lip. “What do you mean?”

“When you destroy an egg, it’s not the same as say stepping on an anthill. That’s what they told us it would be like. Get rid of the eggs, they can’t make babies. But when you burn them, the eggs scream. We are killing their babies and the sound—I’m not sure I’ll ever forget it. It will be with me forever.”

Tears sprang to Lena’s eyes both from the distress in Devin’s tone and from the imagery his words had created for her. “People have to know about this, Devin. It isn’t the Wolf way to kill babies. We’re all being told you’re killing unfertilized eggs.”