Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(20)

Had she told her parents too? If she had, then Deryk needed to go to her. To be beside her and protect her from their possible anger.

He met the other dragon’s gaze challengingly. “Izabella is free and over twenty-one. She doesn’t belong to you.”

Vlad stiffened. “She and her family are under my protection.”

He snorted. “Then you did a piss-poor job of it, didn’t you?”

“You arrogant Welsh bastard!” the Russian roared, hands turning into taloned claws.

“Not here.” Bryn stepped between them as Deryk’s talons also appeared. “And not now,” he rasped. “We have a badly injured dragon, and our first priority is to discover who tried to kill him, not start arguing amongst ourselves.”

Black eyes glittered as Vlad continued to glare at Deryk. “We will settle this after we have found and destroyed the person who dared to attack my brother.”

“Just name the time and place,” Deryk came back coldly.

Vlad nodded. “Oh, be assured, I will.”

He nodded abruptly. “In the meantime, I need to go and check on my mate.”

The Russian dragon’s jaw tensed grimly. “She is with her parents, who are no happier than I am with this development,” he warned.

“Fine.” Deryk nodded. “I’ll be back in time to help once you’ve decided the best way to look for whoever attacked Vaughn. But in the meantime, I need be with Izabella and reassure my future in-laws of my intention to take care of Izabella for the rest of my life.”

It was also too soon in the mating for the two of them to be apart for even this length of time. His cock was rock hard with need, so he had a feeling Izabella’s desire would also be reaching fever pitch again very soon.



“How could you do this to us, Izzi?” Her father paced their private sitting room at the back of the house. “How could you do this to the Romanov family, whom we have served for so long?”

Izzi had been sitting in an armchair listening to questions like this for the past ten minutes. Ever since she had told Vladimir Romanov that Deryk had been with her this evening, and so couldn’t possibly have attacked Vaughn.

Rhetorical questions when her father never paused long enough to allow her to answer any of them.

Except he seemed to have run out of those questions for the moment. “I have done nothing to the Romanov family except spend the evening with one of their guests.”

Tears glistened in her mother’s eyes. “You said you have mated this man.”

“I said he had mated me,” Izzi corrected. “I didn’t say I had any intention of accepting the mating.” Although that clamoring in her body had intensified again. Making her ache. Making her want. Making her squirm in arousal, as her clothes seemed too restrictive on her oversensitive body.

Meaning she had to get away from her parents before she started shaking from the sexual need building inside her.

“We owe everything to the Romanovs,” her father continued to lecture. “Our livelihood, our wealth, our family’s very survival. I am not sure Vladimir will even allow this mating.”

Izzi surged to her feet. “It is my choice to make, not Vladimir’s.” Her family had served the Romanov family faithfully for centuries, quite often to the detriment of their own happiness. It was a practice that not only seemed archaic in the twenty-first century, it was archaic.

Her father’s eyes widened in shock. “You cannot talk about the Romanovs in that disrespectful way—”

“But I can,” Deryk announced as he walked into the room and immediately strode to Izabella’s side. He was able to feel the tension and trembling in her body the moment his arm moved about her waist, informing him her sexual need had already risen to an almost unbearable degree. “Make no mistake, Izabella is my mate,” he announced to her parents in a voice that brooked no argument.

Anton Mikhailov looked as if he were about to burst a blood vessel. “Vladimir is not happy with the arrangement.”

“Vladimir can kiss my—” Deryk reined back his anger as he remembered who he was talking to. The last thing he wanted to do was alienate Izabella’s parents. “Vladimir and I will come to some sort of agreement on the matter.” He felt Izabella stiffen beside him. “Izabella and I will come to an agreement with Vladimir,” he corrected.

“Do you intend to take our daughter back to England with you?” Anna Mikhailova interjected quietly.

“Wales. And that will be up to Izabella.”

She looked at him in surprise. “It will?”

Deryk had given some thought to this mating after their conversations earlier today and this evening.

Izabella was Russia. She had lived here all her life. Taking her back to Wales with him would cut her off from all that was familiar to her. From her family and friends—not including Petrov, of course. That was a parting Deryk had no objection to, in the slightest. But Izabella also wanted to finish her university degree. Removing her from Russia now would not make his mate happy, and her happiness was of paramount importance to him. It was all that mattered.

Deryk had never envisaged living away from his brothers, but if remaining in Russia was Izabella’s choice, then he would do everything in his power to ensure that it happened.

Including sucking up to the arrogant Vladimir Romanov, whose permission he would need in order to remain in the Russian dragon’s territory.