Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(41)

Uther Pendragon? Why did that name sound so famil— Deryk couldn’t possibly mean as in the father of the legendary King Arthur? Could he?

“Yes,” Deryk confirmed dryly as he saw Izabella’s doubtful expression. “If you’re anything like Chloe was initially, then you don’t believe Arthur ever existed. Let me assure you, he did. He was our brother, and ensuring his safety was the reason we, the dragon warriors, were goddess born. Arthur had to live long enough to provide Wales’s future in the heir that would ultimately result in Owain Gwynedd, the first Prince of Wales, and subsequently his grandson Llywelyn the Great.”

Izabella continued to eye him uncertainly. “I always thought Arthur was a myth.”

He shrugged. “I was there. I can assure you he was very real. And also my brother.”

“But Owain Gwynedd is a well-known historical figure. Wouldn’t historians have been able to identify Arthur as his ancestor?”

“Not if Arthur wasn’t officially his ancestor.”

Her brow cleared. “Ah.”

Deryk smiled slightly. “I’m sure that if most people traced back their own ancestry, they would find a straight line that ultimately led back to some well-known historical figure or other. Or not,” he added dryly. “But that sort of chart doesn’t allow for bastards born within another marriage. Arthur’s son was one of them, and his dragon brothers had to ensure Arthur lived long enough to father that child.”

“You were a part of Arthur’s court?”

His mouth twisted. “There was no court, as such. Not in the way you probably think of them today. I’ll also tell you the same as Nathaniel told Chloe when the two of them met. There were no Knights of the Round Table. No Camelot. No Guinevere. No Lancelot. There was only Arthur.”

“And his warrior dragon brothers.”

“Yes.” Deryk nodded. “Our brother Gideon was killed during the same battle we lost Arthur.”

Izzi knew that Russian history wasn’t exactly straightforward. In fact, it had been one of the hardest subjects to study when Izzi was at school. Especially so the last two centuries, when the royal family was assassinated and the communist rebels took over and the country became the USSR, with all the complications that entailed.

Some of that was no less unbelievable than that King Arthur existed alongside his warrior dragon brothers.

“What happened to the nine of you that were left after Arthur and Gideon died?”

Deryk shrugged. “We remained human for most of the time and became mercenaries for a while. Fought for whichever side we believed to be the right one. We were mainly right.” He grimaced. “After we lost Rufus to dragon hunters during Victoria’s reign, we retreated to Pendragon Castle and avoided too much interaction with the ever-increasing human population. Latterly, the advances in technology have become our biggest enemy, as well as the biggest ally for our security company,” he added ruefully. “My brother Aeran has become our computer nerd.”

Izzi could see many ways modern technology could be helpful as well as dangerous to Deryk and his dragon brothers. The latter because they had lived for fifteen hundred years without aging. Which was no doubt when their ability to use compulsion came in useful.

She would become a part of that too when—if she and Deryk mated.

Which she was no longer sure Deryk wanted.

He hadn’t so much as touched her for the past couple of hours since their arrival in Scotland. Something her aching and painfully aroused body was only too well aware of.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “So what happens now?”

“Now we sleep.” Deryk rose to his feet. “There’s only one bed, I’m afraid, so we’ll have to share.”

Izzi wanted to do more than share a bed with Deryk. But again, she sensed his reluctance to take their relationship to the next level.

But surely the fact he had confided to her that his tenth brother had been the legendary King Arthur had to mean something?

Along with all the other things she now knew about the Pendragon dragons?

But she was also responsible for bringing the Petrov brother and sister into the lives of both the Romanov and Pendragon dragons. Vaughn had almost died because of her.

Maybe Deryk now saw her as a security risk to both himself and his family?

Maybe he hadn’t minded telling her all those things about his past because he intended to kill her and leave her body in these remote Scottish mountains before becoming feral, rather than mating with her?

“What are you thinking about?”

Izzi turned, her mouth going dry as she saw Deryk was already undressing in preparation for going to bed. He had removed his T-shirt to reveal his wide and muscular shoulders and arms, along with the taut ridges of his chest and abdomen.

All Izzi wanted to do was launch herself at him and beg to be taken, to become his mate.

Instead, she forced herself to answer calmly. “I thought our being mates meant you were able to sense my emotions?”

“It does.” He nodded, scowling darkly. “And right now, I’m sensing that you’re afraid of me.”

“No! Not exactly,” she amended with a wince. “I was merely wondering if you still wanted to go ahead with the mating.”

“Or?” Deryk prompted sharply as he definitely sensed there was an “or.”