Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(30)

“It was a surprise for me too,” I said, which was honest enough.

Instructors walked out onto the field. Jaik’s face darkened when he saw Caldren down there. What was going on between the two of them?

“As you know,” one of them announced, “we’ll be moving to the field for training maneuvers next month. So enjoy your beds while you can.”

Talisyn snorted. “As if we haven’t spent enough time in the field.”

“It’ll be a shock to the undragons,” Jaik answered. He leaned back so he could side-eye me properly, since Branok was between us. “And to…Lucien.”

Branok was focused on the field, his jaw tense, as if he couldn’t stand having me this close to him. What the hell had Lucien done to Branok and Lynx? I wished Caldren knew.

“You can come to lunch with us,” Jaik said, as if he were doing me some huge favor.

Talisyn glanced toward me. “If you survive morning hand-to-hand.”

“And morning magic,” Jaik added in a considering voice.

“And how’s your flying?” Talisyn asked.

“A little shaky,” I admitted, not wanting to admit that I hadn’t even been in the air yet. Caldren had told me to avoid going air bound and that I should get Damyn to take me up.

“Aw,” Talisyn said, sounding mock-sympathetic. “Then this should be fun!”

Talisyn and Jaik ignored the instructors, instead convincing Branok to join them in placing bets on the likelihood I’d crash and burn—literally—before dinner. Meanwhile, Arren watched the instructors with his arms folded over his chest and a grouchy look on his face. Apparently, he hated me in all my incarnations.

The instructors dismissed us to our training. I caught a glimpse of Caldren watching me as I rose and shouldered my bag.

Hand-to-hand combat, aka ass kicking. I could handle that, even though I’d be the one getting my ass kicked.

Then I had to face Magic. Well, it turned out I was a lot better than I’d thought, so I had that going for me. Magic had been an advanced skill at boarding school; Headmistress wanted us to learn to save ourselves with our bare hands before we discovered any cheats, as she called them, and we didn’t get our true magic until we got our shifting abilities anyway.

What I was really dreading, though, was lunch. Lunch at a new school is always the worst.

Have you ever had a girl who has been a total bitch to you all your life suddenly decide you’re best friends? Because that was suddenly my life. As I made my way down the steps of the amphitheater to the training yard, everyone wanted to chit chat with me. Many of the girls smiled and fluttered their lashes. Any other day, they would have been staring at me as if they were imagining spooning my eyeballs out of my head. It was disconcerting. I did not like having mean girls flirt with me.

Although it was nice they were finally recognizing my complete awesomeness, even if they weren’t seeing it for the real reasons, because I did deserve to be loved.

High-bred girls just weren’t genuine. Normally, I probably could have been cool with having a hot girl flirt with me. I would always love dicks—or at least the idea of dicks. I’d never actually had a dick, but I was pretty sure I would like them, just like I knew when I saw some chocolaty dessert I’d never had before that I would like that too.

But a beautiful person is a beautiful person, male or female. We all like beautiful things. At least that was my theory.

Unfortunately, I still had to walk out to the training yard, where the people that liked me the least were waiting to smush me into a pretty red-headed stain in the ground. Time for hand-to-hand training.

It began with Damyn and Caldren addressing us. “I know you dragon shifters think it’s beneath you, but you’re going to have to fight other shifters, you can’t just fight each other.”

“And for God’s sakes, stop calling them undragons where they can hear you.” Damyn sounded mildly exasperated by the royals, which made me like him even more. I’d quickly discover over the course of the next few days that Damyn was quick to take the Royals down a few pegs, something they all desperately needed.

“But we all want to play with Lucien.” Talisyn mock-pouted, crossing his arms over his powerful chest. “He’s our new friend.”

Damyn quirked an eyebrow. “Why do I somehow doubt the sincerity of your friendship.”

Tal looked shocked. “I am never anything but sincere.”

No one believed that lie, not even his best friends.

Damyn gave me a look as if he were gauging the odds of me surviving the next hour, if he let the royals have their way with me.

I tried to give him a secretive nod to let him know I’d be okay. There was no way that these bastards would ever accept getting anything but their way. In the end, I would have to fight them, to prove what I was capable of.

Even though what I was capable of was probably pretty much just getting my ass kicked and hopefully not crying about it. I knew that. I’d come face to face with Jaik’s impressive combat skills before.

But maybe I could earn their respect. Maybe I could at least keep from sobbing—because I had a feeling Jaik wasn’t going to pull his punches like he had when he thought he was just entertaining himself with the housemaid.

“This will be fun,” Talisyn promised me cheerfully, resting his elbow on my shoulder, the same way he had all those times I’d found him so incredibly adorable. It was a lot less cute when I was worried I wouldn’t be cute anymore by the time these guys were done with me.