Hidden Flame: Bound to the Triplet Dragon Kings

**Avery**

This is insane. All of this is insane. I locked my door and rested my back against it. I could hear The Trio quietly talking in

the hallway on the other side of my door, but I couldn’t make out what. They were happy and excited no matter what

they were discussing. They all want me to forgive them but Cassius. He wants to prove himself. Should I let him?

Not thinking, I throw open my door. “What am I to you?” In unison, they said, “Mate.” I abruptly slammed and locked my

door before I pressed my forehead to it. Mate? How? Oh, fucking god! I pulled out all of the historical books in my room

and some of my romance books too because some truth always lies in fiction if you are willing to read between the lines.

In my human history book, there is a section on mythology. In Babylonian myths, Tiamat was the goddess of all dragons

and she was believed to bring chaos and violence as well as create monsters. What if she didn’t bring those things but was created from them? Next, I found an example in Chinese culture. There was a woman named Longmu. She and those

dragons that she bonded to are believed to have created devotion and parental love. I wonder if she is the one

responsible for the mating bond. I picked up a romance book called The Flame. I rented it by accident because it is about

dragons.

Shakily, I began to turn the pages and read. In this fictional book, the female lead never knew who her parents were. She

was found as an infant near death along the shore of a frozen river by an elderly dragon woman. She raised the girl as

her own. The girl had a strange mark on her right hip. It turned out that the mark was from a royal lineage of dragons

dating back to their creation.

turning on all of my lights, I grabbed a

every inch of my body. None of

was still a dragon’s clawed handprint on my back but instead of

dragon’s mark. Maybe my nightmares of that day in the forest when I was six are

didn’t attack me, instead, it marked me. But why? I was a

have looked everywhere except between my legs. I sit on

my upper right thigh

I screamed as I dropped the mirror and it shattered into a million pieces on my

suddenly I am not alone in

Cassius asks as he rushes to me with Asher at

the shards as I grab the shower curtain in an effort

took a hand towel from my rack and

the towel around his head so that it covered his eyes. “Avery, let me help. I won’t look, I swear,” he said.

my bed. I suddenly remembered how

and the other Hags tried to kill me. But it wasn’t Cassius who

leap of faith in allowing myself to be vulnerable around Cassius. To

the way to my bed. He gently

you tell me that you can do it

for the full experience. You

else. Happy reading!

wrists and guide his hands to where the shards are protruding from my body. It hurts,

in. “Either get the fuck out or close

I see them leave but return with their eyes covered. Conner fumbles around but Clint

you to guide my hands

as he asked. “Now, tell me

told them about what I read and what I saw. “Avery, we need to see it,”

shower curtain to cover my intimate areas. “I am trusting all of you, don’t make me regret it.” Without