Skylar pulled off her shift as Laura handed her a new shirt. "This should fit you. You change into that and then I'll help you fix your hair."
Skylar blushed and patted her curls. "It gets frizzy when I'm nervous."
Her friend grinned and ran a hand over her hair, pulling at a ringlet and letting it bounce back. "You don't have to be nervous, Sky."
"Another Alpha is coming, and I don't need to be nervous? I have to face not only Leo, but an Alpha I've never met before."
She pulled the new, clean shirt over her head and pulled a brush through her hair. It didn't help with the frizziness, in fact it made it worse, but it gave her something to do.
"Hey, hey! You're going to pull it all out if you do that," Laura chuckled, pulling the brush away from her. "Let me do it." She began pulling the brush through her hair in a much gentler motion. Laura was only a few years older than Skylar, but her touch felt amazingly maternal.
"Thank you," Skylar said, staring into the mirror over the vanity. Laura's caramel eyes met hers, and they were full of support and love. Skylar had never had a female friend before, and she liked the closeness and trust there. She'd do anything for Laura, just like Laura had her back today and for the last week.
"We could do something different with your hair, rather than just the braid if you want," she offered.
Skylar thought of how she always wore her hair back at the castle, and thought something familiar would be nice. To demonstrate, she grabbed it and twisted it up at the back of her head. "Something like this would be nice, I think."
"Perfect! Let me go grab some pins and then we'll get it all up. You have a lot of hair, so I might need to steal some of Fiona's," she teased before dashing off and leaving Skylar alone, staring at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were a little puffy since she'd hardly slept at all the night before, but they were bright and alert. She could see her dragon reflected in them, nearly as anxious as Skylar.
The blue dragon wasn't as nervous as Skylar, but that was only because she was more confident in their ability to survive without the protection of Orion and the clan. Of course, she didn't want to leave Orion, but she felt they could survive without him. Or that they could at least evade capture. Skylar didn't agree. She was terrified, and she didn't have any faith in this new Alpha.
She ran her fingers through her hair to try and tame the curls, regretting running a brush through it like she had, and sighed when there was little success. She needed Greta. Her nurse was the only one who had ever been able to keep her curls from escaping their assigned positions.
There was a knock on the door and Skylar spun to look at it, wondering why Laura would bother knocking on the door to her own room, when Percy stuck his head in.
"Hey," he said, looking a little troubled.
"Hello," she greeted him slowly, narrowing her eyes.
"How are you feeling?" She was glad Percy knew exactly why Kellan was coming today, and what would possibly happen to her. Percy's betrothed or not, Laura was not the official Beta female yet, so she didn't know that the reason the other Alpha was coming was so he could help decide what needed to be done with Skylar. It was part of the reason she didn't understand Skylar's nervousness today.
She lowered her lashes before glancing back up at him as he stepped into the room. She noticed how comfortable he was in Laura's space, even so comfortable as to go take a seat on the edge of the bed when there were two perfectly good chairs only four feet to his left, and she was slightly scandalized by it. She knew she had been in Orion's room all those nights ago, seeing him on a different level, but nothing had happened between them. Nothing like that anyway. But the aura around Percy... Skylar didn't want to think about it. She knew it was silly, but she'd grown up in a world where people who were courting hardly touched before their wedding day. To think about being in the other's room was out of the question. Once again, she thought about her late-night visit to Orion's room and realized it was strange custom. She'd learned more about Orion that night than she had the entire time she'd known him. The late-night discussions were a great way to get to know your future spouse.
YOU ARE READING
Dragon Blood
Fantasy"Do you remember calling me 'mate?'" he asked softly, pushing her wild curls away from her face. She blushed deeply, but he wouldn't let her look away. "You heard that?" He nodded with a smile. "It was the first thought she ever shared with me." Sky...
