Free Dragon Storm by Bianca D'Arc Page B

shifted form.
    It was actually kind of beautiful. And very, very magical.
    If snowcats were revered, these two dragons ought to be deified.
    Firming her resolve, she turned toward the kitchen. The smell of sizzling meat and vegetables tantalized her nose and made her stomach growl as she walked into the small room. The kitchen table was set as if for a state dinner, except of course for her paltry stoneware dishes and mismatched utensils. The men apparently had good manners and knew how to set a table. Maybe their world wasn’t so backward after all.
    The roast sat in the center of the table, just waiting to be carved. Heaping plates of mashed potatoes, green beans and other vegetables she’d had in her freezer sat around the main platter. Her mouth watered.
    “This looks delicious.” She tried to keep the surprise out of her voice but saw the smirking grins on the twins’ faces. They knew darn well that she’d expected far less when they insisted on cooking dinner for her.
    “Allow me.” Darius pulled her chair out for her. Connor moved to carve the roast while Darius brought each of the side dishes to her, spooning servings onto her plate at her direction.
    Connor served the roast in thick, savory slices while Darius took his seat. Solicitous didn’t even begin to describe the way they treated her. Unctuous might be closer, but it didn’t quite capture the very real concern for her comfort that she saw in their eyes.
    After she was served, the men took huge portions for themselves. Josie had been surprised by the sheer amount of food they’d prepared, thinking perhaps they’d overdone it. Now she began to understand just how much these two men could eat.
    “This is really delicious,” Josie complemented them both as she sampled everything. They really were good cooks. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?”
    “We don’t often get the chance to prepare meals indoors,” Connor began.
    “When we’re on patrol, we often shift and cook outside rather than eat game raw in our dragon forms.” Darius finished his twin’s thought. “Our brothers laugh at us sometimes, but I think they all prefer cooked meat.”
    “Though they’ll never let on.” Connor picked up the thread again, grinning at his brother and then at her. “They enjoy teasing us too much.”
    “How many brothers do you have?”
    “Eight,” Connor answered. “Roland is the eldest, then Nico, Hugh, the other twins Collin and Trey, Trent, us, Jon, then the baby, Wil.”
    “Although, since his adventure on Gryphon Isle, Wil is closer to our age now.”
    Josie didn’t understand how that could be, and the look on her face must’ve telegraphed her puzzlement.
    “Wil was kidnapped by servants of the wizard Gryffid and taken to him on Gryphon Isle. Gryffid did something to change the way time flows on the island and Wil spent five years there, learning from Gryffid and training with the fair folk warriors before our people got to him and brought him back. Only a week passed for us while Wil aged five years.”
    “It was quite a shock. He’d been captured a gawky teen and came back a man grown.” Connor raised his glass and took a long swallow of water. “At first we didn’t believe it was him.”
    “I can see why. That’s…amazing.” Josie was more than a little alarmed at the idea of such magic. Things like that just didn’t happen. For that matter, a girl didn’t have dinner with two dragons every day either. She felt hysteria loom near the surface again, but tamped it down.
    She’d seen magic. Hell, she was magic. She knew its flavor and understood as much as she could about it, having lived with it her whole life. This was something else altogether. What they were talking about in such a matter-of-fact way, was impossible in her world. The stuff of legend only. And there it should remain, as far as she was concerned.
    “I fear we are distressing you again,” Connor said in a tight voice. “Please forgive us. It is hard