Dragon Scorned

17. River

“So, what made you move out here with Tate?” I asked Ryder on the way to our next class, that surprisingly he was in with me, Tate, Nat, and Nikolai. Wednesday is the only day we have almost all of the same classes together.

Except for supernatural studies, Nikolai wasn’t in that class with us and if he was, I haven’t seen him.

“I felt trapped. My last home was very demanding.” He looked over at me with those mismatched eyes, and I saw the faint specks of gold flicker within his green iris.

“It”s nice you”re able to stay with Tate and come to Willow Hollow University. I am really enjoying it here. I’m sure you’ll fit right in.” Natalia smiled at him as I groaned.

“It’s not that magnificent Nat, but it’s growing on me.” I turned to look at Ryder, giving him a shy smile. Yup, definitely growing on me.

I felt a strange pull to him I didn’t understand, my dragon hummed in my chest in approval.

Ryder was staring at me with a look I couldn’t quite place…mischief maybe. I quickly looked away as I felt the heat rise up the back of my neck.

I cracked open my window, allowing Nikolai into my mind, leaving my eyes open so I wouldn’t get sucked into my head with him again. I didn’t need my clumsy ass to trip and fall while I had my eyes closed to have a conversation with him.

Do you know anything about Tate’s cousin Ryder, who just started here?

I was hoping Nikolai had some answers for me, so far he was the only one telling me any sort of truth. I was still upset with Natalia and would be having that conversation with her when we head to lunch.

No, my star, but I will look into him for you. What’s wrong?

I huffed out a sigh, that wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for. I don’t know what I expected, but he was going to look into it so that’s all I could hope for.

I don’t know. There”s this strange tugging feeling toward him that I can’t quite figure out.

Kai growled in my head before going quiet. What the hell? Did he just block me out? I mentally called his name, but only silence met me.

That asshole just blocked me. He got pissed at me for blocking him out. Yet, he did it to me with no problem.

I glanced over at Ryder; he was focused on me, a questioning look on his face.

“Are you a dragon too?” I asked, swallowing down the giant lump in my throat.

“If I told you yes, would you be afraid?” He said in a low voice, that sent a shiver down my spine.

I pulled my dragon to the surface, shifting my eyes into their beautiful violet color. His smile grew as he looked at me, his eyes sparkling in delight.

A low laugh left him as I shifted my eyes back to their normal icy blue. Then, surprise hit me when his one green eye completely shifted to gold, making his mismatched eyes one cohesive color.

Before I could say anything, Nat tugged on my sleeve, turning my attention toward her.

She showed me her phone, whispering low in hopes Ryder wouldn’t hear, “Lainey just sent me a message and said Professor Knox might know something involving Moonbeam.”

“Really?”

“Yes, she overheard a conversation with him and another professor, they mentioned Moonbeam and he took a folder and locked it in his office.” She said, showing me the pictures Lainey took of the folder labeled classified.

I eyed Ryder, taking a step away from him, turning back to Natalia and keeping my voice low, “How do you feel about a heist?”

“You know I can hear you right. You”re not very discrete, drag?.” Ryder snickered.

“Ooh, hush up, you overgrown lizard. She wasn’t asking you.” Nat spat at him, leaning around me to glare at the man.

I jolted back, surprised she was so rude to the new guy, but pretty impressed. That filter never worked, so I don’t know why I expected it to now.

“If you want to break into Knox Bellencroft’s office, I can help,” Ryder said, a sly smile spreading across his face.

I spun around to fully face the guy. Could we trust him? If he was able to get us in and out of his office undetected then it was worth a shot. Wasn’t it?

I took a long moment to contemplate the pros and cons of trusting the guy I literally just met an hour ago. Deciding to take a leap of faith, I nodded and his grin grew.

“How do you plan on doing this then?” Nat asked, crossing her arms across her chest, clearly not happy with my decision.

“Just meet me back here at midnight, and wear black. Let me see your phone.” He winked at me, holding out his hand.

I was hesitant but handed him my phone, after a few seconds he handed it back and turned around, walking away from us. I looked at my phone in confusion before looking up at his retreating back.

I watched him for a moment before yelling after him, “Where are you going? We share the next class together.”

“Something I need to do, drag?.” He called out over his shoulder, not turning around to us as he made his way down the path toward the student parking lot.

“Seriously?” Nat scoffed, her brows pinched down and a frown on her face.

“You have no room to talk. You kept being adopted from me throughout our entire friendship.” I told her. I was still pretty pissed about that bit of knowledge she sprung on me.

“River, I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t do it to hurt you. It just never came up, and sometimes I just forgot about it.” Tears sprang to her eyes, tipping over and making their way down her cheek.

I instantly felt bad for making her upset, but it really hurt me that she didn’t tell me. It felt like a blade twisting in my gut.

“I don’t remember my mom. Jane and Chris are all I know.” She pulled the necklace out from under her shirt, holding it up to show me. “This is all I have from my birth mother, and I don’t even know her name. They adopted me when I was a month old. I didn’t even know about it until I was nine.”

That was only a few years before I met her, I softened at the sight of the tears flowing down her face. Blowing hot steam at her to dry them up. She giggled as she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“I guess I can forgive you, but you owe me an extra batch of cinnamon rolls tonight before we go all incognito and break the law,” I told her, holding out my arms, waiting for her to do the same.

“Deal,” she laughed before embracing me in a warm hug. We stayed that way for a long time, loving the warmth of each other before someone cleared their throat beside us.

We broke apart to see Tate’s confused look, then busted out laughing.

“Well it looks like you two made up,” Tate said, a big smile shining across his face. He draped his arms around our shoulders and we started walking down the path together.

We only took a few steps before Jax stepped in front of us, blocking our path.

“Move chienne, you”re going to make us late.” Nat said through gritted teeth as I chuckled at her name for him.

“Ma lune, can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked, standing his ground against Nat’s insult.

I looked over at Natalia, she hardened her eyes at me in clear disapproval, but I sighed, ducking out from underneath Tate’s hold. “Go ahead and save me a seat, I’ll be there in a minute.”

She glared at Jax as she walked around him. I looked over at Tate, nodding towards her, silently telling him to follow.

He growled, also displeased with me dismissing him, but followed after Nat. Like I knew he would.

I put my hand on my hip, turning to face Jax, waiting for him to say whatever it is he wanted to talk to me about.

“Tate told me you”re looking into Moonbeam and I might have something for you.” He said, shuffling through his backpack before pulling out a thick manila envelope. “These are all the last known locations of all the Moonbeam corporations in Willow Hollow and the surrounding areas.”

My eyes went wide with shock at the information he was able to get, I reached out to take the envelope before he clutched it to his chest.

“If I give you this, will you promise to take at least one of your mates when you go to check them out? A lot of them are abandoned, but you never know what was left behind.” He looked at the folder again before coming back up to meet my eyes.

“Sure,” I told him, holding out my hand for the documents.

He eyed me for a long time before handing it over. “Thank you,” I told him, shoving it into my bag. I’ll look it over later with Nat.

“I’m serious, River. It could be dangerous, and some of those might not be abandoned. The last thing I want is for you to go snooping around and lose your head because of it.” He gave me a stern look.

I released my dragon just enough to change my blue eyes to violet and shift my nails into talons. Holding up my hand, I slowly curled them into my palm, sending daggers his way. Anger filled my features at his words, acting like I can’t protect myself. It was infuriating that these men think I needed one of them around to protect me.

“I’m not some scared little girl you can boss around, Jax; ask Nikolai how it turned out for him the last time he tried to tell me what to do. I jumped off the back of his dragon at five thousand feet in the air.”

I smirked as surprise lit his face. Take that Jax, imply that I’m a defenseless girl again.

“I’m just trying to protect you,” he said, a sad look in his eyes.

I hardened my stare at him, crossing my arms across my chest. “I don’t need your protection, and I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself.”

“I have no doubt about that.” He smirked at me before turning to walk away as I was left gawking after him.

That man is so confusing sometimes. I know he’s just trying to earn my trust and this was a big push in the right direction. Giving me this information was definitely swaying me into letting him into my closed off heart.

It’s more than we were able to find out in the last couple days. I couldn’t wait to tell Nat about what Jax just handed me.

I started heading towards class, looking around at the empty campus around me. Fuck, I was so late. I picked up my pace, deciding to cut across the snow-covered ground. I quickly headed in the direction of my next class.

I knew Tate and Nat would save me a seat. So, I wasn’t worried about that. I was just worried about pissing off the professor.

I reached for the handle of the science building, pulling open the door. Before I could get it open, I felt a prick in my neck, then a sharp sting in my veins.

I reached up, cupping the painful spot, spinning around to the masked man standing behind me. The world spun around me, I felt woozy and off balance. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound slipped past my lips.

I staggered toward the man in the mask, reaching up to rip it off his face. He stepped just out of reach, causing me to sway on my feet as the world twisted around me.

Then everything went black.