Chapter 21
Zed
“ I gotta go,” I tell Gabe, slamming my laptop shut.
He snorts. “No need to announce your piss like it’s a flight taking off.”
I stuff my feet into my shoes and grab my jacket. “Not that. Gonna go see Cari.”
His jaw drops. “What the fuck? I thought we agreed you were going to stay away from her. Do you have a restraining-order kink or something?”
“She needs me.”
“For what?” When I shrug, he rolls his eyes. “You need a therapist.”
“If Cari wants me there, that’s all I need to know.”
“When will you be back?” When I shrug again, he makes an annoyed noise. “What about the conference? What about our networking plan?”
I pause, hand on the door knob. “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
“For the record, you’re a dumb shit. If you get put in jail over this chick, I’m going to find a new business partner.”
I laugh my head off all the way across the park. He’s so negative sometimes. I don’t take it personally, though. He’s a pessimist, I’m an optimist. That’s why we work well together, because we balance each other out.
Anyway, my heart is soaring too high to worry about details like conference networking plans. I can’t believe Cari is ready to talk to me already. I was prepared to wait fifteen more years if I had to.
She meets me at the door, the first thing she does throw her arms around my waist. “I’m sorry,” she sobs into my chest before I even get inside.
“No, sunflower, no. I’m the sorry one.” I scoop her up in my arms, shut the door with my foot, and carry her into the living room where Radar is sleeping on his bed in the corner. I find us a seat on the comfortable leather sofa and hold her in my lap, rocking her until her tears dry.
“You were right about Tristan,” she finally says. “He’s…not good. Not bad, either, but not good like I thought he was. He was crafting the world around me so I’d do what he wanted. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I assure her, stroking her hair, letting the soft strands play through my fingers. “If I’d been more open with you, this never would’ve been an issue. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about why I’m here in San Drogo. I didn’t come for the conference. I came to see you. The night I ran into you and Tristan in the park? I was waiting for you there. It wasn’t an accidental meeting.”
She sits up, swallowing hard. “Why?”
“I saw your final post on @SeeRadarRun and I thought… I thought something happened to Radar. I thought he passed away.”
“Oh,” she says, and I can tell she’s mentally reviewing her post. “It was sort of a mysterious goodbye, wasn’t it? I can see why you’d think that.”
I nod. “I knew you’d be devastated, so I got my friend to find your address and wrote you a letter. But I couldn’t bring myself to mail it. I kind of went nuts and decided to deliver it myself. Flew all night to get here.” Sheepishly, I take the letter out of my pocket and attempt to straighten the bent corners before handing it to her.
“Should I read this?”
“If you want. It doesn’t really apply since our little guy is still alive. But listen, Cari. There’s something else I have to tell you. I don’t know why it’s taken so long except that I didn’t want you to think badly of your mate.”
“My mate?” She blinks rapidly, clearly confused. I am fucking this up, once again.
I start over. “I didn’t want you to think badly of me. You’re my—I’m your—”
Mate , my feral form exults, and his satisfaction blooms, filling my bones with strength and my heart with courage.
“We’re fated mates,” I finish. “You and I are meant to be. That’s why we were so drawn to each other back in high school, and why we never forgot each other in all this time. Why it’s never worked out with anyone else. Why there’s always been something missing. You’re my alokoi.”
She’s crying again. “ What? Why didn’t you tell me back then?”
“Because I didn’t know! Because I was an idiot! Human mates were so rare back then that it didn’t seem possible. I thought it was a crush. Everyone told me it was a crush. But then it didn’t go away, even after everything that happened. I started to suspect you were something more, but I didn’t know for sure until I flew here and scented you in the park.”
Her tears are dry now, her cheeks as red as mine. She smacks my sternum gently with the flat of her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me then ?”
Shame is like a lead weight, pressing on my chest. “Because I didn’t want to scare you off if you didn’t feel the same way. Things felt so natural between us, I was afraid that if I told the truth, you’d run away forever. It’s not exactly a good look to say hey, I’ve been cyberstalking you for a decade and finally got my hacker friend to look up your address so I could stalk you in person.”
“You couldn’t help it!” she protests. “Dragons get obsessed with their mates. It’s just how it is. I wouldn’t blame you for that.”
My throat aches. I thought it would feel good to finally unburden myself, but it just highlights what a dumbass I am. I’ve made so many mistakes with Cari. My biggest one is that I gave up too easily. I sent her one message in all the time we were apart. One .
I should have sent a hundred. A thousand. One every day.
“I’m sorry,” I say weakly. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not.” She rearranges herself so she’s straddling my lap and cups my jaw in her hands, pulling my head down so our foreheads can press together. “If I could download my brain into yours so you could feel how happy I am, I would. I’ve always wanted a dragon mate. I’ve always wanted you . I love you, Zed. I’ll never be sorry that it worked out this way, even if we lost a few years. So don’t you dare say that to me again.”
“I love you, too. I never stopped loving you.” The kiss we share is long and full of yearning, like we might find our missing time in it.
Mate. My feral form and I are together on that one. We’re together on the half-shift that makes two cocks swell inside my jeans, too.
Cari sinks down, pressing her warm, human pussy against them. I can feel her core clench even through two layers of denim. She pulls back from our kiss and breathlessly exclaims, “I get both?!”
“I promised you both, didn’t I? Because you took me so well the first time. You came so many times for me.” Gods, I’m getting excited just thinking about how she looked when I was done with her. “This time you can have them any way you want.”
She bounces excitedly, and I feel my zipper split in response. So much for this pair of jeans. It’s worth it for the gleeful, hungry expression on her face. She reaches up, stroking one of my horns. I feel the heat of her hand all the way down my spine, and my cocks throb harder.
I want to give her everything she craves. And I know she’s been craving this, the full dragon experience. So I lift my hips and strip off my pants. My cocks spill out between us, already heavy and thick and ready for her.
Her eyes go wide, then hungry as she looks them over. “You’re so huge, Zed. I didn’t get a good look last time because you didn’t shift until you were already inside me. I thought my dildos were the right size, but…”
I chuckle, a deep, rumbling sound that vibrates through my chest. “You can take them. You already proved it.”
I grab her hips and pull her closer, letting her feel how much I want her. She gasps and grinds, the rough denim of her shorts frictioning against my ridges. Then, with an impatient noise, she reaches down to take off her shorts so there’s nothing left between us.
I help her pull her tank top off, too, exposing her succulent tits. I bury my snout between them, scraping my scales over her soft skin, picking up as much of her scent as I can.
“Rub yourself on me,” I tell her. While I worship her breasts by licking and sucking on every inch of them, she runs her hand down my belly to my top cock, using it like a toy to tease between her legs.
The first touch is searing even though I run a few degrees warmer than she does. She’s so wet already, just from grinding in my lap.
“Your pussy’s so hot,” I mumble into her cleavage.
“What about the rest of me?” she teases, torturing my cock with swift slides through her folds. That’s my little brat. Talking back because she trusts me. Because she loves me.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know when we get there. I’m going to fuck every part of you.”
She moans, rubbing my cock faster against her clit. My tail twitches and coils around her ankle, caressing her calf and the tender back of her knee. She gasps and writhes, surprised by the ticklish sensation, but doesn’t pull away.
I lean down and whisper, “You’re going to take all of me, Cari. Both of me, all the way. I’m going to knot you even if we need all night to get there.”
Her breath hitches, and she nods eagerly.
“That’s my girl. That’s my alokoi.”
That’s my mate.