Chapter 16
Blaze
After Sammy went home, I headed back to Anthony’s and spent the evening with myself and my memories.
I had pushed the memory of my parents’ deaths to the back of my mind, and even when I was alone, I couldn’t really face it.
Instead, I thought about my friends and my mate, and for the first time in a very long time, I slept like a baby.
The next morning, after breakfast, Anthony smiled. “I thought, now that you remember it all, you might like to go see the memorial we put up for you and your parents.”
I hadn’t even known there was one. “Yeah, I guess.”
The memorial was on the beach, not too far from where I used to hang out with my friends before I left Bluewater. Just past the spot of high tide, a large stone plaque was up with a picture of me and my parents engraved in gold. Our names were listed underneath, with the words “Never forgotten.”
“We can have your name removed,” Anthony said.
“No.” I looked at the word Knox. “I’m alive, obviously. But part of me did die with my parents that day. It seems fitting to lay that part of me to rest with them.”
Anthony nodded and turned to face the water. “How’s Sammy?”
I couldn’t stop my smile. “I think I might be in a little over my head with that one.”
“Ha!” Anthony shook his head and laughed.
“You’re miles ahead of where most people get with Sammy.
She’s just… different with you. Softer. You should keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.
It’s working for you.” He laughed and started walking down the beach.
“I can’t believe it’s happening. I really thought you’d never be able to get through to her. ”
“Hey,” I protested. “Come on.”
“No, no, it’s just that Sammy was so closed off. I’m really happy for you. And her.”
We walked for a while before Skye called Anthony away. I’d been trying to figure out what to do for a date, and as I’d stood on the beach with Anthony, an idea had come to me. I got on the phone as soon as I could with Jace.
“You sly dog. I’ve got everything you need at the restaurant. Come on by here and we’ll get it all set up.” We hung up and I headed back to the house for my rental car.
Sammy agreed via text to meet me at our spot in the woods at dusk.
When she got there, I’d just finished. I was a little sweaty, but it was okay. I’d strung little twinkly lights, battery operated, in the trees surrounding, and put a low table over the log so we could sit on it and eat.
Jace had Wayne, one of his friends in the clan, bring the food, thankfully. I was no chef. I’d given him a fat tip for bringing it way out into the woods.
“What is this?” Sammy asked with a half-smile on her face.
I squashed my nerves and held out my hand to help her step over the log and sit down.
She eyed the candles. “You know, forest fires are a very real danger.”
“It’s a good thing my mate is an extremely powerful witch,” I said as if it were all no big deal.
“She could squash any fire that might dare break out.” I sat across from her as she rolled her eyes, but she had a smile all over her face, as much as she tried to hide it.
“Besides, dragons live in this forest. They breathe fire all the time. I think there’s some sort of spell over these woods to prevent horrible things like that from happening. ”
She chuckled as I uncovered the food. “This is great. Wayne?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, definitely wasn’t me. I can cook well enough to keep myself alive, but not well enough for a date like this.”
“A date,” she said softly. “Our first date.”
Climbing off the log, I leaned in and kissed her cheek softly. “Our first date. I’m really glad you came.”
I served the food and we settled in to eat and talk.
“I thought maybe we could talk about your past, the past I don’t know, and you always remembered?” She took a bite to give me a moment to think, so I did the same, chewing the roast lamb thoughtfully to decide if I wanted to talk about it.
“Well, after the orphanage, I hopped from foster family to foster family. Some of them were kinda great, and some not so much. I didn’t have any horror stories, nobody beat me or molested me or anything.”
“That’s good. I’d hate to have to hex someone into oblivion.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “You’d tell me if there was someone, right?”
I sighed and pretended to contemplate it. “Well, there was this one girl.”
She set her fork down carefully. “Hang on, I was kidding, but what?”
“Well, we went to prom together, and then at the end of it.” I clenched my fists. “She… It’s too hard to say.”
“What is it?” Sammy was full blown pissed now.
“She didn’t sleep with me.”
Her anger fell, as did her face, into a sarcastic glare. “Are you kidding me?”
“And I bought her a corsage!” I dissolved into laughter.
“Was any part of that story true?” she asked.
“No. I never went to prom. By the time I was old enough for proms and dances, I was already out of school and searching for a clan.”
“You didn’t finish high school?” she asked with sympathy in her tone.
“I did eventually. My first shift was awful, but luckily there was a witch living in the town. When she approached me, if I hadn’t had that shift, I would’ve thought she was batshit crazy.
She had her face cloaked and told me what I was and that I needed to find a clan.
She helped me figure out how to look for them. But I never saw her again.”
“What happened with the clan? Did you go straight to Gage?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, I wish. I found a clan in Utah, and they accepted me, found me a place to stay and even enrolled me in the local high school. But I never felt like I fit, like they really wanted me there. I think it was because I’d been raised by humans.
They thought I was a freak. I left not long after and stayed for a while with a clan in Florida, but it was the same there.
It wasn’t until I found Gage the summer before my senior year and we hit it off that I found my clan.
I went back to Grove Holler with him, finished high school a year or so too late, and settled in. ”
She smiled at me, her food all but forgotten.
“Grove Holler is a pack of mixed shifters, which was unheard of, but then, so was I. They didn’t bat an eye at the idea that I’d been raised by humans.”
“You found a home.” She understood.
“Exactly. And I never looked back. Until you appeared in our woods and turned my life upside down.”
I’d been talking for a while. “Okay. Your turn.”
Sammy sucked in a breath and suddenly remembered there was food sitting in front of her.
It was only fair I give her a moment to gather her thoughts since she’d done me the same courtesy.
I waited, outwardly patiently, inwardly dying, for a whole three bites of food before she replied.
“Leonard ran a clan of strictly dragons in Grove Holler back then. The coven lived there, peacefully. I always figured I’d be their witch eventually, even though Leonard was pretty creepy.
It had been a point of contention between me and Joan.
But I knew my duties. I would’ve done it if I hadn’t been shunned.
” She took a few more bites. “I wonder if we ever would’ve met if I hadn’t been shunned.
I would’ve been the Grove Holler witch and you would’ve been living in Utah, happily with your parents. ”
I grunted. “I think we would’ve found each other, one way or another.
” There was no way my dragon would’ve let me miss out on Sammy.
She’d been in my life for five minutes and I already felt like a whole new man.
“I don’t care much for could’ve, should’ve, would’ve, anyway. I’m just happy about where we are now.”
She stared at me, looking a little surprised, before saying, “I am, too.”
Sammy’d been so open and honest with me, I decided to risk going a little more personal. “So, can I ask…ah, why are you still a virgin, anyway? You’re beautiful. I can’t imagine you’d be turned down for many dates.”
She chuckled. “I don’t know about beautiful. Cute, maybe.”
The woman was nuts. Sure, she was cute, and her body was small, but she had curves in all the right places, and a fire in her eyes that made me want to rip her clothes off.
“Um, I never really saw human men and thought about procreating with them, I guess. It kind of scared me, the thought of a mini version of me. I mean, can the world handle two of us?”
I burst out laughing. “There would be nothing I’d like more,” I murmured.
She blushed but blew off my words. “Well, witches always have girls as their first child, and I was scared of raising a little me on my own. We have a hard time falling in love with mortal men. They’ll wither and die as we stay constant, at least for a lot longer.
And I never relished the thought of a child without a husband for me and a father for her.
So, I avoided sex and dating altogether. ”
I had to ask this question very carefully. “Do you have… an aversion? To sex?”
Her face turned so red it was nearly purple and she gulped down some water. “No, I don’t find the idea of it completely disgusting anymore.”
I straightened up and beamed at her. “Not completely disgusting. I’ll take it!”
We both laughed, then she turned the tables on me. “What about you? What is your sexual experience like?”
I wouldn’t be anything but honest with her. “I dated around. Slept with a few in high school and hooked up a time or two with women from the different clans.” I puffed out my chest. “I am pretty good looking after all.”
She rolled her eyes. “Get over that. I’m not going to give you a big head.”
Oh, but she already had. “I’m no expert,” I said. “But I have experience.”
Her face pinched a little and she mumbled under her breath. If I hadn’t been a dragon shifter, I wouldn’t have been able to hear her. “I hope you gave those women crotch lice.”
Laughing, I reached for her hand. “Don’t be jealous. I didn’t know it, but it was always you for me. If I’d never left, this would’ve happened the moment I came of age.”
She sighed. “You are just determined to make me feel things, aren’t you?”
As I gazed into her eyes, I knew she already did. “Isn’t that the point of mates? To feel things?”
She ducked her head but smiled briefly. “I’m learning. You have to be patient.”
I’d be patient for as long as I had to. Anything to keep this amazing woman in my life. “I’ve waited this long. What’s a little longer?”