Chapter 4
Chapter Four
After finishing his shift at the clinic and cleaning up his office, Trahern walked home, studying the list Blake Whitby had dropped off for him.
Trahern didn’t know the other dragonman well, apart from the few times they’d worked together to solve some clan problems. Blake had been a complete recluse before mating the human female named Dawn.
Mainly because Blake had a rare genetic condition where his dragon form lacked nearly all pigment, apart from a black spot on his tail.
As such, people had gawked at his white dragon, and he’d stayed away.
While he was still a private person, Blake had stopped by the clinic more often after mating his human.
The dragonman was good at backwards engineering things used by the dragon hunters and former Dragon Knights, which had been useful for the various devices that shot out darts or whatever full of drugs.
Ones Trahern had helped find remedies and counter-agents for.
However, after the end of their meeting earlier, Blake had slid the stack of papers toward Trahern and said, “This will help you take care of your human and her babies.”
“I’m a doctor. I know how to take care of babies.”
Blake had shaken his head. “Checking their vital signs or blood results isn’t the same as raising them. Just take a look. Dawn likes Grace and asked me to help you.” He gestured at the stack. “That’s my contribution.”
Trahern glanced at the top sheet of paper, which had a table of contents broken into sections. It was orderly, with topics grouped together rationally.
In other words, in a way he might be able to understand.
Blake grunted. “Right, well I promised Dawn I’d be back in time for dinner, just in case Daisy burns the food. Text me if you have questions. I can reply in a clear-cut way, with little ambiguity.”
Trahern lifted his gaze and met Blake’s hazel eyes. “Thank you.”
The other male shrugged. “We’ve both hidden behind science and numbers, using them as an excuse to stay out of the limelight, so I understand you better than most. However, my last bit of advice is to give the human female a chance.
Maybe she’ll understand you like Dawn did me and make your life so much better. ”
With that, Blake left before Trahern could lay out all the ways their situations were different. Dawn had been Blake’s true mate, for one. And even if Blake were shy, he didn’t struggle to read people’s emotions and moods like Trahern did.
Not for the first time, he wished Emily had come back so he could ask her a few things. But she was helping Clan Seahaven in Scotland, and he didn’t know when she’d return.
His dragon yawned. You could text her. Or send a lengthy email.
Ignoring his beast, Trahern continued studying his list right up until he arrived home. Once inside, he heard Grace curse. He rushed to the kitchen, where she stood in front of the washing machine, glaring down at the water and soap bubbles on the floor.
He frowned. “What happened?”
She jumped and then placed a hand over her heart. “You scared me. How are you so quiet?”
Ignoring the question, he went to the machine and turned it off so the water would stop flowing from underneath it. Then he retrieved a mop and began cleaning up.
Finally, Grace spoke. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. It filled up fine but then just started leaking everywhere.”
He glanced at her and then back at the floor. “It’s my fault. The machine has been acting up recently, and I put off getting it repaired. That’s why I’ll clean it up.”
She rubbed her hands against her hips before replying, “If you make a list of things to be done around the house, I can work on doing some of them.”
He stopped mopping and briefly met her gaze. “There’s no need. I’ll take care of it.”
Something flickered in her eyes that he couldn’t read. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, “Let me do something, anything, to help because I don’t like owing favors.”
He frowned. “Favors? What favors?”
She gestured around herself. “The home, food, clothing, and all the things you buy me. It’s all a debt, and I don’t like being indebted to anyone.”
Studying her gaze, Trahern sensed she was upset. Not that he understood why. “I’m your mate. It’s my duty. There are no debts to be repaid.”
“But I’m not your mate in truth, am I?” She reached out a hand. “Give me the mop.”
He moved it away from her. “No. This is my fault. I’ll clean it up.”
She moved closer. “Trahern, give it here. I made this mess, not you.”
As she reached for the mop handle again, she slipped on the soapy water.
Trahern moved to catch her, with Grace’s front pressing against his.
For a moment, she clung to him as her heat and scent filled his nose.
She was warm and soft, with a hint of something…
like flowers. Leaning his nose to where her neck met her shoulder, he inhaled deeply.
A sense of peace mixed with desire rushed through him.
His dragon spoke up. She is ours.
Warning bells rang inside his head, and Trahern focused on moving Grace to the nearest chair. He quickly released her and took several steps back.
She blinked at him, her lovely dark brown eyes making him want to stare into them forever. Normally, he couldn’t hold eye contact for long before his skin itched and prickled.
But Grace’s gaze made him feel the opposite.
Time stood still as they stared at one another. Then a baby cried, followed by a second, and it snapped Trahern back to reality, and he remembered Blake’s list.
“I’ll check on them.”
With that, he rushed out of the kitchen and focused on checking the twins to see if he could get them to stop crying.
Grace watched Trahern all but run out of the kitchen, and she did her best to catch her breath and slow her racing heart.
One minute she’d been irritated that Trahern wouldn’t let her help and earn her keep, and the next she’d been slipping and falling into his arms.
His deceptively strong arms.
For a few seconds, with his arms wrapped around her, she’d felt safer than she had in a long while.
And yet, she wasn’t that na?ve idiot any longer, the one who trusted a dragon-shifter she barely knew. One who’d ended up getting her pregnant to make some money.
And yes, rationally she knew Trahern wasn’t going to woo her with false promises and pretty words to get her into bed. The man was a self-proclaimed virgin, despite him probably being at least thirty years old.
However, she refused to lower her guard. Her sons were her top priority, and she needed to learn everything she could to help them. Anything else was just a distraction.
Grace stood, took a deep breath, and worked on mopping up the worst of the water. When finished, Trahern still hadn’t returned, so she went to check on her babies.
She found him sitting in the rocking chair in the corner of her bedroom with Eli in his arms as he recited words that sounded like…the periodic table of elements?
Trahern finally quieted and stared at Eli, who stared back at him. Eddie made a few grunts, and she scooped up her other son. Once she had him cradled in her arms, she looked up to find Trahern staring at her.
His pupils flashed to slits and back. Only once, but she still frowned since she’d never seen his eyes do that. Other dragon-shifters seemed to constantly talk with their inner dragons, but not Trahern.
Before she could think better of it, she blurted, “Do you not like your dragon half?”
He frowned and looked back at Eli. “What do you mean?”
She sat down on the bed, readjusted her hold on Eddie, and replied, “From what I understand, the changing pupils mean you’re talking to your dragon half. But if they don’t change very often, there has to be a reason. Not liking your dragon half seems the most obvious answer.”
He shook his head as he took Eli’s hand gently between his fingers. “I don’t dislike him. He’s just…quiet. That happens sometimes, from what little research I could find. But recently, he’s talked more.”
“Why?”
Trahern frowned. “I don’t know.”
Silence fell, and Grace debated asking anything else. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea, that she wanted to get to know him and maybe become mates in truth.
And yet, they were living together, and Trahern was helping with her children.
It’s better to know as much as you can now, to better plan the future of your boys. After a deep breath, she asked, “Do you never shift into a dragon, then?”
He remained silent for nearly a minute, playing with Eli’s hand, until he finally said, “Only in emergencies, and sometimes not even then.”
“Why?”
He rocked the chair a few times before replying, “To change forms requires being in sync with both halves. It takes tremendous effort to get my dragon to stay awake long enough to do it. I usually have to inject a stimulant designed for inner dragons to shift.”
“Wait, so is it like you’re a diabetic and need insulin? But in this case, you need something to change into your dragon form?”
He finally glanced at her, just for a second, before settling his gaze back on Eli. “Not exactly. I don’t have abnormal levels of anything related to shifting into a dragon. At one point, he spoke more to me. But then…”
His voice trailed off, and Grace leaned forward. She shouldn’t care, and yet, maybe this would help her sons at some point. Yes, that was why she was so interested.
Ignoring the word “liar” running through her head, she asked, “Then what? Something happened.”
“My dragon and I argued.”
“About?”
“Sex,” he stated.
Grace blinked. “Sex? What are you talking about?”