Chapter 4
Kat
Home. Good. Yeah. That’s where I need to be right now.
I was already running behind, and now I’m definitely late.
I don’t even have my purse or phone anymore to call Lincoln and let him know.
He’s probably worried, wondering where the hell I am.
A cackling laugh scratches my throat. Where am I?
On the back of a fucking dragon! If he ever believes me, he’s gonna think this is amazing.
Me, on the other hand? Not so thrilled.
It’s not the dragon part that’s upsetting—dragons are pretty damn cool—it’s the fucking mate part!
I’ve read enough paranormal romance to guess what’s going on here.
But this isn’t a fucking romance book. I don’t know this guy.
I don’t love him. He’s at least ten years younger than I am and as impulsive as my son.
He fucking abducted me right off the streets of New York and forced me to become a dragon!
Shit, I’m a dragon…
My mind keeps spinning, re-living what just happened over and over. I should be shocked and afraid, but none of that registers. I’m fucking mad as hell. Fire burns under my skin, itching to get out, and each breath I take blows hot smoke out of my nostrils, reminding me I’m a fucking dragon!
And I didn’t choose this.
“Breathe, Kat.” The man who didn’t steal me—guess I should ask his name—climbs up and situates himself on Otto’s back a respectful distance behind me. At least one of them has some damn control.
Otto flaps his wings and lifts off the ground. I hold his neck for balance, but quickly decide that’s a bad idea and reach back for… “What’s your name?”
“Damian,” he says in a deep voice that does strange things to my stomach.
“Well, move closer, Damian. You’re supposed to make sure I don’t fall.” The last thing I want is to plunge to my death and end up splat across a New York skyscraper.
I’m reaching blindly behind me, and my hand lands on his thigh. High on his thigh. The tips of my fingers brush against something much harder than his muscled leg under his pants.
I pull back so quickly, my balance teeters, and I slide.
Damian grabs me just before I fall, yanking me quickly against his firm chest. His arms wrap around my middle, just under my breasts.
His thighs flex against the outside of mine.
The hard length I grazed is now firmly trapped against my backside.
I’ve still got the blanket draped haphazardly around me, but as aware of him as I am, there may as well be nothing between his very hard, very enormous cock and my ass.
“You okay?” Damian’s breath fans across my ear.
“Uh huh,” I squeak.
He loosens his grip and scoots back, cold emptiness rushing into the space he left, shocking me into a new alertness. The only part of him still touching me is his hands on my upper arms, applying gentle pressure to help me balance as Otto swoops through the air out over the ocean.
“Oh no, you don’t.” I scoot back and grab his arms, wrapping them around me again. Just because I don’t want to fall. But the moment he’s close, it’s hard to think again. I’m hyperaware of the heat coming off him and that we’re riding the rocking, pulsing back of a man who’s supposed to be my mate.
Not sure what that means for my future, but I’m pretty sure Otto wouldn’t love how close Damian is to me right now. I smirk at that and snuggle more deeply into Damian’s arms.
“Alright, explain what the hell’s going on.”
With his arm banded around me, Damian’s fingers move lazily over my forearm. “We should wait until we land, so Otto can tell you.”
“No. I want to hear it from you. Well, really, I wanted to hear it from the gracious woman who didn’t leave me naked in front of a crowd of men, but apparently I’m not getting much of a say in how my day goes.”
Damian sighs. “The short of it is that we’re dragons, and dragons have one fated mate.
The single person in the world who’s made for them, the only person they can reproduce with.
” He pauses, dropping his forehead onto my shoulder from behind and letting out a long sigh.
“Sometimes that person is a dragon. Sometimes human. If they’re human, they have to become a dragon the first Goddess Week after their dragon mate finds them or they’ll forget all their memories of their mate. ”
“That seems like a crap deal.”
“Yeah.” There’s something dark and almost angry in the single jaded word. I recognize the emotion well.
“Tonight is the last night of Goddess Week,” he continues. “So once Otto saw you, he only had a few hours to convince you to transform and bond with him.”
“So he decided it wasn’t worth the effort and stole the choice from me instead.”
Damian’s muscles tense, but he doesn’t respond to my outrage. Otto’s head hangs low as if he heard me. Good.
“So, what do we do to reverse it?”
Otto twists his neck, looking back, flames burning in his eyes.
“As far as I know, there’s no way to reverse the transformation.” Damian shifts his weight, and once again I’m very aware of what the man is packing. As distracting as that is, I need to stay focused on what’s important here.
“So I’m a dragon for good, and I’ve got to marry this kid I don’t know.”
A growling rumble from Damian shakes my chest. “You don’t need to marry anyone.
He’s forced enough on you.” Otto puffs smoke, but Damian is unwavering.
“You’re mates, so you’ll probably feel a strong attraction to him, and it’ll be very difficult for him to be away from you—painful even—but that doesn’t mean you need to do anything you don’t want to do. ”
“How do I know he understands that?” I keep my voice loud enough for Otto to hear and try to mask the fear in my gut with indignation. “He’s already forced one decision on me.”
Otto’s head falls even lower, and he loses altitude.
“He understands.” Damian reaches around me to rub Otto’s scales. “Don’t you?”
The massive dragon nods slowly. We’re quiet for a while after that as we leave the harbor behind and fly over the city.
“She’s in Greenwich Village,” Damian says.
“Wait, what? No.” I try to twist to look at him. “I used to live there, but now I’m in Brooklyn, Parkslope. But how did you know that?”
“I told you, we knew each other.”
“How? When? I think I’d remember you.” It would be awfully hard to forget the gorgeous man behind me. I’m sure he would have featured heavily in my fantasies if I’d met him before.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he says softly.
“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” I spot my building and yell out, “There.”
Otto swoops down, and we land on the roof. Good thing they keep the stairwell up here unlocked.
Otto lowers himself as close to the ground as he can to let us off, but Damian doesn’t let go of me right away, and I make no move to climb down. I’m not done with this conversation, and for some reason, I don’t want to leave him.
A few feet away, a pigeon lands on the ledge of the building. Far below us, a car honks, and someone whistles for a taxi down on the street. A cloud passes over the sun, casting a long shadow over us as I wait for Damian to tell me more.
“I was…” Damian sucks in a breath, but then lets go of me. “It really doesn’t matter. We met once. Briefly. That’s all.”
He slides off Otto in one fluid motion before turning to offer his hand to help me down.
I still think I would have remembered him, but it’s not like I have the greatest memory. It wouldn’t be the first time I forgot someone I should have remembered.