Chapter 6
Damian
Smoke pours out into the hall the moment Kat opens her apartment door.
“Lincoln!” she gasps, running into the billowing plumes. Even though she’s a dragon now, and it won’t harm her, my heart plummets. I chase after her, only a few steps behind.
“Lincoln!” She runs straight through a tiny, messy living room into an even smaller kitchen.
A teenage boy stands on a stool waving a dish towel in front of the smoke alarm, which, surprisingly, isn’t going off.
He must be giving it just enough air circulation to keep it quiet.
Or it’s broken. I’ll need to look into that.
The source of the smoke is the oven. So, I go straight for it, grabbing the charred pizza in both hands.
Kat runs to the window and throws it open, letting fresh air in as I stand there, holding the burned food like an idiot, unsure what to do with it now that I’ve got it.
“Um, trash?” I ask.
The kid, who I presume is Lincoln, coughs as he hops down, looking sheepish. “Sorry, Mom. You weren’t back, so I thought I’d help with dinner, but I kind of…”
“Got distracted,” she finishes for him with a sigh, pulling him into an affectionate hug. “Are you okay? No burns or anything?” She looks him over from head to toe, but he pulls away, turning to look at me.
His eyes widen, and his mouth falls open. “How are you…?”
I forgot I was still holding the chard pizza in my bare hands.
Lincoln’s gaze swings from me to his mom, who’s still only wrapped in a thick blanket.
“Shit,” Kat curses at the same time as Otto and I do. She shrugs and tries to laugh, but it comes out warbled. “Guess I have some explaining to do.”
I spot a trashcan that thankfully has a lid, so I dump the remains of their dinner. That at least takes care of one thing.
“Were you planning on keeping this from him?” Otto asks. He’s standing behind Kat in the doorway, looking about as awkward and hesitant as I feel.
“I don’t keep things from my kid,” Kat spits out before softening. “I just planned to do it differently. Maybe not right away.”
“Would someone please tell me what you’re talking about?” Lincoln stares at the scales peppering the palms of my unburned hands. I automatically did a partial shift when I grabbed their dinner. His eyes are as wide as the pizza I just tossed. “How the fuck did you do that?”
Kat gives her son a look that suggests she doesn’t love the language, but she doesn’t scold him for it, either. “Could the two of you give us a moment?”
I wince as my eyes meet Otto’s. We both know we can’t leave her alone.
“At least one of us needs to stay with you,” I say as gently as I can.
A small flame of fire shoots in my direction, but snuffs out immediately when she realizes what she did.
“W-what—Fuck!” Lincoln takes a giant step away from his mom.
She covers her mouth with her hand and mutters a curse. Her eyes close for a moment as she takes a calming breath. When she opens them again, she points at Otto. “He goes.” She points at me. “You stay.”
Otto looks like a kicked puppy. I hate that look on his face.
Forgetting my worries about the possessiveness of newly mated pairs, I cross the room and take his hand, offering what little comfort I can.
He doesn’t pull away as I lead him to the front door, still within sight of Kat and Lincoln.
Every other step has Otto looking back over his shoulder at his mate, but he respects her wishes and follows me.
“Is she ever gonna forgive me?” he whispers too quietly for Kat or Lincoln to hear.
“I hope so,” I sigh.
And I do. As much as it pains me to see them together, I want only the best for them both. Mates are always happier together. I should know. I’ve lived without mine for more than a decade.
“You’ll watch out for her?” He brings our clasped hands to his heart and squeezes.
“Like my own mate,” I whisper, though he doesn’t know how true it is.
His shoulders relax. “Thank you. I’ll just be out here in the hall.” He opens the front door, but pauses. “And Damian… I’m sorry it worked out this way. It’s not what I… well, it’s not what I used to want, before…”
“I understand.”
“Thank you.” He kisses my cheek, then leaves.
When I turn around, Kat and her son are on the couch in the living room. The place is small. An open floor plan with the living room and kitchen combined into one space, divided by a kitchen counter. There’s a small hallway off to the right that I presume leads to bedrooms.
Lincoln’s leg bounces rhythmically up and down, and as soon as I turn away from the door, his eyes snap up to meet mine.
“You’re really a dragon?” he asks.
I guess his mom told him that much while I was talking to Otto.
“Yeah.” I move a stack of textbooks out of the armchair and set them on the floor so I can sit down.
With my elbows on my knees, I study Kat’s son.
I can’t believe she has a kid—a teenager.
He looks a lot like his mom, but his hair is dark with a bit of curl to it.
His face is narrower, chin sharper, but there’s a light speckle of freckles across his nose just like hers.
He picks at the hole in his jeans. “And my mom’s a dragon now, too?”
“Yes.” My throat closes up, too tight to say anything more. Kat being a dragon is everything I’ve ever wanted, every impossible dream I’ve had for years, but this isn’t how I saw it going down.
“Can I be a dragon? How does it happen? Is it—”
Kat puts her hand on her son’s shoulder, and he stops. “Lincoln’s always been fascinated by dragons.”
“I’ve had a recurring dream about this red and gold dragon for as long as I can remember.” The kid rubs his hands up and down his thighs, looking a little embarrassed to admit something so personal. “That dream is my earliest memory.”
“Well,” I sit back, “your mom is red and gold. Maybe you were getting premonitions.”
“That’s a thing?” Lincoln’s leg bounces faster.
I shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know. But some of our priests and priestesses claim to have prophetic dreams. Not sure I’ve ever fully believed it, though.”
“Priests and priestesses?” Kat pinches the bridge of her nose. “I’ve got a lot to learn, huh?”
“Yeah.” I hang my head. There was a time when it would have been my greatest joy to teach her everything about our culture and world. Now, the extent of what she doesn’t know just reminds me of the choice she once made.
“You still haven’t answered my question.” Lincoln’s leg stops bouncing. “Can I become a dragon?”
“How old are you?” I ask.
“Thirteen.”
“Hmm.” Something nibbles at the back of my mind, an unsettling awareness. But I brush it aside. “Well, if you have a dragon mate, you could transform during Goddess Week, but not until after you’re twenty-three, so you’ve got a long way to go.”
“What do you mean, if I have a dragon mate?” His gaze swings between his mom and me. “Wait! You mean like fated mates. So, are you…?”
“No,” Kat says a little too quickly, so quickly it stabs a hole through my heart. I know she doesn’t remember me. I shouldn’t take it personally, but the ache that’s always there grows deeper at her definitive correction.
“That would be the other one,” she says, answering her son’s unasked question. “The one who forced me to become a dragon without telling me any of this first.”
“He what?!” Lincoln jumps to his feet. He’s halfway to the front door when I block his path.
“Hey, give him a break. The call to a mate is intense for dragons, and—”
Kat reaches my side, taking her son’s arm. “It’s okay, Linc. Otto had his reasons. And honestly, I can almost understand them. Don’t be too hard on him.”
That surprises me. It almost sounds like she’s forgiven him already.
Her eyes catch mine. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m still pissed at him. But…” She trails off leaving the thought unfinished.
“So, that guy is your fated mate and basically like my dad now, is that what you’re saying?”
“He wishes.” Kat’s laugh is stark. “He’s a decade younger than me and not my type at all.”
“What’s your type?” I ask before I can catch myself.
“Yeah, Mom, what’s your type?” Lincoln raises his eyebrows at her. It seems like he’s teasing her somehow, but I don’t get the joke.
She ignores our line of questioning. “Look, kiddo, just because Otto and I are fated mates or whatever the shit this is, that doesn’t mean we actually have to be together.” She pauses and looks at me. “Right?”
I wish we weren’t so close to the front door, because I’m pretty sure Otto can hear every word of this conversation.
“Like I said before, you don’t have to be with anyone you don’t want to be with. But…” The pain I felt when I lost her feels newly sharp and raw. “It’ll be hard for you to stay away from each other. And until you get your transformation under control, it would be best to have him nearby.”
“Why?” Lincoln asks.
“His presence will help calm your mom’s dragon nature.”
“Ha!” She looks at the door. “How come I feel a lot calmer around you then, Smokey?”
“Smokey?”
She shrugs one shoulder. “I like giving nicknames.”
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Can I come back in now?” Otto says from the other side of the door.
Kat looks at me for a long time, like she’s trying to ask me a question I don’t have an answer to.
“Give him a chance,” I whisper. “Just get to know him.” My voice is pitched low, a note of sadness creeping into the words that I hope she doesn’t notice.
She opens the door.
“Oh, good.” Otto steps inside. “Pretty sure your neighbors were five seconds away from calling the cops on me for loitering.”
“Maybe I should have let them,” Kat says, but there’s no bite to it. She actually smiles.
“Trying to get me in handcuffs, beauty?” Otto’s flirty smile makes his boyish dimples appear.
Lincoln groans, the sound breaking a little of the sexual charge between Kat and Otto. But not enough to make me forget it’s there. “I should go. Let you get acquainted.”
“No!” All three of them respond at the same time.
“If they’re gonna be all sappy and flirty, I’m gonna need a buffer,” Lincoln says.
“We’re not flirting!” Kat stomps off toward the kitchen. “I’m ordering Thai.”
“I’m paying.” Otto chases after her. They bicker over who’s going to foot the bill while I stay by the door with Lincoln, listening.
To my knowledge, Otto doesn’t have much in the way of resources, but I understand his urge to take care of his mate.
Sounds like Kat won’t make it easy for him, though.
I pull my wallet out of my pocket. “You know what your mom typically orders?”
“Yeah.” Lincoln watches as I take out a black credit card and hand it to him.
“Get enough for all of us. All the things your mom likes best.”
He takes the card, pulling his phone from his pocket. “On it. I’m an expert at ordering takeout.”
I’ll have to do something about that. They both deserve fresh cooked meals. No. It’s not my place. Otto’s her mate, and dragons don’t take kindly to other dragons stepping into their territory. Hopefully, Otto will at least accept tonight’s dinner as the goodwill offering it is.
“Where do you fit into all this?” Lincoln asks with his eyes still on his phone.
I wish I had the answer to that. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope that maybe, just maybe, we could develop the sort of relationship that Jethro, Kyro, and Sora have.
They’re the only throuple I’ve ever known among dragons, but they seem really happy.
It’s not common, though. Dragons are usually too possessive with their mates to share.
In all likelihood, Kat stole Otto from me just as much as Otto stole Kat. They’re not mine anymore. And they never will be again.
“I’m just a friend of Otto’s,” I answer Lincoln’s question.
“A friend with benefits kind of friend?” he asks in the curious, unfiltered way of someone too young to fully understand it’s not polite.
“Whatever Otto and I were, it doesn’t matter anymore.
He’s found his mate, and that’s who he’s gonna want from now on.
” It took years before I wanted anyone other than Kat, and even then, she was always in my mind and heart.
Being with Otto was the closest I’d ever come to truly letting her go.
I thought it was just because enough time had finally passed.
But now I wonder if it was because of his connection to Kat.
Lincoln’s smooth skin wrinkles just slightly on his forehead. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, kid.” I tousle his hair, earning me a glare before he steps down a hall to call the Thai place.
With as stubborn as Otto and Kat are, I’m not surprised they’re still arguing over who’s paying for dinner when I turn my attention back to the kitchen. He’s got her cornered, his hands gripping the counter on either side of her, their noses only a few inches apart.
I clear my throat. “Dinner will be here in thirty minutes.”
They both look at me like they forgot anyone else in the world exists. I remember that feeling.
“What do you mean?” Kat pushes one of Otto’s arms and breaks away from him.
“Lincoln’s ordering now. My treat.” I’m ready for a fight from Otto, but to my surprise, he smiles.
“Great.” Otto scoops one arm under Kat’s knees and the other around her back, lifting her off her feet before she can do anything to stop him. “Just enough time for a bath.”
“Put me down! I’m not taking a bath with you!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He adjusts her higher and looks at me. “Yet.” He winks. “I just think you deserve some pampering after the day you’ve had.”
“Because of you. The day I’ve had because of you!” Kat wiggles like she’s trying to get down, but by the time they reach the hall that leads to the bedroom, she’s already laughing at something he said that I didn’t catch.
I should leave. I really should leave. Any therapist would tell me it’s dysfunctional for me to stay here while the man I was falling for draws a bath for the love of my life.
The longer they’re together, the harder it’ll be for them to resist the mating pull, especially now that she’s already transformed.
It can’t be healthy for me to want to be around when that happens.
But my feet are glued to the kitchen floor, and I stay.