Chapter 10
Damian
“You okay?” I touch Kat’s arm in a move that feels more natural than it should after all these years. Her skin feels clammy and cold, and she looks as white as a ghost. “I know this is a lot to take in, but…”
She doesn’t respond.
“Mom?” Lincoln tilts his head, studying Kat with concern.
Kat shakes off my touch and shoots to her feet. “Fine. I’m fine. Great. Yep.” She goes to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of white wine. “Totally fine.”
My brows pull down, but I don’t push. If she wants to talk about it, she will. After pouring herself a glass, she sits back down with a glazed look in her eyes. She grabs her son’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “How was your algebra test today?”
“You’re just gonna change the subject like that?” He lifts a single eyebrow at her. “I don’t think my math test compares with two dragon mates.”
“Don’t avoid the question.” Her gaze hardens. “Did you pass?” She takes a sip of her wine.
Otto and I share a look.
“So, you can avoid things, but I can’t?” Lincoln asks with a half smile.
“Yep.” She picks up her fork and points it at him. Some of the color has come back to her face, but she still looks like she’s gonna be sick. “What’d you get?”
Lincoln sighs. “It wasn’t great. But Mr. Long told me I can do some extra credit. So, it’ll be fine.”
“Not a fan of math, huh?” Otto asks. He’s smiling, but he keeps looking over at Kat like he’s as concerned as I am by her quick change of subject and the way she’s avoiding the elephant in the room.
Lincoln shakes his head. “I’d prefer to be doing just about anything else.”
“Damian’s good with math. He’s an accountant.” Otto passes me a takeout container of something, and I dish some food onto my plate though I don’t have an appetite anymore.
“Ugh, that’s like the most boring job ever,” Lincoln says around a mouthful of food. “You’re like a nerd, aren’t you?”
“Lincoln O’Brian!” Kat’s cheeks flame a furious red. “Don’t be rude.”
“Yeah, but he’s a hot nerd.” Otto’s smirk quickly turns into a frown. “Oh, um, sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“No, it’s okay.” Kat pushes the food around on her plate. The wrinkles on her forehead deepen. “That should make me jealous, shouldn’t it?”
Otto nods. “Dragons are usually pretty territorial about their mates.”
“I’m not a—oh, I guess I am now.” She leans back from the table. “Fuck, this is weird. Why don’t I feel all possessive and shit?”
I touch her arm again, unable to stop myself. “It’s probably just because…”
“You were his first,” Otto quietly finishes for me. “He’s your mate too.”
The rest of dinner is awkward, with stilted conversation about Lincoln’s school and what we all do for work. Once Otto shares about the art classes he’s taking at NYU and his design internship, Lincoln perks up and the two of them talk for twenty minutes with little to no input from Kat or me.
After everyone finishes, Lincoln goes off to do homework, while Otto and I do the dishes. Kat doesn’t even protest, which seems strange from the little I know of her. She just pours herself another glass of wine, then sits back at the table and stares out the window.
“Shit, did we break her?” Otto whispers as he hands me a plate to put in the dishwasher.
I just shake my head, unsure what to say or do.
“You could’ve told me you were mated already.” His voice is quiet, but there’s an edge to it. “I thought… I mean, I wanted…”
“Oh.” My eyes widen with realization. “You thought we might be mates?”
Since dragons don’t recognize their mates until both of them are twenty-three, we wouldn’t have known until today—Otto’s birthday.
He blushes and turns away from me. “I hoped, maybe. Before I saw Kat. But it doesn’t matter now. I mean, Kat is… everything.”
“I understand.”
“Linc,” Kat suddenly yells, her voice carrying. “I’m going out. Don’t leave the apartment.”
Her son peeks his head back into the kitchen just as she stands up. “Where?”
“Just out.” She’s already halfway to the door. Otto grabs a towel and hurries to dry his hands before following her.
Lincoln gives me a concerned look. “You’ll watch out for her?”
“Yeah, of course.”
He nods once, then returns to his room as I hurry after Otto and Kat.
“So, where to?” Otto asks as Kat pushes the elevator button. It opens before she answers. A woman pushing a stroller steps out, smiling at Kat.
“Hey Kat, I keep meaning to call you.” The baby in the stroller cries, and the woman leans over to replace the pacifier. “Can Lincoln babysit this weekend? I’ve got a date.”
“I’ll ask him.” Kat steps into the elevator, barely looking at her friend, who replies by giving me a questioning look.
I smile, but don’t stop to introduce myself because Kat’s already pushing the button for the elevator to close.
She pushes it three times in a row as if the action will make the door close faster.
Otto steps in first, and I follow just before the door shuts.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Otto asks Kat.
“About what? That you made me a dragon without my permission? That I’m now trapped in a relationship I didn’t ask for?
That I let a man a decade younger than me eat me out barely two hours after I met him?
” The last bit gets an eyebrow raise from me, but she just keeps going.
“Or should we talk about how you,” she jabs her finger at my chest, “are my son’s dad! ”
She roars the last word, and a blast of fire leaves her mouth. It melts the controls on the elevator, causing it to jerk to a stop, an alarm sounding. The fire singes the hairs on my arm, but I don’t feel any of it. All I hear is the last word echoing in my mind. Dad. Dad. Dad.
“Shit.” Otto pulls Kat into his arms, pressing her face against his chest. No doubt trying to smother any additional flames at the same time as comforting her. His eyes find mine, but I can barely concentrate.
Dad.
The walls feel like they’re spinning and closing in at the same time. A riot of feeling squeezes the breath from my lungs. “H-how do you know?”
She sniffles, shaking her head against Otto’s chest.
The alarm cuts out as a voice comes through the speakers. “Everyone okay in there?”
“Uh, yeah, seems like we stopped, though,” Otto answers when Kat and I don’t.
“Yeah, we’re calling the fire department, but you’re gonna have to sit tight for a bit.” The sound crackles around the words. “Shouldn’t be too long. I’ll check back in with you once they’re here.”
For a moment, the only noise is Kat’s heavy breathing. “I can’t be stuck in here,” she gasps. “I need—I need—” A single wing bursts out of her back, slapping me in the face and out of my stunned daze.
“Shhh, love.” I rub her back in soothing circles. “It’s okay. Just talk to us.”
“He’s right, beauty. Your emotional state will make it harder to control your shifting. Talking it out will help.”
She collapses in Otto’s arms, sobbing. My heart feels like it’s made of sharp, ragged glass, all shattered pieces. Otto slowly lowers Kat to the floor, setting her on his lap, and I take a seat leaning against the wall across from them.
I’ve never known what to do around a crying woman. Thankfully, Otto has an instinctive knowledge of how to handle these things. He holds her, rocking softly, and making soothing little noises that seem to calm her.
Her wing shrinks into her back, her claws retracting. For a long time, silent sobs shake her shoulders. Sobs that rip my heart to shreds.
When her tears finally dry up, Otto tucks her hair behind her ear. “Tell us why you think Damian’s Lincoln’s dad.”
There’s that word again. Dad. I never thought I’d have children, not after my mate refused to bond with me. It was impossible. I grieved and left it behind years ago, but now…
“I don’t remember getting pregnant,” Kat whispers. “I wasn’t with anyone around the time I conceived. No one. I thought I’d been…” Sobs break her voice, and nausea stirs my stomach.
My mate. The woman I’ve silently tried not to love had to deal with all of this on her own. I abandoned her all because I was too much of a coward to keep an eye on her.
When Goddess Week first ended, I thought maybe the stories of human mates forgetting their dragon counterpart were exaggerated lies.
I found Kat, and she didn’t remember me.
The next day, I introduced myself to her again, and asked her out.
She said yes, but when I went to pick her up for the date, she had no memory of me at all.
I tried one more time after that, but it was too hard.
I could feel the madness creeping into the corners of my mind.
So, I cut all ties. Dropped out of law school so I wouldn’t run into her, lost myself in meaningless sex and drugs for a long time, anything to numb the pain.
I acted like a child, angry at the world.
It took a long time for me to crawl out of that hole.
And now, I learn all that time, my mate was raising a child on her own, a child she didn’t remember conceiving.
A child she shouldn’t have been able to conceive as a human.
Bile climbs my throat. I should have checked in.
Even if she didn’t remember me, even if it hurt, I should have been there for her and for him.
She takes a deep breath. “I thought I’d been roofied. I even saw a hypnotist to see if I could unlock the memories. It didn’t work. I went to a priest who told me I was carrying the antichrist through immaculate conception.”
A growl rattles my chest, replacing the nausea with anger. Smoke pours from my nostrils, clouding the air. How dare someone tell a woman something like that about her child?
“Don’t worry. I punched the asshole.” She chuckles a little through her tears. “But my brother thought it was the funniest thing he’s ever heard. He still calls me Mother Mary.” Her laugh turns bitter.
“Oh, beauty,” Otto coos, holding her tighter.
Helplessness seeps into every cell of my body. I failed her.