Chapter 4
I scrolledthrough the texts I’d missed, worrying more with every one I read.
They were supposed to meet me at the coffee shop after their last class ended, so I’d known they’d be panicking when they couldn’t find me. Reading the messages still made me feel bad about it, though.
Vi
Where are you?
We’re here
I don’t see your stuff
Are you in the bathroom?
Randa
Hello?
Elodie??
Vi
I just checked the bathroom, and it’s empty
Where are you?
Randa
I just stalked your location, and it says you’re here
But you’re not here
So where are you?
Vi
I’m calling the police if we don’t hear from you soon
You’re moving now. Why are you moving now?
Where the hell are you going?
Randa
You know we have no choice but to follow you
Vi
You’re not with Dickwad, are you?
Dickwad was the nickname I’d given my ex. They called him that too.
Vi
If he hurts you again, we’re going to jail for murder
Randa
We can share a room there too, it’ll be fun
I snorted.
A quick look at the app we used to track each other’s locations made me grimace.
They were only a few minutes from August’s cabin.
I dialed Randa’s number, knowing Viola would be driving. Randa was the slowest driver known to man, and it irritated Vi to no end.
“What the hell is going on?” Vi demanded, when Randa answered. I knew I was on speaker; they always put me on speaker when they were together. I did the same when I was with one of them, too.
“It’s a long story.” I squeezed my eyes shut.
The ache in my body had gotten worse when I got out of the shower. The warmth had, too.
Even more frustratingly, I’d had a hard time not scooting closer to August on the porch. Some insane part of me desperately wanted to touch him.
And apologize to him.
“Tell me it doesn’t involve Dickwad,” Randa said.
“It doesn’t. It does involve supernaturals, though.”
“What kind of supernaturals?”
“Demons and dragons. Mostly, dragons.”
“How did you get involved with dragons?” Vi asked, her voice incredulous. “Actually, scratch that. We’re almost to you. You can tell us in person. Have they hurt you?”
“Dragons don’t hurt people,” Randa countered.
“They haven’t hurt me. They’re kind of… nice.”
“Stay on the phone. We’ll be there in two minutes,” Vi ordered.
My lips curved upward just the tiniest bit at the normalcy of her giving me an order. She was the head chef at a small restaurant in town, and while she didn’t really like her job, she was damn good at it.
I made my way back onto the porch, staying on the phone as I pulled it away from my ear and told Brynn, “My friends tracked me here. They’re only a minute away.”
She laughed. “I have friends like that too. They’ll need to know what’s going on.”
It seemed like a good sign that she wasn’t against me having visitors. And that August wasn’t, either. The heat thing was going to be shitty, but at least I wasn’t actually in prison.
“My brothers are on their way too. They’ll be here in a few hours,” August said.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him.
Or from staring just a little too long.
The sound of Vi’s SUV’s tires on the dirt ripped my attention back to the road. They parked next to Brynn’s Hummer without pause, and Vi was striding toward me a heartbeat later, fire in her eyes.
Not literal fire, like August’s, but still.
Randa was behind her. Unlike her sister, her gaze was curious.
Reserved, too.
Both of them were tall, natural blondes with light skin. Randa had a full tattoo sleeve on her right arm, made up of colorful floral designs, so it wasn’t difficult to tell them apart, but I didn’t struggle with that anyway. Their personalities and the way they carried themselves were too different to mistake them for each other.
Brynn was looking back and forth between the two of them. “And I thought my brothers looked alike.”
“They’re identical twins.” I hung up my phone and slipped it in my pocket.
Vi reached the stairs that led up to the porch and glared at all three supernaturals sitting on the wooden planks before looking at me.
August stood, and my attention moved back to him.
I couldn’t help it.
He set a hand on my lower back. Because of the fabric separating us, it just felt warm. There was no relief from the tension in my muscles, unfortunately.
Vi looked at me and August as Miranda stepped into place beside her.
He leaned his lips closer to my ear before murmuring, “Don’t give them the details. It’s against dragon law to share information about our mating process with humans. The thunder will punish us if we break it.”
So I had to keep secrets from my best friends.
Awesome.
Great.
Wonderful.
“What happened?” Randa finally asked, her eyes lingering on me.
I had no idea what I was allowed to say, but figured August would hopefully intervene before I blurted anything I shouldn’t.
“I’m a dragon shifter, and fate has declared Elodie my potential soulmate,” August said, his voice rumbly. The way he said my name made goosebumps break out on my arms. “We won’t find out if the bond is genuine for a few weeks. It’ll either become permanent at that point, or it will break entirely. Until then, she has to remain with me.”
His words were bullshit, but did seem reasonably close enough to the truth for my friends.
Or at least, to what I knew to be the truth.
Which also could’ve been bullshit.
The situation was a mess.
“We’re going to need to hear that from her,” Vi said, her voice flat.
“That’s fine.” August gestured me toward them.
I made my way off the porch, wrapping my arms around my middle as I went. Considering I was wearing the dragon’s clothes, and not wearing a bra or panties, I felt kind of exposed.
Vi started to pull me in for a hug the moment I stepped off the porch, but I held up a hand, wearing a sheepish expression. “He’s got this thing with how I smell.”
I glanced at him over my shoulder, and he dipped his head.
“Is this seriously some kind of mate thing?” Randa asked, her forehead wrinkling. “I thought dragon shifters took their mates to Mate Mountain.”
“Where did you learn that?” Vi asked.
Randa shrugged. “The internet.”
“Umm…” I looked back at August again.
“Only if the bond seals permanently.”
Ah.
Right.
Sure.
“It’s new. I’m still trying to figure everything out,” I admitted, looking back at my friends again. “I’m going to have to move here until we deal with the bond thing. The dragons are going to communicate with the school, to make sure I can still graduate on time.”
“No one wants to piss off the dragons. I’m sure the university will do whatever he needs them to,” Randa said.
“How do you know he’s telling the truth?” Vi brought us back to the conversation at hand.
“I can feel it.” That much was completely and utterly true. “Fire appeared in his eyes when he touched me, and I felt the change in here.” I tapped the center of my chest.
It wasn’t my heart he had affected, but that was close enough.
After we made it through heat without giving in, and there were no dragons keeping a close eye on me, I’d tell my friends everything. Until then, what choice did I have but to play along?
“This is insane,” Vi protested.
“Completely and entirely,” I agreed.
“And romantic,” Randa offered.
We both flashed her incredulous looks, and she smiled.
Miranda was the artist of the three of us, so it didn’t surprise me that she could see the good in the situation. She didn’t fit the “moody artist” stereotype even slightly. She was calm, quiet, and more at peace than anyone else I’d ever met.
She threw out, “It is. Everyone knows how supernaturals are with their mates. If your bond becomes permanent, it guarantees devotion and loyalty. How does it get more romantic than that?”
“Ignore her,” Vi grumbled. “What are you going to do if he actually becomes your mate?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “We’ll figure it out if we get there, I guess. For now, I’m holding on to the hope that this is all over in a few weeks.
Vi nodded. “What can we do to help?”
“She obviously needs clothes.” Randa gestured toward me.
“Yeah, I need a lot of my stuff. I think the semester will end around the time all of this is over with, so there’s no point in leaving it at the apartment.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Vi promised.
“Thank you.” There was gratitude in my voice. I hoped they knew it was genuine.
Randa stepped closer to me. “All romance aside, do you feel safe with him? You know we can’t leave you here if you don’t. The last thing we want is a repeat of Dickwad.”
I bit my lip.
It hadn’t been long enough for me to feel genuinely safe or unsafe with August.
Especially considering he’d mentioned himself devolving.
“That’s enough of an answer,” Vi said. “We’re staying.”
They couldn’t stay, though.
Not when we were dealing with the lust of heat, and lying about the way the magic worked.
So I had to convince them otherwise.
I wasn’t a fantastic liar, so I called for help. “Brynn? Can you come here for a second?”
She joined our huddle a moment later, leaning in. “What are we talking about?”
“Elodie dated a vampire a year ago. It ended when he put her in the hospital. What guarantee do we have that this won’t go the same way?” Vi asked. As always, she didn’t beat around the bush.
Brynn’s eyes sharpened. “August would sooner take his own life than physically hurt Elodie. Dragons protect the people that matter to them, period. And until their bond is either broken or cemented, El is at the top of that list. He won’t hurt her—and he’ll make damn sure no one else does either.”
There was a short pause before she added, “It’s physically impossible for most supernaturals to hurt their mates. Dragons included. And until the bond is broken, that’s exactly what they are.”
There was a moment of silence before Randa said, “Well, that settles it. Let’s go grab her stuff. Her hair looks sad.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” I glanced down at the gnarled strands.
“Extremely,” Randa agreed.
“Since when do you let people call you El?” Vi asked, looking over at me.
Her anger and worry had deflated with Brynn’s words, too. I could only hope they were genuine.
“Since Brynn asked while I was overwhelmed by the fact that I’m temporarily mated to a dragon shifter.”
Vi snorted.
Randa smiled. “Or permanently.”
“Don’t push it,” I warned.
She laughed, grabbing Vi’s arm. “We’ll be back in an hour or two with your things. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I was quiet as I watched them climb back in the car and drive away.
“So we have an hour or two to put the house together enough that they won’t be worried when they see it,” Brynn said.
“Longer. When Randa says an hour or two, it means three or four. We always joke that she does everything as ineffectively as possible. As soon as there’s a time-limit on something, she slows way down.”
Brynn smiled. “They seem like good friends.”
“The best.”
A shadow moved over us, and I didn’t have to look back to feel August step up behind me. His hand landed on my hip, and the grip felt possessive in a way that made me shiver.
“Tell me Dickwad’s name,” he said.
“How did you hear that?” I didn’t look back at him.
Honestly, I wasn’t even surprised he had.
“Shifters have good ears. Give me his name.”
“Why?”
“So I can deal with him,” August growled.
“A man who would hurt one woman will likely hurt the next. We’ll keep an eye on him, and if he tries anything, we’ll make sure he can’t hurt anyone else,” Brynn clarified.
I finally looked over my shoulder at August, and my stomach clenched.
The look on his face… it was complete and utter fury.
If I gave him Dickwad’s name, he was going to kill the bastard. And as much as Dickwad deserved it, I didn’t want his death on my hands.
But Brynn had a point about keeping an eye on him. I also didn’t want another woman’s pain on my hands, let alone her life.
So I had to tell Brynn, but couldn’t tell August.
I’d have to text it to her later, when I was away from him.
“I don’t want you getting involved,” I said, my gaze still locked with August’s. Seeing the fire in his eyes was really damn weird.
Before he could growl at me again, another vehicle pulled up. This one was a gigantic truck with the name of a furniture store on the side.
I took a seat on the porch again, out of the way of the supernatural guys as they worked with the delivery crew to unload the furniture. August must’ve decided to let other people in the cabin for the time being, because all of them headed in with the stuff.
While they were all inside, and Brynn was directing them, I sent her a quick message with Dickwad’s name. I added a warning for her not to give it to August, too.
She winked at me the next time she stepped back out, and lifted a finger to her lips, telling me she’d keep the secret.
When the guys put a big porch swing a few feet away from me, I couldn’t resist the urge to make myself at home on it. I grabbed my bag and took a seat. Though the soreness in my muscles was shitty, I ignored it as I opened my laptop and tried to focus on my project again.
I got distracted every now and then—mostly by the feeling of August’s gaze on me as he headed toward or walked away from the house. But for the most part, I managed to get things done.
A grocery delivery van came while they were still unloading the furniture, and Brynn took over organizing those. I offered to help her, but she waved her hand and told me to keep working, so I did.
Another truck showed up with more furniture around the time they finished with the first, and we said goodbye to the grocery delivery people.
It seemed like way too much furniture to me, but I hadn’t actually walked around to see the whole cabin, so I didn’t know how big it was. And I noticed a few rugs and fake plants being carried in during my moments of distraction, so it seemed safe to assume they weren’t just furnishing it—they were decorating it, too.
I just stayed on the porch swing and kept working.