Chapter 3
THREE
Samantha
We reach the building, but before we can get too close, Dr. Duncan and Dr. Abigail come out of the elevator. Both seem out of breath and look frightened beyond belief. I glance around, expecting some new danger, but it’s just us.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, clenching Granger’s hand tighter.
They rush over, and Dr. Abigail's gaze snaps between us. “The security cameras showed Granger getting taken by the green dragon and you going after him. Security said Balor must have dropped straight down, because our systems weren’t triggered until he was out of reach. We radioed jets to go after you, but you disappeared from the satellites, so we weren’t able to follow you after that. You were MIA until our camera caught you walking into the base.” She reaches out and touches my arm, seeming to be unsure about what to do.
“We’re okay,” I say, appreciating her concern for me. “We were able to chase off the green dragon.”
“How?” Dr. Duncan asks, looking confused.
I release a slow breath, not wanting to go into all of this until I talk to my men first, but Granger answers. “We’ll tell you later, after we’ve spoken to Aydan, Evander, and Zane. For now, we’re wet and dirty, and Sam’s injured, so we probably need to focus on getting dry and getting her checked out.”
My gaze slides to his. “I’m fine.”
His dark eyes hold no room for argument. “We’ll make sure of that.”
“Okay,” Dr. Abigail says. “We can discuss it later, but we’ll need a full report.”
We nod and all climb into the elevator together. They get off on the floor with the labs, and we continue on to the medical floor. I feel like it’s entirely unnecessary, but Granger drags me off to be evaluated.
The doctors poke and prod my back, seeming unsure what to do. I understand. The wounds have healed over, but the injuries are both deep and wide underneath. They don’t hurt as bad as they did before I shifted, but I’m definitely sore, moreso since my hormones have calmed down a bit. Still, I’m not surprised when they say there’s nothing more they can do for me except provide pain relief.
“See,” I tell Granger, giving him a teasing smile.
His face is serious. “There aren’t any creams, ointments, anything?”
One of the doctors shakes his head as he looks at my back. “Dragon healing is different from the way humans heal. According to Zane, only the most severe injuries cannot be healed. Shifting helps speed up the process, but shifting back and forth too much can make it so the injuries do not heal correctly and could lead to permanent issues. It’s obvious her injuries are severe, but her body has already closed the wounds and begun healing. For anyone else, she’d need a great deal of stitches, one hundred or more to get all her many wounds put back together. For her, she just needs time.”
Granger doesn’t seem happy, but he thanks them for their help. I refuse the pain killers, and we get back on the elevator, heading to the floor with all our bedrooms. In such a small space, it’s hard to ignore how good Granger smells. And given the way his khaki pants are tenting, he likes my scent too.
“Granger…”
“You should try to rest and just focus on healing… until we can talk to Aydan.”
Aydan. Of course he’s still worried about him. I don’t know why, but I’m not. If Aydan can learn to share me with Evander, he can learn to share me with anyone.
I’m about to argue when the elevator reaches the correct floor. The doors open, and Dahlia is there, surprising us. She sweeps her hand through her black hair and grins at us, the smile reaching her dark eyes. “Good! You’re okay! I heard the green dragon was spotted, but everyone was too busy running around to tell me much.”
I try to match her calm, easy attitude. “It’s okay. The green dragon is gone, and we’ve dealt with him. Now, we just have to wait for Aydan, Zane, and Evander to get back from dealing with the salmon and brown dragons.”
Two dragons they should be able to handle. All along, they’d been planning on fighting against three with the help of the jets. Knowing that they only have to deal with two makes me feel a lot better.
She looks relieved. “Honestly, I’ve already had enough of all this dragon nonsense.” She glances at Granger. “Right? We humans have to stick together.”
He winces and rubs the back of his head, which is cute as hell. Granger hates disappointing people, but he has to know it’s better for her to find out now rather than later.
I laugh, already preparing myself for her reaction. “Or something like that. Can you keep a secret?”
She perks up. “Absolutely.”
I look at Granger, making sure he’s okay with me telling her. He nods.
Focusing my attention back on her, I grin. “You sure?”
She starts to bounce on her heels. “Yes! Come on, what’s going on?”
I can’t help myself, I decide to torture her just a little. “Because you’ll be the first to know–”
“Just tell me already, you’re driving me nuts!” she says, throwing her hands up like she’s in agony.
I smile, take a deep breath, and just go for it. “We found the epic storm dragon.”
She frowns, looking confused. “Where? Why isn’t he here? Isn’t this massively important?”
My smile widens. “It is important. Really important. The thing is, the storm dragon is here.”
She glances around like I’m nuts. “Do you… do you see him right now?”
This should be good.
I gesture at Granger. “ Ta Da !”
She blinks slowly. “I don’t get it.”
I sigh. “Granger is the storm dragon.”
Her face goes blank. “Is this a joke?”
Slipping my hand into his, I look at Dahlia, my heart swelling. “It’s no joke. He’s the storm dragon.”
It takes her a second before she says, “Well, that’s awesome.”
“Awesome?” Granger asks, not looking convinced.
“Yeah, I mean, we already know you. We like you. You’re not as much of a neanderthal as the others. And Sam was already weirdly possessive of you, so it makes a lot of sense.”
He looks at me, and I think it might be a moment where he’s realizing his feelings weren’t so one-sided. “Oh?”
She smacks her hands together. “This is excellent news.”
And then I remember something. “But you have to keep it to yourself. Zane, Aydan, and Evander don’t even know yet.”
She whistles low. “How do you think they’ll handle that?”
“I don’t care,” I say, squeezing his hand. “Now, how are things going for you?”
Her dark eyes flash with happiness. “I’m loving the lab here, and researching dragons is awesome. Much better than dealing with dragons. They’re working on creating a pheromone, which would allow you, and the other female dragons, to be concealed from male dragons. They’re also designing a system to ‘tag,’ for lack of a better word, the dragons, so we don’t have to rely on satellites to track their progress. But the most fascinating thing is that we’re diving into finding ways to determine dragons in human form before they ever go dragon.”
“Whoa. All of those things would be incredibly useful.”
She’s back to bouncing on her heels. “Right?” Then she glances at the elevator. “Which reminds me, if you guys don’t need anything else, we’re on the edge of some major breakthroughs.”
“Go,” I tell her, smiling.
We exchange a quick hug, and then she’s on the elevator, and we’re off to my room. I feel like I’m glowing. Like everything in my little world is coming together.
I couldn’t be happier.
At the doorway to my room, Granger hesitates, looking unsure of himself. I hate that he feels that way. He’s my man now. I need to help him to become more confident. Help him figure out his place in my life.
“Come on,” I say. “We need to take a shower.”
He frowns. “Shouldn’t I go to my room?”
I grin. “Okay, but only for as long as it takes you to grab your clothes then head straight back here. I think a shower together would be better than one apart.”
“Okay.” He seems in disbelief as he heads for his room.
Going into my room, I strip off my dirty, wet clothes and lay out some clean ones on a chair. Then, I go to the bathroom and look at my tender back. Whistling low, I take in the dozens of long, jagged scars. I know from experience that they'll fade with enough time, but I see why Granger is so concerned. They look worse than they feel.
My door buzzes, and I walk over and open it. Granger takes one look at my naked body, blushes, and stares down at his feet.
Smiling, I remind him, “You're allowed to see me naked now.”
“Y-yeah, right,” he mutters.
Grabbing his wrist, I haul him into my room. “Come on. I'm freezing. Let's get in the shower.”
The door closes, and I start working his belt. He drops his clean clothes on the ground and takes my hands.
“Sam…”
I glance up at him, surprised by the seriousness of his voice. “What's wrong?”
He seems uncertain. “Before, when we were together, there were a lot of dragon hormones. We weren't thinking. Things are clearer now. Brighter too.”
I try not to look at him like he's crazy. “So?”
“So… damn it, Sam. It's clear to everyone that you and I don't look like a match. If I was a bird, I'd be strutting around with my big belly and dull feathers, and you'd be ignoring me.”
I frown, trying to wrap my head around what he’s saying, but I can’t quite figure it out. “What are you talking about?”
He sighs and rubs the space between his eyes. “Sam, I'm not… attractive.”
I burst out laughing, but stop when I see how somber he is. “Granger, you're a fox.”
“I'm not. I’m the guy who girls occasionally take an interest in before they find someone better.”
“Like hell!”
He sighs again, like he’s stating the most obvious thing in the world. “You're mated to three guys who look like they stepped out of a GQ magazine. They have muscles for miles. And now you want to see me… naked, under the harsh lightning of your bathroom. It's just… not going to be pretty.”
“I’ve seen you in a swimsuit plenty of times.”
His mouth forms into a thin line. “This is different.”
I act without thinking, pressing myself against him, letting my hands wander under his shirt. “If we're going to break you down to just your body, let's do it. I like your body, Granger. I like that you're bigger than me. I like that you're built like a football player. If things weren't complicated by our friendship, Aydan, just based on you physically… I'd have done some dirty things to you a long time ago.”
When he doesn't respond, I kiss his neck. Seeing the marks I've left, I slowly begin to leave more, sucking my way up his neck. His hands move to my waist, pulling me closer as he leans into my touch.
“Okay,” he finally says.
I continue sucking on his neck as I pull up his shirt. We briefly break apart as I yank off his shirt. He stretches an arm across his stomach, as if to hide his stomach, which breaks my heart. He knows how hot he is, right? He has to know.
Pulling off his belt, I undo his pants and get him naked, while he stands silent. When I’m done, I grab him by his cock and haul him into the bathroom, not giving him a chance to protest. Turning the shower on, I kiss him until the water starts to steam, then pull him into the spray with me.
We shower, our work only broken by kisses. I wash his hair and his body slowly, enjoying every second of having my hands on him. When it's his turn, he takes his time washing every inch of me until I'm humming with desire. I'm barely rinsed off when I jump onto him and we start kissing harder and faster.
“You're sure?” he whispers. “You're sure you want me ?”
Our gazes lock, and I see the fear and disbelief in his eyes. He's pleading with me that this is real, and terrified that it isn't at the same time. And, I swear, I'll never forgive myself for letting him go this long thinking he's so unworthy of love.
“I'm sure. With all my heart. I promise you.” I kiss him again until he kisses me back, and I feel him calm under my touch.
Shifting, I angle him at my entrance and start to take him, inch by inch. “Go slow, big guy.” I whisper, still shocked by the pure size of him. “I'm not used to you yet.”
“I never want to hurt you,” he pants, kissing my shoulder.
Slowly, we start to fuck. There's something unexpected and inexperienced about the way he moves that somehow makes it all the better. It turns me on to know he's never been with anyone else. It turns me on to know he'll learn all his firsts with me.
Soon, we're moving at a fast rhythm. His tip hits me at the perfect angle to make everything in me feel alive. His girth rubs against me in all the right spots. I throw my head back, loudly moaning as I hit my climax.
Grabbing his shoulders even harder, I grind myself against him while he chants my name over and over, and then we're both coming together, riding the waves of our passion, lost in a sea of pleasure together.
I collapse against him, but he keeps standing. We're panting together, chests heaving, as the water slowly cools.
“Should I… put you down?” he asks.
I laugh. “I guess you have to.”
He carefully pulls out of me and puts me on the ground. We wash again, dry, and dress. I'm about to suggest we try out the bed when my phone rings. It's Aydan.
We exchange a look, and I answer the call. “Hello?”
“Are you okay?” He sounds panicked, and like he might be running.
“We're fine,” I reassure him.
“Thank God. We just landed on the base and the doctors told us what happened. If anything happened to you, we’d never…” He struggles to say more for a moment before he continues, “We think the whole thing was a trap. Clearly, the green dragon was never there, and the brown and salmon dragons took off before we even got close. We chased them for a while, but they were faster.”
“They’re smarter than we gave them credit for,” I reluctantly admit.
“Bastards,” he curses. “When we heard the green dragon took Granger, and you went after him, we were terrified.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell him sincerely. “But we’re okay. We got away, and we’re safe now.”
“By some miracle,” he murmurs.
I take a deep breath. “One good thing did come from all of this though. We found the storm dragon.”
Evander’s voice comes over the line. “Is that a joke?”
Zane laughs. “If it is, it is not a very good one. The storm dragon is a mighty beast. He is nothing to joke about.”
I grin at Granger, but he looks pale and sickly.
“How long until you guys reach our building?”
“Five minutes,” Evander says without hesitation.
“Just… can you send Aydan to my room right when you get here? I’ll talk to all of you after and explain everything.”
“Just Aydan?” Evander asks, not sounding happy.
“For now,” I say.
We have to tell him first, just in case. In my gut, I know it’ll go well, but I think this will ease some of Granger’s worries.
“We’ll see you soon,” Evander responds grumpily.
After I end the call, I wrap Granger in my arms. “It's going to be okay.”
“Aydan will hate me.”
“He won't.”
“They'll be disappointed that I'm the storm dragon.”
“They won't.”
“Fuck,” he whispers.
“I've got you,” I reassure him. “We'll face everything together, I promise.”
And I mean it.