Chapter Two
Lissa: Rebel
I got out of bed as slowly and quietly as possible, trying not to wake the guy I had just slept with. I slipped my shirt and jeans on and grabbed the rest of my things when I heard the bedsheets shift and cringed.
“Hey, Lissa, where are you going?” he said groggily. The sheet fell as he shifted onto his elbows, showing me his toned chest and part of his washboard abs. He was undoubtedly good-looking, but not enough to get me to stay longer than I should have.
“I’m slipping out,” I replied, reaching for the doorknob. I was hoping to escape without notice.
“Why don’t you stay? I’ll cook us breakfast in the morning.”
I sighed and said bluntly, “Hey, I really enjoyed this, but I’m not interested in staying.”
“Well, how about going out for drinks later?” he said, sitting up.
I hated this part. It’s not the part where I feel like bending and saying yes, which I never do, but I hate it when the guy begs for me to stay. This was never going to go anywhere.
“Look, Paul,” I said.
“It’s Brad,” he huffed, sounding offended I got his name wrong.
“Brad, this was great and all, but this was only about sex, and I really enjoyed it.” Before he could say anything else, I quickly went out the door, briskly making my way outside to my car.
Stepping out the front door of his apartment complex was a little jarring, and it took me a few minutes to remember which direction we had walked from the previous night.
My experience with love was thorny, one that I had navigated with more scars than I cared to admit. I enjoyed sex. I simply don’t enjoy relationships. I’ve dated, and I seem to get hurt. It seems the guys I was with were only interested in one thing: having sex and sleeping around, so why can’t women be like that? Besides, I hadn’t found sex good enough for me to stick around long enough for round two.
My mind drifted back to the men who had shaped my point of view. Each one had left an indelible mark on me, reinforcing the walls I now kept firmly in place.
My first serious relationship had been with Jace. He was a vampire, charming, attentive, and everything I thought I wanted in a partner. For a while, it was perfect. We spent our weekends exploring the city, sharing secrets, and planning for a future that, in my na?veté, I believed would last.
But as the months wore on, the cracks began to show. Jace’s interest waned, and I found myself competing for his attention with his growing social circle. The final straw came when I discovered he had been cheating on me with a human. The betrayal cut deep, shattering the trust I had placed in him and leaving me questioning my worth. I ended things, but the damage was done. The innocence of my first love was lost, replaced by a wariness I carried into every relationship afterward.
The next man, Mark, was different, or so I thought. He was a human. He was older, more experienced, and seemed genuinely interested in me beyond physical attraction. We met at a party, and the chemistry was immediate. Mark was attentive, showering me affectionately despite our nature’s differences and making me feel like the center of his world.
For the first time since Jace, I allowed myself to hope, to believe that maybe, just maybe, I had found someone who wouldn’t hurt me. But Mark, too, had his ulterior motives. As our relationship deepened, so did his possessiveness. What started as small comments about my choice of clothing escalated into full-blown arguments about my independence. He wanted to control and mold me into someone who fit his ideal of a perfect partner. I fought back, refusing to be confined by his expectations, but it came at a cost. The love I thought we shared turned toxic, and I had to walk away before he turned me into humans who hated my kind, the supes.
The final nail in the coffin was my relationship with Liam. He was everything the others were not free-spirited, adventurous, and seemingly uninterested in tying me down. Interestingly, he was a dragon shifter, just like me. We had a whirlwind romance filled with passion and spontaneity. It was exciting, thrilling even, but it lacked depth.
Liam wasn’t looking for anything serious, and while I initially convinced myself that I could handle that, the truth was more complicated to swallow. When he inevitably drifted away, chasing his next adventure, I was left with the bitter taste of another failed relationship.
These experiences had shaped my outlook on love and sex. The men I have been with have taught me that vulnerability often leads to pain and that opening my heart only made me a target. So, I made a conscious decision that I would take what I wanted without the emotional baggage. I would enjoy the physical without getting tangled in the emotional, without getting attached. If men could do it, why couldn’t I?
I’ve learned that it’s easier this way. No expectations, no disappointments. I control what I give and what I take. And I never have to worry about getting hurt again. However, a small part of me wondered if I was genuinely content with this arrangement or if I had simply built these walls to protect myself from the possibility of something real. The truth was complicated, buried deep beneath layers of hurt and self-preservation. For now, though, this was my reality, and I was determined to live it on my terms.
I happened to hook up with Brad at a bar last night. It wasn’t planned. I was driving through the state of Oklahoma and happened to stop in Oklahoma City for a bite, beer, and possibly a place to stay. I was sitting at the bar and just finished my burger when Brad approached me and asked to buy me a drink.
One drink turned into three, and before I knew it, I was walking down the street to his downtown apartment. Why pay money for a place when I could stay in someone’s bed for a good night and roll in the sheets?
I needed to get out of town and find an area where I could shift. Feel the breeze on my skin. The best part of driving in this part of the United States is that there are plenty of wide-open fields once you get outside of the big city and the smaller city limits. After that, is the Appalachian Mountain range, which is even more perfect.
Once I found my car still parked in a parking lot, surprisingly without a parking ticket on it, I got in and found my way out of town, on the interstate, and headed towards Arkansas. I knew there were mountains in Northern Arkansas where I could hunt and fly freely without any problems from the human population. I just needed to figure out where a good place to stop would be.
I would have to make a potty stop once I got to the border and looked at a map. Asking for directions would be awkward as I didn’t know how to simply ask for directions to a quiet place that wasn’t too populated.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t hide my true form from humans. I could. Over time, we dragon shifters have learned to cloak ourselves when we’re in dragon form. It’s the part where we have to take our clothes off and shift without being noticed that was the tricky part. There is nothing more disturbing than watching someone go into the woods and strip before seeing them turn into a blurry whirlwind and then disappear, not to mention our clothes disappearing from wherever we left them because someone found them, making the walk back to our car even more awkward.
I’ve had a few close calls. I’ve also had someone threaten to call the cops on me, too, for indecent exposure. It wasn’t my fault some dimwit couldn’t leave me stuff alone. I wanted to find that person and roast them over a spit just long enough for them to learn their lesson, but I decided that wouldn’t be a wise choice.
I had to shift. I needed to feel the breeze on my scaled skin and fly as high as possible without passing out. I enjoyed my freedom to do so. My dragon and I had a great bond. I could feel her scratching at my skin the longer I drove.
“Just a few more hours,” I told her.
I tried not to break the speed limit. The less attention I brought to myself, the better. I felt that I always had to keep my head on a swivel. I didn’t need to run into another dragon shifter, then my freedom would end. Thankfully, there weren’t too many of us around.