Chapter Two Ivan
Chapter Two
Ivan
Earlier
Love was in the air everywhere I looked, and it was making me sick.
I glanced across the table at my best friend Aaron, his arm tossed over the shoulder of his wife, Melina.
They looked into each other’s eyes with a look so loving I felt like a voyeur watching them.
Next to me was my other friend Luca, laughing quietly with his woman, Lila, over some joke only the two of them knew.
I rolled my eyes and looked around the pub bustling full of laughter, music from the band on stage, and the aroma of smoked meats and sweet elixirs.
It was a Friday evening, one of the busier nights in our realm.
Despite our need to distinguish ourselves from the human realm, we’d adopted similar structures in our lives, except Thursdays were the beginning of most of our days of no work until Monday rolled around again.
Tonight, most were in full relaxation mode.
The dim lights from the floating orbs above and the plush leather seating around round wooden tables in the large space only furthered the jovial atmosphere, enticing more drinking and eating from the partiers. Everybody was happy and beautiful.
I slammed my hand down on the table, shaking the drinks and spilling some of the liquid.
The couples around me paused their intimate stares and looked at me with shocked faces.
I slid my chair back, making an unnecessarily loud noise as the wooden legs scratched over the hard wood floor. “I’m going home.”
Aaron raised a hand in the air, his almond-shaped silver eyes wide with concern. “Mate, why are you leaving so soon?”
I grimaced. “Because I didn’t realize this was going to be couples’ night. I thought it would be just us males, checking out this bar I’d never been to. Maybe meet the love of my life.” I could only hope.
Melina pouted, flipping her long blue braids over her shoulder. “I thought you liked us?”
I softened my face, not wanting to seem like a total asshole. “I do. However, I didn’t think I’d have to see so much of you.”
She narrowed her ruby red eyes. They seemed to blaze like fire against her deep brown skin, and I thought, perhaps I wasn’t being as sensitive as I intended. “Do you want to make an enemy of me?”
Lila shook her head, her big, curly honey-brown hair bouncing with her movements, a haughty look on her face.
“Same. And I wanted to talk to you about ice dragons.” She was not of our realm.
Originally from the human realm, she had been banished here by a witch who was part of a former alliance with my kingdom.
That ended with our defeat, which I was far from upset about, and Lila had chosen to stay. Finding love and shit.
Seriously, even in the worst situations, these people had found their mates.
Melina and Aaron were part of the arranged marriages under the treaty, and they’d ended up being a perfect match.
Luca and his pack had practically kidnapped Lila, and now she decided to abandon her realm to stay with them. How could I get such luck?
Lila leaned an elbow on the table, giving me quizzical hazel eyes. “Seriously, I can’t believe I’m just now finding out that you’re an ice dragon. Why’d you keep it a secret for so long?”
Apparently, Lila was half ice mage, half ice dragon.
Dragons were a rarity, and it was in our best interest to limit the amount of people who knew of us.
For our safety and our freedom. When I served in the military in Nodoor, my leadership knew, and it ultimately served me in rising through the ranks, but I was used almost beyond capacity.
When the war ended, I was thankful, and when Aaron was assigned to marry and move to Prinath, I took not a second to follow him.
I actually had an ulterior motive that I kept to myself.
I liked to keep my level of crazy a secret.
Ultimately, I ended up still working for the military but as a trainer. And no one knew of my background.
After being in Prinath for almost six months now, the only other person besides Aaron who knew was Luca.
When he mentioned Lila was looking for more information about ice dragons, I was open to sharing.
But not tonight. I sighed and looked at Lila, forcing a smile on my face.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help a fellow dragon, especially an ice dragon.
It was that I didn’t want to do it on my weekend night.
“I’d be happy to talk to you about our kind tomorrow, during the day, over food.
Maybe bring some of your baked goods from your shop. ”
She tilted her head from side to side, considering my words. “You’re right. I think, maybe, Melina and I are ruining your vibe.”
I raised a brow, confused. “Once again you are using a human term, I know nothing about.”
“It’s like your feel or aura. You can’t project that you are a single male open to receive flirtations from others. We’re cock blocking.”
I looked down at my crotch and then back up to Luca for help. “What is she talking about?”
He gave a slow, tired blink. “Don’t ask.”
Lila shrugged. “Come tomorrow, and we can talk.” She pointed to Melina. “Let’s go and leave the boys to be Ivan’s wing men.”
I sighed in frustration. It was like she was speaking a different language. “What does this mean? I need no man for my wings. I don’t even have them showing.”
Aaron snorted, giving me a pitying look as if I should have known what it meant. “It means we are going to help you fly to love.”
“Sounds stupid,” I muttered, slumping down in my seat like a petulant child.
Melina kissed her husband on the cheek and patted his head. “It does sound stupid when you describe it like that, honey. I still love you, though.”
He looked up to her as if she were his goddess, shoulder length black hair falling back and silver eyes glazed with that look of love I’d seen on him often with her.
I waved at the women, urging them to hurry along. “Okay, bye.”
Melina cut her eyes at me. “I’ll remember this.”
I bared my teeth. “I hope you do. I still have love for you though.”
She gave me a dismissive wave of her hand, but her mouth turned up in a slight smile. I looked to Lila and Luca who were still kissing each other goodbye. “You see him every day!” I shouted, arms shooting up in the air.
She slowly pulled away from him. “Tonight was his night.”
Like I cared. Lila and Luca were part of a four-person pack, and she was the center. Pack relationships weren’t exactly my thing, sharing and being shared felt like work, but I could respect the arrangement for them.
“He’ll be coming home to you later. I won’t have him out late.”
She slowly backed away, and Melina grabbed her by the arm as they looked forlornly at their mates. I rolled my eyes. “We aren’t going off to war. You’ll see them again, ladies. I appreciate you.”
I looked back at my friends, and both were giving me annoyed faces. “What? Is hanging with your single friend such a torture you can’t endure without your mates? Aaron, I thought we were like brothers?”
Aaron softened his face. “You are my brother. Sorry if we’ve been neglectful friends. We shouldn’t have brought them here tonight.”
I looked at Luca whose turquoise eyes widened, a depth of contrast against copper skin. “What? Am I supposed to say sorry? I don’t feel sorry.”
Clueless as ever. I clapped my hands together and stood up. “I’m going to take a piss. One of you fuckers can get the next round.”
I headed to the back of the room toward the bathroom and immediately paused when a familiar scent reached my nose.
The scent I had been searching for. The real reason I was so willing to move this kingdom.
The sweetest cherry mixed with buttery almond.
A compliment to my senses that made my mouth water.
My chest tightened before I could even reconcile the source, my memories.
Flashes of laughing brownish hazel eyes, a smooth brown leg tossed over my thigh.
I felt the phantom tickle of cool breath on my neck, an echoing sound of sultry laughter in my ear.
And then there she was in real life, facing me.
A look of shock on that gorgeous face. She was the same as my mind allowed me to remember.
A cloud of reddish-brown coils framing an almost artful face of large eyes, high cheekbones, and pouty lips.
I’d dreamed of her for so long, I thought for a split second that this too might be a dream.
However, this was real. I’d broken for her, cried for her, yearned for her.
And here she was, mere steps away from my touch. I felt delirious.
She’d said words I didn’t hear at first.
I finally blinked, my eyes feeling so dry from fear of losing sight of her for only a millisecond if I closed them. “I’m sorry?”
She tilted her head and walked over to me.
My heart pounded in my ears as she came closer.
And then she touched me. Laced her fingers between mine as I kept my eyes on her, unable to breathe.
“I said I was explaining to this man, who I was arranged by the court to marry, that we couldn’t marry because you and I are in love and deserve to get this second chance. Right?”
Her eyes seemed to plead with me to agree.
I looked over to the stranger who glanced at me with a look of confusion and disbelief.
I didn’t like the look of him. The snootiness to his sharp features.
But more than anything, I didn’t like that Jalisa Evenbright would get married to anyone else but me.
We were meant to be together. Even if I tried to forget, my dragon nature would not.
I had claimed her in my mind before she was mine.
I’d wanted to horde her like a treasure.
Bring her back to my lair and never let her go.
However, I’d kept that part of me buried, pushed against my dragon nature. Perhaps too much because I’d lost her.