Chapter 3
“Stop pacing and get out here,”Brynn called through the front door. She and Bash were still on the front porch, and off their phones for the first time in twenty minutes.
They were organizing things for me.
Furniture.
Food.
Shampoo.
All the shit my instincts screamed that I should’ve provided for my mate.
And I really needed to stop thinking about her as mine.
Elodie.
Her name was lyrical. It didn’t fit the fire I’d seen from her.
It took more control than I ever would’ve imagined to keep myself from breaking into that bathroom while she was showering. Not to see her naked—though I wanted that too. Badly. Painfully badly.
But because every fiber of my being was dragging me back to her side.
The bond between a dragon shifter and his mate was a codependent one, which was why most of us avoided it like the plague.
A dragon couldn’t fly without his mate. Shifting without her at his side became physically impossible. His mate, on the other hand, would go into heat every month after sealing the bond. It was a week of hell for her, month after month, if he didn’t soothe it for her.
Dragon shifters were always born male, so our mountains were the safest places for us. No unmated women were allowed there, ever. When a female dragon was born, she was born human, and raised among others like her.
The rest of us stayed out of their towns and cities as much as possible to avoid being chained to a mate, never interacting with human women if we could help it.
But it was obviously too late for me.
Now, I had to survive heat.
Brynn waved me toward her, so I reluctantly made my way out. When she gestured, I sat down on the porch’s wooden planks beside her.
“Jas and Eli are on their way. Apparently, they have a few other guys from the thunder with them,” she said.
I ran a hand through my hair. “They’ll want to make sure I’ve actually sent my female into heat.”
“Your female?” She eyed me.
“A female,” I corrected.
It felt like a lie.
Sounded like one, too.
Hell, it even irritated me a little to consider that Elodie might not be mine.
It irritated me more to know that she’d already decided I was an asshole. It was for the better—but pissed me off anyway.
“What will they do when they realize it’s the truth?” Bash asked.
I shouldn’t have answered.
I shouldn’t have told them a damn thing about dragons, or our heat. But they were family, and I was tired of keeping things from them.
And as loyal as I was to the thunder I’d been running for three decades, I thought my sister deserved most of the truth. Some things had to be kept secret.
“They’ll wait until after it’s over to lock me up. If we seal the bond, they’ll lock her up too.”
Brynn’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“They would have to. I’d go insane without her.” Not having access to my wings, while being locked in prison?
It would be a death sentence.
The thunder wanted to punish me, but it was only six months of imprisonment. I’d make it through, if I wasn’t mated.
And I sure as hell wasn’t about to be the reason my mate went to jail, or spent six months surrounded by dangerous supernaturals who wanted her dead just because she was mine. She was human; she wouldn’t even be able to protect herself without me.
“So you can’t seal the bond.” Brynn sighed. “It’s too bad. I like her.”
“You barely know her,” I said.
“She thought she was rescuing me from you when she interrupted us, and did it even though she was clearly scared. That’s all I need to know.”
“If most dragons don’t make it through heat without a bond, it might be best to separate yourself from her entirely,” Bash suggested.
Brynn smacked him on the arm.
“I would if I could, but it’s not an option. She would be in too much pain without me here. That knowledge would drive me to insanity—and the past has proven that mental change irreversible. The thunder would have to kill me afterward.”
“Has anyone tried painkillers before?” Bash asked.
Brynn shot him a look. He tugged her closer, squeezing her hip lightly, and she leaned against him more.
“Many times. They’re all useless against heat’s magic. In the past, some dragons have paid witches to try to keep their mates out of pain, too, but it never helped.”
“Well, that sucks,” Brynn said.
“Yup.” I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe through a wave of magic driving me back to the bathroom. To her side. “Did you find her bag?”
“Yeah, my manager had already grabbed it. One of my baristas is driving it over as we speak. She should be here soon. Someone recorded the whole exchange between us, and everyone in the shop was watching, but there was no sound. We should be fine. Zander’s working on taking the videos down right now, just to be safe, too.”
Zander was one of Bash’s brothers. The three of them ran a group of demons and humans who took out vampires that hurt humans. Most vampires were decent, but some were violent. And those bastards didn’t deserve to keep living.
Dragons were supposed to be neutral toward other supernaturals. We weren’t supposed to take sides.
Which was one of the reasons the thunder didn’t want me leading them.
I couldn’t say I was broken-hearted about it. I’d only taken the leadership role when my father passed on because he asked me to. I’d given it everything I had, and it had been clear for years that I wasn’t a good fit for them.
Though I originally hung on for my dad’s sake, it felt like a weight off my shoulders when they finally asked my brother to take over.
Jasper would do a hell of a lot better than I had.
“Thanks. She was worried about that.”
“I know. Did you ask her what she was studying?”
“No. Did you?”
“Nope.” Brynn leaned her head against Bash’s shoulder, studying me. “You need to get to know her over the next few weeks. If she’s stuck here, in pain, being friendly is the least you can do.”
“Getting to know her is a bad idea. If I let myself get attached to her, walking away will become an impossibility.”
And if I couldn’t walk away, I’d end up dragging her pretty little ass to prison with me.
Which I couldn’t allow to happen, for many reasons.
“Bash thought that when he first met me, too,” Brynn countered. “You could survive the next few weeks, and come back to find her after you get out of?—”
The bathroom door opened behind us, and she cut herself off.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over my shoulder to watch her leave the bedroom.
Her black hair was a mess, falling in tangled strands around her face and over her shoulders. It was long enough to hit the middle of her back—long enough that I itched to wrap my hands in it.
My clothes nearly swallowed her whole, so she had rolled the boxers a few times, exposing most of those sexy, soft legs. She’d tied the t-shirt in a messy knot at her hip, too. I could see the points of her nipples through the thin, black fabric, and it made my cock throb painfully.
Fuck me, she was gorgeous.
And her scent…
I could already smell it in the air.
My entire body clenched as I fought the urge—the need—to go to her side and take her in my arms.
To taste her.
Talk to her.
Make her mine.
“Was my backpack still there?” she asked, her gaze going straight to Brynn.
I wanted her to look at me.
My sister smiled. “Yep. One of my baristas is on her way here with it right now.”
Elodie’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you. I’ve been working on a big project and didn’t want to lose everything.”
“What are you studying?” Brynn’s gaze flicked to me, almost… challenging me.
I ignored her challenge.
I couldn’t let myself get any more attached to the woman than I already was.
“Software engineering. It could end up difficult to get a job, but I love it,” she admitted.
I couldn’t help but be intrigued by her admission, even if I wasn’t allowed to show it.
Brynn waved her toward us, and Elodie reluctantly stepped out onto the porch. My sister shooed me away with her hands, so I scowled, but made space between Brynn and I for Elodie.
My female reluctantly sat down on the porch beside me.
It took everything I had not to wrap an arm around her back and pull her to my side.
“I know a guy who might be able to get you a job. My brother-in-law. As long as you’re not against tracking down violent vampires so a group of demons can kill them,” Brynn offered.
Elodie’s eyes widened. “That’s a thing?”
“Keep it on the down-low, but yeah.”
“I’m definitely in. If he’s interested in me, I guess.”
I couldn’t stop the growl that vibrated my chest.
“Not romantically,” she added hastily. “I’m not looking for—that.”
Brynn smiled. “He’s happily mated, as August already knows, but I’ll talk to him. Give me your phone number?”
“Of course.”
Brynn finished putting it in her phone just as a tiny white car pulled up to the house. A high-school-aged girl got out just long enough to hug Brynn and give her a simple, gray backpack.
As the car drove away, Brynn handed the bag over to Elodie, who accepted it with a grateful expression.
She checked a few of the bag’s pockets before pulling her phone out and looking at the screen. “I need a minute to call my friends.”
Brynn squeezed her arm lightly. “Take all the time you need, El.”
Elodie slipped back inside the cabin, shutting the door behind her that time.
My whole body clenched as I fought the urge to go after her.
“How hard is it to keep your distance?” Bash asked.
I ground my teeth against the need to follow her, unable to answer him.
“You’re fucked,” he said, after a moment of silence.
“No kidding.”
It was going to be the longest four weeks of my life.