Chapter Six
Seline
Liam helps me stand once his knot deflates, slipping my dress over my head. He ushers me into the car before joining me and driving us back to the Capital. My mind reels with his words from earlier. Liam means to breed me and bind me to him forever. Or was he simply lost in the moment?
The idea of having his child carries appeal. A boy that looks just like him would be perfect. My heart melts at the thought but I can’t get carried away just yet. There are a lot of things that need to happen before I can believe this is forever.
“I wasn’t angry at you,” he says after a few minutes, dragging me from my thoughts. “I would never take my rage out on you.”
I stare at his profile as he continues to focus on the road. “I believe you, as strange as that sounds.”
“Good.” He nods. “You don’t ever have to fear me, or my dragon.”
“I believe that too.”
Silence descends on us once more as he navigates the streets of the Capital.
“What happens now?” I ask, breaking the silence.
“What do you mean? You are mine.”
A sad chuckle falls from my lips as we pull into the basement parking. His hand cups my chin, drawing my gaze to his. How do I explain my insecurities to him? The fact that he has claimed me means nothing. He could still take other females to his bed. If I open myself to the possibility of him, if I open my heart and he does that, it will break me.
“We need to talk. I mean, communicate. We don’t know each other well enough just yet and we can’t read each other’s minds, so we need to say what we are thinking.”
“I know you’ve claimed me, and you say I’m yours but are you mine?” I ask softly, hoping not to sound as desperate as I feel.
A brilliant smile crosses his face. “Fuck yes!” he says vehemently. “You don’t feel it, but I do. My heart, my soul, my dragon, belong to you.”
Getting out of the car I take a deep breath to settle my racing heart. His words are exactly what I want to hear but I don’t know if I can trust them. What if he’s wrong? Fated mates are a thing of legend, a remnant from a time that doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe he’s just crazy.
Inside the elevator, he pushes me against the cold wall, hiking my leg up over his hip. His fingers delve into my sex, petting and caressing while he speaks.
“I can feel your doubt. And that’s okay. I will just have to prove it to you over and over.”
“Liam,” I sigh, his touch doing things to me. “What if I never feel what you feel?”
He frowns for a moment before kissing me. “You’ll feel it. Tomorrow, we are going to get this mating officiated and then we will work on the rest. For now, I want to spend the rest of the day tasting and fucking my mate.”
The elevator doors slide open to his penthouse apartment, and he lifts me into the air. Again, my legs wrap around his hips as he carries me inside. I know he is taking me to bed to make good on his promise from earlier.
But he only takes a few steps before freezing. My body is lowered to the ground, his arms a possessive band around me.
“Get behind me,” he whispers. I can feel the anger radiating off him in waves as he pushes me behind his broad back. “What are you doing here?”
I lean around his muscular frame slightly to see a young woman standing in the middle of the kitchen. If I had to guess, she is probably in her mid-twenties. She is pretty, with long blonde hair and dark eyes. She is dressed casually in jeans and a pretty green-and-white top with flowy sleeves.
She stares at Liam for long moments before speaking. “You’re a father.”
My entire world twists on its axis for the second time in less than forty-eight hours. I’m not stupid enough to think that a man as powerful and virile as Liam has never had sex at his age, but this wasn’t something I ever considered.
“You’re lying,” he states calmly. “I haven’t seen you in over a year, Angela. Why now?”
She looks sad and I feel a pang of sympathy for her. “I waited. Once I found out I was pregnant I wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl before coming to you. But I see I have made a mistake. I’ll leave.”
She bends down before walking around the counter carrying a wicker bassinet with a gray lining. Liam stands stiffly as she walks past us, but I grab her wrist and hold her back. The scent of rich coffee and citrus invades my senses.
“Wait.”
Liam turns to look at me, unhappiness rolling off him in waves. What the hell? Suddenly I can sense his feelings? Everything inside my mind is in turmoil, with more questions than answers flying around.
“Seline…” he starts but I cut him off.
“No. I want to see the boy.”
“How did you know it was a boy?” Liam questions.
My gaze remains trained on the bassinet, a thin layer of fabric with little sheep on it barring me from what I want to see. “I just know,” I whisper with a shrug.
Angela looks at me in confusion before drawing back the blanket. The little boy stares at me with eyes like his father’s, his chubby cheeks lifting as he softly babbles to himself. This is exactly what I envisioned earlier. My heart fills with love I have never felt before and then it breaks. Everything in my world snaps into place before crumbling at my feet.
He is not my child, no matter how much I wish he was.
“Why did you come here?” I ask her softly, looking away from the baby, willing myself not to cry.
Her gaze travels to Liam, seeking permission, but I grab her chin and force her to look at me.
“Don’t look to him for permission. I asked the question, not him.”
Something inside me is pushing me to act this brazen. I know what females live through daily and I would never normally treat someone this way. I can’t explain it, but I know I need her to answer me.
“I…” she stammers. “I work in a pleasure house. I can’t keep him. I have nothing to offer, and I know Liam can provide him with a good life.”
“I’ll take him.”
“What? Seline, you don’t know this woman or that he is mine,” Liam interjects, touching my arm. “She could be lying.”
I glare at his hand for a moment before he removes it. He stares at me like I just grew a second head and if I wasn’t so pissed off I would laugh.
“If you can’t tell he is yours then you should see a doctor,” I snap. “He smells just like you.”
“Baby,” Liam says softly. “I need you to calm down.”
“I am calm, you Alpha asshole,” I hiss, not wanting to scare the boy.
Liam opens his mouth to say something, but he never gets the chance.
“Oh my God! You’re a dragon!” Angela exclaims.
****
Liam
Several life-changing things have happened in the past few minutes. First, the female I used to frequent before she qui t— apparently, she still works, just not where I spend my tim e— showed up in my damn kitchen. With a fucking baby! I honestly have no idea how the hell she got in but there will be hell to pay once I find out.
Second, Seline decided to make decisions that had nothing to do with her. Don’t get me wrong, knowing that she is willing to raise my bastard has strange feelings blooming in my chest, which I will dissect at a later stage, but this is definitely something we should have discussed before she spoke to Angela.
And now, I am staring at the first female dragon shifter in a thousand years. She isn’t fully shifted just yet, but all the signs are there. Her scales shimmer beneath her skin as her dragon fights her for dominance.
“Oh my God! You’re a dragon!” Angela exclaims, drawing our attention to her.
“No,” Seline says with a shake of her head. “I’m a normal female just like you.”
“You’re not, Seline,” I say. “Your dragon is there, just beneath the surface. She was trying to get through, just a minute ago.”
Seline stares at me in disbelief before turning to the other woman. Angela nods. My mate extends her hands in front of her looking to see if there is any difference, but her dragon has already receded with her fading anger. She shakes her head, dismissing us both before getting back to the business at hand.
“You want Liam to take the boy, I am his female,” she states. “I will take the child.”
Angela turns her confused gaze my way and I do the only thing I can think of. I shrug. “If that is what she wants.”
I saw her, her dragon, and their reaction the moment she thought the child would be taken away. And I honestly don’t want to risk her shifting in here and hurting herself or someone else.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Seline asks her. “We will need to get a lawyer and the Alpha Council involved to make it official. If you do this, there is no going back.”
A single tear slips down Angela’s cheek and I feel a moment of fleeting sympathy for the female. I would never be able to claim her. So many of the females from the pleasure houses get bred and have no other options. If I was alone, I would send her on her way. But Seline has made the decision for all of us.
“I need to do what is best for my son, not what is best for my heart,” she says. “I can barely fend for myself. But knowing you want him, that your dragon already claims him, is enough for me.”
“You’ll have to stay here,” I cut in, drawing the women’s attention. “I can’t have you running around the Capital telling everyone Seline is a dragon.”
“Liam, don’t be a prick,” Seline cuts in.
“I’m not. I am being practical,” I reply. “What do you think will happen to you if someone finds out? You have no control over your dragon, you can’t defend yourself, and we haven’t…” I allow my words to trail off.
I don’t mention the fact that we haven’t completed our mating yet. It was a bone of contention earlier and I don’t want to upset her right now. Knowing we will be able to finalize our mating and set the bond in place is enough for me and my dragon. Right now, I need her to understand the gravity of the situation.
“They’ll take me.” Her words are soft and filled with trepidation, cutting into my wayward thoughts.
I nod, confirming her fears. I wish I could say I will protect her, that nothing will take her from me. But I honestly don’t know if I can. Seline is unique, and greedy men always want something no one else has.
If her father knew any of this, he would lose his mind. Knowing that he had the first female dragon in a thousand years under his roof all this time and basically threw her away will no doubt send him into a tailspin of rage, making him an ever more dangerous man.
“Angela can stay in the guest room until we have everything under control,” I say. “We will pay you for the time spent here.”
Angela stares at us with wide, unblinking eyes. “You two are nuts! How can you expect your whore and the woman you claimed to live under the same roof?”
“You’re not my whore.”
“But she was,” Seline cuts in, taking Angela’s free hand in hers. “I understand why you feel uncomfortable but that is in the past. Now we need to plan for the future. For your son’s future.”