Chapter 8
“…That’s why I love to travel. Unfortunately, my job keeps me too busy to do it as much as I’d like…”
Arkyn expended an inordinate amount of energy to keep his eyes from rolling. A date shouldn’t be this tedious.
Granted, it was Wednesday night and he’d left work early to drive to the Cities to pick up the woman who sat across the table from him, talking about something he could barely track. Not that the topic was boring or over his head academically. He simply didn’t care. And no amount of energy could inspire that emotion.
Because all his energy was spent trying not to be an ass to the woman the dating app had matched him to… the women with whom he had initiated tonight’s date.
She was beautiful. Long, strawberry blonde hair a little too strawberry to be natural, vibrant green eyes a little too green to be natural, and killer curves—also not natural—barely contained by her professional clothes. Not that past him had ever cared what level of enhancement a woman chose in order to attract his attention.
Current him didn’t care either, but that was because his attention wasn’t attracted in the least.
She was a marketing manager somewhere. Or a professed social media influencer. Or something else… He couldn’t remember and lacked the wherewithal to try. A stupid amount of apathy on his part that he internally berated himself for. This woman was perfect. Confident, intelligent, sophisticated, well-mannered, with just enough humor and snark to handle all his brothers and their fiancées. She would be a perfect wife for him as heir-alpha.
So why couldn’t he find any enthusiasm for her? Unlike recent run-ins with a certain woman, his date hadn’t snuffled him. Hadn’t dropped a comment to skitter the conversation onto an entirely new course. Hadn’t looked at him like he’d hung the stars and hadn’t climbed in his lap to look at pictures of his cat. Hadn’t wrapped herself around him so they could mindlessly dry-hump on the hood of her car.
Hadn’t smiled at him like that had been the highlight of her year.
No. By contrast, tonight’s date had followed an acceptable and predictable order of conversation subjects and behavioral expectations. It had been everything a first date should be, and this woman was very likely everything he’d thought he wanted in a wife.
Meaning, boring as hell. And he couldn’t stand it.
“Do you?”
Arkyn blinked and forced his head back into the conversation. What had she just asked him?
“Do you like to travel?” She repeated, with raised eyebrow to indicate she knew he’d spaced out.
“Well, I like to fly.” She’d never know the full reality of that statement. “But most times it’s work-related so I don’t get to sightsee, dontcha know.” The truth, whether he was talking for the family’s business or in his dragon form.
“Oh.” The amount of disappointment in that one syllable was breathtaking.
“We have some distant relatives in Norway. I’ve thought about going to see them when I get a chance.” Not sure the Dragon Council counted as distant relatives and he actually wanted to keep them half a world away, not visit them. But he’d felt obligated to say something to keep up his part of the conversation.
Great, he was only forty minutes into the date and compelled to lie.
“Norway, huh?” She perked up as she cut into her veal cutlet. “In college, I spent a Spring Break in Amsterdam. Is that close to Norway?”
Arkyn leaned back in his chair. “Oh for sure. Closer to it than we are.”
“That week was kuh-ray-zay.” She emphasized as she chewed, her eyes glossing over with the memory. Then she leaned toward him as if sharing a secret. “Have you ever done anything sooo off the hook, so… out of the ordinary, that you can’t even tell anyone because they’d never believe you?”
Like, turn into a dragon that can manipulate Earth? Or battle a prophesized world destroyer the size of a continent? Or communicate with family members mentally? “Not really. My life is pretty ordinary.”
But she didn’t really care about his answer, did she? She merely wanted to share her story. He slanted her a sly smile and tipped his beer bottle back. “But I’m all ears about what you did.”
She giggled and sipped on her glass of wine. Her eyes twinkled and she practically wriggled with excitement. She obviously enjoyed the pause in conversation, no doubt thinking it heightened his interest in her or the story.
Arkyn bit the inside of his cheek to keep from rolling his eyes. Again.
“Well, I shouldn’t tell you. Buuuut… We were at this coffeeshop…”
He tried to pay attention. Honestly.
“How’s the date going, big bro?” Ulrik’s voice was clear through their mental connection, as if he sat at the table with them like a third wheel. If only his brother was here as a third wheel, Arkyn might not be so bored.
“The fact that I’m responding should be answer enough.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. Or what was apparently a bit of whine as well.
“Uffda. Cut her loose and get your ass back here, then. No need to waste any more time.”
“How did you know Eydís was the one?”
He felt Ulrik’s shrug. “Dunno. I couldn’t get her out of my head. Still can’t. Being with her feels better than anything I’ve ever known, even when we’re arguing.”
“But… didn’t you also consider how well she fits with the family? And the fact her NeiDreki status amplified your own power to battle the pest infestation?”
There was a pause and Arkyn took the opportunity to nod at his date and raise his eyebrows as if interested in her story. He shoved a big bite of pasta into his mouth so she wouldn’t expect him to say anything.
“Are those facts true? Yes.” Ulrik finally replied. “And does her previous experience help us in the office? Yes?—”
“Exactly. I need someone who will help the family. Someone who fits with us.”
“This isn’t a job interview, Fífl. You’re looking for a wife. You gotta find that with your heart. Quit trying to figure this one out with your head.”
“Says the voice in my head.”
“Better me in your head than Ivar.”
“You better not be having sex right now, big bro.” Ivar piped up like a demon summoned. Had he been listening the entire time? Their mental communication was not an exact science, and sometimes individual conversations became party lines inadvertently.
Arkyn sighed. “Not even close.”
“He’s too busy thinking he had to find a woman who fits perfectly into our family, dontcha know.”
“You’re too smart to be this stupid, Dunga.” Leave it to Ivar to get right to the point. Literally. He was a Metal Dragon and his words often sliced without mercy. “Family isn’t some cardboard puzzle with clear-cut lines someone has to fit into perfectly or get cast aside. Those edges are fluid. They reshape and remold with each new addition.”
Sharp. Yet also a bit of a poet. That must be the softening influence of Lucia’s love. Arkyn might have laughed at the proof Ivar had loosened his unyielding edges, but realized he’d been even more inflexible in his pursuit of a girlfriend than Ivar’s metal ever was. “So, what are you saying?”
“By the Allfather.” Ulrik’s curse was infused with frustration and Arkyn could almost feel the physical swat upside the back of his head his brother would give him if he were present. “Ivar means look for someone you can love. Not just someone who checks off all the ridiculous requirements your dumb ass has come up with.”
Ouch, those were harsh words. When had Ulrik stopped playing the role of peacekeeper between the brothers?
Laughter brought Arkyn’s attention back to his date. She shook her head and covered her mouth with her napkin, face flush with humor from whatever memory she’d shared that he’d paid no attention to. When she blotted at her makeup and took a calming sip of her wine, Arkyn crossed his arms on the table and leaned toward her.
“I’m so very sorry. My attention had been elsewhere tonight, and that’s completely unfair to you. How about we get some go-boxes and call it a night?”
A calculating glint sparkled in her eyes. “Add a tiramisu, and I’ll won’t tell my friends you were a jerk.”
“Tiramisu to avoid a one-star Yelp review? Sounds like a deal.” He smiled as he lifted a hand to hail the server, not actually caring that his date might speak poorly about him. He deserved it if she did. Blackmailing him for dessert was rather low, but he’d happily buy her the whole dessert menu just to end this meaningless date.
Once Arkyn settled the check and they were handed their go-bags, he ushered his date out the door. He turned to bid her good-bye and probably apologize again, but she slid a palm up his pectoral and dug her nails into his muscle through his shirt, leaning into him and nibbling her bottom lip, her eyelids and her voice dipped in seduction. “We don’t have to end the date just yet. We could go back to my place and turn that Yelp review into four-star-highly-recommend. You know—” She bumped her pelvis against his and licked the underside of his jaw—“get you to scream my name and all that.”
What even was her name?
Dammit. He was accustomed to aggressive come-ons from women…. blame his dragon pheromones. But this wasn’t the woman he wanted. Even though their conversation had been perfectly predictable, he’d struggled to keep up with it. He hadn’t lost himself in her eyes. Hadn’t felt a lightness of being like floating weightless without a care in the world. By contrast, this date had been every bit trudging uphill through sludge and muck that pulled him down to bury him in the mundane and ordinary.
He was a dragon shifter. He was anything but ordinary.
Arkyn wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her dagger nails out of his flesh—it was like disengaging a determined octopus—shaking his head with as much regret as he could muster at this point, when all he wanted was to get the hell out of there. “It would be best if we take our losses now. You’re an amazing woman, but I can’t be who you need me to be. And I’m not going to insult you by lying.” Well, lying more than he already had.
She pulled back with a huff. “Fine, be a total ass. You’re loss.” Then she flipped her hair over her shoulder and flounced away.
He turned toward his truck, murmuring to himself. “Yep, my loss.”
Why did it feel like a win?
The drive back to Alexandria was calm, the roads fairly empty since it was the middle of the week. Had he shifted, he could have made the trip in a few minutes. But he’d have to leave his truck and clothes behind. Not so convenient. The windshield time was time to think. Think about what his brothers had said. Think about what was in his heart. Think about Ama’s galaxy eyes.
Thoughts of her had hovered at the edge his consciousness since he’d met her, like a timid wallflower at the edge of a school dance. Every time he looked at Astra, he was reminded of Ama. When he viewed the night sky from the solitude of his back porch, it reminded him of her hair. Sensing the earth awaken and surge with springtime renewal, so alive and vibrant, he thought of her smile. The feel of her lips on his, her flavor like honey and Pop Rock candies. The electric zing of need when she wrapped herself around him.
She checked off none of the supposedly ridiculous requirements his dumb ass had come up with. Yet she invaded him with light and joy.
Odin’s beard, would he survive if they ever had sex?
As he walked into his house, Astra greeted him with desperate little mews, climbing him with her razor claws until she nestled under his beard.
“Yeah, I missed you, too.” He chuckled, pulling her away and grimacing as her claws scraped the tender skin of his throat. He kissed her little furry head and tucked her to his chest as he exchanged his go-bag of food for a beer from the fridge and walked to his back porch to sit and enjoy the night sky as had become his habit these past couple weeks. Disappointment weighed heavy in his gut. “I wasn’t a very good date tonight, Astra. Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but everything I thought I wanted in a woman just leaves me empty.”
She wiggled out of his grip and landed on his thigh, settling down to make biscuits, her needle-like claws pulling at the cotton of his dress pants and digging into his flesh. He grunted at the sharp sting and stroked her tiny body. A moth flittered past and Astra quickly switched to hunting mode. Arkyn pulled his phone out to video the tiny predator as she stalked the moth, front low, bottom up, and tail twitching, chittering at her intended prey. Then he texted it to Ama so she could see it in the morning.
A true lioness.
His phone dinged almost immediately with a response.
Woolly mammoths beware.
Whatcha doing?
He smiled, anticipating whatever outrageously bizarre response she’d have.
She worries about you, you know.
Huh?
Who?
Astra. When you leave, she hates that she can’t protect you.
Who says I need protecting?
He could handle himself in a fight.
I’m sure you can hold your own in a fight. I’m talking from women.
So, I need protecting from women?
Arkyn smiled at that ridiculous thought.
Have you ever seen a lioness hunt? They’ll stop at nothing to get their claws in their prey.
Arkyn had never considered himself prey. That concept was laughable for an apex predator dragon. Yes, he’d been raised to be a gentleman with women. The women in his family were strong shield maidens who could fight alongside their warrior counterparts, and the Drekison men never treated a woman as weak or inferior—their mother would kill them if they did. But they did treat them as if they were precious—their mother would kill them if they didn’t. Okay, maybe he hadn’t treated tonight’s date as precious. Then again, she’d stabbed his chest with her acrylics, like a lioness with her prey.
Maybe Ama knew something he didn’t.
Of course she did. Her thoughts were too random and scattered to come from ignorance. They spewed from too many thoughts crammed and jumbled in that purple-haired head of hers. She kept him on his toes, and definitely kept him entertained. If he listened closely enough, he was bound to learn something. And at the very least, she’d make him smile.
He settled more comfortably into his deck chair, anticipation sizzling in his veins like it should have for his date, and sent one more message.
Wanna chat? Call me.