by Roxie Ray
“Nobody knew what I said had anything to do with you, unless you told people what you did. Sammy is the only one who knew, and she’s not here.”
He blustered. “I’m trying to help you, son!”
“Then trust me.” It was a fight not to raise my voice. Mom sighed and walked to the porch to plop down in one of the rockers. She wasn’t stupid enough to think she could keep us from this argument, but I did notice her rolling her eyes a few times. “I don’t understand why you’re so worried about Skye,” I said. “She’s my mate.”
Dad’s shoulders slumped. “Because you’re not the first, okay?”
I couldn’t have been more stunned. I looked at Mom, but she was staring at Dad with a shocked expression on her face, too. “What in the hell are you talking about, Mitch?” she asked.
“I mean, you weren’t the only one who looked into this. I put some feelers out that I needed resources on a, uh, touchy subject. It took some years, but I learned of a clan in Washington. One of their members realized his fated mate was human.”
“How?” I exclaimed. “I contacted that clan!”
“If you’d started searching sooner, you might’ve found this out instead of me. You were probably in the midst of medical school when I got this information.”
He was right. I hadn’t contacted the Washington clan until well into my residency.
“Anyway,” he said. “She was much like Skylar. Beautiful, kind, and accepting of what he was. But when he gave her the mating bite, it nearly killed her. She woke up in the hospital in hysterics and terrified of him, something in the magic didn’t mix well with her blood and she became, to put it delicately, mentally distressed. When she started screaming about dragons, they took it up as her losing her mind. Their clan’s witch had to come in and wipe all of her memories of him and their secrets, but the witch couldn’t remove the magic from the woman’s system. She was placed in a mental institution, where she remains to this day, as far as I know.”
My heart plummeted. Then it rose as anger surged. “Why the hell did you wait until now to tell me this?” I yelled.
“Seriously, Mitch, this was information he needed to know. What if he already bit her?” Mom crossed her arms and glared at us.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t get this far. That you’d come to your senses or that when you told her about it, she’d reject you. But this is why I asked you to come over today, to tell you. And that’s why I contacted Sammy, so she’d be on standby if you gave Skye the bite and it went horribly wrong. I told her it had to do with Skye blabbing, but that wasn’t it.” My father stepped forward. “I’m not just thinking of you, son. I’m thinking of Skye and her well-being. What if she’s like the woman in Washington? What if the bite can kill her or make her insane?” He gripped my shoulder hard. “Can you live with that? You should really rethink the mating. And maybe consider asking Sammy to remove the knowledge of the clan from Skye’s mind. It won’t hurt her, and she’ll be safe. It’s best for everyone involved if you end things with Skylar and have her memories of our secrets wiped.”
There wasn’t much else to say. I couldn’t really refute his arguments, though his methods had been wrong. He apologized for not telling me sooner, then they left, leaving me sitting on the front porch, stunned.
Skye texted me several times, and eventually, I responded that I was worn out and headed to bed. She knew I’d had that surgery, so she was sympathetic.
I did go to bed but barely slept. When it was time to go back to work, I was in a terrible headspace. I couldn’t ignore what my father had said, and it made me furious. My heart ached with every breath and I was so confused I could barely focus on my patients. Why would fate choose this for me if it weren’t meant to be? What was the purpose? What was the reason?
I didn’t mean to be, but I was snappy at everyone, including Skylar. She didn’t have time to question me, and when I thought she might, I ducked her, including hiding in an exam room for lunch. About an hour later, she nearly bumped into me, and once again, I snapped at her. “You’re being an alpha-hole,” she hissed at me. “Get the stick out of your ass.”
She didn’t understand why I was so upset.
Her shift ended at three, but I’d picked up another surgery days ago before I knew I’d be going through all this. It wasn’t a long one, but when I finished and finally headed to my car at seven, I found her sitting on the hood reading something on her phone. She didn’t speak, just stared at me with one eyebrow arched.
My heart splintered when I saw her. I wanted to bawl my eyes out and tell her how sorry I was. Instead, I walked straight up to her and wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “There’s a lot going on and I’m not processing it well.”
“I’m supposed to be your partner,” she said into my chest. “You should talk things through with me, Anthony.”
She was right, but in this case, I couldn’t. How could I tell her that being with me might make her go insane? And if we had sex again, I didn’t know if I could stop myself from biting her. When my dragon rode me like that, it was nearly impossible to resist. Which meant we just couldn’t have sex. And I knew Skye. She wouldn’t run away just from one bad case. She was a lot like me. She’d believe there had to be others and not all of them ended the same as the case in Washington. I wanted to find out more on my own and I didn’t want to put that burden on her shoulders, so I decided to not tell her. “I promise I’m handling it. You don’t have to worry.”
She smiled uncertainly. “Okay. Promise me you’ll come to me if I can help?”
I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Of course. Come eat dinner with me?”
We figured out over sandwiches that her girls wanted her to spend a night with them, and Jace had asked me to come by and hang out with him at the bar. We decided to spend the weekend apart. It would be good for her to wrap her mind around all this. And I needed answers. I was bound and damn determined to get them.
19
Skylar
Even though Anthony had acted weird as hell all week, he’d still been loving and attentive too. I decided to trust that he was going through something. I’d left it up to Bri and Kaylee to plan our girls’ day. They’d done it up big and booked us the afternoon at the spa. It wasn’t a night of drinking, so I was happy with it. I loved girls’ time but wasn’t up to partying quite as much as my best friend. Kaylee had a liver of iron.
As we sat in a mud bath, Kaylee squinted at me from behind her clay mask. “Why have you been so quiet today?”
I shrugged and patted my mask to see if it was dry yet. “No reason. Just enjoying the relaxation. I can practically feel the toxins leaching out of my skin.”
“No, something else is eating at you,” Bri said. We hadn’t been friends all that long and already she knew me.
I sighed. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
Kaylee squealed and sloshed toward me in the large mud pool. “I knew there was something juicy to tell!”
“Okay, so he has basically committed himself to me. He’s talking about marriage already. Picking up where we left off. The whole nine yards.” I sighed and relaxed against the pillow at the back of the tub. “He’s tentative and passionate. Dominating and careful of boundaries.” I sighed and basked in the new relationship feeling. By the time I finished describing what he’d been like without giving up any dragon secrets or specifically describing his girth, they were swooning against the sides of the tub too.
Bri sighed. “I’m so ready. It’s been long enough. I left Hayden’s dad three years ago, and I want someone totally opposite from him this time. Someone sweet and attentive who doesn’t party much and isn’t prone to sleeping around.”
I gave her a sympathetic look. “You need a homebody. Someone settled.”
She nodded and sighed. “That sounds perfect.” We sat in the mud for a minute. “Mostly I want someone who wants to be a father. Or even if he’s got a kid or two of his own. Like a modern-day Brady Bunch.” I hoped su
ch a man existed because Bri was a catch. Any man would be beyond lucky to have her.
“Not me. I’ll take the party guy that you don’t want. I don’t want to settle down. I’ll be a fun auntie for Hayden instead, will that work?”
Bri grinned. “That sounds perfect. Then when I’m ready to cut loose, I can go hang with Auntie Kaylee.”
We finished at the mud bath and headed next door in our robes for our manicures and pedicures. They settled us in incredibly comfortable massage chairs. We weren’t talking much with the nail techs in the room. A woman walked in who looked very familiar. She settled into one of the chairs across from me and caught my eye several minutes later. She smiled, and her eyes turned to onyx and gold before returning to normal quickly.
She was a dragon. And still, she looked so familiar. Her smile deepened and I caught a flash of fang. Who was this woman? Her smile was nasty and in no way friendly. “Hi,” she said in a haughty voice and as soon as I heard it, I knew who she was. My rideshare driver. “I’m Tessa.”
“Yes, I remember you. You’re…” I pursed my lips a little as I continued, letting the words roll out of my mouth as if they tasted bad. “Friends with Anthony, aren’t you?”
She smiled again and this time I definitely saw a flash of fang. A little fear trickled through me. She breathed in deep through her nose and closed her eyes as if savoring a scent.
Oh, shit. She smelled my fear. That bitch.
“Yes,” she said. “We’re old friends.” The way she said it was so suggestive I wanted to go over and rip her damn fangs out of her head. But fuck, I had no idea what dragons were like in their human forms. Probably, she would have kicked my ass. The hairs on my arms raised and she continued. “I’ve heard all about you.” Her gaze dragged up and down my body as if judging every inch of me. “Apparently, people exaggerate.”
I snorted. I wasn’t the type to be bullied, even if she could’ve beat me to a pulp. “Oh, really? How odd. I’ve never heard of you.” Of course, I had, but she didn’t need to know that. I cocked my head and gave her a fake sympathetic look that was all catty. “I imagine I wouldn’t if someone wasn’t relevant enough for a conversation.” I bit my bottom lip and wrinkled my brows, daring her to say something else.
Her face reddened. Oh, yeah. She was furious, but fuck all, I didn’t care. Dragon or not, that bitch needed to know her place. I leaned forward. “It’s really not becoming of a female to allow her jealousy to be so apparent. It makes you look desperate.”
Tessa rose to her feet. “You’re going to regret pissing me off,” she said in a low, fierce voice. I did feel a little trickle of fear, but I made sure I appeared unfazed. I waved one hand at the witch and turned back to my girls, who looked shocked. Well, Kaylee looked like she was about to jump to my aid, but I wouldn’t have expected less from her. When I looked back, Tessa was gone.
After the spa, we headed back to my place where we relaxed a while before heading out for a night on the town. Our dinner was spent mostly discussing Tessa.
Kaylee waved her arm as the server set chips and salsa down in front of us. “I’ve run into her a time or two. I don’t know much about her. Just that she’s super catty. But then, I don’t know much about anyone in the cult.”
“Please don’t call them a cult. They’re just a group of friends. Like us but bigger. Besides, I’m not concerned with Tessa. I’m sure if she were important, Anthony would’ve mentioned her.” He had, but he’d told me he’d take care of her. I’d have to mention it to him that she’d been hateful again. Now that I knew she was a dragon, I disliked it all the more. But I was out with my girls, so I pushed her from my mind and enjoyed the night with my two best friends.
As the night went on, the tipsier we got. I made sure to keep it on this side of tipsy. I was in no position to be getting drunk. The longer I stayed in a slightly inebriated state of mind, the more I worried about the whole Tessa thing. And all of the rest of it. Could I really be married to a dragon? Could we have babies? Not that I was really concerned about that, considering my reproductive history, I’d long ago come to terms with the fact that I’d likely never carry a child of my own. But what if Anthony expected a baby? I know he’d said PCOS wasn’t the end-all, but what if it turned out I definitely couldn’t have one? Would he want to have one with someone else like Bret had? The doubts hit me like I was a punching bag. His parents had been concerned for a reason, what if they were right?
After we spent some time dancing, we ended up at Jace’s bar. Luckily for my recovery tomorrow, I was still only slightly buzzed. Bri and Kaylee were far past the point of sober, so I decided it was best not to drink anymore that night to keep an eye on my girls. As I got them set up at the table, I looked around and spotted Tessa talking to Jace. Oh, come on. I rolled my eyes because of course, she was here. But then Tessa turned and there was a look on her face that screamed predator. She walked toward the stairs that led to Jace’s VIP section. Something in me pushed me forward, and since the girls were giving their orders to the server, I stood. “I’ll just take a soda,” I told her. “Be right back.” I headed toward the stairs, just buzzed enough to be courageous when probably I should’ve been cautious.
20
Anthony
The moment she walked into the bar, I felt her. I would’ve sensed her as soon as she was within a mile vicinity if I’d already bitten her. The fact that I knew she was in the building meant we were really close. How could the bond go so wrong in this situation? We were meant for each other.
Something tugged behind my heart. We had ended up in the same place even after saying we were going to spend the weekend apart. I was about to go downstairs to find her when Tessa appeared at the top of the stairs. Ugh. She came through the curtain divider with a triumphant look on her face. Damn it. I so wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. “Excuse me,” I said and tried to step aside so she could go on in and let me go out.
But she moved in the same direction I did. “I ran into your human earlier. She’s got a smart freaking mouth. She’s lucky I didn’t claw her damn eyes out.” I bristled at her threats against Skye, my alpha side wanting to put her in her place, but she kept on, ignoring the anger rolling off of me. “I just don’t get how you’re so hung up on her. She’s weak. How are you going to be mated to someone who can’t fly with you? That’s going to be miserable.”
I’d held my temper as long as I could. I’d never have harmed a female, but I would always protect my mate. I controlled myself as I advanced on Tessa. If she’d been male, this would’ve gone very differently. Pushing my alpha power in front of me like a ton of bricks, I advanced until she pressed herself against the wall and let out a whimper. Even though I could feel how cowed she was, she still looked up at me with a glint of desire in her eyes. Was she somehow enjoying this? Ugh. Gross. I put one hand on either side of her head and leaned close so she could see the fury in my eyes and feel the weight of my word as her alpha. “You won’t threaten Skye, ever again. And if you know what’s best for you, you’ll get over your jealousy and accept that Skye isn’t going anywhere.”
Tessa’s smile spread across her face, even though she couldn’t move from the wall as I continued pressing my dominance onto her. She looked wicked, nearly evil. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure,” I thundered.
Tessa looked over my shoulder and nodded her head slightly, so I’d look behind me. Skye was there, staring at both of us, and she looked positively murderous.
I turned back and read the room. Shit. From her angle, it might’ve looked like I had Tessa pressed against the wall for an entirely different reason. Damn Tessa for testing my patience! “Skye,” I yelled. “It’s not what you think.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, I’ve never heard that one before.”
Anger bubbled over inside me. I was dealing with everything from the normal pressures of being a doctor to trying to figure out how to safely mate with the woman I loved without causing her irreparable harm. Fuck!
I’d been focused on research to try to help her, fighting my instincts to claim her before I was sure of her safety. Dealing with backlash from my clan members like this fucking psycho here. I didn’t need her comparing me to her trash ex. “I’m not him,” I yelled, turning toward her, and ignoring Tessa. “And you should give me the benefit of the doubt enough that you don’t accuse me of being like him. I’ve been stressed and busy, but I would never do anything to hurt you. You must know that.”
“Is that why you had another woman pressed against the wall with your face close enough to kiss? The same woman who told me earlier that you and she have history?” She edged toward the stairs again, as if ready to run back down them at any point. The VIP section wasn’t large, and curtains muted the sounds of the bar below.
I turned and glared at Tessa. She shrugged, looking as unruffled as a kitten. “She deserved to know, if she’s going to be part of the clan.”
My frustration was at its peak, and it exploded when Tessa spoke again. “It might not matter anyway if the mating bite kills her or drives her insane.”
I snarled at her. “How did you hear about that?”
She slid sideways, trying to get away from my anger, but Skye wouldn’t have been able to see it. Tessa looked triumphant as she smirked at both of us and walked out of the VIP section. “Good night, you two,” she said before disappearing.
Skye looked pale as she watched Tessa walk out. Through our tentative bond, I felt her fear and hurt spike. “What is she talking about?” Her small voice cut me to ribbons.
“She’ll pay for her actions.” I couldn’t stop the venom from filling my voice. Tessa was going to learn that she couldn’t do whatever she wanted to. She’d be lucky if I didn’t banish her.
“Anthony,” Skye yelled. “What was she talking about?”