by Roxie Ray
“I can’t have this discussion here,” I said and rubbed my hands across my face. “Will you come home with me?”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
I led her down the stairs and she headed straight for the bar, where Jace had gone to give his guy his meal break. For the most part, Jace was supposed to be off duty and hanging out with me. We’d been having a great time up in the VIP section before Tessa had ruined everything. I’d even gotten my mind off of all this bullshit for a few minutes. Then Tessa happened.
I followed Skye and listened to what she told Jace. “Please keep an eye on my girls and let them know I left with Anthony?”
Jace nodded and looked at me over her shoulder. “Sure, of course.”
Skye reached leaned forward, toward my friend. “Kaylee lives right down the road.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a twenty. “Ask one of your guys to walk them down there, or if they refuse it, have them watch and make sure they get home, okay?”
Jace took the bill and looked at me again. I nodded, so he smiled at Skye. “You got it. Not a hair on their heads will be bothered.”
“My house,” she said when I tried to open my car door for her. She yanked it out of my hand and got in, pulling the door closed before I could. The car ride to her house was utterly silent. I almost opened my window to create a little noise. “Skye—”
“No,” she said sharply. “Just don’t.”
When we got to her house, she jumped out of the car and marched up the walk to her front door. I followed as quickly as I could, worried that she might slam the door in my face and lock me out. But she let me in behind her, then headed straight for the kitchen.
Skye returned with a large glass of wine and paced the living room. “Start talking,” she barked.
“My father told me that he’d found another instance of a male dragon biting a female human. The human went insane.” Her face fell as she watched me talk.
She stopped in the middle of the living room and gulped down half the glass of wine, then paced again. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me as soon as you knew?” she said in a thunderous voice.
“Even though I’m magical, we’re scientists, Skye. I couldn’t bear to tell you something like this until I knew more. I couldn’t lose everything, throw it all away on one story.”
“Well, what the hell were you planning to do? You said you had not found any other cases of a human with a dragon. Were you going to just have Sammy wipe my memories and move on?” She snarled at me, fierce as any dragon I’d ever seen. “Move on to Tessa?”
“Stop it,” I warned. Her head was going into a dark and spiteful place.
She carried on, of course. “That was your plan, wasn’t it? Wipe my memories, then mate with Tessa. She’s a dragon. She can take your bite.”
She’d worked herself up into being really damn pissed. “Tell me the truth, Anthony,” She practically yelled. “Were you going to wipe my memories?”
I didn’t want to lie to her. I really didn’t want to tell her, either. “I’d do anything to keep you safe, Skye. Not biting you is becoming harder and harder. I don’t want to risk your life or your sanity. I need time to figure out if we can safely do this. If we can be together. Maybe it would be best if, until I know for sure, we stay away from each other.”
I couldn’t risk losing control. Not just because it was dangerous. I didn’t want to bite her until she gave full consent with all knowledge of the dangers involved. “My tattoo started burning again this weekend,” I said. “My dragon wants to finish this, and I don’t know how long I can resist.”
“Were you going to tell me?” she whispered. “Ever?”
I didn’t answer.
She set her wine glass down and walked to her front door, opening it and standing beside it. “Do what you need to do,” she said. “I won’t fight you.”
I walked over and got as close as I dared. Any closer and I’d gather her into my arms. “This isn’t goodbye.”
“It is if you can’t find proof that I won’t die or go crazy. You’ll wipe my memories, even though I’d never do anything to hurt you or your family. But I guess that doesn’t matter. You’re alpha. You’ll do what you have to do.”
My heart cracked, and even though my mating bond with Skye was pulsing with my own pain, I felt Skye’s hurt as well. “This isn’t what I wanted. I just needed time, but now the truth is out, and I can’t take it back. I love you. That doesn’t change. I promise, Skye, I’ll figure this out.” I stepped forward, but my dragon pulsed inside me. I couldn’t go any closer.
She just nodded but didn’t meet my gaze.
I walked out and she slammed the door behind me. But unfortunately for my heart, my advanced hearing picked up the sounds of her dissolving into tears before I got into my car.
Damn it. I needed answers, and I needed them fast.
21
Skylar
Anthony disappeared—and I was pissed. I’d had a feeling he would pull some shit like this, especially after what had happened. I’d figured work would be awkward, but we were adults. We could’ve worked together without being bitter.
But Anthony had called the hospital CEO and put in for an emergency leave of absence, and nobody had batted a single damn eyelash about it.
And fuck all if I was going to go ask his parents where he’d gone. I considered asking Jace, but I couldn’t bring myself to go anywhere near anyone in that cult.
Yeah, I said it.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Sammy had anything to do with him leaving. I hadn’t met the witch, but there had been a woman coming out of the administrative office at the hospital last week who definitely had a different energy around her. It was almost like I could sense people now. The announcement of Anthony taking his leave came shortly after I saw her there at the hospital. So, here we were, almost two weeks he’d been gone, and I’d settled my heart to believe it was eighteen years ago all over again. I tried to pretend I wasn’t grieving. I knew he was probably off finding out what happened to those people in Washington, but he hadn’t checked in, hadn’t called or even texted. What was I supposed to think except that he’d gotten bad news and any day now I was going to have my memory wiped?
I didn’t want to think that way. My mind just kept going to it, kept getting darker and darker. I left the hospital for lunch, as I had most days since Anthony had left. The last thing I needed right now was to run into Bret. That would’ve been the icing on the cake.
My new favorite place was this small café that I knew wouldn’t be crowded during lunch. I’d be able to eat alone and in peace. I got my fancy sandwich and coffee and sat down in the corner, then pulled up a book on my phone. I hadn’t been able to read any of those damn romance books, either. I was on a murder mystery. At least there were no fucking dragons in it.
Halfway through my sandwich, a woman flopped down across from me. Holy shit. It was the same woman who left the administrative office that day. And she still felt off somehow. I didn’t have to guess. “Hello, Sammy.”
She smiled. “Skye. You’re as smart as you look.”
“Are you here to wipe my memories?” I asked.
Sammy sat back in her chair. “I was ordered to.”
My heart broke. Tears sprang to my eyes. I tried to keep them away but knowing that Anthony was going to make all the knowledge disappear, and all the feelings for each other, all the love I had in my heart for him, even though I was mad at him for disappearing again.
“Anthony didn’t give the order,” she said. “It came as a message from him.”
I tried not to let the tears spill over. Blinking hard, I stared at the witch. “What do you mean?”
“I received the order second-hand. The clan isn’t too keen on him disappearing with Jace.”
I hadn’t realized he’d taken Jace with him. Maybe he would be coming back eventually, then. I’d just assumed he’d gone alone.
And if he’d contacted me at all, I might’ve known diff
erently.
“I’m feeling a little guilty,” she said. “I gave them the nudge they needed.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Anthony was looking for more couples like you, with no luck. Clans are very secretive and their witches are protective. If a secret as big as human pairings got out, it could send clans into a frenzy. Anthony seemed desperate, though. And he’s my friend before he’s my alpha, since I’m not a dragon. And so I used my power and resources and sent him to what I think, and hope, are the answers he seeks. Anthony’s dad isn’t happy with this news, but I was called by another member of the pack who claimed to be acting on Anthony’s behalf. She wants your memories wiped before Anthony returns.”
Why did this bitch hate me so much? “Tessa?” I asked.
Sammy cringed. “You’ve already had to deal with her?”
I nodded. “I don’t know if it’s jealousy or what.”
“Fear,” she said. “She’s scared that human women will start taking all the dragons. If I have my way, she won’t end up with anyone. She poisons anyone she comes near.” She sighed. “She’s also scared of change, but in that, she’s not the only one.”
“So, are you going to do as she’s said? Are you obligated to?” I asked. I still had half my lunch in front of me, but my mouth was full of sawdust. No way I could’ve taken another bite.
Sammy shook her head. “Anthony is my alpha, and I don’t see you as a threat. It’s a part of my witchy gifts.” She gave me a secret smile and stood. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of you soon.”
With that, she left the cafe.
Holy shit. My adrenaline crashed when Sammy was gone, and it was all I could do not to melt into a puddle there at the table. I gathered my trash and went back to work, ready to throw myself into my patients and to try not to think about fucking Tessa.
Hard as I tried, my emotions were mixed. I wasn’t sure what to make of Sammy’s visit. Should I wait for Anthony? Or was I wasting my time with all of this? Maybe it was time to cut my losses and move on. I just couldn’t be sure.
As I walked into the hospital, I spotted Bret sitting on a bench looking like his entire world had just fallen apart. Damn it. Keep walking! But the soft part of my heart told me to check on him.
I stopped in the doorway and sucked in a deep breath. Damn it again. Turning, I walked to the bench beside the doors. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. His voice said otherwise, but who was I to argue with him?
“Okay.” I turned to go back in.
“The baby isn’t mine,” Bret said in a voice damn near breaking down.
Oh, karma. What a slick bitch.
I tried really hard not to smile as I faced him. “What?” I managed to keep the grin off my face, but only just.
“Mary went into labor, and when the baby was born, it was quite obvious that he didn’t belong to me.”
I gave him a blank look. “Newborns can be quite deceiving. Their skin color can be skewed, and their little facial features distorted.”
He snorted. “I asked and she confessed everything. She’d been seeing another man. She still has contact with him, and she’s leaving me for him, since the baby is his.”
I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor, but it didn't work. “Geez, Bret. That’s pretty bad.” About as bad as getting another woman pregnant a couple of months before our wedding, but I kept that part to myself. I tried to feel sorry for him, but the best I could muster was a pat on the shoulder. “You’ll get over it, in time.” I didn’t make it a point to revel in the pain of others but damn if I wasn’t lighting a candle when I got home.
He looked up at me with a broken gaze. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have taken you for granted. You were the best, brightest thing in my life and I ruined it. I should’ve waited for you to be ready to have a baby.”
All the talk of babies made me pause. My cycle was pretty irregular, thanks to the PCOS, but I’d gotten good at timing them. If I stayed on a specific birth control, my periods were pretty regular. But if I went off that birth control, things went wonky, though I’d never gotten pregnant while off of it.
Now that I counted it up, I’d been due for a period over the past month. I stood in front of the hospital, in front of Bret, and tried to breathe. “I forgive you,” I said absently. “All the best, gotta run.”
Turning back toward the hospital, I didn’t head for my floor. My patients would have to wait. I tucked myself into the bathroom and pulled my birth control out of my purse. Using my phone calendar, where I logged every time I started a new container of pills, I counted up how many should’ve been left.
Son of a bitch. I’d missed one. One pill too many.
With my stomach rolling, I exited the bathroom and went straight for the OB/GYN floor and grabbed the arm of a nurse I knew there, Charity. “Hey, can you squeeze me in for an appointment?” I asked.
She gave me a strange look. “Sure, what’s wrong?”
I pulled her to the side. “I just need a pregnancy test.”
“Well, shit, hang on. Those are a dime a dozen.” She turned around and opened a drawer, then pulled out a white package. “Here, go do it now.”
I snatched the package from her hand and ran for the bathroom. There was a little plastic cup by the sink. I grabbed one and followed all the instructions, dipping the little stick into my urine a few minutes later.
I set it on a napkin and read the instructions. Okay. Three lines was pregnant. Two was not. One was an error.
By the time I read that and looked back at the tiny stick… it had three lines.
Shit. Oh, shit. It had just been one pill!
How was this possible?
“Skye?” Charity called and tapped on the door. “You okay?”
I unlocked the door and peered out at her. “No, can you come in here?”
She bustled in, her hips filling up half the bathroom as I clutched her arm. She stared at the pregnancy test. “Yep,” she said. “That’s pregnant.”
“How?” I asked weakly.
“Well, sugar, when a man loves a woman…”
“Stop it, Charity, you know I have PCOS.”
She waved me off and patted my hand. “You know that not every case is the same.”
That wasn’t really what I’d meant, though she couldn’t have known that. I was wondering how in the hell I was pregnant with a dragon’s baby.
Charity went out to get a second test. I sat in a spare room and chugged a bottle of water. The thirty minutes that I played a game on my phone and waited until I thought I could pee again were the longest of my entire life. When I thought I could get enough urine out, I took it again and sure enough, three lines popped up within seconds. I didn’t even need the full three minutes.
I cleaned up and washed my hands and shuffled out to the reception desk to make a real appointment. But shit, could I even use a regular doctor? Or was there some clan doctor I could go to?
The rest of my day passed in a fog. All my nurses asked what was wrong, but I kept blaming my behavior on not feeling well. Finally, it was time to go home where at least I could be alone and try to wrap my mind around the fact that I was pregnant…with a dragon baby.
When I parked, I didn’t notice anyone on my porch. I was all the way on my front stoop before I saw Tessa sitting in the rocking chair beside my front door.
“What do you want?” I asked flatly.
She held up her hands. “I come in peace.”
Yeah, right. My protective instincts ricocheted up to a hundred. This bitch was a danger and now I had more than myself to protect.
“You’ve got to come with me,” she said. “Anthony’s been hurt, and he needs your blood.”
Fear pounded through me instantly. “What? How? Why didn’t his parents come for me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Because they’re going to him, idiot. God, you’re stupid.”
Well, that settled my suspicions a little.
She wasn’t trying to fool me by sweet-talking me. “My blood?” I asked.
“Mate blood has healing properties. If you’re ever hurt, you need to get a transfusion of Anthony’s blood and vice versa.”
“Even though I’m human?” I asked.
Tessa stopped and looked confused. “Actually, I’m not sure. I assume so. We have to try, and we need to hurry.”
“Fine,” I said. “Where’s your car?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes again. “I flew here, genius. We’ll take your car. To Anthony’s house.”
I nodded and turned to go back to my car, but out of the blue, a cloud of dust surrounded my face. I turned back to Tessa in time to see her blowing the last of it off of her palm. “Sorry, not sorry,” she said in a sing-song voice. “But I can’t let you have him.”
Damn it. “Baby,” I managed to whisper before my body turned to jelly and the darkness overtook me.
22
Anthony
“Never thought I’d be so excited to see little Bluewater,” Jace said as we entered the county.
I chuckled. “Me too. What a trip.” We were almost home, and I was so excited to tell Skye what I’d found. It was all going to be okay.
After I’d gone to Sammy and pleaded my case to her, she’d relented. “I did some research, same as you did, same as your dad did, all those years ago when you found your mate,” she’d said. “At the time, your father, the alpha, made me keep my research to myself. But he’s not alpha anymore.” She’d given us specific instructions on where to go and who to talk to and exactly what to tell them. It had taken some effort at the first location. They didn’t want to give up their secrets, but once I explained the entire situation between Skye and me, they’d relaxed and given me the information I needed. They had a mated pair in their clan, a human woman, and a dragon man.
My energy buzzed higher the closer to home we came. I couldn’t wait to see Skye. I was tempted to have Jace drop me off at Skye’s place and he could drive my car home.
The woman in the first territory we’d visited, East Tennessee, she’d taken the bite and hadn’t suffered any ill effects. She hadn’t gone insane. She wasn’t changed into a dragon, but they said she definitely had something more magical in her blood. Her health had been enhanced, and she’d actually been cured of the only medical condition she’d had: psoriasis. They thought that the magic of the bite worked like a cure.