by Romi Hart
I had already uprooted her life. She didn’t have anything to stay in Rome for. “Look, you gave up your home. You gave up lots of your things. And you gave up your job and money too. So, just take the test and if you’re pregnant, we will learn how to live together without the other stuff. I’m sure lots of people do that all the time.”
“And if I am not pregnant, then what?” Her expression grew angry. “I will still have been uprooted. I will still have given up my home. I will still have given up my job and my money. So what would you have me do if that is the case, Tieris?”
I had no idea that she would be so angry about not going home with me if she wasn’t having my brood. But she was very angry. “If you’re not pregnant, then you could fend for yourself, Linda. That’s why I said that. There would be no reason for us to try to figure out how to live together if we had no real reason to stay together. I wouldn’t expect you to come to our realm to live a life without love if you didn’t have to.”
“You need to leave.” She opened the door then tossed the little brown bag with the pregnancy test in it into the rubbish bin.
Grabbing it back out of the small can, I hurried after her. “I need you to take this test. I need to know if you are or are not pregnant. If you aren’t and I’m feeling this way, then Codut has something to do with this.”
Snatching the bag from my hand, she threw it down on the floor. “I. Don’t. Care. Now, get out of this house. Go back to your home, Tieris. I don’t want you anymore. I won’t be with you only if I am having your babies.”
She wasn’t thinking rationally, so I took her by the arms, to stop her from leaving me. “Linda, you have to listen to me. I have lost the scent of every female after impregnating her. If I have lost your scent and you’re not with child, then Codut had done something sinister and I need your help to determine that.”
“And I will not help you.” She jerked her body in such a way that she got out of my grip. “You are not what I thought you were. You are a monster. I’m done with you. Go away now. And take your brother with you. I never want to see either of you again.”
“What did he do to you?” I knew what I’d done as I’d done it to many females in my time. But poor Mako hadn’t done a thing to her.
“He’s a reminder of you. He’s a part of you. And I don’t want anything that has anything to do with you. I wanted to be a part of you. Can’t you understand that?” Tears began to pour down her cheeks. “I love you. It’s not a thing that can turn off that quickly for me the way it has done for you. Knowing that this can happen changes everything. So, leave me now. Just go and don’t ever come back.”
As I watched her run away from me, out the front door and out of my life, I couldn’t move. She might have my offspring inside of her.
If she did, why did I care? I hadn’t cared about any of my other offspring nor their mothers. So what was this that I felt? And why was she acting so upset? I had said we could stay together if we were having offspring. That was more than I’d done for any of the others.
Mako called out as he came looking for me, “Tieris, where are you? Was that a door slamming?”
Stepping out of the bathroom, I nodded. “Linda left. She said we need to go too.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, let’s go say our goodbyes then and we can be on our way home.” He turned to head back to say his goodbyes.
But there was no need for that. “Come, brother. We’re done here. She has lost her scent. And she won’t even check to see if she’s pregnant. If she is, then that explains why I can no longer smell the aroma that led and bonded me to her. If she’s not, then it means Codut has something to do with this.”
Confusion riddle my brother’s expression. “Is she coming home with us or not? I don’t follow you, Tieris.”
“She is not coming home with us. She no longer wants anything to do with me. And I can accept that if I’ve lost the scent for the normal reasons. But if Codut has done something to end this, then I want to know. He told Linda that if she didn’t do as he wanted her to then he would end us. And now we’re over. But I want to know everything.”
Mako glared at me as he walked right by me, leaving through the same door Linda had. “And I want to know why you think a damn smell can make you fall in and out of love.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving me with my mouth gaping.
Why is everyone mad at me?
24
Linda
My feet pounded the pavement as I stormed away from Tieris. How a switch could flip that quickly inside of his heart made no sense to me. But why would it? I’d never known a thing about shifters or how they were wired.
Apparently, the males only cared for females as long as they could smell them in a certain way. It would’ve been nice to have understood that before I went and fell in love with the man – or creature – or whatever he was.
I’d seen him as a dragon, and I’d loved him even then. And I hated reptiles. Yet, I saw the man inside the beast and still love prevailed.
I’d stabbed something for him. I had tried to kill something all for Tieris. But for all of that, it only took my alluring scent that only he could smell to go away for him to be done with me.
I felt a large hand on my shoulder and spun around with my fist balled up, ready to punch him in the face. “Leave me alone!”
But it wasn’t Tieris. It was Mako and he looked forlorn. “Linda, he told me all about it. I am so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. This makes no sense at all. He was in love with you. I swear that he was. He’s never loved anyone before.”
“Oh, he acted as if he loved all the other females he scented, I’m sure.” I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been.
“No, he hasn’t ever loved any of them,” he let me know. “I have been around for them all and I can tell you that he never acted the way he acts with you. I know that this is upsetting to you. It is for me too. I believed him the same way you did. But I know him better than you do. He’s not himself right now.”
“I can’t do this, Mako. I can’t be with someone who can switch gears on me so quickly.” I wasn’t going to get my self hurt any more than I already had. “I’m sorry, Mako. I don’t want anything to do with either of you anymore. I hope you can understand. It’s a matter of self-preservation.”
Walking away, I was glad that I didn’t feel him following me. I couldn’t handle the whiplash that I had no idea came along with loving a dragon-shifter. Putting my hand on my belly, I did wonder what I would do if there were some fire-breathing babies inside of me.
Just as I turned down the side street that would take me to my old apartment where I planned on begging Flora to give me back my money, things, and the roof over my head, I realized how dark it was.
The streetlights were out. And there didn’t seem to be a star in the sky to help light the night up at all. As I stood there, looking up, I saw something odd in the sky. Although it made not even a little sense, the blackness above seemed to be moving. But not all of it moved.
Listening hard, I found something soft coming from up high. Whooshing sounds that moved along with the blackness. Like something that moved beneath dark, murky water, the thing overhead moved through the night.
My eyes had been so trained on the larger object that I had missed seeing the smaller ones that moved behind it. And the thing that stood out was a silvery length of line that went from one of the small things to the next one. It seemed that they carried some sort of metal rope between them.
As I moved my head, watching the oddities move through the sky, it occurred to me that they were heading in the direction of the portal we’d come out of. I started going that way, and just as I was getting close enough to it, I found the shapes coming down toward the ground in a fast motion.
The sound of men talking came from behind me and I knew the voices right away. Mako and Tieris were arguing as they came toward the portal to return home. They were unaware of what was coming down to the ground so fast.
But I saw it all and I saw the formation of smaller figures as they moved to pull the silver rope into a line. As I stared at it, it reminded me of a giant clothesline.
And what could they be doing with a giant – possibly metal – clothesline?
Severing the head of a dragon is one of the ways to kill it.
Even though I had a good idea of what was going on, how to stop it wasn’t a thing that had computed in my head yet. Yelling for Tieris and Mako to watch out seemed like it would also alert the other things to my presence – a thing they didn’t seem to be aware of.
And I did wonder – although briefly – if Tieris would’ve warned me about impending death since he no longer cared for me at all.
It didn’t matter what he would’ve done. There was no switch inside of me that could turn off the love I had for him. So, I sprang into action.
Moving as quickly as I could toward the arguing pair, I stayed low while keeping an eye on what was coming their way. “Hey, you guys shut up and listen,” I hissed as soon as I got close enough for them to hear me.
“Linda?” Mako asked as he tried to see me.
I’d come up the side street and neither could see me in the darkness. “Yes. Find the silver line in the sky. Hurry.”
Tieris sounded agitated. “Linda, what’s this about?”
I didn’t have time to explain things. “How can we go through a portal then blow it up so nothing else can use it again?”
Mako was quick to answer, “One of us can use our dragon fire to seal it shut. Why?”
Pointing up, I drew their attention to what was coming their way. “I think you guys have some enemies coming your way.”
I wasn’t going to go with them, but as they ran toward the portal, Tieris caught me up in his arms, holding me tight to him as he ran like the wind. “Hide your face in my chest.”
Doing as he said, I didn’t feel it was the right time to argue with him about anything. As we fled, a screeching sound filled the air and hurt my ears.
I only pulled my head back long enough to see the shiny black dragon – Codut’s dragon – had come uncloaked and was heading straight for us. The things behind him came into view too. Smaller dragons pulled the metal rope tighter as they sped up to use it to rid Tieris and Mako of their very handsome heads.
Just as we got into the portal, Tieris carried me as he ran past Mako. Then Mako let his fire go and the light became so bright that I couldn’t see a thing. But we all heard the sounds of the dragons hitting what sounded like a solid wall, instead of being able to follow us into the portal.
Somehow, I knew that sound meant I would have trouble getting back to Rome anytime soon. Hanging on to Tieris, I fought the urge to cry.
I just want to go home.
25
Tieris
Handing her the bag with the pregnancy test in it, I didn’t ask her to take it, I told her to, “You have to take this. I have to know one way or the other.” I left her alone to do what she had to.
Codut was behind everything. I was sure of that now. And if he’d used Linda somehow to get to me, then I had to know that. But if it had all been just a coincidence, then I needed to know that too.
Pacing, I tried not to wish for one thing or the other. I just wanted to know, was all. I would deal with whatever the outcome was. But we knew that Linda would be with us for a while. Our portals had been shut down. The one by us and the other by Codut’s retreat after Linda had stabbed him.
How I wish she would’ve grabbed a sword to stab him with that day, instead of a dagger.
I leaned my back against a tree then slid to a sitting position beneath it to wait for Linda to come tell me what the results where. With no idea what I wanted, I tried to think about other things. The weather would soon change and that meant that we should be gathering wood for our fireplaces to keep Linda warm.
Gathering food for Linda to eat would be another thing Mako and I would need to get to. He was busily sewing her dresses too. The two had talked excitedly about the clothes before I’d come to haul her away to take the test. They’d both seemed angry with me for interfering with their fun time.
I didn’t care. I had a mystery to solve and the dresses could wait. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to know if she was or if she wasn’t. I had to know what had stopped her alluring scent. And I had to know that once and for all.
When she emerged from where I’d left her, the look on her face did nothing to prepare me for her results. She looked rather angry, so the news could’ve gone either way.
I kept telling myself that I didn’t want what the actual results were. I only wanted to know who or what was behind my olfactory shut down.
Tossing the pink stick at me, she mumbled, “You’re going to be a father again, Tieris. Congratulations.”
Slowly, I stood up, watching her walk away fast. I am going to be a father!
Running after her, I scooped her up into my arms, then whooped with joy, “Woo-hoo! We’re going to have us a brood!”
“Put me down,” she snapped at me. “You act like this is great news. It’s not. This news only means that we’re stuck together until these things get old enough to fend for themselves. Because I’m not going to be like the rest of the females who went away quietly and took the kids with her, leaving you a free man. It’s not like I have a clue how to take care of babies. And we’re not talking about regular human babies either.”
“I’ll learn how to help you with them.” I put her down, then found the smile that had crept up on my lips wouldn’t go away.
“Help me?” She shook her head as she tried to hurry away from me. “You will do more than help me. You will co-parent with me. Whatever I do, you will do too.”
“Well, within reason.” There were some things she could do for our babies that I could not. “Feeding them will be your chore.”
Stopping her hasty retreat, she put her hands on her hips. “You can feed them too. I’ll make sure there is plenty of milk. And you can fill baby bottles with it so that you can feed some of this brood too. And you will change just as many diapers as I will. And you will bathe them with me. We will do this together. Neither one of us will a thing less than the other. And when I have these babies, you will be right there, holding my hand through it all.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Are you sure you want me there? I hear it’s rather gruesome.”
“I am sure that it is just that. And you will be there to see what you did to me.” She headed off toward the castle again.
“Well, you did want it,” I reminded her. “I did ask you before I did anything with you. You have to admit that.”
Once again, she stopped, this time glaring at me. “At the time I agreed to everything, I thought it might be a dream. And I thought you loved me. Or, at the very least, cared about me. I had no idea that giving you what you wanted would end your love for me.”
She was right, she hadn’t known that, but I had known that. “I’m sorry.” Turning on her heel, she tried to leave. I could’ve let her leave. I could’ve let things keep going on the way they were. Only something inside of my started niggling at me, beckoning me to make things right with Linda. So, I reached out and took her hand as it flew back with her quick retreat. “Can we talk? Not the way we have been. But really talk.”
Her entire body tensed, she held her jaw so tight that I could hear her teeth clenching. And with all that going on, she nodded. “We need to try, don’t we?”
Pulling her with me to sit on the green grass, I sat cross-legged as she sat the same way in front of me. “I would say that something is wrong with me for being the way I am, but I’ve seen the same thing happen in nature. Let me use the deer to describe myself.”
Although her eyes rolled, she stayed with me, her arms akimbo, her jaw still tight, but she stayed. “So, this deer does what?”
Happy to have her ear, I went on, “So this deer is a male deer. You know, a buck.”
“Okay, so the buck is you?”
“No. This is a real buck that I’ve seen in action over the years. And it’s not just this one buck, either. It’s all male deer. And it’s not just here in our realm either, it’s everywhere.” I thought she needed to understand that I wasn’t talking some isolated case.
“Okay, so this is about the entire species.” Uncrossing her arms, she leaned back, resting her weight on her hands. “I’m listening.”
“So, this buck goes along its days, eating grass, acorns, and any other thing it can find to dine on. It’s a peaceful creature with nothing going on except eating, drinking, and occasionally sharing the company of other bucks. But the main thing to know here is that he’s just a peaceful creature with no intention to do any harm.”
“Got it.” She nodded slowly. “He’s just living his life without a care in the world.”
“Yes and not even thinking about hurting anyone.” I wanted to make that part clear. “But then one day, completely out of the blue, something on the wind catches his attention. A scent.”
“I can see where you’re going with this.” She didn’t look too pleased about it either.
But I went on anyway. “Well, this buck’s mind warps in ways he never knew it could as the scent gets strong and stronger. And things begin happening to his body that makes him think of one thing and one thing only.”
“Sex.” She knew what I was talking about.
“Yes. And he’s thinking about one more thing too.”
“Procreation.” She smiled sexily. “I knew this dragon-man once upon a time who thought the same way.”
“Yeah, me too.” And I wasn’t proud of the dragon-man at all. “So, anyway, this buck follows that scent until he finds who is giving it off and he is helpless to stop himself once he sees the doe who is emitting it. And she’s completely unaware of her scent or the reaction it has given the buck.”