Erik spent two days away from the bar, afraid of what the patrons would say about him. His desire to see Bree again overwhelmed his fear on the third day. He couldn’t think of anything else. Danger was inevitably heading their way, but Erik’s only concern was for the bartender he’d bitten.
He sat at the bar and watched the male bartender wink at a patron. Though one hour slipped into two, and the sun had long ago set, Bree never showed up.
Erik leaned forward and waved down the bartender to ask him where Bree had gone.
The bartender shook his head. “She showed up for work the day after you took her home, but we haven’t seen her since then.”
Erik swallowed. The news that everyone knew he’d carried Bree out should have bothered him, but his immediate concern was for Bree. The sneaking suspicion that he’d changed her rose again. He didn’t see how it was possible, but nothing about him had ever been right.
As he walked through the store to buy emergency supplies, he realized just how quiet his mind had been over the past few days. He’d thought the monstrous beast had appeared the morning after he’d bitten Bree, but he hadn’t been sure. Three days had passed without the creature’s growling. Erik had been so distracted by his thoughts of Bree that he hadn’t even noticed.
He paused. If he’d changed Bree when he bit her…
Shaking his head, Erik moved forward. There was no way Bree could have his monstrous beast. It just wasn’t possible.
But the slim chance that he’d passed the creature on to the unsuspecting woman propelled him forward. He took his loaded grocery bags and jogged back to his truck. He made one last trip for caffeine because if he really gave his second beast to Bree, she was going to need it.
Twenty minutes later, he stood outside her apartment door. He glanced up and down the empty hall as butterflies danced in his gut. The feeling was new and off putting. Erik told himself that he was only worried about the implications of biting the poor woman. This had nothing to do with the way her smell had intoxicated him. Nothing to do with the soft feel of her skin.
He swallowed his curse and knocked on the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that a package of chocolate candies had split a plastic bag open. If Bree didn’t answer the door, the bag would rip and empty its contents on the floor.
With his reliable beast filling him with a burst of energy, he moved the bags around, so he could cradle the split bag. Just as the beast began to sink back, the door opened.
Bree stared at him, her lips slightly parted. A knife plunged through Erik’s heart when he looked her in the eye. Her irises swirled like silver mica.
As they stared at one another, the ripped bag finally gave way and dumped its contents on the floor between them. Erik growled in annoyance and crouched to gather everything. The coffee tray in his other hand sloshed. It sounded like a beast hissing a warning. Erik ignored it and snatched up a bag of chocolates.
Just when the coffee in the furthest corner of the tray began to tip and fall, Bree’s hand darted out. She grabbed it before it could even tip. Erik clenched his jaw. He hadn’t needed any more evidence, but that was a sure sign that he’d fucked up.
Bree was now a dragon shifter.
He held his coffee and the rest of the bags. “Can I come in?”
Bree’s brows furrowed as she stared at the coffee in her hand. Erik thought she would turn him away. He was to blame for everything that had happened to her recently. Her refusal would hurt, but he would understand.
“I have a lot of questions for you,” she said, finally.
***
Bree couldn’t believe the things that Erik had brought with him. And, it was all for her.
He set down the tray of coffee, which now only held a single coffee, and followed it up with three bags, an armful of candies, and a box of donuts. She hadn’t even noticed the donuts until they sat apart from the bags. Their sugary aroma filled the air and made her stomach grumble.
Erik didn’t look proud of himself or like he was waiting for praise, like other men had done when they’d brought her gifts. His attention flitted around the apartment. She watched him take in her broken side table, the fridge handle that she’d accidentally ripped off, and the forgotten shirt that she’d accidentally ripped.
Her stomach begged her to open the donut box. The small voice in the back of her head told her to go to Erik. Instead, she put her hands on her hips and faced him.
“Did you drug me? Is that how you carried me out?”
He flinched like she’d slapped him. “I’m a piece of shit, but I’m not that big of a piece of shit.”
The fight she’d been preparing for left her. Unable to withstand her hunger any longer, she finally grabbed the donut box. She didn’t know how he’d known, but he’d gotten her favorite. She let out a moan as she took the first bite.
“Bree. We need to talk,” Erik said.
She licked her lips, a sudden hesitation turning her blood cold.
Erik stepped up to her. If she lifted her hand, she would have touched his hip. Instead, she kept her empty hand pinned to her side. She didn’t want to give in to the weird voice in her head that wanted to touch him so badly.
“You’re not the same woman anymore,” he said, looking down at her with pity. “I didn’t think it was possible, but I think I changed you.”
Bree wanted to snort and say something snarky, but the truth of what he said gripped her. Nothing had been like before. She couldn’t even put clothes on without ripping them. She’d had to live in sweats and oversized t-shirts for days. They were the only pieces that could withstand her sudden surges of strength.
“I feel like I’ve been pumped with adrenaline for days,” she confessed.
He lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head before touching her cheek. As she met his gaze, she watched his eyes change color. They glowed once more, just like hers had at the bar. She’d watched them turn silver two times since then, so she knew it wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her.
Erik made a noise in his throat, a sound between pain and frustration. “I hope I didn’t do what I think I did.”
The pain that creased his features almost broke her heart. If she hadn’t been so confused and lost, Bree knew she would have risen to kiss him in an effort to chase away the hurt. Right now, she couldn’t even bear her own feelings, let alone try to ease his.
“I don’t get what all of this means,” she whispered.
She could remember what Erik had said last time she’d seen him. Right after she’d woken up, he’d told her that she was a dragon now. Her mirrors all showed her that she still looked very human. She didn’t know what dragon meant.
“Do you feel like there’s something else living inside you? Like it has its own voice and desires? Are you so hungry you could eat a whole cow? I don’t even have to ask about feeling super strong because…” Erik gestured to the state of her apartment.
“All of that,” she said between her clenched teeth.
Plus, a new desire to inch closer to him. There was a tug behind her sternum that demanded she press herself against him. Erik had become the center of gravity, and she didn’t know how long she could fight it.
“So, it is possible.” He stared at her for far too long, like he was trying to peel away her walls to see the thing now crouched inside her.
“What’s possible?”
“I think…I can’t be sure until you shift, but I think I gave you one of my beasts.”
Bree recoiled. Beasts? One of his beasts? The words made no sense to her. Was that a code for a disease? Or was it a kind of curse? Because she was ready to believe almost anything right now.
He shook his head and took a long step back. Without him in front of her, she found herself able to breathe deep. The desire that’d turned her warm started to fade.
“You should eat and shower,” Erik told her. “Then we need to go out and see what’s actually happened.”
Bree suddenly remembered the d
onut in her hand. How had she forgotten about food? Her gaze fell on the bags of stuff Erik had brought over. One shopping bag had a rolled blanket and a small stuffed animal. Another bag had a box of frozen fried chicken and microwave popcorn.
He’d brought her everything for a date night.
“Food. Then shower,” she muttered mostly to herself.
Erik smiled, though it looked forced. “If you’ve got too much energy, I could join you for that shower.”
She leveled a glare at him to hide the way his proposition made her core throb. “Do you really think I’m going to fuck you in my shower after everything that’s happened?”
He shrugged, the grin quickly falling away. “It didn’t hurt to try.”
Erik seemed tired. She wanted to throw her arms around him and tell him that everything would be okay. Instead, she shoved two more donuts into her mouth and tried to keep her thoughts to herself. Though she wanted to get to know him better, she wasn’t stupid. The man she’d thought him to be would never align with reality.
After breakfast, she retreated to the shower. Bree couldn’t remember the last time she’d showered. It could have been the one day she went to work. It could have been the previous morning. The days had blurred into one as she tried to sleep off whatever was burning in her system.
On the second day, she’d assumed that acid reflux had struck, but it hadn’t gone away. A steady fire licked along the back of her throat and begged to be released. Part of her was afraid that if she opened her mouth when it was at its worst, she might actually breathe fire, but that was impossible.
She let the water cascade over her face and hair with the hopes that it would wash away everything. The past few days. The uncomfortable dissonance between the man she’d thought she loved and the man actually standing in her kitchen.
When she decided the water and soap wouldn’t do what she really wanted, she rinsed off and stepped out. Wrapped in her soft bathrobe, she went back to the kitchen for more food.
Erik’s attention filled her with electricity. It hummed in her lungs and burned in her lower stomach. She tried not to pay him any attention, but her own desire nearly overwhelmed her good sense.
“Do you regularly walk around in your bathrobe when you have strangers over?” Erik asked, his voice heated.
She didn’t look at him when she spoke. “Considering what you’ve done to me, I wouldn’t call us strangers anymore. We’re more like two idiots who engaged in the worst hook-up of our lives. I can’t even do a walk of shame to escape.”
She heard him move and found him with his hand over his heart like she’d wounded him.
“That tongue serves the worst lashing I’ve ever had in my life. I can promise you that if we were to hook-up, you would not be disappointed.” His sly smile returned and made her heart thump.
“That’s what all the women at the bar say, but I don’t like to do what everyone else is doing.” She fought back the smile that tried to lift the corners of her mouth.
“You are utterly devious,” Erik said through a forced smile. “My clan will love you. They’re going to want to keep you around just to watch you wound me every day.”
She paused. “Clan?”
His expression fell, the playfulness gone. “There’s a lot to teach you, isn’t there?”
“It would seem so. You’re probably going to have to convince me every step of the way, too. I hope you understand how absolutely nuts this all is.”
Erik fought back a smile. After thirty seconds, he lost the war with himself. “I can show you absolutely nuts.”
She groaned. “Keep your junk in your pants for now.”
“For now? Does that mean you might want to hop on this ride in the future?” He popped a candy-coated chocolate into his mouth.
“You’re not a roller coaster,” she said. “You’re a fun house full of broken mirrors and depressed clowns.”
He hopped to his feet. “Go get dressed. We need to teach you everything so I can take you home and watch you talk to Gavin like that. He’s going to lose his shit.”
Bree narrowed her eyes at Erik but didn’t ask questions. She went to do as he asked. Since stiff fabrics had become an issue with her newfound strength, she opted for a pair of leggings with soft, gray flowers and a loose, scoop-neck t-shirt that fluttered over her sports bra.
Even though she had her wet hair in a bun, Erik watched her like she’d stepped off the runway. His attention made her feel…stronger? Better? She couldn’t decipher the sensation flooding her veins. Maybe that was because she wasn’t ready.
With everything upside down lately, she didn’t know if she could approach her feelings for Erik yet. Their banter in the kitchen had put her at ease. They flung snark back and forth as if they’d been practicing with each other for years. She craved more of the easy comfort they were establishing.
Until she got outside and saw his truck. She stopped dead in her tracks and slid an incredulous glance at Erik.
“This is what you drive?” She looked the rust bucket up and down and considered heading over to the clinic for a preemptive tetanus shot.
“She gets me from point A to point B with no problem,” he said. “The guys and I have been working on replacing almost everything under the hood. I promise you, only the body looks like that.”
“If my body looked that bad, I’d know there was something wrong underneath it.” She pursed her lips.
Erik sighed and rolled his eyes. “Do you want to fly instead? We’d have to walk out of town first.”
“Fly?” Her voice cracked as she lifted both brows.
A wicked grin split Erik’s lips. He dropped his sunglasses back over his eyes and did an about face. Bree had to scramble to catch up to him as he walked away.
“You’re screwing with me,” she said, eyes narrowed. “You have to be.”
He didn’t pause, didn’t flinch. Bree could find no tell that gave away his lie. Surely, Erik didn’t think he could actually fly. His conviction blew her mind. Either, Erik was the best actor she’d ever met, or he was certifiably insane.
Bree crossed her arms over her chest and followed. She told herself she tagged along only to figure out where this farce would go, but with everything strange in her life right now, she kind of believed him. Erik had mentioned dragons. Didn’t dragons have wings?
She couldn’t believe she was seriously starting to believe him. They left the town proper behind and stepped off the road to cut between trees until they found a small field. Erik walked to the center and asked her if she was ready.
Bree wasn’t, but she still wanted to see what would happen.
“Do you think you’re ready for your first shift?” he asked.
“What?” she snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest.
He tongued the inside of his cheek as a sly smile wormed its way onto the corners of his mouth. “Oh, I see how this is going to go. You don’t actually believe me. Stand back and watch. This is what we are.”
Erik shed his sunglasses, then his shirt, then his pants. Bree wanted to cover her face out of embarrassment, but kept her fingers parted to watch this odd display. Once Erik was down to nothing but the sky as clothing, he threw his arms wide. The air around him rippled.
Bree’s jaw dropped. The distortion in the air masked some of her view, but she could no longer ignore the truth. Erik’s human form grew and grew until he wasn’t human. His shape became reptilian and as big as a house. When the air settled, a pale blue dragon looked back at her.
Erik tossed his head and stretched his wings.
Her stomach hit the ground.
Is that…Can I…?
She never once thought this was what Erik meant when he said dragon. Her brain hadn’t even bothered to translate it so literally. What should have been a myth stood before her. She took a few tentative steps forward and held out one hand.
Erik ducked his head and pressed his nose into her palm. His scales weren’t cold, like she’d assumed. Instead
, they were warm to the touch.
Dragon fire, she realized.
Did that mean the burning she’d felt in her own throat was dragon fire as well? She jerked back, startled by her revelation.
Erik watched her. He barely moved, so still that she could have convinced herself he was a disabled animatronic machine had she not watched him change forms only a minute ago. She clutched her hand to her chest and held the warmth inside her palm.
“I don’t know how to do…” she gestured to his form. “What if I can’t do this?”
He shook himself, like a dog coming in from the rain. His wings stretched wide and eclipsed the sunlight. In the shadow of his body, he held out his giant clawed hand. This was what he’d meant when he said fly.
Bree should have turned around and gone home. She should have pinched herself to wake up. She did neither of those things, instead choosing to step into Erik’s clutches. His talons closed around her and his wings began to beat at the air. She was grateful she’d thought to put her hair in a bun before leaving as the wind buffeted her face.
The ground below dropped away inch by inch, then yard by yard until she found herself far above the town she’d called home for years.
She tried to curse, but the wind ripped the sound away. She kept her eyes downcast to avoid the wind and enjoyed the sight below. While she should have been afraid, that new voice living inside her didn’t seem bothered. If anything, Bree felt a twinge of excitement coming from it.
Then her skin started to ache. She felt stretched from the inside, like something wanted out. The worry that she wouldn’t be able to do what Erik did fled and was replaced by a fear of his change. The idea of her human body becoming a dragon frightened her more than she’d anticipated.
When they landed in a valley, she stumbled away from Erik’s claws and fell to her knees. Panic clutched her lungs and held them tight. She could barely breathe. Thoughts of what a panic attack was and what signs she should look out for flitted through her mind only to be drowned out by the voice booming inside her head.
Let me stretch my wings with him.
Bree groaned and covered her face with her hands. Erik’s scent, like fresh cut wood and blueberries, calmed her. Human hands touched her. He tugged at her wrists until she gave way. When she looked up at him, his lips were in a grim line. They softened like he didn’t want to show her his concern.
Restoring The Broken (Rogue Dragons Book 3) Page 3