Dragon's Fake Mate (West Coast Water Dragons Book 4)

by Kayla Wolf

  ”That’s a good way of looking at it,” she said thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll give that a try when we get to LA.”

  ”Good idea!” He grinned, his enthusiasm for the trip flaring up in his chest again. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week. Have you ever visited?”

  ”Can’t say I have,” she said. “I mean, I’ve been there a few times—worked a few days at the hospitals around town during my career. But I never really spent time there. Everyone says it’s amazing, but … lots of people and buzz isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”

  He nodded. “Good hospitals?”

  ”Busy hospitals,” she said drily. “A lot of young people who’d had too much to drink. Overdoses, too. Some really sad stories.”

  ”I guess there aren’t really many happy stories in a hospital,” Daniel said softly. “Humans getting sick, getting hurt, getting old and dying …”

  She nodded. “There’s plenty of that. But there’s good stuff, too. There’s humans getting well again after a long sickness. Those were always my favorite cases. There was a woman once who’d had this terrible pain in her stomach for years and years—we finally figured out that it was a very specific food intolerance. She came back a month later after cutting the food out, and it was like meeting a different person. She was so happy.”

  Daniel smiled to himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard Alice speak for that long—it was good to hear her actually warming to a story. As they drove, he coaxed more stories out of her, surprised to find that she was a good storyteller when she put her mind to it. Hospital stories were wild … you really did get all sorts of people, often on the worst day of their lives. And with decades of experience, it was no surprise that Alice had no shortage of stories to tell.

  “You should write a book of these,” he chuckled as they headed down the highway. “A project to keep you busy in the office, maybe.”

  ”Oh, I’ve got plenty of those already,” Alice grinned. “Far too much research to be getting on with to bother with writing books … even if I had any talent for writing.”

  ”Research? What kind of research?”

  ”I’m interested in shifter physiology,” she said simply. “I’ve been studying humans all my life, which is fine—and superficially, at least, there’s a lot of overlap. My medical training is more than enough to help me treat wounds in shifters, for example. But I’d have no idea how to go about curing a disease in a shifter, for example.”

  Daniel frowned. “What do you mean? Shifters don’t get sick.”

  ”We do, actually,” she said. “Not very often, true … but when we do get sick, it’s serious. And nobody has any idea what to do about it. I’ve got contacts around the country, different shifters who are also interested in medicine. We keep in touch. And I hear stories of disease—rare ones, but stories nevertheless. It never ends well.”

  ”That’s a worry,” Daniel said, frowning. “I always thought we were just … impervious to that kind of thing.”

  ”We are, for the most part. We don’t get the kinds of diseases humans get—viruses and bacterial infections, cancer, the conditions associated with old age and degeneration … but it’s not unheard of for us to get sick. And when we do, there’s not a lot we can do about it. Mundane treatments don’t do much.”

  ”So, what’s the alternative?”

  ”Magic,” she said simply. “I’m interested in how the magic that allows us to change forms could possibly be used to treat us. Not just for the rare illnesses that we succumb to … but serious injuries, too.”

  ”Any breakthroughs recently?” This was fascinating. Daniel regretted waiting this long to spend time with Alice—she had so many fascinating insights.

  ”Not really,” she sighed. “I mean, I take notes and all, but I don’t have a lot of time to do any practical research. I have a theory about us, though.”

  ”Us? You and me?”

  She laughed—and was that a blush on her cheeks, or was she just warm in the early morning sun? “Not just you and me. Water dragons generally. I have a theory that there’s something about the ocean—the salt water, perhaps, or maybe something deeper than that—that has something to do with our general health, even with our heightened injury recovery abilities when we’re in our human forms. There are old stories that back it up a little … but the records are badly eroded, there’s not a lot of concrete information.”

  He nodded, about to ask more about her project—but she was staring down into her lap, a blush on her cheeks.

  ”God, I’ve been talking your ear off. Sorry. I’ll be quiet.”

  ”Don’t be! It’s interesting,” he said, glancing over at her with a grin. But she didn’t seem convinced. “I wish I knew as much about—well, anything at all—as you do about medicine.”

  ”You know plenty, I bet,” she said, tilting her head as she looked at him. “You know how to build a cabin from scratch, that’s pretty impressive.”

  “Ah, I just do what Bryce tells me. He’s the expert,” Daniel shrugged.

  ”You know how to talk to people. I’d swap a good chunk of my medical knowledge for that skill.”

  ”You’ve got a deal there.”

  ”It’s not too late, you know. To—to learn something.” She shrugged. “We have long lifespans. If you wanted to … study something. What would you want to do?” A teasing smile danced across her face. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Daniel?”

  He fell silent for a long moment. He knew she didn’t mean to hurt his feelings with that—but it was a difficult question. As long as he could remember, he’d just lived from day to day, never really making concrete plans for the future. They’d been on the road so long, just living for the next payday, the next party, the next interesting conversation, the next beautiful woman in a smoky bar on the side of the road … and a part of him hadn’t really left that attitude behind when they’d settled down. Sure, he’d helped out with construction, done what he could to keep the little settlement running, but when he thought about the future, he didn’t see any further than the next few days. And he was beginning to suspect that that might be a problem.

  ”Sorry,” Alice said softly. “I didn’t mean to suggest—I mean, I know you’re a grown-up.”

  ”It’s okay,” he shrugged, not wanting her to feel uncomfortable. “I just … I guess I don’t really spend much time thinking about the future.”

  ”I probably spend too much time thinking about it,” she said gently. “Living more in the present … that might be good for me.”

  They were quiet for the rest of the drive—but it was a comfortable quiet, if one fraught with an uncharacteristic bout of thinking for Daniel. What did he want to do with himself? What would the future look like if he let himself think about years, not days or weeks? It was hard to say … and he was grateful when the GPS went off, alerting him to the fact that they were getting closer to their destination. Then he was engulfed in LA traffic, which well and truly took his mind off the more troubling questions of the future.

  The city was wild—much bigger and more chaotic than he remembered it being. The roads were choked with traffic, the sidewalks thick with people enjoying the sun … Alice was peering out of the window, too, clearly taken aback by how busy the city was. They reached the hotel just after midday, and Daniel was grateful to hand the keys of the truck to a valet who took it away even as a couple of bellhops took their suitcases. They headed inside the gleaming building into the sleek marble lobby, gazing around with open admiration. It was a nice hotel—and it was clear that the conference had brought plenty of people in. People with suitcases bustled this way and that, delegates from various organizations across the state, and plenty of hotel staff working hard to keep on top of the deluge of check-ins.

  The concierge greeted them with a sparkling smile and a rapid-fire welcome as his hands flew across the keyboard in front of him, looking up their reservation.

  ”Ah, yes! You two are from the peni
nsula up north … Daniel and partner … yes, here’s your room. Fourth floor. Here’s a key for you and one for your wife.”

  He blinked, glancing sideways at Alice. But before he could correct the concierge, the man was already smiling and pushing the keys into their hands. “The room’s ready when you are. It’s a lovely room—it used to be our honeymoon suite! Nice big bed.” The concierge winked—but before Daniel could so much as open his mouth, they were being led off towards the elevator by one of the attendants. Bed? Bed singular?

  Sure enough, when they reached the room, it was to discover an enormous king-sized bed dominating the space … with their suitcases already sitting neatly at the end of it. The bellhop was clearly anxious to get back to work, but Daniel stopped him.

  ”Sorry—I’d requested two beds, not one. Is there another room?”

  The bellhop looked a little impatient. “Whole hotel’s booked out this weekend, sorry. Will that be all?”

  He glanced at Alice, worried—but to his surprise, she was smiling, clearly not bothered by the situation.

  ”What’s so funny?”

  ”It’s just odd to see you stressed out about something,” she giggled. “Are you really that scared of sharing a bed with me?”

  ”No! I just—I thought—I don’t know, I assumed you’d want your own space.”

  She laughed. “It’s only for a weekend. So long as you don’t snore, we’ll be fine.” She tilted her head, an odd expression on her face. “Unless you were planning to bring someone back to the room, or something?”

  He blinked. “What? No.”

  ”It’s fine,” she said awkwardly. “I know what you and James used to get up to—I’m not going to judge you or anything. Just—you know, let me know so I can get out of your way.” She straightened up, a resolute look in her eye. “I’m going to have a shower.”

  He watched her go, a frown still playing across his face. Was that really what she thought of him—that his first consideration at an event like this was whether he could bring some girl back to his hotel room? Was that the reputation he and James had earned with their habit of going out every weekend?

  And why did he feel so desperate to show her that he wasn’t what she thought he was?

  Chapter 5 – Alice

  It felt strange to take a shower, knowing that someone was in the other room. She took her time in the unfamiliar space, unpacking her toiletries from her case before stepping into the spotlessly clean shower and turning on the water. There was a big bath, too, she couldn’t help but notice—more than big enough for two people to share with room to spare. What had the front desk guy said about the room—it had been their honeymoon suite before they’d built new ones on an upper floor? It certainly felt like it. The bed in the room was bigger than any she’d ever seen back home. It almost wouldn’t feel like she was sharing it with anyone at all—there was so much space in the middle that you’d have to be actually trying to make contact with the other person in the bed.

  A blush crept across her face at the thought of the bed. Sharing a bed hadn’t been on her list of things to prepare for this trip. Being stuck in a car with Daniel, that had been fine … it had actually been surprisingly pleasant. He was quite good to talk to when he wasn’t surrounded by people, showing off, talking and laughing with everyone in the room—the Daniel she was used to, the Daniel she’d gotten to know over the last few years. When she thought about it, she supposed she hadn’t really spent any one-on-one time with him. He was oddly … insightful. A good listener, which surprised her deeply. Even driving, with his eyes on the road, she’d gotten the impression that he was listening intently to everything she was saying—that even her rambling monologues about how interesting she was finding her research were somehow of interest to him, too.

  “He’s just being polite, idiot,” she whispered out loud to herself, content that the rushing water would stop her voice being heard outside the room. It had felt so good, sitting in the truck with him … talking to him … a ride she’d been counting on to chase some of this stupid crush away had only succeeded in making it worse. Her heart was beating hard when she thought about spending the rest of the weekend with him, about talking to him more, having dinner together, maybe standing a little closer to him than she really needed to, feeling the warmth of his shoulder against her …

  ”Damnit,” she hissed, scrubbing at her skin a little harder than was really necessary with the hotel soap—as if she could somehow scrub the crush out of her system if she tried hard enough. This was—this was very inconvenient. They were there for business, that was all. The prospect of sharing a bed with him had sent a thrill down her spine before she could stop it … she’d tried to remind herself that Daniel wasn’t interested in her, that he only saw her as a friend. His best friend’s sister, that was all she was to him. He was probably looking forward to the conference as an opportunity to meet a whole bunch of new people, to sleep with some interesting new women … she was just there to take notes like the good little student she’d always been.

  Still, she couldn’t shake the excitement she felt at spending the weekend with him. The conference itself wouldn’t begin properly until the next day—there’d be panels and talks to go to in the morning, and in the afternoon, there would be a convention hall set up for each of the delegates to set up a booth to promote their various businesses.

  But before that was the welcome dinner, and from what the invitation had said, it was a semi-formal occasion. She’d seen a suit jacket among Daniel’s things, and she suppressed a pang of keen interest to see him in it … damnit, Alice, get your head in the game, she scolded herself. It was a nice opportunity to dress up. She’d had a dress in the back of her closet for years that she never got the opportunity to wear—things on the peninsula were so casual that dressing up in anything more elaborate than shorts and a T-shirt would be cause for confusion among the residents. But tonight, well—tonight the dress would get its debut. She’d tried it on during the week in her cabin to make sure it still fit—sure enough, it still fit every inch of her as though it had been made for her. She was looking forward to slipping into it again. It made her feel unusually feminine … unfamiliar, given that she spent most of her days in a genderless lab coat.

  She padded out into the main room again, wrapped in a large towel. Daniel had found the television remote and was skipping through channels on the flat screen that loomed on the wall in front of the bed—her eyes widened a little.

  ”That’s an incredible TV. I feel like they’re getting bigger and flatter every five minutes.” Human technology was impressive … and difficult to keep up with. “I still remember the TV we watched the moon landing on …”

  ”Humans are pretty clever,” Daniel agreed, grinning. He paused his channel flipping on a grim scene—some kind of medieval village, burning down around the ears of its frightened inhabitants, who were screaming and clutching each other as they stared up into the sky. Alice’s eyes widened as the camera cut to an enormous dragon swooping down on the village, fire bursting from its jaws.

  ”We’re famous,” Daniel said drily. “The wings are all wrong, though.”

  ”Where did they get the idea we can breathe fire, I wonder?” Alice said thoughtfully, forgetting she was in a towel as she moved to sit beside him on the bed. “I know a bunch of different dragon species, and none of them can do anything like that.”

  ”Beats me,” Daniel shrugged. “Maybe we can, but we’ve forgotten how. Same way we’ve forgotten about the impact of ocean water on our healing, right?”

  She glanced at him, surprised and touched that he’d remembered what she’d been rambling about in the car. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  ”Well, if you’re looking for another project once you’ve finished that one …” He gave her a toothy grin and gestured at the TV. “Not that I want to burn down any villages, but it’d be handy to be able to light a fire on the beach without having to dig out the matches.”

  She laughed. They spen
t a little longer watching the movie, giggling over the wildly inaccurate portrayal of the dragon, booing when the human heroes finally hunted it down and drove a sword into its belly. Alice sat up straight with a start when she realized what time it was.

  ”Shoot! The dinner’s in half an hour. We’d better get ready.”

  ”Time flies when you’re having fun,” Daniel laughed, grabbing his toiletries and heading for the bathroom. “I’ll leave you to get changed.”

  She fought the blush that was trying to creep across her face as he closed the bathroom door behind him. He’d had fun watching the movie, she scolded herself. It had nothing to do with her. He was just a friendly guy. He’d have sat and joked about the dragon movie with anyone at all; she wasn’t anything special … still, as she pulled her dress over her shoulders and pulled the zip up along her side, she found herself running an appraising eye over her body in the mirror. Did she look attractive? It had never been something she’d been particularly concerned about. Her female friends back at med school had always fussed and fretted about their appearances—their breasts weren’t big enough, their hips weren’t curvy enough, they were too fat, too thin, not tanned enough, their lips weren’t thick enough … there was so much that could be wrong with a body. For Alice, who wore her human body like a costume, it was difficult to relate. But now, as she scanned herself in the mirror, she felt an uncharacteristic twinge of the insecurities she’d laughed off in her friends.

  But Daniel wasn’t a human either. He was a dragon. Why would he care about what her human body looked like? Why did she care about his, for that matter? God, crushes were absurd. She couldn’t wait for this one to be over. Irritably, she pulled her makeup case out of her suitcase, hoping she still remembered the skill … it had been a long time since she’d had much reason to decorate her face.

  But it was a little like riding a bicycle—her hands seemed to remember where the various pigments went, and she quickly lost herself to the rather pleasant creative activity that was doing makeup. She barely heard the bathroom door open—she caught a glimpse of Daniel in the mirror over her own shoulder, a glimpse of a muscular back over a towel wrapped around his waist, and firmly instructed herself to keep her eyes on the liquid eyeliner she was carefully applying. Still, she was acutely aware of the man behind her as he dressed. And by the time she’d finished her makeup, he was dressed, too, and she finally allowed herself to turn around.