“Sorry,” she whispered.
Dillon studied her with hurt still lingering in his eyes. She opened her mouth to attempt to explain, but Gavin drowned her out.
“You! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
Nellie shot out of her seat and spun on her heel. She marched toward the café’s back exit. Gavin gave chase, vaulting over her chair and jumping over other tables to catch up to her. While Isabella watched Gavin, Nellie vanished. Isabella raised a brow, but Gavin seemed undeterred. He charged through the back door like he could still see her ahead.
“What is wrong with those two?” Erik asked. He shook his head and sank into Nellie’s empty seat.
Surrounded by friends, Isabella couldn’t bring herself to explain why she’d reacted so poorly. She knew she shouldn’t have started anything with Dillon. In her current state, she was setting them up for failure. The idea of breaking his heart filled her with dread.
She would never be the woman he needed. Dillon deserved better. When he tried to get her to talk, she shook her head. He reached for one of her hands, but she pressed them between her thighs. As badly as she wanted to reach out to him, she didn’t want to lead him into disaster.
That’s all she would ever give him.
Chapter Ten
Dillon walked down the street with his friends. Gavin had vanished, probably still searching for the witch. Evangeline and Casey kept touching, like they could barely stand being apart for a second.
Dillon couldn’t stand to look at them. Instead, he stared at Isabella’s back and wondered what he’d done to push her away. Her immediate response when he stepped up to her confused him. After what they’d done, he thought she would have greeted him happily. Instead, he felt a barrier of ice rise between them.
Erik nudged him with his elbow. “I bet you fifty dollars that Gavin and the witch end up mating.”
Dillon cast an incredulous glance at Erik. There was no way in hell that the witch would put up with Gavin for more than five minutes. Chances were high that she’d already turned their clan leader into a rabbit and left him in an alley somewhere. While Dillon didn’t think the witch was that much of a threat, Dillon knew he should check in on Gavin anyway.
That was his duty as a clanmate. When Gavin and the others had issues, Dillon took care of them.
Dillon didn’t care. He cared about Isabella and whatever it was that he’d done wrong. His beast writhed, trying to fight its way out of him. The creature had gotten a taste, and now it wanted more. She was all he could think about.
“Hey, did you hear me?” Erik asked, his voice carrying a low rumble.
Dillon watched the sway of Isabella’s hair. He wanted to run his fingers through it. He wanted to pull her into his arms and feel her melt into him like she had before.
What had he done wrong? What reason had he given her to hate him so much?
“Fuck you, Dillon.” Erik shoved his hands in his pockets and surged forward, shoving his way between those in front of him.
Isabella let out a sound of dismay. Dillon’s lips twisted in a snarl. He grabbed Erik’s shoulder and yanked him back. Erik swayed on his feet before spinning on Dillon. His sunglasses had slipped to reveal two, glowing multi-colored eyes. As Dillon watched, the second eye bled into a bright green, the signal that the monstrous beast in Erik was winning control.
Dillon pursed his lips and shook his head. They couldn’t have a dragon appearing downtown. He checked around for an alley to duck into, but there were people going about their business on all sides. No space was out of eyesight or earshot.
“Hold it back, buddy,” Dillon said.
Erik shrugged him off and swung around. He huffed as his feet slapped the concrete sidewalk. Tiny cracks webbed out from beneath his footsteps. Erik wasn’t fighting the beast back. Dillon watched Erik snarl at a passerby.
Dillon didn’t want to be on duty all the damn time. He trudged forward and grabbed Erik by the back of his shirt, but he didn’t have the energy to drag him away.
“Release me,” Erik growled, his voice completely different now. It resonated as if echoing from a deep abyss.
Dread settled into Dillon’s bones. Nothing would ever go right for him.
“I said release me!” Erik howled.
He whirled on Dillon, but neither realized that Isabella had approached. She staggered back, out of the way of Erik’s flailing limbs. Dillon heard her hiss and caught her cupping her cheek.
Dillon had never really known rage before in his life. He’d known anger and frustration, two distant cousins. Rage, however, set him ablaze and made every muscle in his body tense for the coming fight. The beast in him bared its teeth. When it turned its sights on Erik, it no longer saw him as a friend.
Faster than he’d ever moved before, Dillon rushed Erik. His shoulder connected with Erik’s sternum, forcing the air from the man’s lungs. Even while enraged, Dillon knew this fight couldn’t last long. He had to incapacitate Erik and bring this to an end.
Erik slid back and grabbed Dillon around the waist, forcing him to stay bent as Erik now commanded the fight. A chorus of gasps rang out around them. The more humans that gathered, the more liabilities there were. Dillon had to stop Erik’s rage. He had to break this hold.
What Dillon really wanted was to pin Erik down and punish him blow by blow for lashing out with Isabella nearby, but Dillon couldn’t give in to that desire. Not even while burning with searing rage could he have what he wanted.
Dillon didn’t try to break the hold. Instead, he pushed forward and tried to topple Erik. At the last moment, Erik tried to lift Dillon’s feet from the ground to keep him from having any forward momentum, but it was too late. They tumbled into a heap of limbs and growls as they frantically fought for dominance.
Finally, Dillon shoved a knee into Erik’s spine and pushed his face into the concrete. He glanced around to make sure everyone was safe. Isabella had a purple bruise on her cheekbone and a look of fear in her eyes. Dillon’s stomach flipped, revulsion at his own anger starting to overwhelm him.
She would always look at him with that expression of horror now that she knew what kind of beast he was. Dillon was trapped, being the clan’s keeper and nothing more to anyone else, for the rest of his life.
***
Isabella could do nothing while Dillon and Erik fought. She watched fists fly and thought she heard the crunch of bones. If she tried to intervene, she would be crushed for sure. That meant she had to stand by, and watch Dillon endure the pain his friend was causing.
When Erik tapped the pavement and Dillon let him up, she could see that his eyes had gone back to normal. Whatever had happened was now over. Dillon didn’t stand but sat on his haunches while he kept an eye on Erik. She waited for Dillon to pounce.
His eyes were more yellow than blue, so she grabbed Erik’s sunglasses from the pavement and fitted them to Dillon’s face. Erik made a sound of dissent, but she made sure Erik could see the bruised side of her face when she turned her glare upon him.
Dillon’s eyes had become unnatural and people would begin to stare and ask questions if they saw him.
“We should go home,” she said to everyone.
Erik kicked the sidewalk, looking more like a petulant teen than a grown man. “I don’t need to go back to that place.”
He spun on his heel and marched off. Dillon surged to his feet, but Isabella caught him by the front of his shirt. She couldn’t see a reason to go running after Erik. The man probably needed to be alone. Whatever had sent him off the deep end was his problem, and he needed to work it out on his own.
“Take me home,” she asked Dillon.
His lips were a flat line, but he nodded. Isabella said goodbye to Evangeline and Casey, even though a part of her was mad that Evangeline’s mate had done nothing to stop the fight.
Dillon drove her car back to the cabin. Silence sat between them until they made it to the bathroom and Dillon’s rummaging for the first aid kit filled the ai
r with sound. She didn’t bother telling him that the first aid kit would be pointless. So long as it gave him something to focus on, then she would leave it be.
When he slammed the cabinet door and let his forehead fall against it, she raised a brow. He let loose a low growl, one that sounded like frustration leaking out of him.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked.
She blinked. Blindsided by the question, she struggled to find a way to answer it. The ugly truths sat in her throat like little goblins that cackled at her discomfort. She didn’t want to tell Dillon that she’d forgotten that he wasn’t Tommy for a moment. That didn’t seem fair.
It wasn’t Dillon’s fault that she kept finding new ways that Tommy had broken her.
So, she sighed and leaned into the tub, so she could sit in it. Dillon stood and regarded the bruise on her cheek. Guilt lined his features.
“I’ve felt worse before,” she said, feeling open.
Dillon knelt on the outside of the bathtub and knotted his fingers together like he wanted to reach for her but feared how she might react. “I don’t know what to do with you. I’ve been a fool, acting like you were my reward for working so hard. That’s really fucking selfish of me.”
She let out a laugh. “Yeah, it is. I don’t blame you, though. What kept you up all night? You were exhausted when you came to me this morning.”
His shoulders sank as he deflated. He let his gaze drop to the floor. “Same shit. Different night.”
Isabella patted the empty space in the bathtub beside her. Dillon raised a brow, but then shrugged and climbed in beside her so they sat hip to hip with their feet dangling outside the tub.
She picked at the fraying holes in her jeans. “There were nights when I would stack our bathtub with blankets and pillows and sleep there to hide from Tommy.”
Dillon’s growl told her that she should have kept that information to herself. He would hate everything about her past, but at least she knew she was a survivor.
“Do you have to look out for Erik very often?” she asked while threading her fingers with his.
He squeezed her hand in return. “Once a week. Sometimes more.”
Isabella didn’t need to know what was wrong with him. Erik’s problems were his own, like how she kept hers to herself. “You do a lot for the people you love.”
“Who else is going to do it?”
“Well, you could ask Casey. He could afford to leave Evangeline’s side once in a while. She works ten-hour days. What else does Casey have to do with his time?” She smirked, knowing she was right.
Once Evangeline got into tattoo mode, she would notice nothing else for the rest of her day. Casey could fill in for Dillon once in a while. Maybe then, Dillon could get some sleep. He could go see a movie. He could spend some time with her.
Yet, he looked reluctant to ask.
“They aren’t just your housemates,” she told him. “These are the people you’re dedicating your life to. Right? You can’t give and give until you have nothing left. It’s their job to make sure you don’t burn out on their behalf. Just ask my friends. We’ve always been able to help each other out.”
He grunted, which was the equivalent of saying it wasn’t the same.
“Just because we’re human and you’re shifters, that doesn’t mean that relationships work any differently. I think Erik was trying to be your friend today, and when you cut him off, he got hurt.”
Dillon pulled his fingers from hers and looped an arm over her shoulders. She leaned her head on his chest.
“Are you still going to move out?”
“I don’t think I have any other choice,” she said, sadly.
“If you’re afraid of Erik now, I’ll keep you safe from him.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “I need…”
What? Space? Room to figure herself out? A miracle? Truly, Isabella had no idea. She wanted to find happiness with Dillon, but the idea that she could self-sabotage their relationship still hung over her head. He would run out of patience with her someday. She would lose the only man who’d ever shown her kindness.
“Do you want help finding what you need?” he asked.
A small smile started to curve across her face. “That would be really nice.”
He hugged her tight with the one arm around her. “I can do that.”
Chapter Eleven
Isabella still hadn’t found a way to tell Dillon that she couldn’t handle his protective nature. Not when she was making fried chicken, and the grease splatter made him pull her away from the stove. Not when Erik threw the remote at the television, and Dillon put his arm out in front of her. Not when Gavin stormed through the house, and Dillon suddenly stood before her.
Each time, she’d felt trapped and helpless. Her own fear and self-loathing kept her lips sealed. She didn’t want to make Dillon leave her alone for good, but she also had no idea where to set a boundary.
Her friends couldn’t help her. Evangeline had no boundaries, and Nellie made sure hers were always a hundred feet out in any direction. When Evangeline and Casey had fallen for each other, they made it look easy. Isabella felt like the kink in a perfect world. She was no longer made to fit into any role.
Sadly, she was starting to suspect that meant she couldn’t be Dillon’s mate like she’d hoped.
Stepping outside, she grabbed the mail from the box and shuffled through it. Every piece was addressed to her since the guys had so little delivered. As she checked the senders, her heart dropped. The bank attached to her credit card had sent another letter.
Isabella didn’t notice as every other envelope fell from her hands and fluttered to the ground. She ripped the letter open and pulled it out. Her time here at the cabin had been flying by, and now a late due notice had caught up to her.
She swallowed a whimper. Tommy should have paid this by now.
She’d managed to save enough for a security deposit on her own place. Either she paid the bill and cleared her credit, or she could save her money and pray that a landlord wouldn’t require a credit check. Her credit had been great until now, until Tommy decided to get payback.
Isabella shuffled over to the steps and put her head between her knees. Her first thought was that she shouldn’t have even left him, but she couldn’t forget that she had another soul dependent on her now. She would never put her child through the nightmare she’d endured.
Leaving Tommy had been the right decision. That wasn’t up for debate.
She stared down at the bill and tried to figure out her options. She didn’t want to leave the cabin at all, but she knew Erik and Gavin would hate having a baby around. Maybe if she brought it up to them and showed them the bill, they would allow her to stay longer. She could save up a bit more money and pay them to help her move when she was too pregnant to do it all on her own.
That seemed like a lot to ask of them. She wasn’t like Evangeline. Isabella wasn’t mated to any of the dragon men. While Evangeline had become family, Isabella was merely their roommate.
Though, she couldn’t forget what she and Dillon had done in her bed. Her cheeks warmed. She wanted more of that with him. She even wished he was beside her now. She ached to feel his comforting warmth.
“What’s wrong?”
Her head snapped up. When she saw Dillon looking down at her, she quickly wiped away stray tears with the back of her hand. He moved his weight from one foot to the other and put his hands on his hips, like he wanted to do something but had to direct that energy into fidgeting.
She crumpled the late notice in her fist. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Hadn’t she just reasoned with herself to tell everyone about this? Why was she holding back? She didn’t understand herself or why she was doing any of this. The urge to keep this hidden overcame her like she’d been caught doing something wrong.
This late bill wasn’t her fault.
Yet, if she’d kept a better eye on her credit card while leaving, then this woul
dn’t have happened. If she’d checked her account instead of batting her lashes at Dillon, then she wouldn’t have such a large bill. Somehow, she managed to place everything onto her own shoulders.
Dillon crouched and sat on the step beside her. His gaze trailed from her to her fist. She pulled her arms into her middle, mostly to hide the bill. This wasn’t Dillon’s concern. He didn’t have to deal with Tommy ever again.
“You’re a horrible liar,” Dillon said softly.
A horrible liar. A horrible person. Completely useless, she told herself.
Dillon touched her chin. She dragged her attention up to him and tried not to sniffle. The way his features softened as he looked at her sparked warmth in her chest. It was as if the sight of her relieved him, though she couldn’t understand why anyone would want her around.
“Meeting you was the best thing to ever happen to me,” Dillon told her.
Her lips parted and her arms shifted away from her middle. Dillon used the opportunity to snatch the late bill from her grasp. She tried to get it back, but Dillon was too fast and had already gotten to his feet and stepped away from her.
As she watched, his playful demeanor hardened, his brows furrowing as he read the letter.
“He didn’t pay it,” Dillon said finally.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
Dillon shook his head. He marched past Isabella and into the house. She watched, stunned and rather confused.
***
Dillon kicked Erik’s chair. “Get up.”
Erik flapped his arms, trying to balance himself before the chair tipped. When all four legs landed on the floor again, Erik snatched his sunglasses and fixed Dillon with an annoyed glare.
“I need you.” Dillon didn’t bother to explain. He tossed Erik’s keys at him instead.
Erik caught the flying keys without taking his eyes off Dillon. His hand clenched around the keys, his knuckles going a soft white.
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