Fire Breathing Remy

by Candace Ayers

  “Speak to my mate like that again and I will toss you out of here.” Remy stepped forward, dwarfing David.

  “Fuck you, weirdo. This isn’t about you. It’s about my wife.”

  A chill traveled down my spine. I’d never heard David call me his wife before. It sounded like the steel bars of a cage being slammed shut on me. What the hell was I doing?

  Remy had clearly reached his breaking point. He grabbed David by the back of his shirt and the waistband of his pants and easily hoisted him off his feet. David, hanging horizontally, four feet above the ground, screamed and thrashed. Nance rushed around the men to open the door and then, like David was nothing more than a sack of trash, Remy tossed him out into the hallway.

  Nance closed the door and held up her hand for Remy to high five. “That was awesome!”

  Remy stared at her hand for a second before it dawned on him what she wanted. Then he raised his hand and waved at her before turning back to me. Nance stared at his back for a second, perplexed, but quickly recovered and shrugged it off.

  “So, that was a decision,” Margo said gently, watching me while I attempted to steel my emotions so they didn’t reveal the extent to which I was freaking out.

  I cleared my throat. “Do you think so?”

  “Oh, your new boyfriend just threw your fiancé out of your hotel room and you watched it happen. That was a decision being made, I am quite certain about it.”

  “Are you okay?” Remy passed all the invisible boundary lines Margo had drawn, but she didn’t seem as readily available for crowd control anymore.

  I sucked in a big breath of air that smelled like him—pine forests and dark chocolate—and felt a slight bit calmer. “I don’t know. Part of me feels like my drink was drugged and I stumbled and fell down a rabbit hole.”

  “You think someone put something in your drink? Do you think it was that guy?”

  I laughed and shook my head. He was so caring and attentive. “I just mean that everything is crazy. Nothing makes sense.”

  “This makes sense.” He gestured between our bodies.

  “This literally can’t make sense.”

  “But it does. You are my mate. I’m yours. Forever.”

  I should’ve been running. More of that same old should’ve been stuff… I wasn’t running, though. I was leaning into him and wondering how I’d gone my whole life without ever feeling that way before. What he was saying didn’t feel insane. Somewhere deep inside, past the point of reasoning, it did make sense. I didn’t understand it, but it felt right.

  “I hate to break up the love fest, but your mom is calling.” Margo handed me my phone and winced. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

  I answered more out of habit than self-preservation. “Hello?”

  Her angry shouts carried through the phone and echoed around the room. Loud and garbled, she was so angry that she was stumbling over her own words. The only thing that was crystal clear was that she wanted me to meet her in their room as soon as possible.

  I hung up and looked around. “Crap.”

  Margo nodded. “Good luck.”

  “Maybe, I don’t have to go. I could just hide out somewhere.”

  Nance snorted. “She’d be up here in seconds if she thought you were blowing her off.”

  I sat down heavily on the bed and ran my hands through my hair. “Okay. I’ll go and tell her that things have changed. I’m not ready to marry David.”

  “Ever.” Remy held out his hand. “I will go with you.”

  I looked at his bare chest and fanned my face. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

  Margo nodded. “You’re drunk, half naked, and you just threw the golden boy out on his ass.”

  “I will not leave you to stand alone in front of your mother. I will show her that we are mates and that I am prepared to honor and care for you. She will have nothing to worry about.”

  I took his hand and forced a smile. “That’s sweet, but I have to go alone. She’s already going to be furious. If I showed up with you, I’d never get out alive.”

  “What?!”

  I couldn’t help the giggle, he was so funny. “Just a phrase. I’ll be fine. Why don’t you lie down and Margo will call a doctor?”

  “I heal just fine on my own. I’m barely inebriated anymore.”

  “Just this strange naturally, then?” When he grinned at me and that dimple of his peeked out, I felt myself sway slightly, like I was the drunk one. “Okay, I’m going.”

  Margo stopped me at the door and took my hand. “Are you sure about this?”

  “I don’t know, Marg. I just know that when David called me his wife, I felt like crawling out of my own skin. Beyond that... I have no answers.”

  Margo shrugged and smiled sadly. “You’ll figure it out. It’s not like there’s a time crunch or anything.”

  8

  Remy

  There was something in Armand’s brew that wouldn’t let up, and I needed to sober up faster. Chugging a bottle of water, I figured I could not stay in the room pretending that I was going to wait for some human doctor rather than heal myself.

  “Where are you going?” Margo, the little witch, stood, hands on hips, scowling. “You’re not going to follow her and pressure her into making this decision.”

  The witch would be a perfect match for Ovide. Just as stubborn and headstrong. I could picture the two of them bickering and battling the world, and each other, in all their headstrong obstinance. “I am not going to pressure anything. She is my mate. We belong together.”

  “I know all about this mate shit. What are you? You started to say something. Dragon? Is that what you are?”

  I frowned. “How do you know about dragons?”

  “Oh, come on. This is New Orleans. You think that all us humans are ignorant to the mumbo jumbo going on around here? Plus, my uncle mated a tiger shifter from Lafayette.”

  “I am not a tiger shifter from Lafayette. And it is not mumbo jumbo. It is serious.”

  “How do you know she’s your mate?”

  Was she crazy? All the enjoyment of being drunk was lost to me, replaced by crankiness and lack of coordination. “The same way I know to breathe. It’s just there. My dragon knows. I know—from the moment I saw her, even before, when I scented her. It is why I became discombobulated and crashed into the side of a building in the middle of the city. I was not out joyriding.”

  “What took you so long to get here? What if she’d gone through with marrying that prick, David?”

  I frowned. “I thought you wished for her to marry him?”

  “Of course not. He’s all wrong for her. I just want her to come to the realization on her own. It has to be her decision. It would have been too easy for me to encourage her to leave him for you.”

  I moved toward the door. “You confuse me, but I must see that she is okay.”

  “She’s with her parents. She’s fine. Besides, you can’t just roam the hotel hallways looking like that.”

  I looked down at my bare chest and shrugged. “I’m dressed enough. She was distressed. I need to make sure that she is alright. I don’t like seeing her that way.”

  The other friend, Nance, cleared her throat and shifted her gaze from me to Margo and back. “Dragon?”

  “Don’t pretend like you don’t know. It was your cousin, Carly, that my uncle married.”

  Nance grinned suddenly and shrugged a shoulder. “You’re sure about this? She’s your mate, for sure? Like, for sure, for sure?”

  I growled. “I am sure. Shifters do not get that wrong. And I must be with her.”

  “No. You need to rest and let Lenni make her own decision. She needs to figure this out on her own.” Margo stepped toward me. “Sorry about this.”

  I was about to ask what she was sorry about when a burst of pain exploded at the back of my head. The room spun in front of me as I swayed, reaching out to steady myself. With nothing to latch on to, I fell forward. The floor was hard and unforgiving, but I
wasn’t conscious long enough for it to bother me.

  Lennox

  Doom and gloom followed me like a gray cloud overhead on the walk back from my parents’ room. Of course, they were right. The wedding couldn’t be called off now—not the night before the ceremony with the guests either at the hotel or arriving first thing in the morning. Not after Dad forked out all that money. It was irresponsible and childish to think otherwise. They had every right to be pissed at me.

  David had gone straight to them to tattle. Well, not tattle. I shouldn’t think that way about the man who was soon to be my life partner. The wedding would go off without another hitch. I would go through with it. David would be my husband and everything that happened tonight would just…fade away. Not matter. Once I said I do in the morning, that would be it.

  Yet, the farther from my parents I got, the worse I felt about agreeing to go through with the wedding. I should’ve said no months ago when David first proposed. There was so much pressure, though, and I was terrible at saying no. The pressure to be with David had remained steady. Marrying David made sense for everyone. My parents would prosper from the business deal that would happen in the afternoon, after the wedding. Our families would be connected, and everyone would live happily ever after.

  It didn’t matter what I really wanted. To be fair, before meeting Remy, I hadn’t been entirely sure what I wanted. I knew what I didn’t want, and when faced with the choices of either David or spending my life alone, David hadn’t seemed half bad. Even with the cheating rumors. Even with all the rest of his baggage. Mom had impressed upon me that being alone for the rest of my life would be a fate worse than death for someone like me, and I tended to agree. I hated the thought of never being able to have a family of my own. I supposed I envisioned my friends would settle down and start families and I would be hanging out at home alone on Friday nights with my cell in my lap waiting for someone to call me back. No one ever would. So, I’d said yes. Not to David, but to having someone to hang out with on a Friday night.

  There were no take backs, apparently. I was trapped. And Mom was right—David was the best I was going to do. Remy was amazing, but he was drunk and a little strange, and possibly a dragon. Fat chance of him waking up sober and still wanting me. Not a guy like him.

  Bitter, and resigned to my fate, I made my way back to my room and prayed that I didn’t pass David in the hall.

  Good lord, would I spend the rest of my life praying the same thing? In our home at night, when I went to grab a glass of water, would I stand with my back against the wall, peering around corners, praying that he wasn’t around the next one?

  It didn’t matter. None of it did. I had an obligation, and I had to see it through. Marry David, follow through with my promises. It was what we Ledouxs did. We kept our word, and I wouldn’t shame the family by going back on mine. Probably.

  As soon as I opened the door to my room, I knew something was weird. Margo and Nance were standing right in the entryway, blocking my view of the bed.

  “So, we have something to tell you.”

  “Something that’s not a big deal. Not a big deal, at all.”

  I peeked around them and saw Remy half slumped over on the bed. He was unconscious, and there looked like a lump on the back of his head. “Oh, my god! What happened to him?”

  “You’re making it seem like a big deal.”

  “And it’s completely not a big deal.”

  I glared at them and grabbed Remy around his waist. “Help me get him in the bed, you psychos. Did you do that to him? Why would you hit him?”

  Margo grabbed his legs and Nance pushed as we rolled him into the bed. “He was trying to come after you. We didn’t figure that would be a good idea. Not for the family meeting you were having. He heals really fast, though. Didn’t you hear him say that?”

  “Ugh, he weighs a ton.” Nance used her legs to push and shove, and the three of us finally got him in the bed.

  I cradled my face in my hands and sat down next to him. It’d taken less than two hours for my entire life to implode in front of me. And tomorrow, I was expected to walk down the aisle and act as though I wasn’t marrying the wrong guy with a nut job as my maid of honor.

  9

  Remy

  My head throbbed with a headache to top all headaches. “Dragons did not often have headaches…” I rolled sideways, assuming I was in my bed at home, and hit the floor. That’s when I remembered it wasn’t my first time crashing to the floor lately.

  I sat up too fast and saw stars. Where in smoldering flames was that witch? I’d never wanted to strangle a human so much before. She’d knocked me over the head with something. Or perhaps the other one did it, the one with the tiger cousin. Either way, I had no doubt the witch was the mastermind.

  Lennox wasn’t in the room. No one was in the room, an observation that quickly converted my anger to gut-gnawing worry. Calling out for my mate, my shaky legs traversed the suite, investigating. The bathroom and adjoining rooms were empty. She couldn’t be gone; I’d only just found her.

  Heart racing with fear and dread, I jerked open the door to look out into the hallway and found the little witch standing in front of me, fist raised as though she was about to knock. “You!”

  She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry ‘bout last night. I couldn’t let you get in the way. Turns out, you should’ve gotten in the way. Lennox is about to go through with it and walk down the aisle.”

  “What aisle?”

  “The wedding aisle, you dope. I brought you clothes to change into. Hopefully, I got the size right. If you plan on saving the day, you’d better get ‘em on and get moving.”

  “I’ll just go like this.”

  She held up her hands. “Noooo, you will not. No girl appreciates being swept off their feet by a knight in shining armor who smells like you smell right now. Shower. Dress. Brush your teeth. Do something with your face.”

  “What’s wrong with my face?”

  “Shave it.”

  “That is ridiculous. You were wrong last night. You could be wrong now. I cannot let her marry him.”

  “I’m not wrong this time.”

  “Says the female who knocked me over the head. Get out of the way.”

  “No. The wedding hasn’t started yet. You still have a little while. Get cleaned up. I’ll wait out here for you. Then, I’ll take you right to it. Hurry.”

  I swore but snatched the bag she held away from her. “If you are wrong…”

  “I won’t be.”

  I slammed the door and rushed through cleaning myself and dressing. I didn’t shave my beard, but I trimmed it with the trimmers she’d included in the bag. Just a few minutes later, I was dressed in a pair of black trousers that fit well and a white button-down shirt. I rolled the sleeves up my forearms and ran a hand through my hair before throwing open the door.

  Of course, Margo was absent. A note was taped to the door, and when I read it, I swore that I would strangle the witch. She’d left me. Purposely. The wedding was blocks away, in St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and she thought it would be more dramatic if I burst in once the wedding was in progress. With no directions, just the name of the church, she had left me stranded.

  I took off running down the hallway barefoot. I had to stop the wedding. I could not allow Lennox to marry another. No matter the reason, it was not right. She belonged to me. I was her mate. I wasn’t being completely selfish. She would be miserable if she tried to make a marriage with someone else work. He was not the male for her, and it would become more and more evident. Every day, she would look at him and long to see in him the true mate that he could never be.

  I took the stairs three at a time down to the main lobby and out onto the street. Questioning passersby, I learned the quickest route to St. Matthew’s and took off running. My dragon desperately wanted to emerge, but I held him back. Flying would be quicker, but arriving naked would defeat the purpose of the shower and new clothes, and the witch was probably right. I should
appear presentable and looking my best. Besides, revealing that I was basically a nonhuman in front of Lennox’s family and guests was not a good plan, so I ran for all I was worth. Dodging people and traffic, I prayed to the gods of fire to hold off the ceremony until I arrived.

  Brother, you in danger? You’re putting out some stressful vibes. Blaise’s voice was almost a welcome intrusion. My twin was occasionally comforting in trying moments.

  I found my mate. She’s getting married. I must stop it.

  WOW! Do you need help?

  With a groan of relief as I finally spotted the spires of the church, I dashed forward. Maybe with murdering a little witch. My mate’s friend. Perfect for Ovide.

  Part mule shifter?

  I almost laughed, but my relief from arriving at the church was quickly snuffed out when I noticed that the church doors were closed. I was terrified I was too late. I will fill you in later, bro.

  With Blaise out of my head, I crashed through the front doors, prepared to halt the proceedings and only found myself in a lobby. Another set of doors was in front of me.

  My heart in my throat, this time I opened the doors slowly and stepped inside the cavernous cathedral. An organist played, the humans were standing, eyes on the female in a white gown walking down the aisle toward the front of the church. The overwhelming aroma of fresh flowers and perfumed humans did nothing to hide her scent. I stood frozen, niggling doubt working its way through me. Would she hate me if I caused a ruckus? What if she really did want the wedding?

  She turned abruptly.

  Her flowers at her side, she drew back the white gauzy material covering her face and, when she saw me, a bright, beaming smile spread, lighting up her features. The flowers hit the floor. She started toward me—slowly at first, and then at a sprint.

  My beautiful mate. I felt as though I would burst with happiness.

  Lennox flew into my arms and I held her off the ground, against my chest and spun her.