by Tamsin Baker
“So, what do you guys wanna talk about?” I asked.
Fridge whistled from his spot on the kitchen counter stool, his gaze scanning my body from head to toe, and back and again.
Rogan grinned as he leaned over the kitchen counter, giving my boobs a good look before he got back to my face.
“You’re hot, Sadie,” he said. “Wow.”
I put one hand on my hip and flicked my drying hair back over my shoulder. “You told me to put on what I wore to bed last night.”
“Yeah, but...” Rogan grinned. “I forgot how sexy you were in it.”
I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest. “So, should I sit down, or...?”
“Yeah, grab a chair. Hopefully, this will be quick, and we can get to bed.”
I pulled a dining table chair into the middle of the small room and sat down, waiting with my heart in my throat for them to tell me what was wrong.
I had to assume this was about my dad’s death... or maybe Fridge’s inability to commit?
Or maybe the sex last night going unfinished?
Damn, there were a lot of things this could be.
“Come on, don’t leave me in suspense,” I said. “You’re freaking me out.”
Rogan frowned. “Oh, sorry. That wasn’t the intention. I’ll be quick then. So, basically, I wanted to check with you... last night, did we officially- mate?”
I opened my mouth to answer his question and he jumped in over me.
“Like, I know we had sex, and you’ve said you think we’re both your fated mates, but is there a ceremony, or is that it? What does it mean? Exactly.”
I relaxed in the chair. I could handle this sort of conversation. I was pretty sure. With Rogan anyway.
“Well... I’m new to this too, so I’d have to double check with my aunts or something, to give you a perfect answer, but yes... if you’re asking me, I think we’ve mated already.”
Fridge’s eyebrows shot up as he sat up straighter on the stool and glanced at Rogan.
I shifted to the edge of the chair. “Not that I meant for it to happen like that, or anything. You know I spotted our connection from the beginning, but that doesn’t mean I thought mating would be easy. I thought it would need certain words, or a ceremony too.”
I took a breath, trying to slow down the pace in which I was talking. “But as soon as you were inside me, Rogan, I could feel the shift. The change. The bond clamping down on both of us. I didn’t think it would happen like that, or so fast. But I suppose because you were so accepting of it... the bond just took over. I don’t know. Why? Is that how you feel too?”
He gazed at me, his eyes shifting from blue to silver, then back to blue again.
Then he nodded. “Yeah, it is. I feel... settled. Happier, somehow. And I can’t imagine being apart from you, ever again.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. Happiness unlike anything I’d ever known radiated up inside of me.
“That’s great. I mean, I know we barely know each other, but I feel the same way. So settled and happy, knowing that I’m done looking for the one—or the ones. I’ve found you.”
Fridge got up so suddenly he pushed the stool over, the metal piece of furniture clanging to the ground.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, standing up also.
I felt too small and too weak sitting on a chair while Fridge was standing up in the room, with all his muscle bulk and height figuratively, and literally, towering over me.
He hissed and growled in a strange way as he began to pace the room. Which was hard, because his legs were long, and the room wasn’t that big.
“Fridge.... Hey... what’s...” I looked over at Rogan and raised my eyebrows in question. “A little help?”
Rogan rounded the counter and walked over to me, sighing loudly. “This isn’t good. I know those noises, and if he can’t get himself under control, we’re gonna need to get him outside. Real quick.”
“Outside? Why?”
Fridge turned to me, his eyes shifting to full yellow, the pupil the shape of a diamond.
“You... mated with him. But not... me,” he hissed.
I put my hands up in the air. “But I want to mate with you! You only need to tell me you want me too... and we can go to bed right now. In fact, to hell with the bed, take me here.”
Fridge’s hands tightened into fists at his sides and he vibrated with anger. Or something; I wasn’t sure.
“No... I don’t... want to...” he hissed at me.
I turned to Rogan, my hear squeezing painfully in my chest. “What does he mean, he doesn’t want to?”
Rogan grabbed my hand. “He doesn’t mean it like that. He was afraid that if he had sex with you, he’d unwittingly bond with you for life. And he didn’t want to do that. Not without discussing it first. Without deciding on the rules of the relationship... Hey!” He yelled at Fridge. “Get a hold of yourself. There’s no danger here!”
When I looked back at my second fated mate, he was beginning to change in a totally different way. His head was shifting shape. His tongue, when it snaked out, was forked.
Fear shivered up my spine. “What’s happening?”
“He’s shifting. We need to get him outside. Now.”
Rogan ran to the window that was connected to the fire escape and threw it open.
“Fridge!” he yelled towards the kitchen where the dragon was still shaking. “Quick! Before it’s too late.”
Fridge looked at me, and all I could see was rage in his gaze, before he sprinted to the window.
Then he looked back at me and the conflict was obvious in his eyes. The hurt and the pain.
I needed to say something... but what?
“Please come back,” I managed to choke out. “Even if you don’t want me, I still need you.”
It took every bit of my courage to admit that to the man before me. A man, who by all account was rejecting me. Again.
“Stay. Here,” Fridge hissed before he jumped out the fire escape and began stripping off his clothing.
Rogan stepped back and I ran up to him, wanting to watch this shift more than anything in the world.
I’d never seen a dragon shift; so few people had.
Fridge’s massive, muscled, human body began to contort and change as his skin scaled and blackened. His arms shrank as his back sprouted wings the color of sapphires.
I put my hand over my mouth to cover the gasp of awe that escaped me.
Fridge kept transforming, kept getting bigger, until he was in danger of hurting himself on the fire escape where he stood.
He leaned forward and launched himself off the metal grate, his wings flapping almost soundlessly on the breeze as he flew higher.
I ran to the window and looked up, watching him move farther away. Into the sky. Into the distance, above the city and beyond.
I watched until he was out of sight, until I was straining out the window to see.
“Come back in. You’ll get cold,” Rogan said, pulling me back with his strong, warm hands. He shut the window.
“Aren’t you going to leave it open for him?” I asked. I didn’t want Fridge locked out of his own apartment.
“He’ll be gone most of the night now. But I won’t lock the window, don’t worry. If he wants to come back in, he will.” Rogan walked back to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “Time for bed?”
I wandered after him, feeling dazed. “Ah, yeah. But I have a few questions.”
He nodded and tilted his head in the direction of the bedrooms. “We may as well go sleep in Fridge’s bed again, in case he comes back before sunrise.”
I thought that was a good idea too. The last thing we wanted was the big insecure, jealous jerk thinking we were leaving him out of the relationship again. Even if it had been his choice to leave us.
Rogan walked into the large, dark bedroom where we’d slept last night. “Jump in. We can just chat, unless you want to...”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I can after that.”
While sex with my wolf mate was something I’d looked forward to all day, my heart was now shivering with anxiety. Fridge was gone, and he’d made it clear that the last thing he wanted, was to be mated to me.
If I wasn’t about to be cuddled up with Rogan, my heart was on the brink of being totally broken.
I crawled into the middle of the bed and jumped beneath the covers.
Rogan slid into the bed and lay on his back. “Come here. Don’t worry. I won’t bite.”
He reached for me and I went to him willingly, putting my head on his chest.
“What the hell happened there?” I said.
Rogan sighed and ran his fingers through my hair and down my back. “I know it sounds trite to say it’s not you, but it’s really... not you.”
“Does he do that... often?” I asked.
“You mean shift?”
“Yeah.”
He chuckled. “No. Hardly ever. I’ve seen it maybe a dozen times in twenty years. It only happens when there’s a pretty massive emotional turmoil going on inside of him.”
I lifted my head and arranged my arm so I could look down at Rogan. Was he serious? “I caused some sort of... emotional turmoil?”
Rogan sighed and stroked his finger over my cheek. “Unfortunately, we both did. I felt so different today, I thought I’d warn him that having sex with you, our fated mate, would bond him, since I know how afraid he is of forced commitment. I just thought having the knowledge might help...” Rogan sighed. “I’m sorry if I made it worse.”
I shook my head and sniffed. The tears brimmed in my eyes, but this time I wasn’t stopping them.
“I don’t blame you. I was surprised how intense last night was. And I actually don’t think that if Fridge and I had sex, that our shifters would mate so fast. We’re different, for one thing, unlike you and I who are both wolves. He’s also so resistant. I think the Fated Mates magic only worked last night because we were both open to it.” I sighed and snuggled into him. “At least one of you wants me. I can’t be upset about that.”
But part of me was heartbroken. My dragon, one of my fated mates, was in such turmoil over loving me.
Rogan kissed the top of my head and sighed, holding me tight. “Sweetheart, he wants you so much he can’t see straight. But unfortunately, getting him to see that, and agree to bonding for life is going to be a lot harder than either of us thought it would be.”
I nodded, unable to say anymore, and rolled onto my side so that Rogan could spoon me.
It was time for sleep.
For healing and dreaming about a world where everything was right.
And I didn’t have a murder to solve and a mate to tame.
What a mess my life had become.
But even as I thought that terrible thought, Rogan slipped his hand around my waist and held me tight. There was one thing right with my world: I was mated to my Wolf.
THE END of part 1.
Part 2 is up for pre-order here: https://geni.us/dragonmated
