Dragon's Mate

by Alicia Banks

  “You would have gone through with the marriage even though you loved someone else?”

  “I am a male dragon, the heir of my clan. I don’t have the luxury to walk away, but I will let you walk away, and make us both happy. I will take full blame for it.”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “I am strong, I have a better chance to survive. I’ve been working out. I may even be stronger than my father.”

  “Be careful, please. I may not love you, but I do care. I am very fond of you, and I hope the four of us can become great friends.”

  “We should have a double elope. We’ll find someplace beautiful where we can tie the knot safely, out of our parents’ reach. We can be witnesses to each other’s wedding.”

  “I’d like that, but yours is human, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well I think you’ll have to explain things to her, before that happens. I assume she doesn’t know yet.”

  He shook his head. “I plan to tell her, once I figure out how to do it.”

  “Humans are slow, but they aren’t stupid. Show yourself to her, your real self. If she loves you, she will accept it. She’ll be frightened at first, for sure, she may even run away in terror, but if she loves you as much as you love her, she’ll learn to accept it. Learn to love that side of you, too.”

  “We made love the other night.”

  “You did? Did you change?”

  “Not fully, but I felt my eyes flash. I think she saw it, but I don’t think she knows what she saw.”

  “I flashed my eyes at her, and she didn’t seem to notice. Humans don’t always notice things like that. Protect her. Your father will want to spill her blood for destroying the pact.”

  “I will protect you both, and don’t worry about your father. I’ll deal with mine and figure out how to deal with yours. You won’t have to take any of the blame. I can handle it.”

  “Alistair, you are an amazing man, a rare breed for sure. You look like a brute and you brood like a brute, but you’re soft, and kindhearted, and that makes you a better dragon than your father. You will protect humanity, protect the shifters and humans alike. The old dragons want to destroy them, get rid of them, like they tried to do with us. But some of us, some of the shifters need humans to survive. I like humans. They’re fascinating creatures. So resourceful and adaptable. That was one thing us dragons never became, adaptable. Look at our parents, still stuck in a time from long ago”

  “Yes, I’m aware of this.” He was excited. He couldn’t wait to get back to Sarai and start something real. He knew he should probably figure out how to tell his parents, but that didn’t mean he had to stop seeing Sarai while he figured that out. He wanted to make love to her every day; maybe he’d even invite her to move in. Nope. She can’t move in until you’ve told her the truth. Not till you tell her, and show her, that you’re a dragon. I should have just told her from the beginning. She would have laughed and said ok, and then I could use this time to just prove it to her, but now I’ve got to find a way to broach the subject. I’ve got it! I’ll take her downstairs. I can show her my world, introduce her to Teagan, Phoebe, and Tiberius, all at once.

  “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time, and I hope your girl didn’t bolt. I think she heard me say we need to talk about the wedding.” She nibbled her lip.

  “Great! Well, at least I know how to find her. I’ll go to her shop and smooth things over.

  “Good luck!”

  “Teagan was here earlier; check downstairs. I have a shifter bar down there. I think that’s the best way to introduce my world to Sarai.”

  “Well if you need any help...”

  “Yeah, you know what, yeah, I’ll meet you at the bar. I have to go find her. Last I knew, Teagan was in the boxing room.”

  “Good. I’m going to steal a moment with her. Take care, Alistair.” She planted a kiss on his cheek. “Good luck! We’ll wait at the bar.”

  “I’ll pop a bottle of champagne. We have something wonderful to celebrate.”

  “Indeed. Take care.”

  “Same to you. We’ll see you soon.”

  “I look forward to it.” He opened the door to his office and let her out. Then he went back to the rowing machine, where he had left Sarai, but she wasn’t there. He ran upstairs to see if she was at the smoothie bar.

  “Have you seen, Sarai? Pink hair?”

  “No, dude. Are we locking up?”

  “Yeah, as soon as I find Sarai. She, uh, she overheard Phoebe say we need to talk about our wedding.”

  “Oh shoot! Good luck, man. I haven’t seen her.”

  “By the way, drinks are on the house tonight. Phoebe and I called it off.”

  “Way to go man!”

  “Yeah, but first I need to find Sarai. Then I need to deal with my parents and Phoebe's father. Later, we can make new wedding plans. No time soon, but you know, maybe in the distant future. Oh, and Phoebe is with Teagan.”

  “What? Teagan… as in my sister, Teagan?”

  “Yeah, I forgot she was your sister.”

  “My sister and a dragon princess, well how about that.”

  “Will the wolf council will be ok with that?”

  “We’re not outdated like you dragons,” Tiberius teased. “Go find your girl.”

  He ran through the gym, searching everywhere. When he couldn’t find her, he ran outside to the parking lot. He spotted her car, which meant she was still in the building. He ran back in and was about to head down in case she had wandered down to the bar, when she stepped out of the bathroom. She stopped to glare at him before she turned on her heel and marched for the door. She flipped him off with both hands. “Asshole!” she snarled.

  “Sarai! Sarai! I can explain. Sarai! Wait!” He ran after her. “Sarai it’s not what you think! Sarai stop! Please! Just stop!”

  “Go to hell!” she yelled at him. “And don’t expect me to make any arrangements for you. I don’t need your business, and I don’t need your training, either!”

  “Sarai! Dammit, woman! Stop!”

  Chapter 11

  Sarai

  Sarai stopped. She crossed her arms, planted a scowl on her face, and turned toward him.

  “I can explain. Let me explain.” He held his hands up.

  “What is there to explain? You’re getting married. You’re getting married.” She laughed. “I’m such a fool. What was I to you? One last tryst, one last notch on your belt, before you became committed to her. You could have been honest. I asked you. I asked you about her, and you always avoided the answer. I should have known. I’m such an idiot.”

  “It’s over,” he said, but she ignored the sound of his voice. It was a hopeful sound, which didn’t register with her. She was already beyond fuming and wasn’t willing to listen to him.

  “There was nothing to begin with, it was just sex. People have sex all the time. One-night stands that don’t mean anything. That’s all it was. It’s not like we were dating, but it would have been nice to know that you had someone else waiting for you. It would have been nice to know about little miss sparkle Barbie. I knew you had someone. You only came to my shop to get her flowers. How stupid am I to think you would leave her for me? How stupid am I?” She turned and marched for the door. “Go to hell!” She flipped him off again.

  “You’re not stupid. Sarai!” He ran after her. “And I meant everything I said. I never meant to hurt you, I haven’t. It was--”

  “Leave me alone! You’re an asshole, Alistair. A fiend. No wonder you like the European dragon. You’re a beast, a brute. You’re a coward and a rogue. Just because you’re rich doesn’t give you’re the right to mess with people’s feelings, to use people for your enjoyment.”

  “I never used you! I love you.”

  “Ha!” She laughed. “Ha! You love me? You don’t even know me. You just want to have more sex; you think I’m going to swoon at those words and fall for you all over again. Well, I’m not going to!” She went to march aga
in and then twirled around again. “I was a virgin! I gave myself to you! I had been saving myself for someone special, not for someone who would make me feel cheap. I’m going home to take a shower to scrub away every inch of my body that you touched, until I can’t feel your touch anymore. Don’t call me, don’t come to the shop. I’m not coming back here. You can go to hell. Have a good life.”

  He tried to grab her, and she dodged his grasp. “Will you listen to me?”

  “No!” She marched to her car, but he was faster and stepped between her and the door. “Get out of my way!”

  “Not till you listen to me. Phoebe was my fiancée, but she came here tonight to tell me she wanted out of the marriage.”

  “You still slept with me while you belonged to another woman.”

  “I have more to say.”

  Sarai shook her head. “You have nothing I want to hear.”

  “You don’t understand, my family is wealthy--”

  “Good for you!” She snapped. “Then your bride will be a very lucky girl.”

  “Phoebe was my fiancée because our parents demanded that we get married. It was an arranged marriage. I don’t love Phoebe, I didn’t want to marry her, but tradition is important, and bloodlines are important to my family. I was trying to find a way out of it, I just needed more time. Then Phoebe came, and--”

  “I don’t want to hear it. It’s all so stupid. It’s all so ridiculous.”

  “Yes, yes, it is, and I’m not going to go through with it. I just gotta find a way to break it off. I just need more time. Please, if you love me, give me more time.”

  “I don’t love you. I don’t even know you. You’re just the first notch on my belt. There, how does that feel?”

  “My family is old fashioned, I told you that. We have traditions that date back—"

  “We live in the modern era, Alistair. This isn’t some dark age where royalty was married off, and besides, you’re rich, but that doesn’t make you royalty. This is America, there isn’t royalty here. What kind of fool do you take me for?”

  “You’re not a fool, but I am telling the truth. I can prove everything I tell you; you just have to give me a chance. Come with me, I can show you right now.”

  “Oh, come on! I’m not going to fall for that shit. Get out of my way.”

  “I can explain everything, if you just give me a moment. It all sounds crazy, I know, but draconian shifters_.”

  “What the hell are draconian shifters?” She paused for a second to ponder what he meant, but he refused to say more. “I’m too busy to deal with this. Too busy to deal with liars.”

  “Sarai!” He reached for her hand, but she pulled away

  “Fuck off!” She ran to the other side of the car. She unlocked the door. “Lose my number, I never want to see you again.” She slammed the car door behind her. He turned a look of defeat on his face as she drove out of the parking lot.

  By the time she got to the shop, she was sobbing. She ran in and Mickey dropped what she was doing to hug her. “What happened?” She was sobbing so hard, she was incoherent. “Sarai! Talk to me.” Instead, she wiped her eyes, noticed the bouquets on the table, grabbed one and started bashing it against the counter till every petal fell. “What are you doing!”

  Sarai didn’t answer as she continued to destroy the bouquet she clutched in her hand. She threw the now bare stems on the floor and went after the next bouquet. Mickey grabbed it from her and marched her away from the counter before she could do any more damage.

  “He’s engaged, and I slept with him.”

  “You what?”

  “Yeah, the night you told me to go to the gym, I went. We flirted, and he never once said he was engaged. He made it seem like the woman the flowers were for wasn’t important. But she was, she was his fiancée and they’re getting married. He claims it’s an arranged marriage, that he doesn’t love her, yada yada bullshit!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a good thing the store was closed, so she wasn’t making a scene in front of customers. She got loose from Mickey’s grasp and went after the orchids. She picked up the bucket and threw it as she screamed. Water and flowers went everywhere.

  “Stop destroying the inventory! Orchids are expensive. Now settle down and talk to me.”

  “I don’t want to talk.” She was shaking, sobbing so hard she could barely see. Mickey wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.

  “It’ll be ok. He never said ‘romantic’.”

  “What?” When he bought the arrangement, you asked if they were meant to be romantic, and he said no. Which means he didn’t love her; he had no feelings for her. Arranged marriages happen all the time.”

  “All the time?”

  “In circles we’re not privy to. He’s rich; he’s from one of the very richest families in our community. Maybe that’s how they do it in his circle.”

  “She was dressed like a princess. This long form fitting gown, and diamonds around her neck. She looked like she stepped out of a fairy tale. It was ridiculous. It’s all so ridiculous, he’s ridiculous! His love of dragons… he had a shirt on today, of a green European dragon killing a Chinese luck dragon. He thought it was cool.”

  “You saw her?” Mickey asked.

  “We were about to kiss, and then she walked in. He took her to his office for who knows what, and then he chased me out into the parking lot, begging me to listen to him. He looked so pathetic.”

  “Did you? Did you listen to him? Give him a chance to explain himself? Sometimes it’s not what we think it is. It could have been a big misunderstanding. I can drive you over there.”

  “Of course not! He used me. I’m done. I am so done with him. If he comes in here, I will lock myself in my office and refuse to come back out until he’s gone.”

  “Sarai, what if it was not what you think? What if she went there to break things off with him? What if he broke things off with her so he could be with you?”

  “I have no interest in being with a stupid liar.”

  “Come on, you need a drink.”

  “I’m not drinking till after the marathon. Now I’ve got to work twice as hard. I’m going for a run.” She took off out of the shop and ran around the block. She didn’t care that it probably wasn’t all that safe for a woman to run alone at night after dark, but she was fuming. She figured she could handle anyone or anything that tried to harm her. She ran several laps around. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t run from him. He was in her mind, that night playing in her head like a broken record. Why did it have to be so perfect? At last, she returned to the shop.

  “Better?”

  “No.”

  “Ok. Go home. I’ll stop at the store, get a big tub of ice cream and your favorite cookies. We’ll have a movie marathon.”

  “No ice cream, no cookies. I’m training for a marathon, or have you forgotten?” She stormed out, got in her car, and drove home. When she got home, she put on her favorite exercise video and started working out. Mickey came over with food.

  “You need to eat.”

  “If you want to feed me, make me a protein shake,” she said as she ran in place.

  “You need real food. I got you a salad with fat free dressing.”

  “I’ll eat when I’m done. I didn’t get my workout today.” Her cell phone began to ring. “Don’t you dare answer that.”

  Mickey took her food to the couch and grabbed the remote. She turned off Sarai’s exercise video and turned on their favorite show. That didn’t stop Sarai from jogging in place.

  “Sarai, you just went for a run, you got your exercise today. Relax, settle down, and come eat.”

  “I can’t. I need to train.” She started doing jumping jacks. Mickey ignored her as she dove into her salad and focused on the TV. Sarai continued to exercise till her legs gave out and she crashed on the couch. Mickey got her a protein shake and then handed her the salad.

  “I’m here, whenever you’re ready to talk about it.”

  “Nothing to
talk about. I got played.”

  “You don’t know that for a fact.”

  ‘Mickey, it doesn’t matter what happened today. It doesn’t matter if he broke it off, or if she broke it off. What matters is that he slept with me; he had sex with me while he was engaged to her. That’s what matters. I can never forgive him for that. I was a virgin!”

  “Ok, stop throwing that around. You’re acting like you’re the first one to get hurt like this. So you’ve been played your first time, it happens. Did you love him?”

  “I barely knew him.”

  “Ok, did you want to love him?”

  “I think so.” Sarai paused to catch her breath. “I was falling in love.”

  “Ok, then take some time. When you’re calm and ready, hear him out. If he’s a jerk, an asshole, whatever, you never have to see him again, but don’t you want to know if there is any possibility that it was all just a misunderstanding?”

  “There was no misunderstanding. He was engaged when he had sex with me. That’s it. I’m going to bed.” She put her shake and salad in the fridge and then went to her bedroom. But when she saw the bed, it only made her angry because memories of them there flooded her mind. She let out a growl and then pulled the door back open and returned to the couch. “Remind me to burn my bed.”

  Chapter 12

  Alistair

  He had called her every day, but she never picked up. He had driven halfway to the shop, and then turned around. He would give her some space to cool off. After all, she still had a right to be angry. He hadn’t been honest with her about Phoebe, even after she asked about her. He had let his passion and desire take over, and he’d ended up making a mess of everything. He hadn’t fixed anything.

  Alistair grumbled and stomped around his room as he dressed to be presentable for his parents. He fumbled with his tie. After his third attempt to tie it, he stuffed it in his pocket, put on his favorite cufflinks and then put on his jacket. He unbuttoned the top button, ran a brush through his hair and at last he was as presentable as he felt like being. He gave his shoes a quick polish before putting them on. He had been in a foul mood since Sarai had driven off. He had taken solitude in the basement of his gym, not feeling like dealing with people. He was so angry he was afraid of what might happen, so he hid where no human was allowed to go, at least not yet. He hoped one day, when he reconciled with Sarai, that he would be able to show her his world, and bring her down into the shifter sanctuary.