The stakes are a lot higher. I’m doing mentally demanding work, having to stay on top of my own schedule since I work from home on contract. I can’t afford to dick around and blow it on video games or movies. I’m saving every scrap of cash they throw at me for projects finished, counting on the bonuses I get for finishing early, and socking it away into savings.
I feel bad that I haven’t been upfront with my aunt when she asks what I do in my room all day. I’ve been giving her the shoulder shrug and half-assed “helping Ronnie out” excuse. I turtle up in my room to get it done when I’m not stepping out to spend time with Nyve.
When I check my bank balance and see in the past month how much money I’ve saved up? Along with the monthly allowance I get from my mother’s estate?
I’m doing pretty good for a guy who’s never been independent before.
Ronnie laughs at me, slaps me on the back, and says “welcome to adulthood.”
Secretly, I feel like an ass that I haven’t tried to assert my independence before now.
I can blame, and thank, Nyve for that.
Before meeting him, I hadn’t ever wanted it. I was content to bitch about my overprotective aunt and my distant father, blaming them for why I wasn’t any further along in my life.
Now I want to be someone worthy of Nyve’s love and affection. I get the whole fated mate thing. I do. And I do feel that same primal tug towards him that he talks about having for me. I want to be someone who can meet him as an equal partner, not just the fated omega to his alpha.
The bank balance shows that I am ready for that next step. If I keep doing what I’m doing, I can make a go of this. I really, really can.
That’s a freedom all its own.
I still have one outstanding issue to wrap up.
My aunt is going to flip that I want to move out.
I can’t keep lying to her, though.
She’s in the living room reading on her tablet and looks up when I walk in. “Hey baby, are you ready for lunch?”
Something that used to be okay with me now sticks like a burr in my sock. It’s proof that I need my independence.
“No, not right now. I actually have something I need to talk to you about.” My palms are clammy as I ease to sit on the chair next to her spot at the end of the sofa.
“Sure thing.” She thumbs at her tablet and sets it to the side. “What’s going on?”
I take a deep breath. I can do this. “So, you know that I’ve been working with Ronnie a bit, right?”
“You mentioned that, yes.”
“Well, it’s a really well-paying job, actually.”
“That’s great, Austin. We all need things like that to give our self-confidence a boost.”
“I’ve managed to save up a lot of money from it.”
“Oh?” Her brows furrow and she turns toward me. “I wasn’t aware it was that serious.”
“It is. Ronnie’s taught me a lot about coding and programming, some I’ve picked up here and there, and it’s paying really well for me.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” I can see by the way she tilts her head that she’s catching on that something’s up.
“I’m thinking about moving out.”
Stony silence. She simply looks at me, blinking, with no expression on her face.
I swallow thickly. A part of me wants to back down, right now. Tell her forget it, I was just teasing.
The part that wants to be with Nyve tells me this has to be done.
“I will start looking for a place today.”
She’s still quiet.
Finally, she smooths her hands down her dress like she does when she’s getting ready to unload on me about something. “I see. This has to do with what you’ve been doing when you hacked the drone, doesn’t it?”
My mouth falls open in surprise and I blink stupidly at her. She knows about that?
“Seriously, Austin, you think I’m that stupid? I’ve known for weeks.” She stands suddenly and rushes by me to go into the kitchen. It’s a diversionary tactic she takes when she wants the conversation to be over.
It can’t be over now. I’m committed.
“Wait.” I follow her into the kitchen. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I am impressed that you managed to hack the drone, though. I suspect it was Ronnie who helped you?”
“He got me started.” I’m dumbfounded by this feeling that I’m actually the one who did something wrong. “You didn’t answer my question.”
She pulls a pot out of the cabinet and slams the door shut. The pot lands on the stove with a clatter. “What’s to answer, Austin? I knew and I didn’t do anything about it because it seemed that you were just being rebellious.”
“It’s more than rebellion, Aunt Maureen. You’re stifling me.” I feel the anger of my dragon start to stir inside. It’s a rare feeling to be this riled up about anything and the anger is mixed with confusion.
“Well, you seem intent on doing your own thing anyway. Why would I even try to stop you if you’re going to be so ungrateful—”
“Hold on.” My voice starts to rise in volume. “Don’t make me the bad guy in this, okay? I’ve hated that drone that you insisted follow me, as if you didn’t trust anything I would do while out. But I tolerated it because I believed that you were worried about me. Not that you really didn’t trust me.”
“It has nothing to do with trust. Your father—” she slams a spatula down on the stove top, causing the pot to jump, “I don’t expect you to understand.”
This conversation is all over the place but I can’t find a place to step off and get it back on track. My dragon is too agitated to let it go. “What does my father have to do with this?”
“He has nothing to do with this.” She puts her hands on her hips. “If you insist on haring off after some boy and getting into trouble, I can hardly stop you, now can I?”
Nyve is hardly a boy. I keep that to myself. “Trouble finds me no matter what. That’s out of your control.”
“What does that mean?”
“You and your damn drone can’t stop muggers from assaulting me—”
“What?” The word is sharp and verging on panicked. “You were mugged?”
I hadn’t meant to let that one slip. I blow out a breath, trying to get my anger back under control. “About a month ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“There was nothing to tell! The guy who was walking me home was with me and the mugger ran off when he realized that Nyve wasn’t going to back down.”
“Who is Nyve?”
“Why is this coming to bite me on the ass now? I wanted my own life, I wanted my own privacy, and now I’m being interrogated as if I did something wrong?”
“I’m not interrogating you, Austin. I’m alarmed that you’ve stopped talking to me. You used to share everything with me.” I can see the tears starting to gather in her eyes.
A jaded part of me wants to say she’s using that as a manipulation tool. The realistic part of me knows that’s not really true. She’s never guilted or manipulated me before. Not in the big things. Cleaning my room when I was twelve doesn’t count.
“I feel like you’re shoving me out in the cold.”
I can see that’s how it must look to her. “I know. I’m starting to feel the squeeze of not having my own life here. It’s not that I don’t love you or even that I don’t love living here. I want my freedom. To make my own mistakes. To have my own successes that are mine.”
She scrubs at her eyes. “I know. I suppose I should have seen this coming. Sit down. Let me make some tea and you can tell me about this Nyve. I would assume you’re serious about him. You go out a lot these days and block the drone from seeing you so I have to guess it’s him.”
I sit in a chair and wait for her to join me. “I met him when I got a tattoo.”
“Oh, Austin. A tattoo? That’s so…” She stops herself but I know how she wants to finish that sentence. Thankfully, she
doesn’t or the fight would start all over again. “What is it? A heart with a sword? A rose?”
“Words from my favorite poem written by Mom.” My hand gestures to the back of my shoulder.
“That’s a fitting memorial to her.”
I’m not sure how to take that considering my aunt’s attitude towards tattoos but I let it drop. I’ve always known that my parents’ marriage didn’t go over well with either of their families. My aunt has been careful not to be too dismissive or derisive of the fact that my mother was a dragon and my father was a wolf shifter.
“So, he was there, too?”
“He actually designed the tattoo. And he was there the night I was mugged.”
She plucks a napkin from the holder in the middle of the dining room table. “Are you two serious?”
“I think he’s my fated mate.”
“No.” She says it so definitively that when she stands, the chair tips over backwards. “I can’t accept this. Austin, you should have told me that. I can save you a whole lot of heartache by telling you that it’s not what you think it is. I can’t believe he’d be putting that nonsense into your head.”
Why is everything erupting into a fight with her today?
“I know it is. I feel it, deep in here.” I point to my chest. “I’ve never felt this way before.”
“Which is exactly the problem. This whole fated mates nonsense is just that. It’s romantic platitudes that the shifter community likes to trot out when they want to justify bonding with someone. Dragons are the worst of the lot for that, I’m here to tell you.”
“You realize I’m a dragon shifter—”
“Half dragon shifter. You have wolf shifter in you, too. Wolves are much more pragmatic about pair-bonding than dragons. Dragons are flighty and unreliable. Their heads are in the clouds so much of the time it’s a wonder they don’t just fly away,” she says with a hand wave. “He will leave you and break your heart, Austin. I’ve seen it happen before.”
That has to be in reference to my mother. “That’s not fair, Aunt Maureen, and you know it. Mom was killed in some freak accident. She didn’t leave Dad.”
“The result was the same and I saw how it broke my brother in two.” She pulls the tea tin down and starts the tea steeping in the mugs.
“I love him.”
She sets the kettle heavily on the stove. “You think you do.”
“Make my own mistakes, remember?”
Her lips press into a firm line. “Why repeat mistakes others before you have made and learned from.”
“Because I need to make them and learn from them.”
She falls silent and takes a few moments to bring the tea and all the fixings to the table before she sits down. “You’re going to go ahead anyway.”
“I am.” I’m more resolved now than I was when I first started this conversation. I take her hand in mine. “Aunt Maureen. You have my love and my support from the day my mother died and my father dumped me off on you. I love and appreciate you more than you can know. But now it’s time for me.”
“I suppose it is.” Her eyes are misty again and she daubs at them with her napkin. “I’d hoped I could spare you all the pain you’ll go through in your life, Austin. You’re such a bright, and loving young man. I don’t want the world to grind you beneath its heel as it does to so many.”
“I won’t ever get stronger if I don’t experience it. Besides,” I squeeze her hand and let go to fix my tea, “I can always come back if I fall flat on my face, right?”
She gathers herself and squares her shoulders. I can see this is hard for her and I wouldn’t have wished to do this if there was any other way. There wasn’t any other way. I had to do this for myself.
“If you’re going to abandon me, I’ll just rent your room out to a young man who’ll appreciate my doting. Is Ronnie looking for a place to rent?”
“Ouch, that hurts. He’ll want to paint the walls orange.”
“I suppose that rules him out. You won’t be too busy to come to dinner every so often?”
“I promise I won’t be too busy. I’ll even bring Nyve if he’s welcome.”
The smile on her face is pained. “Let’s take this one step at a time.”
It’s not a direct no but the reluctance stings a bit, anyway. I know she’ll love him once she warms up to him. I can’t expect it to happen overnight.
One step at a time. That’s the best I can do.
12
Nyve
I’m wrapping up a tattoo when a familiar feeling swims over me. It lets me know Austin is close. It’s this wash of good energy that slowly covers me in warmth. I only feel that when he’s around.
Looking up, I see him looking in the shop through the front window. He’s smiling. That’s a positive sign that he’s in a good mood. I wave him on in and make change for the client. Instructions and tattoo goo go in a bag and the client is on her way.
Austin opens the door for her then comes in. “Hey,” he says. His grin hasn’t dimmed. He circles around the counter to ask for a kiss, which I am more than willing to drop on him. The guys in back wolf-whistle.
“You’re in a good mood.”
“I am. I just had a talk with my aunt about things in my life.”
I hook an arm around his shoulder and draw him with me to my chair and indicate for him to sit down. The guys, those that aren’t too deep into their work, exchange words with Austin as I straighten up my workstation. Once I have his attention again, I nudge him with my knee. “So tell me how it went.”
“She freaked out. There wasn’t one thing about the changes I want to make in my life she likes. But I think I did good standing my ground. You’ll notice—” and he gestures out the window at the front of the shop.
I follow where he points. It takes a few moments for it to register with me. “Your electronic dog is gone.”
“It’s gone. Apparently she knew I’d been hacking the video feed. Guess she’s a little more tech savvy than I first realized.” Austin reaches over his shoulder. “And I told her about the tattoo. She freaked about that as well. She freaked that I had a job and didn’t tell her. And she freaked because…” he pauses for emphasis, “I’m going to move out.”
I knew that moment was coming. Not too soon if anyone had asked me. Austin’s aunt may love him and want to protect him but it wasn’t doing him any favors. Recently, he was chafing under her intense overprotection and it grew more each day as he gained confidence working and earning his own money.
“So, you ran the math and realized you’re solid financially to move out.”
“I did. I figure I can last about four months. Invetal has been making noises about bringing me on full time after the start of the next quarter. If that happens, I’ll be golden.”
I pull Austin in for a kiss. “That’s great. I’m sure she’ll miss you so make sure you visit regularly. Or you’ll find another drone hovering outside your window.”
“So I’m here to take you to lunch, if you have time.”
“Go ahead,” Bronaz says. He lifts his gun to glance over at Nyve and Austin. “This is my last client on the books and we’re about twenty minutes out from being done.”
“Thanks, ‘Naz.”
It doesn’t take long to finish my clean up and grab my jacket, and we catch the bus to a pizza place Austin discovered a couple of weeks back. I get a beer, Austin orders a water, and we get our usual order. The comfortable familiarity of being with Austin warms me and causes my dragon to flip in delight.
“So what’s on your agenda now?” My beer is cold when the waitress brings it and I wave off the glass to drink it straight from the bottle.
Austin plays with his straw. “Look for a place to live. I think I want a place close by my aunt, if I can find an apartment that’s affordable.”
I slump in the booth to tangle my feet with Austin’s. “Why not move in with me? I have the room and there’s space we can fix up for you to use as an office.”
It gets quiet on the other side of the table. Austin shifts uncomfortably in his seat and untangles our feet when he sits up. “Nyve, that’s really generous of you. And trusting, to let someone into your personal space like that.”
“Someone who’s my mate and who I want around.” I frown. “You make it sound like I’m offering a business arrangement or something. I want to be with you, Austin.”
“I know.” Austin leans across the table to take my hand. “I know you do. And I want to be with you, too. Eventually.”
My stomach sinks and I get a sick feeling. “Eventually. But not now.”
“This will be the first time I’ve been on my own. You’ve had your life for a while now—”
That stings and I can barely hold back the snark. “Thanks.”
“That’s not what I mean. Don’t make this into a big deal.”
“Well it is a big deal. I’m inviting you to come live with me.”
“And you’re taking it personally that I’m saying not right now.” Austin tilts his head and it’s a move that really accentuates just how young he is. “Not right now is not no. It’s not right now.”
It’s still a rejection and it still hurts. I know I’m the older partner here and I should be above petty ego, but I don’t like being rejected.
“You’re frowning,” he says. “Talk to me.”
I don’t know what to say other than the obvious. I’m being a jerk about it because I want him in my life. My dragon stirs in frustration and disappointment. Perfect mirror to how I’m feeling myself about it.
“You said you’d wait,” Austin adds when I don’t answer him. “Are you changing your mind, now?”
“Christ. Of course not.” I straighten in my seat and hunch over my beer. I’m being petulant. Who’s the adult now? “I want you with me, Austin, because I love you. I want you near me all the time. Not to protect you—”
His eyebrow raises and a smirk curls his lips. “Really?”
“Cheeky brat. Not just to protect you. Better?”
“A little.”
“Not just to protect you, but because I love having you close. I feel good when you’re with me. I feel younger, more alive. More complete.”
Alpha Dragon_Nyve Page 8
