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It can’t be…
A red-headed woman walks into the room carrying a clipboard as if on cue. She smiles warmly, dissolving my trepidation as she sticks her hand out.
“Hello, Yazmine,” she greets when I slip my hand into hers. “I’m Doctor Amell.”
“Nice to meet you, Doctor,” I say as I shake her hand. “Thank you for agreeing to this.”
The lovely doctor and I flitted around the room as she handed out instructions for me to prepare her for the procedure. The twins leave the room before Aragon takes his place on the hospital bed, wearing only a white cotton gown.
“You’ll have to relax, Aragon,” the doctor tells him, hovering at his back with a needle.
“Yeah… Of course,” he replies flatly, his shoulders tense, and he appears not to breathe.
He’s scared…
A fact that I can barely wrap my head around. He wasn’t afraid of the needle to extract blood. But with the doctor prepping to extract bone marrow from his arm, he’s clearly regretting his decisions.
Taking a deep breath, I round the bed and stare up into his eyes. “Aragon?”
“Hm?” He looks up, eyes deflated from the anxiety wound in his core. The look in his eyes tugs my heartstrings, and I have to stifle the sudden urge to reach out and cup his cheek.
“Are you sure you wanna do this without undergoing sedation?” I ask, lingering at his side as I fight that imposing urge.
Aragon looks up, his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed at me. “What makes you think I can’t do this?”
I shudder from the impact of his cold tone, shrugging diffidently. “Nothing. I just thought it would be easier,” I murmur.
“This is easy,” he declares, turning to the doctor. “Go ahead. Just do it and get it over with.”
He echoes the one thing I’d blurted the other day in the lab—to get it over with. A thoughtless command that he’d heeded as soon as the words left my mouth. A shiver courses down my spine just as the doctor pushes the needle through his flesh and hits the bone. He winces from the impact, sucking a breath through gritted teeth.
It’s no wonder he hasn’t mentioned anything about our day full of passion. It’s easier for him.
Just as easy as it is for me to pretend that it didn’t happen. Perhaps, if I’d found him lying beside me the next morning, I wouldn’t have to avoid the subject. It seems we’re both bound to internal struggles as I watch him surrender to the pain inflicted by the needle as marrow is extracted from his bone.
“And…” Doctor Amell pulls out the needle when the syringe contains mustard-tinged liquid. “... We’re done.”
“Thanks, Doctor.” Aragon climbs off the bed and turns to me. “You have your sample now. You can continue your research.”
“Uhm… Thanks…” I murmur, staring after him as he proceeds to the changing stall.
“Don’t mention it, Yazmine,” he says coldly from behind the visor. “The twins will show you around the island, as you requested. You may conclude the test tomorrow.”
I open my mouth to say something, but then press my lips into a line when the doctor comes over and hands me the vial containing Aragon’s bone marrow sample. Though I’d been curious to see the island, I still remember the brief and hostile treatment from the female dragon shifters. I want to ask Aragon if he’s sure it’s safe for me to be outside when the others don’t seem to like humans—just as he hates my kind. But when I thank the doctorfor helping out, I hearAragon leave behind me.
He’s back to being the cold, heartless brute I met when he kidnapped me and brought me here that first day. There’s no trace of the passionate lover I met on his birthday. It leaves me feeling empty, knowing I’d made the right decision not to bring it up.
***
“... And this is the football field,” Stryder points to the right where a fenced field lies dormant.
“The one where you play rugby?” I ask, placing a hand on my forehead to shield my eyes from the sun’s penetrating rays as I scan the field. Mentally, I imagine Aragon on that field, a rugby ball tucked under one arm as he races toward the poles to score a goal for his team. I’m grateful for Stryder and Stryker being around to accompany me and keep me safe from the other dragon shifters who seem to hate me as much as Aragon does - simply for being human. I try not to think about his resentment toward my kind, instead focusing on the imagery in my mind.
Before the mortal world tainted him.
The thought of him playing his favorite sport lifts my lips into a smile until I’m hauled back to reality by Stryker’s voice.
“Yeah… We used to play. Back when brother Aragon was interested in the game.”
