Page 94 of Never Flirt with a Dragon
When we were kids, there had never been freedom in what we ate. Part of me thought that was why Vi decided to go to culinary school.
I’d dealt with it by consuming copious amounts of candy whenever I had the chance.
Vi sat down on one of the stools in front of the island, and I sat beside her. Mom walked around to the other side of it, like she always had when we were kids.
“Tell me how this happened,” she said.
I looked at Vi.
She shrugged.
So, I launched into the human-approved version of the story.
Sitting down by Jasper, and accidentally giving him my drink after talking his ear off. The way he’d flown me to Mate Mountain (minus the heat bit). Living together while we “waited for the bond to seal or break”.
After making fancy stovetop popcorn to further enhance her enjoyment of my retelling, Vi added the insanely good sex to the story. I wasn’t about to give my mom details about that, so I barely acknowledged it.
When I finally got to the part about our bond sealing and us flying back to Scale Ridge immediately, she looked slightly less concerned.
Only slightly.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” my mom said, when I stopped talking.
“She knows that,” Vi said, tossing a few more pieces of popcorn in her mouth.
“I do,” I agreed, taking some for myself too. I also needed a drink, but that would require getting up, and getting up could propel me closer to Confrontation.
So, no water.
“How do we get you out of the situation?” she demanded. “There has to be a way to break this mate bond. We can at least separate you from him, and?—”
“It’s not possible to break a mate bond,” I said. “And even if it was… I don’t want to.” I bit my lip after the admission.
It wasn’t something I’d ever admitted before. Not even to myself.
But when it came down to it, did I want to go back to the apartment I shared with Vi? To the life that consisted of drawing in my old college’s library long after my graduation, and spending my nights alone on my couch while my sister worked?
No.
Not even a little.
Not when the other choice was the life I’d sort of started to build with Jasper.
Yeah, the sex had been great, but it wasn’t about that. It was about having a companion. A friend.
Someone to make pancakes with because we were shitty at cooking.
Someone who would learn how to make Muddy Buddies for me when I was having a hard day.
Someone to take the wheel so I didn’t have to drive.
Someone steady, in ways I never had been and probably never would be.
Jasper was that person.
And even though we’d only just started figuring our shit out, I wasn’t going to back out or change my mind.
Our mate bond was permanent, and I wanted it to be.
