Page 24 of Thrown into the Mob

“But you don’t know him.”

“I’ve been in a car for hours with him. He’s simmering with tension, and it’s because he’s fighting for his happiness.”

I looked toward the car. Conrad was clenching his jaw, and he was sitting up straight. He looked like my wolf did when he braced himself for a kill. This was the guy who broke out of the compound for us, destroying any chance he could return to his family. But he did that because he chose me, before I did the same for him, though his method was to demolish the building, whereas I just followed.

I’d made my decision.

We walked back to the car, and Flint opened Conrad's door.

“You two need to mate.”

Conrad erupted with a loud, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Now, before your father's people catch up. The mating protects you both. Without it, you're just a runaway son and I've got no authority to keep the patriarch from reclaiming you.”

Conrad's eyes moved from Flint to me. He raised his brows and mumbled, “Is this what you want?”

I nodded.

“But when dragons mate, we have a ceremony followed by… you know.”

His cheeks reddened in the car's interior light, and I was squirming because it was embarrassing enough but my family was here, and Ranger would have ammunition to tease me for the rest of my life.

“Mating requires…” He bobbed his head back and forth.

“I know because I've done it.” Flint stepped back from the door. “Mark each other. The rest can wait.”

Conrad got out of the car. I wanted to shove my family in the car and race into the woods, but we were on the clock. Conrad and I faced one another, standing on the gravel with my family hanging on every word. This wasn’t what I would have chosen for this moment.

“This is romantic.”

Conrad grinned, a real smile that reflected in his eyes. “It could be worse.”

“Yeah, I could be in the clutches of that dragon who flew overhead.”

Heat was rolling off his skin despite the cold night as his dragon prepared to mark me.

“I’ll go first.” One of us had to, and I wanted to get this over with, my wolf had been ready for days.

Conrad pulled the collar of his shirt aside, exposing his shoulder. His skin was pale in the moonlight, and I performed a partial shift where my wolf’s teeth replaced mine. Conrad’s scent tickled my skin, and I wondered how I’d resisted it for so long.

My wolf’s incisors sank into him, and he took hold of my arm. He wasn’t hurting or pushing me away, but I sensed, maybe hoped, he was anchoring himself to me.

He was my mate, not in theory but according to my mark, and my doubts vanished and the words, “He is the one,” repeated in my head.

I pulled back and admired the mark I’d made on his shoulder.

Conrad's eyes were darker than usual. He put his hand on my good shoulder and tugged at the fabric. Heat built in his palm and the warmth spread across my skin and intensified. It was way past comfortable, and I expected my body to start hissing as smoke curled from between his fingers.

From inside the car, Ranger yelled, “What the fuck? Madd’s on fire.”

The car doors flew open, and my three relatives jumped out. Smoke was pouring off Conrad's hand and my shoulder, and the air smelled like burned flesh. My wolf was howling, though he wasn’t in pain. This was primal, a sound that reached back to the distant past.

“Not the car.” Ranger was patting the doorframe. “This is my baby. There better not be scorch marks.”

“Madd’s fine, Ranger.” Grandpa was standing six feet away with his arms folded. “This is the way it is with dragon shifters. Your grandfather and I witnessed a few when we were younger.”

The searing peaked and ebbed. Conrad pulled his hand back, and on my shoulder, there was a different kind of mark. It wasn’t a bite but a burn, and pressed into my skin was a pattern that looked like dragon scales. It hurt but not in the same way as the bullet wound. This had a purpose, and it linked us together.