Page 43 of Desired By the Dragon

Something hard appeared under me and a hand began patting my back as I sat on a bench with my head between my knees.

The wind tugged at my hair, cooling my skin, as the urge to raze the park to cinders around me faded little by little and left behind a sense of rightness that I couldn’t deny.

Max was my mate. Fated, my perfect match, the answer to my soul’s call and the heat of my dragon’s flame.

I sat there on the bench with Leah for a few more minutes, sucking in the fresh air and pushing out smoke until my pulse settled into a more steady rhythm.

“Better?” Leah offered me her hot chocolate and I sipped it before tilting back the cup in full when she indicated I should just finish it.

The chocolate helped. “Thank you.” She took the cup back from me and nodded. “Does Max know?” I asked, hating the shake in my voice, but I had to know. Had he kept this from me?

“I’m not sure. I assumed you both did, but I haven’t mentioned it to him.”

So he hadn’t lied. Relief was strong enough to make my teeth ache as it coursed through my body.

“Are you still going to go home?” she asked carefully, and I thought about it for a second before shaking my head. I was done running. If Max was going to break my heart, then so be it. It belonged to him anyway. “Good,” Leah said, shoulders easing. “I should probably let you discuss all this in private.”

The wind picked up again, the rustle of the trees loud as Leah stepped away to put the empty coffee cup in the trash. A strange smell tickled my nose as the wind changed, and when Leah ducked to bin the cup, I saw him.

As nonchalantly as possible, I stood. “Leah, we need to go.”

She looked up, hearing the change in my tone. “What’s wrong?”

I laughed like she’d said something funny, like we were just two women out for a walk. “We’re being watched.”

We walked away from the bench at a sedate pace, but beneath the obvious sound of our footsteps the crunch of leaves crept toward us.

“When I tell you, I want you to run.”

Leah’s head jerked toward me and I hissed, needing her to pretend like nothing was wrong. Derek and his gang might just be humans, but there was more of them than us, and in this form we could be hurt. If I shifted, I risked exposure the wards might struggle to fix or explain away, given there was some issue going on with them — the local coven had sent out an alert about it.

“I can’t leave you⁠—”

“You can, and you will. You’re going to run to Max, and get help. Okay?”

“But—”

We rounded a corner and the footsteps momentarily halted as we fell out of sight crossing from the park to the street.

“Now. Run.”

Max’s mom didn’t hesitate, just took off with an unnatural speed that made me nod, pleased. I waited for a beat and then continued walking at a slow pace, letting him catch sight of me before I ducked down an alleyway to my left. There, I turned and waited for him.

Footsteps echoed against brick and Derek appeared, flanked by five of his men. Flames above, I’d been so preoccupied with my baggage that I’d nearly missed him following me. If Leah hadn’t given me a jolt to the system when she’d told me about the bond between me and Max, I might never have noticed the smell of Derek’s cologne on the air or his footsteps as he stalked closer.

He smiled when he saw me leaning up against the dead end of the alley. “Kier, good to see you. You’ve been a dead bitch to track down.” Metal glinted as Derek lifted his shirt and reached for a gun. “Now you’re just going to be dead.”

“Charming,” I sneered and Derek’s pale skin flushed a mottled red. How had I ever found him attractive? “It’s nice that I’ve been on your mind. Must be hard to be shown up by a girl, after all. I would love to know how exactly you found me though?”

He laughed and his friends shifted on their feet as we faced off. “Your mommy put your forwarding address on your release paperwork. I have a buddy at the precinct.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Of course, she had. In her defense, she hadn’t known this was a possibility — how could she have known I was going to provoke my shady ex before I left town?

“I don’t know what shocks me more, that you have a buddy or that you worked out how to get here.” A cough sounded from his group, and I grinned. “It’s okay, don’t hide your laughter. He is pathetic.”

The gun clicked as the safety was turned off and fear, acrid and harsh, made my mouth fill with saliva like I was about to be sick. “Laugh it up, Kier. It won’t make a difference.”

“You’re making a mistake.” I raised my hands. “This isn’t going to end the way you want.”