Page 8 of Brutal Alpha Dragon

I’ve been tormented by a figment of my imagination.

“I finally had a moment to breathe,” I admit as I pick up my knapsack. I’d only packed for one night. And I can only pray that it’s all I need to regain a semblance of sanity. “How’s Mom doing?”

“Oh, she’s fine,” Violet sighs as we climb up to the porch. She opens the front door, the hinges screeching with rusty terror.

I shake my head as I cross the threshold and enter the house. Dad hasn’t gotten to changing the hinges as he promised at Christmas.

But it’s not like I can blame him.

“She has an appointment with her doctor tomorrow,” Violet adds. “That’s why I was hoping you’d come.”

“I’m here now.” I place a reassuring hand on my sister’s shoulder and offer her a smile. “Let’s get this place cleaned up before they arrive.”

Violet heads off to the kitchen to grab the cleaning equipment. It hasn’t been easy to maintain the house ever since Mom became sick. It’s up to my sister and I to spring-clean now and then. When either of us can get away from college.

As evening draws in, we are seated around the dining table, enjoying dinner. Family tradition calls for buffalo wings from the local diner on a Tuesday night. The spring air folds us in its warm embrace.

It’s definitely what I needed as an escape.

I notice Mom staring at me, her head tilted to one side. Smiling confusedly, I lean in and question her look of curiosity.

“It’s nothing, really,” she smiles and glances at my father before returning her gaze to me. “But something seems different about you.”

Confused by Mom’s strange observation, I frown. “I don’t know what you mean, Mom.”

With a coy smile, Mom places a hand on my thigh. “Is he treating you well?”

An unbidden laugh escapes my throat, prompting silence to befall the room. Dad and Violet pause their conversation and turn their curious eyes on me.

“There is no one, Mom,” I titter nervously.

“Oh, come on, Lils!” Violet joins in. “If you have a boyfriend, just tell us.”

Sighing in disbelief, I lean back in my seat and shake my head. Heat rises on my face as I sit there facing my family’s probing.

Feeling suffocated, I get to my feet. “If you must know…” I take a deep breath, then decide against the admission. “Never mind.”

With that, I flee to my bedroom. Locking myself in the sanctity of the four pink walls I’d grown up in, I fling myself onto the bed.

That was… Embarrassing, to say the least. I’d almost let it slip to my family that I’m still a virgin.

Great.

Hiding my face in the plushness of the pillow, I sigh and shut my eyelids. It’s been a day.

Scratch that.

It’s been a week!

And the cherry on the top comes when Samantha calls.

“Yeah?” I ask reluctantly when I answer the call.

“You won’t believe what just happened…” Samantha says in an urgent tone. I don’t reply to her, knowing she’ll tell me anyway. “That man I told you about the other day… Drake… He was asking about you.”

“Why?” I ask with a frown. Samantha couldn’t shut her mouth about the mysterious stranger she met while she bartended for The Unicorn on Saturday night.

“I have no idea, Lils,” she admits. “I didn’t even think he knew who you were.”

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