Page 39 of Never Flirt with a Dragon

“A temporary mate bond, huh?”

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes for a second, still fighting the tears. I wasn’t even sure why I was trying not to cry. The emotions of everything had just hit me all at once, I guess. Being flown away from my home, trapped in a new place, stuck in heat…

And the severe ache in every muscle I had didn’t help either.

“How do you feel about it?” Her voice was cautious.

I’d joked around about wanting a supernatural mate before. Too many times. It had come back to bite me in the ass, but she probably thought I was thrilled.

“I don’t know. Jasper seems like a decent guy, but he lives permanently at Mate Mountain. He’s sort of the alpha here. If we… if the bond seals… I’ll be stuck living here with him too.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m really hoping to avoid that,” I said, biting my lip again.

Harder.

“August and Elodie’s didn’t seal on its own. You can still make it through this without tying yourself to him.” Vi sounded unsteady.

She was never unsteady. Not visibly, at least.

She was the strong one of the two of us. Always had been.

“That’s really rare, though,” I said quietly. “Most of them end up sealed.”

“Not yours, Randa.”

I nodded.

I didn’t know if it was even possible, but I’d do my damndest to fight it.

As much as I needed Vi, she needed me more. We were opposites, and we disagreed on a hell of a lot, but we were as close as we could possibly be.

I would survive living away from her. I’d be sad, and I’d miss her, but I’d survive. I wasn’t sure she’d be okay without me, though. Vi always felt like she had to be strong for everyone around her—I was the only one she let her guard down with.

“Don’t screw him,” Vi warned. “There’s no going back from there. You saw how attached Elodie got.”

I bit my lip harder.

I mean, we hadn’t technically…

But basically, yeah, we had.

She groaned when she saw my face. “Already?”

“Being really horny is part of the temporary bond thing,” I protested weakly.

“Just don’t get attached,” Vi said, dragging her hair out of her face again. She was more frazzled than I’d seen her in a long, long time. Probably since she broke up with her long-term boyfriend.

“I won’t.”

She nodded, more to herself than to me. “Did you try convincing him to bring you back to Scale Ridge?”

“Yeah, it’s a no-go. He’s crazy possessive because of the bond thing.” Mentioning his frequent lack of sanity seemed unwise, so I stayed quiet about it.

“Can I come there to check in with you?”

I shook my head. “They don’t really let humans here.”

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