Page 3 of Never Feed a Dragon

“Wait,” he protested, catching my wrist to stop me. “You actually made spaghetti?”

He sounded surprised by that.

“Cooking is my life, remember?” I bit my cheek to stop myself from hitting him with an icy glare, instead keeping my gaze forward.

“I remember. Sit with me while I try it.”

I couldn’t hold back my scoff. “So you can insult me again?”

“So I can accept your peace offering. And keep up with the lie I told the single humans.”

My forehead creased as I finally turned toward him. “What lie?”

“That you’re my mate.” His expression was slightly sheepish.

I’d never seen Eli sheepish before. “Why the hell would you tell them that?”

“They were objectifying me.” He didn’t release my wrist.

Instead, he intertwined his fingers with mine and tugged me toward him.

The touch and motion caught me so off-guard, I let him pull me.

“You’re the kind of guy who likes being objectified, E.”

He flashed me a grin. “Only by you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m serious,” he said. “You don’t play games. They do.”

“You like playing games.”

His grin remained firmly in place. “Only if the games involve pasta.”

“I’m sure they’d be happy to invite you and your pasta into their games,” I retorted.

He laughed as we finally found an empty table and sat down. There were fresh sets of silverware at all of the open seats, so he didn’t hesitate to pull the lid off the bowl and dig in.

I forced my gaze out to the dance floor. Randa and Jasper were probably buried somewhere in the crowd, staring lovingly into each other’s eyes.

As much as I loved seeing my sister happy, I hated that she wasn’t just mine anymore. I wished we could go back to the old days, where it was the two of us and Elodie in our little apartment. They were suffering through school while I survived a job I hated, but it had been fun.

And now I lived alone.

Granted, I did like my newish job.

But I didn’t like being on my own all the time. That was lonely.

Randa and I chatted over a video call almost every day, but it wasn’t the same as running errands together. Seeing her for a few minutes here and there wasn’t as fun as having her in the apartment with me, where I could rant to her whenever, and laugh with her about whatever weird things she’d noticed that day.

I just… missed her, I guess.

I missed Elodie, too, but she’d been mated even longer than Randa, so I was more used to her absence.

Elodie and her mate, August, spun into my view on the dance floor. She was laughing, and he was grinning.

My chest ached just a little.

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