Page 4 of Surge of Heat

“Aydan…”

“I know. Okay? I know. But if you leave now, you’re not just putting your life in danger, you’re putting all our lives in danger. Is he worth that?”

He’s asking the only question he knows that will make me stop. I love him and Granger. I would never put them at risk. Still, his question lingers in my mind.Is he worth it?His life is worth more to me than I can possibly understand, but not Granger and Aydan. Never them. If something happened to them, I could never forgive myself.

I look back at the sky, tears in my eyes. The pulling intensifies as we round the mountainous road and the sight of the two dragons battling disappears from view.Evander. Please be okay. You have to be okay.

TWO

Samantha

Hours have passed.I expected by now for Evander to have caught up with our car and be with us. I expected tension and fighting between the men, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. The thing is, the more time that passed without Evander joining us, the more Iwaslooking forward to the fighting. I can handle fighting. I just need him here.

I did the wrong thing. I left him to deal with that monster. If he dies, it’s because of me.

“We’re officially off the mountain,” Granger says tiredly from the front seat, pointing ahead briefly with his good arm as if there’s some kind of red blinking sign indicating our location, before quickly grabbing the steering wheel once more.

I say nothing. What’s there to say? I’m safely off the mountain, and Evander is… hurt? Dead? I don’t even know, but I should’ve been there with him. My chest feels like I’m dying without him anyway. I might as well be at his side.

“Sam?” Granger says from the front seat, and his dark eyes are concerned.

For him, I would fake a smile if I could. I love it when he smiles, and the corners of his eyes crinkle. Sometimes he laughs too, and the sound rolls from his stomach out of his throat in a way that makes me laugh even harder, but not today. Neither of us laughs.

He looks exhausted. He’s in wrinkled clothes, and his dark, messy hair is even messier than usual. There’s dirt smeared on his face, his hands, his neck. Everywhere. And one arm is in a sling. Something happened to these two, and if the pulling feeling in my chest wasn’t so painful, I would’ve already asked them about it.

“Sam?” This time, it’s Aydan who speaks from beside me. He’s been studying me, frowning a lot, struggling for the right thing to say. Even so, I know whatever leaves his lips will be the absolute wrong thing to say even before he speaks. “Why are you so upset?”

Bingo.

Aydan looks like hell too. His clothes are torn in little parts. There are blood stains on the back of his shirt, and his blue eyes hold just a little bit of pain. His blond hair is stained with blood, his skin is dirty. Whatever happened on that mountain, these two have suffered. They don’t deserve my silence, even if my heart is being slowly ripped out of my chest.

“I should have stayed.”

The betrayal and shock on Aydan’s face makes me wish I’d stayed silent. “There were two huge dragons fighting. What the hell did you think you could do?”

I stare at him, not backing down. “I’m a dragon too.”

My words have an impact. They both look away.Is it that they’re disappointed about what I’ve become? Or that they still don’t believe it?

“Even so, you, Granger, and I are the Wolf Pack. We’re a family. We’re all the matters. The only thing that could’vehappened back there was you getting hurt, and we weren’t going to allow that to happen.”

“If I tried to help him, you would’ve tried to stop me. You two would’ve been at risk. That’s the only reason I didn’t.” My words are laced with sadness, and a little bit of an accusation.

“Why do you care about what happens to him?” Aydan practically spits the words out. “He’s nothing.”

“He’s something. To me. To my dragon,” I admit.

The tension in the air increases. I glance toward Granger and see his back is rigid. He’s expecting a fight, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to get one.

“What? What is he to you?” Aydan asks angrily.

I look away. “I don’t know.”

More silence.

“Is that where those marks on your neck came from?Him?” Aydan’s words are low and angry.

I don’t answer, because answering won’t make this situation any better. I know Aydan like I know my own heart. He wants to pick at this thing until he gets to see every inch of my heart and feelings, and then he’ll find some logical way to make my feelings seem foolish. But one thing Aydan has never understood is that feelings in themselves are illogical.

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