Page 39 of Protector Dragon's Shattered Mate

“So, I met Brennan for the first time, and well, we hit it off. We had a one-night stand. Afterward, we parted ways. Then I found out I was pregnant with my oldest, Rowan. I’m Fae, so I knew that Brennan wasn’t human, and I knew my baby wouldn’t be either. So, five years go by, and I never tried to look for Brennan. Then one day, out of the blue, guess who shows up on the front lawn of the house where I’m freakingworking?”

Wow. Sofia had never heard any of the shifters talk in such plain terms about themselves. “Brennan?”

“You got it.”

“He found you?”

“He had no clue. He randomly had a sheriff’s conference in my part of Florida.” She propped her head on her hand. “Which makes me really sad to think about. If he had never attended that conference, then my son and I would still be living there. Rowan would be without his father, and I’d without my mate. And I wouldn’t have my youngest, either.” She sniffed and took a second to wipe her eyes. “I felt a lot of guilt for a long time for not trying to search for him. He didn’t know I was a Fae. But I knew he was a shifter. I could have tried.”

“Hey, you were raising a baby. I’m sure you had a lot on your mind.” Sofia smiled. “Maybe you two were destined for each other, and you’d have found him no matter what.” It was a sobering thought. Who was she to try and thwart destiny?

Fallon smiled back. “Maybe so.” Then she huffed a laugh. “Oh yes. Rowan was a mess, even for a shifter. He was so high-energy and so strong that I couldn’t let him play with human children, which made life interesting. Needless to say, him finding his shifter cousins was a very happy day for him.” She rubbed her face and then exhaled. “Anyway! This was supposed to be a fun story to remind you that you’re just like the rest of us.”

“I’m glad to know all of the rough parts too,” Sofia said.

Fallon smiled at her. “Thank you. I haven’t talked about it in a long time. Sometimes I need to. So, before all of the good stuff happened, I lost my mind and thought Brennan was going to take Rowan from me. So, I grabbed my son, and we chartered a boat to Cuba, thinking I could hide from Brennan.”

“Oh wow. So, you ran away too.”

“Yes. When I say many of us have done over the top stuff, I was not exaggerating.”

“But he obviously found you?”

“Yep. He was right behind us. So, he dives in the ocean, transforms into his dragon, and just swims after the damned boat!”

That made Sofia smile. Fallon patted her leg. “So, you see, one day you will look back and be able to tell this story, and it will make you laugh.”

Sofia did not want to burst Fallon’s bubble, but it was the fact that Brennan and Fallon were so happy together now that made the story funny. If she and Levi did not end up together, then the story would not be nearly as amusing.

Fallon stood up. “I’ll let you have some time with him now. Nora said you can use that water to wipe off the blood, but it’s not necessary if it seems to bother him.”

“Thank you,” Sofia said, still wiping tears from her eyes. “Your visit means more than you’ll ever know.”

She stood over Levi’s bedside. He looked much more peaceful than he had earlier. “I’m really sorry about this. I knowif you were awake that you would say it wasn’t my fault. But I’m still sorry. I hate that it happened to you, because you’re the best guy that I’ve ever met, and you don’t deserve anything like this ever. Not that most people deserve it, but maybe some do.” She took a deep breath. “And thank you. You saved me. Not once, but twice, probably actually three times if we’re keeping score.” She held up the washcloth. “Nora said I can clean the blood off. I hope it doesn’t bother you, because seeing all this red is taking me right back to the moment when you were stabbed. I think I’ll be seeing it in my mind forever.”

She got to work, dipping the cloth in the water, and then wiping it gently over his chest. She didn’t get too close to the wound but wiped the blood off around it, then she washed his hands, his face, and his neck. His hair still looked clean but there were a few leaves in it, so she brushed it and got the grass and leaves out.

His expression remained peaceful, so she assumed that it wasn’t painful for him.

Once all his skin was clean and she made sure it was dry, she put the bowl and cloth away and then sat back down beside him. Eventually her eyes grew heavy.

“I hope you don’t mind if I sleep here. I really don’t think that I can stand to leave. So, until you’re able to kick me out, this is my room too.”

She nodded off letting her head rest on the mattress next to his hand.

She slept through the night and so did Levi. When the light of the morning filtered through the window, other shifters began to drop by. All of them wanted to check on her, which surprised her, and of course, all of them wanted to check on Levi and wish him well, which did not surprise her at all.

She loathed that Levi was injured, but there was one perk. In the aftermath of the battle, she was able to spend some time withthe dragon shifters. Most of them came to sit with her at Levi’s bedside. Like Fallon, most of the other shifters assured her that her feelings were normal. None of them blamed her for being conflicted about having a mate.

A fierce female shifter from Portugal named Carolina stopped by. Her and her mate, Davi, had a heart wrenching story of being separated for five long years after their clan was destroyed. She’d believed him to be dead and moved to the States. But he wasn’t dead after all. He’d lost his memory and was serving in the Macedonian army. Against all odds, just like Fallon and Brennan, they found each other again.

It gave her a lot to think about. So far, not one single person had pressured her to accept him as her mate. That seemed pretty remarkable to her, because it was clear how much this group loved Levi.

When a sweet human named Holly stopped by, she told Sofia about her rough start with her mate, Mason, a cowboy who ran a ranch up in Wyoming. Holly and Mason’s story involved his first wife dying, and her first husband being abusive. Their story was full of ups and downs, and she’d almost left him for good when he kept it a secret that he was a dragon.

It was really eye-opening for Sofia.

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