Page 6 of Savage

“I’ve been looking for you all day. You seemed to be avoiding me.” She said that she’d been doing things that she normally didn’t when she didn’t have any time off from work. “Well, you should have told me.”

“Why?” He didn’t have an answer to that and told her she should have known that he’d belooking for her. “Why would you be looking for me? I have shit that I have to do now that I’m going to be dying soon. Isn’t that what you told me. That I should get on the stick about living my short life?”

“I did not say that. I only pointed out that if you didn’t buy your home soon, you’d not be able to enjoy it all that long. But that’s not right now. You’ll live a long life now, thanks to me.” He wanted her to be excited to ask him what he meant, but she only turned from him and began putting her little plants in the containers that she had with her. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me. I said that you’d be living a longer life because of me. Aren’t you interested?”

“If I pretend to be interested, will you go away? I have things that I’m doing.” He told her this was important. “So is what I’m doing. Tell me or not. I’m busy right now.”

“You get to be my mate.” She turned then and looked at him. When she stood up, he thought that she was finally getting on board with what news he had to impart with her. The punch to his face knocked him back some, and he was pissed about it. But one look at her face and he thought perhaps that he’d been right about her last week. She didn’t understand the workings of a dragon. “Let me explain this better to—”

“Oh, you’ve explained this well enough. I get to learn a whole new life in living with you as your mate and I should be thrilled beyond words that you figured it out for me. Did you think that I was too dumb not to have figured it out before you did? I did. I’ve known for at least since the day after we met. I tried several times over the last few weeks to give you hints, but you just didn’t get it. I guess it only means that I get to be your mate. Isn’t that what you said because you finally got your thick head out of your ass and figured it out on your own? Christ, you’re stupid. Not only that, but you don’t seem to have one lick of manners in your whole body that would make a woman want to be with you.”

When she started to storm off, he backed away from her when she came back toward him. But all she did was pick up her little plants and carry them to the little basket she had by her water. The growl, low and full of anger, had him taking a few more steps back until he was flush with the barn in Kingston’s backyard.

It was the first time in his life that he’d ever been afraid of something smaller than him. Even when things were larger than he was, he knew as a dragon that he was much meaner and stronger. But this little slip of a female human had his dragon backing up and his entire body feeling like he might well live longer, at least not hurt as much if he were to leave her to her business of picking herbs out of the yard. He was certain, too, that if he brought up the fact that she was his mate again, she’d remove his head with a swipe of her hand, magic or not. She seemed ready to do him bodily harm for some reason.

When she left him standing there, Savage fell to his knees. His heart was pounding, and his body felt like he’d run a great long run in just the few minutes that he’d been standing beside her. He had a little thought, one that he was determined to keep to himself. He was not going to cross words with her again. She was much too dangerous.

The rest of his day he tried not to think about Kaida. But he would find himself at odd moments not only thinking about her but holding the phone in his hand to call her. Each time, he put it down quickly in fear of him somehow connecting with her. He could not believe—yet he did too—that she had brought such thoughts of him being powerless and her being the one that held all the magic. Magic or not, he knew that she was going to catch him unawares, and he’d be toast.

After contacting another realtor, he had him looking for him several places where he could live. He would have asked Kaida for her input, but frankly, he was giving her as much time as she needed to get in a better mood. Not that he’d say that to her, no way, but he would tread quietly around her until then.

Women were just odd, he told himself. Why was she taking things out on him, for Christ sake? So what if she’d figured out before he had that she belonged to him. Why didn’t she thank him for it instead of making him go all over the place looking for him? Women? Why did a dragon need a mate in the first place? Of course, to have more dragons, but he didn’t think that was a forever thing. His parent certainly never were around for him.

But then he was bitter about that, too. He couldn’t really make up his mind in what he wanted anymore. Did he want a mate? Not particularly. But he didn’t want to be alone either. It was scary at times when he was alone. Thoughts of finding someone to remove his head or to kill him as a human were forever invading his thoughts. He was lonely, even with his cousins around at times.

There were other times when he wished he could find himself a cave and live out the rest of his life there. He wondered what Kaida would think about that and decided that she would probably be just fine with him living out his life in a cave. It would be without her, for sure. She would be just like that.

Savage was of the opinion that he didn’t know what he wanted. He liked hanging out with his little dragon a great deal. She was funny and witty. Mean, sure, but he liked that too. Perhaps there was something wrong with him? Maybe he was off his own rocker and needed his head removed because of that. Savage had no idea. Whatever it was, he knew that she was the one that was causing all the trouble he was having.

He realized that she was standing in front of him in that very moment and asked her what she wanted. It took him several seconds to realize that she was crying, and he hurt him on a level that he didn’t understand.

“What’s the matter with you?” He didn’t like the sound of her crying. It did all kinds of things to his chest and heart. “You’re crying. Stop that right now.”

“Do you have one pit of compassion in your chest at all? I mean, is it your norm to go around snapping at people when they come to ask you a question?” He asked her what she wanted. “I wanted to know if you’re right and that I’m going to die soon? How much time do I have left?”

“I told you that you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Because you belong to me, then you’ll live as long as I do. When I die, it’s said that your heart will be so broken that you can’t stand to live without me and die too.” She told him that she might well hurry him along to death to test that theory. “Why are you forever testing me? Sometimes it’s all right, but there are times when I just don’t care to have you around.”

“Well, that feeling is mutual. Do you suppose you could cut out being so fucking honest all the time and just answer the questions nicely? Doubtful, but let’s see. I was wondering why you hate me so much? Try not to say the first thing that pops into your head.” He said that he didn’t hate her, just didn’t like that she was human. “All right. Since I can’t change the fact that I’m human, what else do you dislike about me?”

“Actually, you’re not human anymore.” They both turned to Kingston. “I would have called out when I found your door open, but I heard the two of you arguing again. As for you being human, the moment that you met Savage you were no longer human. You have magic that he might well have shared with you that neither of you realized. Also, you might well have things that we’ve shared with you because we’re related and older than him. Not much, mind you. A couple of hundred years, but it might be something that you got from us.”

“I don’t know if you realize this or not but a couple of hundred years to me is a long time. What kind of magic?” He pointed out things that she’d already figured out on her own, like healing quicker. “So if I were to fall and break my leg, it might well have healed better than it would have a couple of weeks ago?”

“Did you fall and break your leg?” She said that she thought that she might well have when she was at her apartment this morning. “Climbing around might not be such a good idea until we get things figured out. None of us have a good handle on things about mates and how they are taken care of by us. So hold off on doing things that might get you otherwise killed, please?”

Kingston had Kaida try a couple of simple magic things that they could all do. She could heal herself easily. Also, if she wanted something like a glass of water—the simplest thing that they could think about, she could make it appear as well. Other things too, the simple magic of making sure that she could be found and will herself to someplace else. He’d only had her go to the next house he’d been thinking of buying, but she wouldn’t give him any kind of opinion about it until he did her. Women.They were all just too complicated.

~*~

She agreed to go on the house-hunting trip with both men. Kingston was calmer than Savage was. He was also easier to talk to. Sometimes, he’d get into it with his cousin, but since it didn’t involve her, she just let them go at it. To her, their arguments were sort of stupid. Who cared who had the most scales or had done something several hundred years ago that the other didn’t. She was just glad to be not at work.

Which she was going to go to tomorrow morning. They’d called her back this afternoon, and she was actually looking forward to having something normal again. Not that she’d seen their dragons, but hanging out with them wasn’t all that fun. They argued too much.

Then, there were the feelings that she was beginning to have for the stupid dragon. Well, all of them were nice, but Savage was something more. He’d sent her to her room in tears on more than one occasion. At least once a day, she thought. Then there were the times that she wanted to simply bash his head in and be done with him. Knowing that wouldn’t kill him, she wondered if he slept with one eye open and watched for her to come and remove his head. For all she knew, he slept in the yard as his dragon just to keep her from doing him bodily harm.

Wandering off from the two of them, she entered the kitchen to find that it wasn’t even up to the last couple of centuries. Someone had tried to salvage the room, but it was too far gone to do much more than to tear it out to the studs and start over. She thought that the entire house needed to be done that way. Kingston asked her about the house.

“One of you should shift to your dragons and burn it to the ground. It’s not worth the money that one might pay for it, even if it was only a couple of dollars. It doesn’t even have enough room for the refrigerator but for the small one in the corner. I don’t need to see the rest of the house to know that no one has done a thing to it since you guys were born.” She turned to look at him. “What does Savage say?”

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