Page 45 of Love Bites Extra Hard

My body warmed when he spoke.

I cared about him way more than I should’ve.

“You can’t keep doing this. You have to—” Stella began.

“I don’t have to do anything,” he growled back.

I didn’t want to invade their privacy any longer, so I pulled the door open. Talon was sitting on the floor outside my room, slumped against the wall.

“I’m fine,” he said, when I opened my mouth to ask what was going on.

“He’s so fucking obsessed with you, he can’t sleep without having you in his line of sight,” Stella shot back, flashing her brother a glare before lifting her gaze to me with something in her eyes that looked like a plea. “He’s living on caffeine, but it’s not enough. He needs to sleep.”

I’d noticed him getting more and more exhausted, but I hadn’t put that together.

It was… concerning.

Not concerning enough to let myself think it meant more than it did, though. Dragons were possessive of the people they were sleeping with, so Talon was possessive of me. I was the same with him, even though I wasn’t a dragon.

“You should’ve told me,” I said to him.

“I’m fine,” he repeated, glaring at his sister.

“Can you even get up?” she asked pointedly.

He growled halfheartedly and slowly got to his feet.

I slipped my arm in his, taking a little of his weight. He wouldn’t lean on me, but I’d balance him anyway. “I’ll get him to sleep. Can you tell me where the dining room is?”

Talon growled again, with more force. “I don’t want you going there.”

He was worried someone would realize I was their fated mate.

I was too.

Hopefully, having his scent all over me the way I did would protect me.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll bring you food. Thank you.” She squeezed my arm before she disappeared around the corner.

“I’m fine,” Talon said yet again, trying to pull his arm out of my grip.

I held on tight. “Don’t lie to me.”

He huffed, but stopped fighting.

“Or to yourself,” I added, scanning the hall around him for a basket that would’ve been full of scales. There had been a lot less of them recently, which made me think he was almost done losing them. “No more scales?”

“I think the last one fell yesterday.”

“Good. I’m running out of space.” I shut my door behind us and towed Talon across the hall. His room was unlocked when we reached it, so I pulled him inside with me. He closed that one, and didn’t voice another complaint when I dragged him toward one of the bedrooms.

“That one’s the office,” he said.

I pulled him toward the other one instead.

His bed was bigger than mine. It was unmade, with the blankets wrinkled, even though it sounded like he hadn’t been there in ages. I never made my bed, either. It always felt like a waste of time.

For some reason, his bed had a canopy too.

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