Page 85 of Love Bites Extra Hard

I wanted to ask what happened, but I knew she would tell me when we got back.

Talon eased his hoodie over my head, covering my body and the bikini I had on. There was a large suitcase full of warm clothes waiting nearby, and my sisters had packed it full for me. I’d go through them when we were back home.

Err, back to the castle.

Stella had a loose bag with a long loop that she’d carried her bikini in while they flew. I watched her slip her scales into it—and a moment later, watched as they cut through the fabric and fell to the sand.

She stared down at them. There were tears in her eyes, and I could tell she was fighting fiercely not to let them fall.

I slipped away from Talon and met Stella a few feet away. Everyone was watching us, but I ignored them. No one knew her except Talon and I. And apparently Evan.

I picked up the scales for her, knowing exactly how to avoid the sharp edges as I held them.

“Did you tell him?” I asked softly.

“Yeah. He doesn’t want them.”

The pain in her voice was evident, and I knew what she was really saying.

He doesn’t want me.

“It’s a lot to wrap your mind around. He’ll need time,” I said quietly. “Let me talk to him.”

Talon’s chest rumbled in warning.

Something told me he hadn’t forgotten that I said Evan was gorgeous earlier.

He was just going to have to get over it, though.

She bit her lip, but after a moment, finally jerked her head in a nod.

I crossed the sand, holding the scales carefully. They weren’t mine, but Evan was likely going to be just as attached to them as I was to Talon’s. He just didn’t know it yet.

I heard the sound of wings flapping, and a pink gleam caught my eye as Stella took to the sky. She disappeared quickly into the clouds, and I noticed Evan’s attention follow her up before he forced it back to the lake.

He wanted her.

He just didn’t want to.

I knew the feeling well.

I sat down next to him, and I’d barely held the scales out when he snatched them from my hands. The smell of his blood hit my nose sharply, but I didn’t comment on it. He’d learn that the edges were sharp on his own, if the cuts he’d just gotten hadn’t already proven it.

“The possessiveness you feel toward them is only going to get worse,” I said. “They’re yours. They always will be. It might not be ideal, but it’s the truth.”

And it applied to far more than the scales.

Whether we liked it or not, we were both fated to dragons. They belonged to us, body and soul.

“She deserves better than me,” Evan said quietly.

I knew his story.

He’d dated Kim on and off for a long, long time. She got jealous of the time he spent working with Porter after he and Izzy took over the pack, and joined her brother and a few others to threaten Izzy’s life

It hadn’t worked, and Kim had been killed along with the rest of the group for poisoning and abducting Izzy.

I nodded slowly. “Given what she’s been through, I don’t have to ask her to know that she feels exactly the same about you.”

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