Page 2 of The Dragon's Stormwoven Bond

“Seriously, though, Dad, how have we never met him if you are such good friends?” My brother put his phone back in his pocket, suddenly interested in something other than the screen.

My dad shrugged. “You two are still very young, you know.”

In the human world, we were grown adults, but to dragons, twenty-five might as well still be infants.

“Heck, I haven’t seen Valen in person for nearly a century. I think he’s been in Australia for a good chunk of it. He just moved stateside again.” My father was a homebody who loved the idea of traveling around the world far more than actually doing so.

“Yes, he has to move continents frequently because he runs out of omegas quickly.” Mom set her teacup on the counter.

“Bit of a himbo, is he? Is that why you don’t want your two omega sons around?” My brother wasn’t sugarcoating a thing tonight.

My father let out an exasperated sigh. “That’s quite enough. Yes, Valen has traveled around a lot, and yes, he is a bit of a serial dater or whatever the kids call it these days.”

Mom snorted. “That’s a polite way of saying he fucks anything that walks.”

“Mom!” both my brother and I shouted. While I fully understood that my mother was an adult woman with an adult vocabulary,she was still my mommy, and when she talked like that, it always caught me off guard.

“I’ll be sure to have other plans,” I said. I didn’t want to be there for a dinner party with someone who was like that, friend of my father’s or not.

“Me too,” Rhythe agreed.

Dishes done, I was about to head back to my room and get lost in a good book, but my phone rang. My friend Drayden’s name flashed across the screen. For a second I considered ignoring it and calling him back in the morning, but knowing him, he’d keep calling back.

“Hello?” I answered.

Loud music blared in the background.

“Are you coming out tonight?” Drayden shouted.

I groaned. “No, I didn’t really want to.”

“Craig is here with his new boyfriend.”

“I don’t think that’s the motivation you think it is for me to leave my house.” As if I ever wanted to see my ex-boyfriend with his new boyfriend—the one he cheated on me with.

“At least come out and show him that you’ve moved on.”

“I don’t owe him anything, least of all any demonstration that I’ve moved on.” Because in reality, I hadn’t. How could I? Craig had been my first boyfriend. He had almost been my first anything. Thankfully, we had not quite made it that far—which might’ve been why he cheated on me in the first place. Or at least that was the sorry-ass reason he gave.

Rhythe plucked my phone from my hand. I scrambled to grab it from him, but he was too quick. “We’ll be there in five minutes!”

Argg.

If the two of them were working together to get me out of the house, I might as well just cave. Besides, once I started working full-time, who knew how much time I would have to hang out with friends? I could ignore Craig for one night, right?

“Fine, I’ll go. But we aren’t staying out all night.”

Chapter 2

Valen

In hindsight, going to a bar on my first night in town was probably not the best choice. One, this bar was way too close to the academy headquarters, and there were way too many young dragons around. Not that I was opposed to young dragons.

The last thing I needed to do was hook up with someone who went to the school or was in some way affiliated with it. It wasn’t even like I was looking to hook up, but still, sometimes you meet someone and connect. I doubted that was in the cards, though. Lately, my dragon had been reluctant to even look at omegas, yethe was the one who insisted we go out this evening. Sometimes the beast made no sense.

I was staying in a hotel for the evening. I’d arrived in town late in the afternoon and hadn’t gotten a chance to pick up the key to my cabin. And if I were being honest with myself, I was dragging my feet a little when it came to get checked in to my new job. I supposed I was just as bad as the students in that way.

It was still too early for me to call it a night, though, so instead of looking for a hookup, I simply people watched—or in this case, shifter watched. There were plenty of young dragons here tonight, men and women alike. Some of them flirting, some of them not. A few of them really needed to get a room if they were going to sit at a table in front of everyone and just make out the whole time. There were also friends teasing each other, siblings arguing, and one omega who was sitting in a booth and reading a book about plants. There was enough going on around me to keep me entertained, that was for sure.

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