Page 25 of Drawn By Dragonblood
Because they would. Being inside stone walls hewn by my ancestors would ensure the outcome given time.
Dragon grumbling beneath my breath about my weakness and refusal to speed up the process with manipulation, I went about getting plates and flatware to set the table. Equal measures of being torn and tempted warred inside me. “It’s a beautiful thing to find your person,” I murmured.
I felt her stare and glanced over to meet her gaze, ready for her questions.
“It is,” she agreed. “Have you—I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“Go ahead,” I encouraged, turning to fully face her and give her whatever she desired of me. Information for now since she wasn’t yet ready for physical touch that would bind us that much faster.
“Have you ever fallen in love? Enjoyed the connection with that one person you were meant to be with?”
I nodded, having experienced similar sentiment upon walking into her and Jon’s camp earlier that morning. Fated mates didn’t always equal immediate love, but the tether proved equally as strong from what I remembered of my parents.
“It’s like...” She looked over my shoulder out the tall, glass windows letting in the beauty of the mountains freshly bathed by the rainstorm. “It’s like coming home where everything lines up in your life, like you recognize that other soul is a part of your future.”
My chest aching, I nodded again.
Dakota went back to her task, crushing the cloves of garlic with the flat of the blade before peeling them. “How long have you been alone?”
Her question hit me like a rushing gust of winter wind, stealing my breath.
I took a few moments to gather my thoughts and tear them off the heartache Dolyn’s leaving had inflicted. In our early years together, he’d often asked for time alone which I’d agreed to. Even though I’d found my true mates, the hurt of his complete abandonment a decade earlier hadn’t disappeared as expected.
My inner beast curled up deep inside, quiet for a change, allowing me a moment of human connection without his needy influence.
“I fancied myself in love once, but they didn’t feel the same,” I finally answered, keeping the part about a lack of our true bond to myself. Answering truthfully about my lonely existence would reveal I wasn’t wholly human. Dakota might have a fanciful mind, but I didn’t believe she was yet ready for the truth of who we were.
“I’m sorry.”
Empathy radiated from her words and the gaze I felt on the side of my face.
“Fate has a way of weeding out what doesn’t belong, and while I grieved for a long while, I’ve come to realize that person wasn’t for me.” I glanced at Dakota with a smile that wasn’t quite genuine.
“I’m still sorry, all the same.” Her whispered declaration and the pain in her eyes soothed me in a way nothing ever had. She offered comfort only my female mate I’d been seeking for years could.
My dragon lay quietly beneath her soft words when the lingering scent of her cum should have kept him restless with his need for us to mark her with ours.
“Thank you,” I replied, my voice low and rasped.
Cheeks turning pink once more, she returned to her task, the fall of golden tresses hiding her face from me.
The scent of Jon’s approach, the quiet shuffle of his feet on the stair’s treads reached me, rousing my dragon from his near slumber.
“So your taste in music isn’t all shit,” Jon said about the theme song at the top of the stairs, two bottles in hand.
Dakota whispered an admonishment, but honest, rare laughter burst from me.
“Good fucking show right there,” Jon continued, sauntering into the kitchen as though he owned it. Little did he know, I would lay the world at his feet if that were his wish. “Wasn’t sure which kind you’d want, so I grabbed a couple.” He set one of the bottles on the small island. “I’m not usually a wine guy, but if it’s this old,” he said, glancing at the label on the bottle still in his hand, “I’ll give it a try.”
I took note of the Penfolds Grange 1951 he’d brought upstairs, humming my approval of his choice. “The glasses are there.” I pointed to the corner cabinet on the far side of the kitchen.
My gaze glued to Jon’s backside as he moved toward where I’d indicated. Tight glutes flexed with each step in the shorts I’d been wanting to rip off his body with my teeth since the moment he’d walked into the gym.
Mine.
I swallowed the growl, wanting to declare dominance and demand he submit to my beast.
Unaware of my inner struggle, Jon opened the cabinet and reached up toward the top shelf, his T-shirt lifting to tempt me with a peek of muscled, golden skin, same as when he’d done pull-ups and roused my dragon’s desire to dominate and mark.
