Page 71 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
Emma
Isat on the couch long after Rhyse was gone.
I was still there when the link between our minds faded into vague nothingness. Rhyse had gone somewhere far away. Somewhere I couldn’t follow.
That bothered me because things made so much moresensenow. All I needed to do now was talk to him, explain things to him, and it would all be okay. Iunderstood.
The key to unraveling it all had been sensing the undercurrent of pain and fear in him when he’d shifted and showed me his dragon. If only I’d been able to do that at the time! It would’ve saved him so much hurt.
I cursed myself for locking up with fear. The sudden appearance of his dragon thrusting its snout into my face had overwhelmed me. Combined with the anger, it had been too much, dragging me down into the vague “memories” of whatever had happened to me in the past.
Rhyse had thought I was doing it because of his wing, but … I wasn’t.
Every now and then, I tried to send an emotional plea ofplease come backthrough our link in an attempt to get him to come back, so I could justexplainand make him not mad at me.
Either he was ignoring me, or I still couldn’t really control the bond between us, because it didn’t work. Rhyse remained no more than a distant presence, a sign of life, but nothing more.
Determined to not wallow around until he returned, I went about setting up a plan to make it right. I showered and even put on the glani, which I’d washed and hung to dry that morning while waiting for Rhyse to come out of his room.
Should you really be doing all this for him? He’s the one who didn’t listen to you.
I pushed that thought aside. That might have been true, but it was clear to me now what had happened. Rhyse had shown himself to me, and I’d effectively rejected him. Only after he’d left, after I’d regained control of myself, did I really get it.
The other dragons judged him for it. Killian called him a freak. He had no friends. By his own words, Rhyse had moved across the isles to live here. Alone. Away from everyone.
Because he was tired of being hurt, of being made fun of. Someone as gentle and sweet as him should not be single. But he was. Because none of the dragons wanted him.
I’d had an opportunity to show him it didn’t matter to me, and my subconscious had bumbled it. Badly. While I knew I wasn’t guilty, since my reaction wasn’t based on that at all, until I could show that to Rhyse, he had a lifetime of bad experiences to prove he was right.
It was complicated. Like most relationships. But I knew he still cared, deep down, no matter what he might say at first.
After all, if he didn’t care, then he wouldn’t have been hurt by it. That was what it boiled down to in the end. That was what I would make him see. I didn’t give a shit that he had a bum wing. Why would I? That didn’t change the type of person he was. Not deep down.
I shook my hair out of the towel wrap I’d put it in, and I was gathering it up in a high ponytail when I heard a knock at the door.
Rhyse!
“Coming!” I called, finishing my hair. There was a definite bounce in my step as I went to get it.
He’d come back. We could talk and sort things out, and everything would be okay.
I undid the bolt on the door and pulled it open. “I’m so glad you’re back, I really want to—”
“Missed me, did you?” Killian sneered as he put a hand on the door and pushed, easily countering my attempt to shut it upon seeing his face on the other side.
The force flung the door open, sending me reeling back into the house.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked, recovering my balance.
I should’ve known it wasn’t Rhyse. His presence was still far away. The telltale sensation was right there in my mind, but I’d been so eager to explain everything to him that I hadn’t thought about it.
“Shut up,” Killian spat, pointing a finger at me as one of his lackeys marched in, breezing right past me. “Humans are nothing. You don’t belong here. The only reason I don’t burn you where you stand is because I don’t want the attention from the sovereign. But if you piss me off enough, I just might be willing to take that on. Got it?”
I glared.
The other dragon, Calan, came back, grabbing me by the arm and hauling me outside. The skies were gray, and way to the north, deep dark clouds assaulted the sea. The roar of the surf against the bluffs was louder than usual. The day was just another echo of what was happening to me.
“Stay,” Calan said sharply, pointing at the ground.
