Page 6 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

And who had so thoroughly rejected him, she wouldn’t even acknowledge the connection between them. He’d felt it the moment he set eyes on her, but she acted as though she felt nothing.

Maybe this was for the best. After tonight, he would know he had a mate. He would know who she was. And he would know he would never have a chance with her. It gave certainty to something that had always been a question in his life.

With the Christmas lights twinkling above and the smell of snow on the air, he tried to tell himself it had only been a question. Not a desire. Not a heartsick longing for a connection that was the stuff of dreams.

He pulled out his phone, intending to check the most efficient route to the meeting location, and instead found himself searching for images of flowers. Peonies. They looked like roses, but infinitely wilder and more sumptuous.

He wondered what they smelled like. He wondered if they were whatshesmelled like.

Damn it.He shoved his phone back into his pocket.

You can’t just leave her.

He clutched his forehead.All this time I thought you were a logical creature, he told his dragon.I’ll make sure she’s not left on the street when the Hypatia comes down. His stomach twisted.Whatever happens.

What about the drinks?

He made a frustrated noise.We’re not going to see her at drinks. You heard the others. They never intended her to join them at all. If she turns up on her own, they won’t let her through the door.

And you’re just going to let that happen?

His shoulders stiffened as he tried to find a way to explain himself to his dragon. The situation was too complicated. Peony would be in enough difficulties without him taking her to the board meeting like some sort of cursed fairy godmother.

And he didn’t want to see her face as he stripped the last of her hope away.

You’re a coward, his dragon told him.

He set his jaw.It’s the best option for both of us.

Coward. You’d rather hide than tell her the truth!

Then I’m a villain and a coward,he told it.So be it.

At last his dragon seemed to get the message. His legs unlocked. He stalked off. There were taxis on the street, but he needed the sharpness of icy air in his lungs. He would walk until the Hypatia was out of sight, and then—

Idiot, his dragon said, and tangled his feet under him.

He landed on his back. All the wind was knocked out of him, and he flailed, inelegantly, more like a turtle than a dragon shifter. He’d hit his shoulder on the edge of the sidewalk—the pain radiated along his arm and back up to his neck, then took a detour to meet its new friend-pains in his hip and twisted ankle. He hissed in a breath and snarled out a curse.

“What is the point of having you around if you can’t even stop me taking a fall like that?” The pain made him forget that normal people didn’t talk out loud to the voices in their heads.

A face appeared above him, haloed in light from one of the few unbroken streetlights. It was her. Oh god and little fishes, of course it was her. She’d pulled a bulky coat over her clothes and her face was half-hidden behind its furred hood, but there was no mistaking his mate.

So much for running away from her, his dragon said smugly.

She looked like an angel.

“I should leave you here to freeze,” she said.

The look of shock had disappeared from her face. The desperation, too. Which should have been a good sign, except for what had replaced it: she was looking at him as though he was a smear of something unsavory she’d almost trodden on.

Or—he took in the narrowed eyes and the thinned line of her mouth—like something shewantedto tread on.

Ahhhh, cried his dragon.Our mate! She came for us!

3

Peony

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