Page 2 of Rejected By Dragons

But then, just like every other time I've tried, the feeling is gone.

Scowling, I drop my gaze.

Before I can get too pissed off about it, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out, and my pulse races when I see who the message is from.

Storm: You free after work?

Instinctively, I move away from the window, and even I know that's stupid, but I can't help myself.

Ember: The usual?

Storm: Y

My heart flutters.

Other, more interesting parts of my body do, too.

Ember: Can't wait

I shove my phone back in my pocket before I'm tempted to text back anything more. Storm keeps our messages brief for a reason. He sends them on an encrypted app, so no one should be able to see them, but you never know. If anyone found out, I hate to imagine what might happen--to him or to me.

At this point, it's basically time to close up, so I head to the register and start counting out. Fortunately, no one else comes in before it's time to flip the sign over and lock the door. I turn off all the lights and head to Maude's office to grab my stuff. I sling my bag over my shoulder, and with a lightness in my step, I let myself out the back.

Anticipation bubbles inside of me. I haven't seen Storm in days. His schedule is all over the place, and it's tough to find time to be together, what with all the sneaking around. I have to work hard to keep my expression neutral as my mind darts off to what we'll do together. Warmth gathers, low between my hips, as particularly dirty visions invade my thoughts.

I'm so distracted that, for a second, I don't register the voices up ahead.

By the time I do, it's too late.

I round the corner, only a few quick blocks from the garage where I'm supposed to meet Storm, when suddenly I have to pull up short to stop from running headlong into a wall of muscle.

"And where do you think you're going?"

My senses instantly roar to high alert, the beast that's remained locked inside me all my life lashing her tail.

For all the freaking good that's going to do me.

"Just--" I start.

Prince Fury--the eldest of King Zephyr's two sons--shoves me backward.

He's gorgeous, of course. An imposing figure at six and a half feet tall, he's all solid muscle and golden skin. His tousled, dark hair glints red in the setting sun.

If he weren't such a complete and total asshole, I'd almost find him attractive.

Cruelty flashes in his raven black eyes as he looms over me. "Are you talking back to me?"

Flustered, I'm caught between fight, flight or freeze. Not for the first time, I wish that I had claws, only I don't. "Of course not."

"Oh, leave the little defective reject alone," his girlfriend, Jasmine, simpers. She turns her hand over to check her nails, showing off exactly how bored she is by my very existence.

"Someone's got to keep her in line." Fury's friend Sebastian glowers from just behind him.

I glance around wildly, counting four more of Fury's cronies, and another half-dozen of Jasmine's friends.

The entire nest of them is out today, and I curse myself in my head. How could I have gotten so lost in my own thoughts as to have not noticed them? How could I have been so stupid as to even walk this way? Sure, it's the most direct path, but I know full well that this crew likes to hang out on the steps of the town hall.

As if any governing gets done there. It all happens at the mansion on the far end of town where this asshat and his family live.

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