Page 1 of Dragon's Rejected Mate

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Jamie

“Mom, how do I look?” Jamie asked as she modeled her wedding dress.

“Beautiful,” her mother, Georgia assured her, as she coughed into a handkerchief.

Jamie immediately sat down on the bed beside her mother and put her arm around her.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Can I get you some water or something else?”

“No, darling, I’m fine. I just had something caught in my throat.”

Jamie searched her mother’s face and then nodded. Although Georgia had never smoked a day in her life, she somehow managed to be attacked by stage four cancer. Her strongest wish had been to live long enough to see Jamie, her only child, get married.

“Do you have everything you are supposed to have?” Georgia asked.

“I do. I have the diamond necklace and earrings that I borrowed from you. My garter has blue lace woven into it. Then, I have grandma’s ring, which is old, and Jenna gave me a bracelet, which is something new.”

Jenna turned around so that Jamie could zip up her maid of honor’s dress.

“You look beautiful,” Jamie said.

“So do you. I’m still amazed that we were able to get your hair to hold those curls like that,” Jenna said.

“Not a problem that a little hairspray can’t solve.”

“You mean a lot of hairspray.” Jenna laughed.

The three women made their way out to the car that was waiting to take them to the park where Jamie was going to marry the man of her dreams.

She had met Ryan in college and had fallen quickly for him. He was tall and blond with the bluest eyes that she had ever seen. He was incredibly intelligent and had a great sense of humor. The two of them had bonded over a particularly difficult algebra class in high school and had been inseparable since then. They even applied and got into the same university together. Ryan had proposed to her a year ago, and the couple had set the wedding date for a month after the both of them graduated from the university with their degrees.

It seemed to take forever for them to travel from Jamie’s parents’ house to the venue. A little cabin was beautifully decorated where she would wait for the signal.

Jamie sat in a comfortable chair and crossed her legs. Then, she recrossed them in the other direction. A few seconds later, she stood up and paced around the cabin.

“You’re going to wear yourself out and have no energy for your wedding night.” Georgia laughed.

The clock on the wall indicated that it was time for the ceremony to begin, but there was no sign of Jamie’s father. Jamie could hear the ticking of the clock as minute after minute passed.

Almost an hour later, there was a knock on the cabin door. Her father entered with a grim look on his face and wordlessly handed Jamie a note. She read the note aloud.

Dear Jamie,

I don’t know how to tell you this, so I will just be blunt. I cannot marry you. I’ve been seeing Amber for the last several months and I have fallen in love with her. There is no way that I could make you happy. I hope that you will forgive me and that one day you will find love and happiness.

Ryan

Jaime pressed her lips together, refusing to cry.

She sat down on the chair and said, “Well, we have a ton of food, a good DJ, and we’ve already paid for the room at the community center. We may as well not let it go to waste.”

Her father patted her on the back and said, “That’s my girl.”

Jamie changed into a different dress and headed to what would have been their reception. She didn’t feel much like partying, but her pride wouldn’t let anyone see how devastated she was.

During the evening, she told herself that she should have seen this coming. Ryan had been distant lately, but she had blown it off, contributing it to stress, final exams, and getting ready for graduation. There had been a niggle in the back of her mind that suggested that he might have been seeing another person. Amber’s sideways looks and giggles whenever she walked by should have been a clue, too. Amber was a first-class bitch, who would take delight in another person’s pain.

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