I didn’t comment on that.
I didn’t feel the same way, but it didn’t matter.
Keifer would do what he thought was best…and safest.
And if that meant not taking three of his favorite dragons, then that’s what he would do.
Even if it upset his new wife.
Keifer’s eyes went far away for a few long moments before his eyes snapped back to mine.
“Gotta go,” he muttered darkly. “She’s fuckin’ puking again. Then we’re leaving once she’s done. The others have already left; we’ll be the last.”
I didn’t wait for him to leave before I turned back to Brooklyn.
Speaking of wanting to puke, I wanted to right then.
Re-living Brooklyn’s suffering had really fucked with my head and my ability to hold down food.
I didn’t know Brooklyn all that well.
Didn’t know much of anything about her other than she was best friends with Blythe, had her nursing degree and used to be Amish.
Shouldn’t someone know his mate before they were actually mated?
You sound like a whiny little girl who didn’t get her favorite Barbie doll at the store, Perdita’s thoughts whispered through my brain.
I mentally flipped her off.
Shut it.
She snorted delicately, in that way that only females could.
She’s going to wake soon, and then you’ll be lost because she’ll be too much for you to handle.
I highly doubted that she’d be too much for me to handle.
But I’d yet to have a steady girlfriend, so maybe Perdita wasn’t too far off.
My world wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Most people in Dallas, Texas knew of the dragons that called it home; yet, a lot of them had never been anywhere near one.
I was a dragon rider.
I rode dragons like most people drove a car.
Perdita was such a huge part of my life that I would be lost without her.
Not to mention that they were endangered, and it was up to me and the rest of the dragon riders to protect them from all who would see harm come to them.
I didn’t have a safe life.
In fact, the last month had proven just how unsafe my life really was.
A woman, especially one who had suffered the atrocities that Brooklyn had, shouldn’t be expected to live the life she would now be living.
A soft moan from the bed had me turning to the woman in question.
She looked good…almost better today.
Her coloring looked almost like she’d gotten some sun, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say she was almost smiling.
Then her eyes opened and she…screamed.
Guess that wasn’t what I’d expected when she first woke up.
Maybe a ‘thank you’ or a ‘where am I’ was what I’d expected…not a scream.
When she finally ran out of breath, I raised my brows at her.
“You finished?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes, then took a deep breath, and I closed my eyes and waited.
But it never came.
I opened my eyes to see her screaming…but I couldn’t hear a thing.
Then I laughed.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
She’d used some of my other powers to make herself a force field of sorts.
I wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but it must’ve been a defensive reaction, because I hadn’t learned how to do that until Perdita had felt it necessary that I learn.
And only then because I complained that she never taught me anything new.
I studied her while she screamed.
Was it sadistic of me to find her sexy while she screamed?
I thought possibly so.
So I tried to will my dick to stop tenting up the front of my soccer shorts.
I crossed my leg over my knee and crossed my arms over my chest, leaning back with my eyes closed.
I stayed that way for a while.
Maybe five minutes or so, until I could feel her stare.
“Who are you?” she asked.
My eyes slowly opened, and I smiled my most disarming smile.
The one that got my mom to make the chocolate cake that was my favorite rather than the apple pie that was Keifer’s favorite…or the peach cobbler that was Skylar’s.
My name is Nikolai Vassago, I said telepathically.
Her eyes widened until they resembled saucers.
“Your lips didn’t move,” she hissed.
I bobbed my head up and down.
“No, they didn’t,” I said aloud.
“What are you?” she asked, leaning forward in the bed.
The new position put her closer to me, and I let my hands rest on top of my very sizable erection.
“I’m a dragon rider,” I answered.
Her eyes widened. “Holy shit!”
I shrugged.
I was used to that reaction.
Normally, I didn’t go around telling people what and who I was, but this was my mate, even if she didn’t realize it yet.
“What am I doing with you?” she asked.
My stomach knotted.
“What was the last thing you can remember?” I asked carefully.
She didn’t seem worried that she was somewhere she didn’t remember coming to, so I decided to feel her out and see just what exactly she remembered.
“I remember walking into the college where we graduated. I was donating my old scrubs to the school for someone that needed them.” She concentrated, and as she did, three little lines ran between her eyebrows. “I was walking out of class when everything goes blank.”