I don’t miss Andrew at all.
Then again, now that I’m out of the relationship and I’ve had a little bit of time to process everything, I know I never really loved him. With Andrew, things were convenient and normal. Ordinary. It was never a fully romantic, can’t-get-enough-of-each-other kind of situation. With Andrew, things were common. Ordinary. Plain.
I was eating vanilla yogurt without realizing there were a world of other flavors out there.
“Tell me about it.”
“He made me feel important,” she says. “And then he made me feel like I was nothing at all. It was over so fast that sometimes, I still wonder if he thinks of me.”
“You’re worth more than that, Nicole.”
She doesn’t say anything for a long time, but I know she heard me.
“Fuck that guy,” I tell her. “You deserve better.
Chapter Sixteen
Lawrence
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” Wilson and Cameron are standing beside the main Fablestone office when I land. The girls slide off my back and I shift back, tired and worn out from the flight.
“It’s a long story.”
“They aren’t shifters,” Cameron says. “Why is one of them blindfolded?”
Julie and I exchange looks. Yeah, I heard everything Nicole said and I think it’s fair to say I may have jumped to conclusions about her. Oh, Bernie seemed like a raving psycho and so did Nicole, at least at first. When she was talking to Julie on the flight, though, she seemed...normal.
Is it possible that she, too, was being drugged?
She’s only been with Lucky for a week and Nicole honestly doesn’t seem to know they’re evil. From what she was saying, they were trying to capture sick shifters in order to help them. Does she really believe that? I get the vibe that she does.
“It’s a long story,” Julie says. She removes the blindfold from Nicole and starts to untie her arms. “I’m sorry if you’re sore,” she whispers, lowering her voice.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nicole instantly starts rubbing her arms.
“And who is this?” Wilson looks from Julie to me and back again. Then he fucking growls. “Are you shitting me? A mate? First Cameron, and now you? That’s it. I’m not letting any of you go to the stone tower again. No single dragons can go. Only dragons who already have mates and aren’t going to go catching humans and bringing them back.” He throws up his hands in the air.
“Julie is...ah...she’s a teacher,” I say slowly. “And she’ll be staying with me for a little while. For a...uh...visit,” I finally say. It’s super lame. We haven’t talked about the whole mate thing yet, though, and I’m not interested in scaring her.
“And Nicole is with Lucky,” Julie says, dropping the news on the clan like a fucking bomb. Instantly, Cameron and Wilson both start talking at once, but I hold up my hand to silence them.
“There’s a problem,” I say. “She was in the forest with her friend trying to catch a dragon.” The guys go stiff. “She was told there were sick shifters in the woods and she was supposed to help them,” I continue.
“What?” Cameron looks confused.
“That’s right,” Nicole says quietly. “We make medicine. We can help.”
“You need to tell her,” Julie whispers.
“Nicole,” I say. “Lucky isn’t helping shifters, love. They tricked you. In fact, Lucky is known for running medical experiments on shifters, especially in this area.”
“What?” She goes pale.
Yeah, she didn’t know.
She had no fucking clue.
“I know you didn’t know, and we aren’t going to hold that against you,” I say. “But there is the matter of Bernie.”