“Alright, alright, jeez. There’s no need to try and bite my head off.” I held up my hands in innocence. “Anyway, do you want anything to drink? I’m about to go on break.”
“Coffee. Black.”
“Coming right up.” While I knew Myles was a coffee addict, that wasn’t the reason he was here today. I could see it in his eyes. As partners, we spoke a secret language that only we could understand. It did not take the form of spoken words but of gestures and subtle expressions we wore on our faces. Something had happened to Myles and he was dying to tell me.
When I was done making our drinks, I joined the dragon. “Does this have something to do with the fact that you didn’t come home last night? I tried texting you but you never responded. I assumed you went on some sort of hunting spree.”
Myles took a long swig of his coffee. It was piping hot but that hardly mattered in the mouth of a dragon. Contrary to urban legend, we don’t, in fact, breathe fire, but our internal temperature is pretty damn hot so if we so much as breathe on you, yeah, you might melt. So, I get where all the stories came from.
“At least tell me if I’m in the right ballpark.” I urged trying to coax the information out of him.
“I found the girl,” he said at last.
“Wait, you mean, you found the one – our mate?” I sputtered out a response. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. I’ve never felt anything like it. One look and I knew she was the one.” He spoke in a dreamy voice that was very unusual for his character.
“Damn,” I said, leaning back on my chair and balancing on the hind legs. Myles hated it when I did that but today, he didn’t have a word to say. By the faraway look on his face, I could tell that he was thinking about the girl, whoever she was. I was a little jealous because I had no idea what she looked like while my partner was probably undressing her with his mind.
“I’m hoping I can bump into her again. I mean, I know where she lives but I think it would be a little strange if I just showed up unannounced, wouldn’t it?”
“Depends. Does she know?”
He nodded.
“You already told her?” I said with surprise. He was breaking a major dragon rule by doing so. If the elders found out they would be seriously pissed. Then again, Myles was the alpha which meant he could do just about anything and get away with it. He probably wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. “And, how did she react?”
“She rode on my back. From the looks of it, she enjoyed herself.”
I growled with jealousy. As an omega, I could never transform into a full-fledged dragon. The most I could muster were wings that sprouted on my back. It was cool, sure, but turning into a real dragon was much cooler. Plus, I couldn’t ask pretty girls to hop on my back and go around for a spin.
“So, it’s a done deal, then?” I added some more sugar to my coffee but it still wasn’t sweet enough. “Why didn’t you bring her back to the village?”
“You know I’m against the whole kidnapping tradition. I just don’t think its right of us to tear women away from their lives and force them into ours. That’s where you come in.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. “I got this from her house. I don’t think she will miss it much.”
I picked up the photograph and I swear my heart actually skipped a beat. Then it started at a rapid-fire and didn’t slow down from there. “She’s gorgeous…” I whispered. “Wait… I know this girl. Her name’s Rosie. She comes here pretty regularly. Sits in the back and likes to draw with her chai latte.”
“Exactly. She has a knack for it. I helped her finish up a project last night.” Myles didn’t look like the artistic type but he could draw just about anything. Some of the most famous paintings were done in his hand and the humans had taken credit for it. He had never attempted to correct them.
“So, you want me to keep an eye on her? Is that it?”
“Yes. And I want you to make sure that she’s good enough to be a dragon mate – our mate.” He finished off his drink and crumbled up the cup. With a flick of his wrist, he threw it into the trashcan, startling the woman who was sitting beside it. I muttered an apology because I knew he wouldn’t do it.
“Alright, sounds easy enough given that I already have a pretty decent relationship with her.”
“Relationship?” Myles asked, the hair on his arms bristling.
“Not like that. We aren’t intimate. You know I wouldn’t do that without you.” I offered a warm, brotherly sort of smile. While we were not of the same blood, we shared an inseverable bond as mating partners. We both needed to be intimate with the same woman for us to bear children. This ensures that the baby will be protected by two fathers instead of just one. It also ensured that if something happened to one, the child would still have the other, diminishing the risk for orphanage.
“So, I can count on you to do this, then?”
“Of course, you can always count on me.”
For some reason, Myles did not look all that convinced.
I wondered why.
***