“You Dragons need to take a course on courting.”

Danny scratched his head and tossed a sympathetic look at Colson. “I don’t know, man. I think you might be worse than Mac at this.”

Colson stabbed a fork at the choice cut of rare steak Danny had put in front of him, demanding he eat something.

“Keep your voice down.” He looked back in the direction of the hallway to the medical suite. “What do you know about Dragon mating, Wolfman?”

“Hey, watch it there, Bruh. I know that Mac almost didn’t mate with Bron over some crazy, messed up Dragon rationalizing.” Danny’s drawl increased. He leaned in. “I didn’t want to say nothing, but you’re going to blow it with your lady if you don’t start acting like a man ready to win his mate.”

Colson didn’t like how the werewolf shifter, who had been welcomed into the Kelnar family, seemed to be more right than wrong in a lot of things—including this.

“What do you mean, ready to win a mate? Why do you think I’m having a problem with that?”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

Another stab at the juicy meat did nothing to dissolve the discomfort of Danny picking up on his predicament. Trying to save face, Colson threw back at him, “How do you know if Bria is interested?”

The smack of the facepalm Danny made did little to bolster Colson’s confidence. “I know because she wasn’t looking for a way out of here. Don’t you think that if she weren’t into you, she’d be so chill about staying here alone with you?”

“She’s here because of her medical care. She only sees me as her doctor.”

“Nah, I ain’t buying that. I saw the way she pretended to be hurt to get us out of there. She’s into you real deep. That’s obvious by the way she wanted to both get Bronwyn off your case and be alone with you. She cares enough to take on a Brownie-Fairie trying to get her help on. If that doesn’t shout that she’s into you, I don’t know what does.”

“No, she was overstimulated by all the antics. And, she’s not used to Bron’s inability to take no for an answer when she’s in her helper mode.”

“Don’t try to shit a bullshitter.” Danny went over to the fridge and opened it like he lived here. “Hey, you want a brew?”

“No, and get out of my refrigerator.”

The other man grabbed two long-necks. Colson watched as he twisted the cap off one and took his time draining the contents down to less than half-full. Danny sauntered back over to the kitchen counter where he plopped the other down next to Colson’s plate.

“Said I didn’t want one. Got to stay sharp while Bria is recovering.”

“Right,” the long drawl elongated the word to obnoxious proportions. “That’s the only reason you’re refusing an ice-cold brew and a magnificent rib-eye with all the fixings.” The eye-down Danny threw his way sold the utter disbelief riding the man’s features.

“I said what I meant.”

“Okay. Well, how about you snap out of this, this weirdo version of Colson? The man I know is as smooth as a baby’s butt after a baby-oil rub down. You’ve got to step back from this to get a better view. That lady in there is wanting a reason to stick around.”

“How do you know?”

“Has she asked for a transfer to another doctor?”

“No,” Colson didn’t want to betray Sabra’s confidence that she might only be here because she didn’t have medical insurance.

“Aha!” Danny’s eyes did that thing when he was super excited about something. “That’s all the proof you need. Don’t you think a lady like her would want to be around someone she trusted with her medical care? Dang it if you ain’t turned every which way but up.” Danny paused to give Colson a good once over. “She. Trusts. You.”

“You’re grasping at straws to make this deeper than it goes. She’s just taking advantage of the medical care I’m offering.”

“Has she asked for her phone yet?”

Colson took a pause to think. “No, but she did try to reach for it as soon as she came too.”

“But has she tried to get away from here since then? Hmm? Don’t burst a blood vessel trying to answer that one.”

“I think you’ve been around my cocky cousin too long. You’re starting to act a little too much like him.”

“Nope, don’t give Mac my shine. This is all me baby, and I think you need to listen up before you miss out.”

“Aside from your hipster take on my love life, there’s something you haven’t taken into consideration.”

Danny leaned over the counter as if waiting for a piece of a juicy secret. “Which is?”

“She’s been on heavy pain meds since Friday night.”

“It’s only midday Sunday. She’s young. I’m sure those drugs wore off a while ago.”

Colson’s hands flew up in the air in disbelief. “Why does everyone in this family try to out doctor me?”

“See, man, that’s what I’m talking about. You’re too high strung. Cole, dude, you have got to open up and relax a bit. You’re too serious and tense. You don’t have to be in doctor mode all the time. Everything can’t be perfect and the exact way you want it. Maybe we’re right when it comes to you.”

Defensiveness propelled Colson’s reply. “I’m not uptight or tense.”

“Oh no? You don’t know everything about everything. She can feel all your shifting emotions. You really suck at hiding them.”

“How are you so sure about what I’m feeling?”

“Uh, dude, she’s in the mating thrall too, and don’t forget—werewolf with superior senses here.” Danny cast a cheesy, confident smile to sell the point.

“Top apex predator Dragon here,” Colson deadpanned. “See, I can do it too.”

Danny looked at the punctured piece of meat and untouched sides in front of Colson. “Then why aren’t you eating? Looks like that little lady has slain your Dragon, and not in a good way.”

“I just need to continue our conversation, and everything will be out there—for both of us.” The cocked eyebrow on the werewolf’s face was enough for Colson to know he didn’t agree with his approach. “What?”

“You have to ask? Cole, you two are locked into the mating thrall, and you’re trying to reason and logic your way through it.” The other man shook his head in a bit of pity. “That’s fucked up. The thrall is going to whip your ass and spit you out.”

“She doesn’t want to talk about my feelings for her. She’s skirted the issue twice.”

“Because you’re trying to vomit your mating hunger all over her.” Danny seemed to realize the graphic rawness of his words and walked them back a smidgen. “I mean, you’re coming in too hot and fast. You’ve got to finesse the situation and be more relatable.”

“I’m not campaigning for political office. This is my life you’re so flippant with.”

“Cool down, Doc. I’m saying you need to walk back your presentation a bit. Like maybe not be Mr. Perfect as usual. Come on, must your hair and clothes be so perfect?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being presentable and well-groomed.

“On a Sunday? Dude, no one’s around here but y’all. Why don’t you give the hair grooming a break for at least a day? Relax and let her see the real you.”

“I can’t see how my falling into a disheveled mess will have any impact on connecting with Bria on a deeper level.”

“Maybe not,” the other man scratched his chin, “but I bet if you showed her how you understand what she’s dealing with as you talked to her, things would turn around.” Danny took in a loud breath and waited as if searching for the right words to say. “How can I break this down so even a Dragon can understand?” He took another pause to make sure his prayer was answered, and he started again. “Let’s come at this from a different direction. What I’m trying to say is that you need to see this from her perspective. Come at it from where she’s been and currently is.”

“We just met. How am I supposed to know how to do that without a background investigation?”

“You really are clueless,” Danny said more in amazement to himself than to Colson.

“Watch it.”

“You don’t have to go all stalker on her. Start with what you know. Hell, even I can see some blaring signs of where to start.”

Colson couldn’t help but take the bait. “Like what?”

“Like her work situation. What does a young woman do for income when her main source is gone? Colson,” Danny said as if trying to pull a great treasure out of him. “I don’t know much about her situation. What I do know is that a young lady doesn’t relish having to pack up her company in the wee hours of the night. She's got to be feeling a little uncertainty, stress, or worse overwhelm.”

“I know that, and I tried to start a conversation with her.”

“Did you lead off with your feelings?”

“Yes, but I—”

“But hell nothing. That’s y’all Kelnar boys’ problem. You always want your women to cater to your feelings first. How about you try attending to not only her medical needs but emotional ones too.”

“I was going to get to that.”

“And that’s why your ass is out here sulking with no appetite. Your Dragon is just as pissed at you as I am. I wouldn’t allow you to enjoy eating if my health depended on a great mating either.”

“Don’t lecture me until you’ve been in my shoes, Danny. Final warning.”

“She hurt your feelings, so you’re trying to hurt mine? You’ve got to come at me a lot harder than that. Remember, I’ve been around Mac for years now, and you know how much of a bruiser he is.”

“I don’t care. I’m done with this conversation.”

“Not if you want to salvage your mating you ain’t.”

“Look,” the breaths came hard and audible as Colson tried to control himself. “I’ve tried to connect with Bria. She’s not interested.”

“That’s why you came out here blowing smoke?”

“I wasn’t blowing real smoke. You exaggerate too much.”

“Hah, maybe, but what’s with the stomping out of your lady’s room brooding and huffing, huh?”

“Let’s get a few things straight. No stomping or brooding were involved in my leaving Bria and coming out here.”

“Then why are you out here still not eating?”

“Bronwyn told me she didn’t think you’d eaten since Friday.” Danny lowered his voice doing a poor job at a whisper. “Word to the wise. If you want to keep the peace, you better not let Bron catch you messing over that food. She worried the hell out of that poor guy Mac hired as an occasional chef. Bron wore that man down to nubs. She had him fixing this food on a Sunday morning with no notice. Dude, I wouldn’t wish how she harangued that guy on nobody." Danny laughed at the spectacle.

"Don't worry about me when it comes to Bronwyn."

"Um-hmm. I'm telling you what. She ran the ultimate guilt job. He didn't stand a chance. That Bronwyn's something else. Mac has his hands full with that one." Danny laughed and shoved another fork-full of food in his mouth. He chewed and grinned. “That Bronwyn is so lethal she could take down that girl scout cookie syndicate with half a mind and a box of cookies. Who knew a Brownie-Fairie would have so much mojo?”

Colson wanted the guy to shut up and eat. He needed quiet to concentrate on what to do when he went back in there with Sabra.

“Danny, are you done? I get it, you admire Bronwyn. We all do.”

The Wolfman kept smiling and talking. “You best believe if you ever see Bron in a fight with a pack of pissed off hyenas, bet on Bronwyn.” Danny paused. Colson had no inclination to join in his laugher. The werewolf looked long and hard at Colson. “Man, you have a case of lovesick hangry.”

Colson pushed the shock of Danny using a word like harangue properly aside to deal with the absurdity of his goofball diagnosis. “What? Danny stop with the made-up conditions. And, for the umpteenth time, why do I have to remind everyone that I’m the doctor and not any of you?”

“Because you make a piss-poor patient. Look,” Danny leaned in over the kitchen counter that separated them. “Bronwyn is worried about you, not that young lady in there. She knows you, not her. Let me tell you, she’s worried you’re not taking care of yourself.”

“I don’t know why she’d think that. I’m fine, and she needs to take care of herself. She’s the one having a baby soon.”

“But you’re the one going through an intense Dragon mating. From what I’ve seen between you and that lady, your chemistry is off the charts. It’s your ability to connect that's abysmal.”

This next advanced word Danny used caught Colson short on a quick comeback. Who knew the guy had more to him than bronze and confidence to spare?

“Wow, man, didn’t know you had that word in you,” he offered with a chuckle.

“You can laugh all you want. Just because I don’t choose to use them big words all the time doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use them to get a simple concept into your thick head.”

“Hey, watch it there, I’m not in the mood to be disrespected in my own home.”

“You shouldn’t be in the mood to lose your mate either.” Danny’s snapback did its job.

Colson dropped the fork he’d been using to pretend to eat. It was time to come clean. “I feel like I’m a Dragonling going through puberty again. I can’t get a lock on myself. I worry about her injuries, I fight my Dragon wanting to take over and mate with her every second, and I can’t seem to drum up an appetite for anything but her.”

“Man, you’ve got it bad. Have you talked with Mac about it yet?”

“No, Bria’s been my only concern except for the few calls I made to Bron checking on Ava.”

“Oh, by the way, I think Mac and Bron have spoiled your kid beyond repair,” Danny said through a mouthful of food.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Colson gave up on pretending to eat and shoved the plate away.

“I know that you need to loosen up a bit. Your tension is rubbing off on that young lady.”

“She has a name. It’s Bria, I mean, Sabra. You’re to call her by her name, Sabra. Not that lady. You got me?”

“See what I mean. Uptight as a church mother at a strip joint.”

“Huh—Danny I’m not doing this with you today. Sabra isn’t responding to the pain medication as I’d hoped. She has to endure painful spasms with little relief.” Colson couldn’t help the loud noise the churning of his empty gut made. “I’m only out here because I forced so much healing energy into her leg that the pain receptors are blown out for the next hour or so.”

Colson’s stomach punctuated the statement with a loud growl.

“Feed that thing, please?” Danny didn’t stop chewing and macerating the piece of meat he’d shoved in his pie hole. “I rest my case. Your lady, I mean, Sabra,” he paused and winked, “isn’t going to get better until you do better.”

“How do I do that, old great and wise Dragon sage.”

“You laugh but don’t knock the superior ability of a werewolf’s sense of smell. Your la—I mean Sabra has faint traces of were in her blood. I can smell it. Based on how she’s behaving, I bet ten will get you a hundred that she’s impacted by smell more than anything else. Hey, have you considered bringing flowers into that room of hers?”

Cascading memories of Sabra’s office loft collided to create a new inspiration. “You know, I think you might be on to something. When I was at her office, the place smelled like a scent extravaganza.”

“Yep, all those scents were hard to ignore when I had to get the movers going.”

“Oh, about that whole move, let me pay you.” He reached around to the familiar spot. The usual indentation of his phone in his back pants pocket wasn’t there. Colson hadn’t remembered to grab his phone from the medical suite. “Looks like I left my phone back in the room with Bria. Send me a text with the amount and where or how to send it and I’ll make you whole.”

“Thanks, man. Appreciate that. As for all that stuff she had, do you plan to keep it stacked up in the guest house out back like that?”

“Yeah, about that. I’ll need to defer to her about what she wants to do with it. I don’t want to worry her with that until her injury is stabilized, though.”

“Understand, but with Bronwyn coming down to the wire on her due date, you might want to get that settled in the next few months if you want me to help. I know you don’t like having anyone around here because of Ava. But trust me, you’ll need help with all the boxes and stuff she has in there.”

Images of boxes stacked high in one of the rooms of his unused medical recuperation guest house flashed in Colson’s mind’s eye.

“I’ve got you, and you’re right. Bron’s delivery is going to take up a lot of our attention. As for what to do with Bria’s things, it will be a while. Based on her progress, it’ll be a few more days before she can handle the logistics of what to do with them.”

“Now back to what I was saying,” Danny cut in. “Get Bron to do her thing. She can get some flowers, candles, and other stuff women like that smell good. Good smelling flowers should pave the way for you to have another go at wooing her.”

Colson considered the idea. It wasn’t a bad one. “Go on.”

“Yeah, see I told you I was good at this. I do have sisters, you know.” Colson was sure Danny saw the huge eye roll he gave him. The younger man continued to talk with more vigor. “To get the ball rolling, I suggest you start with focusing on her complete comfort. Like, does she have family or friends you need to contact. A few more hours from now and you could have the police at your doorstep if someone has been looking for their missing relative or friend.”

“Good call. I completely forgot about that. She already mentioned she doesn’t have relatives, but there were a few friends she said she’d guilt.”

“Those friends could be looking for her. Have you checked her phone for missed calls or texts?”

“No, I didn’t bother to do that.”

Danny shook his head. “Just like Mac. It’s all about you, horn dog, isn’t it?”

“Hey there, I was trying to make sure she didn’t slip into a coma or worse. How about you try remembering to do all this stuff while working on multiple injury sites.”

“My bad,” Danny raised his hands in mock surrender. “I would be in the same boat. That’s why you have Bron and me here to help you out.”

Colson noticed how Danny’s level of glee increased with every word. True to his calling, he was an alpha and enjoyed making sure his adopted pack was well taken care of. Mac had helped Colson understand Danny’s drive to be their all-around helper when he first came to Mac years back. In Danny’s eyes, they were his pack that he was responsible for supporting.

In the grand scheme of things, it was endearing that a werewolf would claim ornery Dragons as his pack. The fact that he would think he could be the alpha over them was even more farfetched. But his demeanor and ways had been rock steady for eight years now. By Colson’s guesstimate of how engaged Danny was with his situation, it would be easier to ditch a pharmaceutical sales rep at the end of the month than to get Danny to back off now.

Colson decided to continue to roll with it.

Instead of interjecting with comments or questions, Colson remained quiet. He allowed the alpha wolf to continue laying out his plan for Colson to win his mate’s heart.

“That’s when you show her your Dragon side.”

“Wait, go back. I must have missed something.” Colson had missed a big jump from flowers and contacting friends to revealing his Dragon to Bria.

“I knew you weren’t paying attention. Gotcha. No, what I was saying was for you to be there for her as she sorts through her upside-down world. Be the strength she uses to figure out her next steps. You’ve got the financial resources and the desire to be her rock in this time of need. Nothing says love and mating like a couple working through a difficult event together. Take advantage of that to help both of you.”

Danny gave him another wink.

“Is that all, Hitch?”

“That is all.” Danny dove back into his huge plate of food. After a few bites, he seemed to remember Colson and asked, “I wonder what Bronwyn is saying to Sabra?”

Colson’s stomach rumbled louder as the implications of what an unsupervised Bronwyn Kelnar would say to his prospective mate.

“Don’t know, but let’s hope she keeps it simple and doesn’t say anything to make Bria want to bolt.”

Danny scooped the last bite of veggies in his mouth and talked around them. “Like what—the Dragon thing?”

“No, I don’t think she’d do that.” Colson wanted to tell Danny to stop eating with his mouth open. But he didn’t want to endure another lecture about being uptight. Instead, he went with the directness of his concern. “I’m thinking about Ava. A Dragonling starting to bond with her Dragon nature isn’t an easy journey, even for a full-grown Dragon to deal with. Bronwyn’s still riding the Ava honeymoon, but raising a Dragonling is harder than it looks.”

“Man, Bronwyn wouldn’t say anything to Sabra about Ava.”

“Maybe not intentionally but she’s about to deliver her own baby. You never know what could slip out in casual conversation.”

“Oh, shit. If that’s the case, you’d better eat up. You’re going to need your energy to go another round with our little Brownie-Fairie.”