***
Nikolai
I was wrenched awake by my brother calling my name.
“I didn’t say you had to sleep in here, dumbass. I just said keep an eye on her,” Keifer growled with impatience.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands, and said what I felt like saying.
“How about you go fuck yourself with that hot fire poker you’re always threatening to beat me with?” I asked.
My voice lacked its usual loudness, so I wasn’t sure Keifer heard me when he didn’t reply for a few seconds.
I reluctantly opened my eyes to see his face not filled with amusement.
“You know I’m the king now. I could totally have you kicked out of my kingdom,” he countered.
I laughed.
“Yeah fuckin’ right. You wouldn’t figure out how to work the shields. Then you’d forget your email password and need me to come unlock it for you, and you’d be shit out of luck because I’d be in the Bahamas somewhere enjoying life instead of worrying about your stupid ass,” I shot back.
An amused sounding snort came from my brother, and he sighed before taking a seat.
“We’re leaving in an hour. As soon as Blythe wakes up,” Keifer informed me.
I raised a brow at him.
“Okay.”
“I’m not leaving you by yourself…I’ve decided to leave the triplets here. They’ve gotten very good at hiding in plain sight, and they’re a damn sight better at scouting than any trained bodyguard,” Keifer continued.
I groaned.
The ‘triplets’, as he called them, were actually three small ice dragons we’d saved from the Anchorage Sanctuary a few months ago.
They were cute as hell, but they were also demanding and unpredictable.
“You don’t want to take them because they can’t fly long enough for the trip,” I gathered.
Keifer winced.
“Yes and no,” he replied. “They’re going to slow us down, yes. But I also feel that they’ll be of help to you.”
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.”
I nodded.
“Your Uncle Joseph had you,” I said, testing the waters a bit.
Her eyebrows rose. “Really?”
I nodded again.
“What…” she moaned. “Oh, no.”
I leaned forward.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re related to Blythe’s dragon rider, aren’t you?” she moaned.
I blinked. “I’m nothing like my brother.”
She snorted, then thought better of it when she raised her hand up to her head.
A phantom pain started to trickle through my own head, but I pushed it away.
I was good at ignoring pain.
I almost had to be to have Keifer as my brother.
Keifer was always bigger and stronger.
So I retaliated by being able to take more.
More punches.
More magic thrown my way.
More emotional trauma.
Although my other brother, Farrow, who was also a dragon rider, didn’t have anything on Keifer.
And I guess, technically, I should be thanking my older brother.
He made me into who I was today.
Although, I would much rather be parking my ass in front of a computer screen or a book, I could hold my own against the King of Dragons.
Which meant I had a pretty solid shot at standing up against almost anybody.
“I knew it!” she crowed.
This time, I didn’t feel any of her pain.
This time, I felt excitement through our bond.
A bond which she didn’t even realize was there.
I’d clamped down on my end of the bond, so the only thing she’d feel from me, if it came to it, was extreme pain.
And hopefully she’d not ever feel that from my end.
Because, if I was in extreme pain, that meant she was fucked right along with me.
“So, what else do you know?” I asked with deceptive calm.
In reality, my heart was speeding up.
I was excited that she was awake.
“I know I need to pee,” she said.
I raised a brow at her.
“You have a catheter in,” I informed her.
She lifted up the covers, spread her legs, and said, “By God, I do.”
I snorted.
“If you’re ready to get up, I’ll help you do that. I can remove the catheter for you…but I want to say that you can accomplish that feat yourself, Ms. Nurse,” I teased.
She narrowed her eyes at me.
“How do you know so much about me?” she challenged. “Are you a nurse…or a doctor?”
I shook my head.
“I’ve been at your side for weeks now. My sister and Blythe took turns taking care of you. I’ve just been…observing,” I told her.
I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear anything more, yet.
I’d give her a few days to get used to it…and me…before I broached the topic of our mating and what that meant for the rest of our lives.
She started to shuck her blankets, albeit feebly, and I stood to help her disentangle herself from the covers.
“Go ahead and give me the syringe,” she ordered once I had her sitting up beside the bed.
I went to the far wall and found the syringe she’d need inside a shelf like contraption that held all the medical supplies before I walked back to her.
I handed the syringe to her and helped her stand.
When I bent down and picked up the bag that was holding her urine, she blushed scarlet.
“Give me that,” she hissed, holding out her hand.
She made a feeble attempt to reach for it, but started to fall.
I caught her before her knees could buckle, and picked her up like one would a child, carrying her into the bathroom and setting her down directly on the toilet.
“You’ve been in bed for over two months. I suggest you not try to do too much before you know what you’re capable of,” I recommended.
She narrowed her eyes, and I smiled as I left the bathroom, closing the door softly behind me.