Chapter 3

I will wake up early tomorrow, workout, eat a healthy breakfast, and look presentable.

-Brooklyn, sleeping on a throne of lies

Brooklyn

I felt like a newborn foal trying to find her legs as I fumbled with the huge t-shirt that was covering my body.

I didn’t know what to think.

My head was a huge mess of emotions as well.

And that all centered around the dark stranger with the beautiful brown black hair, sparkling green eyes and a sexy mouth.

He sounded like he spoke in an octave that wasn’t even registered yet.

It was so low that tingles slid down my spine whenever he spoke.

And, my God, like the man needed any help making him sexy.

With the looks, the body and the voice, he was the complete package of alpha male perfection.

And, on top of it all, he was a dragon rider; that left me feeling almost giddy.

I made quick work with the catheter, having taken them out so many times that I could do them in my sleep…or my weakness, in this case.

Of course, I’d never done it on myself before, but there was always a first time for everything.

I made slow, painful work of shuffling to the shower that was in the corner of the room, not even caring about the fact that there weren’t any towels or a shower curtain.

I looked down at my body, kind of excited to see that I had lost a few pounds.

I’d had a good thirty pounds around my hips, belly, and ass that were nearly impossible to lose.

But, apparently, I showed that fat just who was boss, because it was gone.

And I had a new tattoo that went down my side.

When I’d gotten that, I didn’t know.

It could’ve happened at any time.

My mind was so blurry, at the moment, that I just couldn’t quite find the ability to care at this point.

I wondered idly as I turned on the water whether they had many guests in this hospital.

But they did have shampoo and conditioner…the exact ones that I used.

I used the shampoo to soap my body since I didn’t see the soap.

And by the time I was done, I couldn’t even lift my hands anymore.

I was seriously questioning my decision to shower when strong arms reached forward and turned off the water, followed moments later by a warm, fluffy towel wrapped around my body.

He picked me up much the same way as he’d done earlier, and carried me back into the little room where I’d been staying.

But, instead of taking me to the bed that I now saw was stripped bare, he carried me out of the room and into a long hallway.

“Where are we?” I asked him.

“This is our house; it’s the sanctuary for the dragons in the heart of Dallas,” Nikolai explained.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” I asked with confusion.

He chuckled as he turned around, pressing his back against a closed door to open it.

Then we were in what appeared to be a large…mansion.

Whatever we were just in wasn’t a hospital, but a medical wing of the main house.

We were in a huge living room about the size of my entire apartment.

Then my stomach plummeted.

“My cat!” I cried.

He put me down on the couch in the middle of the room, held up his finger, then disappeared for a few minutes before he came back with Elbow, my cat, in tow.

Elbow was a big girl.

She was a hefty thirty-five pounds, and probably could’ve survived had she not been fed for over two months, but I would never make my girl suffer.

She and I were like two peas in a pod.

I’d found her when I’d left my parents, and she’d been with me ever since.

“Oh, my baby,” I cooed as Nikolai placed her in my arms.

I wrapped her in tightly and smothered her with kisses all the while she tried valiantly to get away from me.

“I don’t think she likes that,” Nikolai said dryly.

I raised a brow at him.

“How would you know? Do you speak cat?” I snapped, pulling her pudgy little body into my face while I smothered her with more kisses.

She pushed away from my face, but I held on, much to her consternation.

I’d admit, she probably didn’t like it when I did that.

But I just loved her so much.

“I can’t believe you brought her here around a bunch of dragons. I’m surprised she hasn’t freaked out,” I said, mystified.

The sexy man called Nikolai sat down on the table in front of the couch he’d deposited me on and watched as I scratched Elbow’s happy spot behind her ears.

“I have a tattoo,” I said to him.

Outwardly, he didn’t react.

But I felt a surge of adrenaline in my veins.

Hope…want…need.

Not one of those things did I see on his face, but I knew he felt them.

I didn’t know how…but he was feeling all those emotions wrapped up in a small ball that seemed to simmer underneath his calm outer appearance.

“You didn’t have it before you…got hurt?” Nikolai asked carefully.

I felt like I was missing something, and I narrowed my eyes at the man that I really had no proof was who he said he was.

That’s about when I started to get nervous.

Before I’d realized that I was in a compromising position.

I couldn’t leave…I still couldn’t leave.

I wasn’t strong enough.

And who was to say that this man didn’t know Joseph?

Wasn’t working with Joseph.

My heart started to pound, and adrenaline started to pour through my veins.

But I couldn’t run.

I’d have to play it safe.

I’d have to get more answers.

Find out where I was.

Could I use a phone? Would he let me?

“Can I use your phone?” I asked casually.

He reached into his pocket and immediately withdrew his phone.

“I never found yours when I got you from Joseph’s. I got everything from your apartment, though. It’s in a room on the second floor, which was where I put all of your cat’s belongings as well. The rest of your things, like your pots and pans, as well as the things you wouldn’t be needing here, like your bed and bathroom towels, are in the basement with Blythe’s old things,” Nikolai said, handing me his phone with zero hesitation.

I took the phone, narrowing my eyes at him.

“You gave up my lease?” I gasped in outrage.

He stared at me unblinkingly.

“Your Uncle Joseph was willing to beat you, for God knows how long, and there are others in his organization that would be willing to do the same because they know you are important to us. You’re best friends with Keifer’s mate. And you are family to the man that just went all sacrificial lamb for the greater good of human kind,” Nikolai said dryly. “You’d be like a trophy to them right now. So, yes, I did give up your lease. And before you leave this place, you’re going to be a hundred percent, and able to fight off anything and everything that comes your way.”

My outrage fled just as fast as it was there.

“Shit,” I said, exhaling in defeat. “My family sucks.”

Nikolai snorted. “You don’t get to have a say in who your family is.”

I looked down at the phone in my hands and swiped the screen to open it.

The first thing I saw was a picture of Blythe scrunching Nikolai’s face with her hands while she laughed.

And a jolt of anger and jealousy shot through me, completely surprising the ever loving shit out of me at seeing her hands on my man.

My man?

What the hell?

Where did that come from?

How was spending ten minutes awake in his presence enough to make him my man?

But the more I examined the feelings, the more concrete they became.

He was my man, end of story.

Now I just had to figure out why the hell I felt that way.