Nathan admired Ice’s physique as the water ran in rivulets over her arms and legs. They’d played around some more, Ice giving him a blowjob and Dominic taking care of himself while he went down on Ice. They’d not crossed the line and actually fucked. Nathan didn’t dare until he knew she’d return with them. Once two males had sex with their matched female as a three, they created a bond between them, almost impossible to break. Ice needed the full story before they went there, but he couldn’t figure out how to tell her. Dom had gone for a run, and he’d rather wait until they were all together.
“You’ve got a fantastic body,” he told her.
She wrinkled her nose. “You think so?”
“Don’t you? You clearly work hard at it.”
“I work hard at being a good fighter, not looking a certain way. Trust me. Most men don’t appreciate muscles on a woman. And I’ve got no boobs.” She shrugged. “A lot of guys don’t go for my type.”
“Human males are stupid.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Nathan realized his mistake.
She snorted, bending at the waist to wash her legs. “Human males? And what are you, robots?” She kept her words light but wariness stole into her eyes.
He sighed. “We need to talk, beautiful.”
“Okay.” She continued to lather the sponge she held with body wash, but her movements were suddenly studied not natural.
He sighed, regretting his slip up but unable to take it back. Either he lied now, which would make her trust them even less when he finally revealed the truth or he put it out there. Took the risk. Surely, she sensed she wasn’t like other humans. Even if she owned no memories of her dragon life, she possessed dragon gifts. He’d overheard some of her conversation with her friend the previous evening, and gleaned enough to understand she’d experienced occasions when her inner dragon fought to get out. Hopefully his words wouldn’t be quite the shock he dreaded. “We…Dom and I…aren’t human. Neither are you.”
She stared at him for a long moment. Fear morphed into anger and disappointment washed over her features. Setting her jaw tight, she threw the sponge at him. Nathan shut his eyes as soapy water hit his face. When he opened them, Ice was hugging a towel around herself, shooting him a disgusted look.
“You just had to ruin it didn’t you. Why do I always attract the freaks? So close to being normal…then this.”
Door banging behind her, she stormed out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Cursing, he followed hot on her heels. She’d already got her jeans on and pulled the T-shirt over her head as he reached her.
“Listen to me, beautiful.”
“Don’t ‘beautiful’ me. You don’t know me. This is a bit of fun…or it was, before you decided to make me a laughing stock for the two of you.”
“I’ll explain, if you’ll give me a moment.”
“No. I need to go feed George. My neighbor’s not back until this evening, and he’ll get cranky if he misses his lunch.” She skirted around him, gathering her things from the floor and stuffing them in her bag.
For the second time in his life, he didn’t know what to do. If he tried to make her stay, she’d lose all trust in him. She’d no clue of her heritage, yet kept herself closed off from most people, seemingly due to her fear of hurting them. If he went in heavy handed now, scared her even more, she’d likely bolt. He knew where she lived. He’d let her leave and go fetch her once Dominic returned.
She didn’t look back, and closed the suite door behind her. Nathan sat on the bed and raked his hands through his hair. Give him a battlefield full of possible death and he retained a cool head, but it seemed his mate could rattle him no end.
Dominic swung the door open ten minutes later and Nathan turned to face his bonded male. How did he explain this fuck up?
“She’s gone.” Dominic didn’t ask.
“Yes. How did you…”
“Her scent isn’t here anymore. What did you do?”
“I messed up.”
Dominic’s face softened. “Wow. The mighty Nathan admits he fucked up. How?”
“I blurted out something about human men being stupid and she picked up on it. Like a fucking hawk. I’d bet good money, if she were human the words would have washed over her and I could have explained them away. As it is, she knows something about her is wrong. At least when it comes to fitting into the human world. So I told her the truth. Thought it better than more lies.”
Dominic sat down on the bed and crossed his legs. “I take it she didn’t react well.”
A smile tugged at his lips as he recalled her words. “She said I was a freak.”
“Well, she kind of got that one right.”
Nathan picked up a brochure on the hotel dresser and threw it at Dom’s head, but the other male batted it away with a laugh.
“Let me get a shower and dressed and we’ll go find her. We’ll tell her the truth. All of it. You said she’d burned her friend, so she must know she’s not normal. Not as far as being human goes anyway. I think she’ll listen.”
He untangled his legs and hopped off the bed, heading for the bathroom. Nathan watched him go, hoping like hell he was right.
Two hours later Nathan and Dominic stood outside her apartment, Nathan’s heart thudding hard.
“Think she’ll let us in?” Dominic asked, his assurance of earlier seemingly deserting him now they stood outside her door.
“I hope so,” he muttered as he knocked.
The door opened, and Ice narrowed her eyes when she saw them.
“What now? Come to tell me you’re aliens wanting to take me back to your planet?”
“Not far off.” Dominic said and Nathan kicked his shin.
He sighed and searched for the correct words. “I’m sorry. I know this must seem…fantastical to you, what I said. But I…we need to talk to you. To explain.”
She shook her head.
Nathan let his dragon take over and smell the air around her. Fear. Anger. But underneath the unmistakable sweet scent of her lust. Yep, she still wanted them.
Ice jutted her chin and held his gaze.
“Please.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the door.
The rattle of the chain coming off, snapped his eyes back open. She swung back the door.
“Thank you,” he said
“I don’t understand why I let you in.” Her eyes widened in alarm, and she glanced back at the door with a frown. “I don’t…I don’t know what’s going on here.” She shook her head, her eyes darting around the room. Another wave of lust poured from her, topped off with acrid fear, her body and mind at war.
Just put it out there. “You’re one of us, Ice. One of our people. We aren’t human. What we are will shock you, but it will also explain a few things to you.”
“Mister, this may come as a shock to you, but I don’t have a clue what the fuck you are talking about!” She pointed at him. “I am not one of your people. You have a serious case of mistaken identity.”
She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “I’d like you to leave now.”
He opted for the blunt approach. “Right now, you’re scared, you think I’m crazy, but you’re also turned on.”
She flushed and shook her head. “You’re nuts. Get. Out. Of. My. Home.”
“Can’t do, beautiful.” He shrugged. “You’re a pretty big problem. You see, no dragon should be out and about in the world not knowing what and who they are. It’s dangerous. For you and the humans around you.”
“I am human!” She shouted now, eyes flashing with anger, and her pupils pinpricks of rage. “Dragons? What the fuck? You are so in need of help.”
Dominic sighed and crossed to the sofa where he sank heavily into its saggy depths.
“So…you’ve never felt…different? The odd one out? You don’t smell things strongly or find bright lights and loud noises irritating?” She clenched her jaw so he went on. “Never had an experience that scared you? Perhaps you wanted someone to do something they didn’t want to, and they suddenly did it anyway? As if by magic. Or maybe you hurt someone when you didn’t mean to?”
And there it came, the flicker in her eyes telling him he’d hit pay dirt.
Ice trembled as she faced Nathan. He stood in her lounge, calm as anything, as he talked all sorts of crazy crap. Except, the things he’d said about scents and sounds being too much sometimes! She’d been labeled ‘highly sensitive’ growing up. Only the focus that came with training and meditating helped her. And the other thing! Jesus. All that stuff about hurting someone when she didn’t mean to, had her so freaked out she shook in her shoes.
Ice didn’t particularly love her life. Most of her days were lonely. The things Nathan listed were why she isolated herself. Her hand went automatically to her neck and fingered the gold cross, the one her birth mother had given her. It had been the only possession, other than the clothes on her back, Claire had on her when her parents took her in.
Nathan’s dark eyes softened as he watched her. “Shit. This isn’t ideal. I’d never have told you this way if I’d had another.”
Dominic nodded. “We’ve never heard of a dragon out and about in the world who didn’t realize what they were.”
“What’s a dragon? I mean, clearly you don’t mean actual dragons, like in fairy tales and stuff.” Now she was talking crazy, but if these strange men held any answers to her weird experiences, she ought to listen.
“Dragons are our people, or as we are officially named, The Dragonea. We have dragon blood in us. We, some of us at least, can change into full dragon form. Some can’t change but have certain skills. They can enchant others, use mind control, or they can burn with their touch.”
“Oh my God!” Her legs buckled and she grabbed the counter to hold herself up.
She stared at him, mind whirring as his words ricocheted around in her head. What the hell? Did he mean the stuff she’d done? “Tell me more about this ability to…burn things.”
Nathan nodded. “I think you ought to sit for this.” He moved toward her and she flinched. “We won’t hurt you, Ice.”
She trusted them on that front at least. They wouldn’t harm her. The way they’d treated her so far, coupled with a deep intuition, told her so. “Let’s go sit on the sofa.” She pointed to her small, deep-red couch under the picture window where Dominic sprawled.
Once they were seated, Nathan took one of her hands in his, but she snatched it back instantly. His scent alone messed with her mind, sending flashes of all they’d done together parading through her brain. His touch only made her arousal worse.
He sighed, but let it go. “We are dragon shifters. We generally don’t mix with humans because years ago, I mean centuries back, they tried to wipe us out. We aren’t many, and we don’t reproduce quickly, so secrecy helps ensure our survival.”
“You said, erm, you said you can change form?” Her heart hammered in her chest. This seemed so fantastical. It couldn’t possibly be true. But then she’d never have imagined a fifteen year old girl, terrified and battered, about to be raped, would place her hands over the heart of the man towering over her and burn him so badly his clothes set fire!
“Yes, I can. So can Dominic. We change into our dragons.”
“Do you fly and stuff? And make fire and the whole thing? As in real King Arthur shit?”
He laughed then. “Yeah. As in real King Arthur shit, as you say.”
“And the burning?”
“If we are threatened, we can burn by touch. The most powerful of us, by our minds alone. Did you do something to someone, Ice?”
His voice came across as gentle, almost melodic. Tears pricked at her eyes as she teetered on the precipice of sharing her deepest secret, for the first time outside of her mum and Sian.
“You can tell me. But if you don’t wish to, it’s okay.”
He gave an out and in doing so sealed the deal, by letting her trust him a bit more.
“I’ve hurt two people. Once, when I was a kid, I burned a girl who’d been teasing me—by accident. I put my hand on her wrist and it glowed all red. She screamed and I let go, the red faded.” She stopped and drew in a deep breath. “Not merely any girl…it was Sian. I told my mum and she told me I must never speak of it again. I’m adopted and mum said I’d be taken away.”
She looked at her hands, hating the memory—the moment her safe world had become anything but. Her home and family at risk of being snatched away. “I did as told and forgot all about it, buried it deep inside. As I got older, I assumed it must be one of those weird childhood memories, part daydream, part exaggerated reality. I became a loner afterwards.”
Nathan shifted in his seat, and his dark eyes flickered with sorrow.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m used to living my life this way.”
“You shouldn’t be alone in the world. You need to be with your people. With me and Dominic, and our clan.”
“Perhaps I can come and visit one day.” Who knew, maybe she would go see this place and find out about her ‘power’? “Not now though. I’ve got a championship chance since I won the last fight.”
“You should not fight,” Nathan muttered.
“Don’t worry—I can control the weird burning thing. I learned how to do it through fighting. It’s why it matters to me so much. I basically go into this sort of meditative state.”
“Females don’t fight,” Nathan said.
She didn’t appreciate the way his jaw set tight. Wow, talk about old fashioned and controlling. “Buddy, females can do what the hell they like.”
His dark eyes flashed with something she couldn’t name, but he took a deep breath in and rolled his shoulders. “Please, tell me about the other time you used your gifts. You said there were two?”
“Hardly gifts,” she said, but his eyes flashed again, this time with clear anger. She ignored it and continued. “When I was fifteen a man attacked me.” Nathan’s jaw set even tighter. She worried for his teeth. “He tried to rape me.”
“Fuck!” Nathan stood so fast he blurred. He began to pace. “A male tried to take you, against your will?”
“Yes. He didn’t though.”
“Tell me what happened.”
It wasn’t a request, but an order. Despite the urge to tell him to stop ordering her around, the need to share won out. “As I started to say, a man tried to rape me. He’d hit me a few times. Really hurt me. I put my hand on his chest. Can’t think why. I simply did it. Instinct I suppose. Next thing I know, he’s screaming in pain and the same red glow I’d seen on Sian’s arm, burned on his chest. I saw it through his T-shirt.”
She stopped and swallowed. The memories were horrific. She rarely let them surface and to discuss it made her nauseas.
Nathan closed the distance between them and rubbed her back in soothing circles. His touch calmed her completely. In fact, it did more. The only thing she could compare it to was a glass of wine after a long day. Her limbs tingled and loosened, and her belly warmed.
“I didn’t let go this time,” she whispered. “His shirt set fire and he jumped off me, rolling around on the ground screaming. I’m not sure he lived, but if he did, then he’d be badly burned.”
“Good.” Nathan’s low rumble vibrated through her. “You probably saved a fair few other girls a similar fate.”
“Why is your hand on my back so nice?” she whispered again, which was not her usual style, but she didn’t seem able to find her voice.
“Because, we match.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not now, my sweet. Now you need to go and pack some clothes and come with us for a while. We need to show you our home, let you meet your people. Teach you how to control your magic. When do you have to train, for this match you spoke of?”
Ice smiled at the idea of reaching the championships and what it might mean. “I have some recuperation time before I need to start training again in two weeks. Then I train for six weeks, knocking it off a few days before the fight.”
“And your work? Is the fighting your job or do you go to an office?”
“I work from home. Freelance editor.”
“Good.” He nodded. “So you can bring the things you need for your work and come with us for a few weeks. You ought to learn the basics about the power you wield.”
“You can honestly teach me how to control this…thing?”
Nathan held out his hand, palm up. A flash of bright light radiated from his skin and a glowing ball of flame sat in his palm.
“Oh my…Jesus!” She pressed back against the couch.
A flap of his fingers against his palm and the tiny fireball disappeared. “Now you try. Open your palm, Ice.”
She shook her head.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You won’t hurt yourself or us. Trust Nate.” Dominic smiled at her.
She opened her palm.
“Good. Now close your eyes and think hard of heat in your hand. As if you’re holding a burning candle by the flame. Let yourself experience the touch of the flame on your skin.” Nathan’s voice went melodic again. “As you feel the heat let it grow. Let the fire grow until it sits in the palm of your hand, a ball of warmth.”
Fire pricked at her skin and Ice’s eyes shot open. She clapped her other hand over her mouth. A small ball of fire sat in her outstretched hand. “Shit!”
The moment she lost focus, the flames withered away.
“I can help you, teach you. But you need to come with us. If only for a short time. I give you my word of honor you will be safe, but you need to know who and what you are.” Nathan’s face went soft, and he smiled at her. “It’s simple. Look upon it as an adventure. Go to your room. Pack a bag. Meet us in the foyer. You can text anyone you need to on the journey. Tell them something’s come up.”
She’d created a ball of fire from nothing! Seen it. Felt it. Still couldn’t believe it. She shuffled about her room packing a bag, but every motion took extra effort, as if wading through mud. Fire? Dragons? None of it could be real. But maybe—maybe they belonged to a strange magic cult. She shook her head at the idiocy…Cuz magic was sooo different from dragons.
The other thing freaking her out was the connection she felt with them. Yes, their time in the sack had been phenomenal, but it ran deeper. She didn’t understand it, but in their company, she experienced a new sense of safety and peace.
She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Please don’t let this be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”