“I…” Rowan didn’t finish. Instead, she slipped past me, a little clumsy and off-balance, and hurried out the door, leaving me in boxers full of cum and desperately wanting more.
Rowan
Iwasofficiallylosing my mind. What was I doing? I’d allowed Nix to touch me… likethat. It’d felt so damn good, but I didn't know if… I shouldn't have allowed it to happen, right? There was no way. He was under the illusion that I was hismate,for Christ’s sake. Fuck, maybe I was starting… to believe that I actually was his mate.
Headache.Supremeheadache.
I still hadn't decided whether to stay or not. Was I giving Nix false hope by letting him touch me? I mean, sure, it felt amazing, and I,maybe, wanted a repeat. I was thinking with what was between my legs instead of my brain, though. Because clearly, this wasn’t smart. This wasn’t just an attractive guy I felt “something” for. This was a man who believed I was his long-lost love.
Talk about baggage.
Safely back in my room, I slammed the door shut and collapsed against it, taking several deep, measured breaths as the wood pressed into my spine. I had to think about what I was doing. Being alone in a room with a big, growly—or even a big,charming—Alpha was completely off-limits. I had only been at the horde for a few days, and what, I was ready to jump their bones already? That wasn’t normal.
Then again, would having sex with them besobad?
Yes, yes, it would.They think you’re their mate.
Well, truth be told I believed I was their mate, but that idea terrified me, so denying it felt a lot easier than coming to terms with the fucked-up reality of my situation.
Being with these Alphas almost got me killed before. Hell, I'm pretty sure I actually died once or twice while Kiki was trying to revive me. Then again, there was no denying the overwhelming sense of safety I felt whenever I was near them. Even the grumpy bastard, Orsen, made me feel oddly… safe. Well, as safe as I could with someone who’d tried to shove their tongue down my throat. At least Bastian hadtalkedto me after walking in with that stick up his ass. Still, if that was what I had felt when I met them as a wide-eyed teenager, I could understand why I’d likely fallen into bed with the four of them pretty easily.
Orsen could do with a swift kick to the nuts every now and again, though.
How was one smallhumanwoman meant to handle a clan of Alphas? Each one of them was dominating and controlling in their own way, andIwas somehow supposed to deal with that. Seriously?
Hell, I was so overwhelmed.
This all seemed to be an impossible task, and I’d been through so much already. How had I thought, at the tender age of nineteen, no less, that I could deal with it? Had they lied to me, whispered sweet nothings about how easy it would be?
My hands shook as I ran them through my hair. I desperately tried to remember something, anything.
Come on, brain. Do something. Work.
For years, I’d avoided finding out about my past. I’d been content not knowing. I was aware that digging into my past would likely lead to danger and pain. If it hadn't been for Kiki, I would have avoided traveling in dragon lands without a doubt. Hell, if it hadn't been for her, I probably would have avoided dragons altogether.Would I have even known about them if it hadn't been for her? I couldn’t predict the future or rewrite the past, but something told me the scaley assholes would have found me, regardless.
I could remember my time with her so clearly compared to the rest of my life.
When a member of her horde had found me, she’d instructed them to take me to her healing hut. For the first few weeks, I only had the faintest memories, most of them of pain. The treatment for dragon fire wasn’t what you’d call fun. Every few hours, she would bandage my injuries and place new salves and poultices on me. They stung like hell. There were times I begged for death.
One salve had been bright red and made my flesh feel like I was alight. Kiki had stayed by me the entire time, offering soothing words and assuring me that she was doing her best to help. My earliest memory was of her soft, reassuring voice. Despite her sweet tone, she hadn’t been opposed to swearing every now and again. One of the first times I’d actually said something was when she’d cursed and I’d chuckled.
Kiki was the one who told me about dragons. She wanted me to know where my injuries had come from. If I’d been found by someone in the human world, would I have assumed my injuries were from something else? Probably. My skin was mottled and badly burned, with raised ridges and uneven craters. Burns were common among humans, sure, but dragon fire left an almost holographic sheen on the scars that didn’t occur with any other kind.
Could I have gone about my life as a human? Well, anormalhuman, anyway. I was human, but I knew so much about dragon healing now, even though I had apparently almost been murdered by one.
“Knock, knock,” a kind, familiar voice called out.
Nina stood in the now open doorway, her face dropping when she noticed how disheveled I was.
“Are you okay? Ma told me you were cleaning out the clinic…” Then, suddenly, her eyes widened, nostrils flaring. “Oh!”
Shit. She could smell what Nixand I had just done.
“Don’t say a word,” I groaned. “It was a moment of weakness. That’s all.”
A moment of hot, satisfying weakness.
I snatched a few of my T-shirts off the floor and slammed them onto the bed. I needed something to do with my hands, something to distract my nerves from the lingering sensations that warmed my blood.
