Page 3 of Billionaire Dragon King’s Rejected Mate

“Sure, I can.”

“You just handed me a press conference.”

“You’re going to crush it.”

She pointed at his flip-flops. “And you’re going to spend the day pretending you’re one of the workers?”

Chance adjusted his sunglasses and started backing away toward the entrance gates. “Not pretending.” He winked. “Research.”

When the moment came, Chance stood amongst his employees and several members of his executive team, his posture relaxed but his attention moving constantly over the crowd in the quiet, instinctive way that had never quite left him after growing up in royal courts where every smile might hide a motive.

Applause rippled through the gathered spectators as Celia’s speech concluded and the mayor handed her an oversized pair of ceremonial scissors.

The crowd cheered as she cut the ribbon and the gates behind them slowly swung open to reveal the twisting slides and sparkling pools beyond.

The official part of the event dissolved into laughter, music, and the eager rush of visitors pouring inside, while executives moved off to speak with reporters and city officials.

Chance stepped away from his staff with intentions to slip quietly into the park as nothing more than a guest. And that was when he saw her.

She stood a short distance away near one of the decorative fountains, talking with a member of his marketing team while adjusting the sleeve of her TimeOff staff shirt. One of the members of his staff that he didn’t recognize. Her dark hair was pulled into a loose ponytail that shifted when she laughed at something the other woman said.

For a moment Chance noticed only the easy warmth of her smile and the confident way she held herself. But then as she reached down to grab a clipboard from the fountain ledge, the motion twisted her arm just enough to reveal the tattoo curled along the inside of her wrist. He froze and every bit of ease and relaxation he had appreciated disappeared in a flash.

It was a dragon.

Its wings were half spread, its body winding in a graceful arc across her skin, but it was the eyes that stopped him cold. Not inked in some random artistic flourish, but the exact bright, icy blue that marked a very specific bloodline in the Iskara Northlands.

Chance felt the recognition strike him at the exact same instant that the creature sleeping beneath his ribs exploded awake.

His dragon surged forward with such sudden intensity that the breath caught in his lungs, a powerful instinct roaring through his veins like wildfire as every ancient piece of his nature locked onto the woman in front of him with a certainty older than kingdoms.

Mine.

The word reverberated through him, fierce and undeniable.

Mate.

The realization hit him with the force of a collapsing mountain.

Chance took a slow step closer; his eyes fixed on the small tattoo that had just shattered the careful distance he had placed between himself and his past. The magic in his blood recognized it the same way a compass recognized north.

His mate was standing ten feet away beside a fountain at a Florida waterpark. For the briefest moment, something dangerously close to hope flickered through him.

But it vanished almost instantly beneath the crushing weight of reality.

A mate meant connection. And truth.

A bond that could not exist without revealing exactly who he truly was. The fragile life he had spent ten years constructing would collapse overnight.

His dragon pushed forward again, restless and possessive, urging him to close the distance and claim what fate had placed in front of him.

Chance forced it back with iron control.

He watched her laugh again, unaware that the man standing a few yards away had just recognized her as the one person in the world destined to belong to him.

Which was precisely why he could never allow it.

His jaw tightened. Chance Parelli would cease to exist. As the woman with the blue-eyed dragon tattoo turned slightly in his direction, Chance already knew what he had to do.