Page 45 of Billionaire Dragon King’s Rejected Mate

Supporting him and somehow accepting it. Chance wasn’t used to that, and now she was sound asleep right next to him, curled up with her head on his chest.

Chance exhaled slowly and his gaze drifted toward the open window where the ocean stretched out in restless motion. Peaceful, relaxing, and all about to come to an end.

She doesn’t know.

The words rattled around in his head and settled heavily in his chest.

Randi had spoken about Sven like he was just another man. Important, yes. Dangerous, maybe. But still human in all the ways that mattered.

And he wasn’t just a human. He was a dragon shifter, just like Chance himself was. Even thinking it made his current moment of bliss feel like fraud, like something would crack if he pushed it any further.

And if she didn’t know what he really was, then everything ahead of them would be worse than complicated.

He carefully slipped his arm from under Randi and slowly moved off the bed. He wanted her to sleep off any remnants of the drugs in her system, and he had a phone call to make.

Chance stood on the back deck of the beach house and for once, the ocean’s restless rhythm did nothing to calm him, not as it had when he laid beside Randi. Or maybe that was her.

He turned the cheap burner phone over in his hand. He hesitated because once he made the call there would be no pretending he didn’t need answers. There would be no more fragile illusion that maybe everything outside this house had somehow paused with him and suspended in a quiet that wasn’t real.

He finally pressed the number from memory as he paced a tight line between the sliding glass doors and the steps that led out onto the dark stretch of sand. His free hand dragged through his hair in a restless motion t, and when Eddie picked up on the third ring, his voice came through low and wary.

“Hello?”

Chance exhaled. “It’s me.”

“Well, this can’t be good if you’re using one of the phones from the beach house.”

That caused a smirk. Eddie was always calm and rational no matter what, and sometimes Chance had to wonder if the man was ever phased by anything. He also knew that Eddie was always on top of every situation, even if he didn’t know it was a situation yet. “That’s a story for another time,” Chance responded. “I need you to tell me what’s going on. First off, how is Josh? Is he okay?”

“After you tell me if Randi is fine. From what I can tell, it was a close call.”

“It was and she’s fine. She’s sleeping off the chloroform that they used on her before I could reach them. But she’s not harmed.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Eddie shifted on the other end, the faint rustle of movement crackling through the line. “Josh is alive,” he said, not sugarcoating it, which Chance appreciated even as his chest tightened. “Banged up, but he’s conscious. They’ve got him at the hospital. Cops have already talked to him, though I don’t think he said much.”

“What are they saying about Randi?”

“The story is being talked about,” Eddie finally said after a pause. “The assault made the local news, nothing huge, but it’s out there.”

Chance’s grip tightened on the phone. “What are they saying?”

“Not much, honestly,” Eddie replied, his tone almost puzzled as if the lack of information was its own kind of problem. “That’s the strange thing. It hasn’t blown up because nobody really knows what happened. They’ve got fragments and speculation, but no clear story. Josh doesn’t really know what happened and there weren’t really many witnesses, so it’s not getting traction.”

Chance frowned and watched a seagull fly over. “Tell me the part that you don’t want to say.”

“Yeah, well,” Eddie said, “this is the part you’re not gonna like.”

Chance didn’t respond. He had known Eddie long enough to be able to read his tone and knew that his friend wouldn’t leave anything out.

“There’s security footage,” Eddie continued, “from a camera down the street. It shows you, your car, leaving the scene with Randi.”

Chance stopped pacing because of course there was footage.

“So now,” Eddie went on, “they don’t know if you pulled her out of there, or if you were part of it, or what the hell was going on, and since nobody really knows, it’s all just speculation.”

Chance let out a slow breath as his mind raced ahead and mapped out possibilities and consequences, because if the wrong version of events took hold, it wouldn’t matter what actually happened.

“Is anyone looking for me?” he asked.