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“Orgasms will do that to you. Roses smell sweeter too,” I teased, and her answering laugh lit up her face.
I could have lost her today. Lost out on this.
I wanted to ask what happened, why she’d left, but mostly, I wanted to know that the old, frightened version of Clawdia wasn’t going to return.
I leaned down so our faces were inches apart, and she looked up at me, surprised. “Are you okay?”
She frowned. “Of course I am.”
“You were alone with that dragon. With Fafnir.”
Comprehension flickered across her face before it went suspiciously blank. “That’s true. I was.”
“Clawdia. Are. You. Okay?”
She hesitated. “I’m processing. It wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had with him.”
My brows drew together. “What does that mean? You’ve met him before?”
Her head bowed and her whispered words made my blood run cold. “He wasn’t Fafnir when I knew him. He was Mr. Jenkins. My husband.”
CHAPTER3
ZAIDE
One moment, my head touched the pillow and my eyes closed; then the next, they jerked open when the bedroom door slammed against the wall.
“Did you know about this?” Charlie asked.
My soul pair squeaked as she was tossed onto the bed beside me.
“Really, Charlie,” Clawdia grumbled as I groggily opened my eyes to watch her right her towel. “You can’t just throw women around like that.”
“I can when I’ve just found out that she’s my great-great-grandad’s wife.” He ran his hands through his hair and paced. “What a mind fuck.”
My body ached as I sat up. While I knew the pain was from a different source, the memories of fighting in a ring or being beaten by my master were close to the surface of my mind and made my mood worse.
But my little cat was already looking so miserable, and I didn’t want to further upset her. I hid the pain and fear behind a blank expression and calmly asked, “What is going on?”
“Fafnir is Mr. Jenkins.” She bowed her head. “My husband.”
“Your husband? The man who beat you? Hurt you? He is alive?” I asked incredulously.
“And a dragon,” Charlie added. I glared at him. “I’m just saying, because you have a scary look on your face. Like you want to go and find Fafnir so you can punch him straight in the snout again.”
He is not wrong.
The only consolation I had when Clawdia told us the story of her past was that the family and husband that had hurt her so tremendously were long dead. Now to find out he was not only alive but was the dragon we’d raised …
The Fates are laughing at us.
Clawdia placed a hand on my arm. “Are you all right?”
“I’m …” I hesitated, not wanting to burden her with my anger when she was clearly suffering the greatest shock of all of us.
“You don’t need to worry about the husband part,” Charlie told me. “She died, he died, and the vows only say till death do they part, so they aren’t married anymore. Marriage isn’t magical either. And she didn’t want to marry him in the first place.”
I nodded, knowing this. It wasn’t what bothered me but perhaps it had bothered Charlie.
