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He beat at the ground until his strikes became little more than scratches. Even then he summoned the power to pound the earth a few more times until finally, totally spent, he shifted back to his human form.
Naked, tired, and emotionally spent he sat that way for another long while.
I was a fool to think I could have a mate. That I could be loved.
Or that I could love.
Images of his father leaving fifteen years before flashed through his mind, as did his few attempts at romance in the past.
No, I am just a lone wolf. Dragon. A lone dragon. That is my destiny.
The sun matched his mood as it began to sink below the horizon.
* * *
After the short flight back,he redressed and reentered the Grizzly Den.
The shift had only mildly calmed him. At least he should sleep soundly, he thought. That would be a miracle in itself after what he had been through.
But even in his exhausted state, there was just no getting away from the pain he felt.
His heart literally ached.
Bloom.
He sat down at the clubhouse table in the empty back room.
Informal clubhouse,he reminded himself.
For a time he just sat in silence, contemplating if he would just walk the few miles back to his mountain home, or if she should fly.
Which will exhaust me more?
He just wanted oblivion.
Duke came through the door from the front, rag in hand, presumably to clean up the table from their earlier meeting.
“Dax,” he said, with mild surprise in his voice. “Boy, you look like shit.”
Dax couldn’t help but laugh. Though his clothes were clean enough, his arms and face were covered in dried mud. His hair caked with it.
“Well, I feel like shit too, so that’s perfect.”
“One of those days, huh?” Duke just said simply.
Duke was a man, a shifter, who Dax imagined had seen many of those days himself.
“Can I ask you a question, Duke?”
“Now you know you don’t even have to ask that. You and the boys are the closest things Bessie and I have to sons, so you go on ahead.”
Dax took in what he said.
And you are the closest thing I have to a father now.
“Was it always so perfect between you and Bessie?”
Duke almost fell over himself as he uttered a deep laugh. In fact it made him cough or choke it seemed, so off guard did it take him.
