He pretended to not hear her as he led her through a door to a stairwell and then up to the second floor where there was a smoothie bar. “Whatever you want, it’s on me.”
Chapter 4
Alistair
“Hey Tibs. Two passion fruit smoothies, one with raspberries, one with dragon fruit.”
The smoothie bar was done up to be a fun relaxing atmosphere, a place to hang out, relax, and grab a refreshing smoothie after a hard workout. It was run by a wolf shifter named Tiberius, who was Alistair’s best friend and partner. They had opened the place up together.
“Dragon fruit, is that where the name for the gym came from?” Sarai asked, taking the smoothie he held out to her. Her question took him off guard for a second.
“What? No.” He strolled to a table, and she followed.
“It’s an unusual name,” she said, sitting across from him.
“I happen to like dragons. They’re good luck.”
“Only Chinese ones, rest were evil.” She spoke with such authority.
He would have believed her if he hadn’t known better, if he hadn’t been a dragon himself. He couldn’t help what came out next.“Evil?” he scoffed. “Don’t believe everything you read, Sarai. Humans declared dragons evil because they ate their cattle to survive and attacked back when they were threatened. Truth be told, humans are more evil than dragons.Most dragons just want to be left alone to their hoards of gold and jewels. They only kill for survival or for defense. Humans twist the truth to make themselves seem like the heroes, but they are the villains. They were the ones who hunted dragons to extinction. They hunted the dragons for trophies, for sport, to prove how manly they were. They stole from the dragons and then slaughtered them when they attacked back. Animals don’t kill for those reasons, they kill to survive, that’s it. Humans are nasty creatures who think they are better than the other species in the world. They domesticate animals for their pleasure.”
“Wow, I’ve never thought of it that way.”
“Most humans don’t, I just happen to have a unique perspective. Ignore me, I tend to go off sometimes.”
“I like your perspective; you make people think.” He smiled.“Though I do find it odd that you seem to hate your own species.” She laughed
“I don’t hate my own species. Just because I don’t agree with some traditions and customs and our way of life doesn’t mean I hate my own species.”
“No, but you wish you were a dragon, right?”
He laughed and watched her smile stretch across her face. He lost his train of thought as his thoughts turned to how beautiful she was. He thought about how she had looked back in the gym, the sweat beading on her cleavage as she had leaned forward on the rowing machine. The bounce of her bottom as she worked the cycling machine. The warmth of her skin through her shirt as he helped her stretch her back. It brought a smile to his face.
He had given up all hope on the romantic front only a month ago. If only he had held out a little longer, then maybe he could have met Sarai before agreeing to an arranged marriage to Phoebe, but then, where would he have met her? If it hadn’t been for the fact that he had needed the arrangement for Phoebe, he never would have found himself in her shop, flirting with her. And, since she had an aversion to gyms, she never would have come to the gym, and he wouldn’t be sitting across from her slurping on a smoothie. Fate was cruel, there was no doubt.Then he thought of Phoebe and his mood worsened.
What are you doing, you fool? You’re engaged to Phoebe; you have your duties. You are a noble dragon, the son of an elite. This is not proper behavior...
“You ok?” Sarai’s voice cut through his dark thoughts. He flashed her a smile and took a sip of his smoothie. “You looked like you were deep in thought there. Were you contemplating the ramifications of what it would be like to be a dragon?” she teased, and her smile spread, stretching the corners of her mouth where the diamonds were.
“What? No.”
“I was kidding.” She laughed. “I can’t believe I actually used the words ‘contemplating the ramifications’ in a sentence. I’ve got to tell Mickey that one. It’s a line from a movie. This smart-aleck is talking up shit so this guy walks up to him and uses those words. He’s like dumbfounded and he doesn’t have a quirky comeback. It’s a good movie.” She took another drink of her smoothie and he watched her tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She was a goddess in his eyes. He had never seen pink and blue hair before; it was so bright, and just made her seem to glow.Maybe she wasn’t human at all, maybe she was a pixy.He had never met a pixy but had heard stories. Her voice broke him from his rambling thoughts again. “So, who was the woman?”
“What?”
“The woman I made that arrangement for?” she asked. Her question caught him off guard, and he grunted.
“No one.” He frowned over his smoothie. He wanted to pretend for that moment that Phoebe didn’t exist, that he wasn’t a dragon shifter with a responsibility of carrying on and maintaining the dragon shifters’ duty and traditions that he himself didn’t even believe in. He just wanted to be Alistair, owner of the gym, regular guy, enjoying a nice smoothie with a beautiful woman. Consequences be damned.
“She didn’t like the arrangement?”
“She liked the arrangement, the flowers; we both did. I don’t really want to get into it. I don’t really feel like going there.”
“Your mind went there.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“It’s ok. It’s not like this is a date or anything, you’re just being nice and helping me train for the marathon. You challenged me to try the smoothie, said it was better than my protein shake.”
