Chapter 1
Laurel waited patiently for Nathan to come to the front of the Academy. It was her last day dropping her friend’s son Ethen off at school, before she was going to be leaving. Laurel had decided with all of the craziness going on with Mallory and the fact that she now had a mate and a family, it was time for Laurel to find something of her own.
She didn't want to go, or at least she didn't want to leave someone behind. Not seeing Nathan was going to hit her harder than she could imagine. The first time they had met, something had awakened inside of her, something that she didn't even know was present. It had become the best part of her day, looking for him in the mornings and in the afternoons when she dropped off and picked up Ethen for Mallory.
Laurel was happy for her friend. She really was. She was happy that Mallory and Vincent were back together. It was how it should have been. Ethen now had his parents. It was all good, and she was happy for all of them. Really, she was. The only problem was, Laurel didn't know what to do with her life now. Now she was kind of floating in the wind, trying to figure it out.
“Laurel?”
“Hey, Nathan.”
“I didn't know you were here. I would've come down sooner.”
She waved him off. “No, don't worry about it. I figured that you would be down after the first class was over. I was hoping that we could talk.”
He smiled at her in that way that made her heart beat a little bit faster. Laurel wanted to remember every single inch of him. His golden-brown eyes, dark brown hair. The little bit of the glow that always made her shiver inside. He towered over her, and she had to crane her neck up a little bit to talk to him. He was closer than usual, and she could actually feel the heat coming off of him. Her whole body started to come to life, her nerve endings more sensitive than ever before.
Laurel had to take a step back. She didn't understand why Nathan did that to her. She did not know the ways of men, having never really dated. It was the only time in her short life that she wanted to see what happened next past the look.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, like I said, I just wanted to talk. Do you think we could go somewhere for a little while?”
Fire leapt into his eyes, and she had to look away. Laurel may not know the ways of men, but she had certainly been desired before, many times. It was always the same look, and it was hard for her to respond any other way but the way her body wanted her to.
“Wow, it's getting hot in here. Is the AC still broken?”
Nathan looked at her a little strange. “No, it's not really that hot. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Must be me then, I guess.”
“Look, I have about thirty-five minutes before I have to go over a class with somebody. Why don’t we go get a coffee or something?”
Laurel agreed immediately. There was a coffee shop not too far from there, and it would give her the fresh air that she needed all of a sudden. It must just be her heart going so fast, making her overheat. Whatever it was, she could barely focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
“You’re acting weird today, Laurel.”
“Am I?”
“Yeah, what's on your mind?”
She shrugged. “I guess I'm just here to tell you goodbye.”
Nathan stopped in his tracks. “Tell me goodbye? What do you mean?”
His look was imploring, and Laurel didn't know how to take the intensity of his gaze. It was the same way she felt, but she wasn’t showing it as strongly as he was.
“Well, come on. Now that Vincent and Mallory are together and they are moving on, I’m kind of just like a third or fourth wheel in the situation. They are a little family, and they need to carry on that way. I was just there to help Mallory out, you know.”
Nathan dropped his eyes for a moment. He didn't say anything. He started walking again and didn't say another word until he ordered a coffee from the lady at the shop. Once he was finished, he offhandedly looked back at Laurel and asked, “Do you need anything?”
“Anything is fine.”
Laurel knew that she wouldn't be able to taste it anyway. She doubted she'd be able to taste anything. Her mind was running a mile a minute, and his reaction threw her off. He was certainly not as sad about it as she was. Laurel was devastated. She had finally broken into a world that she didn't understand, and now she had to go back to her own. It wasn’t something that Laurel wanted to do, but she felt like she had to.
Laurel had thought about it a lot. Once she knew that Mallory and Vincent were on the road to getting back together, she knew that she was going to have to move on. Where though, she didn’t know. If only Nathan wasn’t already promised to another.
She had always pushed those thoughts from her head. She was human. He was a dragon shifter. There was no way that it would work…yet, why did she feel like it could? Like she desperately wanted to be part of their world and she only had to figure out a way to do it. Sometimes Laurel even felt like she belonged to it.
