Chapter Thirty-Five
Ahearn
Truth, I wasn’t sure why Bari was taking pity on me after everything I’d put him through, Heavens knew I didn’t deserve his sympathy or his kindness, so when he started to tell me the story of us, I was more than a little surprised.
“You told me that you remember that we were acquainted,” he said, waiting for me to nod. “And from the way you responded when you woke from the accident, you remember my reputation.”
“I do,” I admitted gruffly, the reminder of my previous bad behavior not doing much to dull the ache of my current even worse behavior. When Bari nodded encouragingly, I winced. “When you presented, your blood test revealed you weren’t a pure dragon,” I mumbled. “You’re part human.”
“They called mean leathphór,” Bari said calmly. “The half-breed. And that was the kind people.”
I didn’t want to believe I would have done that, but so much of my memory was still hazy that I couldn’t be sure. It must have shown on my face, because Bari smiled and patted my hand. “Not you. Never you.”
Thank the saints for that.
“Several weeks before the end of your third year in university, I’d gone into the forest to collect some herbs for my botany class,” Bari continued on with the story. “I ran into three men from town. They were drunk and..” Bari trailed off and shuddered. “They decided that since I was sterile, they could use me for entertainment without any repercussions.”
Fury began to ball in my gut as a half-remembered thought began to form. “They tied you with a silver chain to keep you from shifting,” I growled. “You were nearly naked and pinned to the ground when I found you.”
Bari squeezed my hand. “Yes, but do you remember what happened next?” His voice was warm despite the unpleasantness he was repeating.
I shook my head.
“You charged into the clearing like a knight in shining armor, flinging them aside like they were nothing but tiny mice.” Bari’s gaze was soft as he smiled at me. “You stopped them before they could hurt me, which was a blessing on its own, but then you help me re-dress and escorted me home.”
I cleared my throat. “No more than any Alpha should have done.”
“For most Omegas, I agree,” Bari said seriously, “but for one who was considered to be nothing but a useless mongrel? I can’t say for certain that any other Alpha would have risked his reputation by being associated with me.”
A horrible thought suddenly occurred to me. “Please tell me that I didn’t request payment by favor.”
Bari laughed and shook his head. “No, my brave Alpha would never do anything so crass. You insisted on accompanying me when I needed to go into the woods or anywhere else you deemed unsafe.” Bari gave a soft chuckle. “From the amount of time we spent together, you seemed to believe that we lived in a most dangerous place.”
A smile began to creep onto my face. “It might have been.”
“My father had already paid for my schooling that year when the testing was done,” Bari continued, the smile falling from his face. “He couldn’t reclaim his money, so I was allowed to finish the year, however, my father had decided that if I couldn’t breed, I wouldn’t be likely to find a match, so there was no real point in continuing to provide for me. He informed me that I was to be sent to the convent as soon as the year ended.”
“The convent required you to be chaste,” I murmured as another hazy memory snuck in.
“Yes,” Bari confirmed. “The policy is very strict.”
Warmth flooded through me as a memory rose of carefully undressing a much younger Bari, barely out of his teens. Of laying him out on the soft grass in the privacy of a hollow thicket in the forest and losing myself in his nubile body.
Bari smirked at the flush in my cheeks. “Shall I continue?”
“I believe I remember,” I said, ignoring the catch in my voice.
“Do you, Alpha?” Bari nearly purred as his eyes dipped down to the erection tenting my pants. “Do you remember how we used that excuse to sneak away and join together at every opportunity? In empty classrooms and supply closets?”
A shiver danced down my spine. “In your bedroom, after your family was asleep,” I growled.
Bari’s eyes shone. “And even after the convent had declined my admission and I was safe, you came to me as often as you could.”
“I used you,” I said with a frown. “I was no better than the pigs who attacked you.”
To my surprise, Bari laughed loudly. “That’s inane,” he chuckled. “You never forced me to be with you. I yearned for your touch, would have given anything for it, but you never asked me for anything or made me feel undeserving in any way.”
Bari’s tone had become reverent. “The night you knotted me and told me that you were going to find a way to make me yours, I assumed you meant as your lover. It never occurred to me that I could be lucky enough to have you for my own.”
My heart swelled as more memories came rushing in too fast to even comprehend them all. “I already knew I loved you before you gave me your body,” I whispered, brushing away the tears that came with the memories. “A choi, I am so sorry for everything I’ve put you through.”
Bari brushed my tears away and kissed my lips, barely a peck. “Enough serious talk,” he said briskly. “Our food will be here any moment.”
I caught his head in my hand before he could pull away, holding his eyes with mine. “I demanded the writ because I was desperate to have you back. Even though I didn’t understand why, in my soul, I knew that you belonged here with me.”
Bari’s lips curved into another soft smile, but I wasn’t done.
“I’d planned to win you back, to convince you to stay here with me,” I admitted. “To give me a chance to remember before I lost everything.”
I leaned forward to claim his lips and damned if that bloody doorbell didn’t choose that exact moment to announce the arrival of our pork fried rice and shrimp egg rolls.
