“Why, are you planning on keeping track of where I go? I thought I wasn’t a prisoner. That means I shouldn’t have to check in with you if I want to leave.”
“I said you could stick it there if you liked, I didn’t say you had to. I just thought it would be easier for you, so I wouldn’t accidently pop in while you were working and upset you by being there.”
“Oh…well, in that case I guess I will,” I replied because the last thing I needed was him dropping by with that cocky smile and having everyone shooting me knowing looks now that news of my pregnancy had gotten around.
The seatbelt was starting to make my shoulder ache, or maybe it was my chest, either way, it was too tight, so I tugged it away from my body and fiddled with the strap, but no amount of adjusting eased the discomfort. Fortunately, the ride ended a short time later when we pulled back into that giant garage and parked.
“I’ll put your things in the room next to yours so you can sort them how you’d like without feeling cluttered,” he declared as he got out. “You can use that gray Jeep for going to work, or wherever, until your car is ready.”
He handed the key to me, then headed around to the back of the van to start bringing in my things.
I hadn’t thought about the logistics of having all the boxes in my living space, so it was a good thing he did, or I’d have been tripping all over them while trying to get my stuff unpacked. At least he was proving to have a brain under all that longhair, though I wished he’d have used it to think about the consequences of repeatedly fucking around with me. The whole mate thing made me wonder if he’d known and sought to trap me, my temper flaring at the thought. Belonging to someone had never been on my bingo card, nor were babies, or dragons for that matter. Yet here I was, carrying my lukewarm burger and fries into the kitchen so I could sit at the table and eat them while he brought everything in.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my life was going to be like moving forward. I might not be a prisoner, but I was stuck, and according to what Alex and Emerson had said about mates, it was a permanent situation I’d never be able to outrun. What was I supposed to do, stuck in a house with a man I had no desire to look at, let alone talk to?
Despite being ravenous, I nibbled my food because neither the burger nor fries were any more appetizing than they’d smelled when I’d been holding the container in the car. I finished it all though, threw away the Styrofoam container, and stuck my schedule on the fridge, before opening it up to investigate the contents, just to see if there was anything more appealing. I’d forgotten that he’d put his plate in there. With oysters, which I stood in the door of the open fridge eating, because oh my god, they were just as good cold.
If he got pissed about it, oh well, I was feeding his eggs, so he’d just have to deal with it, or complain, at which point I’d remind him, again, that we would not be in this mess if he’d had the good sense to warn me that hooking up with him might leave me tied to him forever. He was the one who’d known about mates. Didn’t they have sex ed for dragons? If not, maybe they should, before another poor, unsuspecting omega found themselves tied to someone for life with no choice in the matter.
Not having a choice was a major trigger for me. Too much of my life had been spent living by other people’s rules. The wordsbecause I said sosent me up the fucking wall every time I heard them, so he’d better hope he never got it in his head to say them to me, or he’d see a side of me that would make this morning look tame. One thing I knew with all certainty was that I would never use those words with our children and I’d have his head if he tried that shit with them. The only thing to be learned from blindly following someone else’s instructions was how often they were either wrong or blatantly misleading you for their own agenda.
“Everything is in,” Odem said, startling me and causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.
I whirled around, snapping at him even while brushing a hand over my mouth to wipe away a bit of spinach and cheese. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! Are you trying to fuck around and scare the eggs right out of me.”
“I would never do anything to hurt my eggs.”
“Then maybe you should wear a bell collar or something so I can hear you coming!” I replied, punctuating my words with a stomp of my foot.
Something flickered in his eyes, there and gone so fast I almost missed it, then that ache returned and it was definitely my chest this time. Since I hadn’t lifted anything heavier than a pair of platform boots, I couldn’t pinpoint the cause of it. Just that it was already annoying and it had only happened twice.
“Goodnight, Ronan,” Odem said. “I’m going to go look after Cade so Emerson and Caro can stretch their wings.”
Wait, they flew too? Shit. Of course they flew, dragons had wings so that should have been obvious. It must be nice to just flap off somewhere and see the world glitter down below. Before any words pieced themselves together in my mind, he was gone, just as silently as he slipped into the room, leaving me to start putting my things away. The ache was still there as I walked into my room, pausing every now and again to look around theplace. Gold and red tones dominated, accented by deep orange hues that should have made for a gaudy mess, only the whole house just felt warm and inviting enough that I paused to plop down in a large, overstuffed easy chair, bouncing a little when I discovered how soft it was.
Ohhh, and there was a throw blanket too, right on the back of it, fluffy and smelling like sunshine. My last thought, as I pulled it around myself, drew my knees up and found the lever to make it recline, was that a quick nap might be in order before I started on the boxes. Yawning, eyes fluttering, I let myself drift off to sleep again, warm and secure in what had just become my favorite spot out of all the ones he’d shown me.
Chapter Five
Odem
Depressed.
I’d never felt this way before. Sure, passing moments when loneliness hit, though that was quickly remedied with a warm, willing body.
And now?
Yeah, not so much.
“Luff,” Cade’s tiny hands cradled my cheeks.
“Love you too, buddy.”
At least someone loved me.
Fucking hell, this was gutting me.
“Over the centuries, more times than not, I wanted to kick your ass. Hell,” Caro chuckled, “many times I did, but never once did I see you this forlorn afterwards. I don’t like it.”
