He didn’t run. Running would draw attention. But his walk was perhaps more aggressive than strictly necessary, his strides long enough that he nearly took out a woman examining the organic produce section.
Faster. FASTER. He’s getting away. What if he leaves? What if we never find him again? What if he gets hit by a car? What if someone else sees him? What if another dragon…NO. NO OTHER DRAGONS. OURS.
“He’s human,” Rux hissed under his breath. “Other dragons won’t…”
OURS.
The automatic doors seemed to take seventeen years to open. Rux squeezed through the gap before they’d fully parted, his shoulder clipping the frame with enough force that the plastic cracked with a sharp snap.
He burst onto the sidewalk and… Nothing. The street stretched before him. Afternoon shoppers. Parked cars. A woman walking a small, yappy dog that immediately started barking at him like it could sense the dragon barely restrained beneath his skin.
No sign at all of the man with wavy brown hair, glasses, and a smile that made Rux’s entire chest feel like someone had lit a bonfire inside it.
“No.”
Rux spun in a circle, nearly colliding with a teenager on a skateboard.
“Watch it, dude!”
“Sorry. Sorry.” Rux barely heard him. His gaze tracked left, then right, then left again because maybe he’d somehow missed… But no, their Treasure was gone.
WHERE? Where did he go? FIND HIM. He was just HERE. Right here! He can’t just DISAPPEAR. That’s not allowed. Treasures aren’t allowed to disappear. Find him. FIND HIM NOW.
The heart stone was real, it was burning under his shirt, but it was totally useless at providing any directions on where to start his search.
“Okay. Okay.” Rux pressed both palms against his chest, trying to physically contain his dragon through sheer force of will. It didn’t work. It had never worked, but hope sprang eternal. “He was walking in that direction. So he probably kept walking in that direction. Basic logic. Sound reasoning.”
OR he turned down a side street, and we’ll never see him again, and we’ll die alone and unmated and…
“We have two mates already.” A passing jogger gave him a wide berth, but Rux didn’t notice. He walked faster, then did that weird, not-quite-running thing that made him look like he was late for an appointment rather than hunting for a stranger he’d seen for exactly forty-five seconds.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Once, twice, three times in rapid succession because, of course, Mabon would choose that exact moment to check on grocery acquisition status.
Rux ignored it. He had more important things to worry about thanbread, eggs, and whether he’d remembered the organic flour. He had to find their fated one, had to see him again. He had to make sure that the man was real and not some kind of stress-induced hallucination brought on by a century of searching.
The phone buzzed again, and again.
Answer it,his dragon demanded.Tell them. TELL THEM WE FOUND HIM.
“I didn’t find him. I lost him.”
Semantics.
Rux pulled out his phone without slowing his pace. Five texts from Mabon, each one growing increasingly concerned about grocery items.
Did you get the bread?
Rux?
The organic eggs are important. Did you remember?
Are you alright?
RUX!
He should answer and explain that he’d just experienced the mostimportant moment of their collective lives and then immediately ruined it by losing their Treasure within sixty seconds like some incompetent dragon with no tracking skills whatsoever.
Instead, he typed:Busy. Emergency. Will explain later
