Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,10

to the shifters when they were hanging out in Five Peaks. It was a place they could go and relax and not have to worry about the outside world pressing in on them, as it had ever since his kind had been revealed to the world.

Anne was ignoring him, however, and instead focused on the woman.

“Be careful with this one,” Anne said in a gentle tone.

Rann ground his teeth, but a shifting of muscle behind Anne kept him from saying anything. He didn’t want to tangle with Kal, even if they were probably evenly matched. There was a matter of respect, after all, and it wasn’t as if Kal or Anne could tell that this wasn’t just another conquest for Rann.

This one was different. Perhaps even special, if he could just have the chance to talk to her.

“Why?” the woman asked after a long moment.

Anne smiled tightly. “He’s not an asshole, just…a flight risk.” She looked over at Rann and shrugged as if to say, ‘it’s true, and it’s my job to make sure she knows that’.

Maybe Anne did know something was up. After all, this was the first time she’d ever intervened when Rann came to talk to a woman at her bar.

“I think you both have misunderstood,” the woman said, shifting in her chair. “I’m not looking for anything like that right now. Not after what happened. I need some time before I’m open to that. But thank you.”

Before Anne could open her mouth, Rann spoke instead. “What happened? You look a little…I don’t mean this rudely, but you seem a little tightly wound.”

The woman laughed. It was a mixed sound, both of laughter and sadness. But it had still been a laugh, and Rann’s chest filled to bursting. He wanted more of it. More of her. Not even Anne’s warning was going to get in the way of him at least learning her name.

“That would be a bit of an understatement,” the woman said, taking another long sip of her drink, tilting it toward Anne in thanks. “But then again, what would you do if you found out that your boyfriend and best friend just revealed to you that they’ve been seeing each other behind your back and are now leaving you to be together?”

Rann growled angrily, rage at anyone who would hurt her surging up through him in an unprovoked wave. He fought to restrain his dragon, reminding himself that he didn’t know this woman or her ex-boyfriend/friend. Much as he wanted to teach that asshole a lesson, it wasn’t his place.

“Oh, and did I mention that they still want me to be their friend? To act as if nothing has changed?”

It took a long handful of thunderous heartbeats for Rann to process the mentality behind such a thought. In the end he couldn’t.

“What the fuck?” he spat angrily.

The woman was halfway through a sip of her drink and choked slightly as she nearly snorted it out of her nose before she started to laugh again.

Rann’s heart soared, but he wasn’t about to forget his manners

“Sorry,” he muttered, reaching over the bar to grab some napkins before Anne could and handing them to the woman.

“No, it’s fine,” she said, laughing some more while taking the napkins and mopping up the spilled liquid before dabbing her face with them. “It’s just that those were my exact words and reaction when they told me.”

“Ah.”

“Thanks, by the way.”

He tilted his head. “For what?”

She shrugged, giving him a quick glance out of the corner of her eyes, though it didn’t linger long. “I needed to laugh. To just let a bit of it out.”

“I can only imagine,” Rann rumbled, his anger subsiding as he relaxed into the conversation. “Must have been a rough night.”

The woman turned fully now, and their eyes made contact once more. Perhaps it was the proximity. Perhaps it was having spoken to her. Rann wasn’t sure, but this time, though, he was still mesmerized by them, he didn’t freeze.

He watched her nose crinkle slightly, and she took in his clothing for the first time.

“Maybe I wasn’t the only one having a rough night,” she said. “You smell like smoke. Burning smoke, not cigarette I mean.”

He grimaced. “It’s not a boyfriend/best friend double-dumping story, so I’m afraid it can’t compare.”

She tilted her head in an almost exact mimicry of him a minute earlier. “Aren’t you going to tell me what happened?”

Rann hesitated. He didn’t want to tell her what he was. Not just yet. That took time.