The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,4

of her goods as she fed her son.

She sat on the other side of the couch, beside me, so she wasn’t in my direct line of sight anyway. I’d said I wouldn’t be uncomfortable, and I was determined not to be. Nursing was the most natural thing in the world.

“So,” she said. “Who is it?”

Ugh. I’d hoped she’d forget her question.

“Do we know her?”

“Or him?” Anthony grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Her.” I sighed and this time when I didn’t look at Skye, it was because I didn’t want to see her reaction. “It’s Briana.”

When nobody spoke, I glanced around and realized Skye had fixed me with a glare as she shook her head slowly. “No.”

Damn it. I knew she’d be pissed.

“Jace, you know I adore you. You must know that.”

“I do.” What was coming next? And why was I so afraid of this tiny human?

“I know your track record.” I opened my mouth to attempt to defend myself, but she kept talking. I snapped my jaw shut and tried to look contrite. “You’re a playboy, and that’s putting it nicely. You run through women as easy as taking your next breath.”

She wasn’t exactly right, but also not exactly wrong. I did have a long list of partners behind me.

“Bri is a mother and a great woman.” She shook her head. “It isn’t my place to tell you what to do, but Bri is my friend and I just want to protect her from being hurt.” I understood that. “If you have no intention of being the man she needs in her life, then you need to leave that woman alone.”

After a few seconds, when I was more confident that she was finished, I spoke. “I have no intention of bothering Bri.”

Anthony sucked in a deep breath. “That pull is mighty difficult to ignore.”

I shrugged his statement off, even though I knew he spoke the truth. “It will go away once my dragon realizes there won’t be anything coming from this, right? All I need is for Bri to completely reject me and the pull will disappear. That should be easy enough, just get her to reject me. I can do that.”

Skye glared at me. “That means you’ll have to do something to get her to spurn you. And that means hurting Bri.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“You’re an idiot,” Sammy chimed in.

I definitely didn’t know what to say to that.

Sammy froze and closed her eyes. I watched her, not sure what she was seeing, but sure she was checking her visions or magic or something.

“You’ve made your mind up,” she said. “I won’t interfere. For now, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”

Everything felt so muddled. I was so sure I needed to let Bri move past me, but my emotions warred with my sense and my dragon fought against it all. “I’m going to go see Mom,” I said. “This is all overwhelming.”

Maybe dinner at Mom’s would help settle me. I knew that staying away from Bri was the right thing to do, but it made me feel miserable.

After saying my goodbyes and kissing the babies, I headed across town to Mom’s. She had a place on the far side of the town, on the outskirts as most of the clan did. We tended to buy places where we could get in a little private shift time on our own land.

I walked in to find Mom cooking dinner and my Aunt Missy chopping vegetables.

“Jace,” Aunt Missy cried. “Oh, it’s so good to see you.”

I ignored the surge of guilt that it had been so long since I’d seen her that she had to get this excited. She put down the knife and held her arms open, then squealed as I pulled her up into a big bear hug.

“It’s good to see you, too, Auntie,” I said once I released her.

She looked me over with her hands still on my arms. “You need fattening up. You got here just in time.”

Mom tapped my shoulder, and I backed away from Aunt Missy to give my mom a hug. I saw her all the time and didn’t feel guilty at all.

“Go take a break,” Mom told her sister. “Let me talk to my son.”

How did she know?

Aunt Missy winked at me. “Sure thing. I’ll go find us a movie to watch after dinner.”

Mom and Missy spent a lot of time together now that Missy’s husband was gone. Uncle Carmine had a massive heart attack last year. He died before