The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,5
he hit the ground, so she said. I wasn’t sure how possible that was, especially from a dragon, but he’d been quite a bit older than Missy.
Missy walked out of the kitchen and Mom waved her wooden spoon at me. “Sit. Spill. What’s wrong?”
I chuckled as I sat down. “You know me too well.”
“You’re my baby. A mother always knows. What is it?”
“Hypothetically?”
“Yeah?” She turned back to the stove and stirred whatever it was that smelled so good.
“How would you feel if I was mated to a human as Anthony is?”
The room was silent, the only sound the liquid in the pot sloshing against the side.
“I was never the type to discriminate, you know that. I love humans. And now that we know that humans can have our babies, I think it’s fine. I would support you, if that was the case.”
Well, that was good to know, even though I had zero intention of following through with this mating bond. “Okay, then, still hypothetically, what if the woman had a kid already?”
This time, the room went totally silent. I looked toward the stove and Mom had stopped stirring. She had her head up in the air and her eyes closed.
“Son,” she whispered. “Tell me you have not imprinted on some poor woman with kids.”
I gaped at her. “I said hypothetically!”
She set the spoon on the rest and faced me with her hands on her hips. “Taking on some other man’s child is a whole ‘nother ball game. Especially if you have no intention of actually being a father figure to that child. I’ve been through it enough not to wish that on any woman.”
She’d raised me without my father in the picture, but she’d never brought home a man. As a young teen, I’d thought she wasn’t into dating or something. “Did you date?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I did, you little fool.” She insulted me in a fond voice. Besides, I knew she didn’t really think I was a fool.
But maybe I was. Shit, I never realized she’d ever gone on any dates. “When I stayed with Aunt Missy?”
Laughing, Mom sat down beside me at the table. “You really never knew?”
I shook my head, feeling more and more the fool.
“Well, good, that was my intention. I didn’t want to introduce you to any man until I knew for sure he’d be a good father figure. But that man never came. Don’t be that disappointment to some poor single mother the way they were to me.”
“Mom.” I took her hands in mine. “This is hypothetical.”
She snorted, not buying my lies for a second. I’d never been able to lie to her.
“If it is only hypothetical then you need to think long and hard about how your actions will affect everyone’s lives because if I find out that you’re out there doing what your father did to me?” She scoffed and pushed my hands away. “I won’t be held responsible when I kick your ass.”
Chuckling, I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “It was all hypothetical.”
She eyed me before getting up and going back to the stove, letting it go. “Stay and eat,” she said. “But send your Aunt Missy back in here, because you’re useless in this kitchen.”
“You know I run a bar and part of that is food, right?”
She scoffed. “Throwing stuff in a deep fryer does not a chef make.”
Still snickering, I went into the living room, but my laughter sounded hollow even to me. “Mom’s asking for you.”
Missy handed me the remote. “Of course she is. She can’t even make soup without me.”
“I heard that,” Mom yelled from the kitchen.
My talk with my mom solidified my decision to not interfere in Bri’s life. I wasn’t ready to be a father or father figure. It was best if I just left her alone and allowed our bond to die. The next time I saw Bri, I vowed to be a complete jerk. There wasn’t another option, not with my past, my father, and my track record.
3
Bri
“Bye!” I called to my last student. I wished it meant my day was over, but alas, it was not, not by a longshot. I liked to get ahead on my lesson plans so this wasn’t an issue, but with all the mess going on with Damon, I hadn’t been able to work on them.
I put my phone on a streaming radio station and hummed as I went through and made plans for the next week. I