The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,9

saved me, possibly saved my life, the week before. His horrible insult didn’t negate that.

“You leaving your phone twice after being assaulted behind this very bar indicates that you’re not thinking very clearly. You really should be smarter.”

I gasped as his words sank in and I tried to process how far over the line he’d gone. I was normally level-headed and able to hold my temper, but his words got to me. “Well, I’d be more offended if I valued the opinions of a man who chooses to get blowjobs in public restrooms.”

He narrowed his eyes as I raked my gaze up and down his front and put a haughty look on my face. “You lack class.” I glared at him. “Maybe you shouldn’t be throwing stones when you live in a glass house?”

Pushing past him, I circled the front of the car and got in. I didn’t give him a chance to say anything or try to insult me again, just backed out of the spot, and pulled onto the main road. My anger bubbled, still reeling as I pulled into the deli parking lot to drop Kaylee off. Damn him! I’d thought he might’ve been a nice guy. And I could’ve gone past him getting a quickie in the bathroom, but his words to me in the parking lot were unforgivable. He was clearly an asshole, and I wanted nothing to do with that shit.

4

Jace

The clouds floated by. I sighed and watched them go, willing my discontent to go with them. I’d come to the clan’s sometimes shifting spot, where we’d gone before Anthony had expanded our options with the cliffs at his house and the beach by Skye’s house.

As the week had worn on, I’d begun to ache. By the time I got up this morning, my whole body was one giant cramp. I came to shift for a while and fly, but it had been incredibly painful to shift. It had never hurt before. Now that I was back in my skin, the ache seemed worse than it was before, earlier today.

My chest had begun to ache the night I saved Briana from her ex. It intensified dramatically the week before at the bar when I’d been such a dick to her.

I was pretty sure what I was feeling was the bond tearing. Damn, I hadn’t expected it to be this painful. Nobody ever talked about the refusal of a mating and I could see why. No one would be dumb enough to deal with this pain that literally felt like my soul shredding.

I’d tried to find a woman to take the edge off, and that had been the night Bri had interrupted us. It wasn’t lost on me that the woman I’d gravitated toward had looked a little like Bri.

But in the stall, as we made out, my dick would not cooperate. I’d never had a problem like that before in my damn life. But no matter how hard the girl—whose name I couldn’t remember no matter how hard I tried—or she tried to get me hard—my dick stayed as soft as a bed pillow.

When I finally gave up and apologized to the woman, Briana had walked into the bathroom. I didn’t think she heard the part where I apologized for not being able to perform, so it actually played into what I was trying to do, to push her away. If she thought I was getting BJs in the bathroom, that was a good thing, right?

Except for how rotten it had made me feel.

It served me right. I deserved to be in pain. I was a dick to that poor girl in the stall and to Briana. Even more so after when I took her phone out to her.

A shadow fell over me and I squinted my eyes to see Sammy shaking her head at me. She waved a hand over my body and some of the aches receded. I sighed in relief.

“I’m not taking it all away. I want you to feel every second of you being an idiot.”

“I’m not being an idiot. I’m doing what’s best for all of us.” I didn’t remind her what had happened the last time I’d tried to settle down and start a family.

I struggled to sit up and winced against the pain.

Sammy looked ready to explode. “I wish I could just tell you what I see, but it would be less fun to watch.” She narrowed her eyes.

“What are you talking about? Watch what?”

“Ah!” She waved