Page 35 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

When he’d worked as a journalist, he’d covered the other tiers of the dragon flight games, but never the Elite level. There was a lot to learn. Most of this would be second nature to me. A few things changed year to year, but we mostly kept it the same.

Once the call was finally over, Ash and I pushed aside our notes. He looked at me. His eyes were cautious, and when he reached for me, his touch was tentative.

“What was that about?” I asked.

He blew out a breath. “I interviewed with that clan for the Flight Trainer position,” he said. “I didn’t know that Carson was the Flight Leader they hired. That information wasn’t public yet. I ran into him at a bar the night before my interview.”

My gut twisted. I already knew where this discussion was going.

“It was over a year ago, Zayne.” Guilt flooded his eyes, and instantly, my brain connected the dots.

“You slept with him?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but I also didn’t want my mate to have it hanging over his head.

“Yes.” His eyes fell to the table.

“Did you have a relationship beyond that?” I couldn’t envision him with such an asshat, but I didn’t want to envision him with anyone, so there was that.

He shook his head. “Once I showed up at the interview and met him, I realized just how much of a dick he was.” Ash let out a long sigh. “He knew the whole time who I was, and yet he still took me home. I wouldn’t have accepted the position there even if they had offered it to me. And they did offer it to me. He tried calling me a few times after that, and I just ignored him.”

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “This is an annoyance,” I said, holding back my rage at the way he had treated Ash. As much as I didn’t like the idea of them together in any way, hearing that he had been awful to the man I loved was worse. “And to give you a heads-up, he’s going to be a dick this season. And not because of you, but because he always is. He’s made more than one comment about me in the past few years once my record started sliding.”

My phone buzzed on the table. Carson’s contact flashed across the screen. Just what we fucking needed.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I hit decline and shoved the phone across the table. “Great.”

“Zayne, I’m sorry.” The sorrow in Ash’s voice gutted me. “If I had known then… I wish… I… sorry…”

I held up a hand. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Ash. We didn’t know each other yet and neither of us were saints before we met. It’s just… I need to be alone.”

It wasn’t the way to handle this situation. I knew that. But also, I knew that my dragon was pushing at me, my emotions were high, and that if I stayed here any longer, I was going to say something I wished I didn’t.

Why did my mate need to meet Carson back then? He didn’t deserve to be treated like meat, to be offered a job with the intention of being able to treat him that way again, and to have the asshole pretty much announce to the entire league that he’d once gotten down and dirty with his opponent.

If I could go back in time and fix it, I one thousand percent would. But I couldn’t. Instead, I needed to figure out exactly how to make my mate feel better, for Carson to keep his creepy ways to himself, and to get my dragon to simmer down. Walking out on him wasn’t the way to do that. And yet, there I was doing exactly that.

I didn’t deserve my mate, and he sure as shit deserved better than me. And still, fate decided otherwise, which meant there was only one option: I needed to become worthy of my mate. If only I knew how to do that.

Chapter 18

Zayne

Carsonwasanasshole.A grade-A asshole. He always had been and probably always would be. Only this was worse because he was directing his asshole expertise at my mate.

I had zero reason to be jealous of a relationship that my mate had prior to meeting me—especially one that had ended long ago. Jealousy wasn’t the issue. Knowing my mate had been treated poorly was.

Did I love that they were together? Absolutely not. But the reality was that Carson had never had the connection with my mate that I did, even if they had spent a night together. And clearly, the man wasn’t smart enough to cling to my amazing mate when he had the chance.

Although he had offered him a job, so he must have known my mate was talented. Or maybe that too was part of his circle of using him. It was safe to say that I was pissed about so much of what had happened then and during our meeting.

And then there was my dragon. He had no ability to process anything other than someone, not us, had touched our mate. As much as I hated it, my dragon’s emotions impacted mine, even when I knew better.

That was why, as ridiculous as it was, I couldn’t stop the green monster that spread through my chest like an infectious disease, clouding my judgment and making my dragon see red. Try as I could, I couldn’t suppress the emotions running through me, the ones amplified by my beast and making me not be the alpha I wanted to be.

I should be staying with my pregnant mate, reassuring him that everything was right in this world and that we were going to conquer the games and life together and parenthood. Did I? Nope. Instead, I left, needing to get my wings on. Maybe if I let my dragon out and flew, I could regulate the emotional turmoil raging within me.

Maybe I needed space and then all would be normal. The push to get away was intense, but so was the pull to stay near my mate. I wasn’t going to go far, because even if I wanted to, which I didn’t, I couldn’t be away any real distance from my mate.

While my actions were telling a different story, I had no desire to run away from my problems. That would solve nothing. In fact, it would do the opposite and grow into something my mate should not have to deal with.

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