Page 8 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

“It’s just that I—I don’t feel overly welcome.” And there it was, laid out without any sugar coating. If we were going to make this work, we needed to trust each other, and that included being honest.

But also, it sounded ridiculous—like I was a little kid who was sad their teacher didn’t call on them and not a grown-ass man starting his first day of work.

Zayne stood then, gathering his papers and laptop.

“I’m not responsible for your feelings, Ash,” he said. “If I were you, I’d keep them to yourself.”

Right. Okay. Message received.

“Listen,” I said, exhaling sharply. “I came in ready to play nice. I have a lot of respect for you and the career you’ve built in your tenure here.” And now it sounded like I was kissing his ass. Why couldn’t I find the right words around him?

He scoffed. “Is that another way of telling me I’m old?”

“Well… you’re not young.” And just like that, I made it worse.

“Not like you, huh?” he snapped. I deserved it.

“Youth has nothing to do with this conversation.” Even if I was the one who’d inadvertently brought it up. “I have good ideas. If you listen to what I have to say, try the techniques I have, we’ll have a winning team.”

“Sure. Easy as that? Just let you run the whole show?”

“That isnotwhat I said.” Only, maybe I kind of did. “At least that’s not what I meant.”

“Mean what you say and say what you mean.” His eyes flickered, his dragon close. “If you do that, we won’t have any further problems.”

“Arggg.” I clenched my fists at my side. Why was this man so infuriating and why couldn’t I control my emotions around him?

I’d worked with the top alphas in this industry for my past jobs. It wasn’t like I couldn’t hold my own in a conversation with them, but with Zayne? With Zayne it was like I lost my ability to communicate.

If I kept digging, I was going to end up in a science fiction world below the earth.

“Argg? That’s your response?” He started to head out the door, stopping only long enough to call back. “Maybe read a dictionary tonight and learn some words. We both need this to work, and if things keep going this way, it won’t.”

And then he was gone, leaving me there to stand in a mess of my own making. At least the others weren’t there to see it. It was going to be hard enough in the morning, walking back in here after the way today went.

“I can fix this.” Being my own hype man wasn’t working, dread seeping through every pore of my body as I left the building and made the walk to my new home.

I wasn’t even unpacked yet, and as I walked in the front door, nothing about the place felt like home.

“Maybe I should’ve stayed where I was.” I leaned against the closed door and closed my eyes, replaying the entire day in head and seeing all of the ways I could’ve made things better and didn’t.

My eagle pushed at me. He wanted out. I stripped my clothing, opened the bathroom window wide open, and shifted. That was one thing I had over the dragons here, I could shift inside, fly away, and disappear into the trees.

I took to the air and explored the grounds from the sky. It was a stunning campus. Did I fly over Zayne’s house? Yes, I did. I could see why he wanted it there and wondered if he ever got lonely being so far from the others. Maybe that’s why he came across as so grumpy?

The why didn’t matter, nor did his potential loneliness, or even the location of his house. The only thing that did was getting through this season and showing the world what I could do.

Chapter 5

Zayne

Thefirstdayofclass was always annoying. At least to me. We needed to go over all the rules, introduce ourselves to the new students, remind the returning students that they didn’t know everything, and establish the tone for the coming season. And while doing all of this, we had to deal with the chaos of lost students, late students, students who sat in the wrong class for ten minutes before realizing it, and on and on.

It was always a tiresome day.

It didn’t help that I had spent the better part of the evening going over my conversation with Ash in my head dozens of times. No matter how many ways I looked it, it was never good. The conversation had been a train wreck from the very start, and it only got worse.

Kellan, Hayden, and I positioned ourselves at the front of the small auditorium-style room, looking much more ready than we were. There were five rows of seats, allowing the room to hold up to twenty students. Twenty was too many, in my opinion, but some years they were full for many classes. They wouldn’t be full for this class, only those on the team would be here.

---