Page 37 of Charming the Dragon
His dragon hummed.Yes, because I think she’s our true mate.
Nathan ignored his beast to reply to Hayley, “Probably. I think most people act differently with friends compared with their parents.”
She raised her brows. “So we’re friends now? What happened to the whole we’re-just-coworkers spiel you gave yesterday?”
“Fuck, was that only yesterday?”
“That still doesn’t answer my question.”
Just remembering his stern words made him feel like an arse. He sighed. “I’m sorry about being somewhat brusque and rude. I just don’t…”
“Just don’t what?”
He paused, debating if he’d answer her or not. Because he had a feeling that if he did, it would shift things even more between them.
His dragon spoke up.Good, good. Then maybe you’ll kiss her sooner rather than later.
I’m not going to kiss her. I may like her, but I don’t want a mate. Especially not a human one.
You’re so bloody stubborn. She rode on our back in our dragon form, for fuck’s sake. She isn’t afraid of us, of any part of us.
Hayley squeezed his upper arm. “I don’t mean to push you, Nathan. We need to work together to get out of here, and if that’sall you want—to be exploring partners—I’ll find a way to be okay with it.”
“No, no, it’s not you.” He blew out a breath. “It’s just that I had a bad experience with a human female, and it’s colored my choices and behavior ever since.”
She searched his gaze with her lovely brown eyes. Her expression was full of concern, pity, and even a little bit of curiosity.
Hayley asked, “What happened?”
He didn’t have to tell her anything. And yet, before he could stop himself, the truth spilled from his lips. “I fell in love with a human female who was afraid of my dragon.”
“Oh, no. How did it happen?”
No judgment. No disbelief that he could ever let himself feel so deeply for someone who couldn’t accept all of him. No, Hayley was just curious and concerned. For him.
His dragon said softly,She is different and always will be. You should learn to trust her.
Trusting her would be too hard. However, as the human searched his gaze, he couldn’t help but reply, “I met the human female online. I can’t even remember how we first started talking—probably on a kind of message board-like place gamers use—and ten-minute chats turned into an hour. And then an hour morphed into several. Eventually, there were phone calls and even a few video calls. She seemed so funny and clever, and I slowly fell for her. It was only when we met in person that things started to fall apart.”
Because of the hassle and restrictions on dragon-shifters riding trains, Nathan hadn’t been able to greet Tracey right outside the platform. Instead, he’d met her in the pickup area outside the station. At first, they’d smiled at one another, and she said hello. They chatted like they always had for a fewminutes. But once his dragon had talked to him, making his pupils change, she’d taken a few steps backward.
That had been the beginning of the end, even if he’d been too stubborn and blind to see it.
Hayley’s voice brought him back to the present. “Was it your flashing dragon eyes?”
He blinked. “How did you know?”
“I’ll admit that the first time I saw them, when I was a kid, it was a little unsettling to watch the pupils change shape. I was more fascinated than afraid, though. However, my sister gets scared more easily than me, and I still don’t think she’s comfortable with the flashing eyes. So I’m guessing this human was more like my sister?”
He nodded and looked away to study the surface of the lake. “Yes. She never got used to it. The more my pupils flashed, the less open and friendly she was. At the end of the visit, she apologized and said it was just her first time being around a dragon-shifter for so long and she’d be fine the next time we got together. And while Tracey did come to visit one more time, sometime between her first and second visits, our chats grew shorter and the phone calls were almost nonexistent. And at the train station the second time, she broke up with me because she was too afraid of my dragon.” He picked up a small, flat rock and skipped it across the lake. “I tried to convince her to give us a chance and explained that being around a dragon-shifter could be unsettling at first, but she’d probably not notice it after a while. But she cut me off and said she could never sleep next to someone she thought could turn into a beast and maybe kill her. She rushed off before I could even process her words.”
Hayley said, “As if some humans don’t kill other humans! I’m so sorry that happened to you, Nathan. And if you want me to find her and give her a lecture on bigotry, I will.”
Despite the painful memories, his lips twitched, and he turned to face Hayley. At the indignation in her gaze, he nearly blinked.
His dragon spoke up.She really is upset for us. And look, she doesn’t even bat an eye when I talk with you.
It was true—Hayley’s expression and body language didn’t change. She acted as if she’d been around dragon-shifters her whole life.
