Page 50 of Hungry Like A Dragon
Chapter 10
Noah watched Petra rush away. No doubt she’d gone after Sadie and the old woman, leaving him to focus on the more pressing problem: a psycho witch who had a serious chip on her shoulder about dragons.
And she was half dragon, which made her chip pretty damn confounding.
“What’s your problem, anyway?” he asked, circling her yet giving her a wide berth. He needed to distract her to keep her from lighting up the sky with all that damn magic. If one of his friends didn’t get hurt, surely a nearby human would notice and call the cops. And Noah was pretty sure this was private property, so they’d likely all be arrested for trespassing.
“You people won’t leave me the hell alone so I can do my own thing,” she said, dropping her arms so that she was no longer shooting spells at the dragons and gargoyles flying above their heads. The gargoyles, Noah noted, weren’t aggressive as long as they didn’t perceive an immediate threat to Delilah. Without her instigation, they simply flew in circles, not attacking the dragons but not letting them land, either.
“No,” Noah said. “I mean, why do you hate dragons so much?”
“Seriously?” She rolled her eyes. “Your species has such a massive hang-up about love, yet you’re such users. The whole lot of you.”
“I’m not following.”
She made an annoyed noise in her throat and then stabbed her thumb at her own chest. “Apparently, because I’m half witch, I don’t get to have a fated mate.”
Noah canted his head. “Gabe’s part witch and he has a fated mate.”
Delilah glanced up at the sky and then back to Noah. “Well, there goes that theory.”
And then she shook her head. “See? It’s even worse than I imagined. Even though it’s possible I have a fated mate out there somewhere, at this point, I’m convinced that person just doesn’t exist. Or maybe he’s dead already. Who knows? All I know is I’ve never been good enough for anyone I’ve ever dated. No matter what I gave them or promised them or did for them. Didn’t matter. Didn’t ever matter. As soon as Little Miss Fated Mate came along, each and every one ditched me. Including his father.” She pointed at the sky, where Gabe flew in circles above the three gargoyles. “I knew Everest was losing interest. That’s why I deliberately got pregnant. Thought he’d feel the need to be faithful once he knew I was carrying his child. But no-o-o, that stupid fated mate thing is too powerful.”
“So you’re mad at Gabe’s father for leaving you when you were pregnant, and you’re taking it out on all of dragonkind?”
“He wasn’t the only one. I mean, he was the only one who got me pregnant, but he wasn’t the only one who left me for a fated mate. Every dragon I ever dated did. Every. Single. One. That wears on a girl after a while, y’know?”
No, he didn’t know, but it seemed wise not to let her know he doubted her reasoning.
“You can’t give up,” he said instead. That was exactly what his dad did: gave up. On his children, life, everything.
“Maybe the one for you isn’t a dragon,” he suggested.
“Ugh. I’ve tried dating gargoyles, but they just don’t do it for me. All stoic and unmoving and always determined to do the right thing. Convincing these guys that protecting me was in their best interests was a real pain in the ass, let me tell you.”
Gargoyles weren’t the only other creatures out there, but again, Noah didn’t voice his opinion. Or rather, that fact.
“What if your mom can help?” Petra said, joining him. He jerked his head to the side. What was she doing here? He’d assumed she’d gone after Sadie when she rushed out of the fray earlier. So where was their daughter?
“What makes you say that?” Delilah asked.
Petra shrugged. “She’s a witch, like you. And she dated a dragon. Sounds like they didn’t end up together, but she doesn’t appear to have any regrets. Maybe she can give you some advice.”
“She and my dad’s thing was blind lust right from the beginning. There weren’t any hard feelings because she didn’t love him. She just wanted to have sex with him.”
“Maybe that’s the secret,” Petra said, and to Noah’s ears, she sounded like she actually believed it. Gods, he hoped not. Because he sure as hell wanted more than that from her.
Whoa, where did that come from? He didn’t want more. He didn’t want to go through what he’d gone through with his mom ever again. He didn’t want…
He didn’t want to live without Petra and Sadie. That’s what he didn’t want.
Yeah, it was a scary concept considering what happened to his mom. Still, like his grandfather had told him a thousand times, drakon was an incredibly rare form of cancer and the chances of it striking someone else he loved were slim.
Holy shit, were they in the middle of a battle with a slightly crazed half-witch and a bunch of gargoyle bodyguards, and he’d just realized he was in love with the mother of his child?
“Your mom can show you how to date without falling in love every time,” Petra urged. What was she doing? Petra was starting to sound a bit unhinged herself. Why was she hell-bent on Delilah talking to her mother?
Delilah stroked the green gem at her throat and shook her head. “Or maybe it’s time to focus on my own wellbeing.”
