Page 19 of Dragon in Denial
Chapter 5
Between the battle from the night before and lying on a wooden floor, listening to the foreign sounds of a backwoods bayou, Ketu pretty much felt like crap when he woke in the morning.
Still, the real world was better than those few restless hours he’d been in the dream world. The last image of Antoinette, straddling him, her naked breasts jiggling while she rode him to a climax that he hadn’t been able to reach disappeared like smoke as he stretched and forced his eyes open.
The smell of frying bacon hit his nostrils and he breathed deeply, annoyed that he caught Antoinette’s citrusy scent as well.
His mate.
Shifting and flying together for the first time was generally how dragons discovered their fated mates. Yet he and Antoinette had known each other for practically their entire lives. Was it possible they’d never flown together until now?
Yeah, he supposed it was. She had been Eulalie’s friend, not his, and they were four years younger than him. While she’d been underfoot practically all the time—she had a pretty shitty home life—they hadn’t hung in the same circles. She and Eulalie were still in elementary school when he started high school, and he’d graduated and moved to Biloxi before they began high school. They ate meals together, played video games together, argued and fought like siblings, but no, they’d never actually flown together.
Until now.
He rubbed his hand over his face, the stubble scraping his palm. He was mated to a freaking drug dealer.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He rolled to his feet and stretched to work the kinks out of his abused muscles, and headed to the bathroom. After taking care of business and using his finger as a toothbrush, Ketu felt almost dragon again.
“Coffee,” Pongo said when he wandered into the kitchen. The gargoyle inclined his head, indicating the pot perched on the small bit of counter next to him.
“Mmm, chicory,” Ketu said, savoring the rich aroma before taking the first fortifying sip. “Thanks.”
“You slept on the floor,” Pongo commented while he whipped eggs and milk together in a bowl. “I had thought you two were mates.”
Ketu cupped the back of his neck and glanced at the bed, where Antoinette was still buried under the covers. “No, we’re not.” It was a technicality, though. Flying together was the discovery; having sex sealed the deal. Officially made them mates.
He’d not given much thought to finding his mate since he moved to Detroit. He’d assumed she was likely a member of the Rojo colony since that was where he grew up, which meant so long as he stayed away, he wouldn’t find her.
And now that he had, it was Antoinette. His sister’s best friend.
And a drug dealer.
Yeah, he couldn’t get past that fact.
He took another drink while turning his focus to the empty dock. “Do gargoyles not sleep?” The question was partially an attempt to distract himself but also because he was genuinely interested. He knew precious little about their species and yet he’d now met two gargoyles who had helped dragons in their time of need.
“We get our rest while in stone form. When my mistress is home, we share the bed, and after a few days I usually will sleep. Although that bed is so lumpy, I almost would rather return to my perch at the end of the dock. We really need to replace it.”
“You share your mistress’s bed? Is that a normal witch-gargoyle relationship? I mean, assuming she’s a witch, of course.”
He nodded and poured the egg mixture into a heated wrought iron pan. “She is. I do not know that I would call it normal, but we do have a personal relationship. You dragons would call it mates, although she calls it husband and wife.”
Ketu nodded while continuing to nurse his coffee. Given Ginger, his reeve’s grandmother—who was a witch—had created a child with a dragon, the fact that a gargoyle and a witch had mated didn’t seem all that odd.
Using a spatula, Pongo scrambled the eggs while they cooked. “Her family does not know of our marriage. They do not approve of me.” His face took on a hang dog look at odds with the squareness of his jaw.
“Why?”
“They believe she should marry one of her own kind.” He waved at the screen door leading out to the dock and then scraped the fluffy eggs into a clean bowl. “That is why she is away and I am left here, awaiting her return. Her niece had a baby, and she went to visit. She should be home by the morrow. She will be disappointed to have missed you. She is fascinated by all beings who are different from her.”
Ketu caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch as Antoinette came awake. She stretched, her arms reaching out from underneath the covers, and then she pushed the blankets down to her waist as she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Her curls were sticking up every which way and her face was flushed.
I could see myself waking up next to that each and every day.
Me too, his dragon replied.
