Page 44 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
"It's complicated. No, that's not right. Actually it's really simple." Lowen's voice grew quieter and I had to strain to listen. "I met him when we were playing that tour over on human territory."
"He's one of your fans?"
I cringed. Lowen's mother didn't sound impressed with her son.
"He's not... well, technically, I guess he likes the band, and I met him at a meet and greet before a show, but it's not the way you think now. I don't jump into bed with my fans."
Really? I had to ask him about that again when we were alone.
"So what makes him so special?" Lowen's mother seemed a little less outraged now. I wondered if there was something in her son's features that made her believe him when he said I was different.
"He's..." Lowen paused while my heart was beating in my throat, anxiously waiting for what he might say about me when I wasn't listening—or when he thought I wasn't listening, anyway. "There was this instant connection between him and me," Lowen continued. "When I look at him, I know that we're meant to be together. He's been raised with so much prejudice and he's fighting so hard to overcome that just to be with me. He's amazing in so many ways that I can't even begin to describe. The very fact that he'sherenow..."
I took a step back, hand touching my chest as if it would stop my heart from trying to break out of its cage. I had no idea Lowen saw me that way. I thought I was burdening him with all my crap, but he actually commended me for it, for rising above it. More than anything, I wanted to be the person Lowen saw when he looked at me.
"You sound really serious," Lowen's mother voiced what I was thinking.
"Iamserious," my dragon said in a tone that left no room for argument. "I think we're fated."
There it was again, him holding on to that belief. Could there be anything to it?
His mother didn't seem to share my skepticism, though. In fact, her response confused me. "This might be the Gods testing you," she said.
The Gods testing him? What in the world was she on about?
"Funny," Lowen said. "That's exactly what the high priestess said when I told her. It's almost as if you two have been talking."
The high priestess? I was so confused. What reason did Lowen have to discuss our relationship with the high priestess? Did he have to get her blessing or something?
"You know how often I go to the shrine," Lowen's mother said. "You can't be surprised that she and I have been talking. I raised her child."
"You didn't raise her child," Lowen gave back. "You raisedyourchild."
"You're right. I'm sorry." His mother's voice softened. "I'd just hoped you'd take your duty to our people at least a little seriously."
His duty? What could that be? But whatever it was, the words sounded hauntingly familiar to me. Just replace 'people' with family and you got the same line my parents used on me when I didn't want to spend my weekends studying. I'd never have thought that my dragon might have the same expectations placed on him as me. He sure didn't seem it. And from the way this conversation was going, it didn't look like he even cared about meeting his mother's expectations either.
Because of me?
What were we doing?
Quietly, I went back to Lowen's room to wait for him. I didn't feel like eating anymore anyway.
After getting back to Lowen's room, I only had to wait a few minutes for him to show up with a tray of breakfast food. The smell was heavenly as it filled the room. Coffee and eggs and bacon. Even though I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, I drew the smell deep into my nose. It just had something so...normalabout it. Like this was just any other Sunday morning. Like I wasn't on an island with a dragon I'd had sex with the night before.
"Are you okay?" Lowen peered at me curiously as he sat the tray down.
"Yeah." I ran a hand through my hair. "Just... thinking." Should I tell him what I'd heard? I ran my tongue along my teeth, wondering. This was the kind of situation where you shouldn't be keeping secrets, right? I felt like there was already so much we had to deal with. "I went downstairs," I confessed. "When you and your mother were talking."
"Oh." Lowen sat on the bed next to me. "You heard us?"
"Yeah."
My dragon nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You must have questions." Even as he said that, he reached for the tray he'd brought up. "But that doesn't mean we can't get some food into you." He handed me one of the two plates, which he'd loaded with eggs and bacon. "Would you like some coffee too? We can talk while we eat."
I gave him a smile. "I never knew you'd be such a caretaker."
His eyebrows climbed up a little. Maybehehadn't thought of himself that way either.
