Page 7 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)

Beal

Moonscale Memorial Hospital

I stepped out of Clarence Moonscale’s way as he and one of his uniformed guards walked by.

Neither of them glanced at me twice. I wore yellow scrubs and smelled like a coconut from the spray I snatched out of one of the real nurses’ cars.

I didn’t take anything else and tossed the spray can back in once I was finished.

I left one of the weird paper moneys with a twenty on it on the seat.

I was pretty sure that would cover it. She’d parked behind a big, black pickup truck which gave me the perfect spot to spray myself down and change without being seen from the hospital’s front entrance.

Tops was next on my list. The final on my courting list unless someone else wanted to go after my mate.

He was a dragon, but he was sparkly and precious.

No one was going to push him around anymore.

I waited until the raccoon law-knower left and offered to walk Nic back to his room where his mother awaited him now that the tail had been gathered up and the room scrubbed from top to bottom until it was sterile again.

Nic, my beautiful Nic, with his startling blue eyes still marked on the corners by crimson scales glanced at the medic called Arrow.

“It’s probably for the best,” Arrow nodded. “Clarence won’t be back any time soon but she’s probably more worried than is healthy.”

“Do you have a hair tie or a rubber or something?” Nic asked the medic, and I savored every word that tumbled over his kissable lips.

Maybe this was a mistake. I needed to be close to him. I needed to find out where Tops was. So many things needed to fall into place before I could give Nic his third courting gift but being this close to him made it difficult to think straight.

Arrow patted his pockets, but I pulled one out and handed it to him. It wouldn’t smell like me because it wasn’t mine. Two were left in the pockets of the yellow scrubs I snatched from the closet. Nic turned his grateful smile on me and for a second, I thought I might die right then and there.

“Do you need some help?” I managed to keep my voice neutral long enough to choke out the question.

“Let him,” Arrow nodded to Nic. “You tore your hand up when you ripped out the IV.”

Nic frowned down at the big ugly purple bruise on the back of his hand.

The edges were already receding, but guilt still licked up my spine.

Perhaps, I should’ve left Chard’s tail on the nightstand or even in the armchair that sat in the corner of the room.

He’d calm down once he understood what it was and that it was from me.

That it was my way of keeping him safe and proving to him that I’d always protect him.

His hair was even softer than it looked.

He leaned his head back and I combed through it with my fingers, gently parting a tangle here and there that formed during his flight from the hospital room.

Then I gathered his copious locks up and pulled them all together in a low ponytail before securing it with the hair tie.

He murmured his thanks as he stood up. He gave Arrow a look I couldn’t quite read and for a second, I wondered if Arrow’s head would make a good third courtship gift.

I wouldn’t. He was fond of the medic, and the man didn’t put him in any danger.

It was just the opposite. The man worked hard to make sure Clarence couldn’t interrogate him unfairly.

I offered Nic my arm and goosebumps rose on my back when he took it.

I walked slowly as we left the room, trying to draw out every second of his soft, warm flesh against mine and still the walk wasn’t nearly long enough.

Too soon we made it back to the hospital room and his mother snatched him from my arms and pulled him to her bosom as if he were a kitten lost in the woods for days.

She’d be a good grandmother when the time came.

“What did Clarence do to you?” she crooned and held his face in her hands while she searched his eyes.

“He thinks I did it!”

I opened my mouth and shut it again. The overgrown lizard would shut up when he figured out, I cleaned up his city for him. I wouldn’t have to do his job if he paid more attention.

“Do you guys know anyone named Tops?” I asked, shutting the door.

The dragoness pushed her son behind her and raised her fists as if she were ready to fight me.

“Calm down, lady, please,” I whispered, holding up both hands so that she could see I was unarmed.

“Everyone out there keeps talking about him. He’s the one thing connecting the cheetah and the beaver.

If you ask me he has something to do with whatever’s going on.

I just wanted to give you a head’s up since Clarence clearly isn’t looking in the right places. ”

“I’ll hang that bloody hyena by his balls and use him as a fucking pinata,” the dragoness growled.

Nic’s scent turned to panic, and I took a deep breath, trying to keep my cat from following suit. There couldn’t be that many hyenas in London. He’d have to be easy to find. I’d bring back his hide as my third gift to Nic. Hell, maybe I’d bring his balls back for my mother-in-law.

“She knows more than she’s letting on,” my cat said, and I raked my eyes up and down her to discern what I was missing that he had pinpointed.

“You know him then?” I asked.

“He’s fucking useless,” she swore.

“Mum!” Nic said, trying to grab her arm but she shrugged it away and stormed out of the room.

Nic looked at the empty door like a child abandoned by his favorite person in the world.

My cat reared up ready to chase the dragoness down and do his best to drag her scaley ass back in here, but I couldn’t leave Nic alone.

Not yet. Instead, I stepped in front of him and met his gaze.

His scent filled my lungs, making it hard to think but he needed comfort.

Slowly, I reached out and cradled his face in my hands.

He blinked at me, surprised, but then leaned into my warmth as if he’d done it a thousand times before.

His sparkling blue eyes searched my face and his mouth opened up as if he were trying to bypass my pheromone blocker spray.

“You’re not from here,” he whispered. “Your aura is too different.”

“I didn’t grow up in London,” I started but he cut me off.

“No, you weren’t born here – on Earthside,” he whispered. “The Starscales have a different aura too. They’re these dragons from a different place too. Some of the elves have an aura that tells me the same thing. Can I touch it?”

I swallowed hard, clearly projecting a meaning onto his words that they didn’t have. Yes. Yes, he could touch it. He could touch whatever of mine he wanted to. Who was I to deny my mate?

“May I?” he asked again when I didn’t speak.

“Of course,” I nodded.

He ran his long fingers with their chipped red polish through the air and goosebumps rose up all over my body. Inside his inner sanctum, my cat purred, trying to brush up against our mate’s ethereal touch. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold back the sound from vibrating up my throat.

Nic’s sparkling blue eyes grew to saucers as his fingers raked over the air for a second time.

He took a step closer, and I took a step away from him because I was impersonating a nurse, but that step made my very bones ache.

Whatever magic called true-mates back together lifetime after lifetime had its hooks in me good.

He stepped forward again and I didn’t have the resolve to step away a second time.

“Who are you really?” Nic whispered.

There were so many ways to answer his question, and I wasn’t sure which one was the best. I wanted to soothe away the anxiety from his scent and reassure him that he had nothing to worry about.

If he had been a saber back home, he’d have known who I was from the very beginning.

Still, how could I come to him now without having provided the third courting gift?

Our customs were different, but I needed him to know it didn’t matter whether or not Jon and Chard survived – he was safe.

Hyenas didn’t stand a chance. Nothing or no one would ever hurt him again.

“Are you like my guardian angel or something?” Nic asked, sniffing at me.

My spine stiffened and I tried to think of my grandparents bickering over the pasta back home. I tried to think of the hunt ahead of me. I tried to conjure anything that would keep my dick from hardening from Nic’s close proximity.

“Something like that,” I nodded.

“To save me from Tops?”

“To protect you from any threat,” I whispered.

“I think my mum might eat him,” he whispered back.

“Good on her,” I nodded.

The confession of our bond was on the tip of my tongue as Nic raked both hands through my aura. I trembled as his eyes grew wide again.

“You did it,” he said but didn’t back away. “The paw. The tail. You did it…”

“To keep you safe. I promise once I explain it all…” I started but Nic shook his head.

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

“Oh,” Nic said. “Oh. We’ve got to get out of here. If they figure out…”

“They won’t. We’ll go and ---” I started.

“I can’t leave everything! I’m the only one my mother has and---” Nic pulled away. “Why did you leave it on my pillow?”

“So that you’d find it.”

“But why? Why wasn’t just maiming them enough? Why Jon? Jealousy or--?”

“Never. I’m more cat than he’ll ever be.

It is tradition amongst my cats. We bring three courting gifts to prove that we are worthy.

I would never have known what to bring a dragon of Earthside if I hadn’t found you arguing with Jon that night.

I followed him and he led me to Chard. They discussed killing you to get the money Jon owed Tops. ”

The color fled from his face, and he sat down on the edge of the hospital bed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know taking Jon’s paw would upset you so much. I’d have found another way to get my point across if I knew.”

“He was going to kill me?” Nic asked.

“He’s not a good guy, mate,” I said the word aloud for the first time.

“I know,” Nic said and rubbed his temples.

“I’ll go and let you rest. I’ll come back with Tops’s hide and then---”

“No. Please.”

“No to the hide? I’ll find something else suitable then.”

“Don’t leave me,” Nic shook his head. “I—I don’t want you to leave.”

Against my better judgement, I sat down on the bed with him. If anyone walked by and peeked through the hospital door’s little window, my cover would be blown. I didn’t want to fight my way out of the hospital, but I could.

“We have to go,” Nic said. “I don’t know how to make this right.”

“I think Clarence would have done the same for his mate. Probably more. I let them live so that they might remember to make better choices in life. So that they might remember that no matter how strong you think you are, someone is stronger, faster, and better organized. So that they might work out their issues in this life and not have them carried over to the next.”

Alarms blazed above our heads, and we both hit the floor. The hospital door’s little window showed blinking red lights and staff running in every direction. I couldn’t make out what they were saying over the screams and the panicked exchange of words.

“Do you think they heard us?” Nic whispered as I wiggled under the bed, taking him with me.

“They shouldn’t have,” I shook my head.

“We’ve got to get out of here. Even if my mum was here, we couldn’t fight the whole Moonscale Guard. I need my clothes! Damn it! I can’t escape with my ass flashing to the world!”

“Where are they?” I asked, glancing around the room from under the bed.

“In the wardrobe over there the last I knew but that was before they cleaned the room,” he pointed.

“Stay here. If one of us is to be harmed it shouldn’t be you.”

“I have scales.”

“Stay here,” I said again and left from our hiding spot before Nic could protest further.

I sprinted across the room and tore open the wardrobe.

There were more than a few outfits hung on padded cloth hangers, making me wonder how long his mum planned to keep him here.

It didn’t matter. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

I almost shut the wardrobe but grabbed a sweater too just in case he got cold.

There wasn’t time for me to search for his socks and underwear so this would have to do for now.

Once we made it back to my home, I could garb him in anything he liked.

Nic wiggled around dressing under the bed as I tore open the window and looked out. I wasn’t being as careful as I should’ve, but I got lucky, and no one was there. We were twelve or thirteen stories from the ground. Not a bad climb down. Sirens wailed outside too.

“They can’t be looking for us. If they were, the dragoness would’ve told them exactly where we were. If not her, then the medic,” my cat cut into my thoughts.

Either way. Sirens were never a good sign on Earthside.

Nic crawled out from under the hospital bed and brought his wings out.

“No,” I shook my head.

“I can carry you. I’m stronger than I look,” Nic said, joining me at the window.

“No, dragons search high. They expect everyone to escape through the sky because that’s how they’d do it. We climb down and---”

“I can’t climb that. Well, maybe with my wings and—”

“No, on my back,” I said, turning around so that he could climb on.

“I’m not helpless,” Nic said.

“No, you’re not, but this way they’ll have a harder time separating us.”

“What about my mum?” Nic asked.

“Your family link? Those exist here, right?”

“She has it shut down,” Nic said.

“She’d want you to be safe!”

“Fine!” Nic sighed and climbed onto my back.

He wasn’t as light as he looked but I’d carried heavier loads of construction supplies back home. Once we were on the ground I went straight for the Other World Gateway.