Page 24 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)

Ashley

D olyn seemed farther away than usual, and I appreciated his agreeing to my needing space yet still watching over me.

While my dreamer side sighed in bliss over the rubbish I’d been told tonight, the part of me who needed to stay grounded in reality frowned.

I longed to believe Dolyn. Hell, his magic trick of blinking out of existence for a few seconds pushed me to give in.

I wanted to accept the fact I’d met the one destined for me, who would heal all my wounds and make me whole again.

Why I’d spewed the shit of my past to him, I didn’t know.

Like a mental tether connected us, I hadn’t been able to stop from spilling my guts.

Crawling into bed didn’t allow me to escape the thoughts in my mind, so I focused on an event that flooded me with warmth.

Vanni had touched me.

A much more enjoyable moment to think on rather than confusing explanations.

I relived my time on the bench, the pain of his hand, and the soothing caress of his palm.

The fingers he’d teased through my soaked folds.

The one he had pushed into my body, bringing me to my first climax without pain since I’d been a teenager and had realized what happened when the clit was given attention while aroused.

I had found release through Master Vanni’s gentle touch alone. No pain. I’d already been turned on prior to arriving at the lounge, and the scent and closeness of my master had intensified what Dolyn’s presence had roused to life once I’d left work.

The feelings were the same type of tension, sexually charged, that had landed me in my abuser’s hold all those years ago.

The urge, the driving need to get off, had cuffed me to a lumpy mattress I could still feel beneath my backside when the dark memories built in my head.

The lashes of his belt, the buckle still attached…

I shivered, all trace of desire ripped from me. The scars he’d left on my body had faded, but those inside me remained regardless of the gains I had made toward healing.

Tears pricked my eyelids, and I rolled, stuffing my face in my pillow, but memories and fears continued to haunt me, refusing me rest.

Morning found me bleary-eyed and exhausted. I couldn’t rouse myself from bed but stared at my ceiling, cursing the sun filtering through my blinds.

Who could I go to for answers?

Vanni had seemed horrified by what would sound like bullshit to any other rational thinking human. Doctor Hasslet might finally start to question my sanity when he hadn’t earlier in the week. Dolyn would only spew more of his nonsense?—

Truth .

I swallowed hard, eyes clenching shut at the whispered suggestion coming from deep inside me. It was almost like I’d finally located my soul, and that part of me was a separate being.

Dragon shifter, Dolyn had claimed.

He’d also told me other things I hadn’t thought to check into.

I grabbed my cell off my bed stand.

It wasn’t yet nine in the morning, but I doubted my boss would mind me calling.

It’d been weeks since he’d been in the office, and although I had communicated with him via email while he worked remotely from his home in the White Mountains, I’d never before brought my personal life up to my employer.

“Ashley?” Elijah answered, his deep voice easing some of the tightness in my chest.

I sank back into my pillow. “I’m sorry for using your private number.”

“You don’t have to apologize when I offered you the ability to contact me whenever you had need.”

Closing my eyes, I breathed out slowly. “Who is Dolyn Kemmerly, and how do you know him?”

The sound of a door closing reached over the line. “Are you all right, Ashley?” he asked rather than answering me.

“I’m…yes. Physically, at least.” I huffed a small laugh that had nothing to do with amusement. “Mentally, not so much?”

“Talk to me—tell me what is bothering you.”

Exactly as a caring older brother would do, Elijah listened without interruption as I explained what I had felt, seen, and heard since he’d last been in the office.

I tried to verbalize the sense of being watched.

Followed. I shared about seeing Dolyn for the first time outside the cafe.

How talking to him and being in close proximity assured me of a connection between us, yet the feeling of something being off that made me question his intentions.

I even opened up about my past so Elijah might understand why I spent time with a dominant.

I withheld speaking of the sexual intimacy I experienced, but I did admit to feeling desire for Dolyn and my master both.

At my telling Elijah about how Dolyn had punched Master Vanni the night before, he chuckled.

“I hope your alpha makes him pay,” Elijah murmured, still laughing lightly.

“Alpha—he threw out that word along with beta.” Seated against my headboard, I wrapped my free arm around my drawn-up knees.

“Of course he would.” Elijah sighed heavily. “Are you questioning Dolyn’s intentions toward you or his explanation of his existence?”

“Both,” I whispered, for some reason, my throat growing tight and eyes stinging.

“Dolyn has never listened to his instinctive side, which a royal Blood Born is supposed to be in complete harmony with. For him, there is a constant push and pull that exhausts his human half. He has no trust in who he is.”

“Which is?” I pushed even though I already suspected Elijah would assure me Dolyn hadn’t lied.

“We are not fully human.”

“We—you’re a dragon shifter too?” I asked even though I’d already come to the conclusion myself.

“I am.” Elijah spoke with finality, the same strong tone and assurance of authority that I had heard in countless boardrooms. Grown men tended to quake in my boss’s presence when he took on that air, but I’d never once felt threatened by him.

I rubbed a hand over my neck while trying to swallow. “This isn’t all a dream?” I rasped. “Some fantasy I cooked up in my head to give me healing and a happily ever after of my own?”

“What you’re experiencing is reality ,” Elijah stated. “You saw the power within his eyes, but I promise that Dolyn will never hurt you, no matter what form he takes. He could reveal his golden beast—which is quite lovely, I must say—and be full of rage but not lift a razor-sharp claw your way.”

I blew out a slow exhale, wiping the back of my hand over my eyes and stretching out my legs beneath my warm blankets. “This is real.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Shit!” I straightened. “I just…the armor you manufacture! It’s made out of dragon scales, isn’t it?”

Elijah chuckled.

“Oh my God!” I huffed a real laugh. “Who else knows? Does the government? You have countless contracts around the globe—holy shit , Elijah!”

“No one is aware of the truth, and I would ask that you do not speak of it. As a human with dragonblood running in your veins, you must protect yourself.”

Racism among humans was bad enough. I couldn’t imagine bringing sentient creatures into the toxic mix.

“Damnitalltohell.” A shudder rippled through me, raising the hairs on my arms as possible futures flitted through my mind. Shackles and bars. Solitary cells. Hundreds of tests, probing and unpleasant. “I won’t tell a soul,” I whispered, wiping a damp palm over my top sheet.

“It would be for the best. Now, let’s discuss moving forward in your relationship with Dolyn.”

“We’re not exactly in one.”

“But you’re his fated mate.”

I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. “That’s what he said.”

“He speaks truth, Ashley.” Elijah’s warm voice wrapped around me like a brother’s arms probably felt like.

“But there is no rush, regardless of how he pursues you or pushes your boundaries. Hold firm in your own desires but listen. Learn. Share your truth and ask for his. I assure you, once the bonding occurs, honesty will be easy.”

“Bonding,” I repeated, my brain taking off down the route of paranormal romance. “Does that, um…including biting? Sexual rituals?” My voice was more a squeak than tone.

Elijah chuckled. “That topic, I believe, should be discussed between the three of you.”

“Three?”

A slight hesitation on Elijah’s end caused my heart rate to pick up.

“It takes three dragonblood to create life. Alpha, beta, and female,” he explained.

My eyelids popped open as a rush of adrenaline heightened my pulse. “Vanni.”

“I’ve never met the man, but considering the interactions between him and you, along with Dolyn’s… not so pleasant reaction to the man, yes, I believe you may have guessed right.”

Pulsing twinges between my thighs made me swallow hard. “Okay. Good. Yes, I mean, that sounds perfect. I think?”

More deep, rumbling laughter filled my ear.

“Be patient with Dolyn as he comes to terms with his destiny, Ashley. He is stubborn. Blinded from the truth because of his past, I expect. Perhaps he’ll share with you those parts of himself he mostly kept hidden from me.

Doing so prior to bonding would doubtless create a far superior future than a mating based on instinct and lust alone. ”

Elijah went on to explain how he’d met Dolyn decades ago, how they believed themselves to be the last two Blood Born alive and shared a relationship while attempting to find a female to bond with.

He told me about his fated mates he’d met in the mountains near his home, the married couple who completed him in every way.

His mate, Dakota, had an ancient gift that had allowed Dolyn the opportunity to see the female fate intended for him.

Elijah had found his happily ever after and again encouraged me to trust my instincts in moving forward with Vanni and Dolyn.

His advice lay heavy on my heart and mind throughout the morning.

I crunched on some toast while sitting at my kitchen table writing out my shopping list since life went on regardless of my heavy eyelids and bleary sight.

My cell dinged, and I set aside my pen, taking another bite of my breakfast when I just wanted to go back to bed and forget the world for a few hours.