Page 21 of Driven by Dragonblood (Blood Born #3)

Jaxon

T he one thing I feared the most had come to fruition.

She left me. Fucking left me. Abandoned me as though I’d been nothing more than a dick to ride.

“Goddamnit!” I swept my sundae off the table and slammed my fist onto the wooden plank before me. Pain radiated up through my wrist, but I smashed my hand down again, needing something to focus on other than the fact that the energy linking us dissipated with every breath, every aching heartbeat.

All traces of her in my mind faded, leaving me empty and cold.

Our female is gone.

As if I didn’t fucking know that!

I hopped up and stormed off, fists clenched, my chest aching so goddamn badly I couldn’t think straight as my dragon whimpered and raged over what I had attempted to do. She’d fucking ripped me apart by taking off, though, broken me in a way no person had done before, parents included.

Pain hazed my sight, my mind, and I found myself stumbling along aimlessly. A rumble of thunder sounded, and I lifted my head, hoping for a glimpse of golden scales. A droplet of rain landed on my cheek, and I closed my eyes as another splattered on my forehead.

Did she weep overhead, her tears falling from the sky to wash away my grief?

As though those heavens opened, rain poured down with a rare vengeance for this area, soaking me before I walked another block. I stumbled up the stairs to my apartment, palm pressed against my chest to keep from sobbing.

I didn’t cry. Wouldn’t fucking do it. My parents hadn’t made me lose my shit in over eight years, and I wasn’t about to let a mere woman I hardly knew claim a single tear. Even if she was my destiny, my fated mate, one of the two whom I belonged to.

The second the door clicked shut behind me, I sank to my knees, head in my hands, while rocking myself.

The sweet scent of her lingered in the air, teasing my nose and body.

My dick swelled with need, even though pain continued to lance through my chest. as though a piece of my heart had been cut away with a dull knife.

She’d ripped herself away from me, obliterating that strange energy linking us and leaving me more alone than I’d ever felt before.

“All your fault, you fucking asshole,” I muttered, focusing on anger to keep me centered—to keep from crying. “Can’t stop thinking about him , just had to bring him up and be all manipulative as usual. Fuck.”

I sat on my haunches, head tipped back and eyes closed, trying to breathe through the pain.

Go to him.

I huffed a snort. “Yeah, right.”

Go to our alpha.

I stopped fighting every goddamn emotion rolling in my head and sat, listening to the voice inside me beg for what we wanted.

Prim had jetted in her drive to escape the pain, causing agony to twist my stomach.

And Patrick was to blame. Fucking stoic asshole was educated and probably stuck on science, refusing to believe the supernatural truth Prim had shared with him.

Well, I wouldn’t be so easily dismissed. That man had hurt my female?—

Gone.

“Fucking A!” I choked on a sob, gritting my teeth to will the tears from falling.

It took me fifteen minutes to find his card I’d shoved into a pair of jeans at the bottom of my dirty laundry pile. He’d jotted down his cell, but confronting him required I see him in the flesh, where he would be less apt to push me away.

I hoped, anyway.

According to his card, he lived on the opposite side of town from Lockwood.

The last thing I wanted was to be around a bunch of people, so I called an Uber rather than hop on a bus. Privacy would cost me a pretty penny in funds, but I didn’t give a shit.

Silence settled over the car’s interior as I stared at the rain still slashing at the earth like a scythe, sideways and dangerous.

Wind rocked the vehicle enough the driver cursed beneath his breath as he drove us northward, but I clamped my lips shut since I had ten times more shit to swear over than he could ever imagine.

The absence of Prim’s energy in my chest continued to haunt me, and no matter how driven I was to face Patrick and light into him for causing my suffering, my mind wouldn’t shut up.

What if he was married? What if a live-in girlfriend answered the door? What if he was celibate like a priest, determined to go without dick or pussy through what was left of his years?

Primrose had told me she would age slower due to the percentage of dragonblood pumping through her heart, but that the cum of our alpha would be needed to prolong my life to match her years—and mine, his.

Just the idea of my dominant alpha submitting to me , dropping to his knees to swallow every white spurt I shot down his throat, tightened me to the point of pain.

And the thought of sucking his dick?

I shifted on the backseat, my mouth flooding with drool even while my eyes continued to burn.

The rain fell but with less intensity when the Uber driver finally entered town limits and pulled up in front of a smaller house with a covered porch.

I paid in cash, muttered my thanks, and climbed out, my shirt and hair once more getting soaked from the rain.

Muscles quivering and eyeing Patrick’s front door, I approached by way of the cobbled pathway leading to the stairs.

Energy radiated from the left, licking over my skin and siphoning the air from my lungs.

I pulled up abruptly and turned my focus toward the left where Patrick sat on a wicker chair beneath the porch’s roof, his gaze drinking me in.

Anger simmered in my guts, keeping them clenched, but desire flared bright, causing my pulse to race.

Ours—want.

Insides jittery, I strode closer and climbed the stairs, getting out of the rain. My heart thundered, causing my ears to ring. My dick throbbed—jutted against my jeans, leading me to the stoic alpha who lounged as though unaffected by my proximity.

“Jaxon.” His voice slid over my skin like a silken caress, making goose bumps pebble my skin .

A muscle ticked in my jaw as droplets of water fell from my hair and chin, the war inside me one I didn’t know how to resolve.

Patrick glanced down over my wet form without a hint of emotion on his face and stood. “Come on in.”

He moved past me toward the front door with sure steps, and the scent of his cologne with a hint of brimstone swarmed my senses. The same draw between Prim and me acted like a magnet to my cells, making every inch of my body tingle with need for this stubborn man.

Hands fisted to keep from touching the asshole alpha who had denied both me and the woman I feared I would never see again, I stepped behind him into the entryway, taking a quick glance around as he shut the door behind us.

Stairs on my left led to the second floor, and the living room lay on the right, gently illuminated by a lamp atop a small table just inside the entry.

“Stay here,” Patrick ordered, climbing the stairs and giving me an eyeful of his flexing ass beneath thin sweats that hung low on his hips. “I’ll grab you a towel.”

I fisted my hands and locked my knees to keep from crawling after him. Drool flooded my mouth, and I swallowed harshly, attempting to smash down my desire. Closing my eyes rid me of the sight of him, but his alluring scent clung to the insides of my nostrils.

Want.

“No shit, Sherlock,” I muttered, but I was pissed enough over what he’d done to Prim—and in return, me—that lust took a back seat.

A towel hit me in the face as Patrick’s footfalls squeaked the treads of the stairs on his way back downstairs. “Dry yourself off.”

I mopped my face and hair before rubbing at my shoulders and arms, my dick jolting at the cloying scent of the towel’s owner embedded in its fabric.

Alpha.

Patrick’s whiskers twitched as though he clenched his jaw—out of need to fuck me, the dripping of water on his pristine wooden floor, or annoyance I’d shown up at all, I couldn’t tell—and he moved into the living room.

I followed like a lost puppy when I wanted to pounce on his back, smash a fist into his temple, and knock some goddamned sense into him before impaling myself on his dick and riding him until we both shot like geysers.

“What’s on your mind, Jaxon?” he asked while settling onto a recliner, left ankle propped onto the opposite knee, hands relaxed on the chair’s arms. He didn’t wear his glasses or that damned, sexy checkered vest, but the professional aura clung to him like a second skin.

Doc Macaire sat before me, in control and stolid as fuck.

Not Patrick or the alpha I desperately needed to pin me down and fuck me senseless so I could forget about Prim.

I stepped closer to him, enough he had to tip his head a bit to keep his gaze on my face. Still, he appeared unfazed. “A lot, actually.” My focus slipped to his groin and the undeniable bulge begging for release.

I would manipulate the fuck out of him. Hurt his heart like he’d done to Prim’s, and thus, mine.

He would pay for being a selfish asshole interested only in looking out for himself rather than the two fate had gifted to him.

I took the final step to close the distance between us.

Clothing separated his shin from my thighs, but the heat of him zapped through cloth, searing me clear to the bone.

He hissed but didn’t move, the echo of not one but two inner beasts ringing in my ears.

Yessss .

Baring my teeth with a grin, I cupped my aching dick to keep from nutting way too damned early.

He swallowed hard and glanced away, the first evidence of unease I’d seen from him. “You’re a patient of mine—we can’t do this.”

“ Was .” I corrected him with a snip to my tone. “And yes, we fucking can.” I glared down at him, waiting for his next excuse to deny the potent chemistry and draw between us.

His lips pressed into a thin line.

“The court let me out of Lockwood, so you can’t send me back. That means I can tell you anything, right, Doc?” I lowered my tone, forcing some of my anger from my voice, while once more fisting my hands at my sides.

Eyes closed and lips in a thin line, he jerked his head in a nod.