Page 26 of Driven by Dragonblood (Blood Born #3)

Patrick

I drank like I was in college again, goddamn whiskey straight from the bottle, and I ended up retching and hugging the toilet long into the early morning hours. Half-sober, I lay on my bed, staring at the dark ceiling, wondering how the fuck Jessie could guzzle booze like that almost every night.

Grimacing, I focused on what needed figuring out in my head rather than my past.

The desire to be close to Jax was stronger than an hour earlier, refusing to lessen with drunkenness or time. Blowing my more-than-usual load down his throat was more fulfilling than anything I’d done. I wanted him on his knees again.

Yessss.

I closed my eyes, but rather than meditate to silence the voice that had weaseled its way out of prison while I’d been puking my guts up, I relaxed my hold on the void.

Nothing could go wrong in the privacy of my own home, I told myself, and I was strong enough to communicate with whatever it was without losing control .

Maybe answers could be found by not exactly embracing the madness but offering it a little freedom.

Like a sleek creature, shimmering in iridescent light, the voice, that inner beast , stretched. I allowed him to flow through my consciousness, and words I didn’t understand filled my inner ear.

Images flashed in my mind—Jaxon chained in the center of a room, sweat-slickened skin, his dick dripping pre-cum to the floor, every lash of a flogger I wielded parting his lips on a groan.

My dick stiffened.

Primrose sprawled on my bed, my face between her thighs, my tongue buried in her pussy while Jaxon watched, panting and dripping with the release I denied him.

Mine.

Ours.

The hypnotic hiss reached through my mind, and I considered the truth it spoke. Two youngsters—one male, one female—belonged to me. Fated mates according to Jaxon, half animal shifters, destined to bond regardless of what the humans’ consciousness might wish.

Too much of an age gap; they’re mere children , I told myself as unease over a complete lack of scientific truth crept in. Inappropriate as well. A previous patient of mine, even if only for a day, so he was completely off-limits for that reason alone.

Shame over my desires filled that conscious wish to remain aloof, closed off to the mystical world Jaxon had painted in my head with his enticing words. My body, my heart, however, warred with what would be considered wrong in most humans’ eyes.

“You’re a professional with an ethical path set before you,” I muttered to myself, clenching my eyes shut and rolling to punch my pillow.

I breathed deeply, meditating and envisioning the prison inside me as I should have done the previous hour, shutting out the existence of that damn thing inside my soul that wished to lead me into darkness.

He slowly disappeared in sparkling, black light, screaming at my strength—his weakness. The walls slammed shut around him, and I breathed a sigh of relief as my muscles finally grew lax atop my mattress.

Sanity saved.

For the time being.

A coffee mug sat before me at the kitchen table, but I hadn’t touched it.

My insides twisted, and not from alcohol’s lingering effects.

The darkness I’d allowed to sneak out the previous evening fought for freedom, begged to be heard, its purr and murmured pleas like a tickling whisper between my ears the second I’d woken up from a feverish, dream-filled night.

My pounding head, weakened by my hangover, was an affliction I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I stood and strode back upstairs, needing to rid myself of the madness lingering along the edges of my mind. A cold shower didn’t ease my aching balls or dick, and I shot another ridiculous amount of cum down the drain to fantasies of Jaxon and Primrose bowing before me.

Jaw aching from clenching since I’d turned off my alarm, I arrived at Lockwood Monday morning, determined to go about my day, same as every other—work, professional empathy, and a desire to help those in need.

That was what had driven me for most of my life, but I found as the hours trickled by that I couldn’t keep my focus as I used to.

The need to fuck, to own, to claim , brewed in my balls, but I withheld from jerking off in the office bathroom like a horny teenager who didn’t know the meaning of the word self-control.

Jaxon began his job bagging groceries today at the store a few blocks away from the apartment Doc Holliday had helped him acquire.

I wondered, while leafing through and not paying attention to my next patient’s file, if Jaxon enjoyed smiling and chatting with all the ladies—and jealousy burned my gut.

I tossed my pen onto my desk and pinched the bridge of my nose beneath my glasses.

“Doctor Macaire?”

The timid voice lifted my head. A petite blonde girl, perhaps thirteen or so and matching the image in the open folder’s picture, stood in the open doorway of my office.

“Are you Emelia?” I asked, forcing a smile and standing.

“Yes.” She stared at me with uncanny seriousness, her face void of emotion as I rounded my desk.

“I’m sorry I didn’t hear your knock. Please,” I motioned toward the chair facing mine. “Won’t you sit?”

She shut the door behind her and shuffled forward in her slippers, a tattered Hello Kitty robe cinched tight around her narrow waist. Perching on the chair’s edge, she held my stare until I turned my back on her to round my desk.

I sat, unease prickling the hairs on my nape. My smile forced, I glanced quickly at the file I should have thoroughly studied before she’d arrived, the whispering thing inside me trying the walls containing him. “So, Emelia?—”

“I can hear him.”

The soft murmur jerked my head up. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your beast. He speaks to me.”

I cleared my throat while curses flooded my thoughts.

Even though cameras weren’t mounted inside my office for those above me to keep tabs on what went down in private sessions, I still knew better than to be reckless with my words and hint at belief of anything outside reality.

I needed to ask my questions about what she thought to be the truth with care and withhold from agreeing with this young woman in any way.

“What exactly can you hear, Emelia?”

“The voice inside you.” She tipped her head to the side, her dark as coal eyes peering into mine as though she listened to the cackling laughter escaping the box inside my soul.

“I have one of my own, you know.” Emelia finally tore her intense stare off me to glance at the folder on my desk. “But you do already know that.”

“Mmm.” I nodded absently, horrified at my lack of focus, the disaster that was supposed to be Doctor Macaire.

“I, ah, do. Yes.” I tried for another smile and closed the folder, wondering how the fuck to rectify the situation my distraction had put me in without admitting to anything that would tarnish my reputation.

“You need to listen to him.”

Perhaps going with the flow would bring some clarity for a change. “And why should I listen to this supposed voice?”

“Because he is what you’ve been driven to find in your search for fulfillment, and you won’t experience true contentment until you become one with him.”

I swallowed the million questions rising in my mind and focused on the young woman and the mental instability that had landed her at Lockwood. “I’m assuming listening to the voice in your head is what brought you to this facility.”

“Yes.”

“I can’t imagine doing so has made you happy.”

A soft smile lit her face. “But it did. I’ve met you—the man I was destined to help along on his journey.”

I stared, my heart stuttering as I gasped, “Wh—what?”

“You, Doctor Macaire.” She smiled again, hands clasped lightly in her lap. “You’re one of the reasons I’m here. The orb I found told me to show you the way to your mates.”

Orb …

I frowned as the memory of David’s granddaughter stating something about orbs being what was left of a dragon when their souls rose to reign over the stars.

I scrubbed a hand down over my mouth and whiskered chin, cursing in my mind. Emelia had found a fucking orb—and it spoke to her about my mates. “My mates?” Rasped to hell, my tone barely audible.

“Yes. Your beta and your female.”

I hopped up, hands fisting and releasing. “I—I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

A quick trip to the bathroom and a splash of cold-as-fuck water on my face didn’t clear my head. The measured breaths on a counted intake and exhale didn’t either.

Orb.

Voices.

Goddamned fated mates.

Emelia’s declaration that I wouldn’t be happy until I submitted myself to this thing inside me echoed in my ears.

No lightbulb flicked on in my mind on how to get out of this mess, and I had no choice but to return to my office and face the unsettling girl who seemed intent on filling my head with more shit.

Or perhaps, answers to what was really going on in my head.

I found her where I’d left her, a hint of her smile still curving her lips as her gaze followed me as I settled behind my desk once more.

While I could simply quit the temporary job at Lockwood, sell my father’s house, and hightail it back east once more, I refused to let this puzzle haunt me for the rest of my life. “Tell me about this orb, Emelia. What does it look like? ”

“An egg, but much larger, almost the size of a football.” Her head tipped to the side again. “It spoke to the voice inside me in a language I didn’t understand, but my inner beast shared what I was to do.”

“Find me.”

Her smile dazzled again, like sunshine to the darkness of my soul, as though my vocalizing her statement from earlier meant I’d accepted her words as truth. “Yes.”

“And help me in my journey,” I added, sure that pushing for the ridiculousness of her mind wouldn’t suggest I traveled a path toward madness along with her.

“Yes.”

We sat in silence for a few seconds. “Did the, ah, orb tell you anything else?”