Page 47 of Driven by Dragonblood (Blood Born #3)

Primrose

“ J essie was nothing more than a warm body to fill my bed, an attempt to battle the loneliness I’d experienced when I first returned to Arizona.

We never connected on an emotional level.

There was no…insatiable hunger or possessiveness with her like there is with the two of you,” Patrick explained, his desire to ease my jealousy clear.

Jaxon preened some more at that last bit, but I ignored him, my focus on my alpha as I sat, arms around my knees.

I couldn’t help the bitterness in my stomach over the fact that I had been driven to save myself for my mates, and Patrick had been fucking women all along?—

“Jaxon was hardly celibate.” Patrick stared at me, a sliver of annoyance radiating inside him, and our beta’s sudden uneasiness rippled through our bond.

He feared my judgment for his promiscuity, which he’d never been bothered by before this conversation.

Lips pursed, I frowned, trying to figure out what exactly I felt, why Jaxon’s past didn’t bother me as Patrick’s did.

“It’s not because I’m older and should know better,” he said as the thought flitted through my brain .

“But you’re the alpha,” I said, fighting to put into words my disgust with another female being more familiar with his body than I was.

Patrick spread his arms wide. “You’re welcome to your fill, Primrose. Learn what you wish— take what you wish.”

Jaxon groaned, his unrest from seconds earlier erased by a well of lust in his groin. “Care to make that offer to me?”

Patrick shot a glare at our sprawled beta. “You’ve already earned another date with my belt—and a whip or cane once I can get my hands on some real toys.”

A shudder rippled through Jaxon, and I fought to keep my focus on the conversation that needed to be spoken and put to rest.

My alpha fixed his gaze on me, his dark-blue eyes as intense as the feelings swirling inside him. “You don’t trust me.”

“I want to,” I whispered up at him, not understanding how this hesitation between bonded mates was even possible?—

“You can sense everything that I do, Primrose. You can hear my every thought.” He grabbed hold of my hand, pulled me to my feet, and pressed his to his chest. “You know I speak the truth when I say that the women I fucked in the past didn’t own my heart.”

He did speak the truth. But the same as he’d done to them, he had pushed me away.

Jaxon stood, hovering at my back. “He rejected us both, but that was before we bonded.” He stated what I needed to be reminded of, even though his words didn’t bring any assurance.

“And I’ve never been more goddamn sorry,” Patrick murmured. “But there is no tearing us apart now. Surely, you feel that.”

“And yet you still hold a part of yourself separate, attempting to keep your other half imprisoned,” I whispered, as tears laced my voice. “We are not whole.”

Disquiet flooded Patrick’s mind, and he released his clasp on my hand, stepping away to glance between the two of us.

He expelled a breath as heavy as the sudden weight on his chest, running his fingers through his hair.

“I was diagnosed with mental illness as a child, and my psychologist taught me how to lock the…dragon away.” Eyes closing, he frowned, turbulent disappointment riling throughout him as he fought to keep his thoughts off his doctor.

Something awful had happened, an event that had shattered Patrick. Changed his dreams?—

“The need to prove myself sane, worthy of life and love, pushed me to excel,” Patrick stated, focused on ridding his mind of the man he’d considered a hero once upon a time. “I was driven to conquer any task in sight. Complete every plan—obtain each goal I set before myself.”

“And you succeeded,” Jaxon said, his tone low and full of reassurance.

“In most things, yes.” Patrick’s gaze locked onto him.

“But the sexual drive for you, to bring us together time and again…” He glanced at me.

“I’ve never felt anything like it. I want to stay in this bed with the two of you and ignore responsibilities and the possible consequences of being caught with an ex-patient. ”

His fear overrode all of his senses at his admission, and our hearts beat faster—in sync from shared emotion.

I hugged myself, and both mates reached for me, their warm palms settling on my skin. But the physical contact didn’t bring the relief we hoped for.

“You wish to keep us a secret,” I stated, my throat growing tight.

“I have no choice. ”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Jaxon asked him, his brow furrowing.

“If you pressed charges?—”

“I would never .”

“I could face jail time. I would lose my license to practice,” Patrick stated.

“Everything you’ve worked so hard for.” I spoke the other thought he didn’t voice out loud.

Patrick nodded, his eyes and heart imploring us to understand.

Fate will not allow separation—not even in death.

Both Jaxon’s and my inner beast hissed their agreement with our alpha dragon’s declaration.

Patrick’s eyes slid shut, and he lowered his head.

“What?” Jaxon asked as something niggled in the back of Patrick’s mind.

“A patient of mine said that what I’ve been driven to find my entire life exists in the void I’ve attempted to imprison inside my soul. She claimed I would never be happy until I became one with that part of me.”

“Is she a fortune teller?” Jaxon asked as I sifted through Patrick’s words and the reality of the supernatural.

“She’s Blood Born,” I stated the only truth possible, a conclusion he had come to as well.

“Yes,” Patrick said before filling his lungs and heaving another heavy exhale. “But I can’t—Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t just flip a switch and let this thing inside me have control. It’s…weak. Impulsive. So damned…needy.”

Jaxon’s grimace perfectly portrayed the insecurity slapping his face at our alpha’s descriptors, two of which he embodied.

I took his hand in my own. “I love your impulsiveness and how desperate you are for my love and affection.”

Patrick enjoyed the second, but the first? Not so much. “ Only because it gets you into trouble,” he muttered, trying to reassure our beta.

“There’s nothing weak about your other half,” I stated firmly. “He is just driven by instinct to fulfill your destiny. The desire for unity with your mates and our responsibility to keep the royal Blood Born line from extinction.”

Patrick met my stare as the thoughts that both of us belonged to the ruling lines of old slid through our minds.

She had told him—the patient he’d mentioned.

“I want to meet her,” I stated.

“You can’t.”

I huffed, lips thinning.

Silence descended as a sense of peace over our first…fight as a throuple, drew near its end.

The girl—Emelia, my alpha’s dragon supplied—had spoken truth gifted to her by our ancestors. Patrick would not experience true rest or enjoy the fulfillment he’d been searching for until he submitted himself to reality.

But even aware of that truth, his humanity refused to relinquish control.

“I don’t know how to,” he murmured, eyes closing.

Jaxon and I both wrapped our arms around our alpha, attempting to cocoon him in safety and warmth.

“We don’t know shit about relationships,” Jaxon said, pretty much what was on my mind, “and while we all have a lot to learn, I promise we’re in this for the long haul. We can be patient.”

At least, I thought I could be.

“You can’t map out your emotional responses in advance of actions or unexpected triggers,” Patrick said, nosing over my hair. Need kindled among us as my scent flooded his lungs. “Jesus—will this ever lessen?”

“I’ve read the instinct to breed will fade a bit, but I’m not sure how long it takes.” I frowned, considering my short stay in the Tetons days ago. “When I went back home to see Grandpapa, he, Vanni, and Ashley had been bonded for a few months but were still busy as rabbits.”

“Vanni.” Patrick’s curiosity piqued.

“You know him?”

“Perhaps—Giovanni DiLoreto?”

“Yes.”

“Shit.” Patrick huffed. “He’s a friend of a friend. I was told he’d taken off for Wyoming with a man and woman he claimed were his mates. Giovanni is your grandfather’s alpha, I’m assuming, since he is a Dominant.”

“Something that annoyed Grandpapa when they’d first met,” I supplied. “It was his humanity that denied the destiny his inner beast fought for.”

Patrick squeezed me tight and released a long exhale that eased some of the tension riddling his body. “Pack up your things, Jaxon.”

“Why?” he asked, already turning away from us to do as his alpha had ordered.

“Because you’re coming home with me, where you belong.”

Happiness swept through the bond among us, but unease still lay like a cancer inside Patrick’s mind. Short of the three of us moving out of state and starting over, I feared his complete submission to fate.

“I’m trying, Primrose,” he murmured before pressing a kiss to my hair.

I nodded, wondering why our bonding couldn’t just be as easy as flipping a book’s pages. Happily ever afters weren’t a bed of soft sheets and gentle caresses when hidden thorns prohibited fulfilling rest.