Page 16 of Fated to the Dragon King (Alpha Dragons’ Fated #4)

Hayley

“Fated mates?” I exchanged a long look with Alaric, who appeared as confused as I was. “What does that mean?”

“Let me explain, my children.”

Alaric sat back in his chair, still scowling. “I wish you would.”

“Across time and space,” Willow began in a haunting voice, “there are those souls who are linked. Linked by destiny, by the will of the gods. These souls must meet, must find one another, or time itself is ripped apart.”

“No way,” I scoffed. “Now that’s just a load of crap.”

“No, my dear, it’s not crap. It’s difficult to fathom that two such souls are so important to the very fabric of time and space. You two have been chosen to join together, to become one. One with the gods, one with each other.”

Alaric shook his head, unconvinced. “That’s why Lanokota likes Hayley so much? Because she decided an eternity ago that only Hayley can be my one true mate?”

“That’s an elementary way of putting it,” Willow answered, “but yes.”

“Why me?”

Willow laughed. “Why not you, Alaric? Why not Hayley? I know you two have feelings for one another. That’s not an accident. You were meant for each other.”

“Have there been others like us?” I asked. “Fated mates?”

“Oh, yes. Every thousand years or so two souls are chosen by destiny. In such a manner, the universe is kept happy and doesn’t come apart at the seams.”

“Oh, sure.” Alaric threw up his hands. “Put that pressure on me now. What if Damon kills me? The universe doesn’t have its chosen pair and time becomes unraveled? Give me a break.”

“If you die, the universe will likely go on,” Willow answered. “Another pair will be chosen to take your place.”

“Now I’m expendable.”

Willow rubbed her palms over her face. “It’s not that simple. And it’s extremely hard to explain. Just accept that you’ve been chosen to fall in love with Hayley, and she with you. Call it Lanokota’s game plan.”

I chuckled, meeting Alaric’s stormy gaze. “Remember how you advised me to accept and believe that you’re a dragon? Now, it’s your turn to simply accept what is.”

“What if we can’t fall in love with one another?” he snapped. “Or won’t?”

Willow chuckled. “I doubt that will be a problem. You two are drawn to each other like iron to a magnet.”

“I believe I’m well on my way,” I said quietly.

“To what?”

“Falling in love with you.”

Alaric looked away, still scowling. My stomach plummeted.

Fated mates or no, Alaric apparently still wanted his divorce, could never fall in love with me.

Lanokota got it wrong. I’m not wife/mate material, and Alaric likely had a squeeze back home.

A full-blooded dragon lady with whom he could have itty bitty dragon babies.

Okay, I still have his money. I can survive on my own now. I don’t need Roxanne’s sufferance, or Brad’s abuse. Alaric can have his divorce, and we’ll go our separate ways. I can get over him. I hope.

I glanced up from my entwined fingers in my lap to discover Willow watching me. Her narrowed eyes made me think she’d just read my mind. Perhaps she did. Lanokota possibly gave her that ability.

“Well,” she said into the tense silence, “we need to get busy finding our murderous miscreants and finding a suitable manager. Alaric, you start posting ads for the manager. I’ll start the internet search while Hayley fetches our lunch.”

I blinked. “Lunch?”

“You know, that midday meal most folks eat? I’ll order from that deli down the street if you’ll go get it.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“Get a sandwich for Richard and Bertie, too,” Alaric said, still not looking at me.

“Got it.”

I rose from the office’s chair and left, my heart hovering somewhere around my ankles.

What’s wrong with me that I can’t be loved?

For Pete’s sake, my own sister, my flesh and blood, despised me and refused to visit me after I’d been shot.

I’m married to a dragon shifter, am his fated mate, allegedly, and not even he can fall in love with me.

Grabbing my purse from my desk, I stepped from the office while second guessing Willow’s silly assurances that Alaric and I were fated mates. That’s not possible. If Lanokota exists, and I start to have doubts about that, too, then Her Holiness doesn’t know Alaric very well.

On the concrete sidewalk, I take my time strolling to the deli on the corner.

Willow hadn’t had time to place the order much less the deli’s staff had time to prepare it.

I paused to gaze into the store windows bearing the latest fashion trends.

With the vast amount of money sitting in my bank right now, I could afford designer clothes, shoes, and purses.

Except my penchant for thriftiness halted any notions I might have for entering those stores. My plain shirts and jeans were more than enough for me.

The deli’s staff appeared rushed with businesspeople standing in line to order, clearing tables with people ready to sit.

I worked my way toward the counter that read “To Go Orders”, and stood against the wall to wait.

While watching the people, I absently wondered what these ordinary folks would think if they knew dragons walked and lived among us.

Perhaps a half an hour later, Willow’s name was called, and I collected the large bag of sandwiches and chips. After wending my way among the tables and those still waiting to order or be seated, I stepped onto the sidewalk again.

Someone ripped the bag from my hands and slammed me against the brick wall.

Brad seized my throat, his smile triumphant.

A purple and yellow bruise darkened his forehead over his right eye.

That eye was also swollen and puffy underneath, as though he’d been decked by Mike Tyson.

As he bared his teeth at me with his nasty smile, I also noticed one of his front teeth was chipped.

“Oh, hi, Brad,” I said. “You’re a mess. Crash your car or something?”

His fingers squeezed. “Bitch. You caused me to crash. It’s your fault.”

He’d cut off half of my breathing, but enough air trickled into my lungs for me to say, “Oh, right. It’s always my fault. It’s my fault when you can’t take a shit in the morning. Try Ex-Lax, bro.”

Brad’s eyes widened. I grinned, then swung my right arm up and outward in a wide arc, connecting with his. His hand flew from my throat as though greased.

“You hit me,” he accused. “You’ll pay for that.”

I saw his punch coming, and jerked my head to the side. Brad’s fist crashed into the brick wall behind me and not my nose as he’d intended. He screeched in pain, grasping his right wrist with his left hand, then paced a step or two back.

“Oh, my God, my hand is broke,” he howled, examining his reddened knuckles. “It’s broken, shit it hurts, Jesus Christ, my hand.”

“Want to know what else his broken?” I asked, my tone sweet.

His head came up. “What?”

“Your balls.”

Before he reacted in self-defense, I kicked him in his crotch.

Brad didn’t howl. He didn’t have the breath. His face turned a sort of purple red shade, while his mouth worked soundlessly. At last, he lowered himself to his knees, clutching his family jewels with both of his hands.

I picked up the dropped deli bag and nudged Brad with my toe. “I’m not your toy anymore. I’m married to a man who can rip your balls out by the roots and feed them to you. Leave me alone, Brad. You won’t be given another warning.”

Passersby eyed Brad as he knelt by the wall, perhaps thinking he prayed to it.

I have to admit that it looked exactly like what he did.

I walked away, heading back to the office, while pondering my interesting lack of fear.

Was that Lanokota’s doing? Or did my marriage to a dragon help me to find my innate courage and ability to fight back against Brad?

I didn’t know.

I hummed under my breath as I walked.

***

“I’m so proud of you!”

Willow embraced me the moment I finished telling both Willow and Alaric about the encounter with Brad. Alaric eyed me with new respect as he unpacked his sandwich and chips.

“Not bad,” he commented. “It wasn’t so very long ago you’d have crumpled like cheap aluminum foil.”

“I don’t know where it came from,” I admitted, unwrapping my own lunch as I sat in the office chair. “I wasn’t scared. I knew exactly what to do.”

“You’re finding yourself, dear,” Willow said. “You’ve always been strong, tough. Your strength was buried so deep you had no idea you had it.”

“I wish I had,” I murmured. “Then maybe I’d have stood up to Roxanne a long time ago.”

“And never let Brad abuse you in the first place,” Willow added. “Do you think he’ll continue to pester you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I may have made him mad enough to keep coming after me just to prove his manhood.”

“Then he’ll deal with me,” Alaric said around a mouthful of his sandwich.

“That’s a great comfort if he kills me.” I stood up with my meal in my hands. “I’ll get back to work. Bertie shouldn’t have to keep answering the phones.”

At my desk, I carried on where I’d left off after what seemed like an eternity of being away. So much had happened in the last few weeks, and my life had been turned upside down and twisted sideways. Munching, I read another blog article that needed a severe rewrite, then began to edit.

“See you later,” Bertie said cheerfully when the work day ended. “It’s nice having you back.”

“It’s great to be back.”

After wrapping up my tasks on the computer, I glanced up to find Alaric standing over me. “Ready?”

“For what?”

“To go home.”

While I didn’t think of his massive house on the beach my home, I had nowhere else to go. Time to find a place, get a car, a cell. Time to become independent of both Alaric and Roxanne. Without saying so, however, I shut my computer off, grabbed my purse, and followed him out of the office.

In his truck, I asked, “How is the hunt for a new manager going?”

Alaric grunted. “I already received a few resumes. One looks good.”

“May I ask that you recommend me to stay on once he or she takes over?”`

He flashed me a hard look. “What are you talking about?”

“You and Willow will be leaving,” I replied. “You and I will get divorced, and though I’m financially stable, I want to keep working. I like this job.”

“Don’t you get it?” he snapped. “We’re fated mates. We stay together.”

“I’m not so sure I believe that,” I said, keeping my tone calm, reasonable. “Nor am I spending my life with someone who doesn’t love me.”

His mouth tight in a grim line, he drove on toward his house, yet said nothing. I didn’t bother to figure out what he was thinking. It didn’t matter. Fated mates or no, married or not, I was going to move out of his house as soon as possible.

“We stay together,” he muttered after a long length of time.

“Unless you’re planning to keep me on a chain, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Under his breath, Alaric muttered words I didn’t catch, but suspected were swear words. Ignoring him and his temper came as easily and as naturally as my offhand comments to Brad. Alaric no longer had the power to intimidate me.

An expensive looking silver car sat in Alaric’s driveway as he drove his truck onto his property. We both stared at it as Alaric parked beside its shiny body. As he opened his door, he ordered brusquely, “Stay in the truck.”

As he wasn’t my boss after work hours, I ignored that as easily as I ignored his temper.

The silver car’s door opened. An elegantly dressed woman with golden waves of hair stepped from it, her striking features both sharp and exotically beautiful.

If I ever thought Roxanne moved with poise, she paled in comparison to this lady.

Tall, slender, bedecked in jewels, this chick contained the dangerous grace of a jaguar.

“Fiona.”