Page 18

Chapter 18

Zayne

C arson was an asshole. A grade-A asshole. He always had been and probably always would be. Only this was worse because he was directing his asshole expertise at my mate.

I had zero reason to be jealous of a relationship that my mate had prior to meeting me—especially one that had ended long ago. Jealousy wasn’t the issue. Knowing my mate had been treated poorly was.

Did I love that they were together? Absolutely not. But the reality was that Carson had never had the connection with my mate that I did, even if they had spent a night together. And clearly, the man wasn’t smart enough to cling to my amazing mate when he had the chance.

Although he had offered him a job, so he must have known my mate was talented. Or maybe that too was part of his circle of using him. It was safe to say that I was pissed about so much of what had happened then and during our meeting.

And then there was my dragon. He had no ability to process anything other than someone, not us, had touched our mate. As much as I hated it, my dragon’s emotions impacted mine, even when I knew better.

That was why, as ridiculous as it was, I couldn’t stop the green monster that spread through my chest like an infectious disease, clouding my judgment and making my dragon see red. Try as I could, I couldn’t suppress the emotions running through me, the ones amplified by my beast and making me not be the alpha I wanted to be.

I should be staying with my pregnant mate, reassuring him that everything was right in this world and that we were going to conquer the games and life together and parenthood. Did I? Nope. Instead, I left, needing to get my wings on. Maybe if I let my dragon out and flew, I could regulate the emotional turmoil raging within me.

Maybe I needed space and then all would be normal. The push to get away was intense, but so was the pull to stay near my mate. I wasn’t going to go far, because even if I wanted to, which I didn’t, I couldn’t be away any real distance from my mate.

While my actions were telling a different story, I had no desire to run away from my problems. That would solve nothing. In fact, it would do the opposite and grow into something my mate should not have to deal with.

I did need a clear head, to get my dragon under control, and get back to my mate, asking him to forgive me for my less-than-stellar behavior.

After arriving in the clearing, I was barely able to get my clothes off before my dragon took over, taking to the air without even scenting the area to see if we were alone. He needed out, and I was grateful that we had this safe space to do so close to our home.

He circled the lake several times, avoiding the others that were also out flying. Thankfully, no one tried to talk. They must’ve sensed that I needed space because they avoided my dragon like a boss.

As I flew, I saw Ash walking the distance from Talls back to our home. He smiled and waved at people as he went. Was it possible that he hadn’t noticed how close to the edge the meeting pushed me? Or was he faking it for others? I had a feeling it was the latter, and that only made me feel worse.

Some of the people he passed stopped to talk with him. My mate had been here such a short time, yet he fit in like he had been here for as long as me. Heck, he fit in better than me.

Once my head was clear and my wings were tired, I went back home, clothing in hand. I refused to waste any time getting back to my mate after already wasting so much. I’d be lying if I said my head was in an amazing place, but it was in a far better one than it had been, and I was ready to try and make things right with my mate.

It was no surprise to me that Ash was on the porch settled into the wooden rocking chair. He rocked gently with his hands laid over his belly. He was in tune enough that he was probably worrying about me or mad. In either case, I sucked.

I walked up the stairs, my bare feet barely making a noise on the wooden steps. Neither of us spoke. I dropped my clothes and sat down next to him, wincing a little when my naked backside met the hard wooden chair.

Ash let out a chuckle, which he quickly covered.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Are you laughing at me, mate?” Laughing was good. Much better than crying or giving me a well-deserved cold shoulder.

“A little bit.” Ash shrugged. “You’re going to end up with splinters in your ass. We’ll have a hard time explaining that to the students.”

“It’s worth it. I like sitting next to you.”

“Well, if you’re going to make a habit of sitting next to me naked on the porch, perhaps we should invest in cushions.”

“Not a bad idea,” I said. I laced my fingers into his, and we were quiet for a moment. The sun had begun to dip on the horizon, casting a warm glow of the lake. Dragon teams practiced. One of the Challenger league duo teams was out racing across the breadth of the lake.

“I’m sorry for taking off like that.” Understatement of the year.

“No. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you about Carson. It wasn’t fair to let you get caught off guard like that,” Ash said.

I shook my head. “It really wasn’t relevant,” I said. And there was no need for me to know about his past relationships any more than there was need for him to know about mine. This just happened to be one of those weird circumstances where one of our pasts slammed straight first into our present unexpectedly.

“There was no need for you to tell me about him. I’ve had relationships before and so have you.” None of them came close to what I had with Ash.

“Well, it doesn’t help that he’s an asshole.” He let out a long breath. “One we have to work with.”

“No, it really doesn’t.” He was going to need to learn quickly that he wasn’t allowed to do that winky bullshit with my mate, that was for sure.

“And he really is a dick.”

I snorted at that. “Try dealing with him for the last hundred years.”

“You’ve come up against him in competition before?”

I shook my head. “He’s never been in my league until now. He was a Flight Trainer last year, but I didn’t interact with him at competition. I’ve had a few run-ins with him. Even before he got to his team, they were in good shape—our biggest competitors from within the clan.”

My mate didn’t need to be worried about him being skilled on top of worrying about his behavior.

“You think his coaching will give them the edge they need?”

I shook my head. “It’s not likely. Though he will try to get under our skin, especially if he realizes we’re mates.” I’d be shocked if he didn’t realize it already given his behavior.

“I guarantee that he has. He’s already texted me twice, and clearly, he called you. I didn’t read his messages.”

My dragon pushed at me, hating that another alpha was sniffing around our mate. I didn’t love it either, but my human side knew without a shadow of a doubt that my mate wasn’t encouraging the behavior whatsoever.

“I haven’t checked my phone since I left the conference room.”

“If he contacts us anymore, we can bring it up to the Commander to see what he thinks.” My dragon thought burning him to ash was a better plan, but my human plan was solid enough to avoid violence.

Ash sighed. “I’d rather not. I’d rather just focus on the competition.”

He was a better person than I, in so many ways.

“Agreed,” I said.

We sat quietly for a moment. My thumb brushed over the softness of Ash’s hand, wishing today hadn’t been so stressful. The games alone were intense, but adding pregnancy and a dick ex only exacerbated that.

“So, we’re good, mate?” Ash asked.

I nodded, picking up his hand and bringing it to my lips for a kiss. “If you forgive me. I was the ass in this. As much as I wish it weren’t the case, I won’t deny that I was jealous.” I refused to keep secrets between us.

“Of course I forgive you. There really wasn’t anything to forgive. You told me what you needed. Not once did you treat me poorly.”

How did I get so favorably shined upon by fate? How? It for sure wasn’t that I deserved it.

“I won’t deny that it was kind of sexy that you were jealous.”

That surprised me. “Well, I’ll still try not to make a habit of it, even if it does turn you on.”

“Good. But in that case, we should get back to work.”

“On the nest or on training?”

Ash thought for a moment. “Both. We can lie in the nest and relax and go over what we learned today. I have a lot of questions about the competition. Lucky for me, I know a guy who’s been going to these things forever.”

“That sounds amazing, mate. Let’s do it.”

“But first, a shower.” He took my hand and stood up. “I want to wash the day off me and only have our scents, not those of the gym, in the nest.”

“Oh, well, if that’s the case, I think that maybe I should join you… you know, to help you wash your back or whatever.”

“Whatever?” He looked me up and down. “Did you have anything more specific in mind?”

“I can think of many things. Do you have any suggestions in particular?”

He intertwined our fingers and started toward the door, taking me with him. “I have a few. How are your knees feeling after your shift?”

He turned to give me a smirk. Gods, I was a lucky, lucky dragon.

“They feel fabulous, but not as fabulous as you are about to feel.”