Page 7 of Wild for the Wyvern (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)
Six
Kori
I t’s been a week since my life turned upside down. I go to work and stay past my shift. I come home so exhausted that I pass out on my couch so I don’t have to think about Drayce. It’s supposed to be my day off, but I can’t risk the thinking time, so I walk into the restaurant.
Walley rounds the bar. He’s a burly man of six feet with a heart of gold. It’s rare for anyone in the New York restaurant business to continue to be kind when the world we live in is so cutthroat. He waves his hands at me and points toward the door. “No. Go home, Kori.”
“I’m fine, Walley. I can help Lydia with prep for tonight.” I don’t like the whine creeping into my voice.
He puts a hand on each of my shoulders and looks me in the eye. “I don’t know what happened while you were on vacation, but I’m here if you want to talk about it. Otherwise, you need to get out of here. You can’t work doubles every day and then come in on your day off.”
What would I tell him? I fell in love with a gorgeous man who seemed to adore me, but he turned out to be a wyvern shifter who thinks I’m his true mate. Um no. I can’t say that to anyone. They’d throw me in Bellevue faster than I can say wyvern.
“Just let me work a few hours, please.”
“What happened upstate?” His eyes are full of sympathy. “Did you fight with one of those friends of yours?”
“No. I’m fine,” I lie, but I tell myself, it’s only half a lie.
He nods and draws his lips into a thin line. He’s not buying it. “Good. Go home or go out, but you cannot work today or tomorrow and if you keep showing up when it’s not your shift, I’m going to make you take another week off.”
“Ugh, why are you doing this to me?” I turn and head for the door.
“Yes, I’m the worst.” He laughs.
Going back, I give the greatest boss in the world a hug.
“If you won’t tell me who did this to you, go find your friend Dean and talk to him. You can’t keep things all bottled up like this.” He walks me to the door and shows me out.
Dean will think I’m crazy. I walk the fifteen blocks to Meg’s apartment. She lives with her boyfriend, Hunter, but he’s a bartender and won’t be home.
The doorman knows me and waves. “Hey, Kori. How are you?”
“Fine, Nate. How about you?” I head for the elevator.
“No point complaining.” He tips his black cap and answers the phone on his standing desk.
At Meg’s door, I freeze. I’m about to head back to the elevator when Meg pulls the door open. “What are you doing? Nate called me a few minutes ago.”
Of course, he did. “I was deciding if I want to knock.”
“What did you decide?” She crosses her arms and cocks her head. Her pigtails swing from side to side.
I walk past her into her apartment. It’s a one-bedroom in a nice neighborhood. Meg makes great money as a fashion coordinator for one of the big houses. Between that and Hunter’s tips from a fancy bar, they do alright. Flopping on her black leather couch, I say, “If I tell you something totally crazy, will you promise to have an open mind and not have me committed?”
She sits next to me with her legs crossed under her. “Is this about hunky Drayce who kissed you like you were the only woman he’d ever kiss again?”
“Yes.” Why did she have to remind me about the kissing? Not that I need reminding. It’s like he branded me with his lips. If I close my eyes, I can almost feel his lips on mine.
“Talk. No promises about the asylum, but I’ll keep an open mind.” She smiles and waits.
“He’s a dragon. Well, a wyvern. I guess there’s a difference.”
“Wyverns don’t have front legs, just wings. Most dragons breathe fire while wyverns often have venomous spikes on their tails.” She says it as if these are just facts and I didn’t just tell her Drayce is a monster.
“Did you even hear me?” I speak clearly and a little louder. “The man you met and I had fabulous sex with can change into a monster and fly through the air. He says I’m his fated mate and he couldn’t have sex with me after our date because of something called knotting. I looked it up and that means?—”
“I know what knotting is. I heard you.” She smiles.
Sirens sound in the street and for a moment, I wonder if Meg has some secret button she just pushed to have Bellevue Hospital come and carry me away. “Why are you so calm about it? I totally freaked out. Why do you even believe me?”
She leans back on the couch. “When I was young, my parents and I went to that resort where we stayed last week. I was out playing by the lake and fell in. I couldn’t swim yet, and I was drowning. Mom and Dad didn’t swim either. They stood on the bank screaming for help. Dad jumped in, and he nearly drowned too.”
“What happened?” I can’t believe in all these years, she never mentioned she’d nearly drowned. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she never talks about her parents even though of the four of us, she’s the only one who can remember hers clearly.
“The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen swam toward me and brought me to where I could stand. Then she saved my dad too. It was like she was something out of a book with her long, flowing blond hair and perfect body. She was naked save for a sheer gown. I go back and try to find her almost every year since we aged out of foster care.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me this?” I thought I knew everything about Meg, Lori, and Dean.
She shrugs. “You might have brushed it off and I know what I saw. I was only four and my parents died the next year. I don’t tell anyone, but it’s why I always go back to those woods and the lake.”
“Have you ever seen her again?”
“No. But I swear I feel her watching me when I swim in that lake and sometimes when I walk in the woods. I always feel safe knowing she’s out there.” Recrossing her legs, she faces me again. “Do you think Drayce is your destiny?”
My eyes prickle with tears. “I don’t know, but I miss him. I feel bad for being afraid of him. He was so beautiful as a wyvern.”
“And pretty spectacular as a man.” Meg wiggles her eyebrows.
“He told me there are a lot of monsters living in the woods up there. I just wasn’t paying attention to all the details of what he said. I was so smitten by how he made me feel. This last week, when I let myself think about those two days, bits of things he said come rushing back and make so much sense. He’s a creature I can’t even fathom.”
“You didn’t answer the question. Do you think he’s your destiny, Kori? Will you be happy for the rest of your life if you never see him again?” Meg’s stare is intense.
Will I? Even the idea of never seeing him again makes my stomach grip and my chest ache. “I’ve never believed in fate or destiny, Meg. Suddenly, I think my life is intertwined with Drayce’s, and I’m miserable with how I ran away.”
“I can have you in the Catskills in three hours, Kori. Just say the word.” She smiles softly, and her already pretty face transforms into beautiful.
“So, I just drive up to his house and apologize for being terrified of him even though I’m still a little scared about what he can turn into, and I didn’t even know about the venomous spikes.” It’s impossible. He’ll never forgive me.
“How did you find him the first time? Because I’m betting it wasn’t that he found you lost in the woods.” She narrows her gaze and crosses her arms.
I tell her about being lost and getting caught up in his net. “When I was still lost, he followed, and when I fell, he carried me. I passed out and when I woke up, he was very naked and very male. We were in his beautiful cabin.”
“We can leave first thing in the morning.” She picks up her phone and dials.
“Who are you calling?” My excitement and relief are growing.
“Dean and Lori. I guess I should call Hunter too.” Ten minutes later, we have a plan and I’m heading to my apartment to pack a bag.
D ean called his boss and told him he had a family emergency. Lori couldn’t get away, but she demanded to be videoed in.
Somehow, I figure out how to return to the place where the trap was. Now that I know it’s there the net’s ropes are obvious. I’m out of my mind, but I need to bring the beast to me. I know the man might be angry, but the wyvern only knows it wants me. The last time we were intimate, the need of the monster to push forward showed me that.
“Are you sure about this, Kori?” Dean grips his throat and looks at the tall trees in a wilderness a couple of miles from the road. “What if he doesn’t show up? How will we get you down?”
I take a deep breath and step forward just outside the trap. “This is either the bravest or the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. When the trap snaps, we’ll give Drayce thirty minutes to come and get me. If he doesn’t, then we call 911 and I feel incredibly stupid.” My voice breaks at the idea that he might not come. I may have hurt him too badly to gain forgiveness.
Meg says, “He’ll come. I know he will.”
Somehow, I know it too. There’s a sound or a vibration inside me that came alive when I stepped back inside his woods. I take the step.
Everything turns upside down. I fly upward and am wrapped in the giant net that curls me into the air and leaves me swaying back and forth twenty feet off the ground. A scream escapes me even though I knew what was going to happen.
Dean and Meg both scream.
Recovering first, Meg says, “Holy fuck, are you alright?”
After a brief assessment, I say, “I’m fine.”
“Now what?” Dean asks.
“I wait.” I listen for some change in the forest. Last time, it seemed as if the world stilled when the wyvern appeared. There’s no noise, but I feel him getting closer. My heart, my blood, and my flesh all tingle with his approach. “You guys can go. I’ll be fine.”
Dean makes a scoffing sound. “We’re not going anywhere until you’re either on the ground or we have proof you’ll be okay.”
The batting of wings through breaking the air fills me with joy. And then he lands in the tree just above me. His golden eyes are wide as he stares from his perch on a tree limb.
“Holy crap.” Dean’s voice is high and squeaky.
Drayce shifts his gaze to the ground.
I look down through the gap in the net. Dean clutches Meg’s arm and the two gape up at the wyvern.
Drayce cranes his neck and cocks his head before returning his attention to me.
“I’m sorry,” I say. My heart is pounding so hard that it takes me a few moments to calm enough to say more. “I shouldn’t have freaked out and left you. I understand if you don’t want me back, but you’re all I can think about and I don’t mind you being a bit more than human.”
“A bit.” Meg’s voice drips with sarcasm.
The wyvern’s pupils widen and warmth seeps in as if he were a man. He wraps one foot around the net and slices the rope with his other claws before easing me to the ground a few feet in front of my friends.
I guess I thought he’d carry me away, but maybe he wants me to go. My heart breaks into a million pieces.