His Breath of Fire

Chapter Nine

    It’s been a week since my mother and I have told Paul and Lucas the truth. The mated pair seem happy and the scent of s*x never leaves them which makes sense seeing my mother is a dragon, however it’s hard not to cringe every time I smell it. No one wants to think of their parent being sexually active. 

    I’ve gotten closer to Lucas and Sarah and her entourage, with Lucas wanting to join our little group. Honestly it’s nice for them knowing that they can talk about the pack freely with me and that there are no secrets hiding in that department. Part of me wants to let them in on my secret, their auras show they are trustworthy. However my other forms refuse. They feel like it’s cheating to let other people know before our mate—to which I can’t say I disagree with. Luckily I’ve avoided Easton so far. We don’t have any of the same classes and he’s such a busy person that he doesn’t come into the cafeteria for lunch.

    Meanwhile I’ve learned that his girlfriend, Mara, is the Delta’s only daughter. She turns eighteen in a couple months and the two have been dating for about a year and a half now. I have so many questions. Easton just turned eighteen so he would already know that Mara isn’t his mate. Has he told her? If not, why wait until she turns eighteen and only create more heartbreak? And if he hasn’t told her, what has he been saying to her if she asks? And if he did, how could she be okay with being a second choice?

    Regardless of their life choices, the mate bond still tugs painfully every time I see or hear them together. Easton feels it, I know since that welcoming party, so it begs the question of whether or not he’s actively trying to figure out where his mate is.  I haven’t tried hiding my scent from him since that night. It’s too painful and frankly takes up too much energy, and all I'd be doing is prolonging the inevitable. I still haven’t decided if I’ll reject him or not, and I have a feeling I won’t know until the time arises.

    “Bren!” a voice calls out to me as I’m grabbing my things from my locker. I turn to find Lucas running up to me. 

    “What’s up, Lucas?” I ask, zipping up my bag and closing the locker.

    “Easton’s looking for you,” he whispers, eyes wide. I told Lucas that I knew Easton is my mate and that I’m avoiding him right now as I sort through my feelings for him. He’s supportive of me, agreeing that it’s stupid to date someone that you know isn’t your mate. I appreciate the support and it makes me feel less like a psycho for not jumping into his arms.

    “Ugh,” I groan, covering my face with my hair as I lean down, trying to figure out a way to get out of this. “Can you distract him for me? Just long enough so I can get home?”

    “I can try,” he offers, a hand on the back of his neck. Since Paul is the present Beta, as soon as Easton takes the place as Alpha, Lucas will become his Beta. It helps they’ve been best friends for years but it also helps that Lucas is siding with me on this one.

    “Tell him my mother called with an emergency so I had to leave right away,” I say, shrugging my pack onto my shoulders. I reach up and hug Lucas, the mate bond shocking me slightly telling me that he isn’t my mate. “I’ll make it up to you!”

    I wave at Lucas and speed walk outside. As I pushed the door open, someone pulled the door at the same time. Since I was using the majority of my weight to open the door, I fell from the fact the door wasn’t there. My breath caught in my throat and I waited for gravity to take effect and for my body to hit the concrete.

    However arms snakes around my falling waist, catching me before I could get hurt on the ground. I gasped as sparks flew from the contact and I closed my eyes at the pleasurable feeling. Regardless of how much I was enjoying the skin-to-skin contact, I knew who was holding me.

    Easton.

    I opened my eyes and I saw him towering above me. His normally hazel eyes were shifting to black and I could tell he was trying to control his wolf since the hazel would shine through every other second. I shivered at the intensity I saw in his gaze but I knew I needed to put some space between us before I did something I regretted.

    Taking a step back, I tried to put some distance between Easton and I but his hold on me tightened. “Mine,” he growled, his hold pulling me ever closer to his warm body. Feeling the restriction I put my hands on his chest and shoved, startling him enough to break his hold on me and for him to stumble back a few steps. 

    Both of us were breathing hard from the closeness of our bodies and I cursed the bond in that moment. I can’t think when he’s standing close to me and for my safety and my mother’s I need my logical senses about me. “Bren,” Easton called out, and I tensed at the warm sensations swirling around my body at the sound of my name on his lips.

    “I—I need to go,” I stammered, turning on my heel and sprinting towards my car.

    “Stop!” Easton ordered, his Alpha command seeping into his tone. I froze in my spot, not from the command itself but for the fact that my other forms wanted me to listen to my mate. I clenched my hands in anger and then I scolded Blaidd. You’d let him just order us around?!

    He’s a pup and he’s our mate, she answered, urging me to turn and look at him again.

    What if he responds the same way my father did?!

    Mate wouldn’t do that, she whimpered and I could practically hear her calling out to Easton’s wolf.

    My mother didn’t think my father would either, I pointed out, earning another whimper from her.

    “Look,” I snapped, turning around to face Easton. I was at the bottom of the stairs, forcing me to look up to him but I knew I was a force to be reckoned with when I’m angry. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to get a better control of my emotions so my eyes won’t change colors. “My mother may be mated to your father’s Beta. And she may be a part of your pack by bond but I haven’t sworn any oath to this pack. Therefore you are not my Alpha and you cannot go ordering me around. So you can take your Alpha command and shove it up your—”

    “Bren!” Lucas shouted, stopping me from cussing out his best friend. He ran up to me grabbing my bicep, earning a growl from Easton which we both ignored. “Bren, your mother has been trying to get a hold of you. She wants us both back at the house because they have something to tell us.”

    Confused, I grabbed my phone and saw a few texts from my mother. Nodding, I slipped my phone back into my back pocket and made to leave when I heard, “Easton?”

    I glanced over my shoulder to see Mara walking out of the school building, holding out her hand for him to take. The bond tugged painfully in my chest again and I flashed my gaze to Easton to see him register the pain I felt. Shaking my head, I grabbed Lucas and briskly walked to my car. Turning over the engine, I saw my passenger side open and Lucas climb in.

    Quirking a brow at him, he smiled and said, “Easton drives me to school. I’ll catch a ride home with Dad.”

    Nodding, I pulled my car out of my spot and peeled out of the school parking lot. But before I left, I saw an angry Easton clenching his fists at the edge watching my car drive off. Shaking my head, I did my best to pay attention to the road as I made my way home. That was not how I imagined our first interaction to go as mates, but considering everything, I figured that was probably as best as it could have gone.

    Luckily Lucas said nothing about the interaction, letting me mull over everything on my way home in comfortable silence. It wasn’t until I pulled my car into the driveway that I gave myself time to wonder why my mother would want both of us to come home for some news. It couldn’t be—could it?

    Climbing out of the car we head into the house. Using our noses we follow our parents’ scents to the living room where snacks and drinks were set up around the couch. Knowing this will be an interesting conversation I settle down, grabbing a sandwich and a bottle of water before leaning back in my seat.

    My nose twitched and I gasped. “You’re pregnant?”

    Lucas froze mid-bite and my mother and Paul glanced awkwardly between themselves. “Yes,” they answer, before smiling widely between the two.

    “How’d you know?” Paul asked.

    “Wolves have a heightened sense of smell, but a dragon's sense of smell is twice as heightened. I could tell my mother’s scent was slightly off and I made a guess.”

    “Wait, you got her pregnant already?” Lucas asked, looking between the two. “No offense, but aren’t you two a little old to have another baby?”

    “Dragons age a lot slower than wolves so even though my mother is older she is still of child bearing age. Since we’re on the edge of extinction more so than wolves, our goddess, Tiamat, made having s*x with dragons highly addictive. So basically Paul can’t keep it—”

    “Bren!” my mother and Paul exclaimed, blushing furiously, which earned a laugh from Lucas and I.

    “I won’t be the only hybrid anymore,” I murmur, looking down at my hands. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to her.”

    “Her?” everyone asks, looking at me in bewilderment.

    “I can see auras,” I remind everyone. “The aura coming from your stomach is that of a girl’s.”

    Paul and my mother look at each other, excitement and love filling their faces. Paul pulls my mother close, soundly kissing her on the lips while Lucas and I groan.

    The next hour is just the four of us together, celebrating the good news. After a moment I sense something coming towards us fast—very fast. Lucas tenses besides me, and I look at him knowing exactly who is coming to the house. “I can’t do this,” I whisper, voice cracking from the emotions threatening to spill over.

    “Bren?” my mother asks as I stand up and dash upstairs. Right as I close the door to my room, the front door opens and I hear everyone shouting. Making sure there wasn’t another person in the car with Easton, I opened my bedroom window and stepped onto the awning right outside the window. In a moment I had a protective, invisible bubble surrounding me and right after the bubble was erected Easton burst into my room.