Dragons Don't Forgive (5 page)

After I was calm enough to return to
work, I caught Sarn looking at me every so often. I expected him to
invite me to his room and I will not lie about what my answer would
have been. I wanted Sarn, I still want him. But no, I was never one
of his women at the nightclub. And dear Goddess that pisses me off
because I wanted to be.

Today, with the alcohol out of his
system, he’s calmer and the anger he usually carries is buried for
the moment. I enter the bathroom carrying the chair after I hear
the water shut off.

The space is small, but he can sit
down and I can move around him if I wiggle a bit when I need to
move in front of him. I grab a comb out of the same drawer that
holds the scissors and take a chunk of his hair between my fingers.
Slowly, I untangle the wet mess. His hair is a light brown, though
right now it appears much darker because of the water dripping off
of it. The tangles make it difficult to work the comb through, but
I take my time and enjoy being this close. I breathe in his scent
and I would swear my wolf purrs. Finally, I move in front of him.
He doesn’t shut those gorgeous eyes, which have gone from dark to
the most incredible color.

“
They turn almost purple on
occasion,” escapes from my mouth before I can stop myself. Heat
rises in my cheeks because my voice sounds so loud in the small
room.

“
The color of my dragon,”
he replies softly.

I stop what I’m doing and look closer,
my embarrassment completely forgotten. “Dragons have a color?” I
ask in disbelief.

He cocks his head slightly and a smile
curves his full lips. My heart flutters at the soft, sensual look
that appears on his face. “Did you think us see-through?” he asks
as his grin grows bigger. His voice is a low, growly rasp that does
even more to my growing need for this beautiful man.

It’s so good to see his disposition
change for the better, so I smile back. “Well, no. I have no idea
what color dragons are. For some reason it just never occurred to
me that they would be purple.”

Now his firm chin rises in a jaunty
manner. “We are defined by the striking colors of our dragon
scales. This identifies our family line even though only four
mature male dragons remain. I’m the last of the purple dragons.”
His eyes go black again as his suffering reaches clear to my soul.
Even my wolf whines softly. He’s such a disturbed man with so much
pain held tightly inside. I wish he would cry again so I could pull
his head to my breast. He needs to let the pain escape.

I cup his chin in my palm and lean
forward to brush my lips across his cheek. “I’m sorry, Sarn. I’ve
grown up with the pain of having no mother. I cannot comprehend
losing everyone.”

His eyes move away and I know he’s
uncomfortable with words of sympathy. I release him and concentrate
on the tangles in his hair once more. When I finally have it all
untangled, I begin snipping away at the strands. Not too short and
not too long, I know exactly how I want it cut. We remain silent
until I take his chin and tip his head to the right and then left.
“It won’t fall across your eyes for a while. I’ll cut it again when
it grows out.”

He grabs my wrist with his large hand.
“What makes you think I’ll be here?”

I like having him touch me. I feel a
buzz where we connect and wonder if it’s our magic. “I hope you
will stay around. It’s hard for me to make friends quickly. I’d
like a chance to know you better.”

His fingers squeeze a little more
firmly. “It will be hard for us to keep our hands off each other,
but it would be wise to do so.” He takes a deep breath and slowly
lets it out. I can see the uncertainty in his eyes when he speaks
again, “I find myself in need of a friend too.”

***

The following morning, in my wolf
form, I charge through the forest at breakneck speed. An angry
dragon is one thing—a dragon without hope quite another. I escaped
the cabin yesterday as soon as I could. I didn’t want to love Sarn,
though it may be impossible not to. I’m now running to try to take
the spunk out of my wolf who wants the dragon in our bed. I want
him there too, but it’s easier to deny if my wolf is tired. So I
run.

In front of me there’s a thick copse
of trees and I make a sudden turn and leap over a broken tree
branch. I’m not expecting to run into the dragon out here, but
that’s exactly what happens. My claws dig into the pine needles and
earth, but I can’t stop in time and literally knock Sarn off his
feet. I roll away and shift to human at the same time. “I’m sorry,”
I say as I try to help him stand. He brushes away my hands and
gains his feet on his own. His stunned look turns into a smirk as
his eyes run over my naked form. Crap, this is the last thing I
need.

“
I’m afraid to ask why
you’re running so fast that you could break your neck or someone
else’s—case in point, mine,” he says as the smirk grows larger. He
examines me from head to toe with a slow, warm gaze that seems to
be growing hotter the longer he stares.

He’s wearing sweatpants without a
shirt. I glance down and see his feet are bare too. “I’m out for a
morning run. What’s your excuse?” I snap back a little more harshly
than I intend. He always seems to throw me for a loop in some way
or another. Usually I’m calm and collected. But whenever I’m around
him, my thoughts scatter. I noticed it while working the nightclub.
I spilled so many drinks when he walked near the bar that I had to
offer to replace the shattered glasses. The female cocktail
waitresses gave me knowing looks. They knew exactly why I was
unsettled in his presence. The man is gorgeous.

Right now I want to run my fingers
over his rippled abs just for the hell of it. I’ve seen plenty of
six-pack abs, but Sarn’s is an eight-pack that puts most men to
shame. Even after the gallons of alcohol he has consumed this past
year, there isn’t an ounce of extra flesh on him.

I realize he’s staring back at me and
he knows I’ve been lusting on his body the same way he has mine. I
shift my eyes away because I can’t handle his powerful gaze with
those stunning violet eyes. The color does things to my insides.
Things that friends shouldn’t feel.

“
I was thinking about
shifting,” he says, which startles me.

My gaze jerks back to his. “Into a
dragon?” Please, please, please say yes.

A genuine smile replaces his smirk.
“My platypus form isn’t very useful out of the water.”

I can’t believe he’s teasing me. I
want to see his dragon more than I want my next breath. And not
just any dragon. I want my purple dragon. “At least a platypus is
soft and cuddly.” I respond like an idiot because I’m so enthralled
with him.

His eyes sparkle in the sunlight and
light amethyst streaks through the deep violet. His teeth flash
with another smile and small laugh lines show around his lips. It
actually hurts to think that this sad, sad man has laughed a lot
during his many lifetimes. With his brides. And that thought makes
me jealous which also makes me completely reprehensible. To love
and lose that love again and again is heartbreaking. I shouldn’t
feel jealous about his tragic life.

I put these crazy thoughts aside.
“Show me,” I whisper almost afraid he will deny me this.

Now the smirk returns. “There’s a good
chance your beastkind blood will heat up to the point of exploding
if you see my amazing dragon physique.”

An actual giggle escapes me. “Modesty
doesn’t suit you.” My heart is pumping so fast with the excitement
of seeing something no one on earth has seen. Dmitri told me he
doesn’t know of anyone, including himself, who has seen a dragon in
their true form.

Sarn’s hands go to his waistband and
he shoves his pants down. His cock is growing, which seems to be
its natural state whenever I see it. Is it because of me or is the
man just turned on by women in general? I know which way I want
it.

When he’s naked, he grabs my hand,
leads me to a large clearing, and releases me at the tree line.
“Last chance. Once you see this I’ll ruin all other men for
you.”

He already has. He winks one beautiful
violet eye and it completely seals the deal. I want him so fucking
bad. “I’ll chance it. Dragons are fantasy and I actually think
everyone’s been pulling my leg for over a year now.”

The smirk comes back. “In your dreams,
sweet wolf.”

My dreams have all been about him
since the day he stumbled through the bar a year ago. I had no idea
who he was. I even noticed my brother gape as we both watched the
most gorgeous man alive fall down in a drunken stupor. It was six
in the morning and we’d come in early to help with inventory.
Dmitri easily picked him up and carried him downstairs to the
living quarters. When I inquired about the strange man to Dmitri,
he told me about dragons. A few weeks later, he told Roland because
the crazy idiot was close to challenging Sarn. My brother did not
like the interest I took in the disturbed dragon. And truly I
couldn’t care less. Roland needed to worry more about his own love
life and worry less about mine.

Now, I watch in anticipation as Sarn
walks to the center of the clearing. He looks to the sky and his
magic builds quickly. It isn’t the same as mine. This is violent
and wild. Hot and steamy. The entire clearing explodes into light
with his shift. I almost fall to my knees when his dragon’s body
fills the large, empty space. Beastkind shift to about double our
human size. We are no comparison to Sarn. He stands at least thirty
feet high. His mouth and jaws are bigger than my entire body. His
wings unfurl and scrape the trees on either side of him. Fifty feet
of pure exquisite beauty. He was right. No one will ever measure
up. And the color of his scales. They ripple with different shades
of purple that catch the sun just like his eyes. His violet pupils
are much larger and their color more vibrant. I stand in absolute
awe unable to move as my heart almost beats from my
chest.

Chapter Five

Sarn

She truly sees me. Not just my pretty
human face, but my dragon in all its glory. Her eyes shine and she
doesn’t back away or even tremble. Her gaze eats me up like I’m the
finest dessert. Her tongue runs over her lips and I watch all of
this from three stories above her. I want her so bad it hurts. I
could love her as I’ve loved my brides. It would be so incredibly
easy.

With a powerful flap of my wings, I
rise into the sky. Dmitri assured me this morning that I could fly
freely within his territory. Right now, I must get away from Sierra
and contain my thoughts of having her as a bride. I am such a
pathetic excuse for a dragon. My answer for everything is to run.
Usually straight to a bottle. Right now I want a drink like nothing
else. No, that’s not true. I want Sierra as my bride
more.

She shifts and follows me for an hour.
I lose her in a mountain range where I land and hide behind a high
group of rocks until I sense she’s gone. What the hell is wrong
with me? Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from my realm too long.
Drowned myself in enough alcohol to flood a small city then
wallowed in self-pity for an entire year.

I woke up this morning
without a fuzzy head. The slight ache was still there but not as
overpowering as it had been the previous four days. It’s my shifter
blood that has the withdrawals fading so quickly. While I assessed
myself, Dmitri entered the cabin without knocking. At least he
didn’t do his
now you don’t see me now you
do
magic routine. It throws me off balance
every time he instantly appears in front of me. This morning he
whistled cheerfully and walked straight to the coffeemaker and
prepared a pot. It was the only reason I didn’t kill him. He kept
up the ridiculous whistling tune the entire time. When the coffee
had finished brewing, he brought me a cup. I sat up in bed and cast
a glare his way.

“
Don’t do it again, Dmitri.
I understand you had little choice, but it goes against everything
I am to feed a blood sucker.”

Just a hint of amber flashed in his
eyes even though he knew I partially jested. He shrugged. “Don’t
worry your pretty head about it. Dragon blood is the nastiest thing
I ever tasted.”

Yeah right. I know how powerful dragon
blood is. “Well you didn’t expire, so it couldn’t be all
bad.”

He didn’t give me the smartass
comeback I expected. “How do you feel?”

Ashamed, sad, and homesick.
“Better.”

“
How are the cravings for
alcohol?”

At this question it was hard not to
snap his head off. “I want a drink. No, actually a
bottle.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “That won’t
go away for a long time. Everything else will probably fade within
the next few days.”

The nausea, headaches, and trembling
were almost gone, though I had no intention of telling the vampire
that. Dmitri made me uncomfortable at times with his strong
interest in dragons. His nightclub was a safe haven for beastkind
and now dragons too. He kept his finger on the pulse of the shifter
worlds. I have no doubt he does it to protect his own. If push ever
comes to shove, Dmitri’s clan comes first and I admire him for it.
But there is no comparison in the magic of our worlds and he
doesn’t need to know everything. I owe him a debt and I always pay
up. The time will come and he will be thankful he put up with me
for as long as he has. My debt to him is overly large.