Chapter Seven

Keir

We ended the call with Iris and, while Nix wanted to jump right into the video chat, I put my hand on his shoulder. “Give me a minute.”

“What’s wrong?” my best friend asked. “Did you not want to chat with her? You don’t like her.”

I snorted. “I didn’t say any of those things. It’s just…do all matings on the app happen so fast?” I needed a moment to breathe. To process all of this.

To process the fact that my dragon was desperate to push his wings out through my skin and scoop up Iris and bring her back here, immediately.

He hadn’t even been this savage with Rachel. He’d wanted her for his own, sure, but there was a level of desire for Iris he’d never expressed before. The difference between a first crush and true love.

Strange.

“Does it matter?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t. Do it. The video call…just do it.”

Nix chuckled and pressed the camera button. “Here we go.”

Iris answered on the first ring and took a second to get her phone set up. “Hi,” she said with a lovely rose gracing the apples of her cheeks. “It’s nice to…meet you? Sorry. I’ve never done this before.”

“It’s very nice to meet you.” Nix lowered his voice and, if I wasn’t mistaken, his dragon had pushed a bit of his own voice into that greeting.

“Where do you work?” I asked. “You said you just got off a shift.”

She nodded and showed me her name scribbled on a tag that clearly had belonged to someone else. The place was neat and tidy behind her but, as I suspected from the pictures on her profile, the place she lived in was less than what she deserved.

“I work at Bessie’s diner. I’ve only been here a few weeks.”

“You’re on the run.” Nix spoke without hesitation. His scent deepened as we talked to Iris, his dragon and mine on the same wavelength.

Her brown eyes downcast, she nodded. “It’s been a few months, actually. I left as soon as I could after finding out I was pregnant.”

“And he’s after you? He knows about the child?” I scooted to the edge of my seat, barely containing my beast. A female should be excited and happy to be carrying her mate’s young inside her, unless the situation was not safe or loving. I suspected both.

“He doesn’t know about the baby,” she said. “At least, that I know of. When I go anywhere, I try to hide my belly.”

“He’s not involved, then?” Nix asked. “What I mean is…you’re no longer with him.”

Iris shook her head. “Gods, no. I couldn’t…no. I wouldn’t have signed up for a mating app if I was involved with another man.”

No details. Interesting.

“It must be difficult to work on your feet while pregnant. Especially with a shifter’s baby.” It was a wild guess since she was giving us little details.

Her chin quivered a bit, and she wrung her hands. “I survive. I do what I have to do, Keir.”

Gods damn it all. Hearing my name on those full lips made my dragon snarl. Not at her, at me for not being next to her to calm her worries. Soothe her fears. Take care of anything and everything she wanted or needed so she didn’t have to work so hard. “You’re brave, little one,” Nix said.

“Tell me more about yourselves,” Iris said, changing the subject. “You travel a lot.”

I hadn’t thought about our profile from her point of view until there was a twinge of worry in her voice asking whether or not we travel.

Not conducive to a woman needing protecting and security.

“We have traveled extensively with our job, but our circumstances could change. Are you… Would you want us closer to home?” Nix took a leap asking her that. We were getting to know each other, but he was talking as though the commitment had already been made. His dragon and mine were on the same page. Maybe not so out of left field after all.

“I-I,” she stammered while her cheeks grew redder by the second. The most beautiful blush I’d ever seen. “I’ve been alone most of my life, even when I was lying in the same bed as my mate. If…if this was to work… I don’t want to feel alone anymore. Of course, you two don’t really know me, and I’m carrying some extra baggage.” She put both her hands on her round stomach, rubbing circles on it.

A knock sounded at her door, and my leg muscles clenched. I wanted to answer it for her. Nix sat up straighter next to me. I scented his stress and anger, seeing her jump at the sound. She pressed her hand to her heart, and her eyes changed, pupils dilating.

This female clearly had some trauma. We’d seen plenty of it during our years in the security business, but it was a whole other issue seeing it in someone I cared about. Iris had already burrowed into my heart, although I’d only known her less than a day.

I hadn’t even seen her in person. Scented her skin. Touched her hand or kissed her lips. My dragon and I just knew Iris was for us.

“Are you expecting someone?” Nix asked her as she stood.

“No,” she responded and pulled some bear spray out of her purse. Smart girl. “Who is it?” she called out.

There was a response, but I couldn’t make it out. I wondered where she lived and how fast my dragon could get to her. Fly her the fuck out of there and bring her back to our lair immediately, where no one would frighten her again.

That ex of hers must’ve been a real dickhead.

“It’s my boss. It’s okay,” she said as though she could read our worry-riddled minds. She opened the door, and the woman on the other side of the door gave her something in a bag. Iris thanked her. “She brought me something to eat.”

At least someone was taking care of the female.

My dragon couldn’t take it any longer. I wouldn’t live one more day not knowing if she was safe or if the next person knocking on her door wasn’t there to deliver anything nice.

“Iris,” I said, once she’d sat back down. “We would love nothing more than for you to come here. Let’s get to know each other in a place where you are safe.”

She said nothing for a few moments before Nix tested the volume control. “Iris?”