Chapter 9 - Stryder

“D-do you want this one?” I hesitate, watching Olivia disappear into the bathroom.

“Yup!” she calls out before slamming the bathroom door shut, leaving me in my bedroom to look around with the troubling realization that I'd just given up my own bedroom.

At this point, I'm willing to sacrifice a lot more for the sake of my brother. Seeing Stryker's disappointment in me, I knew I had to make amends. Quickly.

Remaining in the mortal world to drown my sorrows in alcohol and women wasn't ideal, so I followed him to the island only to discover that he was in the midst of freeing Olivia.

He's only furious that I'd locked her in my quarters. For months, we'd agreed that forcing humans into submission wasn't the way to go. We watched it happen with Draco and Aragon, and felt helpless, knowing they weren't thinking clearly when they did what they did.

Of course, I have my own reasons – Olivia hasn't been easy to deal with. At first, she demanded to leave. Now that I've freed her, she seems to accept that I'm not taking her back home. Perhaps she does value her life, after all.

Now, it seems I'm at her mercy.

I'm at the mercy of my brother, too, who'll no doubt keep a watchful eye on me so I don't make any wrong moves. He'll be sure to watch my every move and call me out if he thinks I'm being a cruel bastard.

I owe him this much – to attempt to show the woman enough kindness so that she might fall in love with me. I'm not counting on it since love should be a reciprocated thing. How do I explain to Stryker that I don't believe in the loose term? That love, to me, is as good as being a prisoner?

Glancing at the door when I hear Olivia turn on the faucet, I sigh. I could just treat this like all my other quests, charm my way into her bed – which happens to be mine – and give the clan what they want.

It won't be so bad, right? A walk in the park for someone with my experience in the field of charming human women.

I can only hope that she doesn't expect me to love her.

***

“So, this is a castle?” Olivia asks flatly when we step into the elevator.

I'd just given her a brief overview of the island just so she knows what to expect.

“Yes,” I smile, leaning against one wall in the elevator. “Quite impressive, don't you think?”

“I guess…” she shrugs nonchalantly, keeping her gaze fixed on the door as the lift takes us down.

If I was concerned that she would ever expect me to love her, I can see now that it takes more than a castle to floor her.

I thought I could woo her with a smirk or by casually running my fingers through my hair. None of those things seemed to have impressed her. I have my work cut out for me.

I clear my throat and ride the elevator in silence – a silence that stretches uncomfortably around us. It would be easier to just forego this whole thing if I wasn't so adamant not to disappoint my brother. While Olivia remains oblivious to what she's here for, Stryker is oblivious to my true feelings.

Gods… I hate having to lie like this, but my family hasn't given me much of a choice. With the weight of duties resting on my shoulders now, a torch that was passed from Felix to me, I must fulfill.

Mentally, I've come to terms with having to sleep with a human to produce dragonspirit children. I can manage that much. When it comes to love and fated mates, I can't accept that I'm forced to give up my freedom.

Glancing at the woman just as the elevator slows down and stops on the ground floor, I rake my eyes over her from head to toe. Dressed in a chiffon kaftan courtesy of Lily's preparation for my human mate's arrival, I notice the way Olivia's hips flare out. Her waist disappears in the flowing fabric, and voluptuous breasts appear ripe at her chest. I gulp when the blood in my veins rushes to my core, the opening doors providing a much-needed distraction.

I can work with this. Just because she's not my usual type, with red hair instead of dark brown and pale skin instead of tanned, she's curvy in all the right places. It won't be so hard to fulfill my duties in her bed if dragonspirit off-spring is my only quest.

“Come on,” I call over my shoulder when I leave the elevator. “We'll have breakfast in the dining room. Then I'll show you to the rest of the castle.”

“Hm,” she hums without an ounce of emotion, forcing me to glance over my shoulder with a frown. She doesn't even bother to look around at the dining room or appreciate the marvelously polished oak table underneath a candle chandelier dating back to the eighteenth century.

I frown warily, suddenly self-conscious about my lifestyle. Flaunting wealth always got me the woman I wanted in the mortal world.

Then why does Olivia appear disinterested, as if she couldn't care less that only the finest silverware on Earth is laid out on the table?

Relegating it to the simple fact that she's in unfamiliar territory, I pull out a chair and wait for her to take a seat. Instead, she saunters to the other side and pulls out her chair before taking a seat.

So, she's not one to care about chivalry, either. Scoffing under my breath, I take a seat and proceed with breakfast.

Another task was done in absolute silence.

It's just… Strange.

Ever since I freed her yesterday, she's made no attempt to demand I take her back home. Despite this, she doesn't seem remotely interested in what the castle offers.

Not the museum, the library, or even the lab where Yazmine conducts her research. It seems that nothing I show Olivia piques her interest. By the end of the day, I’d given up much of the hope I had of charming her.

“You seem very… uninterested in all of this,” I observe when we end up in the kitchen for dinner. I haven’t planned for much, so I'm asking Stryker not to interrupt my time with Olivia.

He believes that I can woo her while remaining oblivious to the fact that I hope she doesn’t fall in love with me. By the looks of it, she’s far from that. Quite the opposite, really.

Olivia sighed as she took a seat on a bar stool around the island table in the kitchen. If she isn’t impressed by my cooking skills by the night's end, I’m willing to give up my quest and face the consequences at Stryker’s hands.

This is the only time I wish we weren’t so close. Being twins, it came naturally that we’d be inseparable. Neither of us considered that we might have conflicting ideas about love.

The moment the Council introduced the human mating process, Stryker’s eagerness led me to maintain a farce and pretend that I was equally excited. For him, as the youngest in the clan, he’d been sheltered and loved unconditionally. As the oldest twin by a few minutes, I always felt pressured to perform. To earn the love I was shown, even if it wasn’t said outright. The constant comparison between us made it difficult to forge my own path.

Not that I’m complaining. Stryker has always been the brother who has my back, no matter what. Oftentimes, I’ve wondered if he does the same for my sake, or feels the same way I do. Nonetheless, I have to maintain that I’m a willing candidate in the human mating process. Not just for my twin’s sake but for that of my brothers, who’ve proven successful in their endeavors.

“Uninterested, huh?” Olivia chuckles blandly, no humor evident in her tone. “I don’t know what you expect from me, Stryder. You insist on keeping me here, knowing I have work to do.”

“It’s not safe,” I defend, turning to her once I’ve placed the pasta in boiling water. “I told you that already.”

Olivia stares at me, not as blankly as she has all day, but with a sense of wonder filling her eyes. “Because of your inner dragon?”

“Because of my inner dragon,” I concede. “You won’t understand it, but it’s all I can explain.” She doesn’t know it, but I, too, have been struggling to grapple with how protective I feel over her. I know it’s probably because she’s meant to be my mate, so naturally, I’d have to protect her.

She doesn’t know about that part yet. Keeping with what the Council wanted – for my human mate to fall in love with me – I just haven’t gotten to telling her that she’s meant to be my mate. I’m hoping she’ll eventually open up to the idea of staying on the island, and open up enough to me so we can cross the bridge of conceiving children.

It’s challenging, I must admit. But it’s a challenge I’ve accepted if it’s something that appeases my family. Stryker especially.

If I was worried that the woman would fall in love with me and expect my love in return, I don’t need to be concerned after today. All I need to do is woo her enough so that she sleeps with me.

I've never bedded an FBI agent before, and it’s no easy task.

“I don’t have much of a choice in all of this, do I?” she sighs.

“Unfortunately, no,” I shake my head. “It would have been easier if I met you organically in the mortal world. You might have asked for my help yourself, then.”

“Probably not,” she titters. “If I knew you were a dragon shifter, I would have told you to leave me alone.”

I don’t know why, but her lighthearted jest cuts through me like a sharp blade. Was the Cube of Knowledge wrong this time around? Perhaps Olivia Jackson isn’t meant to be my mate. There’s no way she would have fallen in love with me. “You would?” I ask, raising a brow to hide the disappointment I’d rather not admit.

“Yeah…” she shrugs, turning her attention to the white marble countertop where her fingers are intertwined. “... I mean… I would have never thought it was possible, and I would have thought you were crazy.”

“Right… So now that you know I’m not crazy, what do you really think?”

Olivia looks up, her lips parting as she’s about to speak. Instead, a horrified squeal escapes her lips as she hurriedly hops off the bar stool and rushes toward me. Only when she flashes past do I realize she’s going for the stove where the pasta water bubbles over the pot.

She’s about to grab the pot off the stove when my dragon senses tingle, and I foresee the danger of her burning her hands. I rush forward instead, grabbing the pot and scorching my hands with boiling water.

Muttering a string of curses under my breath, I rush to the sink to soothe the burns with cold water. Behind me, Olivia giggles for the very first time. The pleasant, sweet sound of her lilting giggle fills me with a sense of joy, my heart feeling squeezed inside my chest.

“You know what I think?” she chuckles bemusedly. “You’re quite ordinary for a dragon man.”

“Is that a good thing?”

Olivia stares at me for a long time, then shakes her head. “I–I don’t know.” The glint of amusement on her face disappears, her eyes turning sad as she looks away. I can’t help but feel like she’s hiding something, and I just caught a glimpse of her truest self when she giggled.

“I…” Olivia gulps, brows furrowing with confusion. “... I think I’m gonna go to my room.”

“What about dinner?”

She shakes her head tentatively, quickly spinning on her heel. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

I'm left confused as I watch her scurry out of the kitchen. Instead of falling for my charms and every effort to ensure her safety, it seems like Olivia is repulsed by them.

I really wish I could read her mind.

Frustrated, I grab the towel off my shoulder and fling it with deliberate force on the counter. My ego is bruised, and there’s only one way to soothe it.