32. Ogden

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

OGDEN

S lipping on my mandarin collar overcoat, I rested my hand against the opening to my lair and activated the final spell to keep it hidden. My inner beast whined like a beaten puppy and begged me to return to the woman trapped deep in the mountain behind layers of spellwork. A woman who had somehow weaseled out of giving me her name, though I gave her mine.

Rehan said his mate's name was Jay. I should have come out of the gates swinging with that. Let her think I had knowledge she didn't. Gah, I was not good at this.

I trudged toward my village, my dragon snarling and slowing my steps. My heart raced like it had when I first met Jay at The Social. Just her scent made the hairs on my arms rise, and my dragon surged forward so aggressively that I barely held him back. Never had I felt such intense emotion. Not even after my first and only attempt at sex, which resulted in the human promptly rejecting me and finding herself a nice, normal earth dragon.

Teenage me had reacted poorly but with unbelievable restraint. After ten months of celibacy, a base need I hadn't realized dragon shifters still had surfaced. I rutted like an animal. My memories of those three days were a haze of aggression, need, and sex. I liked to think of myself as a logical human, but I shared my life with a dragon who now had a rigorous masturbation schedule to make sure I never rutted again.

I sighed. Now Jay, Rehan's mate, was winding up my dragon. Rehan hadn't been a big talker during our few days together studying the Ley Line. But every time I mentioned his new mate, he'd gushed about her beauty and brilliance.

If I hadn't already, I now believed every word of it.

She'd woken up in a strange place, alone and probably scared. But she hadn't shown any of that. With a smile, she accepted her situation and spoke to me as if we were old friends. How many languages did she know? She'd dropped her gaze at the end of our conversation, but until that moment, she'd toyed with me like we were equals.

I came to a stop, looking at the opening to my lair again, and let out a soft curse. With a shake of my head, I turned back toward my village and put one foot in front of the other.

Jay did not pique my interest. She was human, trouble, and she already had two mate marks.

Heat stirred in my gut, and my dragon purred. I stumbled, confused by my body's response to that thought. I pressed my hand to my flat abdomen and walked away from her faster.

Ash and smoke from the still-erupting volcano blotted out the sunlight. If an EM hadn't already been called for the Ley Lines, a belching, no longer sleeping giant would have done the trick. I ran my thumb over the pads of my fingers, remembering the unnatural current in our Ley Line... which ultimately made me think about Rehan again.

I knew he'd only pulled me close to keep me from falling over, but I liked it—a lot.

The dense forest spit me out into a sloping valley covered in massive dirt mounds and smaller cave entrances leading toward the mountains. As the slopes went up, a few more extensive caves looked down. A sizable, low, round wooden and canvas building sat in the very center of all of it.

This building was my destination. Although all modern dragon caves had electricity, earth dragons thrived on magic. Our community center was a mix of both.

As I approached the door, the smell of food wafted along with the hum of voices. Unlike the other elemental clans, we'd managed to keep magic alive, maybe not thriving, but even most of our children could cast simple light spells.

"Dad!" Olive yelled, bolting to my side.

I stiffened as my twelve-year-old daughter glued herself to me. This morning, she wore her long, light brown hair in a messy fishtail braid. She buried her freckled face in my shirt. My gaze took in the room around us instantly, but no one focused on our exchange, so I squeezed her back. "You know better than to call me that."

"But you weren't at breakfast, and I was so worried," she said, not releasing me. "You're always at breakfast at eight-fifteen. You've never missed, not once."

I attempted to pry her off me. "I'm not that predictable, and this is not an excuse to call me dad."

"You are!" She stated into my shirt. "And you are my dad!"

"But you're not supposed to know that," I continued, finally getting her to look up at me. I lowered my voice. "You are a daughter of the community who shouldn't have hacked into Scalehive to find your biological father."

She grinned. "I already got punished for that, and I'm glad I did. You are, too, even if you won't admit it."

I should have scolded her, but I didn't have it in me. As the strongest warlock in our element, I'd started donating sperm when I was viable. Any number of the children running around could be mine… within reason. My dark skin meant anyone too pale probably wasn't. However, even thinking about this was missing the point. All children were children of earth. We raised them as a community and loved them all equally.

It allowed every earth dragon to keep their isolation while being a part of something greater. Except I didn't crave the isolation that so many dragons seemed to. My secret friendship with my rebel daughter brought me more joy than I'd ever admit to.

My mind drifted to Jay. I hadn't left her side for sixteen hours, and I already dreaded the quiet of my cave. She was a mystery who made my blood run in ways I didn't understand, and I badly wanted to.

Olive released me and stepped back, grinning. "Otis got invited to study with the warlocks."

I pulled my attention away from the human woman and focused on my daughter. "That's quite the accomplishment. I hope you congratulated him."

"He's one of yours." She looked at the ground and kicked at something invisible.

I frowned, trying to understand where her sudden insecurity came from. "He might not be."

"He has dark skin. There are only five dragons in our entire clan with dark skin." She pawed at her face. "He has magic and fertility."

Her posture clicked into place as I desperately tried to head off the conversation we'd had too many times. "Even if you never get my magic, you're still important, Olive. Life's about more than having babies and messing with the world's natural order."

She huffed. "This is where you tell me how good I am with technology and how smart I am. But no one else cares, Dad. I'm not a fire dragon. Technology isn't my future."

I pulled her into my chest, heedless of who saw. "You've got to let what others say go. It's your life to carve out a place. All we can do is be happy as we are." I released her and caught her gaze. "Does dwelling on what you don't have help?"

She shook her head. "Do you dwell on what you don't have?"

I prodded us toward the buffet. "I try not to."

She wrinkled her nose. "Why haven't you ever taken a lover?"

I pulled up short. "How do you even know what that is?"

She grinned. "I listen. Some moms were talking about it this morning while I was waiting for you to show up for breakfast."

"You should not be cutting classes waiting for me, Olive," I said in my best fatherly chastising tone. Not that I was good at it.

She put her hands on her hips. "You should answer my question."

I started walking again. "It just hasn't interested me."

Jay's green gaze drifted through my thoughts, and my dick stirred.

My daughter poked me. "Do you prefer men?"

Rehan's shoulder brushing mine heated my face and added to the blood rushing down. It shouldn't; the water heir was as straight as they came, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying the view.

I scowled at Olive. "Stop bothering your old man and get to class."

She waited for me to answer, almost falling on her tiptoes. I leaned down, suddenly engaged in a game of stare-eyes with a twelve-year-old.

I refused to let my daughter see me blush. I did feel a strong pull towards men and women equally. But sex was very complicated, especially with my condition. Donating sperm and masturbating were simple. Not that I would tell her that.

"Maybe." I finally said. "But same-sex pairings are a human thing. I don't know how a dragon shifter would even know." My stomach twisted at how true that was. "Magic is my lover, and that's enough for me."

She rolled her eyes. "That's so lame."

I poked her in the ribs. "Get to class before I get yelled at."

She grinned and scampered toward the exit. I shook my head. Maybe I was glad I only knew one of my kids. In a few steps, I made it to the buffet table and pulled a plate off the stack, picking out all my favorite kebab meats and a big bowl of tzatziki.

Oh, the Tomato keftedes looked fantastic today. Jay'd love those. I stopped myself, pulling my hand back like I burned it. I filled my plate for two. A growling noise drifted to my ears. The person behind me trained his gaze on the floor and backed up. Suddenly, I realized I was the one growling and cut it short.

My dragon and I were not two separate entities, but sometimes it felt like it, and this was one of those moments. The beast clawed at me, begging me to go to Jay, but I wouldn't. She'd answer questions more honestly and readily if she were hungry. I still didn't know who she was beyond Rehan's mate, nor did I know her intentions.

Unable to return any food, I headed toward my usual table. Two dragons sat at it. As I gestured for them to stay, they both stood, bowed their heads, and left me to it.

I sighed, missing Rehan's simple company. But that was over now, and with it, my temporary friendship. Actually, keeping his mate locked in my lair probably ensured the water dragon hated me.

I sat heavily. Even my arms felt dense. I'd been up all night healing Jay. Fatigue hit me all at once. I demolished my meal for two and dragged my feet to my cave, definitely not thinking about Rehan's mate.

Different from my lair, my cave consisted of one big spacious room with a smaller round washroom off to the back. In the center, I could stretch out in my massive dragon form. Along the outside, my collection of carved furniture and shoji partitioned out each part of my human life: my mini kitchen, my hoard, my spell library and tattoo studio, and so on. I liked to keep my world organized.

I stretched out on a mattress, and my tired brain fogged. I forgot about Jay for a moment and drifted half asleep before jerking awake. If I was exhausted and hungry enough for two, she would be as well. I'd not stuck around to ensure she knew how to work my lab, given her a tour, or anything else.

It didn't matter. She wasn't my friend. I had to remember that.

I finally got up and slammed a sleeping draught. My brain needed to let my physical body rest and recharge. I needed to stop thinking about her.

I slept longer than I meant. The sun sank below the mountains as I undid the spells hiding my lair. With a death grip on the last bit of food I'd been able to beg from the community kitchen, I stepped forward. Dave Brukeck's Take Five spilled out of the cave.

I froze in place. Hearing one of my old records was literally the last thing I expected. My lair didn't have electricity to fire up the turntable. I pushed through my security spells and rushed down the short passage to my lair, skidding to a halt. My jaw dropped. I didn't know what I'd expected, but it wasn't this.

Next to my lab, a crank spun my antique turntable, spilling jazz into the air. Steam turned a belt made of dirty white cloth. She'd made a tiny steam engine out of my stuff. Who came up with something like that?

My mouth went dry as my gaze landed on her backside.

The cloth turning my record player had come from her dress, which was now very short, showing me exactly how long her legs were. Her barely covered hips swayed to the uneven beats of the song while her hands fingered the equipment in my alchemy lab. Blood rushed away from my brain and toward a part of me that never made good decisions. She reached around her shoulder, scratching at something and leaving a mark where she'd dug through a layer of dirt covering her skin.

My dragon growled, and my chest burned with guilt. I didn't even have plumbing in here, much less enough water for her to get clean.

I kidnapped my friend's mate and locked her up without even the basics. In response, she built a machine to amuse herself and dug into whatever thing she'd been trying to make before I trapped her. I didn't know if I was in love or terrified.

I watched her hips sway, occasionally adding an extra wiggle to the music until the final cymbal hit echoed off the cave wall. Immediately, I cleared my throat.

She turned, her smile faltering. I clenched the glass bowl in my fist, feeling like a piece of shit. We just stood there staring at each other until the next song on the LP came to life with a crashing horn line. She glided over to her contraption to turn it off. The room fell silent.

My instincts told me to whisk her out of here and take care of her, but I shoved them down. I set the food I'd brought on a table and stepped up to the two potions bubbling away.

After sniffing and stirring each, I held a spoonful under one of the table's battery-powered lights. Its deep, florescent pink sparkled. "A magic sedimentation. Exactly what you said you'd make."

She rolled her eyes and handed me the pad of paper.

My pulse raced. She'd documented everything in precise, neat handwriting. Her organization made heat flush my cheeks, and I suddenly needed to frame this piece of paper. I set down the pad, my dragon and human mind both desperate to hear her speak, understand who she was, and touch her skin.

I stepped into her personal space but stopped myself before I touched her. I took a deep breath, my voice unusually deep. "Have you tested either of them yet?"

She raised an eyebrow and tapped on her wrist where she would have worn a watch.

I nodded and stepped back before consulting her notes again. The potions needed another twenty minutes or so. She didn't have a way to precisely track time before she could add her blood to them.

"Did you make enough for two?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me. Her stomach growled between us, and her gaze flicked down to the glass bowl I'd left out of her reach.

It twisted my heart to say it, but I'd come too far to give in. "You need to answer my questions first."

I didn't know what I'd do if she didn't answer them. My resolve was melting like ice cream on a hot day. Any moment, I'd be a puddle needing to fix everything marring our second meeting. I eyed her two mate marks, hoping they'd help remind me of her unattainability, but once again, my dragon purred, and a ball of excitement rushed through me.