Chapter 10

TEN

Samantha

I hit the elevator floor to get to the medic, and instantly feel Aydan tense next to me.

"What are you doing?"

I'm prepared for the fight, even if I wish we didn't have to have it. "We're going to the medic."

"Fuck no!" He tries to reach across me to hit a different button, but I gently smack his hand away.

"You need stitches."

His face is gushing. Fucking gushing. All because that arrogant prick decided to assert his dominance like a dog pissing on everything.

"I'm fine."

Granger shifts beside him. "I don't think you are, man. That's pretty bad."

"It looks worse than it is. That asshole couldn't hurt me."

I whirl on Aydan. My heart hurts looking at the blood absolutely flowing down his face and onto his clothes. "Being a dragon changes us. It makes us stronger and faster. Evander knew he could seriously hurt you, and he did it anyway."

"He's not stronger than me," he says, drawing his shoulders back.

The elevator dings, opening onto the floor with the medic. "Stop being so stubborn. Let's get you fixed up."

"I'm fine," he says.

I cross my arms in front of my chest. "You know, if your face ends up ruined, you're going to lose your pretty boy looks and actually start having to be nice to people."

His mouth twitches.

"Then girls will stop throwing their panties at you. You'll have to learn how to make conversation. And everyone is going to ask you where you got that scar. You'll never be left alone again."

He sighs. "Fine. We'll go, but I think I'm fine."

Granger gives me a thumbs up behind his shoulder, and a little smirk. It takes me an effort not to smirk back. Instead, I slip my hand into Aydan's and haul him to the right room, then push open the door. The receptionist opens her mouth to greet us, spots Aydan, and then just runs off to get one of the on-site doctors. A minute later, the receptionist returns and gestures for us to come to a room.

A little while later, Dr. Maveric says, "He definitely needs stitches." He calls for the nurse to bring in the necessary equipment, while Aydan scowls at Granger and I.

Five stitches later, Aydan is fixed up. The doctor and nurse clean up the area and head out just as the receptionist comes in carrying a tray of breakfast foods.

I'm surprised, but grateful. "Thank you."

We sit and eat in silence, clearing our plates like rabid animals. There's not another sound other than our chewing and our forks scraping our plates until everyone is done. Then there's a stillness between us. There's a lot that needs to be said, but that I'm not ready to talk about.

The receptionist is back. "All done?" She glances at our plates. "Mr. Gable was right about you being hungry."

Mr. Gable? "Who is that?"

She smiles. "The owner of Specter Inc. He's actually waiting for you right now in the lab."

"Then I guess we better hurry," Granger says, flashing us a look.

None of us particularly likes being told what to do. When we were kids and were expected to be somewhere, we'd rarely actually end up there. We were in tune with nature, not so much to clocks and people, but we pulled it together when we needed to.

We head out of the med area, and Aydan places a hand at the small of my back. I look up into those baby blue eyes of his, and the look he gives me is possessive, tinged with jealousy and anger. It's not hard to figure out that a lot of complicated emotions are swirling between us right now, but I'm glad to see he doesn't completely hate me.

Taking the elevator to the lab floor, we get off and head into the main room, practically skidding to a halt when we spot Evander talking to Dr. Abigail and Dr. Duncan. All eyes turn to us as we linger in the doorway, and Granger shifts nervously beside us.

"Well, come in!" Dr. Duncan calls. "I know you met Mr. Gable already."

"Mr. Gable?" I ask, confused.

"The owner of Specter Inc," he says, gesturing to Evander.

My jaw drops open, and my gaze swings to his. "You own Specter Inc?"

His entire body stiffens, and I can't read his expression. "I'd intended on telling you…"

I don't know why that upsets me so much, but it does. Here's this man who has been telling me to trust him over and over again, who did everything he could to get me to come here, and he was hiding this big secret the whole time.

Turning away, I head back for the elevator, needing time to think.

"Sam!" he calls after me, but I don't look back.

"Leave her alone," Aydan says angrily.

"Get out of my way," Evander orders, a deadly calm to his voice.

"Not a fucking chance."

"Someone is just dying to get the shit beat out of them again, aren't they?"

"Just try it," Aydan growls.

I whirl back around and see both men squaring off, just feet from each other. If I don't get in there, someone's going to get hurt. So as much as I need time away from all of this, to process, I slip between them.

"Enough. Just get away from each other."

Evander slips an arm around my waist and pulls me against him. His scent— that of burnt electricity and leather washes over me—and my heartbeat races. "We need to talk," he says breathlessly, his gaze focused on me.

It gets harder to breathe as I squeeze out of his touch. "No."

"Don't touch her." Aydan grabs my hand and tugs me toward him. This time, the scent of smoke, fresh pine, and the copperness of his blood washes over me. I don't like the scent of his blood, I hate it actually, but the rest of him makes me want to nibble on his neck, just a little.

"You don't fucking touch her," Evander snaps, his calm mask slipping as he tries to pull me back toward him.

Tension is brewing. I don't know what to do. These two are about to rip each other's throats out, and I have no idea how to calm the situation.

"Mine!" Granger suddenly yells. He grabs my free wrist and yanks me out from between them.

I go flying into his big body, and he grins down at me. "Shall we go talk to the scientists and see if they've learned anything new about dragons?"

The tension eases. I reach up and hug him tightly before pulling away. "That would be perfect."

We ignore the two men and cross back through the room, avoiding the lab tables and coming to stand in front of the big screen that's monitoring the dragons, where Dr. Abigail and Dr. Duncan are waiting. Both scientists have clearly been watching our interaction with interest, but have the good sense to look away when we come over to them. Maybe because of their manners, or maybe because Evander is their boss.

Their boss. The person running this whole place. And a fucking liar.

Aydan and Evander stop behind me, but luckily for them, they give me a little space. Still, their presence is a little overwhelming. Their scents are absolutely intoxicating.

I stand there for a minute, breathing them all in. Granger, Aydan, and Evander smell amazing. Their scents are so different, and yet, they do something to me on a primal level I don't understand. It's like a sense I didn't know existed is there, creating an awareness of them that's powerful.

While Dr. Duncan and Dr. Abigail? Their scents are strange and unexpected. Dr. Abigail smells like papaya, melon, and mango… probably due to her shampoo or body wash. While Dr. Duncan smells like mandarin and oakwood, a scent that is part cologne and part him. Neither scent makes me feel anything, good or bad. It's simply like they just exist to my instincts.

"So, what's the plan today?" Granger asks, flashing them a smile.

Evander folds his arms in front of his chest. "For one, we'll be working with Dr. Abigail and Dr. Duncan exclusively moving forward. I was told Dr. Griffin might not be the right person for this job, so I don't intend to have him on this project from now on, and Dr. Williams has returned to the institute to run things from there."

Dr. Duncan looks from me to Evander, and I get the sinking feeling they didn't tell him exactly what Dr. Griffin said to me. Had they, I get the feeling Dr. Griffin would have received the beating of a lifetime.

"You ready, Sam?" Dr. Abigail asks with a smile.

I return her smile. "I think so."

"Everyone else?" she asks.

They all nod.

Dr. Abigail clicks a remote and switches on a screen that has Evander and I listed next to each other, my school picture and Evander's military ID picture at the top and then different sections down below. They must have gone into my medical record, because it lists my weight, height, and blood type. Then there are a lot of empty sections.

"Today will be a day of testing. We need blood work, x-rays, MRIs, and ultrasounds. Once we get all the information we need, we can put together a plan on, not only how to help the both of you, but how to help the world protect against the aggressive dragons that are being awakened."

Suddenly, a hand rubs down my back. I turn and look up into Aydan's eyes. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

I want to lean in. To bury my face in his scent. "I'm okay. I'm going to do this."

"Are you sure?" His concerned expression makes my heart ache.

This time, I almost lean and kiss him, but I stop myself at the last possible second, feeling Evander's gaze boring into us. "I'm sure."

Turning away, I ignore Evander and say, "Where should I get started?"

A few minutes later, I'm on an examination table with Evander beside me. Dr. Maveric came in and took our blood samples, with Dr. Abigail and Dr. Duncan close by, and then hurried back out to get the next test setup. I can see Aydan and Granger sitting at the couch in front of the huge TV, watching the dragons move across the map.

"So, is this how it's going to be?" Evander asks.

I try to ignore him.

"I didn't tell you one thing, and you're just going to shut down?"

I hope the doctors don't take too long. I want to be out of here as fast as I can.

"You know what I think? I think you're looking for an excuse to get mad at me so all this can be simpler, and you can just choose your non-boyfriend over me."

I slide off the table, but he's there in an instant, trapping me between the table and him. I glare up into his dark eyes, wanting to say a thousand things, but also wanting to make him stew. Answering him seems to be what he wants, so I don't want to give it to him.

"And now you're going to run away? You don't strike me as a coward."

I shove at his chest, but he doesn't move an inch. If anything, he slides closer, leaning down and breathing me in. "What are you doing to me, Sam?" he murmurs.

My body tightens, and my breath comes in and out in a rush. "Move."

"Not a chance," he answers without hesitation, and now he's pressing himself against me, and I become intimately aware of the fact that he's aroused.

"You lied to me. I can't trust you."

He ducks down further, his breath hot against my neck. "I thought things were complicated enough. I was just trying to keep them simple."

"Nothing about this is simple, but it gets a hell of a lot harder when I can't trust you."

He rubs his lips against my neck, and my knees almost buckle. "Okay. Trust is important to you. Understood. I'll be honest from here on out."

"Evander…"

"Don't push me away, Sam. I know you have a history with him. That there's… love there, but that doesn't mean what's between us doesn't matter."

I'm about to say something, I'm not sure what, when the doctors return and I'm shoving Evander away. They probably saw us. I'm not going to kid myself into thinking they didn't, but I avoid eye contact and pretend all the same.

Dr. Duncan has pushed a large device on wheels into the room. "Time for the electroantennography detector."

"You're looking at our pheromones?" I ask, surprised even though I shouldn't be.

Dr. Abigail is the one to answer. "Part of keeping you safe involves figuring out how the male dragons are able to track you."

They attach cords to both Evander and I. After everything is set up, they turn the machine on, and then open a laptop where the data acquisition program begins to work. The two doctors exchange an excited look.

"Normally," Dr. Abigail explains, "in order to get this to work, we'd remove a piece of an insect, or a similar piece of an animal, and something to stimulate the order system, but we think we can find a better way."

"Then removing parts of us?" I say with a humorless laugh. "I hope so."

Dr. Duncan chuckles.

She continues. "We started coming up with ideas, but we have a feeling you already know what to do. Is there an easy way to test your reactions to each other's pheromones?"

Evander answers before I do. "Smelling each other is easy enough."

"Perfect," she says, then settles herself on a chair, pulling the laptop in her lap as Dr. Duncan leans over her shoulder and watches the printout.

I feel weird, but before I can do anything, Evander jumps down from the examination table and closes the space between us, slipping between my thighs. "Care to smell me?"

My heart races. "I don't want to."

He tilts his head, studying me, his gaze unreadable. "You're a scientist. Surely you understand the importance of what we're doing. This is going to help them come up with ways to keep you safe. Or do you want the green dragon to keep coming after you?"

I take a deep breath, frustrated when I can already smell him. Burnt electricity and leather. It's a strange combination. I didn't even know electricity could burn, or that it could smell so good. Warm and seductive, especially when combined with the scent of leather, which is all man.

He chuckles, and I realize I'm already leaning towards him. I'm about to pull away when his hand slides into the back of my neck and pulls me hard against him. Now, his scent is all I can breathe. It doesn't help that he's inhaling deeply, his body shaking. My dragon knows he likes my smell. I know he likes my smell. And it turns us on.

"Absolutely incredible," Dr. Abigail murmurs. "Now, can you move further away from her?"

Evander's hold tightens on me.

"It's for science," I tell him, meaning to tease him, but my words are husky.

He groans, but pulls back. His erection is clear. Impossible to ignore. He steps back further and further and further. But every time he stops, she motions for him to keep going. When he reaches the elevator, I can feel that we've attracted Aydan and Grander's attention, but I try to ignore their curious glances. They don't need to know about this stuff, which is exactly why I asked them to leave us alone for the tests.

Well, until we have the results. Maybe the results can help them better understand this dragon stuff.

"Incredible," Dr. Abigail says, shaking her head. "Can you take him outside? Keep moving further away until I call you."

"Can do," Dr. Duncan says.

They leave on the elevator. I continue trying to struggle to tamper down my arousal. Flashes of the night before roll through my mind, and I find myself wet and squirmy, wanting to find some dark corner to take care of myself, but knowing I can't. Dr. Abigail stays glued to her screen until, after nearly an hour, her phone rings.

She answers without a proper greeting. "It's still working, quite well. How far out are you?" She pauses. "Shit, okay, have him come back. Based on the data here we can create an estimation on how far they can scent each other."

They come back on the elevator after another hour, and Evander's gaze instantly snaps to me. Our eyes lock as he heads toward me, and for the briefest moment, I think he's going to fuck me right in this room in front of everyone. Instead, I turn away, heart racing, palms sweaty, and try to ignore him when his big body crowds mine.

"And," Dr. Abigail clears her throat. "Can you tell me when the last time you engaged in intercourse?"

"Why?" I asked, feeling my cheeks heat.

Her gaze is apologetic. "We're trying to time your intercourse with the map of the dragons and this information, to see how long intercourse covers up your scent from the other dragons."

I don't know what to say, but Evander answers for her, "We were together this morning."

Damn him.

"And before that?"

Again, he answers. "The night before."

"And before that?"

This time, he doesn't answer, because I wasn't with him. I was with Aydan, so it's my turn to answer. "The night before that."

"Perfect. That should give us enough information, for now. But if you could track your intercourse moving forward, that would be very helpful."

If only the earth would swallow me up right now.

"Time for the rest of your scans," Dr. Duncan says.

I nod and follow him out.

The day passes in a blur of one scan after another after another. They want to see my brain, my heart, even my bones. I understand why. I know enough of studying new species to know the kinds of things they're trying to figure out, but it still feels different to actually be the science experiment.

When we're done, we wait for their analysis of the test results near the TV screen. Aydan, Granger, and I sit on the couch, and Evander sits in a big chair. Lunch is brought to us, and we eat in silence. Tension thick enough to cut with a knife permeates the air. When we're done, the staff clears our dishes away, and Dr. Duncan and Dr. Abigail return, stacks of papers in their hands, excitement on their faces.

"Good news?" I ask.

Dr. Abigail's excited gaze meets mine. "There's a lot more we have to do with the data, but we have some immediate information. For one, since the two of you changed into dragons, you've changed on a biological level. With these readings, both of you should be stronger and faster than any human on earth. What's more, your bones have changed to be thinner and lighter, and yet, they too are stronger than any humans. Your bones remind us a great deal of the phoenix bones, which actually disintegrate after death, which may explain why there've been no dragon fossils found."

"Awesome," Granger says, winking at me.

"What's more, your connection with each other…" She takes a minute to continue, like she's struggling to explain herself. "It's unlike anything I've seen before. It's like you have an extra sense, which is solely responsible for a deep awareness of each other. There's your actual scenting of pheromones, which we believe can be tracked across whole continents and is probably a direct result of dragons being spread around the world, but also the effect your intercourse has on those pheromones."

My cheeks are burning. I can feel several gazes on me, and I hate feeling like a horny test subject who can't keep it in her pants.

"What do you mean?" Evander asks.

"Well," she's struggling for the words, "according to our research, in order to keep a female dragon hidden from other male dragons, factoring in the average amount of cum a male dragon could excoriate in a given round of intercourse, a female dragon would need to have sex every twelve hours. Otherwise, her scent would begin to attract other males once more."

"I have to have sex every twelve hours?" I ask in shock.

"It seems likely," Dr. Duncan says, pushing his glasses awkwardly up his nose.

My mind starts working. "But what if male dragons are more… vigorous in bed compared to human males?"

"How so?" Dr. Abigail asks.

I don't look at Aydan, Granger, or Evander, I just focus on the woman in front of me, suddenly wishing that I'd waited to ask this question in private. "What if they… last often and come more often?"

She looks thoughtful. "That could change the timeline, but we'd need more facts before making an assumption that could endanger all of Specter Inc." She taps her chin. "Next time, do you think you could write down how many times, and relatively how much semen is released?"

"I can try my best,' I say, horrified.

"But a man, minus the dragon part, could be just as effective, correct?" Aydan asks.

"If he produced enough semen and could go enough times, I suppose so," Dr. Abigail says slowly.

Aydan looks triumphant.

Her gaze finds mine. "All we know for sure is that until we do further testing, you should plan on intercourse every twelve hours in order to keep yourself, and everyone else at Specter Inc., safe."

Twelve hours. That means in just a few hours I need to have sex with someone again. The two men must have figured it out too, because they're staring each other down. I look at Granger, and he shrugs helplessly. I almost wish he and I could have sex. That would certainly make this whole mess a little easier.