A pair of joggers raced across the park towards him.
Noah stared at them in confusion. He didn’t remember seeing anyone in the park when they had first arrived, but Byrd had been so intent on getting in the air, he really hadn’t had time to notice much.
The man slowed a few steps back as the woman rushed right up next to Kara and dropped to her knees. “Are you okay?” she gasped.
Noah shifted in pain before speaking. “Yeah,” he answered, praying he wasn’t lying through his gritted teeth. “I’m good. But Kara…” He looked down at the limp dragon next to him. Gathering up his will, he pushed up from the ground and rubbed his nose into the side of her head. Unable to stop himself, he drew in a deep breath filled with her scent.
Other than the fact that she smelled nice, Noah hadn’t really considered Kara’s scent before now. Byrd, however, had. Memories of a scent wafted through his brain—woman and something soft and floral. It was nice. It was also very similar to what filled his nose now, but this was headier. Muskier. It pulled at his senses and made him want to draw more of the smell in.
Mine!
The declaration bubbled through him from somewhere deep inside. Noah shook his head to drive the thought back so he could check on Kara properly.
“Can I touch your mate?”
Confused, Noah looked up at the woman sitting on the other side of Kara. She held her hands out, waiting for his approval. She’s not my mate! The words were on the tip of his tongue when a wave of possessiveness hit him. He glanced up at the man standing behind the lady. The need to move over Kara and protect her ate at him, but he pushed it back. Right now, she needed help more than she needed protecting. He nodded his approval to the woman.
Carefully, she reached out to touch Kara.
Noah bit his tongue when a growl rumbled from his chest.
The woman paused and looked up at him.
“Sorry,” Noah said, trying to give her an apologetic smile. “It’s been a long day.”
Nodding her understanding, the woman got back to work unwrapping Kara’s wings. She felt along each bone to make sure they weren’t broken before folding her wings neatly against her back.
Noah watched her closely as she worked. Every now and then, his eyes would flip up to the man standing behind her. The fact that he hadn’t come over sat well with Byrd. The man just stood there with a phone in hand, waiting.
Noah paused and thought about that for a second. It was disconcerting that Byrd wasn’t bouncing around trying to take over. “Byrd? Are you okay?” he called to the dragon. The answer he got wasn’t in words, but Noah understood it perfectly. The high emotions involved in the flight and fall had burned through Byrd’s energy. He needed a moment to recover.
An amused snicker rolled out of Noah. The woman looked up at the sound, and Noah buried his nose into Kara’s shoulder to hide his mirth. He hadn’t meant to laugh. Byrd burning himself out wasn’t funny, but it was the feeling of trust that went along with the answer that made him giddy. Byrd trusted him to take care of Kara while he was down. “I will,” he promised the dragon. A feeling of contentment filled him before Byrd dropped away from his perception.
“I don’t think she’s hurt,” the woman finally said. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. She passed out while we were flying,” Noah answered.
The woman stared at him for a moment while her hand gently slid back and forth over Kara’s neck. “Are you newly bound?”
A negative was poised on Noah’s lips, but that feeling of possessiveness filled him again. “Something like that,” he answered instead.
A smile curled the woman’s lips. “She should be okay,” she said, continuing to stroke Kara’s scales. “Sometimes that can happen on mating flights.”
What the hell did that mean? We’re not mating! Noah opened his mouth to voice his thought, but a moan from Kara stopped him. He inched closer to her. “Kara?”
She moaned again and rolled her head over towards him.
“Kara?” he called again. “Are you okay?”
She opened her mouth and took a deep breath as if she were in pain.
The possessive side of Noah perked up, ready to do whatever he could to help.
“Yeah,” she answered, bending her neck around and bumping into his side.
His ribs protested the pressure, but he refused to move.
She pressed her head into Noah’s side. “What happened?” she mumbled against his hide.
The fact that she had buried her head into his side made Noah worry. He shifted his wing over to shade her head. Bending his neck around, he spoke softly to her. “You passed out.”
Kara moaned again as she rolled her head into him harder.
Noah drew in an unsteady breath as he winced in pain. His ribs hurt, but they did not move when she leaned on them. So, probably not broken—just bruised.
“We’ll leave you two be.”
Noah looked up to find the woman standing up and backing away from Kara.
She dusted the grass off her knees and went to join the man waiting for her. “We’ll be around if you need us. Just let her rest for a while. She should be just fine.”
“Thank you for your help,” Noah said as he laid his head back down on Kara’s shoulder. The woman said something else, but Noah didn’t hear it. His mind was focused on the woman convalescing next to him.
The gentle caress of fingers on scales ushered Kara back into consciousness. A groan of pain slipped out as she resurfaced from the darkness. She ached everywhere. What the hell happened?
Movement from her side and the soft call of her name drew her attention. Byrd? She cracked the eye on that side to see him, but the light stabbed splinters of agony into her skull and drove another pained sound out. She slammed her eye shut and rolled her head, trying to ease the ache.
“Kara?” he called again. “Are you okay?”
Opening her mouth, she drew in a deep breath, trying to gather the determination to speak. Everything hurt. Knowing that talking would make it worse, she gathered the will to answer. She couldn’t leave Byrd to worry about her. “Yeah,” she lied. The sound echoed through her skull, making it pound.
She bent her head around to tuck it under her wing but ran into a warm body instead. A familiar scent of musk and male filled her nose, soothing her. She pressed her head into the comforting bulk. Her brain churned on her predicament, but there was too much fog to get it to work right. “What happened?” she asked instead. The heat of the sun cooled as a shadow spread over her head.
“You passed out.”
Byrd’s voice was soft, but it came from very close to her. She moaned in embarrassment and buried her face deeper in his side. She had passed out. When was the last time I passed out? She racked her brain but couldn’t come up with an answer. Her constitution had always been very good. The soft voice of a woman made Kara cringe. Not only had she passed out, but she had done it in front of others. Had she been human, she would have been as red as her dragon’s scales.