“How familiar are you with dragons?” Alex asked. He could almost see her thoughts swirling as she considered how to answer him.
“Not very.” She set her fork on the table, waiting for him to continue.
Two long sections on his back itched as his dragon pushed against his skin. “Please eat, and I’ll explain.”
Terra gave him a pointed look but picked up her fork again.
The itching along his back subsided. He needed to get himself back under control before things got really bad. And it started with telling her everything.
“Dragons are complicated creatures. We are blessed with rational minds, but we are also driven by instincts. And that can give us issues from time to time.” He pulled his glass of juice over and rolled it between his hands so his fingers would have something to do while he talked. “Every dragon has three forms; a grand form, a lesser form, and a human form. While we can switch between them at will, it’s very rare for the forms to overlap.”
“But, your eyes?” She pointed towards him with a forkful of eggs.
Alex looked down at his glass and smiled. Of course she would notice his eyes. He was just lucky no one else had.
“Yes.” He looked back up at her. “There are times when the two sides merge. It’s called balance, and it’s usually a bad thing. It’s a sign of mental instability.”
Tension ran through Terra, making her sit taller in her chair.
“Relax,” he soothed her. “A dragon can also enter into balance when there is a major split between their two halves. Say, if the dragon wants something, but the human half won’t give in. If the want or need is strong enough, the dragon aspect will force its way to the surface, creating a balance—a merging of the two forms.”
Carefully, Alex pushed his sleeve up. The tips of blue scales had already pushed their way through his skin.
Terra gasped as he slid his sleeve back into place.
“Don’t worry,” he tried to soothe her again. “I am stable. I’m just at an impasse. My dragon wants something that I can’t give it.”
“You haven’t seemed very stable to me,” Terra huffed as she picked up her juice and drained the short glass.
Alex snickered softly and pushed his untouched juice towards her. “No. I haven’t been. But that ties into my current troubles. See, a lot of things in a dragon’s life are driven by instinct and hormones. As long as we listen to those little cues, we’re fine, but there are times when our systems get upset and we lose those pointers. It leads to wild mood swings and brooding.”
“Like when you fall from the sky and get bashed in your head?”
This pulled another soft laugh from Alex. “No. A fall won’t mess with a dragon’s system. A growth spurt will. And a female dragon at the peak of fertility will.” He paused and considered Terra for a moment before going on. This was the main thing his dragon was pushing him to do. “There is one other thing that can push a dragon into a brooding. Being faced with a potential mate.”
All color drained from Terra’s face. “I take it you aren’t having a growth spurt?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “No.”
“Wow.” She said the word so softly that he almost didn’t hear it. Folding her hands into her lap, she stared at her half-finished food for a moment. Lifting her eyes, she met his gaze. “How come you can remember all this, but you don’t remember your name?”
Leaning back in his chair, Alex grinned again. “I don’t, but my dragon does.”
“Can your dragon tell you who you are?” That was a very sensible question from someone that didn’t know anything about dragons.
Alex sighed. “It’s told me what I am, but not who. I’m an Elite. I know I’ve earned the right to use that title, but I don’t remember what that means.” This point frustrated him to no end. If he could just get two brain cells working together, he was sure he could come up with the answers he needed, but they all seemed to be on different vacations at the moment.
“So, what does your dragon want?” Terra asked timidly.
Alex closed his eyes and drew in a steadying breath, trying to center himself as much as he could, given his messed-up state. Opening his eyes, he gave Terra a pointed look. “It’s driving me to claim a mate.”
“A mate?” There was a touch of alarm in Terra’s voice.
“A girl that it’s deemed would fit well into my life.”
“Someone you’ve met recently?”
Alex smiled. Now she was just playing with him. “Very recently.”
Just a hint of red crawled up Terra’s skin as she looked down and toyed with her napkin. “Maybe someone I know?”
“It’s most definitely someone you know.” He loved the way she looked with that blush on her skin. “But Terra, here’s the problem. I can’t pursue anyone until I know what kind of life I could offer.”
Wow! This was not how Terra had envisioned the day would go. After being thoroughly rejected by her dragon man, she was sure they would have an awkward day running around, trying to find out who he was. But this was just over the top. To be told that you could possibly be someone’s mate was a little disturbing. She hadn’t even known him for a full day yet, and most of that time, he had been out cold!
Looking up from her napkin, Terra studied the lines of her dragon man’s face. His pupils were still oddly shaped, but now that she was used to it, his emotions were easy to read there. He seemed serene on the outside, but she could tell this whole thing had him severely distressed. Her heart thumped in her chest. It actually hurt to see him in such a state. The idea of being tied to someone she barely knew was frightening, but she couldn’t stand the idea of leaving him as he was. She slid her hand out across the table for him to take.
He blinked a few times before lowering his hand to hers.
She squeezed his fingers reassuringly. “Tell me what I can do to help.” There was just something about him that made her want to do whatever she could to see him right again.
The dragon man let out a depressed laugh. “Shoot me down.” Gripping her fingers tightly, he closed his eyes to wait for the blow.
“What?” Terra asked, shocked. Of all the things she thought he would say, that was not one of them.
He opened his eyes and looked at her again. “Tell me there is no way I stand a chance with you. And mean it.” He paused for a second before he went on. “That should be enough of a blow to knock me out of balance and back into a brooding state.”
Okay… A complete rejection would settle his system back down. But could she really tell him that and mean it? Did she want to? She had to know more before she made any lasting decisions. “And what happens if I refuse?”
The pupils of his eyes dilated as he drew in a sharp breath. He sat rigid in his seat for a moment before letting out the air very slowly as if he were considering how to respond to her. His mouth moved, and he swallowed before answering.
“Well, that would drop me out of balance, too.” He paused and swallowed again. “But it wouldn’t do anything to settle down my instincts.”
Terra rubbed her thumb over his knuckles as she considered his answer. If she shot him down, he would go back to brooding. Brooding didn’t sound like a very pleasant state to be in. For either of them. But, if she didn’t, would that mean she was encouraging him? And how would that affect the situation they had found themselves in? He needed her to help him find out who he was, and she wasn’t going to leave the poor man helpless. She studied him, weighing her options.
He sat tensely in his seat, waiting for her answer. The skin on the side of his neck was taking on a blue tint. She was going to have to give him an answer very soon before someone noticed his plight. Licking her lower lip, she asked the last thing she needed to know before making her choice. “If I refuse, does that make me your mate?”