Dragon 1 Chapter 27 (Patreon)

I felt refreshed and more than a little smug as Scarlett walked with me tucked under my arm. The way she leaned against me felt like I was bigger than I was and sparked something in me that made me want to protect her.

After the second round, we’d taken a break. I’d been happy to just feel her lying against me; it was a high of its own. My beast and I were experiencing a new level of contentment just getting to touch her.

I knew from my studies that there was a cocktail of hormones at work in my body right now, making both of us connect on a different level. “The party seems unnecessarily rowdy now.”

We could hear the music and the boisterous laughter mixing together out by the poolside, followed by shouts as people tried to talk above the music. The party had split, though. Part of the party had moved into the sorority house, and we got more than a few looks as we came down the stairs.

The party inside the house was calmer. It seemed to be a place for people to talk and apparently play games that involved dares. I watched a group that included Jadelyn cheering on a couple to make out. Based on how awkwardly the two people were looking at each other, they were not already a couple.

My phone pinged. I reached down, checking it. Morgana had sent me a text with a thumbs up, a nice hand sign and a message ‘glad you got a much deserved break, all good out here.’

I held the phone up so Scarlett could see it and rolled my eyes. There was another ping as I did that, and Scarlett burst out into a fit of giggles.

There was a meme now of an old man telling a knight ‘I told you to slay the dragon, not lay it!’ In the image, a dragon girl stood by his side with hearts drifting off her.

“Funny Morgana.” I snorted and stuffed the phone back in my pocket before she could send something else.

I looked back to the game that was underway, noticing that Jadelyn was the new target of some dare. She turned, spotting us and seeming relieved.

Jadelyn fumbled her way over. “Scar, can I borrow him for a second?”

“Sure?” It came out more as a question than an answer, but Jadelyn took it, grabbing my head and pulling me down for a kiss.

I let the peck happen more out of surprise than anything and tried to pull back, but her hands wrapped around the back of my head, and she pulled herself into the kiss deeper. There was passion behind her side of it, but I was conflicted. I hadn’t expected it.

The crowd cheered and hollered, egging her to keep going.

She didn’t belabor it past my failure to return it and let me go with a smiling blush that was spreading down to her chest.

Scarlett cleared her throat and gave Jadelyn a glare. Jadelyn looked bashful, giving Scarlett a weak smile before she scurried off.

“I—” I wasn’t sure what to say.

“I’m only a little mad with you right now. Mostly, I’m pissed at her. You tried to pull away.”

My mouth opened and closed several times before I found the right words. “I’m sorry. Won’t happen again; I just didn’t expect that.”

“Me neither, and technically I told her she could borrow you. But you aren’t some rag doll that she can just play with.” Scarlett’s nose was flaring as she talked.

It was cute seeing her get jealous, but I hated that she was so angry with her close friend. I didn’t want to be a wedge between the two girls. Thinking back on some of Jadelyn’s comments, I realized that she was crushing on me.

I’d been so focused on Scarlett, I’d thought it was all pretty harmless when she was with Chad. But now that she was free of his engagement, it looked like she might want more.

I thought about what Frank would say. He’d tell me to be selfish. That sounded like a terrible idea right at this moment.

“You’re thinking about it.” Scarlett said, a bit of hurt in her voice.

I pulled her closer. “Not like you’re thinking. I’m just replaying things she’s said before, and seeing it a bit differently now. Jadelyn is great, but you’re my priority Scarlett.”

My phone dinged several times urgently. Morgana was messaging me. ‘Trouble in paradise? I have eyes on your princess. She’s taking a call. It sounds urgent.’

“Morgana?” Scarlett asked.

I nodded. “She confirmed she is keeping an eye on Jadelyn. Asked what happened.”

“Well, not like I can avoid her. Let’s go have a chat.” The way Scarlett said it sounded like she was going to chat with her fists, or maybe her nails. I wasn’t sure how the two of them would fight.

The party faded behind us as Scarlett led us out the side door. She must have known where Jadelyn would have gone to be alone, because despite being an isolated alley, there Jadelyn was, pacing back and forth as she talked on the phone. “—know where? Uh huh. Are you sure just those two?”

I paused at the exit, waiting to see what happened. I was happy to stay out of what was going to go down between the two friends. They had more history than I could understand in the short time I’d known them.

Jadelyn looked up to see Scarlett coming towards her and hurried up with whoever was on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, yeah. Text me them both. I gotta go.” She hung up on whoever it was and squared herself off against Scarlett, who stopped just at arm’s reach.

It felt like I was watching a Mexican standoff.

Jadelyn broke the silence first. “Sorry. I had too much to drink tonight. That wasn’t okay.” Her head dipped ever so slightly.

Scarlett wasn’t about to let her off the hook that easily; her hand flashed out and slapped Jadelyn hard enough to pitch her head. “That sober you up?”

My phone buzzed with what I knew was Morgana’s by-play of the situation. I did not need to burst out laughing reading it right now, so I kept my phone in my pocket.

Jadelyn turned her face back to Scarlett, her eyes going silver. I almost took a small step forward, thinking it would escalate into a fight I’d need to break up, but then Jadelyn’s head hung in defeat. “How can I make it up to you?”

“Dammit, Jade,” Scarlett stomped her foot. “You don’t get to just do that and ‘make it up’. I’m pissed and… and confused…” She turned to me for help, but I wasn’t sure what she wanted. “Jade there’s something you don’t know, and I can’t tell you.” Scarlett gave me a meaningful look, a question in her eyes.

I realized she meant that I was a dragon. She’d said she understood that I’d normally have more than one lover. I wondered if the illusions were her way of trying to satisfy that need on her own.

“If I don’t know, I can’t help.” Jadelyn said, looking up and seeing the looks pass between the two of us.

“I can’t say. Not yet.” I answered the unspoken question, also cluing in Jadelyn that it was my secret that Scarlett couldn’t talk about. “Scarlett knows what I am. Morgana knows as well. But that’s all, and I’d like to keep it that way for now.”

“You two don’t trust me?” Jadelyn asked, sounding hurt.

“I don’t trust your father.” I clarified. Part of me wanted to tell Jadelyn, but once her father knew, it was going to make my life a headache. There was no way he wouldn’t rope me in and use me as a prop. It was telling how much he used his own daughter for his purposes.

Her face twisted. “He doesn’t have to know.”

“Let’s let things cool down from tonight and see where things are. Maybe then we can have a conversation. I think Scarlett and I need a chance to talk first, about her confusion.” I lowered a stare at the vixen.

Scarlett gave me a curt nod. “I think that we should have that conversation first.”

“You come first, Scarlett. Anything after that, you get a say in.” I kissed the top of Scarlett’s head. She melted into me in response.

“Jade, I’m pissed. But we have a job to do, and I don’t want this to impede that for now. Can you head back in the house?” Scarlett asked from the comfort of my arms.

The siren in question’s phone pinged several times, and she let out a sigh of relief. “Then I have better news. Your father thinks they know where Chad might be going.”

“Really?” I pulled out my phone and called Morgana. “Hey, they think they know where Chad is going.”

“Give me the address. Let’s finish this nonsense.” Morgana sounded angry.

Jadelyn hesitated for a moment. “Uh. Sorry. It isn’t one place. It’s two. Detective Fox’s department has been trying to track down the drug movement, and he’s gotten leads. But they’re two different directions.”

“How far apart?” Morgana asked.

“Several hours? Both areas are known to have werewolf packs.”

“Shit.” I cursed, and everyone turned to me. “We will have to split up. It’s the only way we get rid of Chad before he amasses a bigger army.”

I could hear Morgana’s stillness on the other side of the phone. “Are you sure, Zach?”

Jadelyn was perhaps the most surprised. “You can’t take Chad on alone.”

“First off, he won’t be alone.” Scarlett glared up at me before looking at Jadelyn. “I want to— scratch that, I need to go with him.”

“Of course. Sending you to go take care of Chad now that we don’t think he’s coming here is the best use of your time.” Jadelyn thought on her feet, twisting Scarlett’s request into a logical reason to send her. I wondered if she needed that sort of reasoning to use later when their fathers questioned them.

“Then we don’t have any time to waste.” Morgana said. “Send me one address and send them to the other. Zach, meet me at the van.”

Scarlett patted me on the chest and left my embrace. “Let me get dressed. We can take my bike.” She bolted off as Jadelyn stood, clearly torn with what she should do next.

“The council is sending their people. You’ll both have backup to help with the packs.”

I took that piece of information with me as I headed over to the van, knowing Morgana had a full kit waiting for me.

Morgana’s van sat in a dark spot in the corner of the street where a streetlamp wasn’t working. I wondered briefly if that was Morgana's doing or if the light had already been out.

Morgana was already at the van, throwing open the trunk and stashing the large sniper rifle she’d been planning to use. “Feel comfortable with something bigger tonight?” She asked over her shoulder.

“Jadelyn says the council’s people will be there again. I don’t think I’m going to have anything near as big as what they had on those jeeps. And despite being huge, those shots didn’t seem to do much to either of the alphas.” I smacked my chest. “I’m hoping to bring my own big gun to bear.”

If those jeep mounted guns hadn’t worked, I hoped that my fire would be enough to take down Chad.

“Think it’s going to come when you need it? You’ve changed a lot and gotten some more control, but will your fire come?”

I paused, replaying my last week. I definitely had changed. A week ago, I wouldn’t have made the move on Scarlett, or even considered pursuing more than one woman. I’d gained more alignment with my beast, letting some of the primal urges guide my decisions. And it felt right. I still felt like I was doing good for the world, but it was a different path than I’d once planned to take. This one was a bit more gruesome, and there was blood on my hands now, but I’d also made the world a lot safer and saved wolves’ lives.

“It’ll come.” The confidence in my tone satisfied her, and she handed me a pistol and a grenade.

“This is so you can save it for when it really counts.”

Putting the gun in my pants and throwing on my jacket I’d left in the car, I looked back at her. “Thanks for everything, Morgana.”

It seemed to catch her by surprise. She stopped to turn and give me a once over. “You are very welcome. But don’t think this is all over after this. That room is still yours, and you can keep working with me.”

I let out a sigh. In my mind, I’d already accepted that I was embracing my paranormal life. “I’ll call the EMT service tomorrow and quit. Seems stupid to keep doing that now.”

Morgana’s lips curled up in a smile. “And school?”

“Who knows?” I shrugged. “The real world didn’t just vanish. I think I’ll finish if I can.” A weight lifted off my shoulders that I hadn’t realized was there. But it seemed like the obvious answer. I was a dragon about to go chase down a killer werewolf with my kitsune girlfriend. It was ridiculous to think I could pretend to live a normal life after all that.

“Good. I’m glad you finally made up your mind. Now go, before I have a dangerous little kitsune mad at me.” Morgana shooed me away.

The thought of Scarlett made me smile, and I turned back towards the house. The garage started groaning as it opened.

The first thing I saw was a pair of leather boots that capped off just below the knees. As the garage continued to rise, I spotted dark leather pants tucked into the boots, followed by an open biker jacket with a fitted bodysuit underneath. I already knew that body better than any other.

When the garage finally finished raising, Scarlett was pulling her hair back, a hair tie dangling from her mouth as she wrangled her hair. Her eyes found mine, and she smiled before jerking her head for me to follow her.

The garage had several nice, yet several years old, cars. In the back, there was a big black and chrome bike that looked like it was made for speed. “That’s your bike?”

“Yep. Bought it with the money from the first few jobs.” She caressed the bike and threw me a helmet. “Wear that. It’s Jadelyns, but we’ll get one of your own later.”

“What exactly is your job again?” I asked as I squeezed the helmet over my head and got a nose full of Jadelyn’s lily like scent.

“We protect the Scalewright family. But the best way to stop an assassin is to think like one. Or rather, to be one.” She clarified, a wicked smile spreading across her face. “There are times like tonight where it’s better to go out and eliminate a problem rather than to wait for it to come.”

“Badass.”

“Glad you think so.” I could hear the blush even through her helmet. Swinging her leg over the bike, Scarlett straddled it. “Hope on and please lean with me.”

“I’ve only ridden a few times, but it’s like riding a bicycle, right?” I joked.

She wasn’t amused and flipped up her visor to glare at me. “If you wreck my baby, I am going to wreck you.”

I gave her a sharp salute and got in place behind her, having to talk loudly around the helmet. “Roger, no joking about the bike. Jadelyn, bike, boyfriend.” I made steps in the air to clarify where they all stood.

“Boyfriend?” she asked, kicking up the kickstand.

I paused, and before I could answer, she throttled the bike and peeled out of the garage. I noticed the phone she had mounted on her bike bars. Curious, I looked to see where we were headed, but my mouth dried up as I got my answer.

We were on our way to the neighborhood I grew up in.