She’d get a dog. That’s what she’d do. A big cuddly furball. That’s all the love she needed.
She collected her things, emptying the hamper into her bag. Wrath could keep the hamper or throw it out or whatever. The important thing was, she was moving on. She could do this. She only knew the man for a day. Their bond couldn’t be that strong. The pain piercing her heart would ease.
It had to, right?
~
Wrath needed a moment himself. He knew Jess had gotten the wrong impression of what he was trying to say.
While he knew she likely needed his comfort, he needed to figure out his feelings just as much as she needed to figure out her own. Only he had a handicap, his dragon wouldn’t talk about Jess. Half of his soul was uncommitted. That meant he couldn’t make promises or give her all the reassurance she needed.
He was broken.
Maybe his human side could love her, as it had loved Zahra. But Zahra had known his love wasn’t complete and he knew it saddened her. That’s not something he wanted for Jess.
When they’d gone outside together, Etel had stated his own opinions on what he thought the curse might be. He thought Zahra might have cursed Wrath in a moment of weakness, preventing him from being able to identify his true mate. If that was the case, then it was possible his dragon went silent because Jess was his true mate.
Even if that were true, Wrath couldn’t perform the binding spell until the curse was lifted. His dragon side performed the spell. While it could be convinced to bind to someone who wasn’t a true mate, he wasn’t sure he could even get it to speak to Jess.
Etel offered to perform the spell on Wrath’s behalf, essentially forcing his unwilling dragon to give up half its life force to Jess. Wrath declined in favor of waiting on Etel to find a way to lift the curse.
In return for Etel helping with the curse, Wrath had explained his meditation practices to Etel and promised to consider helping to guard the gate in Texas.
Wrath strode into the woods. He knew his people were watching him. They knew not to approach. At least, most of them did. He heard Iris’s footsteps behind him.
“Poppy?” she asked.
Wrath took a breath and turned to his adopted ten times great granddaughter. “Yes, sweetheart?” he asked.
Had it been a male, he might have snapped at him, but he had a soft spot for his granddaughters.
“What dragon was that?” she asked.
“Etel,” he responded.
“Oh...oh God,” she responded. Her eyes filled with tears.
Burn him. Burn him. BURN HIM!
His dragon was under the impression that Etel somehow upset Iris, but that wasn’t possible since they hadn’t interacted. Still, he would love to burn Etel, but it was no use. He’d tried it many times before to no avail.
“What is it, love? Talk to me,” Wrath said, wrapping his arms around her.
“You’re gonna be mad,” she said, her tears dampening his shirt.
“Try me, baby,” he said, rubbing her back just like he did when she was little.
“I was in the woods by the house when he got out of the car. I saw him and my basilisk...it said he was mine.”
Wrath rested his chin on the top of Iris’s head. His heart ached for her. Etel had managed to avoid having a mate for thousands of years, as far as Wrath knew.
“I’m not mad. You know he’s never taken a mate in the thousands of years he’s been alive, and you know he’s even older than I am. All I can do is introduce you when he comes back.”
She pulled back from him and looked up at him with her teary eyes. “You’d do that even though you hate him?”
“I’d do that because I love you. I’ve also been around long enough to know that trying to interfere won’t work. You’ll be driven to find him. You’ll have to work on him. If he doesn’t accept you, we’ll have Lily threaten to kill him.”
“Until she sees him. Then she’ll probably hug him and call him uncle,” Iris said with a sad smile.
“Not if you’re sad. The girl might actually try something if she sees you upset.”
“I don’t know if I want him. I just know my basilisk does.”
“There’s no rush. You’re a first-generation basilisk. You have all the time in the world to decide. Whatever you do, I’m with you.”
“Thank you, Poppy,” Iris said.
She gave Wrath a kiss on his cheek before heading back home.
That little turn of events made Wrath smile. Etel thought he could trap Wrath into being mated to a dragon blood. Now Etel was going to be mated to a basilisk. Etel didn’t deserve Iris, but he’d be good to her. Wrath wouldn’t let him reject her.
Realizing he wouldn’t get any more thinking done, Wrath headed back to the house. Ready or not, it was time to talk to Jess. It was too bad he didn’t know what to say.
Chapter 15
Jess was wheeling her bag into the living room when Wrath came back inside. He looked at the bag and then at her before stepping over and wrapping his arms around her. Her muscles relaxed as he held her and she felt his warmth and inhaled the smokey scent of him.
Damned if it didn’t nearly take down all her defenses. She’d been through enough of a roller coaster in the last day that she didn’t need more. She went full on Stockholm Syndrome and then ended up getting rejected by the stupid man that kidnapped her.
“Sit with me, and we’ll finish our conversation, okay? No walking out. We need to come to an understanding,” Wrath said.
Jess let him lead her to the sofa where he sat beside her. She pulled her legs in tight to avoid the physical contact.
“Remember Etel mentioning the curse?” Wrath asked.
Like she could forget the
