Текст книги "The Dragon's Favorite Strays"
Автор книги: Ruby Dixon
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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 26 страниц)
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CHAPTER 63
DAKOTA
I’m not out for long, I think. I wake up a short time later with my head throbbing, my neck throbbing, and I’m still draped over Murr’s passed-out form. He’s still out cold. This time, when I get to my feet, I move slowly and while my brain feels a little woozy, I’m more or less fine. Mortified, but fine. I hastily find my shirt and tug it back over my head (after shoving my boobs back into my sports bra) and re-button my jeans. There’s nothing I can do about the big wet stain on the thigh of my jeans or the bite on my neck, but hopefully the rest of me isn’t too disheveled.
Leaning over Murr, I tap his cheek. “Wake up.”
No response.
Is this because of the wife bite? Or is he the type to faint when he comes? I mean, I’ve never heard of that, but anything is possible. I’m dealing with a dragon, and I’m not going to hold it against him. I tap his face for a full minute, trying to rouse him. Doesn’t work.
Okay then, I need a plan B. He can’t just lie out here, sprawled on the pavement with his junk out.
I fold his kilt into a square and place it over his genitals. Then I cross my arms and stare down at him, because that doesn’t seem like enough. I can’t leave him here. Grabbing both of his hands, I try to lift him up, but it’s like lifting the world’s largest bag of concrete. There’s no way I’m moving him.
Maybe he can just lie there after all. I sit down next to him on the broken asphalt, petting his arm. Did…did he mean what he said when he told me he wanted me to be his wife? It feels like we’re skipping a few steps of the courtship phases. We’re going straight from kissing and cuddling to…forever. Which is fine, really. It’s just a big leap.
I don’t want him to regret that leap or feel like he’s made a hasty decision.
Something wet splats on my face. A moment later, big, fat drops of rain pour down from the skies, each one feeling like it has a grudge against me. Yikes. I jump to my feet and try to rouse Murr again. “Come on! You can’t sleep through a storm. You’ll drown like a turkey!”
He’s still out. How long is this supposed to last, exactly?
I move to his arms and tug on them again, frantically, fervently hoping that he’s somehow become two hundred pounds lighter in the last few minutes. No dice. I keep trying, because I refuse to be helpless. I just need the right leverage—
“Mom? Are you still out here?”
Shit. I stand in the rain like a guilty weirdo as my teenage daughter arrives, pulling the hood of her jacket over her head. She sprints across the wet parking lot towards us, then skids to a halt at the sight of Murr prone and naked on the ground. “What happened?”
“Um.” What do I tell my daughter? She’s too old for ‘adult stuff’ to work as an answer. “He passed out and I can’t wake him up.”
“He passed out?” Rabbit’s voice raises an octave, and she moves to his side, kneeling. She checks his pulse. “What happened? What were you guys doing?”
“Nothing,” I say defensively.
She eyes him and then turns her face up, giving me a suspicious look. “Why is he naked if you weren’t doing anything?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I blurt out, moving to Murr’s head. “Grab one of his arms and help me pull him inside.”
“We can’t just drag him across the concrete! He’ll get all torn up!”
“Then get a blanket and we’ll roll him onto it and drag him inside.”
Twenty minutes later, we’ve dragged my dragon husband, face down, under an awning. His golden butt stares up at us almost as accusingly as my daughter’s face. Rabbit waits for me to speak, and when I don’t, she puts her hands on her hips. “So.”
“Should we turn him over?” I ask, bending over him and fussing with his hair. It’s fluffy when it’s dry and windblown. Wet hair is so much longer and drapes all over his face, which has to bother him on some level, right?
“Absolutely not, and this view is bad enough,” Rabbit says. “Did you kill him, Mom?”
“What? No!” I jerk back to my full height. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you’ve got a big nasty bite on your neck? Do we need to hide the body? Because I know Aggie will be down.” My daughter leans in conspiratorially. “Dottie might need a bit more convincing.”
I put my hand over the incriminating bite. “It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it?”
Oh god. Not the conversation I wanted to have with my daughter right now. I manage a weak smile. “When a man and woman love each other very, very much—”
“Nope!” Her hands go up in the air. “I’ve heard enough!”
Rabbit turns and walks inside.
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CHAPTER 64
MURR
I wake up with my face in a damp blanket. I am in my two-legged form, but there is no Dakota in my arms. Mentally, I reach out for her, hoping against hope that I’ll feel the brush of her mind to mine. That we’ll have the link that all mates do. But there is nothing, and I feel a vague sense of disappointment, even though this was expected.
As I sit up, I realize I’m no longer in the parking lot. Not in the same spot. I’ve been moved from the spot where I had Dakota seated atop the rusting car. I’m in front of the bookstore now, near the doors and safely under the overhang. The fire is out and rain pours down in rivulets that spatter onto the ground a short distance away. I don’t see Dakota, and yet her scent is everywhere.
There’s a crash around the side of the building, and Dakota comes rushing over. She’s wearing a strange black plastic sack over her body with a hole cut out for her face, and she rustles as she moves to my side. “You’re awake! Oh, thank goodness.”
Did…did she sense that I was awake?
She kneels down next to me, and her scent is layered and complex and wondrous—she smells like a more vivid version of herself. It’s mine mixed with hers, and it feels so right that I pull her into my arms. I nuzzle at her throat, seeking the bite I left there earlier and am pleased to find that it remains closed, the heat of it throbbing against my tongue.
Dakota squeals as I tug her into my lap and rip the plastic monstrosity off of her. “Murr! Are you all right? I didn’t know how long you’d be out.”
“Good,” I tell her, rubbing my nose against the spot just below her ear that has been revealed. “Murr good good.”
She laughs, her hands sliding over my damp shoulders. Her mouth finds mine and she kisses me, and then kisses me again, as if she can’t resist. “I can tell.”
“Dakota…feel Murr wake?” I brush a finger over her temple. “Here?” I doubt there is a connection between us—I can hear nothing, no matter how much I strain to sense her—but there is no denying that she came around the building at the right moment.
My new, lovely mate pauses. “I…don’t know. I bet I heard something. I’ve been listening for you all day.”
I grunt. Perhaps that is so. I am disappointed again, but it is hard to remain disappointed when my arms are full of a sweetly scented mate. I kiss her jaw, moving along to her ear. It is the tiniest thing and I did not get a chance to nibble on it before. “Finish kiss now.” I grin against her soft skin. “Murr kiss all.”
Dakota pulls away from me with a grimace. “Absolutely not.”
“…no?” I am astonished. Did we not share my fires? “No kiss all?”
She groans in frustration and cups my face, kissing me again. “I want to do that, but not right now. My daughter is here and she knows all about us and she’s freaked out. Aggie and Dottie are staring at us through the windows. If we’re going to do more, we need privacy. We need alone time.”
Alone. She is obsessed with kissing me away from others, my mate. But if it is true and Rabbit is upset, I understand. She is a mother first. Reluctantly, I agree, but not before pressing a few more kisses to her jaw. “When privacy?”
“Tonight,” Dakota says. “Until then, let’s go inside. It’s cold and wet out here, and I want to check on a few things.” She taps my cheek with light fingers. “And you can see the puppies.”
I am rather fascinated by the newborn creatures. Not nearly as fascinated with them as I am with my mate’s scent, but I know she’s trying to distract me. I pull her in closer so I can hold her for a moment and drink in her new smell. Her arms go around me, and she pulls my face in towards her breasts (covered again, because of course). I want to hold her like this, always. To think that I have been lucky enough to find a family once more…
And then I pause, because they rely on me. “Need meat? Should I hunt?”
She cups my face again, kissing me once more. “We have meat, and you are very sweet. Thank you. Just relax until later.”
Relax. I am not sure what that is, but something tells me it is not nearly as fun as undressing my mate again.
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CHAPTER 65
DAKOTA
I have a date.
Well, kinda. Basically I’m going to go elsewhere with Murr tonight so we can have privacy. I want to be alone with him, and alone doesn’t involve my daughter, two nosy old ladies, and more cats and puppies than I can count. But first I have to break this news to the others.
It’s also a good day for a thorough wash.
Since we’re living in a bookstore, our daily bathing consists of a sink, wet cloths, and hasty, furtive scrubbing with a wash towel. We have an inflatable kiddie pool that we pull out about once a week and fill up to use as a legit bath, and that’s also the day we do hair washing. Rabbit’s hair is a different texture than mine, and we can’t wash it more often anyhow. It’s a bonding day for her and me, as we sit in the dark bathroom with candles all around us, taking turns in the pool. I’ve heated a bucket of water and pour it in for her so she’s not bathing in chilled water, and then I soap up her thick hair for her. Since hair takes a lot longer, she’s sitting in the water in a swimsuit, and once we’ve changed the water out, she’ll take a real bath.
“Your mother’s going on an overnight trip tonight,” I say casually, a towel wrapped around my now-clean-and-drying hair. I carefully massage a dried chunk of shampoo into her hair, wetting it until it starts to lather. At some point we’ll have to figure out how to make our own soaps, but for now, we make do.
“Wife business?” she asks, teasing me.
“Husband and wife business, but yes.”
“I’m not calling him dad, just for the record.” She leans forward, hugging her knees so I can work the lather deeper into her hair. “That’d be weird.”
“God, no. Call him Murr, or Murtades. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Murr it is.” She turns her head slightly, looking back at me. “I’m just glad you found someone, Mom. You deserve to be happy.”
There’s a big knot in my throat at that. “Thanks, honey.”
Her words make me think. Am I happy? I’ve never been un-happy. I just never quantify things like that. Day to day is about survival, making sure my kid is fed and we’re safe. Happy (or otherwise) never played into things. But with Murr around, everything is a little bit easier. We can relax. It’s not just the meat he provides. It’s his company, too. I like his warm, friendly presence. I like that he’s full of smiles and affection for both the cats and humans. I like that when he eyes me, I’m not just another mouth to feed. I feel like a person again.
More than that, I feel like a woman again. I’m not just a mom.
But I am definitely not telling my daughter that.
A knock bangs on the door. “I’m comin’ in,” Aggie hollers through the door. “Everyone get decent!”
“We’re dressed,” I call back, my hands still buried in Rabbit’s hair. I’m a bit peeved that we can’t get ten minutes alone to have a mother-daughter talk, but I know Aggie means well.
Aggie pushes inside, and she’s got a towel on her shoulders and she’s not wearing one of her customary wigs. “I heard we were washing hair in here. I want my turn.”
I ease my hands out of Rabbit’s hair and swipe them through the water to get rid of the suds. There’s a folding metal chair in the bathroom as this doubles as our tornado shelter when the weather gets too nasty, and I unfold it and set it next to the pool. “I can do your hair, too, but you’ll have to wait. I’m working on Rabbit’s.”
“Mine won’t take long,” Aggie reassures me. “I’ve only got three hairs left.”
“Those three hairs can still wait,” I grump, returning to my daughter’s mane.
Rabbit grins at Aggie, not bothered by the other woman’s presence in the slightest. “Mom was just telling me she’s having date night tonight with Murr. They’re married now.”
Oh god. I mentally steel myself for Aggie to make some nasty joke.
“’Bout time,” is all Aggie says. “Dottie’s got a present for you. She’s feeling kinda under today. Doesn’t feel like washing her hair. Make sure you see her before you head off.”
Under? That’s not a good sign. I worry about anyone that doesn’t feel well, given that we don’t have doctors or medicine, and Dottie is elderly. “Is she okay?”
“She’s old. We’re both old,” Aggie says sharply. “Let her nap and she’ll manage. She doesn’t need her hand held, just some shut eye. Now, where are you heading on this date night of yours?”
That’s a quick change of topic. “I don’t know just yet.”
“Can you head by a baby store?”
I blink at the strange request. “I don’t know… why?”
“We need onesies for the puppies. Maybe some little bonnets. You’ll want to get preemie-sized clothes for them. We’re going to need seven different colors so we can tell them apart.”
Of all the impractical things… “You want to dress them up like babies?”
“It’s cold out here,” Aggie says, as if dressing a newborn dog in clothing makes total sense. “And they are my babies, just like Stella is. I’m pretty sure Doc looks just like me, too. He’s got my nose.”
“You’re insane,” Rabbit giggles.
“Duh,” is all Aggie says. “Have to be to survive this long. Now, tell me more about this date night.”
That is one thing I’m not going to do. “Actually, let me rinse Rabbit’s hair and put some conditioner on it, and we’ll get you started, too.”
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CHAPTER 66
DAKOTA
While Rabbit’s hair is deep conditioning and covered in a plastic bag, she puts on a bathrobe and takes charge of Aggie. “I can give you a nice wash, but how do you feel about some curlers?” she asks. “I bet we can give you some lift even without a blow dry.”
Aggie holds up a wispy tuft of gray hair. “I don’t think you can do anything with this.”
Undeterred, Rabbit holds up a yellow plastic curler. “I can try, and if it looks terrible, we can throw a wig over it.”
“Fair enough. Do your worst.” Aggie scoots her chair closer to the pool. “Where do you want me?”
I gesture at the door. “I’m going to check on Dottie and Murr and see if they need anything. I’ll be right back.”
Rabbit nods, already pulling her fingers through Aggie’s balding fluff to see what she can do with it. There’s a smile on Aggie’s face, and she takes off her glasses, closing her eyes. She looks as if she’s going to enjoy being pampered, and I feel a little guilty, thinking of my grandmother and how she’d go to the salon every week to get her hair set. The After is unfair for so many reasons, not just beauty, but at Aggie’s age, I wish the biggest thing she had to worry about was getting her hair curled.
Exiting the bathroom, I head back into the store, skirting around shelves and stacks of books. Sunlight streams in through the dirty, broken windows at the front of the store, so I’m able to get around without a candle. I’m tempted to go outside and just gulp in some of the crisp air, but I want to find Dottie first.
I head to the sectioned-off area that Dottie and Aggie have claimed as theirs. There’s a second, hard plastic kiddie pool in here for Stella and the puppies. It’s filled with blankets, and Stella is in it, her tail thumping and knocking some of her babies around the moment I appear. With a grimace, I give her pets and gently maneuver newborn puppies out of the tail danger-zone. Stella is an incredibly sweet dog, but Aggie likes to say she’s as dumb as a stump, and well, she’s not wrong. “Stay here, good girl,” I whisper, and glance over to the far side of the “room.” Sure enough, Dottie is in bed, a small form curled under a pile of blankets. That worries me. Aggie is so loud and overbearing that sometimes I forget that Dottie’s much quieter and will go under the radar.
Moving to Dottie’s side, I kneel down next to the bed. The mom in me can’t help but press the backs of my fingers to her brow, checking for a fever.
“I’m not sick,” Dottie protests, cracking one eye open and glowering at me. “Can’t a woman take a midday nap without everyone fussing?”
Anything out of the ordinary automatically gets on my radar. And normally Dottie and Aggie are not big nappers. “As long as you promise there’s nothing wrong. If there is, I can go look for a pharmacy.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” She sits up on one elbow and glares at me. “Quit hovering. Go flirt with your dragon.”
I tilt my head, studying her. Does she look drawn or am I seeing things? Is this a bad time to head out with Murr for a night alone? I can’t tell if this is stubbornness or just me being hyper-vigilant. After a long moment, I decide to trust what she’s telling me. “We’re heading out later tonight, actually, for an overnight. For some quiet time, just him and me. Can you guys keep an eye on Rabbit for me?”
I don’t tell her that I already asked Rabbit to keep an eye on these two. Everyone can keep eyes on each other.
“Of course. She’s no problem at all. Good kid.” Dottie gets up, tossing the blankets back. “This is the perfect time for my gift.”
“You don’t have to, really—”
She pulls out her bag and hands me an economy-size box of Extra-Large Ribbed For Her Pleasure. “It’s condoms.”
How did I not guess? “So thoughtful,” I choke out, and flip over the box. Expired in 2016. “Thank you, but I don’t know if they’re any good. They’re long expired.”
“Tell him to wear them anyhow. Some protection is better than none, and you don’t want any unexpected surprises.” She looks pointedly over at the dog and her many, many babies.
She’s…not wrong. “I appreciate it, Dottie. I’m not sure if he can make me pregnant, though. He’s a different species.”
“Until you’re sure, take precautions.” She nudges the box again. “Everything is good right now, but babies complicate everything.”
I hold the box close.
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CHAPTER 67
DAKOTA
Shoving the box of condoms into my backpack, I double-check it one last time for supplies. Change of clothes. Towels. Water canteens. Snacks. Two fluffy blankets. Enough condoms to last a decade. Check, check, and check.
I check in on Rabbit and Aggie again. They’re both seated with towels on their heads, and Rabbit is painting Aggie’s toenails for her. “I’m going to head out with Murr, guys. There’s dried meat in the containers and we’ll be back by morning.”
“Sounds good, Mom. Have fun.” Rabbit doesn’t look up.
Aggie waves and gives me the most obvious wink. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Right. I’m not even sure what that might be. “See you tomorrow. Love you, Rabbit.”
I sling my pack on my shoulder and head out of the store, looking for Murr. He’s lying on the pavement outside, wearing his kilt and surrounded by cats. One cat is tucked under his arm, four more against his legs in a neat little row, and two more by his head. Others are piled onto his chest, and he strokes and pets cat ears and scratches chins. There’s a freshly dead wild turkey carcass nearby, with a few cats still eating, and feathers everywhere. He looks like the picture of contentment, and a cat on his chest gives me a sleepy but accusing gaze. I clear my throat. “Is this a bad time?”
The smile Murr gives me makes goosebumps rise on my skin. “Good time.”
He carefully moves cats off of him, easing them away from his legs and affectionately petting them before getting up from the ground. He moves to my side and pulls me in close, nuzzling my neck and pressing a kiss there.
“Ready to head out?” I ask, nervous like a schoolgirl now that we’re about to have our alone time. “I thought we’d head to a nearby bank. No one’s likely to head there because there’s no scavenging to be had. Banks are useless.”
“Fly?” he asks.
My eyes widen. Do I want to fly with him? Like…on his back? Or in his claws? Either way, I think my answer is no. I’m too much of a control freak to even consider my feet leaving the ground. “We walk.”
He shrugs, easygoing. “Dakota lead, Murr follow.”
I take his hand in mine, and as I do, I notice his claws are all shorn down to nubs. With a gasp, I lift his hand to study it closer. “What happened?”
The dragon-man chuckles. “Murr…bite.” He mimes cutting his nails short with his sharp teeth. “Make good for Dakota touch.”
For me? For sex? I’m touched. I kiss one fingertip. “Did it hurt?”
“No pain,” he reassures me. “Touch Dakota everywhere now.”
Oh mercy. Time to find that bank.
There’s a small, square building a few blocks away with a faded sign and an overgrown parking lot. The ATM machine was demolished long ago, pieces of it strewn through the drive-thru, weeds growing through a few chunks of metal. The glass doors are busted open, but the interior seems decent enough. It’s quiet and dark despite the sunny day, and we head inside, looking around. There are a few wooden seats with nicely upholstered chairs that haven’t suffered too much from nearly a decade of neglect, and I wonder if we should bring these back to the bookstore. Would they be more comfortable for Dottie and Aggie? I touch one, considering.
Then I give it a pat, deciding. It’ll be there in the morning. Tonight is for me and Murr. I need to stop thinking about others for a few hours and focus on me and my new…husband.
The word feels strange. There wasn’t a big dress or a church to marry us. The only ceremony was a bite and some furtive touching on the hood of a car. It still feels right, though. Good. Strange, but good.
There are small offices along the main lobby, and I look for one without a desk in it so we can set our blankets down. I find one where it looks as if the desk has been destroyed with an axe, likely for firewood, with the remains of it in the doorway to the tiny office itself. I kick it out of the way so we can shut the door, and as I do, a postcard is revealed, taped to a piece of the desk.
Rabbit loves postcards.
I pick it up, pulling off the ruined bit of tape. It’s a photo of the Grand Canyon, the picture faded but still legible. I take it over to one of the chairs, setting it down so I won’t forget it when we leave.
Murr watches me. “Dakota good?”
Immediately, I feel foolish. Here I am fussing over postcards for my daughter and chairs for Aggie and Dottie when I’m supposed to be having intimate time with my partner. “I don’t know how to relax,” I confess to Murr. “I’m so used to being on alert, being prepared to look after someone, or trying to figure out our next meal. It feels wrong to leave for a day, and yet I know it’s not.”
He moves to my side, pulling me into his arms. I drop my backpack and lean against his chest, enjoying the simple pleasure of a hug. His skin feels so pleasantly warm, but not as scorchingly hot as before. It’s because his bite changed something in me, I think. It adjusted my body temperature so his isn’t quite such a stark difference.
Murr presses a kiss to the side of my neck from behind, still holding me close. “Stay? Or leave?”
“I want to stay,” I reassure him. And I do.
I’m allowed to have fun. Adult fun. This will be good for me. For both of us. I reach for Murr, holding him as he lavishes kisses on my neck.
Time to put that blanket down in the office.
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