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finally pushed Rev out of the way and hurried up the stairs where I could hear Hannah talking loudly to Rylee. I stopped in the doorway as Hannah had her hand around Rylee’s throat against the bedroom wall.
“Now you listen to me Rylee. Lucas went through hell for you,” Hannah said angrily.
“I know! Baz showed me everything that happened to him!” Rylee yelled.
“Who the hell do you think you are that you get to mope around, the least you could do is to be by his side and support him!” Hannah said evenly.
“It’s all my fault,” Rylee cried.
“Yes it is, now stop your pity party and grab a hold of yourself. You share my brother’s strength with that mark on your neck, it’s time you started acting like a Sires bonded half,” Hannah said and let go of her.
Rylee sank to the floor with her back against the wall and Hannah looked me squarely in the eye before turning around to Rylee again.
“He still has open wounds on his back but still he drags your skanky ass to the bathroom to smell like a person again, don’t make me come back in here,” she said and pushed past me.
I stood frozen to the spot for a few minutes as I watched Rylee cry. She hadn’t moved from her spot but at least Hannah had gotten her out of bed and speaking. I knelt down next to her and pulled her into my arms.
She felt guilt and remorse and it surrounded me quickly as I held her. She cried on my shoulder as I soothed her. This wasn’t really something I did, these are awkward situations for me and usually I extract myself as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry,” I said in a whisper as Rylee pushed me away.
“Why are you apologizing to me?” she asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Baz shouldn’t have showed you all that,” I said and stood up.
“Why did you hand yourself over?” she asked me as I sat down on the bed.
“Rylee, you don’t know a lot about our ways do you? I had no choice in the matter, that’s how it works. I assaulted them in New York while you and Hannah were packing and this was payback, plain and simple,” I said to her.
“Why aren’t you mad at me?” she asked.
“I told you a long time ago I won’t let anyone hurt you again,” I said as she looked at me intently.
“You should hate me,” she said so softly I almost missed it.
“Why would I hate you?” I asked her.
“Because if I’d testified like you asked this wouldn’t have happened,” she said.
“No Rylee, I was wrong to ask you to do that,” I said to her.
“I’m sorry you got hurt,” she said and flung her arms around my shoulders where I sat.
“It’s okay,” I said.
“Are you going to ask me to leave now?” she asked.
“I would never tell you to leave,” I said and pushed her away slightly so I could look at her.
“You know the truth of what happened to me now, I always knew you wouldn’t be able to accept me if you knew all that, used and left in the forest…” she said and her voice trailed off.
“Rylee, I’d kiss you right now to show you that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you but you haven’t brushed your teeth in a while,” I said and laughed as she lowered her head and blushed like I’d never seen her blush before.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked.
“At some point I decided to really give this a go, to try treating you like my bonded half, to see if we could really make this work,” I said and her eyes found mine.
“Really?” she asked me.
“Are you willing to say the same?” I asked her.
“I’m willing to try this with you,” she said and smiled. She pushed me away completely and closed the bathroom door behind her.
I smiled as I walked back to my office where Hannah sat in my chair. I gave her a look and she moved as she looked at me.
“I won’t say sorry,” she said and I laughed.
“You don’t have to, she’s in the shower now,” I said and Hannah smiled.
“I love you Lucas,” she said and Rev grunted from the doorway, “I love you too Rev.”
“Get out now so I can catch up on work,” I said as I kissed the top of her head.
I spoke to Marcus at length and then I phoned Jasper and told him about the wine deal. We spoke for more than two hours and I promised to set up a meeting again with all three of us present. Somewhere in the middle for all of us.
I looked at the time again when my office door opened and Rylee put a plate down in front of me. She looked somewhat better now that she didn’t smell so bad and her hair was brushed. She sat down opposite me and watched me as I ate.
“I should be the one watching you eat,” I said as I finished lunch.
“I ate, I promise,” she said.
“So did you come here just to watch me eat?” I asked her.
“I wanted to ask if it would be okay if I got a job,” she said and looked at me nervously.
“I’m sorry I didn’t even take into consideration that you had a whole other life in West Virginia,” I said to her.
“Not really, I worked for Colin from home, basically just playing his secretary,” she said.
“But you got paid for it right?” I asked and she nodded.
“Do you need money?” I asked her and she looked down.
“Well yes,” she said.
“I think we should have a really open conversation about how all this works,” I said to her.
“I was part of a lair for a year, I didn’t grow up like the rest of you. I was sheltered mostly, so that might be a good idea, I might understand your way of thinking better,” she said.
“Okay well the head of the lair is the Sire, like me, then you get the second in command, which is Jax. The third is Rev and the fourth is Preston. A bonded half shares the male’s strength but your own personality is always stronger. If you’re like Chris then you prefer to have children and stay at home whereas Hannah takes more charge in our day to day activities and she runs a lot of things for me. Sires are mostly territorial with everything, their family, business and so forth. We don’t take kindly to anyone touching what’s ours, that includes you,” I said to her.
She laughed slightly but I saw that she was listening intently to what I was saying to her. She had her legs tucked under her on the chair and she watched me intently.
“It’s not something I can help, we’re bonded and I’ll always feel that way. Males have a stronger desire to protect and provide and that’s our main roles. So basically what I’m saying is it’s my job to look after you and give you what you need no matter what that is,” I said to her.
“So what’s my job then?” she asked me.
“Your job is to support me and the lair. If I’m the father of all our dragonkin then you are their mother. You attend various functions with me, meetings with other dragonkin, you nurture the lair, organize functions here that we have to hold, visit the elderly in the hospital, congratulate members when they have children, stuff like that. It doesn’t really leave you with a lot of time for a job,” I said.
“At the ball they said you’re the strongest Sire in the country,” she said.
“Our lair is big, bigger than the McIntyre’s and we’re very wealthy. I studied after school and got my law degree. We have hotels and The Drake, a few restaurants in town and I’m invested in many other business across the country and for that reason I don’t tax my members,” I said.
“If I understand you correctly then Hannah does most of that right now,” she said.
“Yes,” I answered.
“What about school, how does she do it all?” she asked me.
“Hannah finished school last year, but she can show you the ropes if you’d like to help her out,” I said.
“I think it’s time I started pulling my weight around here,” she said and stood up.
“As a bonded couple, what’s mine is essentially yours,” I said and her eyes widened.
“I didn’t know that,” she said.
“Hannah will sort out a credit card for you, feel free to use it for whatever you need. I should’ve had this conversation with you a while ago and I’m sorry if there’s anything you needed that I didn’t pay attention to,” I said.
“I’m fine don’t worry,” she said to me.
“If you’re really serious about this, we should announce you to the lair, officially,” I said.
“What does that entail?” she asked me.
“People will then recognize you as my bonded half, treat you according to your position and members will start to seek you out for your help with matters,” I said.
“You’d trust me in that position?” she asked.
“Rylee, that announcement goes hand in hand with a ceremony, much like a human wedding and in the eyes of all dragonkin we’d be married,” I said to her.
“You want to marry me?” she asked and laughed loudly.
“We might as well do it. The rejection didn’t work the first time and I doubt it’ll work the second time around and I’m not sure if I’m willing to put you in that kind of danger, you have a very high chance of dying,” I said to her.
“So what you’re saying is, we really are stuck with one another,” she said but she didn’t look too dismayed at that notion.
“You carry my mark and that means that you’re the only person I can develop feelings for, real feelings, not just infatuation but real love. We could be happy if we tried,” I said.
“I’m still struggling to understand how we did this,” she said as she motioned to her neck.
“You can only mark someone that has been bonded to you by fate, any other type of marking has to be done ceremoniously with the Elders like when you choose a bonded half. That bond is never as strong as the real one so essentially we were meant to be together,” I said to her.
“I see,” she said.
“Do you?” I asked her with a smile.
“Yes, it means I just got engaged without actually being asked,” she said and I laughed loudly at that.
“Take a day or two to think about it. It’s forever Rylee, it’s not like we can get a divorce after five years,” I said to her.
“Okay, let’s see where this takes us,” she said and left my office.
“You're such a romantic Lucas,” Baz said and I laughed again.
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