Page 9

But my dragon ignored flight law and only responded to destiny. That takes priority, even the flight knows that.

In most cases, yes, a fated mate overrode every other consideration, but not a law laid down by the flight Alpha.

Fate got me wrong, I told him. Fate had let a rogue dragon rip us from chest to jaw and suffered no consequences because he’d flown off, leaving me to face the brunt of Alpha’s anger.

Sheridan was probably a good man, and even if he mated a shifter, which he didn’t know existed, he didn’t deserve to be shackled to me. One day he’d meet a kind human with no scars or unpleasant history and I’d grieve my loss.

My beast stopped arguing. He was already grieving, the way he mourned the loss of the mountains, the flight, his dragon buddies, and how everything had been taken from us.

Despite Sheridan being human, the people in Moonridge Place took to him easily. Everyone had taken a while to get used to a human living here when Miles arrived, but now Miles was mated to a bear shifter and no one had to hide part of themselves. I’d assumed it would have been the same with Sheridan, but I guessed everyone knew what to do this time. Other than saying, “Jon did it again,” they brushed it off and warmed to him.

And they were kind to me too because they would have pieced together why I wasn’t living with my flight. I was a lonely scarred dragon who kept to himself. I didn’t need a sign. But all the residents greeted me, invited me to events I rarely attended, and were always willing to lend a hand when I needed it.

Clover left banana bread outside his door, and Mrs. Munro reported that he’d carried her shopping up the stairs and had asked after Blizzard by name. And Indigo caught me on the stairs to say that Sheridan had a pet rabbit and did I think Marmalade and the rabbit would be friends?

Oh, now I understood why Sheridan had mentioned a pet when he spoke to Jon about renting his apartment. No wonder Clover was eager to be friends. Maybe she thought the pet bunny might be a shifter in disguise.

Indigo asked why I was sad when she mentioned Sheridan. “Don’t you like rabbits? Clover’s one.”

“I love them.” I didn’t mention they were my dragon’s favorite treat.

“But you’re wearing your sad face, the one you had when you moved in.”

“I’m fine.”

She shook her head. “Rudy says you’re the saddest dragon he’s ever met and he’s met three.” She took my hand. “Don’t forget dinner on Sunday. Sheridan’s coming too and you can sit next to him.”

I had to say no. There was no way I could attend. I might lunge at him and be unable to control my beast.

“Bye.” She waved and skipped off. “On Sunday, wear a shirt that’s not gray.”

She didn’t give me a chance to refuse, though that was a lie. I had ample opportunity to say no or tell her I was busy.

Returning to my apartment, I browsed over my shelves, making sure everything was facing the way I wanted it and was dust-free. I thought of Sheridan in his apartment, one flight down, the one I’d painted, and hoped the door wasn’t sticking like his mailbox key. I was twelve feet above him, and he wouldn’t be thinking of me like that.

I went to the corner and sat in the nest, the one that would never contain my mate’s eggs, and pulled a blanket around my shoulders. My dragon lay down and faced the stairs. He believed Sheridan might knock on the door and fall into my arms. I couldn’t tell him he was wrong to hope. Everyone deserved to dream, even if it was out of reach.

6

SHERIDAN

I settled into my new apartment pretty easily. After hitting the jackpot at the secondhand store, I now had a small table for eating, a coffee table, couch, and quite a few lamps. They were all mismatched, but they worked. When I walked in at the end of the day, it felt like home, something I hadn’t had in a long time.

Living alone was better than I’d dreamed. Part of me had worried I’d be lonely with no one else there. I didn’t like my former roommates, but there were always people around the apartment. Maybe it was because I had a really good group of neighbors, but not once had I missed living with others.

For the most part, everyone was nice here, and even Radley was nice, just not social with me. Pierogi was loving having all the extra space to roam and meeting new people. It was a community and not simply a shared building.

My cubicle mates, Paul, Oak, and Chris, had started a group text when we worked together a few years back. When Paul and Oak switched to a new job, and I switched departments, it somehow survived. We started as co-workers, morphed into work friends, and had become friend friends over time. When I snapped them a picture of my new couch, somehow that turned into we all need to go out and celebrate.

Chris was always wanting to hit up the bars. He was into hookup culture in a way I never could be. I wasn’t opposed to randomly meeting someone and feeling a connection. It just never seemed to work out that way for me. I preferred getting to know people first. That was part of what caught me off guard with Radley. If I’d met him in the wild and he hit on me, I doubted I’d have been able to deny him. That was a first for me.

Paul was married, and I was surprised when he said he could make it. He’d been a homebody long before he found and married another homebody.

Oak was the friend who always went with majority rules. And in this case, it was already two yeses, so he jumped in with his desire to go. Looked like we were doing this.

We were trying a new-to-us bar that Paul had passed a few weeks earlier and was obsessed with checking out. As my rideshare pulled up to the bar, I didn’t see the appeal. It was large, but definitely had hole-in-the-wall vibes. And it was packed.

It was a different crowd than I was used to. The people going in weren't office workers coming back from a day of answering phones and tapping on computers and looking for half-price appetizers. We were so not going to be able to fit in here.