Page 32 of Taught By the Dragon
No attachments—that was her motto. Only her dragon mattered.
Nikki stood her ground, not moving closer as she watched her.
Her pupils flashed a few times before she smiled. “Sorry, I should be nicer and make a better first impression. I’m used to battling it out with my mate and sometimes forget that not everyone acts like him. Rafe may be human, but he’s as stubborn as a dragon-shifter.” She placed a hand on her lower belly. “And carrying any of his children makes me cranky. I’m pretty sure they do it on purpose.”
Her eyes zeroed in on Nikki’s lower belly. Mixed feelings crashed over her. For the last few years, the facility had been trying to get her pregnant, using various methods and settings, documenting everything, trying to figure out what would work. Every time she’d been forced to sleep with one or more males, she’d hoped to finally be pregnant, if only to make it all stop.
But it’d never happened. And so she’d been put through it again and again, in a hellish loop.
Maybe with distance, she’d be glad not to have birthed a baby inside that fucking place. However, she’d always equated getting pregnant with the road to an easier time and less attention from the facility guards.
Tears pricked her eyes, and she willed them to stay put. “Sorry,” she mumbled and exited into the hallway. Once she was inside her bedroom, she leaned against the door, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths.
Remember, you’re no longer in that place. For now, no one will force you to do those things again. To these people, babies are normal and even wanted. They won’t become yet another experimental test subject.That was something she still had trouble believing. Watching the TV show, seeing the lengths the parents had gone to have a child to love, had confused her.
A soft knock on the door made her jump. Bronx’s voice came through the door. “Are you okay, Percy? Do you need to talk with one of the doctors?”
His voice was the final pull needed to get out of her head. She stared at the books, the radio, and even the little potted plant Violet had given her. She wasn’t inthatplace. And so far, the odds were they wouldn’t keep her in a room with a male, starving them both until they had sex enough times to meet their demands.
“Percy?” His gentle voice made her eyes water a little. It almost, almost, sounded like he cared about her.
For a split second, she wished it might be true. Not as anything more than friends, but just to have someone other than her dragon care for her would be nice.
The now-familiar little purple flashes of light flickered inside her mind, brighter this time.Dragon? Is that you? Please, please come out. We can be friends again, talk, and you don’t have to stay away. But I need you to be more than flashes of light.
The purple lights burned a beat longer before disappearing.
She slid down the door until her arse hit the floor. Even if Bronx didn’t say anything, she could hear him breathing on the other side of the door.
He was patient, always so patient with her. Before she could think better of it, she blurted, “Why are you nice to me?”
For a second, she thought he might not answer. However, his voice was nearer, as if he’d sat on the ground on the other side too, when he replied, “It’s what I do, Percy. I was a firefighter and emergency rescue responder. I’m also a dad, a brother, and an uncle. I like to help and protect and try to see what others are struggling with instead of instantly judging them.” He paused then added, “I’ve always been this way, ever since I was a kid. I used to help stray animals and even had a little recovery shed out back to nurse them to health.” He chuckled. “My brothers always made fun of me, but I was the oldest, and so a scowl usually chased them away. Even if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have stopped or given up. Sometimes there’s a part of you that just has to shine, no matter what others think. Maybe one day you’ll discover that part of yourself as well.”
Percy stared at her hands, threading her fingers together and then apart and back together again. “All I know how to do is be stubborn. There’s not much else to me. Compared to everyone else, I’m boring.”
For a second, she froze. Had she really just said that out loud?
Bronx replied, “Just because you don’t have twenty hobbies doesn’t mean you’re boring, Percy. You’re a fighter, a survivor, and when many people might’ve given up, you didn’t. That makes you brilliant and amazing and more interesting than you think.”
She laughed derisively. “That’s you just being nice. I only thought of myself and didn’t help anyone else when maybe I could have.” She paused, thinking of the new inmates over the years and the ones she’d never seen again. “I’m not amazing, Bronx. So stop saying it.”
Silence fell a few seconds before his voice came through the door again. “Sometimes, we can’t save everyone, even if we want to. I’ve dealt with several situations over the years where we could only rescue one person and had to make the bloody awful decision about who we had to leave behind.” He cleared his throat. “It’s something you never forget, either. Sometimes it goes away for a while, and then it hits you when you least expect it, maybe even if you’re merely doing the shopping.”
She turned around and laid her forehead on the door. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine Bronx making a tough choice about who lived or died and then living with it forever. He might not have been a prisoner like her, but his life wasn’t as perfect as she’d originally thought.
Placing a hand on the door, she whispered, “Nikki’s pregnancy reminded me of the time… before.”
He cursed. “I’m so sorry, Percy. I didn’t even think of that. If you want to meet anyone else in the future, I’ll be more careful about who. Can you forgive me?”
She opened her eyes, leaned back, and frowned at the door. “Why does my forgiveness matter?”
“Because it does. My goal is to never intentionally hurt you, but I also don’t want to inadvertently do it, either.”
Even a few days ago, she would’ve called him a liar, scoffed, or merely dismissed his words.
But Bronx had always asked her permission for everything, asked what she wanted, and listened to her. No one had ever done that before, apart from her dragon.
As she stared at her hand on the door, the one with scars on the back from when she’d fought one of the guards in the early days inside the facility, she quickly pushed away any hope of Bronx being different.
