But I'm just a freak

Chapter Twelve

DRAYCE POV

The last two weeks have been absolute torture. I was not sure what was going on with me. My dreams had gone weird, my fated was still there, but the whole thing was darker and not clear. Also, seeing her face made my dream self sad and angry.

Now, instead of waking up with a hard-on, I was waking up feeling distressed. Irad had been completely feral and visiting stores had become quite difficult with him raging in my head.

Then, to top it all off, I still felt like someone was following me. I never saw who it was and if it was a witch she could be changing faces for all I know.

I had barely slept or eaten and Nithe had to do most of the driving as I was just not safe to be behind the wheel.

I needed to find out what was happening to me, so I had no choice but to contact the Elders again. It was currently late afternoon, and we had stopped at our motel for the night. Nithe had gone to get us some food, not that I felt like eating anything.

I pulled out my phone and dialled the number. Surprisingly, it was Elder Pendragon who answered.

“Hello Elders council, how can we be of assistance?” he said.

“Elder Pendragon, It’s Drayce Roark again.”

“Well, hello Drayce, how can I be of assistance this time?”

“I really need help finding out what is happening to me.”

“OK, could you be more specific please?”

“Well, I have been having dreams about my fated for a few weeks now and, in the beginning, my dragon was happy and making clicking noises. It was also causing a…positive physical reaction from myself, but he has suddenly gone feral and also the dreams now seem darker and the images are unfocused. I wake up feeling immense distress and I’m really very concerned.” I rushed out before taking a big breath and releasing it slowly.

“Oh my, well this is very uncommon…” He paused as if he was hesitant to tell me what was going on.

“Please, just tell me, I really need to know what is going on” I all but begged.

“Well, this is usually what happens when your fated is unfaithful or choosing someone other than who they were fated to.” He said.

I feel like someone has taken a knife and shoved it deep in my heart.

“Why? Why would my fated do that to me?” I asked quietly.

“I’m so sorry Drayce, I don’t have an answer for you, as I said. This is incredibly rare.” The elder said gently.

“Does this mean I am going to lose her before I find her? What happens if she does choose this other person?”

“To be honest, Drayce, I don’t know. I can only pray to the gods that you find her before she makes her final decision and that she will be willing to accept you” he says empathetically.

Nithe knocked on the door and let himself in. He sees I’m on the phone and remained standing at the door as he waited for me to finish the call.

“Thank you for your time, Elder Pendragon.”

“You're welcome, Drayce. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you better news”

“It's fine, goodbye.” I said and hung up the phone. I dropped it on the table in front of me. Nithe came over and puts the food down.

“Ah what was that about Dray?” he asked hesitantly.

“I rang them to find out what was happening to me…” I trailed off.

“Oh…What did they say?” He asked quietly.

I looked up at him and saw concern all over his face. He was my best friend and he lost his fated. I guess if anyone had some understanding, it would be him.

“He said that this happens when a fated is being unfaithful or is considering taking a chosen fated instead.” I said with my head down.

“Oh s**t Dray, I am so sorry. Did they say anything else?”

“Not really. Elder Pendragon just said he would pray to the gods that I could find her quickly and that she would reconsider.” He didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

“I really am sorry Dray, I’ll be praying too.”

“Thanks, Ni. I’m not hungry and I think I’ll just have an early night.” I said to him.

“Sure, OK Dray. I’ll see you in the morning.” He said and left.

I just couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Why would my fated, choose someone other than the person who the gods chose for them?

I polished off all the booze bottles in the motel room and it did nothing to take the edge off. I had seen a bottle shop not too far away so I decided to take a walk and buy a real bottle of booze. I needed something to help take the edge off this pain in my heart.

I headed out the door and down the street. I walked for a few minutes when I was suddenly hit by a waft of incredible scent.

It's faint but it was there. It smelt like one of those tropical alcoholic drinks humans like that had cream in it…Yes, that's right Pina Colada, that was what it smelt like and it made my mouth water.

I scented the air and followed the faint smell. It took me to a restaurant that had long since closed for the night. Damn it. I guess there wasn’t much I could do, so I continued my walk to the bottle shop.

Irad had been strangely quiet since I smelt that wonderful scent, but I just ignored it, it was nice to finally have some peace and quiet.

I went to the bottle shop and purchased a couple of full-sized bottles of booze. I then made the return trip to the motel room.

I poured myself a full glass of booze and sat on the small couch in the room. So it would appear that my fated may be here in Gisborne. What was I going to do when I found her? How would I react if she was with another when I did?

Irad growled in my head, I knew what he wanted to do… kill the competition. He was even more feral now.

He had been calm when we found her scent even though it was faint, but now he was back with a vengeance.

I gulped down the whole glass, relishing the burning liquid sliding down my throat and heating my belly, but it wasn’t enough. The pain just didn’t seem to go away. I ditched the glass and started to chug straight from the bottle.

Thank the gods that dragon's have rapid recovery, or I wouldn’t be making it to our store visits in the morning. After polishing off two bottles, I tried desperately to get some sleep.

I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. I must have drifted off to sleep at some time as I was woken by a nightmare. I saw my fated holding hands with another man, and she turned her back on me and walked away.

How could she, how could she just leave me like that? I looked at the clock and saw it was only two in the morning, so I tried to get back to sleep. I succeeded and this time I saw something completely different. I saw a fiery red dragon. I felt Irad stir at the sight of this dragon.

I didn’t know there were any dragons that looked like that. It was completely consumed by fire but it wasn’t burning, it was like the dragon was made of fire. But that’s impossible, isn’t it?

Who was this dragon and what did they have to do with me? Was this showing me a new potential fated?

I woke again feeling far more confused than I had been when I went to sleep. A sharp knock sounded on my door and I looked at the clock, s**t that would be Nithe. I jumped up from bed and threw the door open.

“Dray, you look like s**t man, did you sleep…ah you were up drinking all night. I know your struggling man but you need to pull it together and get through these store visits…”

“She’s here Ni, I smelt her last night, it was faint and at a restaurant that was closed for the night, but she was definitely there.”

“Oh s**t man, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to make this morning's visit as planned but I am cancelling all further visits until I have found her and she has accepted me.”

Nithe stared at me for a minute, but when he realised I was deadly serious, he pulled out his phone and dialled our home office.

“Hello Heidi, It’s Nithe. Would you please be able to get in touch with all the franchisees we are supposed to visit after Gisborne and let them know that we will be postponing it until a later date. Just tell them there has been an emergency.” I heard Heidi agree.

“Perfect, thank you, Heidi. Goodbye.” He hung up the phone.

“ OK, so where do we start?” He asked me.

“First thing we need to do is get this store visit done, then I’m going hunting.” I said with a dark smirk.

“Oh, shit.” Nithe said as he left to allow me to get ready for the day.