But I'm just a freak

Chapter Six

DRAYCE POV

After I had relieved myself of my issue during the night, I was able to get back to sleep. The rest of the night had been dreamless, and I had woken to the sound of my alarm going off.

I climbed out of bed and jumped in the shower. Today was the first day of our trip to visit our franchisees.

The first store we were going to be visiting was only four hours’ drive away, then the next was only two hours from there. The aim was to see both stores today, so I needed to get moving.

I had enough time to eat breakfast and pack my travelling bag, most of my clothes had to be in garment bags and hung in the back of the car, but I still threw in some casual stuff for the downtime, if there was any.

When I was ready, I texted Nithe, and he responded that he was already waiting at the car. I could have hired someone to drive us, but I much preferred to be in control. It was a dragon thing.

We loaded up the car and headed off on the first leg of our journey. Nithe seemed unusually quiet, and I wasn’t sure if I should say anything or not.

After two hours of him not saying so much as a word, it finally got the better of me and I just had to ask.

“Nithe, what’s wrong? We have known each other for sixty years and you’ve never been this quiet.” He sighed deeply.

“Ever since I told you about Chusi, and you talked about second chances, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I’ve been yo-yoing between feeling hopeful and feeling guilty.

I want to find love Dray, but what if I lost my only chance at that before I even knew for sure she was the one? I know I seem flirty and stuff, but that’s just a cover for a broken heart.”

I was shocked to hear him talk about this. I honestly had no idea that that was there beneath his happy-go-lucky exterior, some best friend I was.

“Do you want me to reach out to the Dragon elders and see if any of them have heard of anyone getting a second chance fated? If anyone knew, it would be them.” I said to him.

Nithe thought about it for a few minutes before he finally responded.

“I guess it can’t hurt, then I’ll know whether or not to get my hopes up.” He said quietly and sighed.

“I’ll call them when we stop next, but Nithe…even if there haven’t been any cases of second chance fated, don’t give up on finding love. I know it won’t be quite the same, but you can take a chosen, you know”, I told him with genuine compassion.

“Yeah I know, I’ll think about it,” he said, and then started messing with the radio to try and find a decent station. This was his way of telling me this conversation was over.

We stopped a little under an hour later for a food and bathroom break. While Nithe was off grabbing food for us, I gave the dragon Elders a call.

Just as their name suggested, they were the oldest living dragons. They have become the keeper of all Dragon knowledge and history. If there was information to be found about anyone getting a second chance fated, these guys would have it.

After waiting on hold for a while, I was finally connected with Elder Pendragon.

“Hello young Drayce, how may we be of assistance today?” he croaked. No one knew how old this guy was, but he was like a living corpse.

“Hello Elder Pendragon, I am calling to find out information regarding the dragon's fated. In particular, I would like to know if there have ever been any recorded cases of a dragon receiving a second chance fated.”

I heard him hum as he took on board what I had asked of him.

“And why would you require such information?” he asked me. I expected this. They liked to be thoroughly informed before giving out any information.

“Well, a close friend of mine, believes his fated died before they were both of age. He said he experienced incredible pain, to the point of passing out, on the night his suspected fated was massacred.” I told him. He hummed again.

“I see, well that is unfortunate,” he said, stirring my anger, since it was my sister and it was more than just unfortunate, it was horrendous.

“I will need to speak with my fellow elders and check our records. Give me two days and I will find out anything I can on this topic,” The elder replied.

“Thank you Elder Pendragon. I will call you again in two days. Thank you for your time.”

“You are most welcome young one. Goodbye for now.” He said and hung up.

“Well? What’s the verdict?” Nithe asked as he handed me some food. I had been so engrossed in my conversation I hadn’t realised he was standing in front of me. I must be slipping, usually, nothing gets past my keen senses.

“I have to call them in two days. Elder Pendragon will consult with his peers and check the records”, I stated as I took a huge bite of the sandwich Nithe had handed me.

He just nodded and nibbled at his food. I had honestly never seen him like this, the guy was always so happy and vibrant. I hoped we could get some good news from the elders for him. The guy deserved to be happy.

We got back on the road and travelled the last of the distance to our first stop. I pulled up in front of the impressive Roark Home Centre store. This one was run by twin sisters, Sherry and Cherry.

We got out of the car and I checked to make sure my suit wasn’t too wrinkled before we headed towards the front door.

We entered the building and immediately the place went dead quiet. I guess they were not used to seeing two huge men in full suits walking around in the store.

I ignored all the stares and discretely scented the air, it had become my thing since learning I had a fated. I was searching for that one scent that only I could smell, the scent that would lead me to my soul’s other half. Sadly, that scent was not in this store.

Two small, identical-looking middle-aged women approached us.

“Oh Mr Roark, Mr Mircea, it is such an honour to have you in our store, I’m Sherry and this is my twin sister and co-owner Cherry,” One twin said, holding her hand out to me.

I gently shook both of their hands, and Nithe did the same. Humans could be quite fragile. They then proceeded to show us around the store and talked non-stop for about an hour.

They both made not-so-subtle attempts to flirt with us both and I chose to ignore them.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I let them know we needed to get going as we had another store to visit that day, and we made a hasty retreat to the car.

Nithe cracked up laughing the minute we got in the car.

“Well, that was fun,” he said sarcastically.

“Yeah you’re not wrong, gods I hope we don’t have to deal with too much of that during this trip,” I replied.

“So who do we have next?” Nithe asked when I got us on the road.

“Next is a young guy named Darren. He is pretty new at this, so it will be interesting to see what he's done with the place.”

The drive didn’t take us all that long and we arrived at our final destination for the day.

Darren turned out to be a young weretiger and had done a great job of getting his store all set up and running, and to a very high standard too.

I was really impressed with the guy and I told him as much, which seemed to make his day.

This was the kind of franchisee I liked to deal with, he was so interested in knowing how he could improve his store, not just trying to tell me how good he was.

We finally left the store and went in search of the hotel my assistant had booked us into.

“That kid has a good head on his shoulders, pity they aren't all like him.” Nithe said as we were driving away.

“Yeah, he is going to do big things with that place, we will need to keep an eye on him, as he is going places and might be a good addition to the board in a few years,” I replied thoughtfully.

We found the motel and got our keys to our rooms, which were right next to each other. We both went and got ourselves washed up for dinner.

I had booked up into a restaurant as I wanted to explore as much of each place as possible to try and find my fated.

It had become an obsession, which given a dragon’s natural propensity to collect priceless things and to be possessive over them, I guess it made sense I would become obsessed with finding something that was made for me and me alone.

The restaurant was fine and the food was nice enough, but again I was disappointed that I didn’t find my fated there. I was starting to get frustrated with not being able to find her.

Nithe must have picked up on my frustration as we drove back to the motel.

“Don’t worry Dray, we will find her. The closer we get, the more images you will see of her in your dreams” he said.

“Oh really, I wasn’t aware of that,” I murmured as I analysed this new piece of information.

We made it back to the motel and we went our separate ways. I wanted to get an early night as I was keen to dream about my Fated again, but I told Nithe it was because we had another early start in the morning.