Chapter Four
1482 Words
Amelia
I stared upwards, letting my eyes linger on the balcony high above my head that I knew was his.
Dewi was up there.
Back in the apartment, in the middle of the city. I was surprised but shouldn’t have been. My rescue all those months ago had pretty much demolished the front of his ancestral home. Three full-sized dragons fighting it out would do that to a building. And of course, I had blown a hole in those old walls myself when I had tried to escape by myself. A much smaller hole true, but part of me twinged with guilt that his beautiful home was ruined.
Maybe I had expected him to be sitting in the rubble, like some crazy hot male version of Miss Haversham from Great Expectations but no he was here.
I could feel his presence like wind over my skin. My heart sped up.
Was I really doing this?
Every atom of my being was screaming at me to go to him, yet my mind, the part of it that was still clinging on to some part of the old me was warning me to run. As fast as far as I could.
“Amelia” Wrens voice cut through my thoughts like a hot knife through butter, bringing me out of my head and back into the car with him. “Amelia this really isn’t a good idea” He had been saying the same thing over and over again in the hours it had taken to drive here from Rhydians school. So often, in fact, I had filtered him out.
“It's not safe for you”
“he won't hurt me” At least I didn’t think he would, not physically anyway. Unless I asked him too. The thought made me shift uncomfortably. Glad my mind was barred from the dragon sitting next to me in the close confines of the car. It wouldn’t do for him to hear my thoughts.
Especially those ones.
“And I have you for protection right?” I was only half-joking. I didn’t want them to fight, not here in the middle of the city but I did need to know if he had my back or not. I wouldn’t be kept captive again. Not for anyone. “I just want to make sure he is ok” I added half to myself, catching sight of Wrens narrowed eyes I turned to face him fully. “What?”
“You are lying to yourself Amelia” His voice was soft but there was a note of anger to it. Anger I didn’t understand but had heard a few times in his tone when I spoke about Dewi. And I didn’t think it was hatred for his own kind either.
Hell Wren himself had been a weapon of the council up until only a year or so ago. He was the best at wiping minds, at rummaging out peoples secrets. It was one of the reasons he had taught me to protect my mind so thoroughly. He had been fed up of being bombarded with my misery.
“Lying…” I made a pfft noise in my throat.
“You care for him”
“Of course I care for him. He’s my mate” I caught myself too late, blinking rapidly as we faced off. “I mean he mated me. I am linked to him. I don’t have a choice on how I feel”
“At least be honest with yourself Ami, You cared for him before he put his mark on you. The mark isn’t why we are here and you know it”
“I don…” The look he gave me made me stammer to silence. “Maybe” I finally conceded. “Maybe once, before I found out everything”
“Amelia” He sounded exasperated.
“Look I just need to go and see if he's really ok, maybe I won't even have to actually be in the same room as him? Maybe Gabby is there” I had no doubt the lion less lioness shifter would be there. Where else would she be? She was as loyal to the man who had enslaved her as a beaten dog. “he ….”
“He will know you are there the moment you step foot inside that building Amelia” Wrens voice cut me off again. “Hell, he may know you are here already” He straightened his shoulders, rolling them before slipping off the leather jacket. And I knew he was preparing himself in case there was going to be a fight.
I was such a bad person asking him here. Making him risk his life just so I could ease my own guilt.
“Let's do this”
He was right it was time, I couldn’t sit in the car staring upwards all day.
The foyer looked just the same.
So did the elevator.
But what had I been expecting? That because my life had been irrevocably changed that the world around me would be as well?
It was only when we approached his door, that my feet faltered. “Wren” I knew my eyes were wild as I hung back and he had no choice but to step back for me. His hand firm on my arm as he steadied me.
“Amelia you do not have to do this” He repeated again.
But I did. I needed to see the devastation I had left in my wake.
“You” Gabbys voice cut through, I hadn’t knocked, I hadn’t even reached his door yet but here she was. What were the odds that she would be leaving the apartment at just the right moment?
“Gabby”
“You shouldn’t be here, witch”
The last word was hissed, making it unclear whether she had called me a witch or a b***h. I guess both were pretty accurate.
“I just…” I couldn’t get the words out, my mind swirled into chaos. All swirling colours and white noise.
He was so close I could almost smell him.
“Amelia needs to see your master” Wrens voice was firm, he put the weight of his alpha status behind it. How had he known that was what I was going to say?
“That’s not going to happen, especially not with you at her heels”
It seemed Gabby had finally grown a backbone, it wasn’t big enough to intimidate Wren though.
Giant black dragon trumped Lioness I guessed.
“You either let us in willingly so she can see what she needs to see or I force my way in and things get…” Another roll of those corded shoulders. His threat clear. “Complicated again” He suddenly smiled at her, and she shifted away nervously. Gabby knew dragons, she knew when a smile was genuine happiness and when it meant you were going to have your head bit off literally. “Hey she just wants to see him, she doesn’t want to talk to him”
I shot him a look, my lips pursing. Had I said that? Or had he just decided to take charge? Decide whether or not I spoke to the man I was tied to for life?
“You have five minutes” Reluctantly she opened the door, leaving it open as she led us into the apartment.
“I'll only need one” I half-whispered, the word dying on my lips as I stepped into the doorway of the lounge.
My heart skidded to a stop and then thudded a start again, so loud it was deafening in my ears. I caught Wrens worried expression out of the corner of my eye but he didn’t move from his position behind me.
He didn’t touch me, not even to show support. And I knew he wouldn’t unless absolutely necessary. Not here in the same room as my … mate.
He was sat with his back to the door, his back ramrod straight. His dark hair longer than I remembered as it curled at his neck.
I wanted to see his face yet couldn’t move. I could barely breathe.
It was only then I saw it. It wasn’t a chair he was sitting on.
It was a wheelchair.
I stumbled back, biting down on my closed fist to stifle a sob as I hid my face against Wren's firm chest.
What the hell had I done?
“Get your hands off my mate”
- Writer
