Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(13)

“In theory. I could think of a lot easier and more fun ways to make heat—and fire too.”

There she went with that naughty talk again. She winked at Samson.

“I’m sure you could.”

Rhi looked up from the pile of sticks. “What did you do with my friend?”

I pointed back toward the town. “She’s down there, probably knee-deep in documents and Sam’s drool. I’m sure it’s everything she imagined and more.” I chuckled a little thinking about Sam in dragon form, heaving with gobs of saliva coming from his mouth over Kallie, deep in thought and research, without a clue.

My stomach lurched against the thought. Even though I knew she was my mate, deep down, I still knew better. Being mated to a human had so many repercussions. Least of all, watching them run and protest once they knew what you were.

Mourning the loss of them for whatever time they needed to process what you were underneath the human skin.

Waiting for them to realize that the dragon was only a part of you—a part that maybe loved them more than the human side was even capable of.

“I’m sure. She lives for all of that research. I’m not sure what she will do with herself after she finds the answers she’s looking for. Well, that’s not true. I know what she’ll do. Kallie will immerse herself in some other cause. Dig back into school. Burn herself out on books and coffee, chasing something just out of reach.”

I turned to face the cliff. Somehow, if I faced away from the conversation, maybe Rhi wouldn’t know how completely invested I was in all facets of Kallie.

“What’s she reaching for?” I asked, mostly to the mountains.

“Not sure. I’m not even sure she knows. She’s always been a little displaced.”

“But she has a family. Her mom was here last summer with her, right?”

“She was—I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”

“She must’ve mentioned it,” I breathed the lie.

“Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I can’t get this fire started with Mr. Heavy-Breathing looking over my shoulder.”

Rhi moved to the smaller fire pit next to one of the picnic tables I’d built for the classes. Samson came over, both of our backs turned to the student.

“What happened with the girl? She your mate or what?”

I chuckled and bent my head to look down at the rocks. “Yeah. Think so. She’s got some effect on me, that’s for sure.”

“Damn, a human. There hasn’t been a dragon mated to a human here in-well, since Gram.”

There was a moment of silence between us. Gram had been the most special woman in the world to us growing up.

He cleared his throat. “You’ve got two weeks, right? Not so bad. I could court a girl in that amount of time, no problem.”

My brother wouldn’t know how to court a girl if she was hog-tied to a manual on how to woo women.

“Not so bad? I’ve got less than two weeks to try to get her to like me a little before I tell her about the big bad monster inside, then I’ve got to get her to like me again. Not to mention the other thing. Who knows what the little sleuth will dig up in the courthouse. Right. No problem at all. Two weeks is such a breeze.”

Samson slapped me on the shoulder, hard. “Little brother, maybe you’re making this too hard on yourself. Maybe she digs tails and teeth, you never know. It’s the quiet, shy girls like Kallie that you have to be careful with. She’s probably wild underneath all that.”

A growl ripped from my mouth after gathering in my chest.

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Shit. You’ve got it bad. Wait, you said she had some effects on you. I mean, other than the obvious,” he wiggled his eyebrows, “is there something you’re not telling me?”

I turned my head over my shoulder to see Rhi saying something to the sticks meant to be already on fire. She was either cursing Samson or asking Odin above why in the hell she’d chosen to take survival classes. Either way, she wasn’t paying any attention to us.

“The scales—the ones that are still here.” I pointed to my neck, the part hidden just below my shirt. “They buzz or something when she’s around—a lot.”

He clamped down on his lips, trying not to laugh. “Wait, are you saying that you vibrate when Kallie’s around? Hell, she might be into that. My mate certainly would.”

He got socked in the stomach for that one.

“Okay, okay. Sorry. What else? Anything else?”

“My dragon is restless. It’s like he wants out when she’s around. I’ve barely kept him under wraps. I have to fly tonight or he’s going to rip me apart.”

“Mine did that too when I was mating. I swear our dragons love our mates more than we do.”

A loud yelp from behind us startled me. We turned around, expecting the worst, Rhi was burned or had hurt herself.

“I did it!”

Kallie’s friend had done more than build a fire. The flames in front of her were roaring, but even more than that, they were flickering turquoise and royal blue under the morning sun.

“Samson! What did you do?”





6





Kallie