Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(28)

She looked at the table when Geneva approached. There was an attitude in her walk and gait. “Good evening, you two. What will it be?” I met Geneva’s eyes. She got my drift: less attitude. She cleared her throat and her voice was changed. “It’s been a long night. Sorry, y’all. We basically serve two things here: burgers with fries and steaks with mashed potatoes. Keeps the grocery list to cow and taters. What’s your pleasure?”

“Burger for me, Kallie?”

I recognized the look on her face—she was trying to figure this place out. Already she knew something was different.

“Same for me. Coke, please?”

Geneva looked at me. “Scotch rocks, water after that.”

“Got it. About ten minutes.”

In less than three, she brought our drinks.

Kallie continued to sigh and look around. “I sat outside that backdoor for two hours.” She said the sentence so fast that even my dragon hearing almost missed it.

“I was told that, and I could smell you after I went out there. They should’ve told me sooner.”

She stopped with her Coke halfway to her lips. “You smelled me?”

I nodded. “I have a keen sense of smell.”

She had no idea what to make of that.

Our burgers were served faster than promised. They were huge, even with my constant hunger. We had flash metabolisms and often had to eat massive amounts of food to keep up our strength.

“What did you want to tell me, Knox? I can’t even eat. It’s too dark in here. Too many eyes on us.”

She wasn’t wrong. There were not only eyes on us but every two or three minutes, a comment about the human Alpha female, good and bad, came from somewhere in the room. I didn’t have the strength or will to address the culprits.

“There’s some things I have to explain to you and I have just one request: that you stay until the end before deciding what you want to do, how you want to handle this. Also, I want you to know that you are safe here; anywhere I am, you are safe from anything and everything.”

Her fingers tapped on the table. “I’m safe and stay until the end. Got it.”

“You noticed that the people here bowed a little when I came in. That’s where I’ll start. I am the leader of them, of this clan. They bow to me out of respect for my position as their Alpha.”

For a moment, I thought she was going to laugh.

“Alpha? Like werewolves alpha? If you start sprouting hair, I’m not waiting until the end. I’m off like a dirty shirt.”

There were some clansmen who didn’t have any success containing their laughter.

“I’m not a werewolf, darlin. Canines are disgusting beings. You remember earlier, you said that you saw something shine on my neck?”

“Yeah…” Her voice intonated like it was a question.

I unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt and pulled it back from my skin at the collar to reveal something that no one had ever seen-only Samson. “You did see something. See how it changes colors? Glimmers? That’s only when…”

She interrupted. “Can I touch it?”

Another round of snickers from the bar. “Of course. Here.” I got closer to her, our hips and feet touching beneath the table.

The female was fearless. She didn’t hesitate. Her hand glided along my scale, making it buzz while my dragon rolled and melted with the sensation of her skin, not only on a part of me, but a part of him too.

“What is it? Why is it…”

I put a finger over her lips before she could say vibrating or something of the sort. My clansmen couldn’t keep it contained as it was. I wished they would all go home.

“It reacts this way because you are near. It’s me reacting to you. It’s how I knew, know that you are my mate.”

I just let that sit in the air for a few minutes.

“I need some air,” she finally said.

“You have to hear everything I have to say, Kallie, and I’ve hardly gotten started.”

With both hands, she grabbed the front of my shirt. “I want to hear everything. I just need to get out of here.”

“Let’s go then.” I got up and I guided her with my hand on her back toward the entrance. “Here. Better? We can walk a while. There’s a trail up there with an excellent view of the mountains.”

She looked up where I was pointing, probably making a decision about whether or not she trusted me.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

We walked for a while until we came to the cliff and both sat down.

“What is that on your neck? Why does it mean I’m your…”

She let go of my hand that she had taken somewhere on the trail. “It is a dragon scale. I’m a dragon shifter. The reaction of my scale to your presence means that you’re my mate—my soulmate—the one I’m destined to be with for the rest of my life.”

With both of her hands now on her face, she spoke softly, trying to be as calm as possible, failing miserably. I could’ve heard her heart pounding on the other side of the country.

“Is this like literal? Like your skin turns into scales and you fly and breathe fire? Or are we talking metaphorical, like you’re a real beast of a man inside?”

It was my turn to laugh.

“Kallie, I come from a long line of humans who change forms into dragons and fly and have scales and breathe fire.”