Last Immortal Dragon (Gray Back Bears #6)(23)

Stupid man. She was so pissed off at him she couldn’t see straight. Couldn’t think straight. She rushed down the winding hallways and through the guest bedroom door, where she slammed it as best she could behind her, then made her way into the bathroom and ran the shower water as hot as she could stand it. She needed her muscles as loose as possible if she was going to set her shoulder back into its socket on her own. Stupid, stupid man. And why was she crying? The combination of adrenaline, anger, and pain were making her light-headed.

She pressed her back against the shower wall and slid down, her shoulders shaking with her sobbing.

And then Damon was there, looking at her with his dark eyes gone soft. He stepped into the oversize shower and knelt down beside her. “Shhh,” he cooed, wiping her wet tresses from her face. “I’ll fix it.” He felt her shoulder, dug into the muscle with an expert touch, and snapped it back into place.

She screamed and huddled into herself at the blast of pain, but he’d done well. The bone was back in its socket, and she could use her arm again. It ached something fierce, but at least it wasn’t the blinding, excruciating pain anymore.

Damon sat beside her and dragged her into his lap under the rain shower. “Clara, I’m so sorry. I thought you were her for a minute. I thought I’d been tricked all this time. You said her words in your sleep, and I thought I hadn’t remembered her death right. Like maybe she’d lived and was back to torture me again.”

“I’m not her. I don’t know what is happening to me with the dreams or visions or whatever they are, but I’m me. I’m Clara.” She was desperate to hang onto the belief that she wasn’t somehow the reincarnation of that woman in the paintings. She didn’t want to be Feyadine. Feyadine had betrayed Damon.

“I know you aren’t her. I shouldn’t have questioned it. I got confused, and I reacted poorly.” He rubbed her back, over and over, his touch slick with the hot water. “You’re self-assertive and funny. You speak easily with others and can hold my gaze. You’re brave and strong. And shit, if you hadn’t proven you weren’t a dragon by turning into that beautiful grizzly of yours, I would have known you weren’t Feyadine by the way you attacked me without hesitation. Feyadine couldn’t do any of those things. She was shy and submissive, and it was endearing until she let it turn into weakness instead. You aren’t weak, and you aren’t anything like her.”

“Other than my face.”

“My guess is that came along because you are descended from her family’s bloodline. Her brother’s, in fact. Nall liked mixing with humans and other shifters. He created some of the first dragon hybrids. I’ve been off balance since the first time I saw you. It feels like something I don’t understand is happening, and it’s bigger than you, and it’s bigger than me. It feels like this storm is churning over our heads and, at any moment, it’s going to rain down on us. This can’t be fate giving me a second chance at a true mate. Fate doesn’t work like that for me. She takes more than she gives. Always has.”

“Why do I have her memories, Damon? What’s happening to me?”

Damon shook his head and stared at the shower door with a troubled expression as little drops of water fell from the damp ends of his black hair. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out together, okay?”

Clara nodded, but Damon wasn’t off the hook yet. “You blew fire at me.”

“You bit me, and technically, I didn’t blow it at you. I have good aim. I blew it at your exit. I wanted you to Change so I could tell for sure. I had it in my head you would Change into Feyadine’s dragon out of fear, but you turned into a pissed off she-grizzly instead.”

“Damn straight I was pissed off.”

“You were magnificent,” he growled out, nipping at her neck. “It was so f*cking sexy seeing your animal for the first time. Red hair, red fur. That’s where your crew’s name came from, isn’t it? The Red Claws? And watching you set your angry glare on me and charging to battle at a dead sprint? I’m so damned proud you’re mine. If our child turns out to be a bear cub, I hope he’s as red-hided as you.”

“You still want to have a baby with me?”

Damon chuckled and leaned his head back on the tile wall. “I do.”

“Damon?”

“Mmm?”

“You said Marcus cut Feyadine’s eggs out of her.”

His chest rose and fell in a slow exhalation. “Female full-blooded dragons were different from the hybrid daughters I’ve had. They lived for a certain amount of time before the instincts to bear offspring became too overwhelming. I thought Feyadine was too young to breed and that I had time with her, but I was wrong.”

“What happened?”

“Marcus found my people while I was out scouting a new place to hide them. He killed them all. Women, children, unhatched eggs, all of my warriors. Feyadine’s body met me on my return. She hung on long enough for me to say goodbye. She said, ‘I’m sorry, and I’ll make everything up to you. You won’t be alone forever. I’ll find you again, and when I do, I’ll be stronger. I’ll gift you mortality with the blood of an immortal dragon, and you’ll be free.’ And then she died in my arms.”

“What did she mean?”