Water Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 2) (19 page)

“He said that?” Candy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Part of her felt hurt. He renounced her.

“Yup. You are free to go whereever you want. You are quite safe. Just don’t be too surprised if any of the guys turn around and walk the other way if they see you coming.”

“He wouldn’t really hurt anyone though.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure I like this jealous side. It’s what caused the problems between us in the first place.”

“Yes and no.” Sky widened her eyes. “He is in love with you. Normally a couple would mate and be done with it. With you two, everything has been up in the air indefinitely. On the one hand it’s good for Torrent, he needed to learn to work for a female. He’s had it too easy but on the other hand, it’s not natural for a shifter. He is driven to mate you and to keep other suitors away. He is hardwired this way. Doing anything else will demand huge strength and patience. It will go against his grain. I need to give you some advice.”

Candy smiled. The other woman was a mother figure and a friend all rolled into one. “That’s fine. Go ahead.”

“I can see that you weren’t happy when I mentioned that Torrent had renounced you. I know your feelings run deep for him.” She paused. “Here goes, don’t make him wait too long. I don’t know what he did or said to make you so angry with him but please, take my advice on this one.”

“It’s not about making him wait. I can’t help my own feelings.”

“Do you love him?”

Candy bit down on her lip.

“Do you?” She used a more pressing tone.

Candy nodded. “I do.”

Sky smiled. “Let him pay for being a prick and then take him back. He is a shifter and he loves you. He will never want another female… you are it for him. I’m not saying he won’t be an idiot or do the wrong thing from time to time. He is a male.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s bound to happen but you need to trust that he will ultimately do right by you.”

“You’re right.” Candy smiled. “I’ll try really hard to let this go.” A big part of her already had. It was important though that he never do anything like this again. He needed to accept her for who she was. That meant every part of her, the good, the bad and yes, the ugly. She was who she was. “And…” She raised her brows. “Any sign of your pregnancy?” It was a shameless change of subject but she was also really curious.

“Not yet.” Sky beamed. “It’s still a bit early though.”

“I’m sure that all of the signs will be there in no time.” Then she frowned. “What are the signs anyway? I’m sure it’s different from a human pregnancy.”

“I don’t know much about human pregnancies. Dragons are different, even amongst our own species. Air and water dragons are similar in that we give birth to live young.”

Candy felt her mouth gape for a second. “As opposed to?”

“Fire dragon females lay eggs.”

“You’re shitting me?”

She shook her head. “Nope. You can count your lucky stars that you weren’t nabbed by one of the fire dragons. It’s the male that dictates the pregnancy. I’m an air dragon but my son or…” She looked wistful. “My daughter, will be water because my mate is a water dragon.”

Candy could feel that her eyes were wide in her head. “Okay, so you’ll actually give birth to a baby, not a dragon or an egg?” She couldn’t help but to pull a face.

Sky smiled. “Yup.” She probably didn’t know she was doing it, but her hand was touching her lower belly. “In about six months or so, if all goes well, I’ll give birth to a baby. If not…” She pulled her hand away like she had been burned. “It’ll be at least six months before I go into heat again.” Her eyes clouded.

“Wow… so long?” Candy gave Sky a shoulder bump. “I’m sure you must be… you know.”

She looked horrified for a second. “Don’t jinx me.” Then she nodded. “It’s fine, I’m one of the lucky females, at least I am fertile. If I’m not with child, there’s always next time.” She tried to sound like she didn’t mind either way but Candy could see the longing in her eyes.

“What happened to your species?”

Sky shrugged again. She looked sad. “Females just stopped being born. Simple yet devestating. A female birth is a rare occurance. She-dragons that go into heat, are even more rare at that. And here we are”—she waved her hands about them—“surrounded mostly by males. Most of our remaining females are elderly and already mated.”

Candy nodded. She tried to lighten the mood. “Hopefully us humans can help out, for a while at least. Who knows, if enough she-dragons are born in the coming years, there’ll be no need for any future hunts.”

Sky laughed. “Firstly, the hunt is a dragon tradition that was started because there were not nearly enough females to go around. Male dragons have hunted she-dragons for many years. It’s considered exciting and fun. Only the strongest, most resilient males win and continue the bloodlines. Then…” She hesitated. “You really weren’t told anything before being hunted?”

Candy shook her head. “We were fed bullshit, remember?”

Sky made a humming sound. “Right. Human females will only birth males. At least, it is most likely that you will birth males.”

“How can you know that?”

“It is twofold. Firstly, the two human females that have birthed dragons both had males and then, the other shifters species that interbred with humans also all had males. It’s the same with the vampires. There has yet to be one female offspring from a non-human with a human, and this being true across the species.”

“Okay.” She licked her lips. “I haven’t given kids much thought. I guess I wouldn’t mind either way. It’s good to know I won’t have to push out an egg though.”

Sky pulled a face. “The only downside is that we are pregnant for much longer. It’s only six weeks incubation time for the egg layers and then it takes about six weeks for an egg to hatch. We have to carry for a whole six months. It’s back breaking. Labor is much longer and—”

“Only six?” Candy laughed. “Try nine on for size. That’s how long humans are pregnant for.”

“Nine.” Her eyes were wide. “I won’t complain then. Labor lasts about six to eight hours. Our young are pretty small and weak when they are born, normally around four and a half pounds.”

“That’s tiny. I’m beginning to think that human women got the short end of the stick.”

“Nah, the vampires did,” Sky raised her brows. “They’re pregnant the longest and give birth to huge babies. Rumor has it that their females have narrow hips. Most of the females are too narrow in the pelvis to birth young.” She lifted her head and cocked it to the side. “We’ll talk about this later.”

“You still haven’t told me how we’ll know if you’re pregnant or not.”

“My scent will change. It’s even more noticable since I’m a an air dragon and Lake is a water dragon. You might end up being the first human pregnant with a royal, dragon child.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “How exciting would that be?” She gave Candy’s hand a squeeze.

Candy shook her head. “Not happening. I’m not ready for that.”

Sky shushed her. “We’ll chat later. I still haven’t told you about the earth dragons.” She giggled. “Your date is almost here.” She practically ran from the room.

Candy could hear her call out to someone. A deep voice answered. It was Torrent. Her heart beat a little faster.

It took about a half a minute for him to knock on her door.

She smoothed a hand down her dress. “Come in.”

He walked in and her eyes widened with surprise. Torrent was wearing jeans, a faded baseball shirt and sneakers. The jeans pulled tight around his thighs, as did the shirt around the span of his shoulders and the breadth of his biceps.

“You look amazing,” he growled. She forgot for a second that she was wearing a summer dress. It was pink, of all colors. It was one of the items he’d had his men purchase for her not so long ago. There were sandals on her feet and she wore her hair in a loose ponytail.

He pulled a face. “Am I allowed to say that? Surely I am? I can tell my friend”—he emphasized the word—“that she looks amazing, can’t I? Now…” His eyes turned up towards the ceiling. “If I said that you were sexy or just about the most ravishing creature that I’d ever seen, that would probably be pushing it… for a friend.”

She had to smile. “That might be pushing it… yes. You look pretty amazing yourself.”

“Yeah… um… I ran a little errand earlier. I got you something.”

“I don’t need anything. I told you that earlier.”

His face fell. He suddenly looked really unsure of himself. More like a little boy than a grown man… a king. She felt guilty. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”

Torrent grinned. “Okay well… I’m a little nervous now that I’m here… I had this all planned out. Shit!” He ran a hand through his hair.

“What is it? Now you have me all intrigued. I’m sure I’ll love it, as long as it’s not jewelry. No more jewelry.” She smiled.

He seemed to relax. “No, it’s nothing like that. If you’re not happy… I’ll make a plan.” He walked towards the door and then back towards her. “I’m sure you’ll like it.” Only, he didn’t look sure at all.

She smiled at him. Torrent turned and disappeared behind the front door.

When he came back, he had a sheepish look on his face and the cutest little puppy under his arm. It was a mix breed of some kind. The little thing had long hair and a long nose and the biggest brown eyes. The puppy reminded her of a teddy bear. Okay, not quite a teddy bear, maybe a dog mixed with a miniture bear. “Oh my word.” She gushed. “That’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” The little guy… She didn’t know how she knew but it was definitely a boy… had to be a few months old already. His tail wagged like mad.

“I didn’t name him. I thought you could do the honors. He’s yours.” Torrent smiled, it was shy and so sweet. “If you want him.”

Her heart melted a whole lot more. The dog began to squirm in his arms as she drew closer. He began to whine a little as she put her arms out towards him. Torrent spoke as he handed the bundle of fur to her. “I rescued him from the pound. They wanted to do a home check but when I told them that he was for you, they said it was fine. The check I wrote probably helped too.” He smiled. “Don’t get mad. This had nothing to do with money.”

She had to laugh. “I know that.”

Candy felt teary. She sniffed and widened her eyes to try and keep any tears from falling. She was so ridiculously emotional, which wasn’t like her dammit. She was just so happy. Her mom would never let her have a pet and her erratic hours made keeping a pet difficult after she left home. She’d always wanted a dog. The little one wriggled in her arms he was wagging his tail so hard. He licked her neck and her hands and tried to reach up to get at her face. He had puppy breath and everything. “You are the cutest little guy. Just the cutest.”

“Um.”

When she looked up Torrent was rocking on his heels. He looked nervous all over again.

“What’s wrong?” She licked her lips. “I’m thrilled. I couldn’t be happier.”

“There’s more.” He blurted.

“More?”

He nodded. Then he opened his mouth and thought better of speaking. He held up a hand, signalling for her to wait. Torrent walked out, the door clicked softly behind him. He returned holding a pet carrier. It was small and purple. The animal inside was growling.

“What have you got in there?”

Torrent put the carrier down.“Um… I couldn’t leave her there.” He chewed his lower lip. “I struggled to leave any of them there.” His expression darkended. “No creature should have to live behind those bars, in tiny cages. It’s not right.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I bothered though…” Then he grinned broadly and shrugged. “She’s not very grateful for the rescue.” As if on cue, another grow sounded.

Torrent opened the door to the carrier. It took about a half a minute but a tiny dog finally emerged. It looked like a chihuahua cross. She was almost black with dark eyes. There was grey fur around her mouth, which idicated that she was already quite old.

This time a serious lump formed in her throat and she had to really fight the tears. The older animals hardly ever found new homes. Torrent went down onto his haunches, he spoke softly to the small creature. The little dog wagged her tail but she also growled at poor Torrent. The growling got worse as he put a hand out towards her but then again so did the tail wagging.

Torrent chuckled. “I’m not sure what to make of her.” He shook his head. “I hope you don’t mind but I named her already.”

“Oh yeah?” Candy put the puppy down. The little one bounced around. He ran over to the black female and bounced around her but she remained indifferent.

Torrent nodded. “Yeah. It’s on account of her love hate relationship for me. You see, I know she loves me. I can tell these things.”

Candy made a sound of acknowledgement.

“But, she growls if I come anywhere near her. She snaps at me if I try and touch her.”

“I see.”

“I’ve decided that I have to call her Candy. Candy the Second.” He gave her a shiteating grin.

“You can’t name our dog after me.”

Our dog.

Our. Her heart raced.

“Want to bet? Watch this… Candy… Candy…” He called the dog, who turned towards him. The animal wagged her tail even harder. The moment Torrent moved a little closer she growled baring her little teeth. “See, she knows her name.”

Candy couldn’t help but to smile. “You can’t call her that.”

“It’s already done.”

She reached out and scratched the old girl behind the ear. There was zero reaction of any kind. No aggression, but neither was there any show of happiness. Pure indifference.

Torrent leaned in. “Your name is Candy. Am I right, girl?” The little dog wagged her tail. “See.”

“We’ll think of something else… together.”

He nodded. “Only if Candy the Second agrees.” He smiled.

“Whatever.” She gave him a swat on the side of the arm. “And Torrent.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

He nodded. “I’m going to start an adoption program and I’m hoping you’ll help me, since your medical career is out the window, on account of you being squeamish about blood.”

She had to laugh. He was right. “What did you have in mind?”