Chapter 196: He Was Not Taking Rejection Well

ASH’S POV

Earlier that afternoon, Ash stayed beside the loading steps after Dove left, staring at the gate she had walked through without looking back.

Blood ran into his mouth. He wiped it away with his thumb and tasted it again anyway. The bear had split his lip. That should have been the thing bothering him.

He could still hear her calling them her husbands.

Both of them. Not a guard she kept close because the road was dangerous. Not a man she tolerated until something better came along. She had put her hands on Edrik’s torn shirt and pulled him toward her as if losing him would have hurt.

Ash’s hand closed around the railing. Metal groaned, and the clerk stopped picking up the fallen cups.

"That one’s already damaged," the man said carefully.

Ash let go. Four deep dents remained beneath his fingers.

The clerk looked at those, then at the gate. "Would you mind leaving through the open part?"

For a moment Ash considered asking whether that was supposed to be funny. The man was sweating through his collar. He meant it.

Ash moved away from the railing.

He should leave. There were roads that needed clearing and people who would listen when he spoke. He had crossed half the state to find her, and she had looked at him as though the distance meant nothing.

Because to her, it hadn’t.

He made it through the gate before the memory of her pulling back her hand stopped him again. Thorne had caught his wrist, but Dove had been the one who withdrew. She hadn’t waited to see whether Ash would hurt her. She simply hadn’t wanted him touching her.

His jaw tightened until the cut opened again.

Down the street, the bear crouched in front of her beneath a tree. Ash could see the white hair bowed close to her face, the broad shoulders held still while she wiped his mouth. Thorne stood beside them with an open bag.

She was scolding Edrik. Ash couldn’t hear the words, but he knew the sharp lift of her chin, the finger she pointed when somebody had annoyed her.

Edrik caught that hand and held it.

Ash stepped into the road before he knew he had moved. A cart driver swore and hauled sideways to miss him, then saw his face and forgot the rest of the sentence.

"Keep going," Ash said.

The wheels rattled past. Across the street, Dove accepted something wrapped in paper from Thorne. A sandwich. She took a furious bite while Edrik watched her with a look Ash wanted to knock off his face.

He could still fight. She had cleaned the blood from him, but there was nothing wrong with his legs.

Ash wanted to give him something she couldn’t wipe away with a cloth.

Then Dove tucked herself against Thorne’s side, her hand still caught in Edrik’s, and Ash stayed where he was.

If he crossed now, she would stop eating. Her shoulders would tighten again. He had seen it at the table, seen her stiffen while he looked at the men beside her, and kept looking anyway.

She had wanted lunch. He had wanted her eyes on him.

He turned before she could notice him standing there.

The security office occupied a former tire shop two streets over. One service bay held parked patrol carts, and the other had been cleared for benches and a desk. Ash walked through the open bay door and stopped in front of the man sorting armbands.

"You need men."

The officer looked up. His gaze caught on the horns, the blood, then Ash’s hands. "Most knock."

"There isn’t a door."

"It’s a figure of speech."

Ash waited. After a moment, the officer pushed his chair back without standing.

"What can you do?"

"I’m a dragon."

"I noticed. Can you follow an order without breaking my desk?"

Ash looked down. He had put his hand on its edge. He took it off.

The officer reached for an unmarked strip of cloth. "We have a storm warning. Men will need help moving barriers, covering windows, getting people out of places they should’ve left already. You’ll work with a crew."

Ash glanced toward the street. Dove was still out there, in shorts, with her hair loose against the back of her neck. He had spent the meeting noticing the pale skin above her knees while she told him what he had done to her.

He hadn’t deserved even that much of her time.

"Which crew covers the market?" he asked.

The officer’s hand stopped over the armbands. "Depends which market."

Ash gave him the street. He knew where her shop was. He hated how quickly the answer came.

"Friends there?"

"Someone from my Warren."

The lie was easy until he heard it. She had left his Warren. She had stood in front of him and said she owed him nothing, and he was still trying to find a name that made her his concern.

The officer watched him for another moment. "Your crew goes where it’s needed."

Ash took the band. He tied it around his upper arm, pulling the knot tight enough to bite.

By evening he had moved barriers, carried water for the crew, and heard three different men complain about the heat. None had seen a dragon standing beside a stalled cart and offered an opinion about Dove.

That had helped.

Then they reached the market, and he saw her beneath the awning, reaching for Thorne’s hand while Edrik took her dinner plate. She hadn’t spent the afternoon watching the street for him. She had gone home and gotten hungry.

Ash stopped beside the maintenance crew’s cart. He wanted to hear her laugh again, even if the sound made him want to hit something.

The radio burst into speech. A worker pressed it to his ear, looked toward the roofs, and started running ahead to warn the shops.

Ash followed his gaze. Brown dust rose beyond the buildings, swallowing the sun. Wind shoved hot grit against his teeth.

Across the road, Dove caught her cup before it slid off the table. Thorne stood, and Edrik carried the plates inside. They were moving together before Ash could take a step.

He had found a reason to stay near her.

Now the crew leader caught his arm and pointed away from her street.

"With us, dragon. The west gate needs those barriers."