Brother’s Best Friends Are My Mates novel Chapter 120

Lia

The dragon shifter showed up, climbing into the back of the truck I was sitting there with him, wishing he would stop staring at me so strangely. He was looking at me as if he knew me but the two of us didn’t know each other!

“You seem familiar,” the dragon shifter said, his golden eyes studying me with unnerving intensity. I stiffened. “We’ve never met.”

A small, almost amused smirk played on his lips. “Of course. And yet…” He tilted his head slightly, his gaze sweeping over me like he was searching for something. “There’s something about you. Almost as if we have met before. In another life, maybe.”

I swallowed, my heart pounding against my ribs. “That’s not possible.”

“Isn’t it?” His voice was smooth, but there was something else beneath it-something ancient, knowing. “I’ve lived long enough to believe in more than just what’s in front of me.”

I held my ground, forcing my voice to stay steady. “Then maybe it’s just a trick of the mind.” He studied me for a long moment before his lips curled slightly. “Perhaps.”

I crossed my arms. “You don’t believe that.” “Would you?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His smirk deepened. “Don’t you?”

I exhaled sharply. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting that some things… are not as simple as memory. Recognition goes deeper than the mind.” “That doesn’t make sense.”

“To you, maybe.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admitted, tilting his head slightly. “But I will.” “You sound so sure of yourself.”

“I am.”

I scoffed. “And what if you’re wrong?”

His gaze flickered, something unreadable in his expression. “I don’t think I am.” Silence stretched between us, heavy and charged.

Then, softly, he murmured, “Do I seem familiar to you?” I hesitated for a second too long.

His smirk returned. “Interesting.”

I clenched my jaw. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“No?” He stepped closer, the heat of his presence making my skin prickle. “Then why do you look at me like that?” “Like what?”

“Like you’re trying to remember.”

I bristled. “You’re imagining things.”

His gaze dipped, scanning my face like he could peel back layers of time. “I don’t think I am.”

A shiver ran through me despite the warmth of the room. “You’re confident in your assumptions.” “I prefer to call it certainty.”

I exhaled, trying to ignore the way my pulse thrummed at his nearness. “Then you’re wasting your time.”

He studied me for another breath before murmuring, “We’ll see.” I hated how those two words sent a chill down my spine.

I forced myself to take a step back “Believe what you want. It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve never met.” “And yet,” he mused, voice dipping lower, “I can’t shake the feeling that we have.”

I refused to let his words unnerve me. “Well, I can.”

His smirk deepened like he was amused by my defiance. “Then tell me-why does your heartbeat stutter every time I step closer?”

My breath hitched. “It doesn’t.”

A knowing look flashed in his golden eyes. “Lie to yourself all you want, little one.” I scowled. “Don’t call me that.”

He chuckled, low and rich. “Why? Does it stir something in you?” I glared at him. “You’re insufferable.”

“So I’ve been told.” His expression sobered slightly. “But that doesn’t change the truth.” I folded my arms tightly across my chest. “And what truth is that?”

He leaned in just enough that I caught the faint scent of something ancient and warm-fire and earth, smoke and something unnamable. “That you know me,” he murmured. “Even if you don’t remember why.”

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

Then, gathering every ounce of resolve, I forced myself to hold his gaze and said, “You’re wrong.” His golden eyes gleamed. “We’ll see.”

My frustration grew with every second. I was relieved to get back to the abandoned town where the coven was still taking shelter. The dragon turned to me, a small smirk playing on his lips.

“Let me give you some of my blood.” I balked. “Excuse me?”

“Take some of my blood.”

My mates started to growl. It started with Matt before Jesse started doing it. “For wolves, that isn’t something we do lightly.”

He blinked. “I’m not saying to consume it. Combine your magic with my blood. “How the hell do you know this?”

“I… don’t know,” he admitted.

It was clear from the look in his eyes he was telling the truth. He didn’t understand why he was saying this and it scared him. I was scared, too.

She shook her head. “One of the elders decided it wasn’t worth destroying humanity, so they changed the spell into a curse. The dragons would remain asleep so long as the Rosewater Coven continued to watch over them.”

“Yes, well, what changed? Other than us chasing you away from there,” I grumbled.

The elder sighed heavily. “The blood oath we wanted so much? It wasn’t what you thought. We needed to continue what the original elder started because when they cast the curse, they used their blood.”

Lia paled. “My grandmother was related to that elder, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, and then she left, taking that bloodline with her. The other elders have been at this longer than I have, so I don’t know how they kept the dragons asleep, but somehow they did. But it was going to run out, which was why we needed the baby since you and your brother refused to cooperate.”

They were going to wake up anyway.

It was a realization I didn’t expect to learn today.

“That must be why I felt my blood would react with yours, Lia,” the dragon shifter explained. “The curse must’ve changed us somehow, tying your bloodline to ours.”

It was mind-boggling.

Lia was the first to break the silence. “You were going to take a baby. A newborn. Just to keep this curse going?”

The elder shifted uncomfortably. “It wasn’t ideal, but we were out of options. Without the bloodline, the spell would unravel, and the dragons would wake up. You’ve seen what’s happening. The world isn’t ready for them.”

The dragon shifter let out a slow breath, his golden eyes flickering in the dim light of the truck. “And yet, here we are.”

I ran a hand through my hair, frustration mounting. “So you just never thought to tell anyone? Never thought that maybe, just maybe, someone should’ve been prepared for this?”

The eider’s lips pressed into a thin line. “We were told it would never come to this. That the spell would hold. That if we did our part, the dragons would remain asleep forever.”

Rain scoffed. “Forever? That’s the kind of dumb shit that gets people killed.” Lia’s grip on my hand tightened. “So what do we do now?”

The dragon shifter turned his gaze to the elderly, his expression unreadable. “You said the spell was changed into a curse. But curses can be broken, can’t they?”

The eider’s eyes widened slightly, her fingers twitching against the ropes that bound her wrists. “I-I don’t know.” I narrowed my eyes. “Try harder.”

“Then we have to figure it out,” Lia said, her voice small.

It was going to be a hell of a thing to figure out.