The second the words left his lips, he mentally cursed. He'd vowed not to use her as a verbal punching bag. "Ivy, I—"
"Save it, Zain. Not even you being an arsehole can take away the last few hours from me."
Mated less than a day, and his mate thought him an arsehole.
It shouldn't matter to him, it really shouldn't. The mating was fake. His duty was only to protect her, nothing else.
And yet, the thought of her hate festering didn't sit well with him. He needed to do better. And fast.
He continued to wheel her down the corridor to the correct room and searched his brain for how to be a decent mate to Ivy and stop treating her like crap. Otherwise she'd never tell him anything.
And yes, that had to be the real reason for his regret. He was too scared to think of any other cause.
Ivy's nervousness had faded quickly with the school children. True, some asked difficult questions about why she was there or if she had any family. Not to mention more than a few hovered at the edges of the room, wanting nothing to do with her. However, those who'd queued up to talk with her had made her day.
Well, more like her year considering she'd been unconscious for nearly that long.
All of the questions, plus Nikki joking
with some of the students about Ivy, had lowered her guard. It was almost impossible for her to believe an entire school had coordinated to trick her.
Which meant her last major doubts about the dragons being the monsters she'd been taught they were faded.
No, she wouldn't trust just anyone. But she could at least look around, observe, and judge for herself.
Dr. Rossi would probably have some fancy words for that realization.
Zain stopped in front of a door and grunted. "We're here. Are you sure you're not too tired?"
"Why, afraid they won't allow me in the same room as the students? Being an enclosed area and all, I could pick them off one by one," she drawled.
"No, you have dark circles under your eyes and you look haggard. That's why."
Zain visibly winced at his words. Could it be regret?
No, he'd made it clear that he didn't like her. Which was fine, but she wasn't about to let him ruin her day. "Well, this haggard human can handle looking over some notes and discussing chemistry with another being who understands it."
He searched her eyes a second before he said, "Before we go in, let me say this—I don't purposely try to be mean to you. It just happens."
She shook her head. "I'm not sure that makes it any better. After all, if I can try to shift my entire world view about your kind, you can at least try to be nice to one human."
The words surprised even Ivy, but she wasn't going to apologize for them. Jane, Emily, and Nikki had all repeated how she needed to stand up to Zain. And while there was zero chance of anything romantic happening between them—his hatred was too great—she could put the dragonman in his place a few times if it meant he'd be nicer to her.
His pupils flashed, reminding her of the beautiful red dragon ascending into the sky and an idea formed. "And you can start by letting me a have a private viewing of your dragon once I've rested and can go out again. I need to practice not flinching or showing fear, and it'll make you learn restraint because I'm fairly certain your clan leader wouldn't like you eating me as a snack."
He cleared his throat. "We don't eat humans. Cows or deer are much tastier to our dragon forms. And before you go off about us stealing them, we have our own farms stocked with those beasts, and more."
Interesting. That was something the Dragon Knights had never mentioned to her. Although she had to admit, it was hard to picture a dragon farmer or rancher. "So do you agree to the private session? Or, will you turn that down and run away again?"
"I didn't run away," he muttered.
She fought a smile. He had run from her earlier. The question was why, given he'd spent so much time trying to be in her room with her before.
He sighed and nodded. "Okay, fine. Once the doctors approve another outing, I'll show you my dragon form. But at the first sign of fear, I'm changing back. I promised to look after you, and that includes not sending you into a relapse or back into another coma."
She mustered up enough energy to raise a hand, offering to shake on it. Ivy fully expected for him to ignore it and turn away. But after a second, he took her hand in his and gently squeezed.
The warm, rough fingers from her first massage from him hadn't changed. And something about his hand dwarfing hers, almost as if it were shielding her hand from others, made her feel safe.