Captured By The Dragon
Episode 46

Patara

“Patara! He sent you more roses!” My mother bursted into my room with a large vase of yellow roses. I hadn’t seen her that happy since my sister was getting married. She placed them on my dresser with a dreamy sigh as if they were actually for her. “Isn’t he the sweetest man you have ever met?”

I rolled my eyes and stood. I still hadn’t broken my habit of staying in my pajamas all day until night when I would bathe and put on a new pair. I knew it irritated my mother more than anything, perhaps that was why I didn’t want to change most of the days. Lately it had been feeling good to not be the doll she could model and tell what to do.

She turned to face me and her face dropped as if it was right on cue. “Would it kill you to look happy? You’re lucky he is even interested in you after what happened. Most men would run the other way if they knew you had been taken into the shifter world.”

“How come you didn’t tell him about the pregnancy?” I asked before she could insult me further. “He said you talked to him all the time, but you didn’t tell him what was happening to me?”

A look of surprise crossed her face. Did she not expect him to tell me? Or did she think I would be too ashamed to bring it up?

“I didn’t think you would want people to know about it.” She finally said. She turned away from me and acted as if she was arranging the flowers that were already set perfectly. “He didn’t need to know that part of you, Patara. I hope you didn’t tell him.”

“Of course I told him, mother. Why would I lie about that?”

My mother turned to me with a look of horror on her face. “Oh Patara! You didn’t!” She put her hand over her heart as if it was suddenly broken. “He will never consider you now. I just know he’s going to tell other men to stay away too.”

I wanted to mention that he literally had just sent me flowers but I didn’t want to get her hope back up for a man that I knew I wouldn’t marry. Not even in a thousand years.

“Mother— I don’t care about replaceing a husband right now! I wish you would stop caring so much about that. I’m not ready for one and I don’t think I ever will be.”

My mother’s face twisted into something darker when she looked at me. “How dare you say that! Why would you ever utter those words!” She hissed.

“My baby just died and you only care about me getting married one day? You could at least pretend that you care.”

“I wouldn’t waste a single tear on that child! You are better without it so consider it a favor that it is gone now!” My mother shouted before she slammed the door behind her. It took everything in me not to follow her out there and scream at her for the vile things she said.

But—

What did she mean consider it a favor that it’s gone now?

I massaged my chest where my broken heart still beat and sat on the edge of my bed. She hadn’t looked even slightly sad when the doctor said the news. Even my father looked a little sad for me even if he didn’t want me to have the baby in the first place.

I hurried to my phone and dialed Malcom’s number.

“Hello?” He picked up on the second ring.

I went to sit in my closet and closed the door so my mother couldn’t hear me.

“Hi, Malcom. Are you free to talk? It’s Patara.” I said quietly into the phone.

“Yes, I saw it was you.” He laughed. “I’m free for the next ten minutes. What’s up? Did something happen?”

“No, no. Nothing happened. I was just checking in to see if you had started to investigate the thing we talked about.”

There was a beat of silence. I closed my eyes and waited for him to respond. “I have started.”

My heart skipped a nervous beat in my chest. “Anything?”

“There are things that are a bit odd about it. I can’t talk to you about this over the phone. When I have more, I will call you to meet me.”

I let out a long breath. “Okay. Thank you.”

I could hear him hesitate. “Is that… all you called me for?” He asked.

A sense of dread filled me up. I felt a little guilty to even admit it. “Yes. Oh, and thank you for the flowers. My mom loves them.”

“They’re for you…” He laughed a little but it sounded forced. “Did you like them?”

“They’re beautiful, of course I do. I have to go now, but thank you again. Bye.”

I quickly hung up the phone before he could say any more. I know he was a nice man, I know he was what most girls dreamed about but—not me. There was another boy in my dreams and I couldn’t seem to make him leave no matter how hard I tried.

Why did I only seem to want what was bad for me instead of what was good? Why was it so easy for my sister to love a good man and not ever wonder what else is out there? Didn’t she ever read a book and fall for the bad boy? Or was I the only one that had secret crushes like that?

I sighed and crawled out of my closet. I threw on a hoodie before I ventured out of my room for the first time that day. I felt like a pile of skin and bones walking around—there wasn’t much left of me.

“…I don’t know what we’re going to do with her.” My mother hissed down the hall. Her door was left slightly opened and I couldn’t help but stop to listen.

“Give her time, Sherry. She’s not going to be fine over night. The more you push her, the more she will resist until she just won’t listen.”

“I have given her enough time to mourn that horrible creature. She should thank me that it’s gone!”

I felt my entire body freeze at her words.

“Sherry. What the hell are you talking about?” My father spoke calmly, more calm than I would have ever spoken if it was me in there.

“Nothing.” She said quickly. “I just mean she should thank me that I am trying to get her to move on with life instead of sleeping all day and crying over a child she never even met.”

“Give her space or you will lose her.” My father said in a tone that ended the conversation right there.

My mother said nothing, but I could hear one of them head to the door so I slipped back in my room. My aching heart only grew more suspicious of what happened to my child. of what happanad to my child.