Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
He pulled on the magic again and tossed his hand up, but still nothing. This was wrong and very weird. At least this time, there had been an odd twinge in his chest. Something was happening.
Closing his eyes, Gregori mentally poked at his very quiet dragon, reminding it they had kids to entertain. When he pushed his hands toward the ceiling this time, the magic rushed out of him like normal. He opened his eyes to see fat snowflakes lazily floating toward the floor, landing on the tops of heads and on little pink tongues as the kids danced around the room.
Gregori clung to his smile as he watched the kids playing in the snow for another minute while stuffing down the panic churning in his stomach. It was nothing. It had to be nothing. Just stress. The status of him and Salem was constantly on his mind and had to be interfering with his ability to use magic. That was probably all it was.
With one last wave goodbye to the kids, he stepped out of the room. As he left, the snowflakes slowed to a stop while the nurses wrangled the kids back to their rooms.
“You know, doctor, that’s an interesting way of approaching the problem,” purred a slimy sounding voice, followed by Salem’s very warm chuckle.
“I don’t know if it’s interesting so much as common sense,” Salem replied. Only it didn’t sound like a brutal takedown of an idiot. No, it sounded just a little too warm and friendly.
Gregori spun on the balls of his feet, searching for the source of the voices, his own problems with magic long forgotten. Someone was flirting with his mate and that shit needed to be shut down immediately.
A quick scan of the main floor revealed Salem standing near the nurses’ station in his white doctor’s coat over a set of blue scrubs. His hair was a little messy from a long day of running his fingers through it, but there was none of the late-day fatigue in the smirk he directed at the guy leaning on the counter right next to him.
In fact, the weasel was way too close to Salem to begin with. Had he never heard of personal space? The only person allowed to stand so close to Salem was him.
“Medicine can only get a patient so far. Having a positive mindset has its own healing properties. But why do I feel like you already know this, Doctor Kentrup? I’ve seen you with your own patients, and you get them in a fit of giggles before they’re brought into surgery,” Salem continued, completely unaware Gregori stalked toward them.
“Well, you might not believe this, but it’s not just the kids who find me entertaining,” the blond with the tan even in the dead of winter continued. He smiled his perfect pearly white smile, looking like he should be an underwear model rather than a pediatrician. Gregori was more than happy to ruin his smile with a fist. “If you’d let me take you out to dinner, I could show you how amusing I can be.”
“You want to try out your latest material on me?” Salem chuckled, and Gregori nearly ground his teeth into dust. Why wasn’t Salem telling this jerk to take a hike?
“Well—”
“No,” Gregori barked, cutting the man off as he came to stand so close to Salem that his chest bumped against his mate’s back. He straightened to his full height, which gave him an enjoyable couple of inches to tower over the interloper.
Blondie blinked at him, rising from his lean to take a step away from him and Salem. “I’m sorry. Who—”
“I’m Salem’s mate. I’m guessing you haven’t gotten the memo going around the hospital. He’s not available. Shove off.”
“Gregori!” Salem hissed, and the point of his elbow landed in the middle of Gregori’s stomach, but he didn’t notice it because his full attention was on the other man flirting with his mate. “You’re being rude.”
“It’s not rude to apprise this man that he’s making an ass of himself in front of you and the nurses,” Gregori bit out. He narrowed his eyes. “Move along. He’s not for you.”
The man’s smile returned. “I think that’s for Salem to decide.”
The comment cut deeper than it should have and Gregori lost a bit of his steam. He was right, Salem should be the one deciding. He should be the one telling this asshole to fuck off, but he wasn’t.
“Doctor Kentrup, I think we should continue this discussion another time,” Salem interjected briskly, his tone shifting from warm and friendly to pure business.
The other doctor looked at Salem and gave a small nod before disappearing down the hall.
Salem whirled around and poked Gregori in the middle of his chest. “What the hell do you think you were doing? He was a colleague and this is my place of work. There’s no room for your caveman nonsense here.”