“Van, one more match and you can retake your title as champion.”

He opened the closet and took out Grom’s leash before answering her. “But I will never again be undefeated. I am done fighting.”

“The League told me you have one more fight on your docket. A rematch.”

He snorted as he hooked Grom’s leash to his collar. “The League can get scorched.”

Before she could respond, he yanked open the front door and stormed out. Well, as much as a person in a thigh-to-calf brace could storm while leaning on a crutch. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as he’d hoped.

He got the door shut behind him and stood there, sucking the cold air into his lungs in deep gulps.

Miserable. That was the only word he could use to describe his current state of being.

And he hated it. Hated feeling this way. Despite so much of his young life, he’d grown up to be a pretty content guy. He’d made a good life for himself. He loved what he did, made good money, and he’d been genuinely happy. Until that last fight.

Grom whined, eager to run and burn off some energy.

Van reached down and unclipped the leash. Grom took off, a streak of black and tan racing through the woods around the house with a look of utter happiness on his face.

Van understood. He got cabin fever himself. But forget running, he could barely walk. And what he really wanted to do was fly, but the manticore venom in his system prevented him from shifting. That inability added to his frustration and fueled the simmering anger in his belly that seemed to be a constant these days.

If only he could fight. That would—

Lisa opened the door and joined him on the landing. “I’m sorry. It really wasn’t my intention to upset you. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like to lose that night. I’m sure it was devastating. And I’m really sorry you had to go through that.”

He stared into the woods surrounding his house. Grom zipped past on his second time around. Van gave Lisa points for following after him. Few would do that. And more points for apologizing again. And for saying she couldn’t really understand what it felt like. Too many people had acted like they’d understood, but they’d made light of it. Told him to get over it. That it happened to everyone. Not Pandora, but the people at the League. His manager. The League doctors. The promotions team.

They all thought he should just suck it up, get through the therapy, get back into the ring and on with the next fight.

But this wasn’t about sucking it up. This was about accepting how deeply his life had changed. Nothing would ever be the same again.

“Anyway, I was going to offer to walk Grom, but I see he’s walking himself pretty well. I’m happy to stay out here and watch him until he’s ready to come in, if you’d like. But I’m thinking after that, I should probably change my ticket and leave you alone.”

That got his attention. He turned to look at her. “You would quit?”

“You can’t quit a job you haven’t been allowed to start.”

He stared at her. There was a heaviness in her gaze. As if the weight of the universe lay upon her shoulders. Was that what he looked like?

Maybe. But what mattered was that he was the cause of that look. He took a breath and shifted his gaze back to the woods. “What happens first?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Therapy. What happens first?”

Her mouth gaped as she blinked at him. His profile was a rather amazing series of rocky angles and hard bone. But then, he was a dragon, and they were built as tough as the mountains they called home. “You mean you’re going to do the therapy?”

His mouth pursed for a moment. “Da. Yes.”

“So we can start today? Right now? As soon as you come inside.”

He glanced at her, eyes narrowed like he suspected she might have a screw loose. “That is what I mean.”

She blew out a breath of relief. She really hadn’t thought that was going to happen. “Excellent news. Thank you.”

Grom skidded to a stop in front of the porch. His tongue was hanging out, his sides heaving from the exertion, and Monalisa could have sworn he was smiling. Could dogs smile? She wasn’t sure. She could, though. And so she did. “Where is your stationary bike?”

“Downstairs. But I do not—”

“Great, I’ll just go run down there and check that out while you—”

“Nyet. No bike. No downstairs.”

She swallowed her smile. The fire had returned to his eyes. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, but there was no doubt it had been there. “Okay.” She got it. He hated the bike. And clearly wasn’t a fan of stairs. “But the physical component of the therapy requires you to exercise your leg.”

“Fine. We walk.”

She looked over his shoulder. Outside of the parking pad, the land surrounding his house was a rolling, hilly, rocky scape thick with trees and brush. It might be fine for Grom, but Van could easily make his injury worse on that kind of ground. Maybe the paved part of the driveway would be okay, but it was still sloped, and he’d have to go down the porch steps to get to it. “Where?”

He gestured around. “The deck. It goes all the way around the house.”

“It does?” She walked past him to look around the corner. Sure enough, the porch went past the front of the house and bent again to disappear on the far side. She glanced back the way she’d come and saw the same thing. She’d been so nervous when she’d arrived, she hadn’t really paid attention to it. “Okay, we can make that work.”