She appreciated what he’d done for her. But the fake wedding was off. There would be no ceremony. She was going home, and she was going to concentrate on school and work. She was done with men, for good.
She strengthened her resolve as Garrett dragged her ex forward with his hand clamped tight around his neck.
“Tell her you’re going to leave her alone.”
“Lily, I want you back. I’m sorry for what I did and I won’t ever—” he managed to get out before Garrett twisted his arm behind his back. “Wrong answer.”
Garrett shook him a little. “You threatened her. Do you understand that? I want your word you won’t approach her again.”
“I swear. I won’t.”
Where had this handsome rock star learned to intimidate her ex? Had he been trained in interrogation techniques? Was the music career just a cover?
Oh. It dawned on her why he didn’t need a bodyguard.
While she watched, Garrett turned her ex around so they were face to face. “You need to understand that I’ll be watching. We’ll all be watching. There are so many of us.” Garrett pushed his face close to her ex’s, until they were nearly eyeball to eyeball. “We’re all over the world.”
Was that true? Lily had no way of knowing if any of it was true.
She wasn’t sure she could ever trust anyone again.
Garrett stared into her ex’s eyes. “I want to hear you say it.” He shook him again. “Look at her and tell her you won’t bother her again.”
Her ex’s jaw trembled. But she did not feel sorry for him, not one bit. “I’m waiting,” Garrett said.
“I won’t.” He swallowed hard. “I won’t bother you again.”
“Good,” Garrett said. “Davi, would you mind?”
“I will be pleased to escort the wolf to the airport and make sure he gets on board his plane.”
“Thank you, Davi.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “I’m going to owe you after this.”
“This is what friends are for. We are also family.”
She did appreciate Davi’s help, even though she would have preferred for Garrett to include her in the discussion about what was going on with her ex. But that problem didn’t matter, because she was done with Garrett too. So there was no need to confront him.
As soon as Davi had her ex out of sight, Garrett pulled her into his arms.
She felt herself stiffen. “Garrett.” She pushed him away with both hands. “Thank you for saving me. I really cannot express how grateful I am. But whatever this is between us, it’s over.”
Garrett just stood and stared at her with his mouth open. “What?” He grabbed her hand. “Lily, I know it looks crazy, but I can explain.”
She yanked her hand back. “Look. I’m not scared of you. But I need to leave. I’m going back home, and I want you to leave me alone.”
“But—”
“No. I need you to respect my wishes. You’ve rescued me, twice now. And I am truly grateful. I wish I could repay you somehow, but I can’t. But we aren’t really together. This was all pretend, and it was stupid for me to think that it wasn’t.”
“Lily, no. It was real. It was real to me.”
“Goodbye, Garrett.” She began to walk away, but she could hear him calling after her. She wasn’t really sure how she was going to get back, but she had her purse. Once she got to the road, she’d call a taxi to come pick her up. As he began to call out her name, she started running. If she turned and saw his gorgeous face, she might never get away.
And she couldn’t take that chance.
16
Garrett
Garrett watched as his mate walked away.
She turned her back to him, and she walked out of his life.
Could that happen to a mate?
Dragon shifters don’t leave their mates.
“But she is human,” Carolina said. “So it is not as clear-cut for her, possibly.”
Garrett looked up at his friend, realizing that he’d spoken aloud when he said that dragon shifters don’t leave their mates.
Garrett also realized that he was down on his knees in the sand. He must have fallen to his knees when she left him. He had no memory of it. He looked around again and saw that Carolina was also watching Lily walk away.
“Carolina. Would you mind going with her? I know I don’t have the right to ask, but she is human, and I don’t want her to be alone out here.”
“I would be happy to. She was muttering about getting a taxi, so if that plan works, then we’ll take that back into the city. If not, then I’ll take your car, and you can fly back.”
“Thank you. You know how much this means to me.”
Carolina knelt next to him. “I know. She is your mate. I can feel it.”
“But can she? What if she never feels it?”
“That is why Davi told you to call the Texas shifters. Talk to the ones who have human mates. Or talk to the mates themselves.” She tousled his hair with affection. “Davi and I knew we were meant to be together always. We are not good resources on this topic.”
Garrett couldn’t bring himself to even feel jealous or resentful. Not just because she was his friend, but because he knew how tough her and Davi’s life had been over the years. They’d had to fight tooth and nail for every bit of the relationship they now had.
So if they could do it, after they were robbed of their village, their clan, and their memories, then Garrett could do it too.
She held her hand out, and he took it, and she yanked him to his feet. “Stay off the ground, okay? I have a feeling she’s going to want you back eventually. So take care of yourself.”
He couldn’t picture the day when that would happen.
“She is my mate, Carolina, I feel it too.”
Carolina gave him a quick hug, and then she took off into the night to follow Lily.
He was going to win her back. He was determined.
He hung back for a while, and then he followed her. He knew he shouldn’t, but he had to find out where she was going. To his relief, Carolina found Lily, and Lily allowed her to ride in the taxi and accompany her back to Vegas.
Once they were in their car, Garrett got into his car and followed them at a distance.
He assumed she’d go straight to the airport. He knew money wasn’t an issue for her, so he thought she’d leave Vegas as soon as possible.
But she didn’t. She went to the Mandalay Bay Hotel, and she asked for a room. Once again, thank God for his supernatural hearing. He knew it was wrong, but he heard which room she had too.
As he stood in the lobby, he felt Davi’s presence.
“I’m not giving up on her,” Garrett said as his friend approached.
“I do not think you should either.”
“I think I’d like to talk to one of the Texas dragons. Who will have the best advice?”
“From my outside opinion, I think either Clara or Juliana will give the best advice. But truly, if you contact one of them, you get them all.”
Garrett was aware. He’d only been around them for a few hours when he and Davi chased Carolina across the desert, and then again when he sang at Davi’s wedding. The Texas clan was a chatty bunch, and every single one of them was nosy and eager to meddle in anyone’s business who’d let them.
But it was clear that they were a loyal group. They were generous and kind-hearted, and Davi valued their presence in his life.
“You have their contact information?” Davi asked.
“Yeah. I’ve got everyone’s number in my phone. Brynne insisted.” Brynne was the one female shifter in the Texas group. She was on a mission to track down every shifter clan in the world and make sure no shifter was ever left isolated and alone again.
She didn’t want anyone to suffer the way she and Davi had.
He’d promised to introduce her to his family up in Cape Mears, Oregon, but he hadn’t done it yet. Maybe Jackson would be willing to help make the introductions when the time came.
He scrolled through the list. When he saw Clara’s name, he pressed the green button. She answered on the first ring.
But it wasn’t Clara. It was a male’s voice. “Hey, Garrett!”
“Hello,” he said. He didn’t know them well enough to determine if this was Kellan, Quinn, Liam or Brennan.
“Hey man, it’s Brennan. Clara left her phone out by the hot tub. She went to chase two of the kids down. They both climbed the side of the house and got up on the roof, and none of us even noticed until they tried to parachute off.” He chuckled. “Kellan had to pull surveillance footage just to see who the ringleader was.”
“And who was it?” It seemed a bit odd that Brennan would answer Clara’s phone. He was not her mate. But as Davi had said, the Texas clan were a package deal. They had fewer boundaries than he’d ever seen in a clan before. They all spent much of their time at Kellan’s mansion together, letting the kids run wild while the adults hung out.
Brennan laughed again. “I’m sure you won’t be surprised that it was Rowan.”
Rowan was Brennan’s son. He was rambunctious, even for a young shifter.
Brennan was still talking. “Then they got scared of getting in trouble, because any of the neighbors could have seen them, and trouble means no ice cream for a week. So they jumped the fence, and Clara went to—”
Garrett had to interrupt. He couldn’t even keep track of what was going on at that point. Hatchlings sounded like a lot of work, more than he’d anticipated. He’d have to ask his mother if he and Jackson had been that difficult. Not that it mattered for him, because the only woman he’d consider having children with hated his guts.
Stop thinking about kids. She won’t even speak to you.
Garrett took a deep breath. He was really rattled if he was contemplating fatherhood. It wasn’t something he’d ever wanted.
“So why is Clara doing all this if it’s your kid?”
“Well, her son Declan was the mastermind of a few other schemes. Plus, she’s a teacher. She gets them in line a little faster than the rest of us.”
“Aren’t you the sheriff?”
“Yeah, but I’ve already threatened to put them all in jail, and that didn’t work at all! They thought it was funny.”
In the background, someone laughed and then there were the sounds of screeching kids. “So what’s up?” Brennan asked.
Lord, did Garrett even want to get into this with him? He supposed there was no harm. “I’ve met someone. She’s human.”
Brennan made a humming noise. “Well congrats. Now I see why you were calling Clara.”
Brennan’s own mate was half-Fae, so their situation was different. “Hey, I see Juliana. Let me get her for you.”
Before Garrett could say a word, Juliana was telling him hello and congratulating him. She was far calmer than Brennan, and she was a good listener. Garrett found himself telling her the whole story.
And then it was his turn to listen as she explained her story. She’d been Quinn’s neighbor, and he’d revealed himself while saving her from her own family, who were part of the Romanian mafia. She explained her shock and her terror when she found out, and then she went on to describe the love she felt every day from her mate.
The way she spoke about Quinn made Garrett feel like maybe there was some hope for him and Lily after all.
17
Lily
Lily wanted to be mad at Garrett, but it was difficult to maintain. He was such a good guy.
Well. He wasn’t exactly a guy, was he? She wasn’t sure what he was, and she hadn’t let him explain.
She wasn’t certain she was going to.
What was the point? They weren’t together. Maybe he liked her, but he didn’t feel the same way she did. There was no way.
Before today’s events, she would have told anyone who asked that he was a nice person, but that his main priority was having fun. He always seemed to be looking for a good time. But after seeing him confront her ex, her opinion of him had changed drastically.
He wasn’t just a playboy lead singer. He was a dangerous creature, fierce and protective.
Of her. He was protective of her, and she’d walked away from him.
Had that been a mistake? Was there anyway to undo it?
No. It wasn’t a mistake. There was so much about him she didn’t know, and he’d done nothing to try and warn her about the other side of him—the dragon side.
But what could he have done instead? Tell her that he changed into a flying dragon that breathed fire? She’d have laughed. She could see that he was in an impossible situation.
Out in the desert, she’d been so angry. Then as she and Carolina headed back toward the city, she’d gained a little of her composure back.
She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to know everything about him.
But first she had to eat. She was starving. She washed her face and fixed her hair, and straightened her clothes before opening the door to go downstairs for some food.
But as she opened the door, she gasped. Her hand flew up to cover her mouth.
Garrett was standing right across from her hotel door, staring at her.
“How did you know where I was? Did Carolina tell you?” she asked.
“No. I followed you.”
“Why didn’t you knock on the door?”
“I wanted to give you some privacy. And some time to yourself.”
She exhaled. There was no point in being angry. She was glad he’d chased after her. “You can join me for dinner,” she said.
“Nothing would make me happier,” he said.
They spent the entire dinner with her asking questions, and him answering them. She wanted to know every detail that he was willing to share about being a shifter. He told her about his clan, and about Jackson, and about all of the other shifters he knew and spent time with.
Then something occurred to her. It should have been obvious, now that she knew. “Wait. That’s how you saved me in the desert. When I fell off the cliff?”
He nodded.
“Were you flying?”
“Yes. I shifted so I could get to you in time.”
She should have been a little creeped out. Maybe even frightened. But something about Garrett being invulnerable was sexy as hell, and maybe one day soon she’d be ready to show him again how she felt about him not being human—in the bedroom.
As the conversation wound down, he seemed to hesitate.
“What is it?”
Garrett’s voice was husky. “Our marriage is going to be fake, but I’d like for our relationship to be real. Would you be willing to try dating?”
She had not expected that. Heat wound its way from her cheeks, all the way down to the tips of her fingers. “Yes. I’d like that very much.”
“Brace yourself.” Garrett wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they waited for Kellan’s family. “I can feel them coming. Now that you know that they’re not human, they are not going to restrain themselves. Not at all.”
“You said they were nice.”
“They are. They’re just about the nicest group you’ll ever meet. But they’re intense, and they travel in a pack. You buy one, you get them all. Not a single one of them has a mild personality, including the kids.”
All her life, Lily had met people. She was good at socializing and making pleasant small talk. But now she was going to be meeting five dragon shifters, a Fae, and two human women. Meeting Davi and Carolina was easy, but they were much more reserved than the Texas crew, according to Garrett.
Eight adults, four males and four females didn’t seem like a huge number. But the majority of them were Irish, with Irish names. Only Clara and Juliana weren’t Irish. The males called themselves brothers, and they functioned as a family unit, although they weren’t biologically related. But they were all very good-looking, and so were their wives.
To prepare for their visit, Lily had made Carolina show her photos of each of them from hers and Davi’s wedding. She wanted
to at least know what they looked like.
Then she heard them.
The first one out of the elevator was a woman. She came straight to Lily and held out her arms. “I’m Juliana.”
Lily hugged her. Then Juliana introduced her to the other adults that stood behind her, Clara, Brynne, Fallon, Quinn and Liam.
She greeted them all with a hug, but there were only six adults. Two of the males were missing. Juliana noticed her looking around. “Oh, we sent the kids up the stairs. Brennan and Kellan went with them to supervise.”
“But there are thirty floors!”
“And they have a lot of energy.” “If we didn't have a way for Declan and Rowan to burn off energy after a plane ride, then we’d catch them jumping off your balcony later on.”
Fallon nodded. “The last thing we need is for one of them to be spotted. We definitely don’t want to end up on the news.”
If she had a baby with Garrett, would the baby be human? Or would her child end up like these wild children, with unlimited energy? That was a question she had not asked Garrett yet.
Why was she thinking about kids again? She was far too young.
But if she was going to have a family, she wanted it to be like the Texans. She liked this camaraderie she felt from them. As an outsider, it was overwhelming. But as a member of their family, it must be very comforting to belong to such a close-knit group.
Carolina had said they were nosy. And they were, but the nosiness meant they were interested. Lily would like having a big family that minded her business. She would like having sisters-in-law that she could call at a moment’s notice. She envied the idea of unconditional support.
A door crashed open, and seconds later, a horde of children came spilling into the living area, followed by two men. Each was holding a squirming toddler, which they promptly released.
Garrett introduced her to Kellen and Brennan.
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