Caden's Secret

by Jadyn Chase

  That sound awoke a sleeping monster inside me. She needed me. She wanted more and I brought her here to give it to her. I wanted to be the man to fill that void in her life. I wanted to be the one she desired and who fulfilled her desire.

  When I kissed her now, she rotated under me to induce me on top. She wrapped her legs around my waist and hugged me in tight to crush her delicate petals with my hardness. She mewed soft whispering suggestions into my mouth. She swallowed my tongue into her throat where the dewy droplets of golden sweetness blasted my head apart.

  She scratched up my back and loosened my shirt from my jeans. When her fingertips touched my skin, the dam burst and swept me up in a tidal wave of passion.

  I lunged on top of her driving between her legs for all I was worth. I didn’t give a fig about her jeans. I only knew my body needed to be near her and in her and on her.

  She latched her hands around my ass and crammed me in harder than ever. She worked her bones against my package to drive me out of my mind. This couldn’t go on. In the midst of my madness, she glided her hands under my shirt to my chest. She stroked up my ribs and pulled my shirt over my head.

  For a minute, I got caught in the confusion of disengaging from my own clothes. When I looked down at her, her haunting black eyes held me prisoner while she stripped off her shirt and unhitched her bra. Her alabaster skin glowed in the dusky light.

  I held her in my gaze while we both squirmed out of our jeans. I couldn’t let her out of my sight for fear she might disappear on me. I couldn’t let that happen, not tomorrow morning, not ever.

  What was I thinking agreeing to that? Who came up with this maniac plan to separate me from her? I could kill the bastard.

  When I let my weight sink down on her once again, silken soft skin folded over my head. I closed my eyes in heavenly softness that covered my mouth and face and neck and chest and legs. Every particle of me dissolved in the dreamy bliss of her.

  Her mouth closed on my shoulder and intoxicated little sighs drifted into my brain. Her wet center swallowed the blistering hardness of my shaft and I almost dropped dead right there. She engulfed me in steamy, juicy bliss that didn’t end at the root of my sex.

  I floated in fluid nothingness where only she and I existed. It stirred around me and sizzled in my ears. It erased everything except itself and the two sources creating it with every passing breath.

  Her tiny cries got louder in my ear. They woke me to the reality that I was inside her. She raked her fingernails down my back and hooked her heels behind my back. Her fragrant hair floated over her enraptured face. Her eyes stared up at me into an unseeing distance. Her lips panted for every breath when I plunged to the molten center of her being.

  How could this be wrong? How could two species that couldn’t mate be so compatible? How could she incite such torrential passion in me if this wasn’t meant to be?

  This was meant to be. This slice of time when I pumped on top of her under the stars coming out of the velvet sky—this was meant to be. No one could convince me otherwise.

  The quicker I moved, the more she writhed in fevered ecstasy. Her juices bubbled around my veins, but she didn’t compel me over the edge. I could continue like this for ages. I could admire the majesty and captivated yearning contorting her features. I could listen all night to the rapturous sobs and delighted yelps coming out of her mouth.

  Her pupils dilated staring up at me. Her lips parted in delicious fulfillment. I could look at her forever and know it was me that transported her to that place. She gave herself to me, of all men.

  I had to kiss those lips. I had to rotate my hips into her succulent opening. I had to draw the spiking cries of climax from her to pierce the pregnant night.

  11

  Caroline

  I gazed across the lake at the sun blazing over the mountain. One place on Earth couldn’t contain so much beauty. It didn’t seem possible. It didn’t seem fair to the rest of the planet that one spot should be so enthrallingly beautiful and charmingly spectacular.

  Two hands appeared on my shoulders from behind. I leaned back against Caden’s chest. He nuzzled into my hair. I knew this moment would come when he brought me up here. I didn’t want to leave, but at the same time, I wanted to face what was coming and get it over with.

  I heaved a heavy sigh. “I guess it’s that time.”

  “Not yet.”

  I swiveled around in his arms. “You know I have to. We shouldn’t put it off any longer than necessary. Your Clan still needs time to get into position.”

  “There will be plenty of time for that.” He bent down and kissed me. “We’re not finished yet.”

  I floated in that kiss for a while. I didn’t want to be finished—not by a long shot.

  Finally, I pulled off. “Come on. Let’s go. The suspense is killing me.”

  I took a step away, but he caught my hand. “Wait, Caroline.”

  I tried to extricate my hand from his grasp. “You know we have to. Your father will be waiting to drive me down to Norton.”

  “It’s not that.”

  The crisp bite of those words startled me out of my reverie. I looked up and gasped when I saw him glaring down at me with……I hated to put into words what I saw in that face. I thought I knew his face. I thought I knew every mood and shadow. I thought I saw enough of him last night never to question him again.

  The hand restraining me didn’t feel right, either. In a fraction of a second, the blissful dream of last night and this morning snapped. I froze. I couldn’t even blink at him, much less look away.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” he rumbled. “I….I should have told you last night, but things got away from me. I can’t let you go down there without telling you.”

  I swallowed to get my parched throat working. “What is it?”

  “You think….” He closed his eyes, shook his head, and turned away to stare out over the lake. “You think my Pop wants to get rid of you because you’re not one of our Clan. You think he kept us apart because he doesn’t want me to get with an outsider.”

  I waited for him to turn around, but he kept his back to me. “Yeah? So?”

  He spun around so fast I almost screamed. I probably would have if I could make any sound at all. “You’re gonna see a lot of strange things when the Lynches attack. You’re gonna see things you never thought possible. The sooner you understand that, the better your chances of coming out of the battle alive.”

  “What…. what do you mean?” I dared not ask.

  He bowed his head. “It’s like this, Caroline. My people—we’ve kept to ourselves all these years. We never mate with anyone outside our own species. We can’t. It’s our highest rule—apart from keeping the secret.”

  “I…I don’t know what you mean,” I croaked. “What do you mean— ‘outside your own species’?”

  He cast another helpless glance across the lake. He looked everywhere but at me. The longer he talked, the more terrified he made me. Something was coming, something awful. I sensed that. I wanted to run from it, but I could only stand there and wait for it to destroy me.

  “I’m not human, Caroline,” he muttered. “None of us are. We’re….”

  I threw up my hands and smacked my lips. “You know what? Just forget it. What difference does it make? So, your parents don’t want us together. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to explain. Let’s just go.”

  He didn’t move. He didn’t try to stop me. He just stood there and blinked down at the ground.

  I marched past the bed toward the trail leading back to Smokey Ridge. Whatever he wanted to tell me, it wouldn’t change the outcome. He didn’t have to make up some lame excuse about being….

  “Caroline,” he murmured.

  That voice made me stop in my tracks, but I didn’t dare turn around. Whatever was going on with him, I didn’t want to know about it. Why couldn’t he just leave last night alone? Why couldn’t he preserve the beautiful memory of our time togethe
r without spoiling it?

  “Turn around, Caroline.” I could barely hear his voice.

  I whipped around fast and hurried back to where he stood. “Look, whatever it is, you don’t have to tell me. Let’s just go and meet up with your father and the boys. If it’s really all that important, you can tell me afterward.”

  I made a dive to catch his hand when a thunderous boom shook the whole valley. In the blink of an eye, Caden exploded out of his skin right in front of me. He erupted straight up, growing taller and taller to dwarf the tallest tree.

  I staggered clear and screamed in horror at the beastly form rising against the firmament. Two gigantic wings unfolded from its back to block out the rising sun. Its neck stretched to an impossible length, and black scales appeared on its skin.

  The creature arched its sinuous neck and two piercing red eyes glinted down at me from a large pointed head. Black spikes ran down its spine to the tip of its long tail. It flexed its wings, and a powerful wind hit me full in the face.

  I cowered under my arm for protection, but no force on Earth could stand against that thing. It bobbed its horrible visage in front of me and shrieked to High Heaven. I could only crouch under my raised arms and shriek in fright.

  When I peeked out from under my elbow, I wanted to retch at the sight. Its head hovered above the mountain behind it, and the sun reflected off its gleaming black sides. It bared its large fangs, and its tail cracked through the air. Sulfur smoked from its nostrils.

  Suddenly, the noise died. Every trace of wind and tumult faded to nothing. The peace of birdsong and whispering pines enveloped the lake once more. When I stole a hesitant glance out, I discovered Caden standing there the same as ever.

  His shoulders trembled fighting to keep his voice steady. “I’m not human, Caroline. None of us are. We’re all dragons, and the Lynches are dragons, too. There are ten dragon Clans living all over these mountains. Some are our friends. Others are our enemies. That’s just the way it is. We don’t mate with humans. We keep to ourselves. That’s why Pop didn’t want me around you. He knew that….” He looked away at the mountain blazing with light. “I guess you could say he knew it would come to something like last night. That’s why you have to go back.”

  My eyes hurt from not blinking for so long. “Are you telling me….?” I couldn’t finish my sentence.

  “After Barret shot you,” he went on, “I got mad and shifted. I got into a fight with the Lynches—a dragon fight, I mean. You didn’t see, but that’s how it ended. You can expect them to shift when they attack you. Even if they never intended to finish you like that, they almost certainly will when they realize we’re there to ambush them. You must be prepared for that. You must be prepared for a full-on dragon battle to beat all dragon battles. That’s what you signed up for, and that’s what you’re going to get. I couldn’t let you go into it without knowing.”

  I shook my head, but I couldn’t get those words out of my mind. He was a….

  This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be. They all couldn’t be. That did not compute. The man I spent last night with, the man I kissed, the man who took me to the moon and back—he couldn’t be a…. That thing….He changed into that thing and then he changed back, just like that, with no effort.

  Dragon. A dragon. That thing was a dragon, a big black one with wings and claws and scales and….and fire breath and all the other stuff dragons had in fairy tales. This was no fairy tale, though. This was all horribly, terribly real.

  He shuffled from one foot to the other. He examined his fingernails and hooked his thumbs into his jeans pockets. “Do you want me to shift again so you get used to it?”

  I opened my mouth. What could I say? For a fleeting second, I wondered if he would understand me if I spoke to him in English. Part of me realized he was still the same person and that he just spoke to me in English, so why wouldn’t he understand?

  Another department of my brain still didn’t comprehend all this. How could he be something other than human?

  I didn’t want to see that thing again. I didn’t want to see any of them. There was still time to back out on my suggestion to lure the Lynches to my cabin. I didn’t have to do this. I could slip off into obscurity and never see any of them again.

  I would see the Lynches again, though. One way or the other, they would find me. No, I had to go through with this. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t, and the Lynches wouldn’t let me live with it, either. They would hunt me down. This plan was the quickest, easiest, surest way to make sure they never messed with the Kellys or me again.

  That meant seeing him like that again. That meant seeing them all like that. That meant fighting the Lynches like that. A clap of thunder hit me in the head. I wouldn’t be fighting people the way I fought the four brothers in the clearing. Oh, no. I’d be fighting dragons.

  That word sent shivers up my spine. Dragons. They were all dragons, every last mother’s son of them. Even little old Margaret, kind, home-loving, starch-aproned Margaret—a dragon! My mind refused to believe it.

  I wheeled away in a flurry of emotion. I couldn’t look at Caden again without seeing that monster. That was him. I kissed that thing. I let it stick its….Uck!

  I set off through the woods at a rapid clip. I hiked up the ravine to the Ridge to find Xavier and Archer loading up a truck with God knows what. Xavier smiled at me when I appeared. “Well, hello there, young lady. All ready to rock and roll?”

  “Yeah.” I barged right up to the truck and got into the passenger seat. I didn’t give a crap if they were ready to rock and roll or not. The sooner I got off this cursed Ridge the better.

  If Xavier raised his eyebrows or shot a questioning glance at his nephew, I didn’t see. I didn’t care. I sat where I was and stared straight ahead through the windshield at the woods.

  I guess they weren’t as ready as they seemed. They took another half an hour to load the truck. Margaret came out of the house and handed me my uniform stacked in its neat pile. “Here you go, darling. Don’t be a stranger. You know we’re only a few miles away.”

  I couldn’t resist the urge to smile at her. “Thank you for all your hospitality. I’m sure I’ll see you in town.”

  She patted my hand and blinked away tears. She compressed her trembling lips and said nothing before she hurried back to the house. She didn’t look like a dragon at all. She didn’t look like a fuming monster with wings and spikes and fire breath. She just looked like a nice lady who took good care of her family.

  Xavier startled me out of my wits climbing into the truck next to me. He slammed the door and Archer got in on the other side. They sandwiched me between them as Xavier started the motor.

  He cocked his head to study me. “Are you sure you still want to go through with this? Once I drop you off, you won’t be able to change your mind.”

  I cast a last look around the compound. The houses all looked so normal. No one would ever know the people walking back and forth between them were any different from regular human people.

  Just then, I caught sight of a lone figure standing against the trees where the trail entered the woods. He hovered just in sight, but he didn’t enter the compound. He eyed the truck with a cramped, strained expression on his face. He locked his lips together and narrowed his eyes at the vehicle.

  If anything happened to him during the battle, I would never get a chance to say goodbye to him. I would never get a chance to thank him for all he did for me. Come to think of it, I would never get a chance to thank him for last night.

  I wanted to a thousand times. Countless times last night and this morning, my soul whispered to him, Thank you, Caden. Thank you. I couldn’t begin to express my gratitude for the priceless gift he gave me.

  He released me in ways I never thought possible. He shattered the inhibitions and social constraints blocking me from feeling and sensing and appreciating the pleasure of being. I never would have believed I could experience so much pleasure, and it wa
sn’t just the sex. I responded to him and achieved so much mind-blowing ecstasy because I felt the way I did about him. He gave me that, and I wondered if anyone else in the world ever would.

  Now I would never get a chance to tell him. Maybe he wouldn’t understand, but I should have thanked him at least. What was he thinking right now? His countenance told me. I hurt him walking away like that. He probably expected me to run away in horror, and that’s exactly what I did.

  No wonder he never told me. No wonder none of them ever told anyone. How could they? Humans would hunt these people down if they ever found out.

  My heart bled for him, but it was too late now. I did it, and I couldn’t take it back. Xavier must have wanted to spare both his son and me this pain by keeping us apart.

  I looked up at the old man and nodded. “I’m sure. Let’s go.”

  He let his foot off the parking brake and the truck rolled into motion. He eased down the long driveway to the road. I went numb and dead all over during the drive to Norton. Caden was still up there on Smokey Ridge. He always would be. As long as I kept working in this area, he would always be a few miles away.

  I would never see him again, though. I might see him during the ambush, but never after that. He would make sure of that. He would steer clear of me. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the Kellys did. My life around Norton would become awkward until I got another position somewhere else.

  I made up my mind to do just that. As soon as this battle was over, I would start applying to get out of Norton on the first bus. I could get a ranger job anywhere in the country. Morris knew about the Kellys. I would spill my guts to him. He would understand, and he would give me a good reference.

  Xavier parked in front of the Forest Service office, but he left the truck running. My truck sat parked a few feet away. The Kellys must have brought it back after my fight against the Lynches.

  Xavier squinted up at the building. “Listen up, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You won’t see us again after this, but don’t make the mistake of thinking we’re not around. We’ll keep your place staked out from now on. This could take a while, but don’t worry. We’ll keep a constant watch on the place and you until the Lynches strike.”