by Maz Maddox
My happy, sunshine balloon was slowly deflating with a sad, pathetic wheeze, stealing the air right out of my lungs. He was right, of course. That was a fucking monumental thing to ask someone.
“Shit.” I rubbed at my face, forgetting the cuts and hissing when I scraped one with my palm.
“The other side of that,” Montana broke the silence gently. “Is if you wanted to move your life to him.”
“What are you talking about?” I scrunched my nose. “Like...I go to New York?”
“If that’s what you wanted to do.” He nodded.
“Montana, I…” I trailed off, at a loss. The thought of me leaving this home, my brothers, my passion, hurt. It felt like my ribcage had turned to steel and refused to budge as I tried to breathe. The pressure had me almost coughing.
“Don’t answer now. Think about it. I think you and Simon have a lot to discuss.” He stood, placing his hand on my shoulder. “For what it’s worth, Dalton, I like him. He’s a good man. Whatever happens, you have my blessing.”
The swell of pride that rushed me pushed tears to my eyes. “Don’t make me cry, asshole.”
He chuckled, giving my shoulder a pat before opening the door to my room. Montana motioned Simon inside with a tilt of his head, letting him enter the room before leaving, shutting the door behind him.
“Hey,” I swallowed, rubbing my eyes with my fingers to push the tears back. “We gotta talk.”
SIMON
God, I wasn’t ready for this yet.
I knew it was coming, and I tried like hell to get the words out before Montana had a chance to speak with him. I had fooled myself into thinking if I had the perfect pitch ready to go, we could broach the subject with Montana as a team. I forgot I was dealing with a pack of mostly predators. They also divide the weakest from the herd.
Dread sank in my stomach like a lead fist, and my palms began to sweat as I took a seat in the chair next to the bed. I ran them over the thighs of my jeans, trying and failing not to seem nervous as hell. I knew in my heart that Montana had the final say over whatever the hell happened, but I was still going to try. I hadn’t backed down back in Kansas. I wasn’t about to do so in Texas.
“I don’t really know how to ask this, or if even asking it makes me a shitty person,” Dalton spoke carefully, wincing like speaking was stabbing him with each word. His eyes were locked on the hem of the blanket he was trying to pick apart with his fingers, and his bottom lip was being nibbled with furious intent.
“Can I tell you what I’ve been looking at since you’ve been asleep?” I broke in, unable to hear whatever it was that was slowly breaking his heart. That knocked him off his tracks, so pulled his eyes up to me. They were hurt, sad, wounded. My heart snapped in half, but I refused to falter.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and swallowed my fear, unlocking the screen to show him what I had been up to for the past day and a half.
“This house is about twenty minutes away from here depending on traffic. I don’t know this area well, but I checked it yesterday during rush hour and it didn’t seem too congested. Anyway, it has some land that leads into the forest near a creek. It’s been on the market for a little while, so I went ahead and sent a request to tour it. Since it has such a large area, you’d be able to hunt back there without anyone seeing you.”
I flipped through the pictures of the house, which really needed new wallpaper and modern fixtures, but otherwise it seemed really nice. The property itself wasn’t giant, but the massive forest behind it was miles of trees and wildlife. Perfect for a hungry raptor to play in.
“The commute to downtown will suck at first, but I have podcasts to catch up on anyway. And there’s always audiobooks,” I added with a laugh, trying to hide my nervousness.
“Downtown?” Dalton sounded like he was in a haze, and the way his eyebrows were pinched and arched upwards displayed how confused he was.
“Yeah. I...kind of reached out to the Perot museum to ask about fossil preparation work. The head research developer there asked for my resume this morning and wants to get lunch this week. It’s not a guarantee but--”
“Wait.” Dalton lifted both hands like the bed was a ride he needed to get off of. He shook his head, closing his eyes for a long moment before opening them again. “You want to move here?”
My chest tightened as I took a breath. “Yes. Dalton, I...I want to be with you,” I said around my throat clenching with emotion and nerves. “I want to start a life here. With you.”
“W-what about your life in New York? Your family? Career?” He sounded breathless, like he was panicking at what I was saying.
“New York is a plane ride away.” I shrugged, trying to smile. “But that sounds too far when it comes to you.”
“Simon, I can’t ask--”
“Then don’t.” I moved to sit on the bed beside him and tried like hell to make my hand stop trembling when I took his, but I failed. My hand shook and it was sweaty and gross, but damnit, I took his in mine and squeezed. “I love you. And I want this.”
Even recovering from a car wreck and a beating, Dalton still moved lightning fast. I was tackled backwards off the mattress, both of us crashing to the ground as I flailed. Dalton’s mouth was on mine, his arms around me, and I forgot to be flustered or sore from landing on my hip. I took his face in my hands and kissed him back, relief melting over me as we embraced.
“Oh my God, I’ll make you so happy,” he said between kisses. “I’ll bring you so many rabbits!”
“Please don’t,” I tried to manage, but he was kissing my teeth as I tried to speak. The frantic, desperate assault of kisses slowed into something much more romantic and real, and when he finally pulled back, I was flushed and tingling.
Dalton’s icy blue eyes were like winter fire, burning bright and only for me. His smile was promises of excitement and adventure, and his touch was the compass leading the way.
I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.
Epilogue
Simon
“Is that the boyfriend?” Officer Schwartz did not sound impressed.
To be fair, Dalton was in a particularly chaotic form of deranged behavior after having to suffer through a long flight from Dallas. He had warned me beforehand that he didn’t like flying, but had horribly undersold how impossible he was while in the air. I had grown to find his compulsive need to cause mayhem charming, but he was like a caged, feral barn cat when he was trapped in a tube flying in the sky.
The only thing that calmed him and kept him from either being violently sick or trying to climb over seats was movies on my laptop, sharing a blanket and constant coddling.
I had to wrap a full grown, mohawked man in a blanket burrito and watch The Land Before Time and part of the BBC special about Titanosaurs with Sir David Attenborough to keep Dalton from getting us arrested.
He was very, very lucky I was head over heels for him, or I would have tossed him out of the plane myself.
“That’s him,” I admitted, watching Dalton pick up a plastic snow globe from an officer’s desk, shake it too violently so the little snowman inside snapped, then place it back down while looking over his shoulder. “I promise he’s actually a functioning adult. We’ve just had a long flight.”
“Uh-huh.” She handed me the last form I needed to sign. “I’ll be in touch, Mr. Andrews.”
“Thank you, officer.” I shook her hand and rushed to capture Dalton’s arm before he could break anything else on someone’s desk. I made sure to give her another wave as I dragged him out of the station. “Do I need to keep you on a leash?”
“Oooh,” Dalton sang, wiggling his eyebrows. “Kinky, sugar bear. You thinking just a leash or should we go full puppy play? I can get a special mask that lets me still keep the mohawk.”
“I don’t know what that is, but please don’t explain it.” I curled my fingers between his as we walked. “It’s going to be a long two weeks.”
“Packing won’t be that bad.”
Dalton swung our joined hands as we walked. “Anything I need to know about David before we have dinner with him tonight? Is he nice? Like good music? Does he hate me for stealing you away?”
It had been a very rough conversation with David when I had finally come clean about what had happened. I had of course left out the more insane details to the story, like Dalton’s unique, dinosaur related abilities, but the overall truths were there. There was a good two days after I had initially spoken with him that made me think I had pushed our friendship beyond the point of repair.
But eventually David scolded me, made me promise to never scare the shit out of him again, and demanded to meet the new boyfriend.
“I think he’s going to love you eventually. He’s still a little bitter you’re whisking me away to Texas. But you’ll charm him.”
We stopped at the crosswalk with a gathering of people waiting for the traffic to stop. A little girl was eyeing Dalton’s hair and spiky jacket combination in curious awe. He must have felt eyes on him, because he glanced down at her and smiled. “Hey, rad unicorn shirt. I have the same one.”
She giggled and leaned into her mother, who didn’t glance up from her phone.
“I like your hair,” she said shyly. “Pink’s my favorite color.”
Dalton winked and reached into his jacket pocket, revealing a small snow globe with glitter and a pink flamingo inside. He gave it a shake and held it out to her. She smiled wide and took it, biting her lip in excitement. The glittery snow inside sparkled as she shook it.
“I think you should keep that one. Give it a good home, ok?”
“Ok!” She bounced on her feet and shook it again.
I squeezed his hand and tossed him a smirk. “You’re a big softy.”
“Don’t ruin my street cred in front of the locals,” Dalton playfully scolded. “What’s the plan tonight?”
I exhaled through my lips. “We really need to start packing.”
Dalton tilted his head in thought. “This is what we’ll do. We’ll pack a couple boxes, order pizza, I’ll blow you and then we’ll watch a movie. Pineapple on the pizza, obviously. Because of the blow job.”
Heat raced up my neck as the mother shot us a horrified look, just as the light finally changed.
“Bye!” the little girl waved as her mother pulled her along and Dalton waved back with a smile.
“Bye! Grow up to dismantle society!” he called after her and I slapped his chest without any real power behind it.
“Stop yelling that to children.”
“They’re our future, Simon.” He pulled me closer to him while we walked. “Do you like kids?”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “They’re the only ones who are interested in chatting about dinosaurs at parties. I’m guessing you’re a fan of kids?”
“Hell yeah. I love kids. I’ve never had human children before, but I’ve had lots of other offspring over my lifetime. I really like being a father.”
My chest felt like my heart was floating in waves of warmth. “You had kids?”
“Yeah, tons. My favorite was when I was a raptor, though. My babies were these tiny little fuzzballs of teeth. It was my most aware form before being this, so I remember them very well. I loved them as much as I could in that perspective. Fought to keep them alive and thrive. My mate was very strong, and she always had a large clutch.”
“Do you remember your mate?” I watched him as he reflected back on his memories. His brows lowered and he hummed, running his teeth over his lip studs.
“I do, yeah. I remember her smell and her sound. We were together for a long time.”
“A long time? You stayed with her beyond having the chicks?” I was curious from a paleontology perspective, of course, but I also wondered about his life before we met. His human life didn’t seem to have consisted of any meaningful relationships beyond his brothers, but I hadn’t thought to ask about before that.
“Yeah, of course. We mate for life,” he said it so casually, like everyone knew that about his kind.
“That’s...sweet,” I admitted. “I know a lot of modern birds do that now, but we’re never sure if that’s a trait from their ancestry or not.”
“I plan on keeping the trend going.” He smiled at me and squeezed my hand.
The warm, floating sensation turned into a tidal wave that nearly swept me off my feet. I kissed his cheek and swallowed back the lump in my throat.
“Me too.”
“Ah, Simon,” Dalton swooned. “We’re going to have so many babies.”
I choked and covered my face with my hand. “Let’s just...pack the apartment first. We’ll discuss babies later?”
Dalton sighed happily. “So many babies.”
The End
About the Author
Maz Maddox has always wanted to be an author.
Well, almost always.
At first she wanted to be a dinosaur, but that turned out to be extremely difficult. Giving up on her dreams to be a towering Allosaurus, she discovered her love for amazing stories and started writing her own.
Maybe one day she’ll try the dinosaur thing again.
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www.mazmaddox.com
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Also by Maz Maddox
Stallion Ridge series
Heartache & Hoofbeats
Claw Marks & Card Games
Suspects & Scales
Rocks & Railways
Mimics & Mayhem
Runes, Ruin & Redemption
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