Saving Cinder

by Maggie Hemlock

  “We’ll be back.” I laughed and slapped him playfully on the ass as Cookie and I headed out of the kitchen.

  We took our normal path down to the boardwalk. Usually, Seth and I walked Cookie each morning after breakfast. That morning I just needed a bit of exercise to calm my jittery nerves. If the walk didn’t help, I’d scoop up Cookie and go for a fly. She loved being air born more than any dog I ever met. Though, I hadn’t met many. Sivan and I were cat people. Though, our old lady passed away in the weeks following Sivan’s death.

  “How would you like a feline sibling, Cookie?” I asked her as we walked down the mostly empty boardwalk.

  She stopped and looked up at me.

  “What? You wouldn’t like a kitty to play with? You’re about the size of the average house cat.”

  Cookie’s ears perked up and she looked out towards the beach. A tiny dot on the horizon signaled an approaching ship.

  “You see great with those little eyes of yours, lady,” I laughed and tugged on her leash.

  She trotted alongside me as the ocean breeze changed directions. It was my turn to freeze on the spot. Cookie ran out of leash and turned to look back at me. A vaguely familiar scent danced over the waves and wafted into my nostrils. The scent of someone who smelled like me.

  “CARTER!” I gasped.

  Why was he early? Why wasn’t Seth here? He promised to be there when I met Carter.

  “Cookie, save me. You have to be my sidekick. I know Seth is your favorite, but I really need the backup right now.”

  Cookie wagged her tail and turned to run to the beach. I let her lead the way onto the sand.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Carter

  Surrounded by students bound for Rhett’s hands-on study of the past I stuck out like a cat at a dogs’ rights rally. The students ranged from teens on up. After a certain age, shifters all looked alike until it was time for their door to come. It wasn’t my age or even my status as beta that made me stick out. I was the only one not lugging a suitcase and backpack and rambling on about what I wanted to see on Moonscale Island.

  “I want to see the real dragon forge. They say it’s exactly like the original. I brought one of my grandpa’s scales. I hope to get it made into something nice for grandma. She hasn’t been the same since his door showed up. What about you?” A tall teenage boy with glasses asked.

  “It’s not about what’s on the island. It’s about who.”

  “Oh, you’re one of them,” he rolled his eyes and tossed his head to move his bangs out of his eyes. “You want to meet the prince.”

  “Do I look like a trust fund brat here on Daddy’s money to you?” My dragon roared, but I swallowed down the sound before it came out of my mouth.

  “Actually, I’m not a student.”

  “Are you a professor? I heard Dean Warren might be adding a few professors to the island this year. You don’t look like a professor.” The kid looked me up and down. “Maybe a really chill professor.”

  “I’m a family friend of the professor’s brother.”

  “Oh, you’re just hitching a ride.” The kid grinned. “That makes so much more sense. I was wondering where all your luggage was. I know some people like to ship it ahead, but that costs so much.” He leaned in close. “I wouldn’t even be here if I didn’t stumble onto some old Moonscale dagger while I was hunting in the woods. I made that old badger pay good money to get it back.”

  “And you’re here? Why not go into business with a head like that?” I asked.

  “Because this is so cool. Moonscale island is just one small part of where shifters came from, but since we don’t know much about our origins there’s so much we can learn from it.”

  “I hope you find what you’re looking for, kid.”

  “You’re not excited about exploring Moonscale Island, are you?” He tucked his thumbs under his backpack straps.

  “No. I’m about to meet my son for the first time.”

  “Party hookup?” He whispered.

  “Whirlwind affair from centuries ago.”

  “Damn that’s deep. I didn’t even know betas had kids.”

  “The stuff you don’t know could overload the internet.” I laughed and walked away.

  Standing at the railing I squinted at the shore. I was a day earlier than Seth and Cinder expected me. When today’s client canceled at the last second, I hopped the students’ transport boat and headed for Moonscale Island. Sure, the ocean portals gave me indigestion, but it was a small price to pay for finally coming face to face with the son I was robbed of knowing.

  “We should text Seth to give him a head’s up,” my dragon said.

  He knows we’re coming. What’s a day in the scheme of a lifetime such as ours?

  “Enough to give the long-lost hatchling a heart attack. Speaking of.”

  I shifted my eyes to his for a better view of what my inner beast pointed out. On the shore, Cinder stood clutching the leash of a small furry creature that was either a tiny dog or an ugly cat. How did he know I was arriving today? Intuition? Luck? Did Clarence somehow rat me out? Old fucker knew just about everything every dragon in Europe did.

  I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. I wanted a drink, but I didn’t partake in alcohol anymore. Too often it led to my worst benders back in the day. Now sober meant completely sober. If I needed to take the edge off, I went for a run or pulled out the old punching bag.

  As the ship neared the shore, I pushed my way through the crowd of starry-eyed students. They’d spend months on the island. I only had two days before I had to fly back to Cornwall for my next job. Even if I snuck through a few ocean mage portals I had a long flight ahead of me.

  I was the first one off the boat when the captain cleared us disembarking the ship. He asked for my student visa, but I waved his hand away. One of the crew followed me down to the beach but stopped short when Cinder started my way led by what turned out to be an extra curly small dog.

  “He’s here to see Rhett’s soon to be brother-in-law. I say we leave him alone!” The crewman shouted back to his captain.

  The other man answered back with something I didn’t quite make out. My focus was on Cinder. This wasn’t the first time I saw him in person, but it was the first he knew about. I snuck into the back of the ceremony of his first wedding.

  “Hi.” Cinder waved when we were close enough to hear each other over the crowd.

  “Hey.”

  The crowd of students swerved around us all intent on finding their way to their on-island lodging to start their Moonscale Island adventures.

  “This your kid, man?” The boy from earlier stopped.

  “The one and only.”

  “You hope, right?” He laughed and followed the crowd up the beach to the boardwalk.

  “Who was that?” Cinder laughed.

  His laugh sounded almost exactly like Lars’s, but heartier. Lars didn’t cross my mind much these days except in accordance with Cinder.

  “Some kid from the boat. He thinks he schemed Clarence Moonscale, but Clarence probably nickel and dimed him down to nothing for some lost artifact.”

  “I hope not. School is expensive,” Cinder said.

  “Who’s this?” I pointed down to the curly pincushion sniffing my shoes.

  “This is Cookie. She was meant for the prince and princess, but the princess didn’t like her much. So, now she’s stuck with me and Seth.”

  “I say she won that hand of cards with fate. No kids to yank her tail off.”

  “You’re probably right.” Cinder nodded.

  Then silence settled over our conversation.

  “How’d you know I was arriving early?” I asked searching for anything to say.

  For years, I imagined what our first conversation would be like. Would we fill each other in on the missed details, talk like we knew each other since Cinder was born, or just be at a loss for words?

  “I didn’t. It was serendipity. Cookie and I were just out for a walk and
I smelled you coming.”

  I sniffed the air.

  “We do smell a lot alike.”

  “I think people are staring at us,” Cinder whispered and glanced around. “Let’s go back to the house. Seth is cooking breakfast.”

  “Let’s hope he’s not using a hotplate. The last time he tried that didn’t turn out so well. He nearly burnt down his apartment when he caught the curtains on fire.”

  Cinder laughed again.

  The house was bigger than what I expected Seth to live in even if he ever took another mate. It was newly built and well kept. Cinder let Cookie off her leash. She raced through the house sliding on the hardwood floors. Cinder kicked off his shoes at the door and I wondered if I should do the same.

  “Don’t worry about it. Seth never remembers to take his shoes off at the door.” Cinder said loud enough to draw Seth out of the kitchen.

  “You made it.” Seth grinned. “I knew you couldn’t stay away, you S.O.B.”

  “Not after you kidnapped my kid and held him hostage on a damn island. I knew hanging out with a wolf wouldn’t lead me anywhere decent.”

  “Didn’t know how else to get your ass out here to visit me.”

  “Always taking the ass backwards path.”

  Cinder looked back and forth between us. Then smiled.

  “At least you already like one of your in-laws,” he said to Seth.

  Seth led the way into the kitchen for breakfast. We passed through a dining room that looked relatively unused to crowd around what was a small table by dragon standards in the kitchen.

  “I know after everything that happened, I don’t have the right to ask, but Reggie’s out of the picture for good, right?” I asked Cinder as we ate.

  “I never wanted him in the picture in the first place. You should’ve seen Seth at the harbor in Cornwall. He covered him in day old fish heads,” Cinder crinkled his nose and laughed. “But yeah, he’s out of the picture for good. So, is Augustus.”

  “Did they treat you well growing up?” I asked unsure I really wanted to know the answer.

  “Well, enough. Dad was great. Augustus wasn’t cruel per say, but we didn’t see eye to eye on most things. Nothing got really bad until Sivan died.”

  “I’m sorry about that. He was a good guy. I got one of the guys in the group who worked for the Moonscale security database division to run a thorough background check on him after you guys true-responded.”

  “Wow.”

  “Sorry.” I cringed.

  “No, it’s nice to know I had someone looking out for me when I was young and dumb. Though, Sivan wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “I know.” I nodded.

  “What about you? What’s going on with you these days?” Cinder asked.

  “Mostly work. Actually, all work, but business is good. Rich dragons pay good money to be lazy.”

  Cinder blushed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I haven’t worked since leaving the chocolate factory.”

  “I wasn’t talking about you. You’re settling into a new life and recovering from the shitshow of your old one. That takes time. I know from experience.”

  “How did you get into the moving business?” Cinder changed the subject.

  “I saw a need in the market and fulfilled it. I applied for a grant through an organization that works with the group and built the rest from the ground up. Soon, I’ll be hiring a few others to join me. I should’ve done it a long time ago, but I don’t know how I feel about other people representing my business. If they screw up it’s my last name on the truck, not theirs.”

  “Maybe your buddy can run background checks on him.” Cinder said.

  “He’s not around anymore.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Me too. I thought he had a handle on things, but not everyone beats their demons.”

  The conversation turned into a dead end and filled the kitchen with tense silence. I rubbed the back of my neck wishing I’d navigated around that hurdle better than I had.

  “Do you want a tour of the island?” Cinder asked.

  “Love one.”

  Being out in public with attractions to break up the silences and give us something to talk about was easier. Cinder opened up and talked about his adventures with Sivan and the events that unfolded the night Lars told him the truth about his paternity. I gave him the cliff notes version of my life. Most of it had been spent either in addiction or recovery.

  “It wasn’t until I stumbled ass first into the group Seth went to that things clicked,” I told Cinder. “He already had some sober years under his belt and was giving this bullshit motivational speech that turned out not to be bullshit at all. He’d lost his true-mate and somehow found his way back to sanity and out of addiction. I figured if some batshit crazy widowed Alpha could do it, anyone could. He also had this annoying habit of calling me when I was on my way to find a fix.”

  “I’m glad he did. Before I knew your surname, I thought I’d never find you. I even worried maybe you passed away in the years since my conception and I’d never know where I came from.”

  “My parents were the average Alpha and omega pair. They were chosen mates. My dad was a shoe salesmen and mom taught night classes for high school dropouts. Dad died about eight years ago now and Mom went about a year after him. I’ll e-mail you some photos when I get back to Cornwall, if you like.”

  “I’d love that. I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet them.”

  “They wanted to meet you too. They wanted me to take the case to the Moonscale courts, but no one involved was a Moonscale. I figured they’d laugh us out of the courtroom.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t try harder.”

  “Don’t be. You were young. I couldn’t imagine how you must have felt facing off with my grandparents.”

  “I’m glad you wanted to meet me. I’m not sure I would if I were you.”

  “Why’s that?” Cinder stopped and looked at me.

  “It’s not like I bring honor to the family name.” I laughed.

  “You’re doing the right thing now, though. I mean, staying clean and stuff. Sivan’s death taught me that only the moment in front of our noses counts for anything. Sure, sometimes people screw up and you have to kick them out of your life forever, like Augustus and Reggie. Other times people make mistakes and you can love them anyway. Not everyone who makes a mistake is a bad person. I mean, I think Dad was wrong for not telling me sooner, but he’s not a bad person.”

  “Not from what I remember.” I smiled.

  “Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him up.”

  “No. It’s okay. How is he?”

  “He’s in the states now getting a fresh start.”

  “Glad to hear it. Hopefully he keeps his tail out of the power struggle between the Hemlocks and Raven Hallow Wolves.”

  “He will. He’s probably opening a bakery or something.” Cinder said.

  With the hard stuff out of the way it was easier to connect with Cinder. Over the next day and a half, we exchanged stories and tidbits of information that linked us together. He had my dimple and my love of cold pizza. He detested beer like I did. We both preferred to fly over driving. Luckily, he hadn’t picked up my addictive personality. He talked a lot about the new website he wanted to start up for widows and widowers who lost their true-mates.

  “There’s not a lot of resources out there for us,” he explained. “I mean, sure a lot of people blog and vlog about how they fill up their free time, but we need something more than that. We need something that tells us over and over it’s okay to try to be happy again until we believe it. We needed something on dating and courtship after they’re gone. There’s nothing out there.”

  “That’s a niche. You could make some real money off it. I know, that’s not what you’re aiming to do. If you don’t need the money you make find a charity to donate it to. Someone somewhere out there will need it.

  “Tell him what the new guy in
group talked about,” my dragon poked my thoughts from the background.

  “Search the lore for second chance mates. Some guy in came in rambling about it the other night. I didn’t pay a lot of attention, but it might get you pointed in the right direction.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Cinder hugged me.

  The contact was startling. I hadn’t expected him to warm up to me so quickly, but I hugged him anyway. Maybe distance and time didn’t matter with family. I didn’t have a say in giving him up, but I was glad to be back in his life now.

  The evening of my departure I found time to speak with Seth alone while Cinder cooked dinner.

  “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for Cinder, but I can’t leave without saying my peace.”

  “What’s on your mind?” Seth asked.

  “Take care of him. If you break his heart I don’t care if I have to sell dragon smack for a year, I’ll hire someone big enough to kick your Alpha ass.”

  “Don’t joke about smack.” Seth sighed.

  “I’m not joking. He’s been through hell over the last decade and I can’t let that happen again. I know I can’t control anything but treat him well. I trust you with my life, but I’d have trouble trusting Frost himself with my kid.”

  “I’ll take care of him, Carter. I meant it when I said I was in love with him.”

  “You better have.” I narrowed my eyes on Seth.

  “Guys! Dinner’s ready!” Cinder called from the kitchen ending our conversation.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Cinder

  The morning after Carter left, I woke up early to do some research on my own before Seth got up. I wasn’t sure what second chance mates were, but I intended to find out. They could have been a delusion of a strung-out man, but then again fools often spoke the truth more than they realized.

  “Don’t get your hopes up. If this was a real phenomenon more people would speak of it,” my dragon chided me.

  Ignoring him, I turned on the coffee pot and settled into the breakfast nook with my phone. Holding my breath, I logged onto the Moonscale network and searched ‘second chance mates.’”