A Song of Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 2)

by Emilia Hartley

  He hated this truth. All this time, he’d told himself that his beast was the monster. He told himself that the beast was uncontrollable and a threat to everyone. He felt the creature’s emotions too strongly. It whispered to him when the room was too quiet. That wasn’t because the creature had too much power.

  It was because Cash had failed to match its power. Now he wondered if he had the strength to surpass it and become a better man.

  Felicity put her hand on his arm. “You can do anything. It’s never too late.”

  He sucked in a ragged breath and nodded like he believed her. The beast growled in agreement. It welcomed him to try. If Cash could not become who he needed to be, though, the beast would not hesitate to overcome his weakness. The beast thought it could do everything better if it had control.

  He had to save himself if he was going to be anything for someone else. How he was going to take the reins was beyond him at this point, though. He stared down at the marble countertop so long he could have counted the black swirls in the white stone.

  Still, the beast rumbled inside of him, like a constant warning.

  But his mother was undaunted. She patted his arm again before taking up her place on the other side of the marble countertop. While she deftly rolled the chunks of dough into bouncy bubbles and dusted them with flour, Cash told her about the album contract in an effort to forget the troubles that had brought him here.

  “Are you going to tell her how you feel?”

  Cash paused. “Alice? If I tell her how much I hate her, I could lose all my contracts.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with starting over from scratch to make your own life, but that’s not what I was talking about.” Felicity gave him a knowing look. “Are you going to tell Ember that you love her?”

  Cash laughed. He stood from the stool and stepped around the counter to kiss the top of his mother’s head. The gesture allowed him to ignore the look on her face.

  “It was nice seeing you again, Mom.”

  “Take one of those loaves by the oven,” she said. “And don’t be such a stranger. Visit me more often. And bring your lady friend next time.”

  He tucked a loaf of paper-wrapped bread under his arm and nodded, as if he would follow through on her request when he had no intention of seeing Ember any time soon. He couldn’t risk it. Their lives were too tumultuous. It didn’t matter how he felt right now. If he gave the beast what it wanted, they would find themselves vulnerable and in the thick of danger. That wasn’t a situation he wanted to put either of them into.

  9

  Ember couldn’t stand the thought of being home alone. She hated the hollowness of the apartment even though she’d tried to fill it with stuff to keep the loneliness at bay. The feeling still crept into the cracks between. No amount of music could infiltrate those shadowed hiding places and banish all this loneliness.

  There was only one place Ember could think of to go. She grabbed her guitar case and stepped outside. Once she reached the edge of town, she shifted and spread her wings. Travel was easy for a dragon shifter. She grabbed her clothes and her guitar case and took to the skies.

  Ember shared in her father’s markings. Three red lines ran down her back, bleeding into a soft orange that gave the illusion that she was glowing from the inside out. Her markings made her look like she was always burning, always on fire.

  She flew through the drizzling November rain and let it wash over her scales until she reached a small, brown house on the edge of the Montoya territories. No one had invited her, but she didn’t think she needed an invitation so long as her cousin lived there. Baylee’s presence was as good a reason as any to visit unannounced.

  The ground squelched when she landed. She searched for some place moderately dry to place her clothes so they wouldn’t get muddy while she shifted back. They were already damp from flying in the misting rain. When she finally realized that she didn’t have any options, she huffed and started the process of changing back while holding her clothes.

  The process of holding something while shifting was a precarious feat. Her hands shrank and changed shape, making the contents lurch this way and that. As she reflexively caught the falling clothes, something in her body popped and realigned painfully. She hissed.

  She wasn’t a big, tough dragon after all.

  But she managed it, her clothes now clutched against her chest. Of course, that was the time that the front door opened. A rectangle of golden light spilled out onto the wet lawn. Someone stood in the doorway, their face hidden by the light behind them. But the scent that reached out to her told her all she needed to know.

  “Can I, uh, have a moment to get dressed?” she asked, her heart thumping too hard.

  The figure was quiet for a beat too long. She wondered if she’d caught Cash’s leftover scent and assumed wrongly. Oh, she really hoped she wasn’t giving Gale a view of all her lady bits.

  Then, Cash sighed. “Get inside. Your clothes are probably wet. Baylee will kill me if I let you wear wet clothes, and you catch a cold.”

  Her grip on her clothes tightened, but the water that leaked out was proof that these weren’t fit to wear for a while. Had she been anyone else, she could have dried them. Had she been anyone else, there wouldn’t have even been a threat of a cold. Without her dragon fire, Ember was vulnerable in too many ways.

  Cash braved the drizzle and stepped outside. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and directed her into the rectangle of light that was the door. His touch warmed her through and through, the chill of the rain disappearing almost immediately.

  Once inside, she looked around. The place was empty. Well, not completely empty. The house was obviously lived in. The couch held rumpled blankets and the ruins of a collapsed pillow fort that Ember suspected was Baylee’s doing. Cash walked past the fort ruins and into the kitchen. After disappearing around a corner for a second, he reappeared with fresh clothes.

  “Oh, I don’t fit into any of Baylee’s stuff.” Ember held up a hand. “We, uh, aren’t the same size.”

  Cash scoffed. “That better not be a way of calling yourself fat.”

  Her jaw dropped. “I would never! I am well-endowed, thank you. Baylee’s flat chest could never compare to these.”

  Ember belatedly remembered that she was naked. A blush rose to her cheeks. She clutched her clothes to her chest, but her grip forced a trickle of water out of them and down her hips. A chill made her shudder.

  Cash vanished once again. Upon returning, he snatched the wet clothes from her and pushed a towel into her hands. “Dry off and put on those clothes.”

  For a heartbeat, Ember stood absolutely naked before Cash. Her nipples grew taut and a bit of heat swirled low in her body. Neither had gotten the memo that Cash wasn’t interested. Yet, the look he gave her said otherwise. His eyes illuminated as they trailed down her body.

  She almost didn’t want to wrap the towel around herself.

  “I told you, I can’t wear Baylee’s clothes!”

  “They’re not Baylee’s. They’re mine.”

  Ember blinked. She accepted the offered clothing and watched Cash turn his back to her so that she could get dressed. His shoulders squared, he kept his attention straight ahead. Not once while she dressed did he steal a peek over his shoulder.

  His clothes hung from her body, but they were dry and warm. When he turned, Cash wore the kind of smile that plucked her breath from her lungs. He looked her up and down as the corners of his mouth lifted and those dimples revealed themselves to her once more.

  “I like this way more than I should,” he said, his voice low.

  Ember raised a brow. “You like this? I was just naked in front of you. I see how it is. You aren’t interested in me in the least.”

  She turned away from him, hurt. Cash grabbed her arm and spun her back around. He turned her and pressed her into the kitchen counter, his body suddenly against hers. When he dragged a knuckle along her jaw, she shivered.

  She wanted more
. She needed more.

  “I like you wrapped in what belongs to me. I like how my scent is on your skin now. I know I shouldn’t. You don’t belong to me, and I can’t have you, but…” He trailed off. A low groan emanated from his throat.

  Cash bent and kissed her throat. She tried to keep her knees from shaking. Grabbing ahold of his shirt, she held on to him in case he tried to run from her. He always did. She couldn’t keep him around for long.

  This man who had hurt her earlier now kissed away the pain. He kissed lower and lower, his lips running along her collar bones before rising so he could bite her earlobe. She tightened her grip on him.

  If she touched him, would he run? If she reached beneath his shirt, would he push her hands away? Ember was too afraid to find out. Here was yet another taste of all she’d ever wanted, and she wasn’t ready for it to end yet.

  Every time she came close to her heart’s desire, it fell apart in her hands. Cash retreated from her. He kept a barrier between them. That refusal to believe it was her who had penned those letters remained. Though his lips found hers and his tongue pushed its way between them, she couldn’t help but think of his denial.

  If only there was a way to show him through her body. She could kiss him with all the fervent passion she’d poured into those letters. She could repeat each line, verbatim, because they’d been engraved into her being.

  Neither would work, and despite all her hope, she knew that.

  Cash would not love her until he allowed himself to.

  She broke the kiss and lowered her head so that she stared at his chest. Her heart made her feel like she’d been going a hundred miles an hour instead of standing in an unfamiliar kitchen. She listened to the hitch in Cash’s breath. He didn’t move away from her like she expected.

  He stayed, his arms around her. He put his chin on top of her head and held her for a little while longer.

  This wasn’t enough for Ember. She didn’t want a taste here and there. She didn’t want the heady anticipation of more to plummet when Cash pulled away from her again. He had a barbed tongue and wasn’t afraid to use it.

  “Where is everyone?” Ember asked, though her voice was hoarse from the need still coursing through her.

  Cash sighed. “Out teaching Logan how to acclimate to a life in the new millennia. I think he’s doing fine and having fun using these lessons as a way to fuck with Baylee and Gale.”

  “That’s good. Baylee deserves a taste of her own medicine. She’s always been difficult to handle.”

  Cash leaned back just enough to look her in the eye. His nose wrinkled with annoyance. “You’re telling me. Did I show you what she did to my guitar?”

  Ember shook her head. Cash took her hand and led her to the living room where he grabbed the guitar that had been leaning against a side table. She looked over her shoulder to her own, still in the wet case by the door. What had she been thinking when she brought it with her?

  She couldn’t show Cash how awful she was with it! He would never fall for a woman incapable of playing music. If she revealed her lack of musical talent, he would never look at her the same.

  He lifted his own guitar and turned it around to reveal a smoky dragon flying up the neck of the instrument. Ember found herself smiling, despite Cash’s obvious hatred for it. Baylee had done a fine job of capturing his dragon’s likeness. Ember expected to be able to reach out and pet the tiny Cash and have him purr beneath her fingertips.

  Cash let go of her hand and twisted the guitar once more. He sank onto the couch with the instrument on his lap. Automatically, his fingers moved to the strings. They strummed a ghost of a tune. Ember dropped onto the couch beside him and let her eyes drift shut.

  Maybe he didn’t love her, but she savored this. She pulled her legs onto the couch, her back to the arm, and pressed her feet to his thigh. He didn’t complain. Instead, the music paused as he brushed his fingers against her toes.

  Images of Cash pushing her deep into the couch with the weight of his body filled her mind. She envisioned him, hovering above her, his lips close to hers again. In this daydream, those lips would form three words that would soothe the restless beast inside her.

  I love you.

  But Cash did none of that. He hunched over his guitar and drew a new sound out of it. Ember knew all his songs. She had them memorized and could almost play them by heart—not very well, of course.

  This song filled her chest with light. It made her heart flutter with the pure emotion of it. He didn’t sing a word, but somehow, she felt the earnestness of it. She could hear the hope and admiration in it. Was it for her? Did this song flow out of him because of the feelings he had for her?

  Before she could ask, the door flew open, and Cash’s song sputtered out of existence. Baylee, wet hair plastered to her head, stormed in followed by Gale and Logan. The only one who looked even remotely pleased was Logan.

  Ember rolled onto her side, her folded hands beneath her head as she watched the three of them kick off their shoes. Gale pulled Baylee toward him and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. All the tension in Baylee melted away. The sight made Ember jealous.

  She swallowed her jealousy. Baylee didn’t deserve that kind of anger. It wasn’t Baylee’s fault that she mated with a man who was unafraid of what they had. Ember stole a glance at Cash. He watched her, which made her wonder if he’d seen that jealousy reach her face.

  She hadn’t been trying to hide it, though she should have. The room wasn’t empty. She might have felt invisible, but that was clearly untrue.

  Cash saw her, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  If she could climb into his mind, what would she find? A desire for her to disappear so his life could go back to normal? A desire to pull her closer and never let her go? The look he gave her said either could be true.

  “What were the three of you up to tonight?” Ember asked after pulling her gaze away from Cash’s.

  “This son of a bitch took us for a joy ride,” Gale grumbled.

  Ember and Cash gave the trio a speculative look. Baylee answered for them:

  “Logan said he wanted to see how an ATM worked. Then he didn’t have a card to use, so Gale lent him his card. After Logan fucked up and withdrew two hundred dollars, he said he wanted to see how a drive thru worked. He played us for two hundred dollars’ worth of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets.”

  “The two of you don’t have to make it so easy for me, you know. You could tell me no once in a while. I would like to think that you’re on to me by now, but you keep falling for it again and again.” Logan grinned predatorily, a hint of mischief in his eyes.

  This was a man who needed something to do. The way his eyes grew distant when the room fell silent told Ember that his thoughts went back to the same thing over and over. Some unreachable goal called to Logan, but maybe he didn’t know how to answer it.

  Instead of dealing with the problem, Logan turned to his clan. A hundred years of energy crackled inside him, turning into pranks and dangerous playfulness.

  “Please tell me you saved some of that food for us,” Cash growled.

  Logan held a plastic bag high, like Perseus held Medusa’s head after defeating her. It made Ember scowl. Cash, clearly done with Logan’s antics, snatched it from the man.

  “He’s your problem now,” Gale declared.

  Cash looked up from handing Ember a burger and a small box of nuggets. He narrowed his eyes at Gale. “No.”

  Gale shook his head. “This isn’t up for debate. You babysit him from here on out.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. Logan doesn’t need a babysitter. He’s an adult who has adjusted to the times without our help.” Cash lifted Ember’s feet and sat down, pulling her feet onto his lap once he settled. “Don’t let the man waste your time.”

  Ember bit into her burger while listening to the sounds of the cousins bickering. If someone had asked her, last year, if this was where she saw herself in a year’s time, she would hav
e called them crazy.

  Not only was she eating dinner with two Montoya men, Logan Montoya had returned.

  The circumstances were strange, to say the least. But she didn’t mind. The sound filling the air carried a kind of familiar warmth that her own family lacked. With her father so distant and Teagan almost unreachable, this was a balm for Ember’s soul. She hunkered deep into the couch cushions and nibbled her nuggets.

  Gale attempted to show Logan how to use a modern gaming system. She could see in the twinkle of Logan’s eyes that he knew how to use the controller, but kept asking questions to rile Gale up. Baylee seemed to have caught on, too, because she snatched the controller away from her mate, plopped onto the floor beside Logan, and pressed start.

  The game immediately launched, forcing Logan to play catch up. It didn’t take him long, though. The two of them raced along cartoonish roads. Logan passed three AI characters, and the back of Baylee’s character appeared on his side of the screen.

  Baylee screeched when he hit her and zoomed past her.

  Ember wondered what it would mean if this little clan grew larger. What would happen if more dragon shifters from the Barnes and Montoya families defected to join these assholes? She hoped that it would be the end of the bickering. The feud had lasted for far too long. It was time for it to die, so everyone could move on.

  But she had the feeling that this peaceful time wouldn’t last. Someone would break.

  She hoped that someone wasn’t her father. Callum was hot-tempered, but she didn’t want to think of him as cruel. He wouldn’t attack this clan just because she chose Cash over whoever Marjorie Barnes picked out for her.

  He could leave her side, but he couldn’t leave her behind. Every time Cash stood, he found himself glancing back to make sure that Ember was still happy. She seemed contemplative and possibly near tears. Was it that time of the month for her? He couldn’t smell blood on her.

  Shaking himself, Cash banished the thought. It felt like an invasion of privacy and maybe a little dismissive. Ember’s pain was not something he should brush off because of hormones. His mother would have him by the ear if she knew he’d even considered it.