The minutes ticked past. Her mind ran wild. Had her father passed by? Had he landed and found a scent trail? It seemed improbable, but her luck had never been all that great. Teagan couldn’t discount the possibility. She waited for him to knock on the front door any moment now.
Teagan pressed her eyes shut.
Reece gave her a small shake. “Loosen up. You’re so tense that you’re going to hurt yourself.”
Startled, her eyes snapped open. “I thought you’d fallen asleep!”
“I was keeping an ear out for Callum,” Reece murmured.
“Isn’t the correct phrase keeping an eye out?”
“I’d prefer to keep my eyes in my head, thank you. I think they look rather nice there.”
Despite her rising anxiety, Teagan laughed. She eased into Reece’s chest. Together, they sank deeper into the tub.
“Do you hear anything?” She couldn’t imagine being able to hear the flap of wings hundreds of feet above one’s house. Her senses were sharp, especially her eyesight, but not that sharp.
Dragons really were on a whole other level. She would never be able to compare to them. It was just another reminder that she was small and weak. Deflating, she almost crawled out of the tub and trudged out to face her father so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the feelings trying to take root in her chest.
She liked Reece. He was far more charming and relaxed than any dragon shifter she’d ever met. He was nicer than most human men, too. She took too much pleasure in flirting with him. It had set her on a path she never should have walked. There was time for her to backtrack, but she wasn’t sure she could do it so long as she stayed here.
Every moment with him pulled her closer and closer.
Reece likely didn’t feel the same way. His flirtation seemed practiced. He donned his grin like a mask. Though that should have been a warning sign, she wondered what the man behind it was like. Would she be able to meet the man behind the mask before she left for good?
“So, a bookstore? I pegged you for the type to open a record store.”
“That’s more my sister’s style,” Teagan said. “She’s the musically inclined one in the family. Music never did it for me. I needed worlds and characters in order to escape.”
He was quiet for a heartbeat, then said, “What were you trying to escape?”
Teagan wasn’t sure she should answer truthfully. She didn’t want to expose her family’s weaknesses to someone who was nearly a stranger. Reece was still his mother’s son. There was a chance that he would run back to Alice Montoya and divulge their every weakness to her.
Mistrust had been hammered into her bones. She knew not to put her faith in anyone, but for once, she wanted nothing more than to set that aside. She wanted to divulge everything so that she might be free of it for a moment. Maybe then it wouldn’t weigh on her so much.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Reece whispered. He nuzzled her again. “I understand your hesitation. I’m neither friend nor foe. I’m almost a stranger.”
His understanding nature nearly broke her. She took one of his hands that had been holding her tight and lifted it to her mouth where she could bite him.
“Ouch!” The exclamation faded into a fit of laughter. “Why do all birds want to bite me all the time?”
She laughed softly, as if she needed to be quiet or else her father might hear her. By now, it was more likely that he’d flown over already. She twisted, turning to face Reece. He cracked open an eye and watched her. There was stubble growing along his chin. She fought the urge to run her fingertips over his rough jaw.
“Don’t hurt your arm,” he said.
A knot tightened in her chest. Anything she might have said crashed in her throat like an accident on a busy highway. She coughed to clear it all away, but that wasn’t enough. She needed more time. Here, face to face with Reece, she couldn’t get her thoughts straight. She never should have faced him.
He ran a hand along her waist. She savored the sensation. His hands were large and hot, making her feel small and safe. A thought fluttered through her mind. If she could not speak, then she did not need lips.
Her owl flapped its wings expectantly. She let it soar towards the surface. Her form shrank, feathers bursting along her skin. In the matter of an instant, the world went black. She panicked, at first. Then she remembered that she was not so large that clothing turned to rags when she shifted. Instead, Teagan shrank and got caught in her shirt. It clung to her head until someone whisked it away.
“I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to go outside right now,” Reece said, his voice somber when she’d expected laughter.
She shook her head and cooed softly at him. He nodded, as if the small sound could be translated.
“Alright then,” he said. “Glad we’re on the same page. It was smart of you to shift. Your arm should be fully healed by the time you return to your human form.”
Reece helped her onto her feet, then rolled so that he was on his back. She hopped from his arm to the edge of the bathtub, then regretted it. She missed his touch the moment she left but didn’t want to leap back onto him just yet. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.
“Alright, little bird. I’m going to get to bed. You’re welcome to find a perch somewhere in the house until you want to shift back. I’m going to assume that your internal clock is going to be a little weird after you shift. Owls are nocturnal and people aren’t.”
Reece climbed out of the tub. He gave her a look and outstretched his arm. She considered leaving him hanging but couldn’t resist his pull. She tested her wings. The last time she’d shifted, her wing had been broken. There was no pain when she flapped, though.
She coasted across the room, beating her wings against the air to slow down as she stretched her talons toward Reece’s arm. He didn’t flinch when she landed. He lifted his arm slightly to adjust for her weight then grinned up at her once she’d settled.
“Ah, now I remember. You’re a snowy owl. That means your diurnal, not nocturnal!”
He dealt with birds every day. This was nothing strange for him. Well, this situation might have been a little strange for him considering that there was a woman inside this owl. Teagan watched him, waiting for a sign of discomfort or conflict.
Reece’s face remained impassive. She cooed again and clicked her beak together a few times. He gave her a wry look.
“Someone is greedy for attention.”
Teagan became silent after that. She would never give him the impression that she needed his attention. Again, he laughed. There was no way to win. Her silence was an obvious defiance, and he knew it.
In the living room, she jumped from his arm and flew toward a floor lamp. The lamp swayed uncertainly. She threw open her wings to steady herself until the lamp came to a standstill. Across the room, Reece watched her.
Still, she couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t say anything to give away his thoughts, either. Whatever was on his mind would stay trapped there. When he glanced at the front door and scratched the back of his head, she wondered if he wanted to leave but couldn’t because of her father’s presence.
Teagan clicked her beak nervously.
“Don’t worry, little bird. I’m not going anywhere tonight.”
7
Reece woke to a warm presence beside him in bed. Teagan’s curls cascaded over a stolen pillow. She snored softly, her body curled in on itself. He stared at her, marveling at the fact that she’d chosen to share the bed with him after all. The fact that she was as far away from him as possible didn’t bode well…
It didn’t bode well for what? His chances to get in her pants? Reece needed to take a cold shower. The blonde in his bed was too distracting.
She wasn’t a woman he’d brought home from the bar. She was a Barnes shifter who had made her limited interest in him very clear. Teagan didn’t want him the same way he wanted her. He could flirt to his heart’s content, but she would never give her what he really w
anted.
Only his sisters could find that kind of love. Reece was doomed to be a playboy.
Most men would revel in the idea of being a playboy forever, but he could only feel the impending sense of doom that particular kind of loneliness brought with it. If he didn’t think about it, then it wasn’t that bad. He could give himself over to the birds at the aviary and be at peace with his life.
Today was not such a day, though. His phone buzzed on his nightstand just as a car pulled up outside. He snatched up the phone before it could wake Teagan. She continued snoring as if nothing had happened.
The message on the phone turned his world upside down.
Family meeting. Now.
Reece wanted to throw the device across the room, but he kept from doing so out of concern for Teagan’s sleep. He had no idea when she’d gone to sleep and didn’t want to wake her too early. Especially not when he had to meet with his mother.
The front door opened. Reece had a moment to try to remember if he’d locked it before he bounded out of bed and stormed down the hall. The woman at the other end of the hall waggled her fingers at him. A grim smile on her face couldn’t reach her eyes.
At the sight of his cousin, Bryce, Reece’s shoulders slumped. He grumbled something under his breath and retreated so that he could shower and get dressed. He couldn’t meet his mother smelling like Teagan. The vicious dragon woman would latch onto the scent and hound him until she’d rousted Teagan from his home.
He wasn’t ready to give her up yet. He wanted to keep her all to himself for as long as he could.
When he came out, freshly showered but not shaven, he found Bryce taking in the coffee table and the remnants of the dinner from the night before. The plates had been cleared, but they still sat out in the open alongside the wineglasses and beer cans.
Bryce’s amethyst eyes slid past Reece, to the hall. He watched her pupils change shape, morphing from small circles to sharp diamonds and back. Bryce lifted a brow. The artificial colors in her hair seemed to ripple in tune with her curiosity.
“Why do you have a Barnes woman in your bedroom? Are you hoping to trigger some magical chain reaction like your sisters did?”
“Fuck off, Bryce,” he snapped.
She lifted both brows this time. Her spine straightened, her eyes going sharp again. Then, Bryce seemed to remember herself. She sighed, a growl of frustration rumbling at the end of it. She slumped and turned her glare to the ceiling as if it were a mirror that would allow her to silently scold herself.
This was what happened when a fae queen and a dragon shifter had offspring. Bryce stood between two worlds. On the one hand, she was a dragon. Bryce had fire and the roaring spirit of a world destroyer. But, on the other hand, she was fae like her mother. It gave her the slow and unyielding nature that made her mother so difficult to deal with.
Bryce always did her best to defy both sides of her lineage. She’d dyed her hair bright colors and filled her skin with ink so that she would appear more human. If anything, it made her seem even more otherworldly. She appeared like a punk pixie, carrying gardens in her skin and constellations in her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” Bryce said, finally turning her gaze back to him.
He shrugged off her apology. “You’re nervous. I’m guessing my mother called you for the family meeting.”
Bryce groaned. “Yes, and I got an earful from my own mother for what happened recently. Is that woman ever going to learn how to chill?”
“Which one?” Reece shoved his feet into a pair of boots and gestured for Bryce to lead the way.
“Good question.” She jingled her keys in her hand.
Reece gave Bryce’s coupe a dubious look. The little two-door speedster couldn’t handle the snowy backroads very well. A thin layer of snow had fallen the night before. He wasn’t sure how she’d made it up to his cabin without going off-roading at least once. Going downhill was going to send them flying into a ditch for sure.
“You’re welcome to follow me in your own ride,” Bryce offered with a toothy smile.
It was a challenge. She had called him out for being a chicken, and he wasn’t going to back down. He opened the passenger door and planted himself in the seat. Bryce cackled. She turned the key in the ignition and popped the car into reverse.
Being half-fae and half-dragon made Bryce a bit of a thrill-seeking maniac. She tore around the corners with practiced ease while Reece clung to his seatbelt out of fear of being trapped in a small ball of metal and fiberglass should they roll the coupe.
“So, the Barnes girl?” Bryce asked.
She jerked the steering wheel. The back tires skidded over the ice beneath the snow. With a flick of her wrist, she yanked the wheel back and corrected their trajectory with only a slight fishtail.
“Fucking hell, woman.” Smoke nervously drifted from his nose as his dragon prepared for the worst. “Are you seriously going to torture me for answers? You could have asked me without the threat of decapitation. You know that would kill us, right? We’re not as invincible as you seem to feel.”
Bryce slowed down. “There? That better?”
Reece didn’t roll his eyes, though he really wanted to. “Teagan is staying with me until her arm heals. We had a collision in the snowstorm the other day, and I ended up hurting her.”
“Isn’t she a shifter, too? I don’t think she’s a dragon, but I could be wrong. Either way, she should have healed overnight. Right?”
Reece explained the situation, how Teagan rarely shifted and how that had impacted her healing. Bryce listened, keeping any of her thoughts regarding the matter to herself. Reece didn’t think about his cousin often, as if he couldn’t hold the memory of a being between two worlds for very long. Yet, he was always grateful whenever she sauntered back into his life.
“I was joking earlier, but you’re already really protective of her. Are you sure you haven’t formed a mate bond with a Barnes shifter? I wouldn’t be surprised after everything else that’s happened.” Bryce flicked the turn signal.
The Montoya manor had come up on them faster than Reece would have liked.
Teagan woke alone, much to her disappointment. The sun had already arced through much of the sky. Her sleep schedule changed when she shifted. She became more owl than girl, though, on any other day, there wasn’t anything wrong with that.
However, sleeping late meant missing out on seeing Reece in the morning. She told herself that she wasn’t staying to enjoy Reece’s company. She’d stuck around to give herself time to figure out how to leave without alerting her father to where she’d been. That seemed like the wrong idea now.
What had she been thinking? That she would come up with some grand caper that would fool everyone? Callum Barnes clearly knew that she was avoiding going home. That, or he thought she’d been kidnapped, though she wasn’t sure why anyone would want to kidnap her.
To bend her father to their will? Yeah, that seemed like something Callum would think up. He likely feared the worst, but for all the wrong reasons.
She fell back onto the bed and breathed in Reece’s scent. The knot in her chest eased. She lifted her hand toward the ceiling and inspected her arm. The bruises were gone. She flexed her fingers and waited for pain to radiate down her arm. When it didn’t come, she grabbed her phone and held it high. She opened apps and typed. This shift seemed to have healed her the rest of the way.
Her owl cooed softly inside her. It apologized for being so weak that it could not heal her. Guilt curled around her heart. This wasn’t her owl’s fault. She was the one who’d kept from shifting. She was the one who chose the worst night to spread her wings and fly.
Teagan really was the worst shifter. She needed to shift inside more often. So long as she stayed out of the skies, then she wouldn’t get hurt. Yet, the thought left her empty. The idea of a life where she couldn’t fly outside saddened her.
Perhaps it was time for her to move on. Her arm had healed. Her father
was searching all of Nebraska for her. She had to get moving before she brought hell down onto Reece’s head. She wasn’t sure if they could avoid getting caught next time.
She ran her hands down her face, grabbed her backpack, and went to shower. The sight of the giant soaking tub drew her up short. She stared down at the place where she and Reece had cuddled and felt a yearning pinch her core tight.
He really was something special. She knew he wasn’t meant for her, but she liked the idea of keeping him. Reece woke up every day and chose something other than violence. She grinned, knowing that.
While she prepared the shower, she couldn’t help but feel like her arms were empty. She wondered what could make her feel such a way. She wished she could wrap them around Reece and bury her face in his chest before saying goodbye, but she wouldn’t even be able to say goodbye. She had to get going.
This time, she didn’t use any of his products. She stepped out of the shower and rolled her shoulders. This would go a lot easier if she made sure not to touch anything else. Her owl felt much closer than before. It seemed the recent shifts had brought them together. Another shift might make her feel like they were one creature.
Maybe.
She would have to find out.
Thoughts of feathers and wind rolled through her mind. She opened her arms and loosened her grip on the creature. But the owl refused to budge. She shoved and yanked, but the owl wouldn’t trade places with her.
And it wouldn’t tell her why.
Teagan scowled. The longer she took to shift, the more of Reece’s scent she would have on her skin. She would have to rush home and shower again to hide his scent.
“Come on, damn it.”
“Cum on what?” Reece appeared in the bathroom doorway and leaned against the frame.
Teagan yelped and covered her chest. Then she remembered her groin and leapt to cover that too. Reece laughed, but his demeanor quickly changed. His eyes smoldered. His lips parted in invitation as he looked her up and down.
Teagan wrinkled her nose. “You really think you can seduce me while you smell like another woman? I can smell her perfume from all the way over here!”
Wings of Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 5) Page 6