by Zoe Chant
What kind of dragon owned a furniture store, though? He was probably human.
She tried a smile. “Well, I—I’m very sorry for sneaking in. I’ll just be going now. I didn’t steal anything or break anything, I promise, and I won’t bother you anymore.” She stood up slowly, keeping her eyes on him.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” he said, still sitting, still calm.
Athena scowled instinctively. “I’m not.”
“Okay,” he said, with a little smile. “Then how about you tell me why you broke in? Are you in trouble? Do you need help?”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not in trouble. I’m fine.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So fine you needed to sneak into a store to have a warm place to sleep?”
Her pride struggled with the need for secrecy. She couldn’t just blurt out her mission to this guy—but for some reason, she didn’t want him to think that she was homeless and destitute, either.
“I’m here visiting my cousin,” she said finally, which was technically the truth. “My car broke down outside of town, and I don’t get cell phone service here. So I walked into town, but it was late at night and I couldn’t find his house. So I came in to sleep here.”
“Oh,” he said slowly. She couldn’t tell if he believed her or not. “What’s your cousin’s name?”
Oh, boy. Truth or lie? It was a small town, would he know if she made someone up? And she did need to find Ronan...
“Ronan Reinhardt,” she said, before the pause stretched out too far.
His eyebrows hit the ceiling. Oops.
“You’re Ronan’s cousin,” he said, as though he hadn’t quite heard her and needed the information confirmed.
Oops oops oops. Maybe Alaric was right, and red dragons just weren’t designed to be stealthy. “Yes.”
He looked like he was taking a minute to process the information she’d given him. Great. Did he know who Ronan was? He couldn’t, right? There was no way Ronan would have just straight-up told everyone he was from the clan they were all fighting.
Unless he had.
With a quick, efficient movement, the man set his book aside and stood up. Athena blinked. She hadn’t realized how enormous he was. Well over six feet—maybe approaching six and a half? His shoulders were broad enough that he seemed to fill the whole corner of the room.
He’s probably human, she told herself again. Shifters don’t own furniture stores. Unless he was some kind of meek, small shifter, a prey animal.
A beaver, maybe. What with all this woodworking. She had to suppress a totally inappropriate snort at the thought of this huge, chiseled man shifting into a beaver.
He took a step forward, and she froze, her thoughts immediately shifting into defensive mode. What if he was a dangerous shifter? Was there room in here for her dragon form? There was, as long as she kept her wings in fairly close to her body.
Don’t fight! her dragon hissed in her chest.
Athena blinked, as the man held up a hand and said, “I’m not trying to hurt you. Here, I won’t come any closer, I promise. I just want to take you to meet Ronan.”
“Oh.” Okay. That was—that was good. Athena felt like her head was spinning from all of the quick changes of attitude she’d had in the last few seconds.
Why don’t fight? Her inner dragon was not known for its peaceable nature.
Don’t fight. It also tended to be pretty short on words, and apparently this was all it had to say for now.
Athena forced her thoughts to collect together into something coherent, and was about to tell the man thanks and ask when they could leave, when behind her Olivia woke up and started to cry.
Chapter 4: Santos
From the moment the woman had sat up, red hair tumbling down her back, and noticed him—startling badly and then calming herself down almost immediately—Santos had known he was in trouble.
In the light of day, awake and animated, she was, no question, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life. Maybe not by classical standards—her features were strong rather than delicate, and her curves were the sort of thing that women often tried to diet away—but on her, they were captivating. And the way her eyes snapped with fierce intelligence, the way her chin lifted with pride and stubbornness...
Oh yes, he was in trouble.
Especially since she probably wasn’t looking for romance. If she was breaking into places in the night with her baby, she had to have more important things on her mind.
Then she insisted she was doing fine, and he was strangely tempted to believe her, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Then she said she was Ronan’s cousin, and everything took an abrupt turn.
Was this woman a red dragon? Part of the violent, cruel clan where Ronan had grown up? Oak Ridge’s enemy, who had just sent a young, aggressive dragon to challenge their sheriff to a fight to the death?
He had a hard time believing it—but then he stood up, and she stilled, clearly ready to fight, watching him with eyes like a predator.
Then he believed it.
Which should have made him less attracted to her, but the way she looked coiled for a strike, the sudden definition of muscle as she tensed—it just heightened his visceral awareness of her. He wanted, suddenly, to see her in action. Was she a dragon shifter, too?
Then a soft noise from behind her on the bed turned into a halting cry.
The baby. He’d been so focused on the woman that he’d almost forgotten.
She half-turned, her eyes still on him, and reached for her child. Santos found himself taking another, involuntary step forward, and forced himself to stop—he’d told her he wouldn’t come any closer, and what was he even planning to do?
He was willing to bet his store that if he tried to reach for the baby, she’d be doing her very best to murder him the next second.
Still without taking her eyes off of him, the woman picked the baby up, bounced her a few times, and murmured something soothing until the crying tapered off.
The baby flailed around a little, and then noticed him, big eyes fixing on him. Santos guessed from the pink flannel suit that the baby was wearing that it was a girl, and she watched him with wide green eyes like her mom’s.
“Hi,” Santos said to the baby.
More staring. Santos wasn’t great at guessing babies’ ages, but she seemed too young to say hi back, so he supposed that was all he was going to get.
When he looked back at the woman, she was staring at him too. Her expression was odd enough that he couldn’t parse it.
“What’s your name?” he asked suddenly.
She was instantly suspicious. He tried not to find it charming and failed. “Why?”
“So I can call you something,” he said patiently. And then an idea came to him and he held up his phone. “And so I can tell Ronan who’s here to see him when I call him to set up a meeting.”
“Oh.” She hesitated, but apparently decided it wouldn’t be too dangerous to tell him. “Athena.”
Santos blinked. Looked back at his chair, where The Iliad was sitting, with his bookmark in place. Athena, a warrior goddess.
“Well?” she was asking him. “Are you going to call Ronan?”
He shook himself out of the weird place his imagination had taken him, where Athena herself had somehow stepped out of the pages of the book and into his store. “Sorry. Yes. I’m Santos, by the way,” he said, a little pointedly.
“Oh. Um.” She blinked. “Nice to—meet you.”
She sounded like she was speaking a foreign language. Shaking his head, Santos dialed.
Ronan picked up almost immediately. “Santos, what is it?”
He sounded worried, which a six AM phone call was bound to provoke. “I’m standing in my store with a woman who says she’s your cousin,” Santos said. “Tall, red hair, goes by Athena? Here with her daughter?”
“Her daughter?”
Ronan had left home almost three years ago now, Santos rem
embered, and there certainly wasn’t a lot of communication between Oak Ridge and the rest of the red dragons these days. It would have been well before the baby was even conceived. “Young daughter,” he said. “A baby. She wants to meet with you.”
Ronan sounded absolutely flabbergasted. “I—a meeting? I mean, okay. Yes. Okay.”
“Meet at Lachlan’s?” Santos figured that neutral territory would probably be best for the moment. He still didn’t know why Athena wanted to see Ronan, although he was really, really hoping that she wasn’t intending to challenge him to single combat.
Surely she wouldn’t have brought her baby to single combat. Although he supposed he didn’t know anything about red dragon traditions. Maybe it was important for babies to learn how to smite their enemies as early as possible.
God, this was bad. The red dragons were their enemy. He couldn’t be sympathizing with one of them like this.
Although Ronan was a red dragon, and he was one of the most genuinely good, kind men Santos had ever met. So he’d be dumb to make assumptions about all the rest of them.
“Lachlan’s sounds good,” Ronan said. “Now? Or as soon as possible?”
“I think that would be best.” Athena was watching him with an unwavering stare that reminded him of Humphrey. Like she was waiting for prey to peek its head out around a corner before she pounced. And if she was a dragon too, her hearing would be more than good enough to follow both sides of the conversation.
“Okay. I’ll—I have Noah, so it’ll take a few minutes, but I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
Noah was Ronan’s son. Or stepson, really, but Santos doubted it made a difference to either of them. Katie, Ronan’s mate, must be at her café this morning. So there’d be two babies at the table, which would probably make single combat even less likely. Good.
And Lachlan would be there, and Lachlan’s presence somehow always calmed people down. So it would be fine. Hopefully.
“See you soon,” Santos said as cheerfully as possible, and ended the call. “We’re meeting at the diner,” he told Athena. “It’s right nearby—walking distance.” Which was good. He didn’t know whether Athena would have willingly gotten into a car with him.
“Okay.” She looked suddenly uncertain. “I don’t really have any money.”
Santos blinked. She was traveling alone with her baby—why wouldn’t she have any money? She would have needed it for gas and food, right?
Maybe she was in more trouble than she’d admitted.
“No problem,” he said, keeping his voice as easy as possible, as though it made no difference to him. She looked uncomfortable enough. “My treat.”
“Oh.” She clearly wanted to protest, but instead said, with obvious effort, “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said honestly, which made her look even more uncomfortable. But before he could try to figure out how to set her at ease—maybe impossible?—the baby started fussing again.
“She probably needs a change and some food of her own, right?” Santos asked. “Do you want to go upstairs to my apartment and do that in private?” Maybe she didn’t want to go into a strange man’s home, though—and sure enough, she looked wary at the suggestion. “Or I could step out and leave you to take care of her.”
“Um. That’s—kind of you. Thank you. It’ll just be a few minutes.”
“Of course.” He smiled at her. She really didn’t seem to know what to do with that.
And Santos thought, as he stepped back into the workshop and closed the door between them, that he really was in trouble. She seemed like a wild, semi-feral creature, looking at everything he said with suspicion, those fierce green eyes just waiting for a threat to appear. That coiled energy, ready to pounce.
How long would it take for her to learn he wasn’t a threat? For that wariness to soften, for her to look at him with pleasure instead of mistrust?
He had a feeling that it would be an uphill battle. But he wasn’t the type to back down from a challenge.
Chapter 5: Athena
Athena changed Olivia quickly, disposing of the used diaper in a trash can in the corner, and sat back down on the bed to nurse her. All the while, she couldn’t get the man—Santos—out of her head.
He had to be human. He wasn’t behaving like any shifter man she’d ever met. Too—soft. His smile hadn’t had any sharpness to it at all, and the way he’d been so accommodating, without asking for anything in return...she wasn’t used to it. Even Alaric always wanted her to agree to behave herself in exchange for his help.
But Santos also gave off an air of strength that was hard to ignore. He was easily confident in a way that suggested power, capability. It was weirdly contradictory.
Well, she didn’t need to figure him out. He was going to take her to meet Ronan, and—
Huh. She’d been assuming that he would take her to meet Ronan and then leave. But he’d said, My treat. So that meant he’d stay to pay for the meal, didn’t it?
Well, but then he’d leave, once she’d talked to Ronan. So that would be that, and Santos wouldn’t be her problem any longer.
Right.
Olivia finished eating with a minimum of fuss, and Athena got them both all bundled up again. She stood up, backpack on her back and Olivia strapped to her front, and gave the bed a last look to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything behind.
There was a weird pang of regret in her chest at the thought of leaving the store for good, which was stupid because she’d only been here for a few hours, and the only thing she’d needed it for was an indoor spot to sleep. There wasn’t any call for some kind of...sentimental attachment.
Determinedly, she marched over to the door that Santos had disappeared behind and knocked. “Time to go.”
He appeared immediately, and his eyes went to Olivia, who was wide-eyed and interested. “All changed and fed?”
“Yes,” Athena said impatiently. This was another weird thing—Santos had already paid more attention to Olivia than most shifter men did. Alaric liked her, but that made sense, because she was Alaric’s blood. And it wasn’t like he spent much time thinking about her diaper changes.
“Good.” He smiled down at Olivia, and then led the way out the door. Athena followed, trying to keep her mind on her mission.
She’d already accomplished the first half of it, which was better than she’d expected for just around dawn. With, she had to grudgingly admit, Santos’s freely-given help.
Which was another weird thing. If he did know who Ronan was, then he had to have guessed where she was from. Why was he helping her instead of challenging her, or trying to lock her up?
Which prompted the next question: why on earth had she told him who she was? Had she suddenly become an idiot when she stepped inside the town limits?
Olivia burbled against her chest, and Athena sighed. What was done was done, and there was no going back and changing it. She was just going to have to deal with any challenges that came up as a result.
She followed Santos out into the street. It was still dark, a cold winter morning, and Olivia hid her face in Athena’s chest, face scrunched against the frigid air. Athena pulled her hood up, tugged the little knit cap down further over her ears, and zipped up her own jacket far enough to create more of a pocket of warmth around the baby.
When she looked up, Santos had paused and was watching her. “She okay?”
“She’s fine,” Athena said. “Let’s go. She’ll be better inside.”
He nodded and set off quickly, tall enough that Athena had to hurry to keep up. Which was fine, because she wanted to get to Ronan as quickly as possible.
The diner was indeed just down the street; Athena remembered looking it over last night, without any conception that she’d ever go inside and order food there. Santos led them up the stairs and to the door without any pause, but Athena found herself hesitating at the bottom.
Then Santos looked back, and she held up her head and stepped confidently forward. She wasn’t
going to let him see her uncertainty.
Inside, she looked around covertly. It was a big open room, full of tables and chairs, and booths by the window, like she would have expected. Just a regular human diner. Nothing to worry about.
A figure suddenly appeared to her left, and she started, her heart pounding, half-ready to shift or run. But it was just a smiling blond man, no indication of threatening movements.
“Hey, Santos,” he said. “Good morning. We don’t usually see you in here this early.”
“Morning, Lachlan,” Santos said, his voice deep and easy, as though nothing weird was happening at all. “We’re getting breakfast. Ronan’s meeting us.”
The smile transferred to her. “Great. Do you want a high chair?”
Strapping Olivia into a chair, where it might be hard to grab her and run if she had to...Athena shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“Right this way, then.” The man—Lachlan, so he must be the owner, since the sign outside said Lachlan’s Diner—grabbed a couple of menus and led them to one of the big tables by the window. Athena sat down on the side that faced the entrance, and tried not to feel too exposed.
A menu was placed in front of her, and Lachlan smiled again. Or maybe he’d never stopped. “I’ll be back with water and biscuits. Coffee?”
“Thanks,” Santos said. Athena shook her head.
“No problem,” Lachlan said, and disappeared.
Athena watched him go. No one could be that genuinely cheerful and friendly, could they? Well, he was a professional. He must have learned how to put on that smiling face whenever any customers came in.
Athena didn’t know a single thing about the service industry, but being friendly had to be something you learned how to do. So it was a mask. She didn’t know how he projected such a sense of—warmth, or whatever it was, but that had to be part of it, too.
When she looked back at Santos, he was watching her with another one of those little smiles.
What was with everyone in this town? She busied herself with unzipping Olivia so that neither of them would overheat, rather than look at any more cheerful faces.