by Zoe Chant
Oh, God.
Slowly, Athena started extracting herself from Santos’ warm body. He made a protesting noise, and she froze, holding her breath...but ultimately he just grumbled a bit and subsided. She let out her breath and—
Well, she ended up doing the thing she’d been dreading after all, sneaking around the room to get her clothes on as fast as possible, and darting out of the room before he woke up enough to try and talk to her.
You’re the worst, Athena, she thought to herself, half-hysterical and half-resigned. Even when you’ve found your mate, you’re still falling into bed and rushing right out of it.
But she couldn’t have just stayed there, lying awake while Santos drifted off to sleep, knowing this.
She wanted to go outside, pace back and forth in the cold winter air—or even better, shift and fly up into the atmosphere until she could hardly breathe. But Olivia was sleeping peacefully in the spare room, and Athena couldn’t just walk out and leave her.
Even if she knew she could trust Santos with her daughter. Without question.
And now she knew why.
Athena jammed the heels of her hands against her eyes, wishing she could somehow achieve the power to alter reality at will, because that was the only thing that would fix this situation. What was she going to do?
Her phone buzzed, still in her jeans pocket from when she’d taken them off, and she jumped. She pulled it out and looked at it. Alaric calling.
She nearly tossed the phone across the room. How was she going to explain this to her brother? He wouldn’t even have approved of her sneaking off to Oak Ridge for a couple of days, much less...whatever was going to happen now.
She let the phone ring until it went to voicemail, not even wanting to decline the call in case Alaric figured out that she’d seen it.
After a couple of minutes, she got a voicemail notification. With a shaking hand, she tapped it and brought the phone to her ear.
“Athena,” said Alaric, in the stern tone that she knew oh so well, “Jeremiah says you’re visiting the lionesses, but I know better. I told you not to go to Oak Ridge; it’s too dangerous. And you brought Olivia with you! There isn’t a single better hostage in the entire clan than Olivia, and you’ve brought her into the heart of enemy territory. You need to get back here—"
Athena stabbed the End Call button. Then she stared down at her phone.
She could call Alaric back and tell him everything was fine, Olivia wasn’t in danger and neither was Athena, but he wouldn’t believe her. She could call him back and tell him the truth...and she didn’t know if he’d believe her or not, but he’d still be on his way to Oak Ridge before they were done talking.
Maybe she could get Ronan to call him and say everything was fine. No, that probably wouldn’t work either.
Great. Now she had another problem.
Her dragon made a protesting noise. Our mate isn’t a problem!
That’s not what I meant, Athena thought, frustrated. Of course Santos wasn’t a problem.
Santos was the opposite of a problem in every conceivable way. He was the best man she’d ever met, and now he was stuck in an impossible tangle of a situation, because of her.
The problem is that no one’s going to like this! she tried to explain. No one at home, and certainly not anyone in Oak Ridge, not once they realized who Athena was.
We can fight anyone who doesn’t like it, her dragon said confidently. Us and our mate together.
We can’t fight everybody, Athena shot back, which admittedly was a sentiment she hadn’t always espoused, particularly when she was younger.
And she also had to admit that the idea of fighting side-by-side with Santos was an appealing one. She still hadn’t seen Santos’ shifted form, but she had to imagine it was impressive.
Our mate is the most impressive, her dragon thought, satisfied.
You don’t even know that, Athena sighed internally.
I do, was the contented response.
Great. Fantastic. Good thing her dragon was completely content.
And the problem was—she could feel that inside her, too. If she relaxed for just a moment, the same satisfied contentment would start to arise. Knowledge that she’d found her place, that Santos would be with her forever, that they would raise Olivia together and everything would be wonderful—
But she had to clamp down on that every time, because there were things that her instincts didn’t know. Instincts and inter-clan politics never mixed together very well. She’d seen this a million times with Jeremiah, and now with Shiloh, because both of their instincts always said, Attack first!
And she knew that would be the solution to this problem, too. No matter how satisfying it was to have a mate, she couldn’t let that outweigh the knowledge of what it was going to provoke.
And how that might affect Olivia.
“Dammit,” she said out loud, sighing. Because Alaric was right. Stupid Alaric was always right, and this time was no different. She’d made a huge mistake, and it was going to put Olivia in danger. Stuck between two warring clans, there was no way she’d be safe.
Unless Athena left now.
Left, and never came back. Accepted that there’d be a hole inside her forever. Found someplace new to settle down, a different clan...or even a human city. Raised Olivia far away from all of this dumb, violent conflict.
Abandoned Santos. He’d wake up, and he’d know they were mates just like Athena did...but Athena would be gone. And she’d never come back.
Would he be able to find her? She didn’t know much about how the mate-bond worked; there weren’t any living mated pairs in her clan anymore. Maybe he could track her.
That idea came with a surge of hope, which made her realize that this whole idea was stupid. She couldn’t abandon Santos. He was too—too—
Maybe they could all leave it behind, find somewhere else to live. Santos could make furniture for humans and they could raise Olivia together after all.
And then Alaric would be alone, wondering what had happened to his little sister and his niece. Or, more realistically, he’d think that they had been kidnapped by the Oak Ridge dragons, and he’d declare a personal vendetta against the entire town and wouldn’t rest until he’d burned it all to the ground and salted the earth.
So that probably wasn’t a good idea, either.
Athena dropped down onto the couch, staring out the enormous windows to the beautiful mountain view beyond. It was a bright, cheerful-looking sunny day, the snow sparkling in the daylight, people going about their business in the street below like they didn’t have a care in the world.
“What am I going to do?” she whispered into the empty room, but no answer came to her.
Chapter 12: Santos
Santos drifted awake with a strange, double-edged sensation.
On the one hand, he felt fulfilled in a way that he never had before. Complete, like he’d been looking for something for a long, long time and he’d finally found it.
On the other hand, he had a sense of buzzing urgency in the back of his mind, a growing anxiety, a fear of—something. Something happening.
He was already frowning when he opened his eyes, and turned to—
To the empty side of the bed. Athena had gotten up.
But he’d expected her to be there. He’d felt like she was there, in fact; he’d been so sure that when he looked over, she’d be right there.
He still felt like that. Like she was right with him, right here, even though the room was empty.
His dragon made a discontented noise. Where is our mate?
Santos sat bolt upright.
Our mate.
The words echoed in his head, and suddenly it was like everything that had happened that day clicked into place and made sense.
Of course. Of course. Of course he’d woken up when she broke in. Of course he wanted to help her. Of course he’d been so drawn to her, so full of the need to be with her, support her, give her what she needed.
Of course he’d wanted to make love to her immediately, something Santos had never really done before—he’d always wanted to date a woman for a little while, get to know her, before falling into bed.
But he hadn’t needed to do that with Athena, because he’d known her from the moment he saw her. It had just taken his brain a little while to catch up.
Mates.
Santos realized he was smiling. Grinning. He’d known something was special about Athena, and now he knew why. They were mates.
He wasn’t going to have to say goodbye to Athena when she was done here in Oak Ridge. Send her off with little Olivia to live out the rest of her life. She’d stay here, or he’d go with her, or they’d figure something out—
And he’d get to see Olivia grow up. Help raise her. Be her dad, which wasn’t something he’d ever quite realized he wanted this badly, but he absolutely did. Being Olivia’s dad seemed, all of a sudden, like the most important thing in the entire world.
But that anxiety was still there, buzzing in the back of his mind. He frowned. What was he anxious about?
It took him a long minute to realize that it wasn’t his anxiety at all.
It was Athena’s. Athena was out there somewhere worrying. Fearful.
He was up out of bed in a second, tugging on his jeans, but foregoing a shirt or socks, hoping that she was still in the apartment. She felt close.
He stepped out into the hall, and saw her right away. She was in the living room, silhouetted against the window, bright sunshine behind her as she paced back and forth.
She stilled when she noticed him, looking wide-eyed across the room at him as though he was some large animal who’d appeared unexpectedly from the underbrush.
“Hi,” he said cautiously. What was she so afraid of? Was she afraid of him? She couldn’t be...could she?
But the men she’d known, the men she’d grown up with—maybe she was afraid of what he’d do, now that they were mates. The idea hurt a little bit, but stronger than that was a determination to show her that she didn’t have to worry about that at all. Santos was different, and he had no problem with the idea of proving it to her over the next seventy years.
“Hi,” she said quietly. “I guess you know.”
“Of course I know,” he said, coming forward despite himself. She didn’t flinch back at all, just lifted her chin and watched him. But she was still afraid. “What’s wrong? Isn’t this good news? Athena, we’re mates.”
“We’re mates, and we’re on opposite sides of a war!” she said.
Oh. Well. When she put it that way, he supposed he could see why she was so afraid.
Santos had to admit, any thoughts of the greater conflict had been completely pushed aside by his joy at the realization that he’d found his mate. Athena, though—Athena lived much closer to it. Athena had been through other conflicts like this in her lifetime, too—she had to have been, growing up in that environment.
Athena had a baby daughter to think about. And now Santos had to think about that baby girl, too.
“I promise you,” he said, taking another few steps forward and reaching for her hands. She took them, although she still looked anxious. “I promise you, I will be putting every power at my disposal towards ending this fight as quickly and safely as possible. I will never put you or Olivia in danger.”
“But what can you do?” she asked, despairing.
Santos raised his eyebrows. “I know you’ve only seen me in the context of furniture-making so far, but I am capable of a few other things.”
“Oh, good, you do have an ego in there, I was starting to worry,” she muttered, which he decided to find funny rather than insulting. She was probably used to men who were too invested in their gigantic egos to pay attention to anything she said.
“I know how to fight,” he said quietly. “I can keep you safe.”
“But that’s not all of it,” she said, shoulders slumping. “Because who are you going to fight? There’s people we love and trust on both sides.”
“Oh,” Santos said, almost silently. Of course. Of course that was what she was worried about, not her personal safety.
He reached out and touched her chin, lifting it up until she met his eyes. Hers were gorgeous in the afternoon light, a clear, endless green.
“Athena, Oak Ridge isn’t like where you grew up. I swear to you, every shifter here would like nothing more than to end the conflict without any more violence. None of us want to fight another dragon clan. And the more people from your home that we can get on board with that, the happier we’ll be. So if we can start with you—and if you can think of anyone else who would agree that it would be better to be friends than enemies—”
He waited, hopeful. She frowned.
“Well—one person,” she said slowly. “My brother might. Maybe.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Santos said, surprised at first, and then remembering that they barely knew each other. There was no reason he should’ve known, except that he felt like he knew her better than anyone he’d ever met in his life.
She nodded. “My older brother Alaric. He’s very—he’s a fighter, always has been, but he also has a sense of...honor. Respect. He’s not like Jeremiah.”
He’d heard her mention Alaric in the diner, but he hadn’t realized she was talking about a brother. “I’d like to meet him.”
Her mouth twisted wryly. “You’re probably not going to be able to avoid it.”
“Good,” Santos said firmly. “You’re my mate. I want to meet your family.”
He could see the fear creeping back into her face—and, he realized, feel it in her mind. “Alaric’s kind of a...black-and-white guy. I don’t know how he’s going to handle this kind of a situation, where the lines are blurred.”
“We’ll talk to him,” Santos said, with as much confidence as he could muster. “And in the meantime, you should meet some of the other shifters here in town.”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you sure? And you mean—tell them who I am? And that we’re mates?”
“Absolutely.” This time he didn’t need to work on his confidence, because he knew how this was going to go. “No one’s going to attack you or—or shun you, or anything like that. Hell, if anyone’s even rude to you, I’ll let them know that they’re out of line. But I don’t think they will be. Oak Ridge has really started up a tradition of welcoming strangers into its heart, and they’re not going to balk at you.”
Athena looked down at herself, as though trying to see what a stranger would see. “I don’t know,” she said. “I can be pretty hard to take.”
The way she said it, like she wished it was otherwise but she didn’t think it could change, broke his heart. “I do know,” Santos said, with all the conviction in his heart. “And I promise it’ll be okay.”
From the other room, a little wavering cry started up, and Athena immediately turned to go to Olivia, clearly relieved to get out of the conversation.
Santos followed, thinking about all the ways he could get people to welcome Athena to Oak Ridge, show her that she could be safe and happy here. Because that was all he wanted, now. It was already getting difficult to remember what it had been like to not want that, once upon a time.
In the spare room, Athena got Olivia up out of the crib and calmed her down, then went to change her diaper. Santos put a hand on her shoulder before she could get started, though. Athena looked up.
“Can I tap in? I think I have the hang of it now.”
Athena blinked. “Well—I—” She looked down at the baby, who was still fussing a little, and then back up at Santos.
“If you’d rather do it, that’s okay,” Santos said, keeping his tone light, trying to make it clear that he wasn’t trying to muscle in, just show that he was willing to help. “I just thought—you’ve put in plenty of hours on diaper duty, maybe you could use a break for this one.”
“Well—” Athena repeated. “Okay.” She handed the baby over to Santos.<
br />
“Hey, Olivia,” Santos said. “Let’s do this together, okay?”
He laid her down on the mat, remembering how he’d figured it out earlier, and pleased to realize that it was already feeling like second nature. Fresh diaper and wipes at the ready. Old diaper open. Thorough cleaning job with the wipes—Olivia squirmed and whined. “Is that cold?” Santos asked. “Sorry, kiddo. Almost done. One more. There we go.”
He taped her back up into the new diaper, got her back into her little onesie and sleeper, and lifted her back up from the floor. He tickled her chin and grinned at her, and she gave him a three-toothed grin back.
He looked over at Athena. “How’d I do?”
“Good,” she said quietly. “Really good. No complaints from her or me.”
Santos smiled. “Excellent. Bodes well for the future.” He stood up to go throw the used diaper away.
Athena caught his arm before he could go, hesitating—and then leaned up on her toes and brushed a kiss to his lips. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
“It really wasn’t that hard,” Santos said. “Though I’m not complaining about getting a reward.”
She smiled a little. “Not for that. For being—” She gestured vaguely. “You, I guess.”
“Can’t be anyone else,” Santos said, but his chest was warming as he understood what she meant. He flashed her a smile and went to toss the diaper in the bathroom trash.
Chapter 13: Athena
Athena held her daughter to her chest and tried not to hope.
It was hard. The way Santos had talked about how things would work out, the strength and energy of him...even the easy way he’d changed Olivia’s diaper: it all spoke to what a good and capable man he was.
But good and capable men could still be conquered. Terrible things could still happen to them. They could falter, they could fail, they could fall in battle.
Hope was rising inside her anyway.
Olivia burbled happily away, seeming to echo that warm glow. Two in favor, Athena thought wryly. Three if she counted her dragon, who was staunchly on Santos’ side.