A Mate to Treasure (Dragons of Mount Aterna Book 1)

by Riley Storm

  “They missed,” he said, holding his hands up. “I promise. Not a scratch, not even a graze.”

  Emma tilted her head, watching his face. There was something he wasn’t telling her. Something about what had happened during that encounter.

  “You’re holding back,” she said, pointing a finger at him, slipping out of her boots.

  Asher grimaced unhappily at being called out like that.

  “I am,” he said heavily after a moment, delighting her with his decision to stay truthful. “But I’m not lying. There are things I just can’t tell you, but what I have told you is true. Two men who were hunters were waiting outside the vault. They shot at me but missed. None of that is a lie.”

  Emma rubbed her chin as she watched him, feeling the honesty in him. Whatever he was hiding, he wasn’t lying to her.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I think. Kinda. It feels weird to thank you for being honest that you aren’t telling me everything. Can you tell me who these people are? Why are they locking us in vaults? And how did you get out of the vault in the first place?” she asked. “Why did you act like there was no way out?”

  “I don’t know who they are,” he said, tugging off his boots as he spoke, following her inside. “Honest. I don’t recognize any of the names, I’ve never crossed paths with any of them before. It…it doesn’t make any sense, and I’m really frustrated by it,” he admitted, slamming a fist into his palm with a meaty smack, venting said emotion.

  Emma nodded. “I see. So, you can tell me with complete truth that you had absolutely no suspicions of what was going to happen to us at the vault?”

  “Yes. I’m not holding anything back when I tell you that caught me by surprise as much as you. There was not a single part of me that suspected anything.” Asher stared directly at her as he spoke, letting her judge his eyes and their distinct golden-brown coloring for herself.

  He was telling the truth again, she surmised.

  “Well, in that case,” she said. “I just want to say thank you.”

  Asher’s face contorted. “For what? Getting you trapped in a vault? I don’t understand.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “For getting me out of it. Even if you’re dodging my question on it. But also for today. For saving my life.” She shivered suddenly, holding herself tight. “I saw the guns that man’s thugs had. They could have hurt me. You…you saved me by acting, when I had no idea what I was doing. I feel so stupid, how could I not have realized something must be up!”

  “Hey, hey,” Asher said, coming across the floor, wrapping her up in his arms. “It’s fine, it’s okay. You didn’t have any reason to suspect.”

  Exhaustion was washing over her slowly, the adrenaline fading and her body reminding her that she hadn’t slept at all really the night before. The hour or two snooze in the vault was totally wiped out by the terror she’d experienced upon waking up alone.

  “Just don’t make a habit of it, okay?” Asher added, stroking her head.

  She was hugging him back. Emma wasn’t sure when that had happened, but she wasn’t ready for that. Her body still remembered the taste of his lips, the sweetness of his touch. She couldn’t handle that, not right now.

  “I’ll do my best,” she said with a laugh, patting his chest as thanks but also using it to push herself out of his embrace before she succumbed to its undeniable comfort. He was just so warm, and cuddly, and she wanted to bury herself in his arms. But she couldn’t let herself do that.

  “It would have been better if you’d been answering me,” she said, throwing a bit of shade his way, calling him out for ignoring her. “I had to go up the mountain to your family’s place today to find out where you were.”

  “You did?” Asher asked, eyebrows rising. “Why did you do that?”

  “Um,” she said awkwardly. How was she supposed to explain it? “I…gah, this sound so silly. But I just felt a need to see you, to talk to you again,” she admitted sheepishly. “Couldn’t explain it. Just…felt like what I had to do.”

  Asher was staring at her, mouth open in a tiny circle, eyes wide and unblinking.

  “Asher?” she called, stepping closer to him, waving a hand in front of his face. “You okay in there?”

  There was no response.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Asher

  Pull yourself together, Asher! You don’t know that she means it that way!

  Shaking his head, he forced intelligence back into his face, banishing the slack-jawed astonishment.

  “You felt an urge?” he asked quietly. “Like a pull?”

  Emma shrugged it off. “Yeah, sure, I guess you could call it that if you wanted to. An urge, a pull. Something in my gut just told me to go find you. Of course, you weren’t answering your cellphone for me, so I had to get your brother to track you down for me.” She chewed her lip for a few minutes. “He kept giving me this weird, mystical, cryptic look. Like he was aware of far more than I am. It was kind of irritating.”

  “Brothers can get that way,” Asher muttered, still trying to process what he was hearing.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t like it. He did. No, his shock came from hearing that she was feeling the exact same thing. A need to see her. An urge.

  A desire.

  Asher had ignored his, hard as it had been, forcing it to the side while he dealt with the issue at hand and Wilson. But it had been there, eating away at him the entire time. Only his horror at Emma being involved in the potential violence with Wilson and his thugs around had outweighed his inner delight at seeing her.

  He could still remember the way his dragon had soared inside him, like butterflies in his stomach when he’d laid eyes on her as she rolled down the window. Then there was the skip of his heart every time she smiled. Like just before when he’d told her not to make a habit of needing him to save her life.

  There was something about this woman. Something extraordinary, and Asher was determined to find out what it was.

  But she knows I’m hiding a secret. Will she ever trust me while that still lingers between us?

  Asher sighed. His heritage was both a blessing, and a curse. Right now, it was a curse, a barrier between Emma and him, preventing him from truly finding out what might be there.

  Maybe one day I’ll be able to tell her the truth about me…

  The sound of something plastic rattling and billowing reached his ears. He frowned.

  “What’s that sound?” he asked, noting that Emma hadn’t reacted to it.

  “That?” she said, her mood souring. “That would be a tarp. Snapping in the window. See, you probably don’t know since you had a windshield, but it’s a little windy out there. Which I found out,” she said, gesturing at all the wild strands of coppery-brown hair that had blown free of her braid.

  “I’m going to hear about that for a while, aren’t I?” he rumbled, following the sound of the tarp.

  He rounded the corner and gaped in astonishment. “Your house,” he said, shaking his head. “But I don’t understand.”

  Emma frowned. “How the heck can you not understand, Asher? You did this!”

  “What? Yes, of course, I know that. I’m not an imbecile, Emma. I recall that. What I mean is, why is it still like this? It’s been a month! Why haven’t you had it fixed yet?”

  He looked around, eying the ceiling, the rest of the house. Had she been living in here this entire time? Alone? With the damage, and the completely unsecured entrances to her house? His head twisted to view the exit hole his quarry had taken.

  Asher still hated the fact that whatever it was had gotten away, but it wasn’t his fault, nor had he been assigned to track it down. Others were doing that, though they had to be slow and meticulous about it, so that nothing was spooked. The last thing the dragons wanted was anyone revealing the presence of themselves or creatures from the Otherworld to the rest of humanity.

  “How would I have gotten it fixed?” she said, her mood darkening further. “I can’t afford t
hat on my own, I don’t have that kind of money. Plus, insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of it. Mine or yours,” she growled. “Which since you apparently don’t have any, is rather hard to have happen. So, it stays like this until I get my money.”

  Asher was upset with himself. He had forgotten how touchy a subject the house was.

  “I can contact someone, if you’d like,” he said quietly. “They could come over, start work on it.”

  Emma frowned. “Why would you do that?”

  Because I don’t feel at all comfortable with you living in a house with a pair of giant holes in it, covered only by tarps? Someone could easily break in. Anyone. Plus, there’s the structure of the house to worry about. What if it’s been damaged?

  Asher was silent. There was something more going on here, with Emma. His concern for her safety was…paramount. At the vault, he’d freaked out when hearing her pounding on the other side. Earlier today at the meeting with Wilson and his thugs, he’d nearly panicked there too.

  You need to figure this out, and soon.

  “Anyway, like I said, I can’t afford to get it fixed,” Emma said when he didn’t respond. “I have to have it put back the way it was. Every piece of it. Cause this is my—”

  “Yeah, your grandfather’s house,” he said, interrupting her. “I know. You’ve made that clear to me.” He flashed her a smile, showing he didn’t mean his words callously.

  Why do you still refer to it as his house though? Why does it cause you so much distress to see it damaged? Asher gave Emma a long thoughtful look. Just what are you holding back from me, Emma? I’m not the only one with secrets, am I?

  “It’s going to get rebuilt,” he said. “Perfectly. I promise you that.”

  “Yeah, if you get your treasure back,” she said quietly.

  “Oh, I will,” he promised with a growl. “I will. I’m going to find whoever robbed me. Then they’ll pay.”

  Emma crossed her arms. “See, now when you talk like that, you don’t sound like a government agent. You sound like a criminal.”

  Asher wasn’t sure where she’d latched on to the idea that he was a government agent, but he didn’t want it to go on. It had helped him keep her calm earlier, but he didn’t want her believing a lie.

  “I’m not a government agent,” he said with a soft laugh. “Not even close.”

  Emma shook her head, looking skyward. “Of course, you’re not. What the heck are you then? Who are you? Tell me the truth, Asher.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Asher

  He studied Emma for a long moment.

  Just how much can I tell her? How much is she ready for?

  It stunned him to realize he was contemplating telling her the truth. The full truth. He couldn’t though, that would be betraying his kind. That secret needed to stay with him. There was only one way it would come out, and Asher doubted she was it.

  Doubted. But he was no longer certain.

  “My name is Asher Aterna,” he said. “That’s the truth. No lies, no holding back. I live up in the mountains with my family. You said you went there. You met my brother. I’m assuming it was Logan?”

  She nodded.

  “So then you saw the family resemblance too, I assume? That he in fact does look like me, even if I’m far, far better looking?”

  The humor fell flat. Now wasn’t the time for jokes, it seemed.

  “You look, dress and act rather well-refined and sophisticated for a child of the wilderness," she said quietly. “For someone who prefers to be alone, your social skills are remarkably well-polished.”

  Asher shrugged. “I never said I preferred to be alone,” he pointed out. “Just that I, and my family, prefer to be away from civilization and humanity. Those aren’t the same thing.”

  Emma’s eyes tightened. “This is another one of those times where you aren’t telling me everything, isn’t it? There’s some important detail missing here that would change the perception of everything? But that you aren’t lying either.”

  He sighed heavily, hating himself for doing this to her, but knowing it was for her own good. If she knew his secret, then she would have to keep it, and that would be far too much of an ask for her. Asher couldn’t do that to Emma.

  “Yes,” he said. “I promise you though, Emma, that I am not a bad guy, nor am I a criminal. None of that. That’s not what I’m holding back. I just can’t tell you the rest.”

  Yet.

  “Can’t,” Emma asked slowly. “Or won’t?”

  Asher thought those words over very carefully. It was a good question and he wanted to make sure that his answer was truthful, and correct.

  “At this point in time,” he told her. “Both.”

  Emma hadn’t been expecting that answer. Her face bunched up adorably as she tried to parse out his words. “At this point in time? What do you mean by that? I don’t get it.”

  “Exactly what it is,” he said. “I can’t tell you, but right now, even if I could, I wouldn’t. Right now,” he added with a bit of emphasis.

  That could change at any point, and very quickly. The more time he spent with Emma, the more he was beginning to wonder how she would handle it if he told her. Or if he showed her his true nature. What he really was. How would she deal with that?

  “Are you hungry?”

  Asher’s entire train of thought came to a crashing halt. “What?” he asked bluntly, caught so off guard he didn’t have any manners.

  Emma smiled. “Exactly what it is,” she mimicked with mock sincerity, using his words against him.

  There was a pause, then Asher threw back his head and laughed. Whatever Emma was, she was game, and built of a stronger personality than he ever seemed able to give her enough credit for. She was always proving to be more resilient than he expected. This ability to accept his answer and pivot the subject quickly was just one more example of that.

  “Yes,” he said. “I am famished. I’m almost always hungry. Why? You want to go get some food?”

  Emma shook her head. “Actually, I was thinking that maybe I’d make us something.”

  “Us?”

  “Well I’m not going to make myself food and force you to sit here and watch me eat it,” she teased. “The least I can do for you, for saving my life, is say thank you, and allow you to eat some food. I’m not a half bad cook,” she said. “My food will only leave you half dead, I promise.”

  Asher laughed harder. “Okay, okay. That sounds wonderful to me,” he said, accepting her generosity. “Thank you. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.”

  “Well, don’t get too eager, it’s going to take a bit to make,” she said, leading the way through the damaged section of her house and into the kitchen.

  “You know,” he said playfully as he followed. “I much prefer being in your house without having a gun pointed at me.”

  “Amazing what happens when you come through the front door. Isn’t it?” she joked.

  Asher liked this. He liked the friendly, playful banter between them. He could get used to it.

  “So, who are you, Emma Starling?” he asked as she moved about the kitchen. “You work at the quarry. But besides that, who are you?” He frowned. “And why aren’t you at work today?”

  A tray clattered abruptly. He frowned. Had she just dropped it accidentally? Was it just a coincidence that it had slipped when he’d asked his last question?

  “Emma? Is everything okay?” he stepped closer to her. What wasn’t she telling him?

  “Well. I kind of called in sick today,” she admitted.

  “What? Why? Just to come looking for me?”

  She shook her head. “No. Um, truthfully, well, God, this is embarrassing.”

  “I doubt it,” he said, reaching out to still her trembling hand as it held a baking tray so she wouldn’t drop it again. “You can tell me.”

  Emma looked down at where his hand was resting over hers. She didn’t pull away. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” she said quietly. “Like, at
all.”

  “Why not?” he pressed, hearing the hiccup in her voice, knowing there was more to this story.

  “I—after the vault. Being locked in it,” she said. “Alone, in the dark. I came back here and the idea of sleeping. In the dark. It’s scary.”

  Just then the power in the house went out.

  Emma yelped and Asher grunted as she pressed herself against him. He didn’t know what to do so he just closed his arms around her.

  “It’s okay,” he said, giving her a little squeeze. “You can relax.”

  Almost instantly she calmed, wilting in his arms as if he’d banished her fears simply by being there and saying those words.

  “It’s okay,” he repeated, feeling more of her tenseness fade.

  “Why?” Emma asked, the voice almost a complain, a pout, instead of a real question.

  “Why what?”

  She sighed in his arms. “Why is it I can only seem to relax around you? Like right now I could pass out. And last night, I kind of wished you would be there, so that I could sleep.”

  Asher licked his lips. How was he supposed to respond to this?

  The microwave beeped and lights flicked back on as the power returned.

  “About time,” Emma muttered, gathering herself quickly, as if the mood was over and things were back to normal.

  “That happens often?” he asked, concerned.

  “Well, ever since the hole in the wall and the ceiling out there falling down…” she said with a shrug.

  “Since I destroyed your house, you mean,” he said. “You can say it.”

  “Yeah,” she said sheepishly.

  “I’m sorry,” Asher repeated, noting that she was still snugly in his arms, not having pushed away or tried to slip out, like previous times.

  “You know. At first, I didn’t believe you,” Emma said. “I thought you were just trying to get out of it, that you didn’t care about me, or my grandfather’s house. That you just wanted to give us some money and make us go away. That’s why I sued you, you know. I felt like you weren’t caring enough about what you’d done. But now…now I think you do truly feel bad.”