“I know.” He stroked her cheek. “One thing I do know is I believe in fate. Which means I am here at exactly the right time. In exactly the right place.”
“That’s because you wanted to sample the indoor plumbing.” She leaned forward, pecked him on the cheek and then got up from the bed. “I’ll show you how the shower works. And then you can see if Jax’s clothes fit you.”
Doran followed her out of her room with the backpack slung over his shoulder. He still wore Jax’s leather jacket covering his tattered clothes. “I should thank your brother for his kindness.”
“Maybe you could give him a jewel or two from your treasure.” Fleur caught a glimpse of his expression in the bathroom mirror as they entered the bathroom. “I was joking.”
“I’m sorry.” He caught his reflection in the same mirror and rubbed his hand over his stubbled chin. “I need to shave.”
“There are razors in here.” She popped open the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a new disposable razor and a can of shaving cream. “You press the top here and the foam comes out. Put the foam where you want to shave and then use the razor.” She acted out shaving and the realization that she would have to explain nearly every facet of modern life to Doran hit her.
He’s like a child. So much to learn, her bear said.
And we’ll teach him, Fleur replied. Because the mating bond rarely, if ever, got it wrong. So if fate said they were fated mates, then there was a reason they’d been brought together. And she was ready to do whatever it took for them both to reach their happy ever after with each other.
Chapter Nine – Doran
By the time he’d shaved and showered, Doran certainly wished he’d gotten a servant to clean up the mess he’d left. The shaving cream had a life of its own. Once he squeezed the top of the container, the contents squirted out like an avalanche of white snow.
That smells funny, his dragon said with distaste.
Doran wrinkled his nose as he smelled the foam once more. Like the ocean. Fresh. Not like the pine forests that grow over the mountains.
He closed his eyes and pictured the mountains. He longed to shift into his dragon and soar over the slopes. Perhaps with his mate on his back.
Let’s go now, his dragon agreed.
We can’t. Not yet. We have to figure things out first and for that we need help. Doran wished he could turn a dial and let his memories flood back to him like the water flooded from the shower.
He glanced at the wet floor. He hadn’t switched off the shower before he opened the cubicle door and he’d created a puddle. Grabbing a towel, he mopped it up and then gathered up all of the wet towels and carried them downstairs, wearing the clothes that Jax had loaned him.
Never had he felt more out of time than when he pulled on the blue denim jeans and fastened the studded buttons. Although, he could not explain why. They fit like a glove, the fabric yielding to his muscular thighs as he walked. He’d even go as far as saying they were more comfortable than his favorite leather pants he’d worn until they were like a second skin.
Perhaps it was because as he reached the bottom of the stairs with his close-shaved face and his borrowed clothes, he didn’t feel like himself. The Doran from the past was slowly fading away with no memories to anchor him there and he wasn’t certain he was ready for this new Doran. The dragon shifter who had a mate, the dragon shifter who needed to get to grips with a new modern world, when he had no idea why he left his old world.
“Wow, don’t you look good.” Fleur leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen and watched him, her eyes scanning his body as she absorbed every detail of her mate.
“You approve.” He held out the wet towels. “Where do I wash these?”
“I’ll take them.” Tansy held out her arms for the laundry. “He’s a keeper, offering to do his own laundry when he’s a guest.” Tansy gave her daughter a knowing look, to which Fleur rolled her eyes.
“Good move,” Fleur told Doran.
“I didn’t offer for any other reason than because of what you said about servants,” Doran insisted.
“Oh, I know, but it was a nice move all the same.” She came toward him and held out her hand. “Come on, let’s go and see if the stars look the same as before.”
He slid his hand into hers. The contact of her skin against his instantly woke a part of him that had been asleep for longer than a hundred years. It had been dormant forever. It was the part of him that would protect her until his last breath, and when she turned to look at him, her expression said she felt it, too.
“We are lucky.” He followed her to the back door which was made of solid wood with a rudimentary latch. Fleur lifted the latch and swung the door open. His senses were immediately assailed by the scent of roses and herbs. “Your father grows more than vegetables.”
“He does. He likes to grow roses and then each Valentine’s Day he presents my mom with two dozen exquisite blooms.” She half turned to look at him. “My parents love each other deeply. And my dad is very romantic.”
“Are you saying I have a lot to live up to?” Doran asked.
She grinned. “After the washing stunt, I just wanted to make sure you know I’m the one you have to impress, not my parents.” Fleur waggled her eyebrows at him, and he never wanted to kiss her more than in that moment.
“I can be romantic, too.” He looked up at the stars, they were fainter than he remembered, but his memories were not to be trusted.
Or perhaps they would look better from a mountain peak, his dragon suggested.
Doran flexed his muscles. Tansy’s cooking had given back some of his strength and his dragon longed to stretch his wings and fly. So he made a decision. Surely in the gathering twilight, he would be safe to fly over the mountains without being seen if he kept low and skimmed the trees.
“What are you doing?” Fleur asked as the air fizzed and popped around him.
“Taking you on a dragon ride.” His words faded on the mountain breeze as he disappeared from this world that he no longer knew. In an instant, his dragon burst forth, his feet carefully placed so as not to trample any of Joe’s garden. Then he dipped his leg and turned his head, giving Fleur the gentlest of nudges.
She hesitated for a second, her eyes flickering from him to the house. The house was safe. Her comfort zone. But she was his mate, born to ride on the back of his dragon, one of the mightiest creatures to ever roam the sky.
With a sharp intake of breath, she raced forward, footsure and confident as she placed one foot on his leg and then clambered onto his back. She curled her hands around one of the spiny horns that ran along the length of his back, shivering in anticipation as he crouched low, his muscles bunched before he leaped into the air.
His wings, unused for hundreds of years were stiff, like old paper, but he slowly worked the kinks out as they rose and fell, pushing against the air beneath him, fighting the invisible force that would pull him back to earth to land in a heap if he let it.
Higher. Up and up they flew, the cool wind sweeping over him, waking other parts of his soul. Dragons were meant to fly free. And he was a dragon!
The thrill of flight took hold of him and he nearly abandoned the need to keep low and hug the tree line as excitement overtook him. Not just the excitement of flying free, but of sharing this experience with his mate for the first time.
She gripped his spine tightly, as if her life depended on it. Didn’t she know he would never let her fall? If she were in any danger, he would contort his body to catch her. She was his life now.
A sadness swept over his dragon as they reached the lower slopes of the mountain and he was drawn toward the place Fleur called Woodacre. The place where he’d lived and breathed a different life. What secrets were buried there along with his treasure?
He swooped down lower, the tips of his wings skimming the tops of trees as he looked down. His treasure sang to him. A beautiful song, but he didn’t want to go back there. Not tonight. So he banked and slowly followed the
contour of the valley, passing over another set of ruins.
Doran searched his memories, but he couldn’t drag anything new from the dark places of his mind and had no idea what the second building was or who had built it. Maybe it was after he’d been put to sleep?
Maybe we will never know, his dragon told him.
And his dragon was right. There was no one else left to remember those days. If his memories never returned, he would have to accept it and move on. He’d wasted enough time asleep; he did not intend to spend the rest of his days searching for a past that was long dead.
Seeking the thrill of flight and his mate, he caught hold of the tail end of his excitement and lifted his wings before bringing them down in a steady beat. He rose higher, the mountain peaks silhouetted against the sky calling him home like a beacon.
A memory drifted across his mind. A memory of his dragon chasing the wind across the very same mountains on a stormy night. Rain lashed them, and lightning illuminated the dragon with his rider on his back as thunder deafened their ears.
Doran and Edric, closer than any two brothers ever before. Throughout their lives, they had never argued, never fallen out of the other’s favor. Not over treasure, not over women.
A wave of desperate loss hit him square in the chest as if a spear had been plunged into his heart and he faltered, his wings losing the beat, his body losing its strength.
But through the pain and loss, he felt the touch of his mate, his reason for living, and he rejoiced.
Pushing all thoughts from his head, he focused on her touch and the air that filled his lungs and the wind beneath his wings. This was now. He had to make the best of the hand life had dealt him. To give up and die, crashing to the ground with his mate on his back, would do no one any good and would betray his brother.
“Doran. Look.” His mate’s voice cut through the past and brought him slamming into the future.
A dragon. Another dragon. He’d never flown with another dragon. He’d been solitary except for Edric, who rode on his back as his dragon wings beat a steady rhythm that took them higher and higher up the mountains before they swooped down through the valleys on silent wings.
His dragon surged forward in excitement at the sight of the dragon. A red dragon with scales that rippled like fire as the moonlight washed over it. Doran’s dragon tipped its wings and raced toward the red dragon. Instantly, it sensed him and circled around to assess the new arrival.
Doran dipped his head, trying to look nonthreatening. Or as nonthreatening as a fully grown dragon can be. After a moment of hesitation, the red dragon flew toward him.
“Who is it?” Fleur asked, even though his dragon could not answer. But then his mate’s senses identified the dragon. “Ruby!”
The red dragon flashed her ruby red underbelly as she spun around in the air, wings curled around her body. Then she spread them wide and took off toward the highest peak. One look over her shoulder was all the invitation Doran needed to join her. Flying alone was a thrill, flying with another dragon was amazing.
Chasing each other across the slopes on silent wings, the two dragons slowly gained height until the mountain peak was clearly in view. Everything else might have changed in the world but the peak looked the same. A tall pinnacle standing forty feet above the cliff edges below, this peak was inaccessible to man. He and Edric had flown here many times. As his dragon reached the highest point, he’d shift into his human form and the two brothers would drop down onto the pinnacle.
Thrill seekers. With nothing to lose they had pushed each other to their physical limits.
Until Edric found his mate. Until the dragon slayer came. His dragon had accessed memories closed off from Doran’s human side. Was this the key? The reason Doran had gone to sleep for so long? It didn’t make sense. Later they would examine the memories, but until then, Doran wanted to fly as if his life depended on it. Until exhaustion took him and he could collapse into bed with his mate in his arms and sleep a dreamless sleep.
Tomorrow would be the day to face up to his future and this new world. But tonight he wanted to live one last night without the baggage of his old life.
For tonight, the wind beneath his wings and his mate on his back were enough.
Chapter Ten – Fleur
“How are you this morning, Fleur?” Tansy asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.
“Good.” Her flushed cheeks along with the smile that didn’t want to leave her lips said things were more than good. But Fleur wasn’t the type of woman who gushed over things.
“Good,” her dad said, as he bit into his toast. “Didn’t I see my daughter riding off on the back of a dragon last night?”
Her face cracked in a smile. “He’s magnificent.”
“Just as a dragon?” Tansy asked as she joined her daughter and husband at the table.
“I don’t know him well enough to make any other judgments.” Fleur glanced toward the stairs. “He was exhausted when we got back from the flight. He lay down on the bed and slept. And he’s still sleeping.”
“When he’s ready to talk, he’ll open up to you,” Tansy assured her. “It’s going to take time.”
“I wish there was some way I could help him.” Fleur picked up a piece of toast and spread butter on it before taking a bite. She ate thoughtfully, mulling over her options. “I spoke to George. He knew about the ruins on Woodacre. Maybe George might be able to shed some more light on things.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Joe drained his cup and got up from the table. He dropped a kiss on his daughter’s head before crossing to the sink to place his cup and plate in the bowl of hot water and washing them quickly. “You always do have a plan.”
“Do I?” she asked vaguely.
Tansy reached out and closed her hand around her daughter’s. “What’s bothering you?”
“Besides the dragon shifter sleeping in my bed?” Fleur asked.
“Yes, besides the dragon shifter sleeping in your bed. You’ve been quiet for a few days, even before you brought Doran home.” Tansy squeezed her daughter’s hand. “My guess is work.”
Fleur glanced at the clock once more. “Mr. Preston wants to talk to me.”
“He does?” Joe slipped back into his seat and leaned forward with his hands clasped together.
“I don’t know what about,” Fleur admitted. “But it has to be about my job and the future of Bear Creek Real Estate. He’s not well. Not well at all.”
“You think he’s going to close down?” Tansy asked. “Is there any way we could buy the business from him?” She glanced at Joe. “We have a little money saved up.”
Fleur shook her head. “No, you two have saved that money for your future.” She got up from the table and kissed her mom on the cheek before giving her dad a hug. “Let me worry about my future.”
“You’re leaving Doran asleep?” Tansy asked as her daughter pulled on her shoes and coat.
“Yes, do you mind?” Fleur hopped across the floor as she fitted her shoe to her foot and grabbed her purse and keys. She’d intended to be early into the office, but last night’s dragon flight left her tired.
Or maybe it was almost impossible to slide out of bed when our mate is still in it, her bear added in her usual helpful way.
That might have something to do with it, Fleur conceded.
“No, we can spend some time getting to know him,” her dad replied. “And your mom can feed him up.”
“He does look as if he needs to gain a few pounds. But I must say, he’s aged well. I doubt I’d look that good if I’d been asleep for a few hundred years.” Tansy pressed her lips together before asking, “Any news on what happened? Does Doran have any new memories?”
“Nothing. At least he hasn’t said if he remembers anything. Although there was a moment on the mountain where I had this feeling of such profound sorrow.” She gave a short derisory laugh. “But I could be mistaken. I don’t think I know him well enough to tap into his emotion
s.”
“You’re mates. It’s only natural that you can sense his emotions. Particularly if they are very strong or emotionally charged.” Her dad slipped his arms around her. “Just remember you are the one person who can help him through all this. You’ll both need to be strong. But I know you. I know what you are capable of.”
“Being late. That’s what I’m capable of this morning.” She kissed her dad on the cheek and backed out the door. “See you later. Thank you for looking after Doran.” She hesitated in the doorway. “Don’t let him shift into his dragon in broad daylight. I’m certain he understands the danger, but…”
“Go, we’ll take care of him.” Joe ushered her out and then stood in the doorway watching her as she got in her car and drove away, leaving a part of herself behind.
Switching on the radio, she hummed along to a tune without really listening as she went over her schedule. After talking to Mr. Preston, she had three viewings with a couple who were expecting their first child and wanted to move into their own home before the baby arrived. They were living with his parents but wanted their own space.
Fleur sighed heavily. That would be her next step, leaving home. She’d put it off for long enough. But now that she had a mate, she had to move on and move out.
Most people your age left home years ago, her bear told her bluntly.
I know, but I love the house. We grew up there. And I don’t think I could bear to live in town. She loved the view of the wide-open spaces surrounding her childhood home. She loved being able to shift at the bottom of the garden and slip through a hedge onto a trail that leads straight onto the mountain.
Doran could rebuild his family home on Woodacre and then we could live there, her bear suggested.
If I can persuade him to part with some of his treasure to buy back the land he insists is his already.
That might be tricky, her bear agreed. I knew dragons liked gold, but I didn’t know they were quite so attached to their treasure.
With these thoughts still in her head, like a dark cloud on a clear day, she parked her car in the small parking area behind the real estate agent’s office, locked it and went inside. The office was exactly how she’d left it, Mr. Preston hadn’t gotten in early.
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