by Leia Stone
She gave me a tired smile and smoothed my hair, which I had come to understand as her motherly gesture of love. “Sloane, you are perfect the way you are. Just be you.”
I don’t know why that statement hit me so hard, but it did. My chest tightened with emotion. I realized I had been feeling bad about being half druid. I felt evil or dirty, but at her words a different perspective sprang up inside of me. I was born this way and there was nothing I could do about it. Isaac was proof not all druids were bad. So maybe it was okay.
“Thanks for everything, Eva,” I told her, and she pulled me in for a tight hug.
“You’re welcome, dear,” she whispered. “I’ll be gone in the morning, but I want you to know I’m never far away if you guys need me.”
I pulled back from the hug. “You’re going back? But they know who you are? Jeanine and Steven—”
“I’m not going back to Flagstaff. If there are more skyborn, then I must find them, unite them. Protect them. It’s my entire purpose in life, dear, protecting people like you and Logan.” Her voice was soft and I gathered that she didn’t want the others knowing her plan.
“But … we should go together.” I fought for the right thing to say. How would she even know where to start looking?
Eva shook her head. “You must train to control your dragon. Harness your druid magic properly. Stay safe. I will send word when I have any leads.”
“Eva…” It didn’t feel right, or safe, for her to be going off on her own like that.
“Shh. That’s enough. I’ve decided, and once I decide something, no one can talk me out of it. I’m the most stubborn woman you will ever meet,” she assured me with one raised well-manicured eyebrow.
I gave her a wan smile. “Will you tell Logan you’re leaving?” Sure, he and I were new at this mate thing, but it felt wrong to keep him in the dark.
Eva tucked a dark strand of long hair behind her ear and stared at the ground. “For decades I told Logan he was the only one. I did countless spells to reveal if there were any more skyborn, and only his black scales were available in the underground market. So we just assumed. He lived an isolated life these past twenty years because I assured him that there were no others of his kind. He’s lived with so much pressure and loneliness … I need to make this up to him.”
I reached out for her arm but she recoiled. “Eva, he doesn’t blame you.” I didn’t actually know that for sure, but I knew Logan loved her, and that he would never pin this on any one person. He was hurt she had kept information of Isaac from him, but it stopped there.
Eva shook her head. “I’ll be in touch. Stay safe, sweetheart.” Then she turned on her heels and walked in the direction of our fire-pit, seemingly to meet with the happy druid.
“Hey, roomie.” Nadine popped up behind me and I jumped a little, startled.
“Hey. Wait, what?” I asked her, confused. My mind was still reeling from what Eva said, wondering if I should tell anyone. I mean, she was a grown woman...
Nadine pulled her long black hair over one shoulder. “Well, there are five houses and everyone was matching up, but then your name came up and Logan got awkward, so I claimed you.”
I smiled, thinking of Logan getting all flustered over the topic of sharing a place with me. I was glad Nadine spoke on my behalf. I wanted to try to take things slow with Logan. Pretend we were a normal couple dating, and not two dragons meant to spend the rest of their immortal lives together. Suddenly, I realized the sun was coming up, and the full weight of exhaustion hit me hard. My limbs felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds, and my eyelids were hard to keep open.
Without another word, Nadine led the way to the cluster of mud huts. Everyone else seemed to have gone inside except for Logan. He stood outside of his door with Mittens clutched firmly to his chest. Nadine gave me a rakish grin and stepped inside the hut next to Logan’s, leaving the door slightly ajar for me.
“Get your mind speak thing all worked out?” He twirled his finger near his ear, making it look like I was crazy.
I smiled and crossed the space between us. With every step towards him my body heated up and my dragon pulsed inside of me. There was one thing we were both in agreement of. Logan Sharp was an addiction and I wasn’t sure I would ever get enough.
When I was a foot from him, I stopped and just let my eyes roam over the man before me. He stood well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and chiseled muscles that made every woman in the room stare when he walked in. It wasn’t just the body—okay, a large part of his sexiness was his body—but it was those eyes too. His green eyes seared into me and threatened to swallow me whole, sitting behind a bed of black lashes, half lidded.
“Yes, I did. Now I can keep my personal thoughts to myself.” I gave him a smug look and he took a step toward me, eating up the distance and pressing his hips into mine.
“Oh really? I bet I know what you’re thinking right now.” His eyes smoldered and heat flared to life south of my navel. As he leaned in to kiss me, my breath hitched and I closed my eyes. As he pressed his lips to mine, I realized I hadn’t kissed him enough. I needed more of this. Every day. I parted my lips and his tongue slipped inside, making me moan.
Suddenly something yanked at my long red hair and mewed. Pulling back abruptly, I looked down at Mittens, crushed between our two bodies playing soccer with my hair. Logan smiled, pulling my hair from her claws and tucking it behind my shoulder before leaning in to kiss my forehead.
“Night, Miss Murphy,” he drawled, and gave me his back, stepping into his hut and closing the door.
I stood there for a moment like a love-struck teenager and let that kiss replay in my mind. Then the thick pull of sleep had me fumbling through the hut, I now shared with Nadine, and finding the empty bed to crash onto. I didn’t care what awaited me tomorrow, today had ended pretty damn good.
We were alive, and I think I was in love.
Chapter 2
I’d slept in and awoken to an empty house and a weird buzzing, like a nest of bees but sharper. It was coming from outside. Pulling myself out of bed, I crossed the compact room to peer out of the tiny arched window. Nadine was sitting on a large rock, tattooing Logan…
What the…?
I quickly showered and got ready, crossing into the tiny kitchen of the cob house. This house was freaking adorable. I felt like a hobbit. Everything was round and arched and tiny. The kitchen consisted of a two-burner hotplate, small fridge, and cement countertop. Everything was crèmes and browns, and then had pops of color, like a blue or green recycled glass bottle. I grabbed a muffin from the counter and then darted outside, curious as to what Nadine was tattooing on Logan. As I neared, I saw that Keegan was sitting behind Logan, staring solemnly out into the woods. Sophie and Dom stood off to the side, chatting in hushed voices.
“Hey, I know we’re mates, but it’s a bit too soon to be tattooing my name, don’t you think?” I joked, taking a bite of muffin.
As I got close enough to see Logan’s inner arm and the tiny red beard that Nadine had drawn there, my banter died like a cold stone in my stomach. Cooper. How had I forgotten we’d lost a friend last night? Keegan had shared on the bus last night that Cooper died trying to take out one of the druids who’d staked Logan’s wing. While I was still unconscious. Burned alive with druid magic.
Logan just gave me a sad smile as guilt rose up inside of me fresh and hot.
“Coop,” I whispered, as tears leaked from my eyes. “It was all my fault,” I said to the trees, speaking to no one in particular.
Keegan stood to his full height of around 6’6, dwarfing me completely. “None of that. Cooper was a hero. The only thing that gave him meaning in life was God, and protecting you and Logan. He died living his purpose.”
At his mention of God, I remembered that any time I said the words “Jesus Christ” in a bad way, Cooper had motioned the sign of the cross over his chest. I never took that stuff seriously, but now I felt awful. I didn’t know him well—I didn
’t know him at all, really—but he was a good guy—who died protecting me and Logan. I vowed right there, to try to stop saying the lord’s name in vain. For Coop.
“I’m next,” I told Nadine, and she raised one eyebrow.
“You sure?” she asked.
I nodded. That little red beard tattoo would serve as a reminder. Whenever I looked at it I wanted to be reminded of what was at stake, and how dangerous these bastards could really be. It would serve to push me harder in my training.
All too quickly Logan was done and Nadine called me over.
“You travel with a tattooing kit?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Yeah. I do. Logan said to only bring the essentials, so I didn’t bring all my inks, but there’s enough to make a nice orange.”
I lifted my shirt, tucking it under my bra and exposing my ribcage, indicating I wanted it done there. I looked up to see Logan’s eyes run the length of my belly and flare green.
Nadine turned the gun on and I jumped a bit. Her mouth popped open. “Wait a second. Are you a tattoo virgin?”
I eyed the newly-formed piece on my shoulder which I’d felt no pain receiving and nodded. Nadine squealed in excitement just as Gear walked up to sit behind her and watch her work.
Was I ready to lose my tattoo virginity? It wasn’t even prom.
“Remember when Logan accidently doused Coop in fire and his beard singed off?” Gear asked the group.
Sophie grinned, leaving her place at Dom’s side and walking over. “He looked like a sixteen year old boy for months until it grew back.”
I smiled at the story, but that was quickly replaced with a gasp of shock as the needle hit my skin. Sophie grinned as if my pain caused her immense joy.
“Better toughen up, buttercup. Logan put me in charge of your weapons training.” Sophie’s grin grew maniacally, and I knew she’d be delighted watching me struggle to hold a weapon properly.
‘Thanks for that,’ I told Logan.
He gave me a small smile. ‘She was torn up over Cooper. I needed to give her a task to busy her mind.’
Great. She’d be busy making my life hell.
The burning in my ribcage had reached critical mass. It felt like a cat was scratching his name into my skin while also tapping my ribs with a dull knife. I was about to complain when she stopped and sprayed a cool mist, wiping the area with a towel.
Roxy and Ruben strolled up to the group as well, which left just Danny unaccounted for.
Ruben took one look at the small tattoo, the size of a quarter, and smiled, looking like his bear in that moment. “I’ll go next.”
My heart warmed and the feeling spread throughout my limbs. Ruben had barely known Cooper, even less than I did, and already he was signing up for a permanent mark to honor him.
“Me too,” Roxy added, and I saw tears line Sophie’s eyes.
This was what it must be like to have a big family with lots of siblings. I always wanted brothers and sisters, and now this pack had become that for me. For better or worse.
We all took turns sitting for our little floating red beard tattoo and told stories about Cooper. I learned that he’d been a strict catholic with a video game addiction, and a penchant for Hallmark holiday movies that he would watch with Sophie every Christmas. I smiled as she recalled his soft heart and kind demeanor.
“But he was a damn good fighter too,” Keegan interjected while getting his tattoo. Only Dom was left. He’d been standing there in silence the entire time, a beer in one hand and a gun in the other. Not the best combo.
“He saved me.” Dom’s voice was so rarely used; when he spoke, everyone listened. Even Nadine stopped the buzzing of her tattoo gun to listen to Dom speak of his fallen friend.
Dom stared at his feet and I noticed again that he had so many scars. Some were smooth, like maybe they were made with a knife, but others were jagged and I shivered to think what made those.
“Saved you from what?” Roxy asked, taking one step closer to him. Her long, curly hair hung damp down her back. It was no secret that those two were getting to know each other.
Dom met Logan’s eyes; they shared something, a moment, and then it passed.
“Saved me from hell on earth,” he said cryptically. He tipped his drink to the sky and chugged his beer in one take.
We were all silent. I was about to ask more, because I was dying to know anything about our silent pack member, but then a jingle bell sounded behind me and I turned to see a goat. An honest to God goat was running at me with a bell on its collar and a note tied around it. She was small, the size of a medium dog, white with tan spots near her face.
“Waaaah,” she said, and head-butted my leg.
“Okay, okay.” I pulled the note from her collar and looked at it.
Meet me at the waterfall. Bring your other half, it read.
I raised one eyebrow at Logan. “The druid requests our presence.”
Logan nodded, all business, and shared a look with Keegan. Now that I knew Logan could speak to the pack’s minds without being in dragon form, I wondered what he was saying. He’d definitely just said something to Keegan, because Keegan nodded. Logan slipped his hand in mine and we started our walk. I didn’t know where the waterfall was, but I was hoping it would be easy to find. As we made our way through the thick trees and over to the place we had spoken to Isaac last night, I decided to pry Logan for more information about Dom. He was that mysterious character who had baggage, and after hearing him say that Cooper saved him from hell, I wanted to understand more.
“So Dom … seems like he had a rough life before he met up with you?”
Logan’s hand tightened in mine the slightest bit before relaxing. “Rough time would be putting it mildly.” His voice held so much malice that I stopped walking and he turned to face me.
“What happened?” Now I was heartbroken for Dom. I knew it was bad.
Logan sighed, glancing at his fresh tattoo. “It happened before I knew him. Coop and Keegan used to work for Eva before they learned what I was and I hired them. One day she sent Cooper with one of my scales, to sell it. We didn’t want Eva to be the only one who got them. Otherwise it would seem suspicious. So, every month or so, she would send one of her trusted guys to another state where she knew they had a powerful sorcerer who would pay top dollar. It was also a test to see if they could be trusted with knowledge of a dragon living close by.”
I leaned forward so I wouldn’t miss a single word. “So they didn’t know they were selling your scales?”
Logan shook his head. “Not at first, no. Eva just told them she’d come by it and needed help selling it. They were bred to protect skyborn, but she wanted to be sure before introducing us.”
Whoa. What if one of them had been in the druids’ pockets? Scary.
“We’d never sold to this guy before, but I wasn’t too worried because I’d heard he was obsessed with all things dragon and would pay top dollar for scales, talons, and whatnot.”
Pee. Whatnot was pee. I just nodded, trying hard not to think of my recent experiences with urine.
“So Coop goes in and realizes it’s a pureblood bar. They despise shifters and half-breed witches, but even so, it was a quick deal. The money was wired and he’s out the door, but as he was leaving he heard these sounds. He said it sounded like someone was torturing a cat.”
Bile rose in my throat and I shook my head. “No. Not Dom…” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear this story now.
Logan stepped closer, pinning me with his green eyes. “Yes. Dom. Coop went outside and shifted and was able to sneak down into the basement in his nimble fox form.”
We just stood there looking at each other, Logan waiting for me to ask him to finish the story, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it. After a long pause, I finally whispered, “Tell me.”
Logan sighed. “Coop said Dom looked like a ball of ground meat and fur, barely breathing. They had an underground fighting ring, pitting Dom against bears, mountain lions, and eve
ry other animal in a bid to make millions.”
Tears slid down my cheeks. Now I knew why he had all those scars. “Why?” I choked out.
Logan shrugged. “There’s people in the world who don’t see things right. They see others as being below them. They’re sick. It’s a mental illness, and I wish it were easy to change, that Eva could magic it away. But she can’t.”
“How did they get him out?”
Logan grinned. “Coop called Keegan and Eva in. Eva went in as a bidder, got a front row seat to the next fight, and threw a smoke spell, blinding everyone. Keegan and Coop busted through the wall. Got him out.”
My jaw was hanging open. “Well, we should burn that damn place down!” How many other animals were there being tortured right now?
Logan nodded. “Eva said the next day they moved. The sorcerer rents out the spaces and changes locations every month. Keeps it all moving so you can’t track him.”
It infuriated me, and also softened my heart for Dom and Cooper. Guilt welled up inside of me again, fresh and hot. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have run. I—”
“No! Don’t do that. Coop could have died years ago when we ran into hunters that were after me. It just happened. This life is dangerous and we all know it. Any one of us could go.” He reached out for me.
“But...” I tried to argue and he stepped closer, pressing his body into mine.
“No, it’s not your fault. It’s my fault, for talking so much shit about druids that my own mate thought I’d hate her for the blood that ran in her veins.” His hand came up to cup the back of my neck.
Everything else around me blurred; all I could focus on was him, his scent like freshly fallen snow, and trees—his heat running straight into my core. He laced his fingers through my hair, cradling the back of my neck.
“I could never hate any part of you,” he whispered, and pressed his lips to mine. I melted under his kiss, urgent and gentle at the same time. When we pulled away I was breathless, raw, and utterly in love.