by Anya Nowlan
From being unable and unwilling to leave his lair, he was now barreling down the halls of another dragon’s lair, wildly chasing that which he thought to be his. All the while hoping and praying that she would think the same – that they belonged together. Aeon Prevoir had never done anything in his life that he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of but in the matter of a few short weeks, he’d been driven to a point where he was willing to throw everything away for the hope of capturing the heart of the woman he loved.
Love. It sounded alien to him and oh so right at the same time.
The most amazing thing to him about all of this was his steadfast belief that he was doing the only right thing he could. That she was the one he was meant to find and destined to be with – all things he’d secretly hoped to be true when his father had told him of the bond when he was young, and at the same time felt so skeptical about.
When he rounded the corner and spotted Isobel, seated on a high-backed chair in a makeshift ‘living room’ in the middle of a cavernous and otherwise empty, high-ceilinged cave, his heart nearly stopped in his heart. She stood up, surprise painted on her face, and he watched it happen in slow motion.
But this time it wasn’t he who was controlling time. For the first time Aeon was truly on the receiving end of it, witnessing how the meaning of time completely changed with the right woman involved. With love involved.
“Aeon!” she said, her voice shaking.
“Isobel, are you alright?” he demanded, shaking his daze off and covering the ground between them with long strides.
“Not one more step,” Flite growled, standing from his seat as well.
Aeon hadn’t even noticed that Flite was there. Now, he could see that it wasn’t just Flite – it was Joshua too. Stopping himself from altering his course and going to snap Joshua’s neck on his way to Isobel was something that took far too much effort from Aeon at the moment. Effort he didn’t have to expend.
“Try and fucking stop me,” Aeon spat in return.
“Don’t tempt me.”
Flite stepped into Aeon’s path, blocking his way to Isobel. The young dragon looked stern and steadfast, though Aeon noticed the flicker of something dark cross over the man’s expression. A second later, Joshua was up as well, his face red with anger.
“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the son of a bitch who got her pregnant!”
And in the matter of no more than a minute, Aeon Prevoir had been shown how regular human beings could make his universe grind to a complete halt not once, but twice. No time dragon could have been ready for that.
Isobel
Isobel slapped her hand over her mouth, staring in abject horror as Aeon’s face twisted from the shock of the news he’d received.
This is not the way I wanted him to find out!
That, of course, went without saying.
Isobel tried to run past Flite and he caught her easily by the arm, shoving her behind his body. They were creating this awkward line of bodies in the empty, gray cave, carved from pure rock and seeming to take up most of the inside of the mountain. Flite was standing in front of Isobel, who was now staring over his shoulder, and Joshua had wedged himself between Flite and Aeon.
When Joshua slammed his finger into Aeon’s chest, Isobel cringed.
“What does he mean, Isobel?” Aeon asked, ignoring the man completely.
“Hey, I’m talking to you,” Joshua demanded, jabbing at Aeon again.
With one effortless move, Aeon grabbed his hand, flipped it backward and brought Joshua to his knees. The man screamed, filling the empty space with a gut-wrenching scream timed exactly with the moment when Isobel heard the bones in his forearm snap. Joshua was on the ground, clutching at his arm, which was now bent at a completely unnatural angle.
“You son of a bitch,” he whined.
A tiny part of her still twinged with something akin to remorse for Joshua. A month ago, she would have been right next to him, soothing him and trying to do whatever she could to make him feel better. Now though, she didn’t budge, and didn’t expend more than one glance at him.
“Shut up or I’ll give you something to really scream about.”
It was Flite, grounding out those words. Isobel spotted the moment when the flash of gold went through Aeon’s eyes. Flite must have caught it too, because he tensed immediately.
“Don’t worry, Flite. I’ve got him handled,” Aeon said coldly, shoving Joshua out of the way.
Joshua was a blubbering mess now, clutching his arm and rattling out words that made no sense to anyone. It was like that physical change, that breaking of bones, had been the breaking point for the rest of him as well. He certainly didn’t look anything like the proud, cocky man that Isobel knew him as.
“Isobel?”
She took a breath, looking down at her feet for a moment. Everything was going to hell. From the moment that Joshua had dumped her on her wedding day – no, from the day she met Joshua – her life had been on a downhill path. Now she was standing in front of the man whose baby she was carrying in her womb and she had no idea how to make it all right again.
But she knew she had to try.
“Aeon, I’m pregnant.”
It surprised her how steady she could make her voice. Her back was straight, her shoulders pushed back, and she looked at him with determination on her face. This was certainly not the way she’d expected to have this conversation, but she was going to have to make the best of it.
For a second, she thought he was going to ask if the child was his. Then, she realized that Aeon was not that kind of man. The only reason she’d thought he could ask that was because she’d been dealing with worms instead of men - the Joshuas of the world, not the Aeons.
“You’re pregnant,” Aeon repeated, standing perfectly still.
It took a moment for the words to leave his lips. Hearing it said out loud like that brought an avalanche of emotion with it that Isobel hadn’t been ready for. Tears suddenly brimmed in her eyes and she had to take a couple of deep breaths to keep them down.
“That’s right, and you’re the asshole who put her in this situation!” Joshua roared, or as much as he could between his hiccups and sobs.Aeon snapped his attention to Joshua and it was like a force of nature was getting ready to unleash the full extent of its power on an unsuspecting prey. Even from the side, Isobel could see the pure rage that crossed Aeon’s expression, and the way his eyes became golden and slitted. The dragon, barely hidden under his torn and tattered human form, was so close to the surface that Isobel could see the first inklings of a shift that wanted to take over.
Even from where she was standing, behind Flite, she could feel the temperature of the vast space spike up a couple degrees.
What she did next was what her gut was telling her to do. She slipped out from behind Flite, crouching down and under his outstretched arm as he moved to catch her. Within a few steps, she was right between Aeon and Joshua, her hands on Aeon’s chest, pushing him back.
Up close like that, she could practically read the lines of the dragon’s face. Aeon looked madder than all hell and there was no doubt in her mind that if she didn’t do something, there would be no Joshua in a minute.
“Aeon, no,” she said forcefully.
Her hands burned where she touched him, but only for a second. He pulled back immediately, surprise on his face, and that scorching heat simmered down a lot. She didn’t take her hands off of him though. If anything, she wanted to throw herself into his arms and never come out of the embrace again.
“He is the reason for all of this,” Aeon started, voice low and gravelly. “He is the reason you got kidnapped and made to go through this madness. And he abducted you now. He deserves everything that’s coming to him.”
Aeon gave him a look and it held so much anger. She’d never seen the always composed, collected and in control dragon shifter being so raw.
“He doesn’t deserve you lowering yourself to that level,” Isobel said softly, those dam
n tears wanting to spill down her cheeks again. “He just doesn’t. We’ll have him arrested, he’ll go to jail, he will get his punishment. But not like this. Talk to me, Aeon. Please.”
Aeon tore his gaze from Joshua with obvious reluctance. Flite watched on, his arms crossed over his chest in obvious annoyance and discomfort. He would have liked to be anywhere else but here, that much was evident.
“You’re pregnant?” Aeon said again, this time asking her for confirmation.
She smiled slightly, nodding her head. Never had she been more nervous than in that moment. It was ridiculous, really. She was in the middle of a hostage drama, one that included more than one dragon even, and all she could really focus on was how the man whose baby she was carrying was going to respond to her news.
If anyone had told her on her wedding day that her honeymoon would look like this, she would have thought them to be absolutely and unquestionably crazy. Because that was how it all felt – crazy!
“I am pregnant.”
“You’re pregnant,” he repeated again, a plethora of emotions running over his face.
Without another word, he threw his arms around her and pulled her into a tight, but gentle hug. She was squished against his wide, strong frame and she could feel his wounds still pulsing through the clothing. It didn’t matter though. Nothing really did.
“You can’t be serious! You can’t go with him!” Joshua screeched, causing Aeon to let Isobel out of the hug.
Before he could snap something at the man, Isobel turned around and confronted him. She took a step closer to Joshua and leaned lower, coming eye to eye with the man who had very nearly ruined her life. He was opening his mouth to tell her something when she smacked him clear across the face, shutting him up.
“Listen here,” she hissed. “You make no decisions for me. You have no opinions about me. I never existed past the point you left me at the altar, do you get it? You’re a sad, sick little man. I was ready to spend my life with you – and I now know how stupid that was – and I’ve paid for that mistake.
“You wanted me only as long as you couldn’t have me and when you got me, you were done. That’s not how love works. You can’t have someone just because you want them. I turned a blind eye to your cheating and your lying and I’ve learned from that. I’m done. I don’t need you and you certainly won’t have me. And I’ll make sure that you’ll never be able to do anything like this to anyone ever again.”
Her voice was rising in anger and she only stopped when she felt Aeon’s hand on her wrist, pulling her back gently. She budged and he slunk his arm around her waist, pressing her against his side protectively. It was like for that one moment, everything fell into place.
Despite her rage, his injuries, and the cause of so much trouble laying as a useless heap before the two of them, Isobel felt perfectly in sync with Aeon. As if the universe swirled exactly right for that one moment, capturing the two of them within it and keeping them right where they needed to be.
“I think he gets it,” Aeon said, a slight chuckle in his tone.
She looked at him. Her cheeks were burning and she was shaking a little. The plethora of emotions she’d been cycling through was just too damn much. With him at her side though, she was certain that everything would fall into place as she needed it to.
“You, however,” Aeon continued, turning to face Flite, “I am not so certain of.”
Flite looked like he was about to burst at the seams. His eyes were permanently stuck between gold and blue and from his breathing Isobel could tell that he was on edge. She couldn’t blame him. Even injured and obviously not in his best fighting condition, Aeon Prevoir was not the kind of dragon anyone wanted to go up against.
Especially after he had proven himself in the challenges.
The tournament…
“Wait! Aeon, who… who won the last challenge?” Isobel asked, the implications of all his possible responses playing through her mind.
If Shade had won…
No, that can’t happen! It just can’t. He wouldn’t be here if Shade had won, right?
“I did,” Aeon said solemnly, giving her a slight squeeze.
A boulder fell from her chest and the cave seemed so much larger and brighter all of a sudden, like the sun had extended its rays into it and made everything shinier. She let out a breath she hadn’t noticed she was holding, relaxing visibly.
“Of course he didn’t. If he had won, he would be here right now, not you,” Flite said, but his words didn’t carry the malice Isobel had expected.
Taking a closer look at him, the young dragon was obviously uncomfortable. His conventionally attractive features seemed twisted under the weight of what to Isobel looked to be guilt. The same thing she’d noticed before – that it seemed like he didn’t want to be here – came back in full force.
“Why did you do it, Flite? Why did you take her?”
Flite quieted, meeting Aeon’s gaze. For a split second there, Isobel was expecting both of the men, coiled up and ready to pounce as they were, to let loose and allow the dragons to take over. The cave was certainly large enough for it, even if the entrance hadn’t been.
Thankfully though, that didn’t happen.
“I owe the Graysons,” Flite said.
Isobel’s brows arched as Aeon notably relaxed next to her, like he had already heard enough.
“What do you mean you ‘owe’ them? Owe them what? Aren’t all dragons rich beyond belief?”
Isobel realized that she’d hit a sore topic the moment she’d said the words. Flite looked down at his feet, scruffing a hand through his hair in evident frustration.
Guess not.
“We were wealthy, yes, but not anymore. We lost it all over the last century. My father took out loans from the Graysons so we could keep our standard of living, but it was going to catch up with us eventually. By the time my father passed and Shade’s as well, that time had come. I-… I didn’t want to do this. But it was either this or Shade would expose my whole family line as having nothing to our name that wasn’t loaned from the Graysons.”
It was evident that saying every word of that was pure pain to Flite, like being stabbed with hot pokers. A dragon’s pride really was one of his defining features and watching a dragon who knew that he no longer had his was heartbreaking. Despite what Flite had done, Isobel felt bad for him.
“I’m not saying what I did was right. But under the right circumstances…”
Flite trailed off, looking at Aeon. Isobel looked up at Aeon, worn and weary from his battles. In his eyes, she could see only one answer. No matter what the circumstances were, he would never make the same choices. At least not unless someone he loved was in danger.
“You know I’ll have to tell the organizers about this,” Aeon stated. “Shade isn’t in any condition to spin lies on your behalf right now. My family has known yours for a long time and I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but you’ve made your own choices. And they’ve been wrong.”
Every word that Aeon spoke was like a slap in Flite’s face. Isobel could see him flinch, dropping his gaze to the ground again. A lesser man would have struck out in rage, but to Flite’s credit, he took it like a man. A broken man, but one regardless.
Which was a lot more than Isobel could say for Joshua. He was blubbering, wiping tears from his face with his good hand. Occasionally, he tried to cut into the conversation with some nonsense or another, but Aeon shut him down each time.
“I think we’re done here,” Aeon said.
“I think so too.”
Isobel nodded. Flite was the one that practically picked Joshua off the floor, the man being too hysterical to walk at this point. Isobel couldn’t believe that this was the man she’d fallen for and allowed to change her life in the ways that he had. It was like she’d been blind, allowing what she wanted him and their future together to be to cloud her judgment from what it was actually going to be like.
She could hardly believe it.
&nb
sp; They walked back towards the entrance and Aeon’s weight was heavy against her. He was obviously trying to keep himself from leaning on her.
“Stop that,” she told him. “Lean on me. Please. We need to start learning to really trust one another. I can take it.”
Aeon grinned, shaking his head as he moved his arm to go across her shoulders. He kissed her temple.
“I’ll lean on you every day, but not like this. It doesn’t mean I need you any less, just that I need you for something different.”
With everything that had been going on, Isobel thought it nearly impossible that she could feel at peace. There were so many loose ends and so many things they hadn’t discussed with Aeon, but for some reason, she was sure that things would work out. They had to. After everything they’d been through, she wouldn’t accept any different outcome.
Isobel
Sitting in the restaurant and waiting for her parents to show up felt like being seated on hot coals the entire time. Isobel couldn’t stop fidgeting and shifting around in her seat while throwing glances over her shoulder at the door.
They were at a swanky Mediterranean grill place in New York City, by Aeon’s choice. His hand was on her thigh and he seemed completely unperturbed. The complete opposite of how Isobel was feeling.
“But what if-“ she started, not for the first time.
“No,” he said calmly, shaking his head.
“But they-“
“No.”
“You don’t know her!”
Isobel threw her hands up in exasperation, pleading for Aeon to understand her. The worst part was, she was entirely certain that he already did and the only reason she was freaking out had nothing at all to do with Aeon Prevoir and everything to do with Alicia Evans. Beloved mother, doting matriarch, and the one person who could absolutely shatter Isobel’s self-confidence with a few words.
“I know you, my love, and that is all I need to know for tonight.”