by Kimber White
“Not my father!” she yelled. “And you’re talking about things that...if they happened...they happened hundreds and maybe thousands of years before my father was born. Before you were born. Until I met you, I never knew dragons existed. Stories. Myths. That’s all I knew.”
I went to her. Fire crackled along my spine. Grace searched my face, but she didn’t back away as I brought my hands up and gripped her upper arms.
“Shifters will do whatever they have to to protect their own. I don’t want to believe it of your father either, but I don’t have to. I know what I heard. I know what I felt coming off Pavel Vadim. He’s dangerous. He’s evil. And he’s here.”
Grace’s eyes fluttered as she held back a tear. It ripped my guts out to have to hurt her like this. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms and take flight. I’d take her to Scotland. I’d take her anywhere that was far away.
“He’s my father,” she said. “And I don’t care what you heard. I know him better than you do. There has to be an explanation. I want to hear his side.”
“I am never letting you get anywhere near that pack alone again.”
“I may be yours,” she said, “but you don’t control me, Gideon. No more than my father does. And it’s not just him. Do you really think my brother, my cousins, my uncle would stand by and let Pavel Vadim just take me?”
“They won’t have a choice if he puts it to a fight. They would be outnumbered.”
“So what’s your plan?” she said. Grace whirled around and stormed out of the kitchen. I followed. She started banging through cupboards until she found a coffee mug. She poured water into her coffee machine and started to brew it.
“I can’t stop you from hovering,” she said. “But, I’m done with secrets, Gideon. We need to talk to my father straight on.”
I dropped my head. This was no good. I’d made a damn mess of everything. “I can’t have more wolves knowing about me.”
She turned. “You should have thought about that before. I’m done lying. I’m done betraying my family. I’ve been just sick about what we had to do to Leo. He didn’t deserve that.”
“Leo’s fine.”
She set her mug down. “He probably thinks he’s losing his damn mind.”
“I need time,” I said.
“For what?”
“To figure this out. It’s not just me that’s at risk. Xander, Finn, Loch, Kian. My mother. If shifters know what we are...you have no idea what my family has sacrificed to keep this secret.”
Grace came to me, her eyes glistening with tears. “Oh, Gideon. This is a mess. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said, wrapping my arms around her.
“But I swear, you have nothing to worry about where Pavel Vadim or his pack are concerned.”
Her smile was filled with irony. “Gideon. What are you planning? Huh? Are you just going to swoop in and burn them all to the ground? The Vadim pack is huge and worldwide. You take out Pavel head on, it’ll take about two seconds before every shifter on the planet knows what you are.”
I growled and held her tight. “You let me worry about that.”
The air shifted. A blast of heat hit my back. The foundation shook. I pulled Grace behind my back.
“What the hell?” she shouted.
To Grace’s eyes, she might have what looked like a tornado touching down in her backyard. Hell, I guess that’s just what it was. I straightened my back and opened the sliding door wondering how the hell she found me so quickly.
“Grace,” I said, letting out a sigh. “I suppose it’s time I introduced you to my mother.”
Chapter Fourteen
Grace
She was fire and ice and more raw power than I’d seen concentrated in one place except for in Gideon. Avelina Brandhart hovered a few feet above the ground, her platinum white hair flowing around her, covering her nakedness. If I didn’t already know she was a dragon, I would have guessed she was an angel. She had penetrating blue eyes that glowed to sapphire flames. She set one graceful foot on the patio and her hair settled over her shoulders.
Cool as she pleased, she took a folded piece of black linen from under her arm and twirled it around her shoulders, tying it in front. She had sharp, high cheekbones and a strong, square jaw. She was the kind of woman who could look thirty or fifty with just the set of her smile. She wasn’t smiling now though. She wasn’t frowning either. She just looked me up and down, appraising me. Judging me. I imagined many people might wither under her stare. I would not. With Gideon’s light hand at my back, I squared my shoulders and stared right back at her.
Then, the corners of her mouth lifted in a slight smile.
“Avelina,” Gideon said. “This is Grace Call.”
I extended my hand. Avelina came forward and took mine. She didn’t shake it. Instead, she held it in a firm grip, her eyes still studying every inch of me. Her skin was hot to the touch, just like Gideon’s. Then, she let me go.
“We should go inside,” I said. Avelina nodded.
As she and Gideon followed me back into the kitchen, I knew how much of a risk it was for both of them to be here. I would never fully understand their cloaking magic, but even I could sense the heaviness in the air. Wicker Park was wolf shifter territory. It was dangerous for them to stay too long.
“Can I offer you something?” I asked, heading for the fridge.
“No,” Avelina answered. I detected a hint of a Scottish brogue in her speech. Sometimes, I could hear it when Gideon spoke. It depended on his emotions. Most of the time, he and his brothers had an unidentifiable, European but aristocratic-sounding accent. In their three hundred plus years, I knew they’d lived all over the world.
Gideon hadn’t given me many specifics about his mother, but I knew she was much, much older than he was.
“It seems my family has caused you a fair bit of trouble, Miss Call,” she said, hesitating on my last name. It was as if she already knew it wasn’t the name I was born with. I wondered what else she already knew.
“Avelina…” Gideon tried to interject, but Avelina held up a delicate hand. When she gestured with her chin toward the table, I nodded and pulled out the chair at the head of the table. She took it, lowering herself in a fluid motion, keeping her back rod straight. I sat opposite her. For his part, Gideon seemed too keyed up to join us. Instead, he stood behind me, his hands gripping the back of my chair.
“Well,” Avelina sighed. “Fate has certainly opened up some interesting paths for the Brandhart line of late.”
“She’s mine,” Gideon said. It was as if his mother’s presence had reduced him to caveman vocabulary. I found it both endearing and infuriating. By the look on Avelina’s face, she shared my assessment.
“Well, of course she is, dear,” Avelina said, waving a dismissive hand. “Your brothers filled me in on the basics, but I had to see for myself. She’s even more obvious than Shae was.”
Shae. Gideon’s brother’s mate. I’d yet to meet her. Gideon said he had taken his wife and newborn daughter to their ancestral home in Scotland. The baby’s birth had been difficult. I couldn’t imagine what it was like giving birth to a dragon-ling. Just the thought of it sent a little flutter through my womb that shocked me. It was a craving, different than the lust I constantly felt around Gideon, but just as strong.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Avelina put two fingers to the bridge of her nose and pinched there. There was something familiar about her. She’d spent her life trying to protect her sons from forces that wanted to destroy them. She was so much like my father.
“Your eyes, for one,” she said. “Surely you’ve noticed how they match Gideon’s. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that your father’s are probably blue. Right? Siberian wolves’ usually are. I can see a bit of him in you. Your mother though, her eyes weren’t green, were they?”
“No,” I said, swallowing past a lump in my throat. “I don’t really remember. I’ve just see
n a picture or two. Her eyes were brown.”
“Interesting. Have you two…” She made a circular gesture pointing from Gideon to me and back again. I felt heat creep into my cheeks as I blushed.
“Mother!” Gideon barked.
“Oh, please,” she said, slapping her hand on the table. “Spare me the outrage and speech about how it’s none of my business. You know it is.”
“No,” I answered. Suddenly, all modesty just evaporated in me. Avelina Brandhart was a dragon, but she’d also mated with one. She’d given birth to five dragon sons. She would understand the biological questions better than anyone.
“You’re better already though, aren’t you?” she said, looking hard at Gideon. Her eyes glistened with hope. It hit me squarely in the gut. She was a mother above all else. How long had she been watching her son deteriorate before her eyes?
Gideon dropped his head. I watched a shudder go through him and my heart tore in two. Pain. So much pain. I felt it. It was as if I could reach inside of him and feel what tortured him. Years. Decades. He’d been on the edge of madness. It rang inside his head like a thousand church bells going off at once, but it would never stop.
Until the one day it did. The day he walked into the Bagel Bureau and met my eyes. He’d told me. But, until that moment, I don’t think I fully understood what it was like for him. Not even when we were down in the tunnels together. I’d been so wrapped up in my own passion, I couldn’t separate out what he felt from what I felt.
“Yes,” he said, his voice a ragged whisper. “It’s better now. But Grace is…”
A thought popped into my head. Then, it became an urge I had to act on. “Gideon,” I said. “I think you should go home now. I need to talk to your mother alone.”
She was smiling. Gideon’s face fell. “I told you...I’m not…”
Avelina put a hand up. “Darling, please. Grace is right. She’s bound to have questions only I can answer. I’ll grant you, this is an unusual situation, but it’s not unprecedented.”
My heart flared with hope. I knew it. Things couldn’t be as dire as Gideon thought they were. So much about us had been fueled by instinct. Mine was telling me something pretty clear. I just needed him to believe it.
“You don’t understand,” Gideon said. “Things have gotten more complicated than just what’s happening between us. Grace’s family is connected to a powerful pack.”
“Vadim,” Avelina sighed, sitting back in her chair.
“You know him?” I asked.
Avelina flapped a hand. “Your father is a Siberian wolf. This is Wicker Park. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Plus, you’ve a look about you, my dear. One I haven’t seen in a few generations, but I’d recognize those cheekbones anywhere. Call. Pfft. You’re Grace Kalenkova.”
I was dumbstruck right along with Gideon.
“Gideon, go,” Avelina said. “Grace is perfectly safe with me. Besides, the instant she wasn’t, you’d know. You’d feel it. He told you that, right?”
I cleared my throat. “I know a thing or two about fated mates. Yes.”
“Fine. It’s settled then. You’re needed back at the office anyway, Gideon. There are a few fires I’m afraid Finn and Kian lack the diplomacy to put out. Xander’s bringing Shae and the baby back tomorrow. I want everything under control. I’ll meet you back at the penthouse.”
Gideon grabbed my hand and squeezed it. It tore at me to think of him leaving. But, I needed Avelina’s ear. I knew it was in him to argue. He shot a look to his mother.
“She’s mine, Avelina. I know you know it. Every Brandhart is sworn to protect her just as I am.”
Avelina raised a wry, platinum brow. “You’re seriously going to lecture me about dragon kind? Take flight, my boy. I’ll keep things under control here.”
Admitting defeat more or less graciously, Gideon rose. I went to him. He pulled me in his arms and held me close. Goosebumps skittered down my spine as he pressed his lips to my ear. “Be safe, baby,” he said. “I’ll come find you as soon as I can.”
I kissed him and it melted me. He shot a look to his mother, then went out the sliding glass door. Gideon took my breath away as he went to the center of the yard, stretched his arms wide, and let his silver and green wings unfurl. He became a cyclone of movement as he took to the air and flew out of sight.
I caught Avelina out of the corner of my eye. She marveled at her son’s form almost as much as I did. Then, she dropped her gaze and smiled at me.
“So,” she said. “You’ve been dreaming of fire, have you?”
I let out a breath in a whoosh. A weight lifted from my shoulders and I sank back into the chair beside her.
“He’s afraid,” I said. “We almost...when we....he…”
“So you haven’t fully...er...consummated this have you?”
“My hair caught fire,” I blurted, realizing it sounded ridiculous. Avelina didn’t laugh though. She scratched her chin and regarded me.
“Gideon’s afraid because you’re human.”
“Yes. He says I won’t survive the...uh...process.”
Avelina sat back. “No. Humans don’t. He’s right about that. Now, two dragons, that’s glorious. My Magnus and me. Our fire made us stronger.” A blush went into her cheeks as she remembered her past. My heart clenched. I didn’t know the whole story, but I assumed Gideon’s father was dead. When Avelina turned her eyes back to me, there was sadness in them.
“I’ll save my sad stories for another day.”
“Shifters,” I said. “It was shifters who killed Gideon’s father? He said that’s what happened to all the other dragons.”
“Yes.” She answered in a simple, matter-of-fact tone. “Tigers. Now, shifters can mate with dragons. So can certain kinds of mages. They have magic in them that’s strong enough to resist the fire.”
I covered my face in my hands. I had no magic. I was only human, no matter who my father was.
“You though.” She leaned forward. “I think you’re something special, Grace. You’re sure you can’t shift?”
I laughed. “Trust me, when I was little I sure tried often enough. But no. The curse that brought down female shifters is still holding, apparently.”
“Hmm,” she said. “But you’ve dreamt of fire.”
“It’s more than that. Mrs. Brandhart, I’ve dreamt of burning. Being consumed by it. I felt stronger in it.”
“Avelina. Please. Mrs. Brandhart sounds like some old lady. I’m only nine-hundred and fourteen.” It was that same simple tone. The woman wasn’t joking.
“Avelina.”
“Well, dreams are dreams,” she said, repeating a phrase I’d heard Gideon say often enough.
“Tell me the truth. What happens if Gideon can’t fully mate with me? Is he right? Will he lose control of his dragon for good?”
Her expression turned grim. “He will. All my unmated sons will. It might take a few more decades if we’re lucky, but yes. If Gideon can’t mate with his fated love...with you...I’ll lose him too. But…” she said, leaning toward me. “We’re going to see if there’s something we can do about that.”
“What? How?”
She shrugged. “I can’t make you any promises and I don’t know for sure. But, there is magic in you. I can feel it. You let me worry about that. What I have is a question for you. No, more a favor or a promise I need to ask of you.”
It was in me to say “anything,” but I held back. Something told me it wouldn’t be wise to enter lightly into any debt with Avelina Brandhart.
“I’m looking for something. It’s why I brought my family to Chicago at the turn of the last Century. Dragonstone. Have you heard of it?”
“It’s an egg,” I answered. “A fossilized egg.”
“That’s right. And not so long ago, a group of wolf shifters tried to use some of it to hurt my sons and me. I need to find the source of it. Will you help me find out if any of the shifters in Wicker Park know anything?”
“I’ll...I d
on’t know. I can try.”
“Good. That’s all I ask. I like you, Grace. I think I’d like you even if you weren’t my son’s fated mate. Now, about your other problem. Let me think on it. There’s someone I know who may have some answers. I can’t say more just now and I don’t want to get any of our hopes up. I’ll be in touch though. For now, I’ve got to go. And fast.”
“What? Why?”
She smiled and put her arms around me. She was strong and warm and smelled of honeysuckle and spring. “Your father’s coming home.”
I didn’t hear a thing. Avelina’s heightened senses must have told her something I couldn’t perceive. She left out the sliding door just like Gideon had. She slipped her linen wrap off her shoulders. I saw her strong, naked back as her hair lifted in the breeze. Then, she let her shimmering blue wings spring forth and took to the air fast as a gunshot.
Chapter Fifteen
Gideon
Xander and Shae were back. Shae’s coloring looked even more vibrant than I remembered. Her red hair had bits of gold throughout. Her green eyes shimmered as she held her baby daughter to her breast and nursed her. She sat at the center of the main conference room in the Brandhart building. This was a family meeting and she was one of us now and forever.
“I’m so happy for you, Gideon,” she said, beaming. Baby Cassia raised a wrinkled brow against her mother’s breast then settled back down to a rhythm. She had a tuft of golden-red hair on her head that matched her mother’s. Xander stood like a sentry behind them. Strong. Healthy. In control.
“Nothing’s ever easy around here though, is it?” I said. Loch and Finn sat at one end of the table. Kian, as usual, refused to sit. He stayed at the window, staring out at the lake.
“Well, I for one, can’t wait to meet her,” Shae said. Cassia let out a little belch. Shae discreetly covered her breast and buttoned her blouse then set the baby on her shoulder. She was already deeply asleep.