by Abigail Owen
Seeing a fellow hiker, with a pack, all three relaxed.
“We’re more worried about the thing in the fire,” one of them boasted.
Aidan cocked his head. “What are you talking about?” He hit just the right mix of humor and suspecting they’d lost their shit.
The one holding the phone waved him over. “Check it out, man.”
Exactly what Aidan had wanted.
He stepped in front of them and the guy turned the phone around to face him. “Watch.”
He started a video. At first, they only got the white and gray smoke flowing out of the tops of the trees on the opposite hill, the orange glow of flame below, the guys all talking about what direction the fire was heading and where they needed to go to escape it.
Then they caught him. Big fucking blue dragon, center screen, especially when the dickweed holding the phone zoomed in.
“Holy shit,” Aidan exclaimed. “Let me see that.”
He grabbed the phone to pretend to get a better look, and all three men moved in closer. Perfect. To erase their memories, they needed to be close. As soon as the video ended, Aidan already had the flames stoked, blazing in his eyes. Lifting his head, he stared each man directly in the eyes, pulling at their consciousness with his mind.
Instant zombies, each man stared back in his thrall.
He needed to hold their direct gazes, which meant the next part would have to be fast, before his hold on them wore off. Moving at dragon speeds, he started with the man on his left, placing his hands on the guy’s temples. Aidan forced his own heat through that touch and into the man’s mind. Less than a minute to erase the last thirty minutes or so. He couldn’t pick specific memories, only the most recent chunk of time. The longer he held on, the further back in time the memory loss went.
Satisfied he’d wiped all recollection of a dragon, Aidan moved on to the next guy, and then the third. Finally, he snapped up the phone, which, luckily, was still playing the video and not locked. He stepped away into the forest while all three men continued to stare at nothing, still hypnotized. A state that wouldn’t last much longer.
As he moved, he wiped the video, then searched through the connections to see if all pictures on the camera uploaded to the internet. Sure enough, he had to pull it from the cloud as well. As an extra measure, he memorized the phone number, making a mental note to have Kanta check it out when they got home.
“Is that a fire?” one of the guys asked.
Aidan took off the pack still on his back, dropped the phone next to it on the ground, and faded into the woods.
He watched for several minutes as they all came out of the daze he’d put them in. Not one of them mentioned the monster they’d seen, or the other hiker, though they were confused about why their gear was scattered a bit.
Luckily the fire kept most of their attention.
Aidan walked his ass out of there, picking up speed when he was sure they couldn’t hear. As soon as he hit the clearing where he’d landed earlier, he shifted and leaped into the sky. “Humans neutralized,” he reported.
“Fine,” Finn came back. “We’re almost done here. Go to headquarters. We’ll meet you there.”
Aidan tipped his wings to the north and pushed himself higher to gain altitude. No way was he getting caught again today. “Stay away from that south side. They’re still watching. Hikers.”
“Got it,” Finn acknowledged.
The fire hadn’t been far from headquarters, which made Rune one bold motherfucker. Once Aidan got home, he waited upstairs in the locker room attached to the building, meant to fool all humans that all this structure was a hotshot crew station.
Aware of his presence, Hall and Kanta joined him topside.
“Where’s Titus?” Aidan asked. Though he already had a damn good guess.
The two green dragons exchanged a glance that set Aidan’s nerves buzzing. “With Sera,” Hall answered.
Of course that’s where Titus would be. If Aidan had stayed behind, watching over her and Blake was exactly what he would’ve done as well. Except a mate could be a huge fucking temptation. “Are they alone?”
Kanta clapped a hand on his shoulder as if to calm him down. “Delaney and Lyndi are with them.”
Annoyingly aware of the others’ regard, he managed to limit himself to a neutral nod. “As long as she’s safe.”
Hall’s eyebrows winged up. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Kanta elbowed the guy and Aidan ignored them both. A few minutes later, Titus showed up, those dark eyes void of emotion but watching Aidan closely. “They’re safe.”
Digging into reserves of willpower he didn’t know he’d had, Aidan managed a nod, then proceeded to fill them in on the fire briefly, waiting for Finn to get into the details.
The others were only fifteen minutes behind him, landing and shifting one right after the other, their massive forms a sight to behold in the full light of day. Would Sera find this view fascinating, or terrifying?
Aidan shook off thoughts of the woman he couldn’t let go of, even when he knew he had to.
“Aidan filled us in, boss,” Kanta said. “What’s your take?”
“This one was Rune and his people.” Finn stripped off the long-sleeved yellow shirt they wore, along with the green fire-resistant pants of a hotshot crew.
“You’re sure?” Hall asked with a grimace. “It’s not like him to get so close.”
“I smelled him, Hall. No mistake.”
Hall’s light green eyes blazed for a moment before he held up his hands, acknowledging that Finn would know better than anyone.
Finn flung his shirt at his locker, fury in every line of his tense muscles. “I need to call Deep, and the Alliance needs to know, too.”
Which meant he’d need to tell the Alliance about Sera at the same time?
“Drake, what about the five humans you rescued?” Finn asked.
“I had to land on top of them to cover them from the flames, but all five made it out unharmed. Memories erased.”
“Good.”
“That was close,” Kanta commented.
“Yeah. And Aidan was captured on video,” Finn added.
“Fuck. What the hell, rookie?” Titus snapped.
“He caught it,” Finn said at the same time Aidan said through clenched teeth, “I took care of it.”
Still, Titus shook his head, lips set in a grim line, a harshness there Aidan hadn’t seen before from the black dragon. No doubt a result of the turmoil over Sera. The bonds holding this group together were shifting, strung tight like rubber bands at the breaking point. The sooner they got her to the Council and resolved her mate question the better.
Speaking of which… “Do you think Rune is aware of Sera?” Aidan asked.
The second Finn had brought up the shifter when he smelled him at the fire, Aidan’s gut instinct had been to go to her. Keep her safe.
“If he was going to come after her, while most of us were gone would have been the best timing,” Kanta pointed out.
Titus shook his head. “Nothing and no one got into the compound. I was with her the entire time.”
“I’m not sure the two things are related this time,” Finn murmured. He ran a hand around the back of his neck. “But we need to get her to the Alliance fast.”
Everything inside Aidan clenched and his head pounded with the effort to hold back his dragon, instinct urging him to take her and Blake and fly all of them somewhere…else. Mate her to keep her safe.
If Titus or Drake was dealing with even half this growing need, they were in deep trouble.
But he couldn’t do anything. Not with the High King still in want of a mate and with his brand on her neck. Not with Titus and Drake also in the mix. Not as a cast-off of society, no matter how much he proved himself. He couldn’t be her mate. The odds were so against him it was laughable.
So he had to let her go. She had to find her destiny. One that didn’t include him.
Chapter Thirteen
> Sera was jerked awake by the abrupt sensation of falling. It only took her a second, and the scent of leather and rental car, to realize she’d fallen asleep on the way to the Alliance. She glanced nervously over her shoulder at Aidan who sat in the back seat with Blake, only to find him blinking slowly awake himself. Good. Hopefully she hadn’t talked in her sleep or given any embarrassing sign that she’d been dreaming of him again.
With a deep breath to clear the cobwebs, she sat up straighter, glancing around. The topography had changed from the rolling, treeless high plains around the airport to granite mountain spires reaching for the heavens.
When these men had a mission, they didn’t mess around.
One day.
That’s all it had taken to do an uber-fast handoff of the winery to Delaney, paperwork still pending. After that, she packed for a week, they drove to the Sacramento airport, flew to Denver, rented a car, and now they appeared to be driving up a snaking canyon road into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Evening was starting to settle in, casting the canyon in blue-tinted shadows.
Finn had wanted to fly her and Blake across the country on the backs of her escorts, but Sera had vetoed that in a hot minute. No way was her child flying cross country on a dragon. Just…no.
They’d compromised by agreeing to take a commercial flight then drive as close as they could get. According to Aidan, they’d still have to fly the last bit, as the Alliance Council was holed up in a similar installation to the Huracáns’ mountain, but not accessible by road.
Sera sat in the front seat of one of the large SUVs they’d rented, with Titus behind the wheel. Aidan sat in the back seat with Blake, whose face was buried in a device, watching a movie. Behind them, in a separate car, Drake and Hall followed. That had to be interesting. Sera got the impression those two weren’t exactly best of friends. Not that Drake let anyone in. Though he seemed to try with Sera more lately. A little bit.
Turning her face to the window, she tried to wipe the remaining vestiges of her most recent Aidan fantasy from her mind. She must’ve fallen right into it, because one second her eyes were drifting shut, and the next she was in darkness with Aidan right in front of her.
She’d walked right into his arms, breathing easier for maybe the first time since she’d found out what she was.
Aidan had held her, running a hand through her hair. “You okay?”
Sera snorted a sarcastic laugh. “What do you think?”
“I think…” He paused then tucked her closer. “Doesn’t matter. Can I make it better?”
Her first thought was to jump right to the sexy times they usually shared in this space, but her conscious mind must’ve still been too hung up on what she was about to go do—choose a mate. So instead, she lifted her head to give him a serious stare. “I’d prefer to leave Blake here with you or Titus while I meet these Alliance guys.”
He gave no visible reaction beyond mild curiosity. “Why?”
Sera grimaced. “Blake doesn’t need to be flying in the middle of the night, first of all. But what if I decide at any point that I don’t want to do this? I’d rather he not be in the middle of it.”
Those steady blue eyes searched her gaze. “I thought you were okay with this.”
“‘Okay’ is a low bar right now. I have to find a mate or I can’t be near my child, so I’m doing this for him.”
Instead of judgment, concern lit Aidan’s eyes with a bright blue flame. “Why didn’t you say something?”
She tried to pull from his embrace, but Aidan was having none of it, holding her tight. She stopped trying, sinking into him, absorbing his strength. “Nothing I say will change what I have to do.”
“That’s not true.” The denial burst from him, his voice going dark, and she knew his dragon was near the surface. “Why’d you bring Blake if you had questions?”
Because I have more hope than I should. As long as she was being honest, she was still wishing this dream version of Aidan real, and that one of the marks on her neck might be his. Their not telling her specifics other than color was eating at her, but one being Aidan’s felt more right to her than any other scenario. “I brought Blake because any man who wants to mate me better damn well adore my kid. That means meeting my kid.”
He swallowed. “I see.”
“What if I find my mate, but he doesn’t want Blake?” Sera forced the question through stiff lips.
The rightness of belonging in this world only grew with each passing hour, but not if Blake faced rejection.
“He’ll want him.”
She gave a small, scoffing cough. “You, of all people, shouldn’t promise me that.”
Aidan’s frown told her he didn’t follow.
“You were abandoned by people who should’ve taken care of you,” she clarified.
Aidan’s jaw clenched, and she was sure he was about to shut her out, only he didn’t. Something in his gaze gave a little. “That’s true. And I was luckier than most.”
His mouth suddenly quirked in a lopsided smile. “Don’t tell the guys this, but when they found me, it was for setting a fire.”
Sera cocked her head, sensing there was more to it. “On accident?”
His smile widened to a grin. “On purpose. Just a little one. I wanted them to find me. I had no idea how to find them. I was young and had this stupid idea that if I could show them how I could put out my own fire and control my shift, prove to them that I was different, they would offer me a place to stay.”
“They didn’t?”
“No. They were about to follow the laws and put me down, but Lyndi stepped in.” He shrugged. “She’s hardly older than me, herself, but she still wanted to help, giving me a home. Like I said. Lucky.”
Sera gave a soft chuckle, but she was still churning over something in her head. The whole abandonment thing. “Would you do that to Blake, if you were my mate? Treat him like an outcast? Send him away to his grandparents or something?”
“No,” he snapped, a scowl descending over his face that kicked her heart rate up a notch. Then he paused, softened. “No. I would never abandon any child. Not if I could help him.”
A glow of—what? pride? relief?—warmed her from the inside out.
Before she could react, though, Aidan suddenly let go of her, stepping back. Cold replaced his heat, seeping into her bones as walls she usually only saw in reality shut down his expression. “But I’m not your destined mate.”
“But it’s your brand on me, right? You could be.” Fickle hope prickled under her skin. She wanted… Him. She just wanted him. Instinct was supposed to drive her choice, and it felt like she was being driven to him.
His body tensed. “It doesn’t matter.”
The lack of denial told Sera everything she needed to know.
That blue brand was his.
Her eyes snapped open and the air in her lungs punched from her body. “But it does matter. The deeper this goes, the more I’m sure. And not only physically—more like your soul is a magnet for mine.”
A flare of something—shock maybe, only hotter, like an answering need—sparked in his eyes, but then Aidan clamped down his emotions, face turning into a hard mask of emotionless robot more like the man in real life. “This isn’t real,” he said. “When you meet your destined mate, the connection will be undeniable. So much more.”
That didn’t seem possible.
“Will it feel better than this?” Sera stepped into him, went up on tiptoe, and crushed her lips against his in a kiss that was as twisted up as her thoughts—desperate and wild. Instantly, the connection, the…spark…between them flared to life. Everything in her settled, that odd belonging increasing a hundredfold.
Everything came crashing down when Aidan jerked from her grasp. “We can’t. Not anymore.”
He’d turned and walked away. Even in her dreams he walked away from her.
Needing to run from the pain of that rejection, Sera had jerked awake.
“How long till we get there?” B
lake didn’t lift his head to ask, interrupting her thoughts.
“Not too much farther, bud,” Aidan said.
Sera waited for the escalation. She’d already had this conversation with Blake twice this morning. Traveling wasn’t his favorite activity. Maybe because they hadn’t done a ton. Her fault. She should have taken them places. Done things.
“Okay,” Blake said.
Of course he’d settle when Aidan answered. Sera had to glance out the window to hide her disgruntled frown, knowing she was more angry at dream Aidan than she was the real one. She needed to shake it off.
“He doesn’t listen to me every time,” Aidan leaned forward to say quietly.
She didn’t turn her head. “I know.”
“Sometimes he listens to me,” Titus murmured.
A joke was rare from him, but she couldn’t summon more than a wan smile. Usually, she wouldn’t be bothered. Not listening to a parent was normal for kids. Any other day, she’d laugh it off, but on the way to attempt to find her soul mate, or whatever, her nerves were already as thin as the membrane of a jellyfish, and just as likely to pop.
They topped a hill, and a valley dropped away in front of them. A lake reflected the bright rays of the sun followed by a small town nestled in front of snow-topped mountains that rose like guardians protecting one the most idyllic settings she’d ever come across. Except for the soaring black clouds coming up over the peaks, looming and angry, made even darker by the coming dusk.
Titus slowed before they crossed the lake, turning off the main road.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“We’ll stay in a cabin here until nightfall and fly the rest of the distance under cover of darkness late tonight,” Titus answered. “Finn rented us a house, and we’ll leave the cars there.”
Several turns led them past a series of neighborhoods to a more secluded spot. A narrow gravel drive wound up a mountainside, between pine trees, to a natural log cabin built on an A-frame with massive windows facing out over the treetops to the valley below. A two-story patio wrapped around three sides of it, the slope of the mountain putting the front door on the second story, accessible by stairs off both sides.