by Sophie Stern
It’s not that I don’t like being a part of this clan.
I do.
I like it more than anything else in the world, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need a break sometimes. When you do the same thing every single day for your adult life, sometimes you need a change, a shift. I might be a dragon, but I’m a bored dragon.
I’m a lonely dragon.
I’m a dragon who wants desperately to find a mate to share my life with, to grow old with, and to love. Sometimes it seems like I’m never going to find that. Sometimes it seems like the entire clan is getting married and falling love and me?
I’m just sitting around the school, teaching other shifters’ children. Maybe I’m destined not to have any of my own.
“Hey,” Cameron sits beside me. “How’s it going, buddy?”
“Same old stuff,” I say, lifting my beer to my lips. Cameron’s happy. Content. He’s a good guy, and he’s lucky to have found Peggy when he did. For a grumpy bastard, he’s sure been a nice guy since he got his mate. Can’t say I miss the old Cameron very much these days. I could get used to the nice guy.
“I have a favor,” he starts slowly. “It’s okay to turn me down, though. I know you’re busy with teacher stuff.”
“Ha,” I laugh, setting the beer down. “Buddy, I haven’t been busy since I went off to college.”
The idea of a shifter going to college might be silly, but I left the clan for awhile. I got a couple of degrees, worked a bunch of random jobs, lived in some unfortunate towns, and finally returned to teach in the school here. Most days, I’m happy to be able to educate the dragons of tomorrow. Today, though…today is one of those days where any change will be a good change.
I’m not just saying that because we lost Brendan or Esther. I’m saying it because right now, I’m living the same day over and over again and I have no idea how to get out of this rut I’m in.
“Sometimes being busy is overrated,” Cameron says slowly.
“Lay it on me.”
“It’s almost the full moon night.”
“Okay?”
“Usually, I go to the stone tower to see if anyone is seeking refuge at Fablestone.”
“Please,” I roll my eyes. “Stop with the stone tower crap. When was the last time anyone even came?”
He raises an eyebrow.
“Okay, anyone since Peggy?”
“That was last month!!”
I shrug. “Still.”
The deal with the stone tower is this: Fablestone is hidden away. There are stone towers throughout the forest and some of them are used as meeting spots. You have to know where the stone towers are and you have to know when to be there, but if you go to the right one on the right night, you can seek safety and refuge. You can find hope. You can find safe passage to Fablestone.
“The stone tower is a good idea,” Cameron insists.
“What about the stone tower?” I ask him. “Why are you bringing it up?”
“I can’t make it.”
“I’m sure there won’t be anyone missing out.”
“I want you to go in my place,” he says.
That gets my attention.
“You want me to go to the stone tower and sit around all night in case someone comes seeking safe passage to Fablestone?”
“There could be shifters in trouble,” Cameron says, and he says it like he truly believes in this stuff. He says it like he’s really serious about people being able to find a refuge here.
“Why can’t you go?” I ask him.
He blushes. “Peggy and I…well…we’re trying for a baby, and she’s ovulating, so…”
“Say no more,” I hold up a hand. “I’ll go.”
“Really?”
“Anything for a friend,” I tell him, and I mean it, but it doesn’t change the way I feel. There is nothing I want to be doing less tomorrow night than going to the stone tower, but apparently, that’s where I’ll be.
What could possibly go wrong?
It’s not like I’m meeting any girls around Fablestone, and who knows?
Maybe I’ll find a fairy nymph to fall in love with or something.
Lee
I’ve been staring at the phone number in front of me for hours now, trying to work things out. Is there a coded message hiding in the numbers? Is it an actual phone number? Who is it registered to? While my technical skills are better than most, they’re still not enough to figure out who owns this number. I can’t even fucking determine if it’s a landline or a cell phone. Of course, it’s not 1983, so it’s probably a burner phone of some sort, but still. It bothers me that I can’t figure anything out regarding the number.
I don’t want to just call it blindly.
That sort of behavior is the type of thing that gets you killed.
Even if I can’t trace the fucking cell number, it doesn’t mean the people at the other end can’t trace me. If this is, indeed, a phone number from one of the Lucky scientists, I don’t want them raining down on Fablestone and destroying us.
I really wouldn’t be able to live with that.
So, I do what any self-respecting dragon shifter who needs answers would do.
I pack a bag and I prepare to leave.
I’ll only be gone for a day, at best, and a few days, at worst, so I bring a change of clothes, a toothbrush, some food, and my best laptop. I shove it all in a duffel bag, head outside, shift, and grab the bag with my talons before flying off.
My flight is smooth and easy, and when I arrive at the hidden cabin just outside of Storm Dawn, I find myself relaxing. No one knows I have this property out here. I bought it last year under a false identity, of course, and I use it sometimes when I need a break from clan life and dragon drama.
Today, I’m going to use it to fucking call this number and try to trace it as best I can.
Fablestone is a four day walk from Storm Dawn. Even if the scientists manage to track my number to this general area, they’ll never locate our clan. We’re safe, as long as I play my cards right, but you never can be too careful.
Storm Dawn has a lot of amenities, but best of all, they’ve got somewhat reliable cell service, and I pull out one of the burner phones I keep here at the cabin. It’s time. I’ll record the call and try my best to trace it. Hopefully, I’ll at least walk away with some clues.
With one last deep breath, I punch in the phone number and hit “call.”
Then I wait.
The phone rings only once, and an even voice answers.
“I’ve been waiting for your call.”
THE END
The Fablestone Clan stories continue in The Dragon’s Darling, available on Amazon.
Author
Sophie Stern loves cowboys, soldiers, and shifters. When she’s not busy writing, she’s got her nose buried in a book. Sophie lives with her husband and two little boys who are always keeping her on her toes.
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More shifters!
Need more dragons? Bears? Wolves? Check out one of my other shifter stories.
Dragon Isle
Stepdragon (Dragon Isle)
My Lord and Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 1)
The Dragon Fighter (Dragon Isle Book 2)
A Dragon's Bite (Dragon Isle Book 3)
Lost to the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 4)
Beware of Dragons (Dragon Isle Book 5)
Catching the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 6)
Cowboy Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 7)
Dark Heart of the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 8)
O
nce Upon a Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 9)
Polar Bears of the Air Force
Staff Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 1)
Master Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 2)
Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 3)
Senior Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 4)
Red (Wolf-Shifter Romance)
Red: Into the Dark
Red: Through the Dark
Red: Beyond the Dark
Honeypot Darlings
The Bear's Virgin Darling (Honeypot Darlings Book 1)
The Bear's Virgin Mate (Honeypot Darlings Book 2)
The Bear's Virgin Bride (Honeypot Darlings Book 3)
Honeypot Babies
The Polar Bear's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 1)
The Jaguar's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 2)
The Tiger's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 3)
The Wolfe City Pack
The Wolf's Darling (The Wolfe City Pack Book 1)
The Wolf's Mate (The Wolfe City Pack Book 2)
The Wolf's Bride (The Wolfe City Pack Book 3)
The Wolf’s Darling
Want more shifters? I have a series out called The Wolfe City Pack. Check out an excerpt from book one: The Wolf’s Darling! You can also visit Amazon to get your copy!
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Chapter 1
Amy
The rattling sound my engine is making can’t be good, but I ignore it. I’m excellent at ignoring problems. If you ignore something long enough, it goes away. Isn’t that right? Yeah, I think that’s right. I ignore the sound and keep on driving, keep on moving. It’s not something that I can do anything about right now, so I’ll just keep going.
That’s what you do when you’re having trouble.
You don’t quit. You don’t give up. You don’t stop. You just move. You have to move or you’ll die. You have to move or everything will fall apart. You have to move or nothing will make sense anymore. You have to move.
Tears slide down my face as I try to focus on the road. I shouldn’t be running away from my problems, but I am. I totally am. I know that, and I know it’s a bad idea, but I’m doing it anyway because I’m nothing but a big, fat coward who can’t tough it out when things get hard.
I’m nothing but a loser.
A failure.
A huge disappointment.
I put on one of my favorite songs from my angst-driven teenage years. Down by Something Corporate starts blaring through the speakers and I lose myself in the tunes for just a little bit. For just a little while, I lose myself in the song. I lose myself in the music. For just a little while, I forget what I’m running away from and think about what I’m running toward.
Freedom.
Hope.
Something new.
I peek at the GPS on my phone to see how much further I have to go. It’s just another hour to Honeypot, Colorado. My cousin Hope is graciously allowing me to stay with her and her family for a little while until I get back on my feet, until I figure out what I’m going to do with my life. She knows what it’s like to lose everything and have to start over.
She knows what it’s like to have nothing but yourself and your car and a couple of boxes of junk from your childhood.
I think about the fact that I reached out to Hope when my world fell apart and I think about what she said.
“Just come to Honeypot,” she told me. “Everything is different here. You’ll see. You need a fresh start, Amy. You need something new.”
Maybe it will be a fresh start. Maybe it will be exactly what I need, exactly what I hope for. Maybe it will give me everything I long for, but I doubt it. A city is a city and a town is a town. They’re all the same, in the end. Everyone is looking out for number one, and heaven help the person who gets in their way.
Nobody has time for other people.
Nobody has time to go out of their way and help.
Nobody has time for patience.
Nobody has time to forgive.
I start crying again as I drive. I wipe my eyes because it’s getting hard to see out the front window, but then I realize that’s not because of my tears. It’s because the engine has now started to smoke.
As the clouds billow from the front of the car, my heart sinks. This is it, then. This is the end of my wonderful, grand adventure. This is the part of my story where everything stops, where the heroine realizes she never really had a chance. The whole world was against her. What was she going to do?
Fight it?
I pull over to the side of the road and shut off the car. Then I just sit there. It’s dark, and I’m tired, and I’m on the side of a road I’m pretty sure shouldn’t even exist anymore. It’s not even a highway. It’s just some side road I thought would be faster and have less traffic.
Lucky me.
Always making the smart choices.
A quick glance at my cell phone confirms what I already suspected: that I have no towers. I can’t call for a tow. I can’t do anything right now but sleep in my car or walk to the next exit. Something tells me it’s not safe to sleep on the side of an empty road in the middle of nowhere, though, so my choice is easy.
Walking it is.
Finally, I get out of the car and open the hood. More smoke billows around me, but I try to ignore it as I prop the hood of the car open. I’m going to be making a journey on foot, and I’m hoping that if I make it obvious the car broke down, the cops won’t give me a ticket for illegal parking before I can get a tow.
I take my backpack and pull it on. I also grab my wallet, keys, and phone. Then I lock up my car and start walking. There’s other stuff in my car, of course. There are plenty of things people can take and resell, but I don’t really care about any of that. Right now I just care about moving forward, about reaching my destination, wherever that might be.
I’m going to need to call Hope as soon as I can to let her know I won’t be making it in to see her, but I think she’ll understand, and I think everything will be okay. I hope everything will be okay. I need everything to be okay.
I start walking.
As I move through the darkness, I realize I should feel afraid, but I just feel annoyed. Why can’t a single thing go right for me this week? Hell, why can’t a single thing go right for me in my entire life? Do I really deserve this? Have I really been such a terrible person that I deserve to have a million and nine things go wrong for me?
I want to say I’m not.
I want to say I’m not that bad and I don’t deserve it, but you never know.
Maybe I was a really terrible child or something and this is Karma’s way of getting back at me.
As I trudge along the side of the highway, I wonder how long it’s going to take to actually get my car fixed. Realistically, Honeypot is an hour away by car. I can’t afford to have my car towed there and fixed in Honeypot. I’m sure Hope would spot me the money, but I don’t want to be a burden. Asking for help is already hard for me. Asking her to pay for a tow? I won’t do that.
No, there’s got to be a town closer than that. I’m sure there are several rink-a-dink little places here and there that have mechanics. The biggest problem right now is that I didn’t take the highway. It’s at least half a mile to my left and right now, I’m just going straight. I’m just going to keep moving. I’m just going to keep walking until I find something, anything, anywhere.
I reach an intersection and I take note of the street names so that when I do find a mechanic, I can tell him exactly where the car is. It’s dark, but the stars are so bright I can see where I’m going.
“You don’t get views like this in the city,” I mutter, and keep walking. It’s strange to think how much my life has changed in the last week. It’s strange to think that a week ago, I was just a normal person living a normal life. I had a normal boyfriend and a normal job and a normal future.
And then Jeremy decided I wasn’t worth protecting.
He
decided I wasn’t worth fighting for.
I wonder how people survive break-ups and still move on to find someone new. Isn’t it strange? I suppose it’s kind of like how women go through childbirth, but then continue on to have another child. It hurts, but it’s worth it. The pain is awful, but soon the memory fades, even just a little.
In a month, will I still feel so broken?
In a year, will I still feel so sad?
I’m still crying as I walk and now, strangely, I have the feeling I’m being watched. I wasn’t worried before, but now I’m starting to get a little nervous. This is Colorado, after all. It’s known for wild animals. Hope told me she saw a lot of wild creatures when she first arrived. Hell, she even saw a bear. Like, up close.
I shiver as I think about running into a bear out here alone. I’m not terribly out of shape, but I don’t think I’d be able to out-run a bear. Even if I wasn’t completely tired and worn out from my week, from the drive, I don’t know if I could face a bear. I’d probably faint from fear.
“There’s nothing out here,” I say aloud. I stop walking and turn in a circle, searching the darkness. There are fields on either side of the road. One of them has a lot of trees, but they’re spaced far enough apart that nothing is hiding. I would be able to see a bear.
I think.
There’s nothing.
“You’re overreacting,” I say to myself. “There’s nothing here, Amy. Just focus. What do you need to do?”
I start moving again as I run through a mental checklist and continue talking to myself. It’s a nervous habit. Ever since I was little, I’ve talked to myself when I’m scared or overwhelmed. It’s probably really silly, probably really dumb, but it’s always made me feel like I could handle things.
Somehow, hearing my voice out loud makes me feel a little stronger, a little braver. Maybe it’s because sometimes, having anyone tell you they believe in you can give you the strength you need to move forward. Even if that someone is just yourself, sometimes it’s nice to hear. It’s nice to hear you can do it.