Damien gave me a slight eye roll, as if my request had annoyed him, but a little curve to his full mouth told me that it really hadn't.
"Oh, all right. Just for you. I'll hang around for a little while and report back to you."
I smiled. "Thank you. Oh, and also...do you think you could also deliver word that I'm okay? I know that some of my friends in town are going to be pretty concerned about me."
Again, he gave me a little eye roll, but at the same time as a little smile. "Oh, fine. I guess. I suppose I can tell everyone that I only breathed a little dragon fire on you, and I only clawed you with my razor-sharp claws a little bit. And I'll tell them you're only a little mad at me. Though completely okay."
I smiled again. "Thank you."
He gave me a half-grin, his dark, nearly black, hair glinting in the sunlight. "Of course."
His grin faded and his expression suddenly became serious. "Your wish is my command."
"All right." Nick, who'd been watching me and Damien with his arms folded across his chest, unfolded them, clearing his throat. "It's time to go. Daisy, you ready?"
I nodded. "Yes."
“Then we should probably set out right now, before any more wolves arrive."
Damien took off, giving me a backward glance just before heading into the forest. Nick shouldered my backpack and retrieved my longbow for me.We crossed the lush, green valley, entered the dense woods, and began walking down a narrow dirt track. Aware that this was the part of the forest that he'd chased the wolves into, I began glancing all around, a little nervous, but he quickly noticed and told me not to worry.
"Despite what I told Damien about wanting to get going before any more wolves arrived, which I told him just to get him going, I'm positive Ezra and his lieutenant are well on their way back to their den. Which really isn't so much a den as it is a fairly good-sized small town with both underground and above-ground structures about twenty miles east of here. It's called Howler's Creek. And Ezra is the alpha and leader of this community. He'll be wanting to get back right away to tell the other wolves about his discovery of a Woman of the Star. He'll be wanting to meet with his top men to try to formulate some kind of a plan to kidnap you." Nick shot me a quick glance. "Which I won't let happen, so don't worry."
"But why does he even want to kidnap me so badly? What's a Woman of the Star? And how is that me, just because I happen to have a star-shaped birthmark on my left hand?"
Nick stopped walking, and so did I.
He looked at me, the edges of his mouth lifting in a slight smile. "I know you've been walking all morning, and you might be a little tired. Would you like to sit down somewhere for a bit and I'll explain everything?"
My feet were kind of tired.
"Sure. But where can we sit?"
He scanned the forest, his gaze eventually settling on a nearby, moss-covered fallen tree. "Is a tree bench okay?"
I nodded. "Just fine."
A short while later, we sat side-by-side on the tree-bench, and Nick said he'd answer my questions and then any additional questions I had.
"And I have a feeling that you're going to have a few." He took a deep breath while birds flitted from branch to branch, chirping, in the trees around us. "But let's start with your first questions. Ezra wants to kidnap you so badly because it seems that you're a Woman of the Star...which is to say, a woman who has no supernatural powers of her own, though she can increase and magnify the supernatural powers of others. She can make those others far stronger and give them more power. And specifically, she can give wolf shifters more power. Wolf shifters only."
"And how would she do this? How would I do this? Not that I'd ever want to, I'm sure."
The lightest wash of pink colored Nick's lightly tanned face. "Well, a Woman of the Star can increase a wolf shifter's power by mating with him. By having even one encounter of...." He paused and cleared his throat. "Physical intimacy. This was foretold in their ancient prophecies. And it was said that a Woman of the Star would be identified by a perfect star-shaped birthmark on her left hand. Exactly like yours. And being that the wolves want nothing more than increased power, and being that they now know that you're a Woman of the Star...well, they'll never stop hunting you now.
“However, my brother and I, and our entire community, will protect you. Because for one thing, we simply don't want to see any harm come to you, of course, but for another thing, protecting you will benefit us as well. We have a difficult enough time keeping the wolves completely at bay as it is, so having their alpha's power increased by mating with a Woman of the Star certainly wouldn't be anything we'd like to see happen. And in fact, that would be pretty devastating. After nearly a hundred years, we're just now at the point where the wolves have been put in their place by us dragons well enough that they're only very rarely a threat to your town, and the others."
I gasped, sitting up a little straighter on the log. "The 'others'? You mean...there are other towns that still exist in the world besides Stone River?"
With a smile creeping across his handsome face, Nick dipped his head in a nod. "Ten others, actually. Not including Crystal Falls, our dragon shifter community. And all of them here in Northern Michigan. When the chemical and nuclear war broke out a century ago, Northern Michigan seemed to be the only part of the world spared its apocalyptic effects. Maybe because of some sort of buffer provided by The Great Lakes, though nobody really knows for sure.
“But these eleven small Northern Michigan towns survived, as did all the dragon shifters in the state at the time, as well as our enemies, the wolf shifters. It wasn't what had happened that made us enemies, though. Our two groups have always been at odds, generation after generation after generation, for hundreds of years, and even probably thousands of years, actually, that we've been in existence. Things that happened after the nuclear war just made it worse."
"How?"
"Well, because then, it soon became clear that the wolves intended to enslave all the people left on earth, which was, of course, just you folks left in these eleven towns in Northern Michigan. And of course, we dragons couldn't just sit by and let that happen. We've never been dark-hearted like the wolves have always seemed to be, and we only desire for non-shifter humans to be able to live in peace and repopulate the world. And so, after several years of the wolves raiding the various towns, kidnapping women to help them populate their own town of Howler's Creek, we dragons finally said no more and put a stop to it, and we began patrolling all the towns and battling any wolf shifters who dared draw near, which wasn't exactly easy, as our own numbers were very low at that point. But eventually, by marrying some of the women from the eleven towns, our numbers grew, and things got a bit easier."
"So...shifters are able to mate and have children with regular human women?"
"Yes. Which is a very good thing, since there are no women shifters, only men. When we mate with human women, the baby boys we have become shifters."
"And is it true that you shifters can only be killed by being bitten or stabbed through the heart, and then bitten or stabbed through the eye, by another shifter?"
"Well...kind of. That's the only way we can be killed while in our prime of life. However, we age just like regular humans, and eventually, usually in our seventies, eighties, or nineties, we begin to weaken and die of old age or illness just like everyone else."
Just then, before I could ask any further questions, something began rustling around in some dense vegetation behind us and I heard a noise that filled my heart with dread.
*
The noise sounded not unlike a baby crying, though a little weaker and lower pitched. I'd heard it before. It was the sound of a rabbit struggling and in pain.
I flew up from the log Nick and I were sitting on and turned to scan the low, thorny bushes behind it. "Oh, no. I can't stand it when an animal is in pain. Think we can find it?"
Soon Nick was on his stomach, half-hidden beneath a cluster of thorny bushes, speaking in hushed tones while t
rying to free the rabbit, which had one of its hind legs tangled up in a thorny branch. I watched, realizing that Nick was actually trying to soothe and calm a helpless, furry little animal, which melted my heart. I'd never dreamed a dragon shifter would be so compassionate and tender.
After he'd successfully freed the rabbit, which immediately hopped away, he stood and brushed the dirt from his front, smiling at me. "Poor little guy. But he'll be just fine."
I saw that Nick had a long smudge of dirt on his forehead, and before I even realized what I was doing, I stepped closer and brushed it away. And then, just on impulse, I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."
After a long moment of looking a bit dazed, he grinned. "Thank you. I think I would've rescued ten thousand rabbits just for that kiss."
I smiled, butterflies rioting in my stomach. "Well, then, here's one more."
After rising on my toes, I leaned in and brushed a kiss against his mouth, surprising myself. Stunning myself, actually. It had just felt right, though now, I couldn't believe that I'd done it.
I took a little step back, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry."
Nick's deep green eyes widened.
"Sorry? You're sorry? For...for what?"
"I didn't mean to just suddenly kiss you like that. I'm just sorry if it was weird. I don't even know if you're single or not."
With his full mouth twitching with a smile, he stepped closer and took my face in his hands. "I'm single. And 'weird'? That kiss was so heavenly I think I left my body for a moment."
I smiled, stifling a laugh. "Oh. Well, good. About all that. And if you want to...if you want to leave your body again for a second, I wouldn't be opposed to that, just so you know."
I couldn't deny that I was quickly developing a very serious crush on Nick, and not just because of his long, hard body, deep green eyes, and rich, deep voice, though obviously, those things were very nice. But I was finding his other qualities, such as his compassion and kindness, very attractive as well.
And it felt amazing to have a crush on someone again. It had been a long while since I'd had a crush on anyone. I'd had a few boyfriends back in Stone River, and even one I'd become fairly serious with and had slept with, though after a while, things had just kind of fizzled out when I'd realized that maybe I wasn't so much in love with him as I just liked the idea of being in love. Based on the fact that he hadn't seemed very concerned that I was a bit unsatisfied in the bedroom department, I could only guess at the time that he wasn't truly in love with me, either. And so, I'd broken things off.
In response to my hint that I wanted him to kiss me, Nick looked deeply into my eyes, his expression serious and his hands still cupping my face. And then he dipped his head and pressed his full mouth against mine, sending a current of electricity racing from my lips to my toes.
At first, he kissed me slowly and gently, making a few very faint growls of pleasure. But soon he deepened the kiss, his mouth becoming a bit firmer and more insistent. Making a few soft noises of pleasure myself, I wrapped my arms around his neck with butterflies zipping around in my stomach.
But after just a short while, I broke the kiss with reluctance and pulled away. "I think I just left my body for a moment or two there myself. But maybe we should get going."
Although I'd been enjoying myself, tremendously, actually, I just didn't want things to get too physically intense, too quickly, with a man I'd just met, and in the middle of a forest, too. Moving extremely fast really wasn't my style.
Nick agreed that we should probably get going, and off we went, continuing down the forest trail to Crystal Falls. For a little while, we walked in silence, though silence of the comfortable kind, not the awkward kind.
Eventually, I asked Nick how he and Damien had happened to see me leaving Stone River, and why they'd followed me all that morning before the wolves had attacked. "Did you just kind of want to see what I was up to?"
"After spotting you leaving the town at the end of our patrol, at first, yes. We couldn't imagine why you were leaving the town, or where you were going. We became increasingly intrigued when we noticed your birthmark and realized that you're a Woman of the Star, straight out of the wolves' prophecy books. But then, when you neared the valley, we noticed that the wolves were on to you, too, stalking you, yet seeming to be unaware of us, and we knew there was going to be trouble. And shortly after, that's when Damien and I took to the sky, preparing for a fight."
"Well, I'm really, really glad you did. Thank you."
He glanced at me, grinning, the sunlight filtering in through the treetops making his dark blond, honey-toned hair even more golden. "You're more than welcome. It was my pleasure."
A little later during our walk, I asked him to tell me a bit more about Crystal Falls. "Is it bigger or smaller than Stone River?"
"Well, the town is probably a bit bigger in terms of actual size, though maybe a bit smaller in terms of population. We have about three-and-a-half thousand residents."
"And who's the leader of the town? Do you have a mayor?"
"Well, not exactly, though we do have a town council, the head of which is my uncle, Marshall. But even above the council, we have a leader who has the final say in all matters, and his official title is the dragon lord. Though, oddly enough, when spoken to directly, he's always referred to as Chief. And that's just the way it's always been."
"And who's the chief?"
I had my suspicions.
Stepping over a fallen branch, Nick glanced at me with his deep green eyes twinkling. "That would be me. I'm Chief Morgan, dragon lord, just like my father was, and just like his father before him, going back so many generations I think we've almost lost count. I took over as chief several years ago in my late twenties, after my father died shortly after my mother, and Damien became my second-in-command. Though to be completely honest, most of the time, he feels much less like my second-in-command and more like a child that I'm responsible for babysitting."
"So, the possible little bit of hostility I saw between you two today wasn't just something that started today, then."
Nick bit back a chuckle. "No. We've been at odds since we were boys. I'm older than him by about two years, so you'd think that this might have made him look up to me as the big brother. But instead, it's always just seemed to anger him and make him periodically attempt to bring me down a notch, as if we're in some sort of a competition. However, no matter what he does, it never seems to change folks' opinion of him. And if anything, with every little stunt and ploy he does to try to usurp my power or make me look foolish, it only seems to make people respect him less and less."
"So, he doesn't have many fans in Crystal Falls, then?"
"Well, most people in town do show him a bit of reverence, or maybe deference is a better word, just because he's the former chief's second son. Although, he's really seen as a bit of a wild child. He also has a reputation as a bit of a womanizer, which doesn't make many people in the town, especially fathers, think very highly of him. However, all this is tempered by the fact that he's an incredibly powerful shifter and strong fighter. And for this, people do give him respect. For this, even I give him respect."
Nick soon changed the subject, and we continued walking down the forest trail while the sun rose higher and higher in a clear blue sky. Presently, I became a little hungry and thirsty and asked Nick if he'd like to stop for some lunch.
"I'm not sure what a dragon lord is used to eating, but I packed some chicken, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches if you'd like one."
Smiling, he said that sounded wonderful, and we soon stopped to have lunch while sitting on another fallen tree. While we ate, he asked me several questions about myself, mostly things about my hobbies and interests, and my life in Stone River. I told him all about running the town museum, and how my favorite part about it was giving tours to school kids.
"Last year, I even did a summer day camp type of thing, and that's when I realized just what a heart for kids I have...and how much I'd lik
e my own someday."
Nick gave me a heart-melting half-grin. "Well, considering the great lengths you went to in order to help save the life of the little boy in your town, something just tells me you'll make an amazing mother."
I smiled, hoping he was right. I also hoped that maybe he wanted children someday himself. Though I quickly turned my thoughts to something else, realizing I was getting just a bit ahead of myself.
After we'd finished eating, Nick asked if I was tired of walking. "Because we've still got several miles to go, and I could give you a lift to Crystal Falls on my back, while in dragon form. I didn’t ask you earlier because I thought maybe it'd be nice for us to enjoy a walk and get to know each other a little better before arriving at Crystal Falls."
With a little thrill rippling through me, I told him I'd love a dragon ride. "As long as you promise not to drop me."
Full mouth twitching with a smile, he traced an X on the left side of his broad chest. "Cross my heart."
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