by Kimber White
“Thank you,” I said.
“It was easy,” he said. “And there’s...I don’t...Don’t ask me how I know this. It’s just a feeling. I think I have kind of a nose for it. It’s just, you’re not digging in the richest patch of ground on this claim. There, to the east, on the other side of the stream. There’s better ground there. You should test drill.”
I followed his finger. The land on the other side of the stream hadn’t been touched. We’d never be able to break ground on it before winter came. And my father had run tests years ago. “We already…”
Loch stopped me, taking my hand in his again. That familiar, pleasurable heat spread through me. It got so hard to think when Loch Branson’s skin touched mine. I wanted more. I wanted everything. I wanted him.
“Trust me,” he said.
“So, you’re a gold smelling dragon?” I meant it as a joke. I tried to find something normal and familiar about this situation.
“I guess,” he said. “It’s kind of new to me too. I’m right though. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I suppose it’s worth another test.”
This was absurd. We were talking about drill tests and pay dirt? Loch was a dragon. A living, fire-breathing, tall-as-a-building, powerful dragon. They weren’t supposed to be real. They were a legend. They were extinct, at best. My mother told me bedtime stories. Fairy tales. One of the wolf shifters who worked for my dad years ago claimed to have a dragonsteel dagger. He tried to sell it to him for the rights to some of Dad’s land. He turned him down.
My mind raced as I tried to piece it all together. It didn’t matter. All those old secrets and stories melted away as I stood face to face with Loch. He was real. He was here. He was mine. The last thought came to me like a whisper on the wind.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I mean...in Blackfoot of all places.”
“I came looking for…” Loch’s voice faltered. So he still had secrets he wanted to keep. I felt the chill of unease. It should matter. This was nuts. But, at the same time, standing with Loch seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
“We should go inside,” I said. As incredible as it all was, I became keenly aware of the fact that Loch had just shifted in front of me. As such, he was very naked. I bit my lip and tried to keep my eyes from traveling down. There were more magnificent things on him besides his wings.
“I should go,” he said. “This was stupid of me. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t mean to put you in this position.”
Wicked visions flashed through my head of all the positions I wouldn’t mind Loch Branson putting me in. My cheeks flushed and the fire in Loch’s eyes brightened. He could sense it. Of course he could.
“No,” I said, more forcefully than I intended. “You shouldn’t go. You’re part of this now. What you did here...Loch...it’s amazing. You just saved me days of work, thousands of dollars. One exhale from you and you may have just saved my entire season. But...nobody can know about this. If…”
“No,” Loch said, his voice dark, commanding. He had put a hand on my shoulder. Damn, he felt so good. I wanted to feel more of him. All of him. “Nobody can know about this. I hate to have to put you in a position to lie to anyone, least of all your family. But, the shifters can’t know what I am.”
I knew that from some deeper instinct. At the same time, I had the same burning question. If Loch was afraid of other shifters knowing his secret, why the hell would he come to work in a place like Blackfoot?
Because he was meant to find me.
Again, the answer caressed my thoughts like a gentle breeze. I could barely process it. I pushed those thoughts aside.
“You’re safe here,” I said, realizing I probably had no power to protect him. Then, the idea that he’d even need protection from someone like me seemed ludicrous. No matter what else was true, I knew in my bones that this man was the most powerful being I would ever encounter. The thought of it thrilled me to my core. God, I wanted him to kiss me.
“The others will come back soon,” he said. “Maybe we should just go inside and forget this ever happened. I really am sorry, Ash. It was careless of me to come out here like this. I just needed a moment to…”
“I get it,” I said. “I mean, you’re a shifter. You’re not like any shifter I’ve ever known, but I think there are a few basic needs you all seem to have in common. It’s just...how have I not seen you like this before?”
“You’ve got a lot of questions. You’re entitled to some answers. It’s just...there are some things I can’t talk about right now. Letting you see me has made a right mess of a few things. I just can’t figure out how you did.”
The ground rumbled. At first, I assumed there were trucks coming up the road. But, the rumble got deeper, not louder. And it was coming from behind Loch, to the north toward the wilderness, not from town.
Loch let out a screech that ripped through me.
Chapter Nine
Ash
“Get behind me,” he shouted. I did.
The sky darkened. The moon disappeared. “What is it?” I yelled. The wind whipped into a fierce frenzy. It was hard to catch my breath.
Heat enveloped me. Loch was everywhere. The air shimmered blue then gold. He was doing something. Casting some spell. My vision blurred and for an instant, I felt like I was floating.
Above us, the shadows came into focus. Two more dragons hovered above the tree line. I opened my mouth to scream, but Loch was faster. He put a hand over my mouth and brought his lips to my ear. God, it was sinful the way he touched me.
“Shhh,” he said. “Don’t say a word. Just stay behind me. Don’t move.”
Then, Loch stepped forward and faced the two dragons. They landed and shifted in one seamless motion. One was tall and male, looking strikingly like Loch. He had bluer eyes though. The dragon beside him became the most beautiful, stunning woman I’d ever seen. Her platinum hair fell around her shoulders, covering her nakedness. She had ice-blue eyes and a regal carriage. A dragon queen. I knew it on instinct.
“What are you doing here?” Loch demanded. “I told you I’d let you know if I needed help.”
The pair exchanged a look. “Loch,” the man said. “We were honestly just flying near. Avelina wanted to see if you needed any help.”
Loch shifted his weight between the balls of his feet. He looked ready to fight. I did exactly as he told me, staying frozen to my spot. As Loch talked in hushed tones to this pair, I realized they should be able to see me. Loch stood in front of me, but from this angle, he wasn’t blocking me completely. They were too far away. And yet, they looked past me toward the trailers. I was invisible. Holy shit, he’d made me invisible!
I couldn’t make out all they said. The man called Loch “brother” at one point and it all made perfect sense. He looked so much like Loch. The woman though. She was older. A wise woman, perhaps. Loch called her Avelina. Except, I knew somehow she was his mother. His mother. A dragon queen and her dragon princes. I don’t know how I stayed on my feet.
“All right then,” Avelina’s voice rose above the others. “Tomorrow night. I’ll expect you to be prompt.”
With that, she turned on her heel. Her white hair swished behind her. She raised her arms above her head. My breath left me as she jumped and shifted in a graceful arc. Her dragon rose high, disappearing into the moonlight. Loch’s brother did the same, though his shift was more brutal. One second they were here; the next they were gone. Only the rising wind marked their passing as Loch turned back to face me.
My jaw dropped. He came to me. “Ash.”
“Three,” I said. “There are...three...dragons.”
“I’m sorry…”
“How?” I asked. “How did they not see me?”
Loch’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to answer, then clamped it shut. “Honestly? I’ve never tried that before. I didn’t even know I could do it. I’ll be damned.”
“A spell?” I said. “Yo
u cast a spell you’ve never done before? Christ. How did you know you wouldn’t just zap me into oblivion?”
Loch’s eyes darkened. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“You just said you didn’t even know what that was. I’ve been around plenty of shifters who had issues controlling their power. And I’ve seen you come closing to losing yours. That was dangerous. Admit it.”
Something snapped inside of him. His hands were on me. Firm but gentle, he grasped my shoulders. “And I know I’d protect you with my life. You’re my…”
His voice trailed off. He couldn’t say it. I couldn’t think it. As quickly as he touched me, he let me go. The last of the embers died at my feet as Loch turned and walked away.
Chapter Ten
Loch
“What if she’s wrong?” I said, squaring off with my brother Xander. I had shielded Ash from him and my mother. I had lied. I told myself it wasn’t a betrayal, not yet. But, Xander’s eyes held worry and doubt. I knew that look. I’d given that look both to him and the rest of my brothers time and again. Xander wasn’t sure I was in my right mind. He was starting to think the mating sickness was finally taking hold.
Xander looked behind him. I’d convinced him and Avelina to meet me here in remote part of the Yukon wilderness, far away from Ash and the Yeager claim. I’d bought just a day. Any minute, Avelina would descend wanting answers I wasn’t sure I could give.
Ash’s scent, her touch, still burned through me. I kept my distance from Xander, hoping he couldn’t pick up on it.
“What do you mean wrong?” Xander asked. He stayed infuriatingly calm. It was so easy for him now. He had his mate. He had a child.
“I mean...what if Clint Yeager isn’t out to destroy us?”
“You think her memory is faulty? You think Avelina’s instincts are wrong? Listen, I had my doubts about her methods for years. All of us have. But, Loch, she’s been right about everything. She knew there were wolves trying to kill us. Have you forgotten my wife barely escaped with her life? Her hunch about the dragonstone has been spot on. Every lead we’ve chased has brought us answers.”
He was right. For years, our mother had sent us on the hunt for dragonstone. She hoped finding bits of fossilized dragon egg would help her find out if we truly were the last of our kind. She held out hope that it would lead to each of us finding a dragon mate. In my brothers’ cases, it had, just not in the way she expected.
I couldn’t stop pacing. “She told us Gideon’s wife’s family wanted us dead. But, now we have a truce with the most powerful wolf pack in Russia,” I said. “She was wrong about the Kalenkovs.”
Xander couldn’t argue with my logic. Gideon’s mate Grace was the daughter of a Siberian Alpha. Their mating and marriage solidified an alliance that would last for centuries.
“This is different,” Xander said. “This is about our father. This is about us honoring an oath he made our mother pledge the day he died. No, the day he was brutally murdered. We can’t forget that.”
I had no argument to it. We’d been raised on stories of the evil of Christoph Jeger. My mother was forced to wait almost four centuries after my father died to breathe life into us. The Jeger line would not let her rest. She still bore the scars from dozens of assassination attempts. Still, it had been over two hundred years since the last time she faced off with them.
“So you’ve seen him,” Xander said.
I dropped my head. “Yes. Once. Clint Yeager didn’t seem to have the slightest recognition about who I am. If he’s acting, he’s exceedingly good at it.”
“I trust her,” Xander said. “If I hadn’t, I never would have found Shae.” His voice trailed off. There was guilt in his expression. My heart twisted as I tried to come up with the lie that would protect Ash and satisfy my family.
The shift in the wind took the decision out of my head. The tallest trees bent as Avelina circled and found a landing spot. She stayed hidden from view for a moment as she shifted and arranged the long black cloak she kept with her. Finally, she emerged from the tree line and headed straight for us, her eyes blazing with blue fire.
“Answer for yourself,” she said. “Tell me why Clint Yeager still walks the earth.”
I had no answer that would appease her. I could only rely on the partial truth. “It’s not just him,” I said. “Yeager’s got a family.”
It was as if Avelina had the power to call the wind to her. Her hair whipped around, forming a white halo. She came to me. “So do I.”
“A wife and a son,” I said, biting back the last of it. He had a daughter too. And she was mine.
“You’ve waited too long,” she said. “I’ve indulged you. I was afraid you’d…”
It was her turn to hold back the truth. “What?” I said. “You were afraid I’d lose control?”
“Yes!” Fury lined her face. “Dammit. Yes! You made sense at first. I saw the wisdom in letting you take some time to understand who and what you were dealing with. And you were right. If you’d just attacked and taken Yeager out the way I wanted, maybe you wouldn’t know about his son. Because he has to die too. His entire line.”
My fire burst to the surface, raising my scales and making my vision turn red hot. If I’d had any doubt about Avelina’s reaction, she’d just confirmed it. If she knew about Ash, she’d want her dead too.
“You’ve done well,” Avelina said, dropping her voice. She put a hand on my chest in an attempt to calm me. “We can take it from here.”
“What?”
She shared a glance with Xander. My blood turned to lava as I realized what they were really doing here. They weren’t just checking in. They’d come with a plan. She’d brought Xander to finish the job. She would have him kill Ash’s father and brother. God. She’d have him kill Ash.
“No!” I roared. I ripped myself away from my mother’s touch. Xander sensed the change in me and his eyes darkened. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. But, at that moment, I felt as if my mother and brother were my enemies.
“Loch, listen to yourself,” Xander said. “You’re getting worse. I don’t want to say it. You know I don’t. But we made a pact with each other. Remember?”
I did. Damn him to hell, I did. Before he found a mate, Xander suffered like I did. There was only one end for a dragon with mating sickness. Little by little, we would lose control of the beast inside of all of us until finally all traces of the man were gone. We had vowed never to let any of us get that far. The only thing strong enough to fight off a dragon, was another dragon. Or four. We swore we would kill any one of us who was too far gone.
“Don’t test me, brother,” I said through gritted teeth. I knew what Xander saw. My eyes were no longer brown. They were red fire and I felt scales over my shoulders.
“That’s exactly why I’m here,” Xander said, getting in my face. He was testing me. He wanted to see how far I’d go. How long it would take me to pull myself back together.
“Give us a minute,” Xander said over his shoulder to Avelina. He didn’t want our mother to see what he was about to do.
“Enough!” she said. “There’s no time for this. We end this tonight. We do what we came here to do. Then Loch, you come back with us. Not to Chicago. We’ll fly to Knoydart. You could use the vacation.”
Knoydart was our ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands. For thousands of years, dragons of the House of Brandhart were born in the fires of the hidden volcano. It restored us. Soothed us. But, right now, I wanted nothing to do with it.
“You go,” I said. “I’ll finish what I started here. You’ve both wasted a trip.”
“Have we?” Xander said, still pushing. He was daring me to shift. He let his own dragon out just enough for me to feel his fire.
“Yes.” The word came out as a hiss. I hated him for this, even as I knew I’d done it to him countless times over the decades. Ever since the first one of us began to show symptoms, we played this deadly game. Who could hold their dragon back
the longest? Who could shift the fastest? Who could get themselves under control?
“This is what is happening today,” Avelina said. “We’ll do it together. It’s a risk to have the three of us flying around with so many shifters here. Even cloaked they’ll sense something. So, we’ll be fast as lightning. Fire is enough to do it. We’ll turn the Yeagers to ash.”
A roar ripped from me. My dragon burst forth. For a few seconds, I was gone. I tasted blood. Xander’s blood. One word pulsed through my brain.
Ash. Ash. Ash.
Her face wavered in my vision. She was mine. I would protect her. I would let no harm come to her even if it was from the people I loved. Forget my oath. Forget my name. I would put her life before mine.
Xander shifted, his wings rising high. He landed one glancing blow across my body. I tumbled backward then righted myself, digging my talons into the ground. The earth shook. Those in town would think it was an earthquake. I tore through the forest, dragging trees with me.
Xander pounced on me. I kicked up and threw him off. End over end we went, cutting through the forest floor. Xander’s words blasted into my thoughts.
Get a hold of yourself or I’ll end you.
I closed my mind to him. I couldn’t let him see. Ash was everywhere. He would know. I would not betray her, not even to my brother.
Mine!
Xander’s eyes widened as he heard the word I spoke. Of course he recognized it. He understood it. It had to have been the same for him when he first found Shae. But, those were rational thoughts. Logic had no place here. My mate’s life was at stake.
My mate. Ash was my mate. I’d known it from the second I saw her in that diner in town. But even now, I tried to will the thoughts away. I could not betray her. The only way to keep her safe was to deny she even existed for now.
Xander seized an advantage and landed another punch to my gut. I doubled over, gasping for air. From the corner of my eye, I saw Avelina standing at the top of a hill. Her hair blew back as she watched her sons skirmish.