by Chant, Zoe
“I’ve got a lake as well,” Damon said promptly, giving her a grin. “With swans.”
“Very impressive.” Autumn had to bite back a laugh.
“Impressive enough to make you consider life in a shifter town?” Damon said hopefully.
Autumn gave him a look of playful consideration. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the town yet, have I? If you think you’re getting out of introducing me to everyone just because you’ve got a lake...”
“The town it is.” Damon bowed gallantly, like someone in an old movie, before he held out his hand. “Will you do me the honor of accompanying me?”
“With pleasure,” Autumn said, then grinned when he used her hand to pull her against his chest. “And no trying to distract me again. We’ve been flying for hours, I need to stretch my legs. And I was promised a crocodile doctor...”
“The doctor it is.” Damon gave her an amused look. “Let’s see if she’s in. It’s not like she’s got a ton of work to do, thanks to shifter healing. But it’s good to have a doctor around who won’t bat an eye if a broken arm heals overnight.”
“Is that what happens when you learn to fly?” Autumn asked curiously.
Damon shook his head. “It’s what happens after you learn to fly. Nothing worse than a teenager with wings.”
“I can imagine.”
Was that what it was like to raise kids with wings? They would probably be twice the usual trouble. On the other hand, Damon had come out pretty well...
She nudged his shoulder, and he began to lead them out of the maze, heading not towards the mansion, but down the small road that led towards the town.
It was a beautiful walk. Birds were singing, the sun was shining down on them, and Autumn couldn’t take her eyes off all the animals they encountered on their walk. It took them ten minutes to reach the first house, and during this time they’d seen several birds, a family of squirrels, a mouse hiding beneath a bush from them, and an actual otter lazily drifting in the creek that followed the road for a while.
“Only the hawk and the otter,” Damon said at her questioning look. “Hey, Jake!” He raised a hand to wave to the otter, who lazily waved back with a wet paw.
Trees lined the little alley they were walking along now—large chestnut trees with huge leaves that shaded them from the sun. No one seemed to be at home in the first house, but the second house they passed, which was surrounded by a wall of smooth stones in a pattern of white and gray, had a wrought iron gate.
It opened as they walked past, and a small pack of lions spilled out. Four small lion cubs came excitedly racing past them, playfully roaring as they circled their feet while Damon laughed.
Then someone roared from inside the garden—it was the deep voice of a grown, male lion—and the lion cubs obediently raced back in, but not without circling their legs one last time, tiny lion tails raised high.
Breathless from laughter, Autumn held on to Damon’s arm as they continued walking.
“Now that’s more like what I expected a shifter town would be like.”
“It’s a good place for kids,” Damon said. “Even if you’re the only dragon. You wouldn’t believe the things I got up to with the bear twins and Jenny the falcon.”
“I well remember that,” a gruff voice said from somewhere to their right.
When Autumn turned, she saw a woman sitting on a bench beneath one of the chestnut trees, her hair a steely gray, and gathered at the back of her head in a tight bun. She looked to be at least in her seventies, although there was a shrewd focus in her eyes.
Autumn found herself involuntarily straightening as the woman looked her up and down.
“At least we didn’t give you many broken bones to set,” Damon said with a smile. “I learned from that one time a gust of wind blew me straight against the cliff, didn’t I?”
“You were always the most sensible of the bunch,” the woman admitted, her mouth unsmiling. “But that doesn’t mean much. Mammals, you expect silliness. Dragons, now—those I hold to a higher standard.”
Damon laughed and stepped forward to shake her hand. “It’s good to be back home. This is our doctor and only resident crocodile shifter, Irina Bruckner. And this is Autumn Carter—my mate.”
Now, at last, the crocodile shifter’s mouth twitched. As Autumn shook her hand, she found herself faced with a somewhat unsettling but very satisfied smile that seemed to show too many teeth.
“I knew it,” Irina said. “From the moment I saw you come down the road. Well, that’s that, then. It was about time, boy. It’ll be good to have a real alpha dragon around again. Not that there’s any danger of trouble here, but I like for things to be in order. Told your dad I wasn’t retiring until I’d delivered his grandkids, ha.”
Then she turned to Autumn again, staring at her with those unsettling, pale eyes that seemed as hard and unyielding as metal.
Is she trying to scare me? Perhaps she’s just testing me...
Autumn forced herself to look away from the toothy smile, meeting those sharp eyes without flinching.
My mom might not be a doctor, but she was a head nurse. That sort of look doesn’t scare me, she thought. If there’s one thing I learned from Mom, it’s not to be intimidated by people like you.
A moment later, the crocodile shifter gave her another reluctant smile, her lips pulling back again to reveal her teeth—even though the toothy smile suddenly seemed less scary.
“We’ll get along just fine,” the old woman declared, grabbing Autumn’s hand in a grip that was surprisingly strong.
Autumn looked at her with new respect. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so strange to imagine the seventy-year-old woman setting broken bones and dislocated shoulders.
“I think we will,” Autumn agreed, smiling back. “Good to meet you.”
“You should head to the town square,” Irina said. “Rumor has it that the rhododendron’s in bloom a few weeks early this year. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”
Damon laughed. “The ways of nature are mysterious...”
“Mysterious, my ass,” the doctor snorted.
Damon laughed in reply. “But you’re right. It seems we’ll have an early festival this year. I’m counting on your cocktail stand, doctor.”
“Humph,” the doctor said. “Better go and give the sheriff some warning then. You know how those folks get when the festival’s coming up. There’ll be fighting about who gets to bake the cake, you mark my word.”
“Not this year,” Damon said firmly. “This year, we’ll all be on our best behavior to impress my mate.”
“Doesn’t look like that’ll take much,” the woman muttered as she looked at Autumn.
Autumn grinned back, unimpressed. “After crossing the ocean on dragon back, I’m pretty sure I can take anything you people throw my way. Unless it’s spiders,” she added after a moment, shuddering. “You don’t have spider shifters, do you?”
“No spider shifters, I promise,” Damon said promptly.
Autumn sighed in relief. She could live with crocodile shifters taking a dip in their lake, if she had to—but spiders was where she drew a line.
“Wonderful. Then let's go and try to stop that brewing cake war of yours.”
Chapter Twelve: Damon
True to the doctor’s words, there was already a small crowd gathered in the square. Even Jake, who’d drifted lazily past them in the river earlier, had shifted back into human form and put on dry clothes. The family of lion shifters had come; Damon’s childhood friend Jenny was there with her falcon shifter husband and their two daughters; the large clan of bears who’d built their houses at the edge of the forest; and everyone else who’d settled in Dragon Springs, from the dormouse baker to the giraffe florist.
It was a strange mix of shifters who’d come to live here, but all of them had been attracted by the peace and stability which could be found in communities that grew under the dragon’s peace. With a powerful dragon in residence, even cats and dogs
could live in peace, and there was little work to do for the sheriff.
Now, all the gathered families and friends were curiously staring at him—or rather, everyone was staring at Autumn.
Damon smiled proudly. He couldn't wait to introduce Autumn to his parents, who were due for a visit soon anyway—but this little shifter community was family as well.
“Hey uncle Damon, is it true the garden is in bloom?” one of the precocious falcon girls shouted excitedly.
Damon grinned at her, even as Jenny tried to hush the black-haired girl.
“The rhododendron’s in bloom,” he announced. “And as is tradition, I’d like to invite you all to come over to the gardens this Sunday. I’ll take care of the wine and meat. Sheriff, I hope you’ll do us the honor of manning the barbecue?”
“Of course,” the grizzled dog-shifter said, giving him a look that clearly expressed that anything else would be an insult.
“Is she going to come live with us?” a small boy demanded, a huge grin on his face. “Grandma says we’ll have a dragon wedding! And there’ll be cake!”
“Not so fast,” Damon said, smiling at the tiny, excited lion shifter cub. “Let’s show her our town from its best side first, shall we? And there’ll be cake this Sunday, I promise.”
“I’ll bring the cake,” Cynthia, the gray-haired bear shifter, immediately proclaimed.
From the other side of the square, tiny, curvy Melissa with her braided, red hair immediately pushed forward from behind her clan of fox shifters.
“Oh no, you won’t!” she said belligerently. “It’s my turn this year.”
“I’ll make the cake,” Autumn quickly offered.
When Damon turned around to give her a surprised look, he found that Autumn looked nearly as surprised by her hasty offer.
“Why not? I’d like to help out, too,” she continued after a moment. “If you’ll let me use your kitchen, of course.”
“I’d love that,” Damon said, warmth welling up in him.
When he was a tiny dragonet, his grandma had let him and his friends help her bake the grandiose cakes she came up with for the festival each year.
Of course, helping mainly meant that they got to taste-test the dough and got sticky fingerprints all over the counters—but his grandma had never minded. She’d never been a woman who liked silence. Even with a group of four excited children dusting each other’s hair with flour, she’d never lost her smile or her calm.
And her cakes had been quite something—different layers in all the colors of the rainbow, decorated with flowers she’d made of frosting and marzipan.
“Then that’s decided,” Autumn said hurriedly, before either bear or fox shifter could protest.
“Humph,” Cynthia, the matriarch of the bear clan, said. “I’ll bring a salad, then.”
“I’ll bring a salad,” Melissa the fox shifter said, narrowing her eyes.
“Wonderful!” Damon said quickly, before another argument could break out. “We can never have too many salads. Now, where’d the sheriff get to?”
It seemed the sheriff had wisely decided to step away from the cake rivalry. Instead, he’d made his way over to where Jake the otter stood with his clan, and that was where Damon and Autumn now joined him.
“I’d like a word with you later, sheriff, if you’ve got time?”
The dog shifter nodded, turning seriously. “Of course, boss.”
“Congratulations,” Jake said and boxed Damon’s arm. “It’s really about time. We were starting to wonder whether we’d end up without a dragon in this town.”
“I always knew he’d find a mate in his own time,” Clara, Jake’s wife, calmly offered. “It happens when it happens. Can’t speed it up—or you’ll end up like me.”
She winked at Autumn while Jake gave her a look of mock outrage.
“I’ll have you know that I bring my wife a nice, fresh fish right into bed every morning,” Jake said.
Autumn began to giggle.
“Yeah, imagine waking up to that first thing in the morning.” Clara crossed her arms as she looked at Autumn, shaking her head.
Then, a moment later, Clara giggled too. “Of course, he knows that it’s my favorite breakfast.”
“Otters,” Damon sighed, although he couldn’t suppress the smile tugging at his own lips.
He was filled by an overwhelming happiness all of a sudden. Not only was he finally back home, where no fire dragons would be able to harm his mate, but he was surrounded by the people who were as close as family to him.
And now, at last, he’d no longer feel like an outsider while he watched everyone in his small town grow up and find their mate.
It took half an hour until they’d made the rounds and he’d introduced Autumn to everyone. At last, he left her with Melissa and her brood. The fox kits, who’d never left the shifter town, were bombarding her with questions about what it was like to cross the ocean on dragon back.
“In here?” the sheriff asked, nodding at his house which stood in a corner of the square. “Or the office?”
“In here’s fine,” Damon said. “Shouldn’t take too long.”
The sheriff had some coffee brewing, and a moment later, they were both leaning against his kitchen counter, steaming cups in hand as they looked out at the gathering of shifters in the square.
“What’s wrong, boss?” the sheriff asked. “I can see something’s up.”
The discovery of fire dragons was council business, and the chimera hadn’t wanted to cause a panic, so news hadn’t spread yet. Still—when the storm dragon had found his mate, one of the fire dragons had trailed him all the way to his home.
Of course, the same fire dragon was now safely behind bars at Sky Home, the seat of the council of elements. And there was no way the fire dragons could have followed Damon across the ocean. Not this quickly, a least, and probably also not without being noticed. Still...
“I’ve got a favor to ask,” Damon said.
The sheriff gave him a curious look.
“This is officially council business, and I’m not supposed to tell you. But when I was in Iceland—I was hunting for fire dragons.”
Shocked, the sheriff drew in air through his teeth. “But all fire dragons are dead.”
Damon laughed bitterly. “So we thought. It seems they’ve lived underground since the Middle Ages. And now they have returned. They found me and Autumn. They attacked several times. That’s why I flew her here.”
“Does the council know—no, of course they know,” the sheriff murmured. “Are we in danger?”
Damon shook his head. “The council’s out in Iceland now. That should keep those fire-breathers busy. But just in case, keep an eye out for anything strange. And if a dragon should approach, treat them like an enemy until you can see who it is.”
“Understood,” the sheriff said, his eyes narrowing as he seemed to mull over Damon’s words.
“I’ll fly out every morning and evening,” Damon said. “Just circling the valley, testing the breeze. That is, if the council doesn’t call me back. They landed in Iceland hours ago and were planning to pretty much stay in their dragon form for a week, flying up and down the entire country until one of those cowards dares to show his face.”
“Better them than me,” the dog shifter murmured dryly. “Can’t say I’d look forward to facing off with a dragon. Let’s see. We’ve got the falcons, the eagles, that new vulture boy who hasn’t found a mate yet—and our turtle doves, which I’d hesitate to send out against a dragon.”
“And you’ve got me,” Damon said firmly. “This is dragon land. You know I’d protect you with my life. I don’t want any of you to get into a fight with a dragon, understood? Keep your eyes open, and if there’s even the smallest sign of a fire dragon approaching, evacuate. He’s not after you, anyway. They’re after the council—and they don’t care if anyone else gets hurt in that fight.”
“Okay,” the sheriff said, grimacing as he swallowed what was left in his cup
. “Not the good news I was hoping for—but I guess it could be worse.”
“It can always be worse.”
They shared a small smile. They’d always gotten along well—the grizzled dog shifter was a stickler for rules, but loyal and fair, and just as protective of the small town as Damon was.
“We got the town through that hurricane five years ago,” Damon said, “when we were without power for a week, remember? We’ll weather this, too.”
The sheriff knocked on wood. “Was hoping for more dragons in this town,” he said, “but more the tiny ones. Little earth dragons. Think we can expect that anytime soon?”
Damon looked out of the window, where Autumn was laughing helplessly as one of the tiny fox kits clambered up her shoulder, curiously nosing at her hair.
“I hope so,” he said softly. “With all my heart.”
Chapter Thirteen: Autumn
The town was incredible. It looked like any other small town, nestled between green hills—but nearly everyone Autumn had talked to that day had been a shifter. She’d thought that dragons were a lot to take in, but that was before she’d seen a toddler repeated shift back and forth between his human form and a tiny, furry fox kit.
Everyone here seemed so at ease with being a shifter that Autumn couldn’t help but be charmed. It was a town unlike anything she’d ever seen. Still, the people were happy and welcoming, and just as curious about her as she was about shifter life.
Of course, the one question everyone seemed most eager about was whether she’d stay—and whether she and Damon would get married.
Mated, she reminded herself.
It had all seemed so easy when she’d been alone with Damon—but having so many strangers interested in her all of a sudden was quite intimidating. Not that there was anything wrong with it.
She’d immediately felt right at home chatting to Melissa, the fox shifter with her brood of fox kits. But she’d also made certain to go over to the bear shifter afterward, who’d been noticeably cooler, but had quickly warmed up when Autumn asked her about what sort of cakes Damon’s grandma used to make.