Resisting the Dragon (Dragon Shores Book 2)

by Rinelle Grey

  “But Calrian being here isn’t an excuse to not get your homework done,” Rylee scolded gently. “Go and get it out of the way, then you can chat with him about being a dragon.” She was smiling though, her love for her son evident in her eyes.

  Rowan grumbled a bit, but headed into his room, presumably to do his homework, whatever that was.

  Leaving Calrian and Rylee alone. She stared at him for a moment, twisting the book she still held in her hands.

  Calrian cleared his throat. “Well, that didn’t go too badly…”

  Rylee nodded. “So far.” She was quiet for a moment, then said, “I have some more housework to do, and I need to get dinner on. Are you all right while I do that?”

  Was he going to stay out of her private stuff, Calrian assumed she meant. He had every intention of doing so, even if he wasn’t quite sure what was private and what wasn’t. But he just nodded.

  “You do whatever you need to do, I’ll just be here.”

  She nodded and disappeared without saying anything more, and Calrian sat down on the couch. He couldn’t help remembering sitting here with Rylee earlier, how her leg had brushed up against his.

  Desire flared at the thought, and Calrian dampened it as much as he could. Best not to think about that. Best not to think about her at all.

  Trouble was, he wasn’t sure what else to do. He would have loved to explore her home more, but he didn’t want to upset her again by inadvertently picking up something she’d prefer he didn’t. And he somehow suspected that she wouldn’t want him following her around. She seemed to want to get a little distance between them. And he didn’t blame her. This must all be very overwhelming to her.

  That was when he realised he still held the newspaper in his hands. She’d given that to him, so that meant it wasn’t private, right? Since he had nothing better to do, he opened it and began to read.

  He read one page then flicked through to the next, and then the next, growing more and more horrified by the minute. It seemed to be full of nothing but humans killing or hurting each other, battles being fought, and humans stealing from each other.

  Was this what humans were really like?

  It shouldn’t have surprised him. His clan had left England centuries ago to get away from the humans who were constantly trying to kill them. The stories in this newspaper fitted well with what his clan had always told him of humans.

  But they didn’t fit with what he’d seen since waking at all.

  Rylee was sweet and kind, and she’d helped him despite the cost to herself.

  Rowan had befriended him and brought him home, despite knowing nothing about him. Despite not even being able to understand what he was saying.

  He knew less about Rylee’s father, but he had been concerned for Rylee’s safety. Perhaps that meant the world was dangerous after all? But Rylee hadn’t seemed concerned.

  Overall, these facts were inconsistent with the stories in the newspaper.

  Calrian read on, frowning, wondering what this strange dichotomy meant.

  After a few pages, the stories changed. He read about businesses doing new and interesting things. Science discoveries that blew his mind. And people doing amazing things with inventions he’d never imagined. This was what he was looking for. This fitted with what he’d seen of humans since waking.

  And yet, it was all crammed onto two or three pages, not like the dozen or so before it filled with bad news. Strange. It was almost as if whoever wrote this ‘newspaper’ thought people wished to read about bad news.

  Calrian kept turning the pages, mystified.

  That was when he found it. A section in the paper that looked just like the book Rylee had snatched from him. The heading said, ‘Real Estate’. Whatever that meant. And again there were pictures of buildings with descriptions and numbers.

  Calrian stared at it, his heart thumping.

  Had Rylee been aware that there were pages like her book in this newspaper? Was this private too?

  But his curiosity wouldn’t be silenced. He stared at the page, trying to figure out what it meant, sure that if he could, it would help him understand more about Rylee.

  “You thinking of buying a house?” Rowan plopped down onto the couch next to him.

  Calrian lifted his eyes to the boy, not even trying to hide his confusion. “Buying a house?”

  “Yeah, that’s the real estate section,” Rowan said, pointing. He stared at Calrian for a moment, then grinned. “You have no idea what that means, do you?”

  “Something to do with… buying a house?” Calrian guessed. It made a kind of sense. He knew estate meant something to do with a house and land, but he had no idea how adding the word ‘real’ made it about selling.

  Rowan just might have the answers he needed, but he felt a bit bad asking outright when Rylee had been so upset earlier. But how was he supposed to avoid her private life when he didn’t even understand what it was?

  Rowan laughed. “Yeah. People advertise their houses in the real estate pages, and other people buy them.”

  Rowan’s answer didn’t clear things up any. Calrian still couldn’t see how that was private. He frowned. Perhaps he just needed to ask more questions.

  “What are these numbers?” he asked, pointing.

  “Those are the prices of the houses,” Rowan explained.

  Calrian nodded. Since he knew little about human money, they didn’t mean much to him. “Is that a lot?”

  Rowan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, it’s a lot,” he confirmed. He frowned, obviously trying to think of a comparison. “Um, I get five dollars a week pocket money. That buys me a bunch of lollies, or if I save up for a few weeks, I can get a toy.”

  That didn’t help either. Dragons had little use for numbers, certainly not for ones as large as this. It was hard for him to even conceive of the scale these numbers indicated.

  Rowan must have seen he was struggling, because he looked around the room searchingly. “Um, the TV cost about one hundred dollars, but mum bought it second hand.”

  “Second… hand?” Calrian had a grasp of the basics of the human language, but many of the words still stumped him. Especially when they put two words together in such strange combinations.

  “Yeah, from someone else who bought it new,” Rowan explained. “Same with the couch. It was only fifty dollars, but we had to borrow Grandad’s ute to get it home.”

  Calrian nodded. The numbers in the real estate pages were far larger than fifty. He knew that at least. “How much did this house cost?” he asked, waving his hands to indicate.

  “Oh, we don’t own the house,” Rowan said. “It belongs to Grandad. He said we could live here when Mum left Dad.”

  A frown came over the boy’s face, and Calrian suspected he’d asked too much. He could see that the conversation was as painful for Rowan as it had been for Rylee. “That was kind of your grandad,” he said carefully. He didn’t ask any more questions. He was beginning to see why Rylee considered this conversation private.

  Was she hoping to buy her own house? Did she have that much money?

  Calrian had no idea.

  “Yeah, it was nice of him,” Rowan said, but his voice didn’t sound convinced.

  Calrian stared at him, his head tilted to one side, not pushing, but hoping the boy would open up, maybe give him some of the answers he sought without pressure.

  Rowan sighed. “Mum doesn’t want to be here. She wants us to have our own place.” He smiled then, as if he was thinking of something pleasant. “She wants to buy a bed and breakfast near the beach. That’d be awesome, living near the beach.”

  The idea filled Calrian’s mind, making him smile too. He’d visited the ocean a few times when he was younger. The vast expanse of water and the teeming life underneath had always fascinated him. It was so much bigger, so much more alive than the small river near the clan’s lair. But since it had been several hours’ flight, he hadn’t been able to visit as much as he would have liked. “That sounds nice,” he
agreed. “I bet you can’t wait.”

  Rowan shrugged. “Mum needs to find a job first. Then she can save up some money.”

  Calrian nodded, the picture becoming clearer. She didn’t have the money to buy a house near the beach. She didn’t even have a job to get the money. He had no idea how much she would make at a job or how long it would take her, but he could guess that it must seem quite a long way away right now.

  That was the final piece of the puzzle he was looking for. The book with the houses represented her dream. One she wasn’t ready to share with anyone but her son.

  Certainly not with him. He was only an interloper, even though he couldn’t help wishing he could be something more. Her dream sounded wonderful. One Calrian almost wished he could share.

  Unfortunately, he had his own problems to deal with.

  Chapter 6

  “Dinner’s ready,” Rylee called out.

  She was both glad and nervous that Calrian and Rowan seemed to be getting on okay. Rowan’s easy friendliness with Calrian made her feel a little better about keeping her distance. It wasn’t that she disliked him, it was just… complicated… right now.

  Rowan though, had no such issues. She’d half heard her son telling Calrian all about the TV show he was watching, and had giggled to herself a couple of times at simple things that the dragon shifter didn’t seem to understand.

  Rowan seemed to find it amusing too.

  They both came in together, still talking.

  “But how can a car transform into a human?” Calrian asked.

  “They’re not humans, they’re robots,” Rowan explained patiently. “They’re cybernetic beings, machines, but they’re intelligent, like we are.”

  Calrian shook his head, as though he still didn’t understand. “But does your car have intelligence? Can it change into one of these… things?”

  Rowan shook his head. “No, of course not. It’s just an ordinary car. Like… like I’m just an ordinary human, but you can change into a dragon.”

  Calrian nodded seriously. “I can see the similarities. So the intelligent cars that can shift are elsewhere in your world?”

  Rowan giggled. “No, they’re just a made up story. They’re not real.”

  “But they looked real. They moved and talked as if they were real.” Calrian’s confusion was definitely real.

  Rylee took pity on him. “They draw and animate them. Like pages of a book moving really fast.”

  Calrian still looked perplexed, but he nodded as if he understood. “So I should take things on this… TV… with a grain of salt?”

  “Definitely.” Rylee nodded. “And right now, you should eat your dinner.”

  Neither Calrian nor Rowan argued with that. They sat down and started eating the spaghetti and meatballs with gusto. Rylee sat down too, and she couldn’t help comparing this to dinner with Eric. He’d always complained if Rowan talked with his mouth full. He’d complained if she’d done it too, if she was being honest. Dinners had been a mostly silent affair, with no one wanting to risk setting him off, and Rowan eager to be given permission to leave the table and return to his room.

  He certainly hadn’t been talking eagerly, shovelling his food in between sentences, as he was now.

  She smiled as she watched him, and couldn’t help thinking that this was how it was supposed to be. This was what she’d imagined when she and Eric had started out.

  She’d only known Calrian for a few days, but already she knew he was a far better man than her ex-husband had ever been. The thought caused her heart to do a little somersault.

  “After dinner, we can watch some more TV,” Rowan promised. “The soapies are on then though.” He made a face.

  “Soapies?” Calrian asked. “Is that something to do with bathing?”

  Rowan laughed. “No, they’re… like… shows about real people. Well, not real people. The things that happen are still pretend, but the actors are real, and they’re about things that could happen in real life.”

  “So people drive in real cars in this show?” Calrian asked.

  Rowan nodded and paused for a few moments while he chewed and swallowed another forkful of food. “Yeah,” he said eventually. “They meet each other and fight and talk and sometimes get married.”

  “Married?” Calrian raised an eyebrow, and for some reason he looked over at her.

  Rowan didn’t seem to notice and kept talking. “Yeah, married, like when two people fall in love and want to live together. Don’t dragons get married?”

  “We call it mating,” Calrian said.

  Rowan’s eyes grew a little rounded, and Rylee could almost see his focus shift from explaining TV to Calrian to being curious about his life as a dragon.

  She had to admit, she was curious too. Especially about this mating thing. She both wanted to know more and was afraid to ask. Not that the things she wanted to know were the type of things to discuss in front of her eleven-year-old son.

  But Rowan’s next question wasn’t the one she’d expected. “Do you have a mate?” he asked Calrian curiously.

  Even though Rylee was pretty sure he didn’t, the question caused her heart to skip a beat for a second.

  She felt an inordinate relief when Calrian shook his head. “I had not yet found a woman I wished to spend my life with before I went to sleep,” he said solemnly.

  Rowan nodded. “It must be hard to find someone you like enough to want to get married to.”

  Calrian nodded seriously. “It is.”

  Rowan started to eat another meatball, but froze with his fork halfway to his mouth. He looked from Calrian, to her, then back again, and Rylee could almost see the cogs turning.

  Maybe because her own thoughts were going that way too, no matter how hard she tried to tell them not to.

  “Does anyone want a drink of water?” she said, her voice a little too loud. She pushed back her chair and stood up.

  Her diversion worked. Rowan nodded and ate his meatball, and Calrian said, “Yes please.”

  Rylee headed to the fridge to get the cold water.

  Unfortunately, Rowan was only diverted for a short time. As Rylee poured water into the glasses, he said, “It would be cool if you and my mum fell in love and got married. Or mated, I guess. Can humans and dragons mate?”

  Rylee winced and kept pouring, not wanting the task to end. She actually wanted to know the answer to that question, even though she knew she shouldn’t, but she didn’t want to see Calrian’s expression as he answered. The silence behind her was deafening.

  When she turned around, Calrian was saying, “Yes, humans and dragons can mate, although it was very unusual in my time. While your mother is, indeed, a wonderful person,” he looked at her and smiled, then turned back to Rowan, “I have a job I have to do right now that takes precedence over everything else. I need to find my family. I can’t think about mates until I know they are safe.”

  Could Rylee hear a hint of regret in his voice?

  Why was she even thinking about this? It was irrelevant. She was keeping her distance either way. She knew nothing could happen between them. She’d made that clear before Calrian had even had to.

  And it wasn’t like she could blame Calrian for wanting to find his family. It made sense.

  Rowan was nodding too. “I understand,” he said. Then he leaned in closer to Calrian. “But just in case, when that’s done, my mum is awesome. I can put in a good word with her for you if you like. Having a dragon for a stepdad would be amazing.”

  Rylee’s heart gave a little squeeze. She knew, objectively, that even though Rowan didn’t miss Eric, he did miss having a father figure in his life. She’d seen him look longingly at other dads playing catch or having a barbeque with their kids in the park, though he pretended not to.

  But she refused to feel guilty about that. No father was far better than what he’d had with Eric. She had no doubt about that.

  Calrian’s eyes met hers, and she could see the sympathy and understanding in
them. Somehow, that made it worse.

  Rylee returned to the table and handed everyone a glass of water. “Eat up,” she told them, her voice falsely cheerful. “There’s ice cream for dessert, but only if you empty your plate.”

  “Oh, you’re going to love ice cream,” Rowan told Calrian.

  The moment passed, and he was onto talking about the next thing he wanted to show Calrian.

  Rylee just wished she could forget as easily.

  Chapter 7

  Rowan settled down to watch more TV after dinner, but even though Calrian suspected that the strange device could tell him a lot about humans, he only half listened as Rowan tried to explain the convoluted story on the ‘soapie’.

  Rylee was moving around in the kitchen, carrying the dishes from the table to the sink, and filling it with hot water.

  Calrian felt bad sitting around while she was working. Whatever she had been doing earlier, that had not been because of him. But he had eaten with her, helped make those dishes dirty. He couldn’t just leave her to deal with the mess alone.

  “I’m just going to go see if your mum needs help,” he told Rowan.

  For a moment, he thought the boy was going to protest. Then a mischievous gleam entered his eye. “Offer to dry the dishes for her,” he suggested. “She’ll like that.”

  Calrian suspected that his suggestion was motivated by the desire to see him mate with his mother. He could see that Rowan liked that idea, even though he wasn’t quite sure why.

  Calrian wasn’t completely averse to the idea. The truth was, the idea of settling down with Rylee held a lot of appeal. If he couldn’t find his clan, then he would need to find a place in this world. And being with Rylee, making a family with her and Rowan, that would be easy. Sweet and tempting.

  Calrian shook his head.

  He would find his clan. There was no point in thinking about what he would do if he couldn’t. That would be accepting defeat, and he refused to do that.

  But there was no denying that he had a good excuse to spend time with Rylee right now. He needed her help. That meant he could justify walking into the kitchen and saying, “Can I help?”