Two glowing orbs watched her from the darkest part of the water. Her beast growled, standing its ground. Jude’s mind couldn’t make out what it was she was looking at, even if her beast had an idea. There was no way it could be true. This was impossible.
Yet, she knew that dragon shifters could live beneath the ground. If metallic and crystal scaled dragons could return to the earth, then why couldn’t a dragon live beneath the water? The only question, then, was why the dragon kept to the water.
Wake me.
Release me.
The orbs blinked.
Her chest burned, but she felt the pull. The dragon summoned her, claws in her mind. The gold dragon inside her lashed out. It snarled and yanked the claws from her mind.
Breathe, her dragon told her. Head to the surface and breathe.
Remembering herself, she frog kicked against the water. The summer sun danced above the water’s surface. It was a shifting coin of light that led her up toward the air. She broke into the air and swallowed a fresh breath. Below, she could feel the beckoning dragon. It was like seaweed tangled between her feet, trying to pull her back down.
She let her beast remain near the surface, afraid that if she allowed it to sink back, then she would lose the fight against the thing in the water. It wanted something she wasn’t sure she could give, yet it asked anyway. It would use her up and then move on to the next person, asking over and over again to be set free.
“Jude!” Cole’s voice cracked.
She grabbed the nearest rock, her fingers slipping. Feet splashed into the water along the rocks. Hands grabbed her and pulled her from the water. She coughed, her lungs on fire from how long she’d held her breath. When she looked up to the sky above, she saw that the sun had moved from where it’d been when she started her ascent.
The air cooled her skin, but that wasn’t the reason for her goosebumps. She found Cole’s hand and held it tight. He didn’t squeeze, but instead gripped either side of her face and forced her to look at him. His features were twisted with horrified concern. The way his eyes scanned her face settled the fear still swimming in her heart.
She looked back, his hands falling away. “I don’t remember swimming to the shore.”
Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but Cole heard.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he responded, like that answered why she couldn’t remember swimming to the shore. Or the time that had been lost as the sun moved across the sky.
“Of course, a gold dragon would be the one he would call,” Cole said with bitterness in his voice. His hands never left her, like he wanted to know she wouldn’t disappear again. “And I shouldn’t be surprised that you couldn’t be taken by him. He tried, but you survived.”
She looked up at him. Her jaw clenched. It was time for answers. He seemed to understand what the look meant because he nodded and led her toward his cabin. Asher stumbled out the door, another beer can in his grip. He opened his mouth, but Cole’s snarl was enough to shut him up.
“Head over to my cabin for now,” Jude commanded. She was too tired to care that she was giving orders to a dragon that didn’t belong to her.
Asher didn’t seem to mind. He nodded and robotically walked toward her cabin. Only when the door shut behind her did she realize that the power in her voice forced Asher to move. Cole noticed, too. He looked at her, then out the window where they could see a very confused Asher on her porch.
“Well, that explains why Alistair can’t use you. Fucking gold dragons, man.”
Jude snorted. “We tried that earlier. Didn’t get past dry humping.”
He scowled at her. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Before she could find anything snarky to say, he disappeared. There was a bit of thumping from the back bedroom before Cole returned with a t-shirt. It was threadbare and potentially see-through, but she shrugged off her wet clothes anyway. Cole hesitated a moment, still gripping the shirt in his hands.
She thought he would make her stand there naked, but he yanked his shirt over his head and handed it to her, tugging the thinner shirt over his head to replace the one he’d just given her. The thicker shirt chased away the chill of the lake’s deep waters, Cole’s warmth and scent wrapping around her.
She would have teased him if she wasn’t so exhausted.
Cole set about making her a cup of coffee while she sat in one of the kitchen chairs.
“Tell me what you meant about gold dragons. Why are my scales important?”
Cole turned to reveal the small smile he’d been hiding. She didn’t know what he could have to smile about right then. The warmth of his shirt was quickly fading, and she was close to shivering. The cold just wouldn’t leave her. It clung to her bones like she’d never left the water.
For a second, she worried that this was all a hallucination, and that she was still beneath the water with whatever lived down there. Then, Cole spoke.
“You were meant to lead clans, Jude. My dragon might be physically strong, but your force of will is on a whole other level. I suspect it’s why you’re so damn stubborn. As a gold dragon, you’re a born leader. There isn’t much that can overpower you.”
It didn’t feel that way. She felt like her mind was still slightly addled by the presence in the water. “You called it Alistair. What is it? A demon? Some sort of eldritch horror?”
He let out a sigh and shook his head. Grabbing the coffee carafe behind him, he set it before her with a mug and a half-gallon of milk. “Alistair is a shifter, just like you and me.”
She was stunned. The power she’d felt belonged to a shifter. It couldn’t be just that, but she poured milk into her coffee and let Cole go on.
“Alistair was our leader. He brought us together and made us a family. When he couldn’t find work, he made a business for us so that we’d never be out of a job. This lake shore was our home, our territory, and our source of income all in one.
“But Alistair was already an old dragon. Sometimes, I think he might be an immortal. As strange as that sounds, there are stories of dragons who live forever beneath the earth. I think some of your relatives have done something similar?”
Jude nodded, remembering her grandfather.
Cole let loose a long-suffering sigh. He shifted from foot to foot. Several times, he tried to start talking, choked on his words, and had to take a moment before starting again. Jude saw the way his eyes were distant, as if watching something other than the kitchen. Only when he looked to her did he return to the present.
“Time turned Alistair into a good actor, but it also rattled something loose in his mind. He charmed us into believing the best of him. He lied to us and made us think the same way he did. The lies started small. We didn’t know what he was doing until he asked us to burn the next town over.
“When we all came to our senses and said no, that we wouldn’t help him terrorize the world, he turned on us. We were just a bunch of kids back then. Saving the world from a maniac dragon shifter shouldn’t have been our job, but it was.”
Jude shuddered. The chill was still needling her bones. When Cole stopped talking, she heard the whispers summoning her. Like a million little hands all grabbing for her at once, the pull felt inescapable. No matter what she did, the whispers would not stop.
“Alistair wanted you to burn the nearby town? Why?”
Cole turned his gaze to the ceiling and swallowed. “Because he thought he could take the world one town at a time. The time of humanity was over for him. Humans had squandered what they’d been given, and, in his eyes, it was time for a shifter to rule. Specifically, a dragon shifter, for what else was strong enough to reign over a whole world?”
Jude snorted. “He sounds like a gold dragon.”
“Nah, gold dragons have a noble streak a mile wide.”
“You’ve clearly never met my cousin. Jasper is a beast through and through. My male cousins had to band together and ground him before he blew everyone’s secret. Turn
s out he’d been looking for his mate, but it still took five grown metallic dragons to keep that boy in the mountains.”
She was trying to make light of the situation, but the truth hung heavy between them. There was a megalomaniac resting at the bottom of the lake and Cole was the sentinel, ever watching.
“If Alistair wanted to take over the world, then why is he burrowed in the lake?”
“Oh, he’s not burrowing. Alistair was bound by a witch’s spell. He’s trapped there until a mate comes along and frees him. That, or, Sybil dies, and her spell goes with her. We’re not sure what will happen without her.” Cole paused, his eyes piercing through her. “You should drink your coffee before it goes cold.”
Jude had forgotten about her coffee. Thankfully, the cup was still warm. When she brought it to her lips, the hot liquid slithered through her body and chased away the chill that was still trying to hold her.
The dragon trapped in the lake was trying to call to her because she was a potential mate. Bile rose and burned the back of Jude’s throat. She didn’t want to be bound to a crazed dragon, especially not one who was looking to destroy everything she knew.
It wasn’t anyone’s place to rule the world. While the world might not be perfect, it was humanly imperfect. It was home for so many, a place where people of all sorts could grasp their dreams. Jude didn’t want to be a part of breaking that.
She rubbed her face, tired and confused and all sorts of scared. Her beast pushed toward the surface. While it was there, the whispers grew distant. It felt like Jude could breathe for once. She thanked her indomitable dragon. It told her that there was no way they could be the mate of a dragon like that.
Not because Jude and her beast refused him, but because a mate had already been found. Jude scowled at her beast’s cryptic message. First, it told her that this was home. Now, it was trying to tell her that their mate was here. Jude couldn’t deal with this kind of upheaval.
She stood, intending to go back to her own cabin, when she remembered sending Asher over there. Cringing, she apologized for giving Cole’s fellow dragon shifter a command.
Cole shrugged. “I’m not his king.”
Oh, right. They have no king.
Jude turned to look at the water outside the window. Her beast growled. The creature in the lake was crouching on her territory. Her beast wanted the dragon gone, but there was no way to do that other than breaking the spell. And breaking the spell would mean that she was bound to the beast. That was the last thing Jude wanted.
“How long have you lived between a rock and a hard place?” She was breathless, feeling the pressure of her beast’s claim on this land and the danger lurking in the water.
“Ten years,” Cole responded. “Ten really fucking lonely years.”
Her laugh was bitter. “That explains why we dry humped in my cabin.”
“Jude,” he breathed, voice reproaching. “That was…”
She could finish that sentence for him. That was a mistake. That was an accident. That was the worst decision of his life.
Jude wished she could say she understood, but she didn’t. The moment they’d shared had been life changing for her. With Cole atop her, she’d felt like she could make a life of her own. One where she had a home and a family who would never ask her to leave. There was a future where her beast was sated.
Where Jude was happy.
“I’m going to go kick Asher out of my cabin,” she told Cole on her way out. “Don’t worry about me. I will stay far, far away from the lake.”
12
Cole spent the night on his porch, watching over Alistair’s prison. The old dragon was calling Jude and it left a sour taste in Cole’s mouth. He wasn’t going to let Alistair ruin anything else in this world. Especially not Jude.
For once, Cole didn’t care about the rest of the world. There was nothing more important than the woman sleeping next door. Seeing her panic when she realized she’d lost hours of the day had cut Cole in half. He didn’t know what was going on with this woman and the way she made him feel, but no matter what he would keep her safe from the monster in the lake.
“You’re ignoring your own needs,” a raspy female voice said in the dark.
Cole groaned. “I didn’t ask for you to read my fortune, Sybil.”
She laughed, appearing in the glow of his porch lantern. In her hands was a thermos. When she opened it, the scent of honey, tea, and bourbon filled the air. She took a long drag from it and replaced the cap without offering him any. A potion, he thought. Or a hot toddy.
Sybil slowly eased herself into the chair beside him. “You’re thinking about that beast again.” She pressed a bony fingertip into his shoulder. “You should be thinking about that beast, the one inside you. It has needs and sitting here all alone isn’t going to fulfill any of them. Not when there’s a hot dragon girl right next door.”
“She’s a woman. Not a girl.”
Sybil shrugged. “At my age, she’s a girl by comparison. I meant what I said, though. Go talk to her. Romance her, if you even know how.”
Cole growled. “You did not lease that cabin to her just to play matchmaker with me. Tell me you didn’t.”
“I leased it because other dragon communities are worried about you and your family. Letting Jude into your world wasn’t a threat, but a message that you’re not alone.”
He hated Sybil. Mostly because she was right. The woman was ageless and jam packed with wisdom beyond his years. Where he saw threats, she always saw opportunities. She saw the larger picture. But there was one piece she was missing.
“There’s a possibility that Jude is Alistair’s mate. He’s calling her. I…” The words hurt to speak. “I shouldn’t be surprised. She’s strong enough for him.”
“Al is just begging everyone with a vagina to let him out. If you think that Jude was meant for that old fool, then you’re a bigger moron than I thought.”
Insufferable. The woman was insufferable. Before he could tell her so, she changed the subject and asked where Asher had gotten to. The young shifter was using his televised fame to hump his way through town. Cole felt sorry for the women who would fall for the dimple in Asher’s cheek and the lies his body could tell.
At least he wasn’t bringing any of them back to the cabins. Cole might have imploded if his friend brought women here. For a decade, Cole had kept people away from this shore. Now, there were too many people. There was a dragon woman who could be the key to a spell Cole didn’t want broken.
Just the thought of seeing her in Alistair’s arms filled Cole with anger. His blood boiled. Smoke spilled from his nose as he glared at the water and the dragon trapped below.
Sybil finished off whatever was in her thermos, wished him a good night, and vanished into the darkness again. Finally alone the way he wanted to be, Cole leaned back in his seat. Sleep claimed him. It couldn’t have been for more than a few moments. At least, that was the way it felt.
When his eyes cracked open, a figure stood on the lake shore. Feminine and completely still, the figure captured Cole’s attention. His heart rocketed into his throat. He tried to get up, but his body felt glued to the chair beneath him.
A great wave rose and crashed over the woman’s head. Cole howled, finally breaking free of his seat. By the time his feet touched the grass, the woman was gone. Nothing was left where she stood.
Panicked, he raced to Jude’s cabin. If she was in there, then he would know it wasn’t her. He slammed his fist on the door. The whole cabin rattled from his urgency. He would break it down, just to know Jude was there.
The door flew open. A very angry woman with gold eyes glared up at him. His heart settled, his lungs sucking in air. He wanted to collapse at her feet. His relief left him shaky, a feeling he had never known before.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Cole looked back to where the female form had been. He couldn’t explain what he’d seen. His heart had known it was Jude standing there. But, she was before him
. Angry and ready to snap his neck.
His brow furrowed. “I think I had a nightmare.”
“And that brought you…to me?” The skepticism in her voice was clear, but there was something else there. He thought he heard a touch of concern.
“Are you…Are you wearing my shirt still?”
Jude was staring up at the man she’d run out on earlier that day, and her face was growing hot with embarrassment. Telling herself that he had planned to run, and she’d just beat him to it didn’t lessen her embarrassment. She definitely wasn’t going to tell him that her beast had kept her from taking the shirt off. Before bed, she’d tried to change into a cute sleep set. Just in case something just like this happened, not that she actually thought it would happen.
But when she gripped the hem of her shirt, intending to pull it over her head, the beast had stopped her. It’d growled ferociously and demanded that she keep it on. Cole’s scent had mingled with hers and it comforted the beast. Hell, it comforted Jude after the day she’d had.
“This isn’t all that different from what I’d normally wear,” was all she could say.
The corner of Cole’s mouth quirked. He clearly didn’t believe her. His hands were on either side of the door frame, letting him lean toward her like he wanted inside, but didn’t know how to ask. Jude was tempted to grab him by the front of his shirt and drag him in. Maybe they could finish what they’d started earlier that day.
Was it still the same day?
She glanced back to the clock on the stove. It was certainly not the same day anymore. Midnight had rolled past several hours ago, making it the wee hours of the morning.
“If you aren’t going anywhere, you might as well come inside.”
She saw the relief that washed over Cole. He offered a warm smile, but she could see that there was still something swimming in his eyes. Concern? Fear? She didn’t know what it was, only that it’d brought him to her doorstep.
Jude paused. “What was your nightmare about?”
Cole Page 7