Cole

by Emilia Hartley

  Cole glared at his friend. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

  “Well, it’s certainly what I meant. That’s the kind of woman who could make us a clan again. Hell, she might even be able to make you a man again.”

  Cole stood, his chair rocking back from the force. Asher just grinned, a wolfish smile that he’d never worn before leaving the lake’s edge. Cole’s family had changed in the past decade. Asher might still be a mouthy shit, but now he had the muscle to back up his wise-cracking. And, perhaps, a hunger for the fight.

  “What if she doesn’t want me? Or you, or any of us?”

  Asher’s lips twisted to the side, pity gleaming in his eyes. Cole wanted to knock it off his face, but he knew they would wreck the inside of the cabin if they started fighting here. Maybe he could get Asher outside. Who would win? The out of practice Cole, or the man that fought in rings?

  He didn’t pick a fight. Not because he didn’t think it was worth it, but because he had better things to do. Someday, he and Asher would test their strengths against one another, but Cole had a potential relationship to rescue. There was no way he could let Jude get away. Not without trying his damnedest to win her over first.

  Next door, he found her looking at paint chips. She held up a pale pink, almost salmon paint chip before shaking her head and switching it for a light teal. Again, she shook her head and chucked it to the kitchenette table.

  That was when she noticed him standing in her doorway. “I really need to learn how to lock my door. Huh?”

  Cole shrugged. He liked that she didn’t lock her door. It made sneaking into her life easier. He hoped it was a sign that there was a chance for them, that the window to woo her wasn’t completely closed. He knew he’d messed up and that the window was now mostly closed, but there was a narrow gap he could slide through still.

  “You’re not going to pick a paint color today, so don’t waste your time. Come with me, instead. I have a day planned for us. All you have to do is say yes.”

  Jude didn’t look convinced. She touched the paint chips on the table again, quiet for a long time. Cole feared she was going to say no. His gut clenched as the moment dragged on.

  “Don’t you have work?” she asked.

  “Asher took lead today. I think he realized he had too much time on his hands and needed something to do.” Cole shoved his hands into his pockets to keep himself from reaching for Jude. He wanted to pull her into him and see her reaction. “Besides, it keeps him out of our hair for a while.”

  Jude raised a brow. It was a challenge and a question all rolled into one. He’d given off so many of the wrong signals lately. He wanted to blame his lack of socialization, but maybe he was just bad at this. All he could do was hope that this wouldn’t cost him perhaps the best thing that had ever happened in his life.

  “This outing,” Jude began, “is it like…a date?”

  “It’s exactly like a date.”

  Her smile was so bright and wide that he could barely look at her. She was blinging in her beauty, and Cole chose to sear the image of her into his eyes so that he might never forget this. She bounced away and disappeared into the bedroom. His brows furrowed and he opened his mouth to ask what she was doing, but thought better of it.

  Instead, he gave her whatever time she needed

  Jude panicked.

  She stared down at the clothes she’d packed and realized she hadn’t anticipated a date. She had nothing to wear that would work. Not a dress or a skirt in sight. No one had ever bothered to ask her out before. Sure, she went home with guys, but that was definitely different.

  Instead of going back out and asking what he had planned, Jude jumped into a pair of shorts and dug around in her suitcase for a shirt she was certain she’d packed. Panic rose and sharpened, a knife in her gut that twisted the longer it took to find the shirt. She could have worn one of the old cut-off muscle tanks, but that didn’t seem right.

  Nothing was right.

  She was a moment away from flipping the whole suitcase over and crying on the floor when she found the top. It was a black, off-the-shoulder summer top with a little ruffle around the neckline. The flowers on her shoulder peeked over the fabric, as if to say hello. Quickly, she tossed her hair into a high ponytail, her hair curling from the summer humidity. While she would have hated it any other time, she thought it gave her a playfulness today.

  The way Cole’s eyes stuck to her when she reappeared gave her butterflies. Jude was used to being strong and brash, but never pretty. Cole made her feel like she was capable of pretty, like she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen.

  “Are you ready?”

  She bit her bottom lip. Was she ready for this? Her beast screamed for Cole. If they took the truck anywhere, she was sure the beast would make her pounce on him. The cabin was too small. His scent permeated everything and drove her wild.

  “Uh, yeah. I think I’m ready.”

  Cole flashed a half-grin and extended his hand. A blush crept over her cheeks, but she took his outstretched hand and let him lead her out of the cabin. Next door, Asher stood on the front porch and flashed them two thumbs-up. Cole tossed a snarl in Asher’s direction, but it was useless.

  Asher was blind to intimidation techniques. He was either too strong or too dumb. Jude mused that he might be both.

  Cole led her to the truck, like she’d feared. Her heart thundered. She paused outside it, wondering if it was a good idea to put her horny beast in the cab with him. Knowing her luck, her beast would cause an accident.

  “So, where are we going?” she asked to prolong getting into the truck.

  “You’ll know when we get there.” He winked at her.

  “Take her to a fancy lunch! Bitches love fancy food!” Asher shouted from the porch.

  Cole rolled his eyes and got into the truck.

  “What is this place?” Jude asked as she shut the truck door behind her.

  The trees rose high above them, tall and thin. They made the air smell of sap and earth, a rich scent that wrapped around her beast like a blanket. Once more, Jude was reminded that this was her home. This was where her beast chose to settle down.

  She understood why.

  Cole led her out of the small parking lot and to a small building. A trail led around the side, where other people were already walking. She wondered if this was a hike and realized she hadn’t dressed for one. Her shirt was far too pretty, the fabric scratchy in places. It was meant for sitting around, not for movement.

  But when Cole pushed the building door open and she saw the images pasted on the walls, she let out a sound of excitement. Then, she cocked her head and looked to Cole.

  Every image was of someone strapped to a zipline, faces twisted in horror or adrenaline-infused excitement. But they were dragons. If they wanted to explore this land, all they needed to do was fly. Though, it was usually under the cover of night. Only once, in Jude’s time away from Colorado, had she flown during the day and that was not too long ago.

  “You’ll see when we get up there. Your beast will love it.”

  She glanced around to see who was listening. Everyone inside was going about their own business. No one seemed to care that Cole had mentioned beasts. There was, she remembered, a pack that lived in the nearby town. Like the town in Colorado where her family lived, she guessed many people here knew about the shifters among them.

  Cole signed most of the paperwork to get them started. When she tried to pay for her half, he shoved her card back at her. All she had to do was sign her injury waiver. She wondered how humans could sign such a thing. If she fell, she’d be alright within an hour. If a human fell…

  That was almost certainly lethal. Then again, humans were either surprisingly sturdy or blissfully dumb. She knew because a part of her was human, too. And she could be blissfully dumb at times.

  Like buying that cabin before discussing it with the clan reforming next door. Sybil had warned Jude while they were doing the paperwork for the sale that m
ore dragon shifters would be returning. Sybil was a witch, so Jude trusted what she said. If the witch saw more dragons coming this way, then that meant the others must be coming home, too.

  What would happen when they all arrived and there was a strange dragon woman on their territory? Not just any strange dragon woman, but a gold dragon?

  She didn’t have long to think about it because Cole took her hand and led her back outside, practically dragging her up the trail. Moments later, she saw the great structure that climbed high into the sky. It stood over the trees, with stairs that led to the top where the zip-lines were.

  A couple sped down the lines, howling their heads off. Jude watched them soar overhead, like baby dragons with newly sprouted wings. Her jaw dropped in awe, a small flutter puttering through her heart. She shouldn’t have been so excited for something so simple, but she couldn’t wait to get to the top of the wooden structure.

  She yanked her hand free of Cole’s and raced ahead. He only laughed and followed, seemingly content to watch her run. This was nothing like what she expected for a date. She thought they were all dinner and a movie.

  Instead of a few boring hours wasted before a screen, she was greeted with the most breathtaking view she’d ever seen. While Colorado held charm and magic in every crevice, the magic here seemed to swirl between the trees. Evergreens shivered between maples and elms. In the distance, the lake glimmered.

  This was her home. It was the land her beast had claimed. In her heart, a soft silence settled over her. Gone were all the buzzing thoughts and worries that came with being alone. She wasn’t trying to hide what she was, wasn’t trying to prove herself to anyone. This was her home and those who entered had to prove themselves to her.

  Her breath caught as she realized what she’d been thinking. This wasn’t just her home, but Cole’s, too. She turned and found him slowly catching up. His grin was gentle, as if his soul was content, too. His gaze wasn’t on the scenery, though. It was on her.

  The corner of her mouth twitched into a little smile. He nodded toward the attendants waiting at the zipline. The way his jaw tightened made her suspicious.

  “You’ve never done this before. Have you?”

  Cole tried to keep a straight face, but she saw the way it slipped. The corner if his eye twitched. She laughed. A dragon shifter was afraid of heights. It was almost funny to think of.

  Instead of teasing him, she leaned in and whispered. “If you fall, you’ll be fine. Falling out of the sky is what we do as kids. Like humans falling off their bikes. We get up and we walk it off.”

  “I know that,” Cole said, like he didn’t know that. Still, he squeezed her hand as the attendants helped them into the harnesses.

  The sound of the clip going over the line filled Jude with excited apprehension. Her muscles sang with pent up energy. She bounced on her heels and looked to Cole. He didn’t share the same excitement, but she could see that some of his worry had disappeared.

  “You’ll have to catch up,” she challenged him as she leapt off the platform.

  The wind tore at her hair and roared in her ears. Her heart thundered. The ground below zoomed past in a green blur. Above, the sky was open. Jude spread her arms wide and reveled in the feeling of air along skin and not scales.

  Above the ground, away from the lake, her heart was at ease. She sank into the feeling, finally allowing herself to savor it. She’d found her home. She’d found the place where her dragon belonged. Never did she think she would find it, but here she was.

  And behind her? Behind her was a screaming man, rushing down the zipline at breakneck speeds because he was so much heavier than her. Gravity yanked his heavy form back down to earth where it belonged. Her fingertips grazed him as he zipped past. She caught a glimpse of wide and slightly terrified eyes, hands gripping the harness for dear life, and then he was gone.

  She let out a laugh from deep in her belly. Jude had found happiness, the chance at a life with someone who could be her…mate? Jasper and the other metallic dragons had all found their mates. Every relationship was so different that Jude didn’t know which signs to look for. Ashton and Makenna had found each other at such an early age. Ryker and Lila had air guitar showdowns.

  Jude’s interactions with Cole weren’t all that comparable to her cousins. He was tall, dark, and an absolute enigma to her. Only when she reached the bottom of the zip line and he caught her, wrapping his arms around her, did she feel the tug of something more. A bond, anchoring itself in her gut and tethering her soul to his.

  Was this permanent? Was it even real?

  She tilted her head back to look up at him. He flashed her his white teeth, the canines sharp in the corners. The canines that had pierced her skin. Her core rippled, clenching at the thought of the claiming mark. He had marked her.

  “Are you ready to go again?” Cole never let go of her. His hands rested at her elbows, like he couldn’t bear to part with her skin just yet.

  “Again?” She looked past him and found another zip line on the other side of the landing platform. Down and down the lines went. “Oh my god, yes! Yes, I want to do that again!”

  They found themselves at the chicken shack again. The cook made them a special meal, the chicken rubbed with his spiciest seasoning blend. Jude’s lips were on fire, but she was too happy to care. The cook warned her when she reached for the bottle of homemade hot sauce, but she did it anyway. The vinegar tang of the hot sauce burned her nose.

  Across from her, Cole was eating the spicy chicken skin as if it were nothing. There wasn’t even a layer of sweat on his forehead. For a moment, Jude wondered if he’d been given a plain chicken, so she reached across and plucked a bit of skin before he could slap her hand away.

  It as just as spicy as hers. Cole didn’t bat an eye.

  “How can you eat like that? Doesn’t that hurt?”

  Cole grinned, like he had a million secrets behind those perfect lips and white teeth. Jude just glared at him. She picked another piece of chicken from the thigh and dipped it into the hot sauce before eating it.

  “If it bothers you so much, then why are you adding extra heat?” Cole laughed at her.

  “I’m a glutton for punishment.” She had to take a sip of water, not that it helped the sear that coated her mouth with pain. “My parents once tried to send me to a religious boarding school. Catholic, I think. All I remember is that I stole a bag of communion wafers to for my French Onion dip. Both my parents and the school had a field day coming up with creative punishments.”

  “Was it worth it?”

  She scoffed. “The school made me tend the garden for a month. Just about everything they had me work on died. It was totally worth it.

  “What did you do to those poor plants?” His brows were so high, she thought they would leap off his face and into the sky.

  “I didn’t do anything other than what they told me! I’m just not cut out for gardening.”

  Cole was laughing at her stubborn nature when his cell phone vibrated on the table. Jude ignored it. This was a date. He wouldn’t answer the phone. But when he glanced at the number and his face paled, Jude knew something had gone wrong.

  Her gut said it was Alistair. She didn’t know how she could tell, but now that they weren’t laughing and talking, a sense of dread was settling in. She glanced over her shoulder, in the direction of the lake, and could feel a wrongness in the area. Perhaps her beast had aligned with the ley lines and become a part of the landscape.

  That was the only thing she could think of as she lurched from the table and rushed toward Cole’s truck. He wasn’t behind her. Cole still sat at the picnic table, staring at the table with a blank expression on his face. Now wasn’t the time to panic.

  Racing back to the table, she grabbed at the hair just under his chin. He jerked away from her, tears stinging his eyes.

  “If you hadn’t moved, it wouldn’t hurt as bad,” she told him. All that mattered was that he’d returned to himself. She pressed his keys
into his hand. “We need to get back to the lakeshore. Now.”

  He sucked in a deep breath, nostrils widening, then followed her.

  17

  The spell was weakening, just like Sybil said it would. Cole had a bad feeling. Not just about Alistair, but about Sybil. He wished she’s stopped smoking ten years ago, but he feared that her habit was quickly catching up to her and no amount of witchcraft could magic the cancer away. She would never tell them, of course. It was just a thought.

  Beside him, Jude was in battle mode. Her eyes had hardened, scanning the world outside the truck as she sat on the edge of the seat. While he had fallen into a brief panic, she’d been the one to leap into action. They needed someone like her. She could be what his clan had needed all along.

  “You aren’t going to turn on us and try to destroy the world, are you?” Cole felt silly just asking, but he had to. There was no way he couldn’t at least test the waters.

  Jude shook her head. She didn’t seem fazed by his question, as if it made perfect sense. “Nope. I’m here to make sure everyone lives. No matter what.”

  He blinked away tears. Reaching over the console, he took her hand in his. There was a tug in his lower stomach. It was like someone had tied a thread of fate between them and, as they moved around one another, it stretched.

  Cole never thought this would be a feeling he would have. He’d assumed that his life would be short and lonely. Perhaps it would still be short, but he refused to let it be lonely. He had a heart to give and Jude deserved to know how he felt about her.

  He opened his mouth to speak just as a spout of water rose over the trees ahead. Cole knew, without a doubt, that his stretch of lake shore was on the other side of those trees. The words died in his mouth. He released Jude’s hand to grip the wheel and yank it. They fishtailed as they sped onto the dirt road toward the cabins.

  Jude stared up at the waterspout. He expected her jaw to drop, but he forgot she’d been down there with Alistair. She knew the danger they were in. She’d been dragged into it whether she liked it or not.