Cole

by Emilia Hartley

  Cole laughed, a sound that filled the room and eased her worried mind. Cole wasn’t hiding anything life-changing. She was sure of it. As his leader and his mate, he would never.

  At least, she didn’t think he would.

  The microwave beeped an annoying reminder at her.

  “Let me get that,” Cole said as he gently pushed her toward the table.

  Jude scowled, but let him. Asher wasn’t around. The smell of waffles should have summoned him by now. The silver-haired shifter was nowhere to be found. Something sketchy was going on. Jude knew her mate had something to do with it.

  While she could have said something, an instinct told her not to. She didn’t bring up Cole’s strange behavior or Asher’s disappearance. Soon enough, Cole would tell her what was going on. She trusted him.

  Even when he snuck a glance at her before digging into his pocket. Whatever he brought out, he kept hidden in his palm. She narrowed her eyes at him. No alarms went off. Her beast wasn’t bothered by Cole’s actions. It was still sated from their love-making the night before.

  “Are you ready for breakfast?”

  Cole turned, and instead of setting her plate on the table, he dropped down to one knee. Her heart stuttered. He raised the plate, a perfect waffle with molten peanut butter drizzled across it. In the center was a perfect swirl of whipped cream…

  And on the top of that was a diamond ring. The ring was clearly old, an heirloom. When Cole had the chance to get it sized, Jude didn’t know.

  She leapt from her chair and nearly knocked the waffle, and the ring, onto the floor. Careful not to hit the plate, she wrapped her arms around Cole’s neck. He laughed, nervously. When she pulled back to see what was wrong, he was watching her cautiously.

  “Are you going to say anything?”

  “What? Oh, yeah. I mean, yes. Yes!” Jude was so flustered by Cole’s proposal that she’d forgotten how they worked. It wasn’t enough to take the ring. She had to accept the marriage request. “But you didn’t exactly ask.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not a man of words. Thought the ring could speak for me in this case.”

  Cole had been right. Jude knew what it meant and what she wanted. She wanted him and this promise of forever. She’d told herself she wasn’t the kind of girl to care about a wedding or a ring, but this made her rethink her stance. Maybe she didn’t need a big wedding. So much of her income was going into fixing the cabin next door. But she adored the ring and everything it stood for.

  Now, when people looked, they would be able to see the human equivalent of a claiming mark. Everyone would know that she was claimed.

  Cole sucked the whipped cream from the ring before sliding it onto her finger. Watching his lips purse over the metal made her gut clench. She dropped to sit in his lap, straddling him. In moments, she could feel his rising need pressing against her. Her hunger was forgotten and replaced by a more carnal desire.

  There was a knock at the door, at one point. Both Jude and Cole ignored it. Outside, Asher’s voice was muffled. Jude assumed it was some sort of annoyed curse. The waffles had summoned him after all.

  Too bad, because Jude had used all the whipped cream with Cole.

  Life wasn’t exactly what Cole thought it would be. He’d assumed, when the underwater prison had been created, that he would spend the rest of his life alone and watching the shore. Now, the water had crashed into his life and left it changed forever.

  The one good thing that came from it was the woman beside him. He threaded his fingers through hers and took an unexpected pleasure in seeing the ring on her finger. The marriage license had been signed. He told her that they could have a wedding whenever she wanted, but she waved him off.

  He couldn’t tell if she wasn’t interested or if she was waiting. Either way, he let Jude make up her own mind. There was little he could do to sway her when she had an idea.

  They drove along the lake’s edge. Beneath that water was one of Cole’s old friends, a fellow dragon shifter who had suffered because of Alistair and Sybil. The witch thought she could be the dragon king’s queen. She’d thought that her power was attractive enough to Alistair for him to make her his mate.

  That didn’t happen, and Sybil’s eyes had been opened.

  After she’d already put Zane in the prison. The magic had changed Cole’s friend. The ten years had warped his mind.

  “You’re thinking about him again,” Jude said. She could see through him. Every day with her, she saw deeper and deeper into his soul.

  He’d thought himself a simple man, but she revealed every little shadow inside him by casting such a bright light in his life.

  She squeezed his hand. “We will rescue Zane. I have a plan and it’s all starting to come together.”

  There it was. That reckless grin that she’d once greeted him with. He recognized it as a warning now. Whenever his mate wore that grin, she was up to something. It was either dangerous or stupid or, sometimes, both.

  The last time she’d worn that grin, she’d camped out on the waterfall and hid in the tall grasses at the top. The kids and hikers climbing it had the scare of their lives when she jumped out. Somehow, after that one day, the town decided to dub it Gold Dragon Falls.

  Never mind that a lion, a wolf, and a black dragon had been seen there. Everyone was enamored with Jude and her burnished beast. Just like he was. Though she had a stubborn streak a mile wide, he trusted her.

  “Just don’t get killed,” Cole warned her.

  “I’m trying to keep us all from getting killed.” Her gaze drifted out the window, tracking across the sky above as if searching for something that wasn’t there. “Being the leader of a three-dragon clan gives me some sort of immunity. Right?”

  Cole groaned. “What did you do?”

  They pulled up to the cabin. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the driveway was clear. After that, she flashed Cole a bright smile and leapt out of the truck before he could ask any questions.

  His stomach roiled like the water’s surface. Cole leapt out of the truck and called after his wife. “Jude! What did you do now?”

  She spun around and shrugged with that nigh insufferable smile.

  Cole had a bad feeling that things were about to get much more exciting around here. And by exciting, he meant tense. Especially when an unfamiliar truck pulled in after him, a familiar face behind the wheel.

  Heath.

  Coming Soon!

  More By Emilia Hartley

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