by Sage Hunter
But when he found something he liked, that was when the real beauty and wonder began to happen. Oberon would look at me, grinning widely. He was exceptionally excited, and his enthusiasm became infectious. I became almost as eager for him to find the ingredients of his choice as he was, even though, some small part of me knew just how insane all of this was. If he was just a human like myself, who was grocery shopping, this would look completely insane. Neither of us would look like we had our mental faculties together.
And yet, somehow, this didn’t seem to bother me. It didn’t bother Oberon either. In fact, he seemed to have no grasp on the fact that anything like this should bother him. It was as if he were completely cut off from social customs, and I found it to be quite sweet and charming. Even though there were times when I thought it might be better for him if he was able to remember the rules of conduct that were normal in society. I didn’t want people to look at him as if he were crazy. I wanted him to be safe. And I wanted him to have a safe place to heal, where people would embrace him in the community.
We continued our journey through the grocery store; most people were oblivious to what we were doing, and didn’t pay any attention at all. To them, we looked just like any other normal people who were grocery shopping, except I was acutely aware of just how handy and picky Oberon was. I knew he wanted to choose the best ingredients, and he wanted something that was close to what he was used to eating from wherever he was from. I was starting to wonder if he had been raised in a cult or something, because I truly believed what he said most of the time. Even when it struck me as funny. Perhaps all of it was true. At least to him.
Perhaps he had been raised in an area where he had been taught to believe that they were more, or better than human. It is entirely possible, and I kicked myself for not considering the possibility beforehand. What if he wasn’t just suffering from his injuries? What if he truly had a different experience than I did? It seemed almost cruel for me to doubt him the way I was. Especially if his experiences had been genuine and valid.
When we were finally done shopping, the cart had a few select items. Mostly meat and spices, several herbs and a couple of vegetables. It had been strange the way Oberon had taken everything to his nose to smell it, as if he were looking for just the right scent. It was reminiscent of a bloodhound, seeking out something on the ground.
When we finally made it back into my car, I looked over at Oberon, who was smiling broadly. The trip out had done him a lot of good, and now, I could feel a little bit better about having him over at my house as my guest. He had clothing, and he had food he was going to enjoy. With those two things, on top of a chance to get out of the house and see the world a little bit, he was probably going to be fine.
We drove home, the conversation between us easy and comfortable. He no longer seemed quite as adamant about controlling the way I drove, and yet, anytime I seemed even mildly distracted, he would clamp up and stare straight ahead as if he were petrified of the road. I began to learn how to stare straight ahead and carry on a conversation without even attempting to glance to the side at the person I was having a conversation with. He did not accept any of these things, and although it was a difficult adjustment, it was one I made gladly for his peace of mind.
We were both feeling particularly pleased with ourselves when we got back to the farm, and began to unload the groceries into the house. When I came out for the last trip, insisting that Oberon stay in the kitchen and begin making dinner, my heart leapt into my throat. There was a dark, shiny black car parked behind my old beater, and sitting inside was a man who was staring at me and smiling coldly. I backed up, running into the house, unable to even scream.
I didn’t have to. Oberon was already stepping out, his brow creased with concern. “Do you know that person?” he asked. “Why are you afraid?”
I shook my head no. I didn’t know that person. And I was afraid because, whoever it was, I knew they weren’t there for any good reason. In fact, they had the same distinct features, cold eyes, and sinister smiles, as the other men my late husband had a tendency to spend his time with. I didn’t want to know these people. I didn’t want them to have anything to do with my life. I wanted everything to be the way it used to be before any of this had happened.
Why had I ever married that man? He didn’t live up to any of the expectations I had of him. Everything he did was calculated and manipulative. Everything he had ever done, he had done for himself. Not for me. Not for anybody. He had always been after his own selfish good. I was furious at him for it. And yet, now that he was dead, there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing, except face the wrath of his mistakes and suffer for them as if they were my own.
“Oberon, wait! What are you doing? No, you can’t do that. You aren’t well yet!”
Oberon was marching out the door, stalking toward the car where the man was sitting and smiling at us, his eyes still cold and unmoving.
Unsurprisingly, Oberon ignored me, and continued on his way, completely consumed by his desire to protect me. I would hate myself if anything happened to him. Because of my stupid husband. I couldn’t allow this to happen, and yet, I was frozen in place as I watch the events unfold before me.
The next few minutes were a blur. They happened quickly, and yet, it seemed as if it happened over the course of 1,000 years. In my head, time was not working properly, and my heart was lurching forward in full-blown panic mode as Oberon approached the vehicle.
“Well, hello there, sir,” the man in the car said pleasantly as Oberon approached him.
Oberon’s golden eyes were narrowed at the man, and I willed him to try to hold himself back. I wanted to make sure he was safe. I didn’t want him to start any trouble. Not for me. Not on my account. I wasn’t worth that. No matter what he thought. It really wasn’t so much trouble to drag a man from the desert and let them sleep it off for a while. It wasn’t worth his life.
“What are you doing here?” Oberon said coldly. There was steel in his voice, and I found myself in awe of his impressive energy.
It didn’t seem to faze the man in my driveway, though, and he stepped out of the car, removing the black bowler hat from his head and dropping it on the seat of his car before closing the door behind himself.
“My business here is with Miss White. Not with you. I don’t have to talk to you about anything.”
Oberon snarled. "Actually, I think that is where we differ. You see, I am her bodyguard. I am going to protect her. And whatever you think you have in mind for her, you are just going to have to save it for the next person on your list.”
“It’s funny how you think that you actually stand a chance here,” the man said, pulling out a gun from the holster at his side. Oberon seemed unimpressed, and in fact, laughed at the gesture.
“You think that will hurt me?”
Concern washed over me as I registered the words. Did he really believe he was so beyond being human that even a bullet wouldn’t harm him? I had just nursed him back to health, and he wasn’t even fully there yet, and now he was taunting a man with a gun? What was wrong with him? This is terrifying. I took a step forward and opened my mouth to try to talk some sense into him, but he held his hand up at me as if he could sense my movement.
“You stay back, Jenny. I am going to take care of this. And if you come out here, I am not going to forgive you. You just stay inside where it is safe, or you are going to regret it. Not because I make you regret it. It is going to be a mistake. You will have to trust me. There is more than one of them here.”
More than one? How could he even tell something like that? I glanced around, but I saw nothing. Only the one person standing outside of the car, holding a gun to Oberon. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him. I had already grown so close. What was going to happen? All of this was far too terrifying. Why had my husband been such a selfish tool? We could have been so happy together, but he had to go try to live it up on the wild side. It was ridiculous. All it had done was cause me gri
ef, and now, it might even cost me my life, and the life of my guest.
“You are not going anywhere near this human,” Oberon said. “I know who you are. I know where you really come from. And you are not going to do anything that might harm her.”
Now I was really confused. Somehow, Oberon knew this man? Knew where he came from? He was speaking about him as if he had come from the dregs of the earth somewhere, crawling out of a gutter or maybe, even from a different planet.
But that was crazy. Wasn’t it? I couldn’t believe he was actually one of the shape shifters I had read about during my childhood. Those really exist? I couldn’t be sure, but everybody else seemed to believe it was true. Maybe even Oberon. But I couldn’t. I had to be rational. One of us did. It was obvious it wasn’t going to be Oberon.
But maybe rational wasn’t going to be the best way to handle the situation anyway. There was a man with a gun here, ready to destroy me and take whatever I had left of my farm. I had never met or even heard of such despicable beings in my life. How is it possible for a human to be so cruel?
And yet, I had been married to one. I would know better than anybody how possible it was for this to happen. I knew it was stupid for me to try to dig myself out of the hole my husband had dug me into. How is he ever going to be able to do that? It was impossible. In fact, it was so impossible, that the police had actually given me the option of going into a witness protection program.
But if I did that, it would mean I would be a renter for the rest of my life and I would lose my land in New Mexico. There is no way I would ever give up my farm. I worked my ass off to keep the place running, and it meant everything to me. I would rather die here than let somebody else take it because I was being bullied away from my own land by some no good thugs that didn’t know how to assign responsibility to the right person.
“Oh, so you can see through this, can you?” the man from the car said. “You think you know where I come from? What I do? What my goals are here? Well, whether you’re right or not about that, one thing is certain. And that is that this human has to go.”
Now they were both referring to me as that human? This was ridiculous. I stepped forward, and again, Oberon held his hand up at me, not tearing his gaze away from the man in front of them. Without turning to look at me, he told me again, his voice low. “Human, you need to stay indoors now. Things are about to get a little bit messy here, and I do not want to see anything happen to you.”
I scoffed. How could anything happen to me. Nothing was more important to me than making sure nobody else suffered for my husband’s mistakes. I wished my husband had felt the same way and at some point, developed the same mentality, but it was obvious he never would have.
And now, Oberon is going to suffer for his mistakes. All of us are going to suffer. All of us would always suffer.
But suddenly, something strange began to happen. I looked at Oberon, unable to tear my eyes away from him because I was so concerned that the man from the black car was going to shoot him.
Instead, I felt a slight tremor in the earth, and looked out at Oberon. It looked as if he was starting to grow taller. But that was impossible. I was probably just having some kind of panic attack because of all the stress I was experiencing in the moment. There was no way I was actually seeing the man I had started to develop feelings for growing taller and taller, right before my eyes.
This didn’t seem to make any sense to me. The weirdest part about it was that the man in the black car didn’t seem surprised by this development in the least. Instead, he began to change his shape as well, but instead of growing, he shrank, but not by much. He began to grow more slender, and his features contorted until he looked like a fat red worm with a humanoid face. The gun fell to the ground, and I gazed at the men in my yard, completely bewildered.
“Remember, human, I told you to stay in the house. And that is where you need to stay. You have no other choice in the matter here. You do as I tell you. This is for your own good. Please trust me now. You will see why soon.”
I gazed in horror and disbelief as Oberon began to complete his transformation. He towered over the little worm by several feet, and actually ended up with his head above the roof of my house. His neck was long and slender, and his scales were bright golden color. Oberon, fixing his cold gaze on his target, let out a low growl.
He was a dragon. My guest was a dragon shifter. I felt dizzy and slumped to the ground, gazing out at the men in the yard with deep confusion. I didn’t know what was happening, but it had to be serious.
A sudden thought occurred to me, a comforting single thought that helped maintain my own sanity during this strange phenomenon.
Now I knew for sure that Oberon wasn’t human. He also wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t crazy for wanting to believe him. He was telling the truth. And now, I was beginning to understand why he didn’t want to go to the hospital. Dragon shifters where the rarest of the breeds. Sure, we knew there were rumors of wolf shifters, maybe even bear shifters around here, but dragon shifters were still legendary.
And now, I was witnessing one right in my very yard. It was an amazing fact, but still, the most amazing part about it to me was that this was Oberon. This was his true form. And I wanted to embrace that with everything I had. No matter how difficult it was to accept or not. This was the truth, and I was going to stick with it.
Chapter 11
Oberon
I gazed down at my enemy, a deep growl resonating in my throat. I wanted to attack. I wanted nothing more than to make this bastard regret ever coming near Jenny. They had no right to be near her. She had never done anything wrong.
The little worm that was after her was from a very obscure planet in the earth’s solar system. Most people didn’t even know it existed, but several of the scientists were quite aware. Personally, I did my best not to judge other species most of the time, unless they were well renowned throughout the galaxy. These were called legions, and they were not to be trusted. They were, in fact, some of the most incredibly manipulative and greedy creatures in the entire universe.
It was unsurprising to find that they had managed to violate the earth’s atmosphere and begin to alter it to their liking. Time and time again, they had proven to be excessively cruel, even to their own kind. Perhaps humanity had a bad reputation because of the invasive species populating their planet.
“You know you aren’t going to be able to do anything to us, dragon,” the legion snarled at me. “Because you are on earth now. Shifter powers rarely work on earth. Didn’t you know that?”
“If they didn’t work, then how did I become one with my dragon form?” I asked, letting out another deep growl.
Jenny was unable to understand us. Our communication was far beyond human comprehension. Although they were technically capable of this sort of communication, it was something that was going to have to evolve over many years of evolution before humanity could tap into it.
Most of the time, this was because they didn’t want to tap into it, but still, I had to admit it was difficult to believe in things like this unless you had seen them firsthand.
“It doesn’t matter if you shape shifted. Sure, you can change your body. What good does it do if you don’t have the strength or the power you need in order to defeat an enemy? You might as well stay in your human form. And when you are stuck on Earth, that is exactly what they intend for you to do.”
I frowned, gazing curiously at the legion. “That is what who exactly intends for us to do?” I asked.
The legion grinned. “You think we are the only invasive species on this planet? There is someone out there who hates shifters just as much as the legions do. We are going to do whatever it takes to make sure you guys do not hold any power here. This is going to be our home turf. You will not have any say in it whatsoever. We are going to get rid of the good for nothing humans, the ones who are not good at providing resources and working hard. We are going to make sure that those people are no longer able to participat
e in this culture, and then, once they are gone, we will have the perfect stock to breed with and ultimately take over the rest of the universe.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Those were lofty goals. Especially coming from a little tapeworm that could barely even stand up straight on the curvature of the earth.
“You can talk as much as you want about your plans, but it’s not going to change the fact that you are not going to touch a hair on this human’s head. I don’t care what you guys do with the earth. It has nothing to do with me. This is not my planet in the first place. And you know that. I just want to get back home. What I do care about is you and your people haggling this poor human for all her resources, when it wasn’t even her fault. What are you doing? It makes no sense.”
But the legion was done having a conversation with me, and decided to strike. It let out a shrill cry, and soon, several hundred legions were coming toward me, their bodies writhing on the ground. I felt a sickening sensation in my stomach as I readied my breath up into fire at them. But again, it faltered and I was unable to defend myself with it. That was okay, though. I was still far more powerful than they would ever be.
I started forward, using my sheer strength and muscle power to work against the legions that were attempting to take Jenny’s home and abduct her.
They wanted more from her than I would allow or accept, and I lunged at them, fighting them off with my broad dragon form.
A few of them shrieked as I snapped them in half with my powerful jaws, and I heard Jenny utter a small cry of disgust and surprise. I had already told her to turn away, to go back into the house, to avoid this horrible and tragic scene once and for all, but it was too late. She was already witnessing the way I treated the legions in her yard. They fought me with all their might, but although there were many of them, their strength was in their power of manipulation, not in their physical prowess.