Without thinking, Bree approached Isabella. She reached for the woman and was surprised when Isabella huddled into her arms. Dillon put a hand on Bree’s shoulder, like a silent thanks.
“Bel screamed. She says she saw someone in the window.” Dillon marched around the room and peered through every glass pane.
Cold fear doused the last of the heat in Bree. She gripped Isabella tighter.
Whoever had seen her outside of town had followed her. She opened her mouth to tell the others what she’d felt, but Gavin spoke before she could.
“If Nellie’s spell failed and one of those humans remembered their vendetta against us, then I’m going to burn the…” His nostrils flared before he growled. “I smell dragon. My father must have sent another wave of lackeys to drive us out.”
Stunned, she stared at him. She recalled Erik mentioning the fire, but there’d never been mention of any spells. Magic wasn’t even real. Not until now. Gavin’s change of direction scared her, though. She turned to Erik for answers, but the look he gave her said that he would explain later.
“Do you really think it was one of Zander’s dragons?” Erik asked. “I was making a racket outside. Someone could have headed over to check on us.”
Bree realized she’d somehow stepped from a romance story and into a thriller. She checked over both shoulders, as if the perpetrator might be right behind her. It sure felt like she’d led someone right to the cabin.
Guilt formed a knot in her chest. Isabella squeezed Bree’s arm and backed away, leaving Bree empty handed. Adrift, between knowledge that she should have done better and fear of what was coming, she didn’t know what to do until Erik took her hand. The contact grounded her, but it didn’t change anything.
“Can’t you call your father and ask why he would send someone to check on you like that?” Bree asked, feeling stupid.
Gavin snarled again.
“You should have told her,” Dillon said to Erik.
“She’s new to everything! Am I supposed to walk up to her and say sorry for fucking up your life but you’re now part of a war imposed on us by a crotchety old bastard?” Erik’s gaze flicked to her, like he belatedly realized that was exactly what he’d just done. He cringed and mouthed sorry.
As hard as she tried, Bree couldn’t process anything just then. Trouble. Danger. Her beast rose and wriggled, but she imagined grabbing it by the scruff as if it were a cat. The beast didn’t like it, but she couldn’t have the creature breaking out of her just because she was scared.
It fought her. It thrashed this way and that until her skull ached and her joints throbbed. She excused herself and stumbled out of the room. The beast tried to tell her that she wouldn’t be able to protect herself the way it could. If the stalker showed up, she needed to be prepared.
The beast’s words were beguiling, but she couldn’t let it out. Bree wanted to be in control. If she wasn’t in charge, then who was she? Hadn’t the beast promised to be more reasonable in the future? It’d betrayed her trust all too quickly.
“Bree? Bree!” Erik caught up to her on the patio. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.
A snarl escaped her. She clamped her hand over her mouth, alarmed that she would ever react in such a way. He didn’t seem bothered, though.
“I should have told you sooner,” he said, a note of sorrow in his voice.
The beast barraged her. It demanded to be let free. She would give in sooner or later. Her teeth hurt. She’d never realized how badly her teeth could hurt.
“Bree?” Erik hunched to look at her.
She tried to turn away and hide the struggle that she was losing. His breath hitched. She waited for him to run away and leave her on her own. No, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t alone. He would never abandon her.
“This…sucks…” she said between clenched teeth. “Is this how you feel all the time?”
He laughed. The sound eased a bit of the tension between her and her beast.
He smoothed her hair away from her face. “I’m sorry about all this. About your beast, about failing to tell you everything. Will you give me another chance?”
She held up two fingers. The ache in her head had begun to subside. “Strike number two.”
“What was strike number one? Changing you?”
Her nose wrinkled as she recalled the redhead. Bree and her beast agreed on one thing. She hated the redhead.
“I can’t take back anything I did, but…” Erik paused.
He sniffed the air. Bree wanted him to go on, but she set aside her emotions and did the same. The scent from earlier returned. Whoever had peered into Isabella’s window was the same person that had watched her. The familiar undercurrent of smoke wove through the scent, telling her all she needed to know.
“It’s faint,” Erik said just as Gavin stepped around the side of the house.
“Lingering smell,” Gavin said. His upper lip still bore a curl of disdain. He peered at the dark woods. “I recognize it as one of my father’s dragons. The visitor didn’t stay long. He was scoping us out, but I’m not sure why.”
Bree summoned her courage and spoke up. “Erik called me and asked me to come over. I went to a field to shift and give flying another attempt, but I caught the same scent there. I must have…I’m sorry. The shifter must have followed me.”
The words tried to drag her down. They sat in her gut and accused her of betrayal until Gavin sneered.
“Our visitor didn’t need to follow you. Dad knows where we live. If you caught this guy following you earlier, that means he was spying on you.” Gavin paused. He put his hands on his hips. His chest rose like he was gathering his breath. “Until further notice, you’re living with us.”
Her jaw dropped. “You can’t tell me what to do!”
“Do you want to live on your own for the rest of your life or do you want to belong to a clan? I didn’t ask for a clan, but I have one now, and I’m going to make sure I protect every single dragon under me.”
Gavin wasn’t trying to control her. He wanted to protect her because he already thought of her as family. The realization sank in slowly. Though her change had been unexpected, she wasn’t going to be cast out.
“Besides, if Erik trusts you to help him when he’s having a…moment, then having you nearby will take some strain off Dillon.” Gavin turned away.
She’d been wrong to assume her life had changed in one night. Being bitten had altered her body, but tonight she realized she was on a different path altogether now. The path wasn’t wrong or bad, but she was still afraid all the same.
“You’re welcome to share my bed,” Erik suggested.
The light in his eyes told her he wanted to lighten the situation.
Bree raised a brow. “Who said anything about sharing? It’s mine now.”
Chapter Ten
Erik gave Bree his bed that night. He didn’t mind sleeping on the floor. Especially not when she reached for him in the middle of the night and asked him to join her on the bed. He sprawled out behind her and vowed to protect her with every ounce of his body and soul.
Part of him hoped that she had a mate out there waiting for her. He hoped this mate was a better man that he was. Not the mess that he’d always been.
The rest of him wanted to be good enough for her because he desperately wanted to be her mate. Despite everything he’d done, she seemed undeterred. Not by her new dragon and not by this war. Sure, he could see her fear, but she had yet to back down from any of it. She could have crumbled under it all. She could have let her fear consume her.
Bree had accepted Gavin’s declaration without argument.
In the morning, Erik took her into town. Because they didn’t have time to wait for Isabella’s breakfast to be done, he took Bree through a café drive thru. Twenty minutes later, they sat in his truck outside her apartment building. She spun her paper coffee cup between her palms.
She didn’t look up before speaking. “Does this mean I’m part of…what did he ca
ll it? You mentioned it before. The clan? That sounds kind of white-trashy.”
Erik couldn’t help his laughter. He wiped tears away from the corners of his eyes. “You’re not wrong. Dragons have called their groups clans since the days of the Welsh dragons. History hasn’t been kind to the term, so now it has some awful connotations.”
The corners of her mouth lifted and filled his chest with hope. “Shouldn’t you call it something different then?”
“Dragons are an odd bunch. Some are older than dirt. Others are so far removed from other clans that it’s hard to contact them. Besides, we can’t call ourselves packs. That’s for the mammals.” He glanced up at her building.
They had come to grab what she would need to stay at the cabin. Erik had agreed to drive her back and forth to work from now on. It wasn’t like he didn’t spend all his time at the bar anyway.
She didn’t say anything more but placed her coffee in the cup holder and reached for the door handle. Erik stopped her before she could get out of the truck.
“If you don’t want to be a part of Gavin’s clan, all you have to do is say so. No one is going to force you into anything you don’t want.”
She didn’t look relieved, but happy for reasons he couldn’t identify.
“I’ll admit that I didn’t know where I belonged. I thought that I’d stayed because I loved this town, but now that I’m part of your clan I think that’s why I never left. This feels right.”
Joy surged through Erik. He didn’t bother fighting the grin overtaking him. He watched her slide out of the truck. Her gait entranced him. She moved like nothing had ever gotten in her way before.
Every obstacle she’d faced, she’d gotten around one way or another. Now, if only he could find a way over his own troubles, but he knew the green dragon wouldn’t go away any time soon. It would always crouch inside him and blame him for his brother’s death. The dragon would fill him with rot and try to keep him from enjoying anything.
Erik’s smile slipped. He followed Bree into the building but kept his distance like the space might be able to hide the emotions roiling inside him. Bree stopped at the elevator and glanced over her shoulder. The hopefulness and excitement in her eyes shattered the darkness gathering around him.
His breath hitched. The sight of her enchanted him. Would she end up his? Or would he have to watch another man hold her and cherish her the way he so desperately wanted to?
Unable to keep his hands to himself, he tugged a long lock of her hair when he reached her. She laughed and tugged her hair away from his grasp. He caught her rubbing her wrists after punching the elevator button.
She hadn’t worn her signature bracelets in days now. The silver likely burned her skin now. Before all this happened between them, Erik had never seen her without the stacks of bangles.
“Do you want me to buy you new bracelets? Maybe gold? Or white gold if you don’t like the color.”
She balked before shaking her head. “That is way too much to ask. Gold is expensive! I can run to any department store and pick up a set of cheap bangles, no problem.”
The elevator doors parted, and a couple stepped out with a stroller. Erik stepped aside to let them go before following Bree into the elevator. Once the doors closed, separating them from the outside world, he turned back to her.
“Cheap jewelry is cheap for a reason. Besides, I owe you for everything. Why can’t I pay you back by buying you jewelry?” He didn’t see why she felt the need to deny him.
She started to sigh but stifled the sound. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, she wouldn’t look at him. Then, finally, she spun on him.
“Couples buy each other jewelry. You can’t just…” She trailed off, her anger faltering.
Both of Erik’s brows shot upward in surprise. So, that’s what this was about. He gave her an appreciative nod, as if he was taking in what she said while he was planning to buy the bracelets without her knowledge. No matter what they ended up being, he wanted her to have them.
Unable to hide his small smile, he faced the elevator doors. “Well, you’re a dragon now. It would be a good start to your hoard.”
Just like he’d anticipated, his statement flustered and confused Bree. She cocked her head and stared at him, her lips slightly parted like she wanted to ask questions but couldn’t figure out which to ask first. He tried not to laugh when the elevator doors opened, and another family startled her.
He took her hand and led her down the hall toward her apartment. The skin on skin contact eased the dragons just under his skin. For once, he didn’t feel too small for everything he contained. Knowing that it wouldn’t last, he savored the small time that she kept her hand in his.
***
Bree’s heart thundered. She couldn’t control it.
The realization that she was basically moving in with Erik hit her when they stepped out of the elevator and he took her hand. Before that, Erik talked about buying her jewelry. While replacing her silver bangles wasn’t like buying her a ring…the offer still held a weight that she wasn’t sure she could apply to their relationship.
What were they?
Erik had kissed her once, then tried to take another woman home. He’d mentioned feeling unable to date her because of how he’d changed her. Bree wanted to knock down that wall with a wrecking ball, but some walls were unbreakable, and she wouldn’t be able to tell if this was one until she’d exhausted herself trying.
She wanted to scream with frustration.
Oddly enough, her beast had remained quiet. She tried to rouse the creature and ask it what it thought of Erik as a mate, but it refused to answer.
“Whole lot of help you are,” she grumbled at her beast.
“What was that?” Erik asked, the hint of laughter in her voice telling her that he’d heard everything she’d said.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” she said.
He made a sound of understanding, but still had that secretive smile on his lips. She wanted to kiss it away, to ruin his composure with her advances. Would he give in to her? Could she make him moan with only a touch?
Bree shook herself. That wouldn’t tell her if they could make a relationship work. Sure, seducing Erik might calm the frantic desire crackling in her core, but it wouldn’t answer any of the questions she still had.
“I never realized how sparse your apartment was,” Erik said, looking around. “Do you spend a lot of time working? Travelling? It looks like you’re hardly here.”
Ready to say that wasn’t true, she paused. After being away from her apartment for the past twenty-four hours, she could see it with a fresh perspective. She didn’t have any shelves with knick-knacks. No pictures decorated the walls other than some cheap canvases she’d bought from discount stores.
Bree wondered why she’d never made this a home. She’d been content with staying in this mountain town, but not in this particular place.
“I guess I always assumed I would leave here,” she said.
Erik pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and turned his entire body toward her, like he had all day to stand around and listen to her work through her thoughts. They didn’t have all day. She needed to get her things and get ready for work, but work seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
Her brow furrowed. “I knew I had to wait here for something. I thought a big event would sweep me off my feet and into the life I was meant to live. Funny, how I always thought that would be a windswept romance. It never occurred to me that I’d be bitten by a radioactive dragon.”
Erik chuckled at her joke before closing the distance between them. He looped his arm around her waist and drew her close. Though she was a tall woman, she still had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. His eyes burned with the light of his beasts.
She grazed his stubbled cheek with her knuckles. “You’re not like I thought you would be.”
He gave her a questioning look but didn’t let her go.
His touch distracted her. She
wanted nothing more than to give in and explore the lines of his body, but she closed her eyes and tried to muster an explanation. Talking was so much easier when his bright gaze wasn’t overriding her ability to think.
“I assumed you would be the brooding and mysterious type. I had this dream that I would get on the back of your motorcycle and we would ride off together into a new life. You wouldn’t say much more than I love you or you’re beautiful in the moonlight. Instead…”
Erik laughed. The sound hummed against her ribcage and conjured laughter in her, too. “Instead, you realized I’m the court jester. Sorry to disappoint you.”
She opened her eyes. Though he smiled, his eyes were veiled in shadows.
“Reality is vastly superior to my dreams. What kind of life would I have if I ran off with a man who doesn’t know how to make me laugh when it feels like the world is crumbling around me? I can’t bounce all this sass off a brick wall and get nothing back for the rest of my days.” Bree’s heart sank a little by the time she finished.
She’d been talking about them like they were a couple. If every dragon had a mate, then shouldn’t she know by now if Erik was her destined lover? Her feelings for him had skyrocketed in the past week, as she got to know him and as he helped her through what it meant to be a dragon.
But the trickle of doubt kept worming its way into her mind. Wouldn’t they know? If they were mates, wouldn’t they have fallen in love already?
She let her fingers slide up his chest and around the back of his neck. She watched his lips part and his eyes gleam. Her own beast told her to go for it.
What do you have to lose?
A friend? A mentor? She didn’t want to lose him altogether if this didn’t work.
You’ll never know unless you try, her beast whispered.
Bree threw her caution to the wind and pressed her lips to his. Erik’s hand flattened against the small of her back. His touch threatened to set her ablaze. Fire gathered in her throat, too close to Erik’s sweeping tongue.
She dug her fingers into his shoulder, into his neck. He groaned and leaned into her. Together, they staggered until the back of her legs hit the couch. She tumbled onto the soft cushions and Erik soon followed, though he made sure not to crush her by propping himself up.
Restoring The Broken (Rogue Dragons Book 3) Page 9