by Leela Ash
Today, she was going to try and get back into her health routine. It had been quite a while since she had felt comfortable doing things for herself. Stu had a tendency to make fun of her for anything she thought was worthwhile. It had happened countless times that he had walked in on her exercising and had some smartass comment to say about it. Over time, she had just stopped allowing herself to do the things that made her body and mind feel the best. He had been one hell of a guy, that was for sure. And not in a good way.
Now, though, she didn’t have to worry about him anymore. She could do whatever she wanted to, even if it meant she was out of the house for more than two hours at a time. In fact, she was going to lace up her tennis shoes and take a jog for the first time in nearly two years. Why not? Who was going to stop her? Certainly not Gumbo. He seemed to like the hotel just fine and was already perched in the windowsill looking out at her with his round, stoic eyes.
Naomi bit her bottom lip, smiling to herself as she started to stretch. She had truly missed Brookside. It was going to be quite a treat to be able to go down the familiar and winding roads as she got reacquainted with the place where she had grown up.
As soon as she was ready, she gave one last glance at Gumbo and smiled as he yawned. Apparently, she had his blessing to take off. It was nice that one man in her life supported her at least.
Again, her thoughts wandered to Gavin, for whatever reason. He had certainly shown her support, in the most unexpected and wonderful way. And he had been so kind about it. Patient. And how in the hell had he gotten so handsome?! It seemed almost unreal. No man on Earth should look that way. It was almost ridiculous.
She chuckled to herself. No, it was probably just her nerves. He was kind and helpful and she had latched onto him in a state of vulnerability. Of course he looked better to her then than he probably looked most of the time. If she hadn’t been having car trouble, she might never have noticed him at all… Right?
She shrugged, somehow knowing that it wasn’t true. But she had other things to worry about besides Gavin. Like working off some steam. A small thrill surged through her body. She bet Gavin would know just how to do that too…
No, she was being ridiculous now. It was time to get focused and start working on her new life. See the sights! Create new experiences.
Naomi found herself feeling freer than ever before as she began jogging down the sidewalks, enjoying the natural sights and familiar little landmarks as she passed them all by.
“Meow!”
Naomi stopped suddenly as a tiny kitten stumbled in front of her. It was black and white, with the tiniest pink nose. It cried out to her again, and suddenly, another kitten was poking its little orange head out from a bush lining a tall apartment complex. It was a rundown place, one that was no longer occupied by anybody. She couldn’t help but smile and reached down to pet the little kitten, who accepted her attention eagerly.
“What are you two doing here?” she asked, her striking eyes scanning the area for any sign of other kittens. Usually, where there were kittens this small, there should have been a mother nearby, and possibly several other babies.
Sure enough, soon, several other kittens were emerging from the bushes. Naomi made her way toward them, noticing as she walked that there was a window cracked in the bottom story of the building.
She heard a small squeak and knelt down in front of it to peer inside. Much to her surprise, she saw several cats roaming in and out. Most of them froze or scattered away when they saw her. It was clear that they were feral, and they had made this abandoned building their home.
“Hey! You can’t be in there!”
Naomi was surprised to hear the gravelly man’s voice. It was clear he was not a friendly person by nature and she turned around to catch his eye. He was standing behind her across the street, glowering at her with a yellow hard hat on. He looked menacing somehow. She wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“I’m not hurting anything, and I’m certainly not going to go inside. But did you know that there are cats living in here? Is anybody feeding them?”
She knew she was probably provoking the bear by trying to engage him in civil conversation. Especially when she was blatantly disregarding his desire for her to leave.
“I don’t give a damn if there are 1,000 cats in there. This building is coming down Saturday. And how the hell would I know if anybody is feeding those little pests? It’s not my concern. What is my concern is making sure that you get away from that building while we survey the area because you are not allowed to be here. You have to go.”
Naomi bristled. She had never liked being told what to do. Nobody ever had the right to try and control her. And yet, here was this man, doing his best to step up and be the big man on campus. Trying to make her feel as if, somehow, she were inferior, and she had to be stupid or something not to listen to him and abide by his requests.
“You can’t tear this building down with all these cats here. That would kill them! We need to get them out first. Why are you okay with that? It’s no better than murder!”
She looked down at one of the tiny kittens that was beginning to wind its way around her legs. Clearly, somebody around here was friendly toward the baby kittens, or this little one wouldn’t have been coming near her at all. It was good to know that somebody was trying to help keep them alive. Even if it wasn’t this jerk in a hardhat.
“I told you, miss, these little shits are not my concern. I don’t want anything to do with them. And I really couldn’t give less of a damn if the whole building destroyed them all. I hate cats. They’re just a menace anyway. It’s not like they have a home. These are feral cats. They don’t even like people. Why should we like them?” The man smirked and shook his head. “You’re a real piece of work, lady. Get out of here!”
“I don’t think I like you very much,” Naomi said, shaking her head and giving the kitten by her leg a small pet. She walked away from the building, her blood boiling. No, there was no way she was going to let this asshole tear the building down with all of those cats in there. She was going to have to do something about it. But what?
She was nearly shaking by the time she got back into her car, and she thought back to her own cat, wondering how anybody could ever be so cruel to another living being. It just didn’t make any sense.
But it was obvious that the man she had been speaking with was unsympathetic. And it would be very difficult to get him to lead her to hear about any of it. He wasn’t going to help. Though, she was going to find somebody who would. But how?
When she got back to her motel room, she gave Gumbo extra love as she tried to figure out a way she could help the cats in the building. Maybe an animal shelter?
As she scrambled to find a phone number for a local animal shelter, for some reason, Gavin’s business card caught her eye. She thought back to the friendly but reserved man briefly. He had been a lifesaver, truly. Another unwanted surge of excitement swept through her when she thought back to the way his touch had felt, firm but gentle. An indication of an amazing lover. Or maybe she just thought that because of how attracted she was to him. She had never seen a man who looked like that in person. She didn’t believe that they existed. He looked like he had walked right off of a billboard and almost didn’t even belong on the planet. It was strange, to say the least.
What was even stranger was her reaction to him. Never in her life had a man affected her so profoundly just by giving her a smile. Maybe it was just because she was mourning the loss of her relationship with Stu, but whatever the reason, it was clear that she had a strange affinity with this man who had helped her. She should probably just shrug it off, though. She had been in a vulnerable place. Of course, he would look good to her. A knight in shining armor, so to speak. She didn’t need anybody, though. It was a stupid societal demand that she try and cater her life to another person. She had tried doing that already and look where it had gotten her. In a really terrible situation with a man who really didn’t deserve her a
t all. She had given him so much and she had received so little in return. In fact, he had taken away so many things she had valued. Like her independence and her friendships. She would never let herself fall into a trap like that again.
The worst part about it was, she had met Stu when she was in the middle of another breakup as well. So, she couldn’t really trust her own instincts at this point. She was going to have to be as careful as possible so that she would avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. There was nothing more humiliating than realizing you have been deceived for so long that you don’t even know what the truth is anymore. It’s even worse to realize that you are the person who was deceiving yourself. And that was what she was having the hardest time reconciling. How was she ever going to allow herself to trust her own intuition again? It had usually been so good. But, somehow, this man had snuck under the radar and taken her in for himself. No questions asked either, she had just accepted it and assumed he was doing his best to love her. It was a terrible situation. She really had a lot of healing and self-reflection to do before she jumped into anything with somebody else. Especially so soon after breaking free of the terrible cycle with her previous relationship.
No, she wasn’t going to think about how attracted she was to Gavin. And she certainly wasn’t going to use him as her knight in shining armor again. It would be stupid to contact him over something like this. She was going to have to try and rally some sort of community support first. She would rather die than make herself vulnerable to another round of abuse by a man she hardly knew and yet, she was feeling an emotional and physical reaction to.
She had to be strong. And that was really what it amounted to. She was going to be strong and make sure that no matter what she did, she was doing it for her own good. She was never going to allow herself to work against herself again.
5.
Gavin arrived at his small apartment and sat down, sighing heavily. The place still felt unfamiliar, which was jarring after the comfortable exchange he had just had with Naomi. The woman had given him a feeling he had nearly forgotten. A sense of belonging. As if he had been in the right place at the right time.
He hadn’t felt that way since being on his home planet of Fiora. The closest he had come was in working on the big house that he’d bought for the six shifter men to live in during their stay on Earth. Most of the other Dragon shifters had already moved out.. Gavin had arranged everything and had found himself feeling very relieved that he had been able to provide the others with such a safe space.
He had actually begun to grow fairly attached to the old place. It was a nice house. Very large. And a lot of room for all the relics they had brought back with them from their home planet.
Now, though, they had set up the bunkers that were necessary in securing the artifacts safely and protecting them from any outside threat. It was impossible to say who might be after the potential descendants of the Dragon and Loni people. It seemed that no matter how hard they tried, they could not get a break. The longer they stayed on Earth, the clearer it was that they were in danger of having the potential sacred children unable to fulfill their roles and keep the shifter magic alive throughout the fabric of the universe.
It was a problem that weighed heavily on Gavin, especially with how close he had grown to many of the young children that had begun to grow up around him. He had known a few in his youth and had found them to be quite interesting and a little bit strange. Most of the other Dragon shifter children had avoided them like the plague. They were intimidated, and probably slightly jealous of their role in Dragon shifter societies.
Gavin had never been envious, however. He had always understood the complexities of what it meant to be one of the sacred children. There was untold danger and discrimination involved. Even on their own planet, the revered ones were also met with scorn and found it nearly impossible to have a normal social life. They were kept out of regular societal functions and met with suspicion and unkind curiosity when they did find themselves among the rest of the population too long.
It was hard to understand why others were so threatened by these soft-hearted beings, without which, they would hold no power. Perhaps, it was just that reason; without these beings, it could be said that each dragon shifter would seem to be a nothing. How difficult would that be, then, to face the physical embodiment of what made one special without having any hand in it yourself?
Gavin supposed he could understand the jealousy if he approached it from that angle, but in no way would he ever be able to claim that he could relate to it. He wasn’t jealous in the least. Rather, he viewed the children as precious and vulnerable beings to be protected, both emotionally and physically, so they could forever continue on in their efforts of making the universe a better place.
If nothing else, they made the universe seem a little bit less lonely. Unlike this tiny apartment. How nice would it be to have someone living with him. Someone beautiful and comfortable and soft.…
Naomi’s face popped, once again, into his mind and Gavin let out a growl of frustration. Why couldn’t he find a mate like that? It was always the wrong place or the wrong person, a human in a broken down car whose life was a mess. Why was it never his fated one?
Gavin let his eyes roam over the plain white walls and sat down heavily on the small loveseat he had gotten for free on the curbside not long ago. He was left alone here. The other Dragon shifters had begun to start their families. It had only been Gavin and TJ left. And that meant they both had to do their best to try and be independent on Earth. It made no sense for them to remain in the large house. In fact, they had to remain difficult to track. It was better for them to keep moving, now that it was decided that there was untold danger lurking in the shadows. Not only that but selling the house had been financially sound. It was good for them to have a nest egg to rely on. Especially with the young children running around. They hadn’t sold the house yet. TJ was still living there. But it was on the market, in the meantime.
Gavin missed living in the house, but in a way, it had made him sad. He had bought it with the intention that he and the other five Dragon shifters would be there together for the duration of their stay on Earth. He had never anticipated that they would split up and start their own families and become happy on their own on Earth’s terms. It was honestly very strange to him. And an odd concept that he had never considered as a possibility. No matter how smart he was, he hadn’t been able to anticipate this happening. He thought they would always be together. Things felt very lonely now.
He needed someone to share his life with. He wanted to fulfil his destiny. He wanted to feel the full effects of whatever it was he had been holding back with Naomi. And feel it with the right person. Not some ridiculous human who couldn’t get her life together. No matter how attracted to her he may be.
Gavin’s eyes wandered to the device that was sitting on the counter. None of them had really considered that he might have his own fated mate to deal with. But maybe TJ was right. Maybe he had been fixating too much on mates and not thinking enough about simply allowing the universe to run its course. Things were going to happen the way they were meant to happen. He couldn’t keep trying to control fate. He had always had some kind of deep inlaid anxiety that made him feel more apt to attempt controlling events around him as opposed to just allowing them to take place. He sought knowledge endlessly as an attempt to make sure he was always able to predict any potential outcomes and stay on top of every possible situation. He had been the quiet backbone of the group ever since they had gone to Earth. And everybody relied on him in different ways. Despite his intelligence, he was one of the most alpha men that even existed on his planet. And that wasn’t even his own opinion. It was something an Elder had once told him in confidence. And what made him a good leader was the fact that he would never outright call himself the leader. He would simply do what had to be done and make every effort to follow the hands of fate as closely as possible,
so why hadn’t fat
e blessed him yet with his mate? Why did it seem every female he met was somehow taken or in trouble? Or worse, a human?
His mind absently wandered back to the random woman he had helped on the side of the road. She had been a peculiar little thing. Pretty, in a way. But clearly a mess. Something was going on that made it difficult for her to succeed in this world. Some people had poor luck, it seemed. He hoped that wherever she was now, she was in higher spirits than those he had left her in.
Why was he thinking about her? What was the point in that? There was nothing special about her, one way or another. She was just a silly human who couldn’t get her life together. It was a waste of energy to attempt to understand such a thing. All he could do was try and hope that the universe would somehow provide what needed to be provided to the human and go back to worrying about his own state of being.
Or, wait. Wasn’t worrying the issue? He was supposed to be letting go of his concerns and trying to relax and trust in the universe to create the reality that was most favorable in regard to the greater good. There was a balance to all that happened, that much was impossible to deny. He wouldn’t allow himself to get any further from his fate. He would clear away the resistance. Maybe do something relaxing for the rest of the day.
Gavin? Relax? Was that even possible? He had entirely forgotten what it could be like to have down time. He had been so busy since they had gotten to Earth, it seemed nearly impossible for him to relax. There was so much to learn and teach the others so that they were able to have a seamless transition into this unfamiliar new world. And even though they had been living on Earth for years now, there was still so much to try to learn before they would ever seamlessly be considered natives of the planet.
Gavin loathed being met with raised brows and having to lie whenever people seemed to begin to suspect that there was something not quite right about the six of them. He had done hours’ worth of research to determine a backstory for the Dragon shifters; a background in a country far away from Brookside where the Elders had placed them. There had to have been a reason for this particular placement. He knew it. And yet, he couldn’t figure it out. What was so special about Brookside? What was it that made this the place they were meant to settle down? Meet mates? Raise children? Were they going to be there for the rest of their lives? Would he ever see his home planet again?