“Everything okay?” Harlan’s concern showed in his voice. Their quiet lives here had been shattered recently. Although the knowledge that there might be other dragons out there, deep in the mountains, under the spell of ancient sleep had been welcome news for the dragon family, it also left them wary.
Fiona nodded. “I’m fine.” She set her briefcase down on the table, and then took a newspaper out from under her arm and spread it out on the scrubbed wooden surface.
Harlan raised his eyebrows at Ruby, who smiled in return. Fiona often went off in a rage about simple things, like the cutting down of an ancient tree, or the building of a house in what she considered a sacred grove. Or the price of milk. With Fiona, you never knew what you were going to get, and they all loved her for it.
Within reason, her dragon yawned sleepily.
Fiona jabbed her finger at an article on the front page. “That.”
Ruby frowned and looked closer. “Man Found Wandering in the Mountain. Magnus Dumas was found by a local resident in the mountains around Wolf Valley. Despite exhaustive attempts to discover his identity, it remains a mystery. Mr. Dumas can only remember his name, and police are asking for anyone who knows him to come forward.”
Ruby looked up at Fiona and shrugged. In return, Fiona huffed and jabbed her finger at the newspaper once more. “Magnus Dumas.”
“I can read.” Ruby frowned, and then drew back, shaking her head. “You know him!”
“I most certainly do. The reason they can’t find out anything about him is that they are not looking back far enough.” Fiona folded her arms. “Magnus Dumas made his name as an artist in the seventeenth century. I never met him, but I did see his work.”
“Do you think?” Ruby could hardly contain her excitement. “He’s one of us?”
“Either that or he’s an imposter.” That did not sit well with Fiona.
“I’ll go over there and speak to him.” Ruby headed for the door.
“Eat first,” Harlan said gently and reached out for her, catching her by the shirt. “Eat, and calm down.”
“But he’s out there, all alone.” Ruby pointed at the door.
“And he’ll be fine for another half an hour.” Harlan looked at Fiona with concern, seeking backup. He guided Ruby back to the table. “I don’t want you getting your hopes up only to have them dashed.”
“But another dragon.” Ruby needed Harlan to understand how much this meant to her.
“Or an imposter.” Harlan cast a disapproving glance toward his wife, but it slid off her unnoticed. “Fiona, you don’t know if it’s just a coincidence.”
“True.” Fiona sat down at the table next to her son and tenderly stroked his head. Harlan Jr. turned to face her, a toothy smile plastered on his face. “But what if it’s not? We have to know. Just think, all these years and there could have been a dragon on our doorstep.”
Harlan fetched his wife a plateful of stew. “Here, eat. Then Ruby can go over to Wolf Valley and see what she can find out. But I doubt a story about a dragon shifter would have made the papers.”
Ruby had to agree. Wolf Valley would not want to draw attention to a shifter in this way. But the only way to know for sure was if they met Magnus Dumas. As she forked her food into her mouth, under the watchful and concerned gaze of Harlan, all she could think of was her dragon’s sense of something.
But she wasn’t going to share that. Not yet. Not until she knew for sure if this something was her mate. If this something was Magnus Dumas.
Chapter Two – Magnus
Magnus lifted the axe and brought it down hard, splitting the wood in two. He’d grown to enjoy physical labor over the last couple of weeks. As his body grew stronger, he liked the exercise, and the way he could focus on each stroke, forgetting everything else but the rise and fall of his axe.
He laughed sardonically and yanked the axe from the block, picked up another piece of wood to split, and positioned it in place. Then he swung the axe once more.
As if he hadn’t forgotten enough. That was his problem, he had forgotten everything.
Everything since he’d found himself on the side of a mountain, freezing cold, practically naked, with no idea why he was there, or where he was from. His memories now only went back to the moment Fara found him.
“Hey, Magnus, want some coffee?” Fara called from the farmhouse. Her voice carried through the open window as he set up the next log to split.
“Yes, please.” He let the axe fall once more. He owed his life to Fara; if she had not found him and brought him home, he would have died. At least, if her wolf had not found him and led him down off the frozen peak. Then the wolf had changed, or shifted, into a woman. A woman. From a wolf. He had truly thought he was hallucinating, that the cold had damaged his brain. But there she was. And here he was, a guest in her home. No questions asked, not caring that he was a stranger with no past.
An itch in his brain, a shift of consciousness gave him a split second of hope. Was it a memory trying to push its way through the barrier between his conscious and subconscious? Was he about to get a clue as to who he was? Colors floated in his mind, coalescing into a shadowy figure with no face but no matter how he grasped at it, it blew away like a leaf on the breeze.
Magnus swung the axe into the chopping block and sauntered toward the farmhouse, meeting Fara on the porch. She studied him closely, before handing him his coffee cup and then sitting down on the rocker, which was her favorite place to relax and watch the world go by.
Tough and wiry like mountain grass, Fara had an ageless beauty to her weather-worn face. She had lived in this farmhouse, on the lower slopes of the mountain, her whole life from what she had told Magnus. And no one and nothing was ever going to make her leave.
“You okay?” Fara asked. “You have that look about you.”
“What look?” Magnus asked as he sipped his coffee.
“That faraway look you have.” She looked at him slyly. “Are you remembering anything?”
“No.” He shook his head once, “Not a thing.”
“You know I won’t kick you out if you do remember,” Fara reassured him. “You have a place to stay here whether your name is Magnus Dumas or Michael Drum.” She smiled and rocked in the chair. “Damn fancy name.”
Magnus stared at the mountains in the distance. “My name is the only thing I remember. Whether it is my real name, or I made it up, I have no clue. By the gods, it is infuriating.” He wanted to slam his fist into something hard. He wanted to pound at his brain until it revealed its secrets to him.
“There you go with your fancy words again. People don’t talk like that anymore.” She sat forward, her feet on the floor as the chair stopped rocking. “My guess is you got whacked on the head by a big boulder or something.”
“The doctor said there were no signs of injury.” He placed his hand on the back of his head. Fara had taken him to the local apothecary. Who had prescribed rest and Advil. She had then brought him home and wrapped him in a comforter. Magnus was wrestling with these new words. Slowly, he was beginning to fit them into his speech. Fara was a good teacher, a stern look or a hooting laugh soon told him he had made a mistake.
“There’s no other reason I can think of why you wouldn’t remember.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless you wanted to forget.”
“Why would I want to forget?” He knew why. Fara had told him all the reasons he might want to forget. Or need to forget. He had dismissed them all. He was neither a murderer nor a thief. “I want to remember.”
She cackled. “So you say, but you would say that, wouldn’t you?”
“Because I have a dark past, and if Fara knew who I really was, she’d bust my ass in jail.” He smiled as he mimicked Fara’s words.
She slapped his arm. “I like you, Magnus. I like you a lot.” She let out a long sigh. “Beats being on my own. I miss the days when Sol visited all the time.” Sol was a young man who had a special place in Fara’s heart. She had helped him when his family first came
to Wolf Valley, filled with the need for revenge.
“You like waifs and strays,” Magnus observed.
“I do. Most likely because I see myself as one, too.” Fara drained her cup and stood up. “I’m going to town, want to come?”
Magnus pressed his lips together and looked toward the road, which led to town, a place filled with things he could not remember. It was as if his brain was further fragmented. He knew what a man was, he knew what a woman was, a house was the place you lived, and an axe cut wood.
But a truck. He had no recollection of a mechanical beast that roared into life, but had no heartbeat. Instead, inside its belly was an engine. Engine. He repeated the word. Did he really want to sit inside the mechanical beast and allow Fara to transport him to town?
The beast might not be alive, but it had a mind of its own. Often going fast when it needed to slow and swerving sharply as it navigated bends in the road. He shuddered at the thought. However, if he was ever going to find out who he was, he could not stay hidden away at the farm for the rest of his life. “I will ride with you. In the beast.”
Fara slapped his back. “Brave man.” She got up, laughing to herself as she went inside only to return a few minutes later with her purse.
A purse was also different to that which he remembered. Fara’s purse contained items too numerous to mention. They were stuffed haphazardly inside the largest compartment, which meant she could never find what she was looking for. This often resulted in her emptying out the entire contents in search of the object she needed.
This was so different to the leather coin purse he remembered, which was carried on a belt, slung around his hips. His hand went to his hip at the thought of coins. Gold. He had a curious need to fill his hands with the precious metal.
When he had informed Fara of this, she had laughed her dry laugh and said, “Wouldn’t we all.”
It seemed coins were no longer made of silver and gold. In fact, paper was the method of payment often used to purchase goods. Or, and he shuddered at this thought, plastic.
Yes, a small piece of material called plastic was more valuable than a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.
“Are we going or are you going to stand there gawping for the whole day?” Fara yanked open the door of her truck and got inside. With some trepidation, Magnus did the same. “Buckle up, sweetheart, it might be a bumpy ride.”
Magnus did not need telling twice. He reached for the harness that would keep him in his seat when gravity failed him. Fara turned a key and the sound of the beast’s engine sent chills through his body. He searched for his courage and curled his fingers around the edge of the seat as Fara put the truck in drive.
With a rumble, the truck set off along the stone trail toward the road. Bumping along, Fara switched on the music box, which she called a radio. At least the music wasn’t too bad, the beat was fast and his foot tapped with a mind of its own.
“Where are we going?” Magnus asked as they bumped over a large pothole.
“We need some groceries.” Fara eyed him kindly. “You know how to eat, don’t you?”
“It is one of the many things I have retained my memory of.” He nodded sagely, and Fara laughed dryly.
“I like you, Magnus.”
“And I like you, Fara.” Magnus grinned at her. “I owe you my life.”
“Ahh, I was just in the right place at the right time.” She turned onto the road. “What you were doing up there remains a mystery to me.”
“Me, too.” He tried to relax in his seat, but the truck swerved to avoid another pothole and his fingers gripped the seat tighter.
“Don’t worry,” Fara told him. “I’ve survived this long.”
Magnus struggled to keep that in mind as she reached a road junction and kept on going. “Should we not have stopped?”
“Who’s passed their driving test, and who hasn’t?” Fara asked him bluntly.
Magnus kept his words and his thoughts to himself as they neared the town of Wolf Valley. It was a prosperous town, although Fara had told him up until a few years ago, it had been relatively lawless. Then Natalie had taken control, becoming the new alpha.
It took Magnus a while to get his head around that. Wasn’t an alpha a male?
But when he met Natalie, he understood why she was the right woman for the job. Calm, firm, and fair, the townsfolk liked her, and she’d earned their respect.
“Let’s go check in with Natalie. She and Kira share the job of sheriff in Wolf Valley,” Fara suggested as she parked the truck on the main street through town. “See if she’s got any information on you.”
“I thought she said she’d come out to the farm if she found out anything about me?” Magnus got out of the truck and slammed the door, hoping the rust which held the truck together would not fail now.
“She’s a busy woman. And anyway, if she doesn’t have any news, it will jog her mind to get moving and make more inquiries.” Fara pointed at him, her finger starting at his feet and going up to his head. “A man like you is not easy to misplace.”
He frowned, unsure of what she meant, but before he could ask her, a prickling sensation crept up his spine. “Do you feel that?” Goosebumps stood up on his arms as a sense of recognition hit him square between the eyes.
“Feel what?” Fara asked, looking around.
He cocked his head to one side. “I am not sure.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he swung around, looking behind him. There was no one there, only people going about their daily lives.
“Are you feeling lightheaded?” Fara asked, concern on her face. “If you are, we should get you inside. I’m not picking you up off the ground.”
“I am not going to swoon,” Magnus assured her. Breathing deeply, he regained his composure. “Let us speak to Natalie.”
“Okey dokey.” Fara led the way, continually looking over her shoulder to check if Magnus was still on his feet.
A sense of foreboding swept over him, as if he were about to be swept away by a monstrous wave. Was that a clue, had he been lost at sea? Perhaps he had been swept overboard a ship and spent too much time underwater, causing him to lose his memories.
But as they entered the sheriff’s station, he knew this new sensation was not connected to his past, but to his future, and the young woman standing before him looking shocked was that future.
But was it possible for him to have a future when he did not know his past?
Chapter Three – Ruby
“Magnus.” Natalie looked at Ruby and then to the man at the door, concern on her face. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” The man. And boy, was he a man. He might look dazed and confused, but that didn’t detract from his appearance. Strong, lean, he looked as if he could hold his own in a fight. Not that she intended to fight him. Oh no, there were many, many other more pleasurable activities she would like to experience with…what was his name?
Magnus, her dragon told her.
The man they’d come here to find. Ruby fought her way through the fog in her brain and calmed her rapid breathing, fighting to focus on the reason they were here. “You are Magnus Dumas?”
“I am,” he inclined his head slightly but didn’t take his eyes off her. So he’d felt it, too. Did his heart beat like thunder rolling down off the mountains on a summer’s day? Did…
He’s our mate, her dragon thrust that thought front and center in her mind, stopping the flow of flowery language in its tracks.
Are you sure? Ruby asked. When Sapphi found her mate, she’d fallen from the sky. Literally. This didn’t feel as strong. And he wasn’t swept away by her nearness. A wave of disappointment hit her.
There’s part of him hidden, her dragon told her. Part of him tied up in shadow.
“Do you know Magnus?” the woman who had arrived with him asked suspiciously.
“I don’t. No, sorry. But I know someone who thinks they might.” Ruby forced a soft smile on her face.
“You know someone who met Magnus before?”
the sheriff asked.
“Not exactly.” Ruby fought through the longing in her heart. Her dragon was right, there was a connection between them.
“Listen, if you’re a timewaster, I’m going to ask you to leave,” Natalie said bluntly.
“A timewaster?” Ruby asked, then her eyes widened. “No. I should explain. My mom, my adopted mom, read the name in the paper and said she knew of a Magnus Dumas a long time ago.”
“When he was a child?” Natalie asked.
“No. Not as a child. But a long time ago.” Did she want to tell them her mom was a dragon shifter? Even amongst other shifters, they kept their presence secret.
The woman cackled. “I knew there was something different about this one.”
“What?” Magnus turned around and faced the old woman. “What do you mean, different? Because I am not like you, Fara?”
“No, not just that you can’t shift,” Fara replied. “Something else. Like how you don’t know what a coffee pot is.” She shrugged. “Who doesn’t know that?”
“Oh, you’re not a shifter?” Ruby couldn’t hide the disappointment from her voice. She’d always dreamed her mate would be a shifter. This news also meant he couldn’t be a dragon shifter. Which meant he could not be the same man Fiona remembered from the past. Unless the Ancient Slumber spell worked on humans, too.
Disappointment clouded Magnus’s face. “Then I am not the man you are looking for.” He sighed heavily. “We should go, Fara, and get into that mechanical beast of yours and leave these ladies to their business.”
“Does he really speak like that?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah, huh,” Fara said. “Wherever he’s been, he’s been stuck in a time warp.”
Ruby’s face paled, it all added up. Except for him not being a shifter. “Are you sure you’re not a shifter?”
Magnus shrugged. “I’ve tried.”
“What about painting? Can you paint?” Ruby asked hopefully, clutching at anything that might link this man to the Magnus Dumas of the past.
Awakened Dragon: Bear Creek Book 18 Page 2