Halloween Dragon

by Liv Rider

  But if he wanted to have a chance at fixing things with Cameron, he was going to have to get used to that.

  “Let’s hope you don’t screw up too often, then,” Glen replied, his eyes still wide. “This is definitely going to take some getting used to.”

  “Okay, so where were we with the plan for the Wilson farm?” Olivia looked around. “Parker, you told Cameron to take me to the farm tomorrow and for Glen to settle in there to hibernate. Do you want to stick with that?”

  He winced at the memory of how he’d said that without even asking Cameron if he was fine with that. “I think that’s up to you now, isn’t it?” Part of him longed to take charge again, too worried about all the things that might go wrong.

  “All right. Do we want to do this tomorrow?” Olivia sounded hesitant as she looked at her fellow council members. While she was clearly eager to do more without Parker constantly looking over her shoulder, it was obvious she was also nervous about getting more responsibility.

  “I think we should.” Glen sat back. “I mean, Cameron already assumes we’ll come with him tomorrow, and I think that the sooner we do it, the better. We have no idea how far that Everett guy is with the sale. And what would we do with an extra day? I know how to behave like a bat. We’re either going to fool the inspectors from the Lewiston council, or we aren’t.”

  “It might be worth waiting a day to see how the other two councils feel about it,” Isaac pointed out. “But Glen has a point and I think it should be his call. He’s the one taking a huge risk here.”

  The others agreed with that. “I can ask the other councils if they’ve made a decision,” Olivia said. “And tell them we’ll carry out our plan regardless. Even if everything goes to plan, it’s not like we’ll be buying that farm by the end of the week.”

  Parker got up as his council continued their discussion of what needed to be done. It felt weird leaving them to it.

  “Parker?”

  He turned at Glen’s voice.

  “What are you going to do now?”

  He wanted to tell Cameron how he was going to change and that things would be better from now on and have Cameron rush over to forgive him. But he knew he’d have to prove it through action, not words. “I’ll take care of other matters, and ask Cameron if he’s okay with doing this tomorrow. I’ll let you know either way.”

  He headed into his office and picked up his phone. Whatever happened next would be entirely up to Cameron.

  15

  Cameron

  He hadn’t been entirely surprised when Parker called him later that afternoon. The guy was nothing if not persistent, after all.

  “What?”

  “You said I could call you if it was about the plan.” Parker sounded hesitant.

  He put the last of his groceries in the kitchen cupboard, then sat down on his couch. “Go on.” Was Parker really only calling about the plan?

  “There’s been a slight change. I’ve put the council in charge of it. Further details, execution, everything.”

  Why was Parker telling him this? “Okay….”

  “In fact, I’m going to put them in charge of a lot more things from now on. At least, I’m going to try to.”

  Was Parker saying what Cameron hoped he was saying? His stomach squirmed, and he told himself that this was just Parker blowing hot again. In a few days, he’d be back to ignoring Cameron. “Good luck with that.”

  “I guess I deserved that.” Parker didn’t even sound too bitter. “I’m serious, Cameron. What you said this morning…you were right. About all of it. I thought I was doing what was best, but I never talked to you about what you thought was best. I should’ve done.”

  Cameron was quiet, picking at a stray thread from his shirt. “Thank you.” He wanted to believe Parker. He wanted to see him again. He wanted him back here, on this couch, and finish watching Evil Dead 2. But he’d fallen for nice words before, and no matter how attracted he was to Parker, he needed more than promises.

  “And I also called to ask you this time if you were okay with taking Olivia to the farm tomorrow so she can pretend to spot Glen hibernating.”

  “I thought we’d already decided on that?”

  “I already decided on that. I thought I’d give you to chance to decide as well. You know more about the farm and who’s there now. If you think tomorrow or later this week is better, we’ll go with that.”

  “Oh.” He found himself smiling, and the knot in his stomach eased. He told himself that this wasn’t enough to prove Parker had changed. But it did prove that Parker was trying. “Um, no, tomorrow is fine. If your council agrees. I think we should do it as quickly as possible.”

  “My council agreed with tomorrow as well. I’ll send you Olivia’s contact details so the two of you can work out the details.”

  “Great.” He could hear the slight reluctance in Parker’s voice. This was hard for him. “Will you be there tomorrow?”

  Parker was quiet for a long moment. “Would you like me to be?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t even need to think. He wanted to see Parker again. He wanted to see how Parker would behave tomorrow. If he would really let Olivia and the rest of the council take the lead. If Parker was making an effort, so could Cameron.

  “Then I’ll be there. I mean, I’ll check with my council if they’re okay with it. I don’t want them to think I’m checking up on them. Thomas told me to trust them and take a step back.”

  “You talked to Thomas about this?” he managed, feeling his face redden. Then again, hadn’t he talked to Stacy about his troubles with Parker?

  “I had to talk to someone, and Thomas was the only who’d understand! He’s also…he’s also a Keeper of the Peace and in a relationship.”

  “Parker….” Cameron ran his free hand down his face. He didn’t know how to feel. His heart skipped a beat at Parker mentioning the word ‘relationship’, but his head told him they were moving way too fast.

  “I’m rushing things again, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, you are.” He smiled, glad Parker got it without him having to say it. “We can talk about this tomorrow.”

  “Sure! Now, I won’t call you again today, but I’m doing that so you can have space to think about everything that’s happened, not because I’m ignoring you.”

  He laughed at that. “Not that I don’t appreciate the heads-up, but did Thomas tell you to say that?”

  “He told me that honest communication was important.”

  “Well, he’s not wrong. Maybe if I’d been more honest with you, I wouldn’t have had that outburst this morning. I could’ve told you yesterday how I felt.”

  “I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway.”

  “Oh, I could get used to you being honest!” he joked.

  “I could get used to being honest with you.”

  Cameron knew he was smiling dopily at that, and something inside of him melted. What was it about Parker that made him feel this way? “I guess you’ll have another chance tomorrow.”

  “Yes, tomorrow. I’m sure Olivia will enjoy telling me when I’m allowed to turn up at the farm.”

  Cameron laughed at Parker’s grumbling. He was sure there’d be more grumbling tomorrow, but he’d take the grumbling if it meant having a Parker who wouldn’t focus only on Cameron or his job. “You’ll get used to it. See you tomorrow!”

  He’d been antsy ever since he’d arrived at the farm with Olivia. The first minutes of their drive had been awkward and quiet, until Cameron had brought up Parker’s phone call. Olivia mentioned she wasn’t sure what to think either and that she half-expected him to go back to how things had been. It had been nice to share his doubts and hopes with someone who understood.

  While Stacy had been skeptical about him introducing Olivia as his friend, no one minded another person who could help with cleaning up around the farm and the two barns. Every year there were plenty of empty plastic glasses and wooden sticks from the cotton candy strewn around the place, and Camero
n was always surprised at how little some people cared about their trash.

  They also worked on taking down all the Halloween decorations that were left, and sorting out which props could stay and which had to go back to whoever they’d borrowed them from. There was plenty to do, and Cameron knew they wouldn’t be finished by the end of the day.

  “You know, I’m starting to think that us promoting this event next year is definitely the best idea,” Olivia told him when they were taking a break. “Organizing something like this is a lot of work.”

  Cameron smiled at that. “Like I said, maybe people like you have already been coming here. How would we know?”

  “You wouldn’t,” she agreed. “But that is something we’ll need to discuss. Sharing the farm, I mean.” She looked around, but they were standing a few feet away from the barn and everyone else was still busy. “When do you guys start preparations?”

  “Oh, pretty early. We get together in May to go over new ideas, and from then on we’re here almost every weekend to work on it,” he explained. “We’re all volunteers, so it always depends on time and availability.”

  “From May onwards? Hmm, what if some of my people can help with the preparations? In exchange for visiting here, they help putting up, I don’t know, some of the fairy lights in the trees.” She winked at him. “We have our own skillset, and it’d save you guys time.”

  Time that they wouldn’t spend on the farm and letting the shifters have their privacy. “We don’t have to do all our preparation here,” he replied, willing to think along. “We’ve done a lot of brainstorming here, because for most of our ideas we needed the Wilsons to agree as well. But we can do that brainstorming anywhere.”

  “We’ve got some time to work out the details, but I think we can figure out a way to share the space.”

  “If it all goes to plan.” He didn’t want to bring the mood down, but he also didn’t want to get his hopes up.

  “It will.” Olivia sounded determined as she looked at her watch. “Glen should be in position by now. I’ll go into the smaller barn and pretend to spot him.”

  “Wait, he’s already here?” He’d never even noticed. “How has no one spotted a bat in broad daylight?”

  “Because people aren’t expecting to see a bat in broad daylight. Come on, I’ll need a reliable witness and everyone else knows you.”

  He hesitated before following her. “Are you sure? About the plan?”

  Olivia stopped a few steps away from him. “Not one hundred per cent, but it’s the best one we’ve got. And sometimes you have to take a risk, right?”

  Cameron thought of Parker, and nodded. “We can only do our best, right?” The other man wasn’t here yet. “Did, um, Parker say when he’d be here?”

  “He should be here in about half an hour. He promised not to do anything, and I want to see if he sticks to his end of the bargain.”

  “Yeah, me too,” he admitted. It was nice to have someone besides Parker to talk to about how weird this situation was. “It sounds like it’ll be difficult for him.”

  “It will. But he’s very motivated, obviously.” She gave him a significant look.

  Was he supposed to know or be Parker’s motivation?

  He sighed. There was still so much he didn’t know about shifters.

  Seeing Parker again was awkward. Cameron’s palms were sweaty as he pulled Parker aside and away from the rest of his friends and Olivia. “I’m still sorry for yelling at you like that yesterday.”

  “No, I deserved it.”

  “No. Well, kind of, but you didn’t deserve to be yelled at. I could’ve mentioned something sooner instead of letting it build up like that.”

  “I didn’t exactly give you a chance to say anything sooner,” Parker told him kindly. “Like I said, I probably wouldn’t have listened.”

  “I guess it worked out for the best.” He had no idea what he’d done to deserve someone like Parker. He still felt like any moment Parker would realize Cameron was just an ordinary human being and not some amazing shifter, and then Parker wouldn’t want to see him again.

  “I feel bad about not taking the time to answer any of your questions. Maybe we could cover some right now?” Parker glanced around. “As much as I can explain in public, anyway. There’s definitely some things I can only explain in private.”

  He definitely liked the idea of taking Parker home so they could spend the rest of the day talking about him being a shifter and what that meant, and see where that would lead. But he also had a night shift tonight, and he didn’t want rush back into things with Parker. He’d already been hurt once.

  But now that Parker was giving him a chance to ask him questions, Cameron didn’t know where to start. The only one echoing through his mind was ‘why.’ Why show him? Why had Parker ignored his work? Why was Parker so eager to make up with him? Why had Parker been so keen in meeting up again?

  He decided to go with his first thought. “Why did you show me? It’s clearly a big secret, and one of your council members was upset you’d told me. Why did you do it?”

  “Because I had to. I couldn’t stand the thought of you not knowing the truth about me. You deserve to know.”

  That told him exactly nothing, but Parker’s dark eyes were warm with affection. “Okay, but why me? You’ve only known me for a few days. I’m just some random human, I’m not—”

  “You aren’t just anything,” Parker insisted hotly. “You are everything to me.”

  From any other guy, that would’ve sent his alarm bells ringing. But from Parker, it sounded completely sincere. It didn’t sound possessive or creepy. It was a statement of fact. Cameron felt his cheeks redden. “But why? Parker, we met last Friday, you can’t know that.”

  “I can. You’re my fated mate.” Parker pulled a face after saying it. “I should’ve worked up to that differently. You obviously don’t know what that means.”

  “I really don’t.” But it was something very important to Parker, that much was clear.

  Parker looked around again, but most people were milling around the two barns rather than the area where the cars were parked. “It’s a shifter thing.” His voice was quiet. “Well, obviously it’s a thing for humans too, but we have better senses for it. Everyone has a fated mate. Someone who’s meant for them. Someone they’ll spend the rest of their lives with.”

  “And you think that’s me?” Part of him wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, but another part of him thought it explained a lot.

  “I know it’s you.” Parker’s eyes were locked with his. “I knew it Friday in the Maze of Terror. It took me a second because you were wearing those contacts, but I knew. You must’ve noticed something too.” He took Cameron’s hand. “You must’ve felt the attraction.”

  He’d definitely felt attracted to Parker right from the start, but that just proved Cameron had eyes. It didn’t prove anything about them being meant for each other.

  But it had been about more than just Parker’s looks, hadn’t it? He’d liked the other man too, even when they didn’t seem to have anything in common. And he’d told Parker things he normally never told guys on a first date. He’d trusted Parker almost immediately. Hadn’t he been telling himself how weird it was how into Parker he was? How strange it was to be so upset over a guy he’d just met?

  Did he finally have his answer?

  “I think I did, yes. Do, I mean. I felt drawn to you more strongly than I’ve ever felt before. When you were pretty much ignoring me, it hurt like being dumped after a long relationship.”

  Parker squeezed his hand, running his thumb alongside the back of his hand. He’d no doubt meant it as reassuring, but Cameron felt a shiver run down his spine. It had been way too long since they’d kissed. Since they’d cuddled up together. Since they’d had sex.

  “Is that normal?” he asked, rather than ‘let’s go to my place immediately.’ It was a lot to take in, and he couldn’t let his libido override his common sense. “Everything f
eeling a lot more intense?”

  “From what I’ve heard, yes,” Parker’s eyes had grown heated too. “Once you’ve met your fated mate, nothing else matters.”

  “That sounds kind of unhealthy.”

  Parker laughed. “I think that’s mostly when you’ve just met. Thomas and Joel don’t seem different from any other couple anymore.”

  “They’re fated mates too?” His voice had risen in surprise, and Cameron clamped his mouth shut. The two of them got some looks, but no one came over. Clearly, they’d noticed the two of them holding hands and decided to give them some privacy.

  “I should’ve let them tell you, but yes, they are. Joel is human too. Trust me, he was as freaked out about it as you were. Probably more. Would you like to talk to him? Both of them?”

  “I think that’d be good, yes.” He definitely needed someone besides Parker to talk to about this weird world filled with shifters and mates. “How did they—”

  “Cameron! Hey, Cameron!”

  Cameron turned to see Stacy come running up.

  “Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds,” she said, panting. “But that friend of yours, Olivia, she says she’s found something in the barn.”

  “Oh?” Cameron played innocent.

  “Yeah, some sort of rare bat. You want to take a look?”

  Cameron let go of Parker’s hand. Parker had already taken a step over to Stacy. “I don’t, but I think Parker would like to.” He knew Parker would want to make sure Olivia and Glen were doing things according to plan.

  Parker looked from Stacy to the barn, and then back to Cameron. “You know, I’m sure that bat will be fine without us. Too many people would probably just spook it.”

  Stacy’s eyes widened. “Yes, that’s a good point. I’ll tell everyone to get out of the barn. It’s a good thing Olivia knows about rare species, or we’d never have known!”

  “What is she going to do now?” Cameron was a little surprised Parker wasn’t joining Stacy. It was obvious Parker wanted to go from the way he kept glancing at the barn.