Dragon Eruption

by Amelia Jade

  Martin sighed painfully at the joke.

  “Hah! I knew it,” Gray said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Martin. “He likes puns!”

  “Untrue,” Martin said, though he failed to elaborate.

  “Gray, nobody but you shares your undying love for puns,” he stated. “Not even Kelly.”

  The other shifter just laughed.

  “So Martin, you’ve been here a few weeks now. Met anyone?” Gray asked slyly.

  Martin coughed to cover what looked sounded like surprise, and then glanced back and forth between the two, as if he thought they were crazy.

  “Um no. Not met anyone. Not yet.” He fell silent. Again.

  “I see. Well, we’ll keep asking,” Hector said, “Because I feel like even if you had, you wouldn’t tell us.”

  Martin shrugged.

  Typical.

  “And you?” Gray asked. “How are things going with you?”

  “You know exactly how well they’re going,” he said sourly. “Which is to say, they’re not.”

  Gray frowned. “I thought you said she was it?”

  Hector shrugged. “I thought so too, man. My bear went absolutely crazy for her the night you brought her here with Kelly. We even had a good time, talking and laughing while I calmed her down and what not. But like I told you, she hasn’t been talking to me. Maybe it was a false alarm?”

  “At all?”

  “I mean, she replies. But it’s always the same ‘I can’t, I’m busy’ routine. So I’ve just stopped asking. It’s clear she’s trying to avoid me.” He slumped back into the extra-wide couch, his good cheer evaporating at the reminder.

  “Have you considered that maybe she really just has been busy when you’ve asked her?” Gray pushed, not letting the topic die.

  Hector glared at him. “Why yes, I actually have. But the fact is, she doesn’t say ‘This is when I’m not busy, how about then?’ It’s always just that she’s busy and can’t. That’s how I tell the difference at least.”

  “Maybe,” Gray said hesitantly. “When was the last time you saw her? Tell me it wasn’t the night at the embassy after I had to fight Jacen, was it?”

  He grimaced at the question. Jacen had been the biological father of Kelly’s child. He’d come from another shifter territory, and everyone had thought him dead. Things hadn’t gone so well upon his arrival, and Gray had ended up killing him when he’d tried to steal his child from Kelly’s stomach via cutting her open. It hadn’t been a pretty situation at all, and Rachel had gotten sort of caught up in the middle of it.

  “No,” he said, which was truthful. He had seen her since then, though not in the way Gray meant.

  “Great! That’s a start. When was the last time you saw her?”

  “Two nights ago,” he said quietly.

  Gray frowned. “But you were on duty then.”

  “I know.”

  “You skipped out on your post?”

  Hector flipped him off. “Fuck you. You know I would never do that. Don’t even joke. No, she was at the strip club where Martin and I had to go.”

  “Oh.” Gray said. Then his eyes widened as the implications grew. “Oh. Was she, umm…”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But she had on an outfit similar to some of the other working girls there. And she was standing up on the VIP lounge stage, watching it all go down.”

  “Oh,” Gray said again.

  “Yeah.” Hector wasn’t sure what else to say.

  Martin spoke up, much to his surprise. “She wasn’t working there.”

  He lifted his eyebrows questioningly.

  “I saw you staring,” Martin said in explanation. “It wasn’t hard to pick her out. She had a sash on her that read Bridesmaid. I’d guess she was there for a bachelorette party.” Then he fell silent again, rising from the couch and moving to the sink, getting himself a glass of water.

  Martin was weird like that. He preferred water over beer.

  “Oh,” Gray said once more, looking back and forth. Then he and Hector shared a shrug, both of them baffled by his insistence on drinking water by the gallon.

  “So why don’t you ask her to see you again?” he prodded once Martin had returned.

  “I dunno. I’ve given her plenty of chances?”

  “Come on, try again,” Gray said forcefully. “Ask her straight up if she wants you to stop calling or not. That’s the easiest way to go about it.”

  Hector shook his head and stood up. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He walked over to the phone—most shifters eschewed cell phones, preferring to talk face-to-face—and punched in her number, which he’d forced himself to memorize.

  It rang several times, and he was prepared to put the receiver back down and tell Gray that he’d told him so.

  “Hello?”

  He nearly dropped the phone in surprise.

  “Ah, hi, Rachel?”

  “That’s me.”

  “Hi,” he said, trying to get his shaking voice back under control, overwhelmed by the sudden nervousness flooding his system.

  Stop it, he commanded himself. You are a trained shifter. You’ve fought numerous battles, you were even part of the war, where you served with distinction. One phone call with a beautiful woman is not going to get the best of you. Now get it together and get it done!

  “Hi,” she replied, sounding weirded out.

  “It’s Hector,” he gritted out through clenched teeth, still struggling to maintain his composure.

  “Oh, hi Hector!”

  Was that excitement he heard? Or just false cheer she’d injected into her voice?

  “What’s up?”

  Just go for it. Ask her already. Hector inhaled, rolled his shoulders several times and steeled himself to ask the question.

  “I was just wondering, if you, um, maybe had some free time, and wanted to get together soon?”

  There was a lengthy pause, and he began to look toward Gray with an “I told you so” look on his face. But before he could, Rachel responded.

  “Okay. I think I would like that. When are you free?”

  Holy. Shit.

  Chapter Five

  Rachel

  She finished pulling on her outfit and admired herself as best she could in the bathroom mirror. A full-length mirror was something she desperately longed for, but unfortunately the meager allowance that was given to all the women by the Cadians was not enough to allow for fringe niceties like that. She’d had to scrimp and save to buy the outfit she was wearing today, along with just about every other outfit she owned, except for a dress she’d worn to the formal ball when she’d first arrived in Cloud Lake. An extra sum had been provided for that.

  “Should I wear the dress instead?” she asked, turning to her friends.

  Both Elle and Angela had come over to help her prepare. Rachel had been so excited. She’d wanted to go on her date the evening that he’d called, but it hadn’t been convenient for either of them, and would have been semi-rushed anyway. So they’d agreed on the following day, and now it was here, and the time was near as well. Hector would be here any minute, and she wanted to make sure he liked the way she looked.

  “No, it’s too long and formal,” Elle said. “This is the first date. You want to dress nice, but you don’t want to go overboard.” She paused. “Do you know where he’s taking you yet?”

  She shook her head. “No idea. He said it would a surprise, but I didn’t have to wear anything specific.”

  “I think you look fabulous,” Angela said, nodding her head fiercely to put emphasis on her words.

  “Damn straight,” Elle agreed. “He’s gonna be drooling all over you.”

  Rachel blushed. “Okay, if you think so. God, who knew dressing up while almost thirty weeks pregnant would be so hard?”

  The three of them giggled.

  “Probably anyone who stopped to actually think about it,” Elle said. “But trust us, you look great. And he’s well aware of the fact that you’re pregnant.
”

  “I know,” she said. “I mean, I know he knows, but I can’t help but wonder if he knows. You know. Like, he knows I’m pregnant, he can see it. But does he know what that means if he gets involved with me? If we’re going to be together, that he’s signing up for the child that comes with me?”

  She reached down and caressed her stomach gently with both hands through the white stretchy top she wore. It was like a blouse—it had a collar and buttons on it—but the material was designed to stretch around her stomach. Elle had found it while out shopping one day, and since the two of them were near the same size, she’d agreed to let her borrow it. Many of the women did this, since they couldn’t afford to all buy their own wardrobes.

  Putting together women of similar sizes into clothing support groups had just been one of the many types of groups she’d put together since arriving in Cloud Lake. It had just been a random idea at the time, but now she was extremely grateful for it. She would never have thought of such an item beforehand, but it looked amazing, or so they both were telling her. The true test would be what Hector thought.

  “I’m sure he knows,” Elle said dismissively. “But just in case, make sure you bring it up at some point before it gets serious, just so that you can reassure yourself.” She shrugged. “It’s what I would do.”

  “Yeah, I definitely will. Not today though,” she said.

  Elle made to reply, but before she could, the door of her ground-floor unit shook with the restrained thunder of someone knocking upon it.

  “Oh my goodness, he’s here!” Angela half-shrieked.

  “Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be freaking out?” she asked Elle, while the both of them looked at their friend.

  “Yeah. But don’t tell her that,” Elle replied.

  Rachel laughed, feeling the butterflies in her stomach begin to do loops as she brushed a hand through her short hair and took in a deep breath. “Okay ladies, into the bedroom, and no making any noise. And definitely no peeking.”

  Angela pouted while Elle dragged her along, disappearing back into the small bedroom at the rear of the unit. Once she was sure the door was closed, Rachel headed toward the front door, which rattled again with a knock.

  “Coming,” she called.

  The knocking stopped.

  Looking through the peephole she found herself staring at a stubble-covered chin. The eyeholes clearly weren’t designed with shifters in mind.

  “Who is it?” she asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

  “It’s Hector,” came the reply, the low thunder of his voice working its way through the door.

  Rachel couldn’t contain the smile that blossomed on her face even if she’d wanted to, which she didn’t. Throwing back the lock, she swung the door open.

  “Hi,” she said nervously as he came into sight.

  “Hello,” he replied, his voice tight with nerves as well.

  The two stood there for a moment without saying anything. Rachel looked him up and down. He was wearing a bone-colored V-necked short-sleeve shirt and charcoal gray pants with a sharp crease down each leg. The shoes were a dark brown mix of dress shoe and everyday walker.

  She felt her cheeks grow heated as his eyes met hers and she realized he’d been watching her give him the once-over. The brown circles of his eyes seemed to shrink as his pupils dilated while he smiled at her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, not trusting her voice to say anything more.

  “Shall we then?” He gestured down the little concrete walk that led to the crushed gravel that was the single-lane pathway between the units.

  “Of course.” She stepped out of the house, grabbing her purse from a hook and closing the door behind her. She didn’t lock up. Not only was there no need, but it would have been unlocked when Elle and Angela left anyway.

  Hector snagged her arm and linked it in his before she could protest. They walked along the winding pathway that led through the units, heading for the exit. There were a number of buildings that had been constructed, all with equal amounts of units within them. Each unit was identical, allowing the shifters to have constructed them quickly and easily. They were meant to be temporary though, and so not much effort had been put into things like landscaping and fringe décor.

  Eventually they emerged back onto one of the streets that marked the edges of Cloud Lake, and headed back into the town itself. The units were at the south end of town, while the embassy itself was on the eastern border.

  “Do I get to find out where we’re going?” she asked eventually.

  “Nope.”

  “Oh.” She fell into silence.

  Hector took pity on her and gave her arm a little shake. “A surprise is better, isn’t it?”

  “Depends on the surprise.”

  He laughed gently. “I had to go for something a little generic, since I wasn’t completely sure where your interests lay. But I think I picked out something good that we’ll both enjoy.”

  Rachel worked her mouth in thought. “I see. It sounds like you’ve put some thought into this.”

  “Well, I’ve had several weeks to think about it,” he said, teasing her about always being busy.

  “I’m sorry!” she laughed. “I’m involved in a lot of stuff with the other women, and it’s just been so hectic lately. I just didn’t have time.”

  “You found some now though, so I’m thankful for that.”

  She smiled up at him, admiring the soulful look of his eyes as the brown circles focused on her.

  “Sort of,” she admitted. “I was also kind of told I wasn’t allowed to come to some of the things and that I was being banned from them until I agreed to see you.”

  Hector came to a stop.

  “What?”

  The mirth on his face took away any sting that might have been in his words. “You’re telling me that this is a pity date? That your friends forced you into it?”

  Rachel just sort of shrugged.

  “Oh jeez. My ego is never going to recover from this one,” he moaned, clutching at his heart. “Here I thought you’d finally just had some time available. But nope, you’re doing it just so you can be allowed back in your groups!”

  “That’s not it!” she laughed, slugging him playfully in the arm before slipping her hand back around his elbow. “It’s not like that at all.”

  “It sure kind of seems like it.”

  “It’s not. I kind of wanted to do it already, and when they found out that I kept saying no to you because of my commitments to them, they took charge and removed my excuse.”

  “I’m still not feeling overly reassured that you actually want to be here,” he joked.

  “Good. That means you’ll have to try extra hard,” she teased, tugging on his arm to prevent him from walking away as he laughed.

  “I’m already going to try extra hard. How else am I supposed to impress a beautiful woman like you and make her want to see me again?”

  She smiled at the flattery. “You’re off to a good start.”

  “Finally, something is coming up Hector!”

  They both laughed and then continued on their walk. The pace was slow, and he stopped them at various benches along the way. It was weird; every prior date that Rachel had been on, the man had picked her up in a car. It was just a thing, they drove somewhere. But it wasn’t like that with Hector. They walked. All shifters walked. Few, if any of them really, drove vehicles. Most of them hated technology and stayed away from it as much as possible. There was a nice quaintness to that, but before long her feet began to hurt.

  “Is it much farther?” she asked gently. “I don’t mean to complain, but, well…” she gestured at her stomach and half-lifted her shoulders in his direction.

  “Another minute, maybe three depending on pace,” he said.

  Rachel frowned up the street as they kept walking, trying to figure out where they were going. It was roughly five thirty she figured, which was a little early f
or dinner, but still a possibility. She could eat if he took her for food. Her eyes weren’t seeing a restaurant though.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

  “To get the single best thing humans have invented besides beer,” he said with a grin.

  Rachel glanced at him. “I thought shifters had a thing about steaks as well?”

  “We do. But I said things humans invented. Steaks are definitely a shifter invention. Sorry.”

  “I don’t care who came up with it, as long as it’s still pink when it’s served,” she said pointedly.

  Hector mimed fainting. “Please, just take me now. A woman who likes her steak properly cooked?”

  She grinned. “I’m not a rare type of girl, but medium-rare, medium at the absolute most, and I’m a happy lady.”

  “Hallelujah!” he exclaimed, then sobered slightly. “But we’re not going for steaks. Or beer. I figured the first we could discuss, the second I’ll hold off till the third date.” He paused. “Maybe.” They laughed.

  “But seriously, where are we going?” They had paused in front of a convenience store/video mart, something she didn’t think still existed. “A video store?”

  Hector grinned and spun her around slowly, waving a hand in front of her. “Behold,” he said in awe. “The holy grail.”

  “Ice cream?” she said. “You’re taking me for ice cream?”

  He cringed. “Is that a bad thing?”

  Rachel hugged his arm tight. “Hell no! That’s amazing. Nobody’s ever taken me for ice cream to start a date. Let’s go!”

  They started across the street after waiting for several cars to pass.

  “Though I didn’t realize that you had such an interest in ice cream,” she said, meaning shifters in general.

  “Oh, oh Rachel. You have no idea. Besides bars, ice cream parlors are the second most profitable enterprise in Cadia. I think we have like, fifteen of them, maybe? Something crazy like that.”

  She felt her forehead wrinkle as she stared at him in disbelief. “No way. Seriously? Fifteen?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Since we started coming here on the regular, two more have opened in Cloud Lake. It’s…just a thing, I guess.”

  “Interesting.”

  Hector paused. “You…do like ice cream, don’t you?”