by Sophie Stern
“That’s not true,” she shook her head. “Mom and I always kept in touch. I called her every Sunday: like clockwork.”
“She told me there was no way for me to contact you about Willie’s death,” Liam said slowly, realizing what had happened. “I didn’t listen to her, Cadence. I hired a private investigator to find you. I did everything I could. Your father loved you very much, and I thought notifying you of his passing was the least I could do.”
“My mom didn’t tell me,” Cadence said slowly, realization dawning on her. “She knew, but she didn’t tell me. She continued crying, but her tears were silent now, rolling down her cheeks in waves.
“It’s going to be okay.”
“None of this is okay. How will I ever be okay? I need answers, and my dad is gone.”
“I can help you.”
Then she started crying harder. Liam’s heart felt as though it would tear in two. The truth was he wasn’t the best at dealing with women. Yeah, he had Janae and his nieces, but that was different. Cadence was different. She had just gotten the worst news of her life, and Liam was the one who had to help her through. The problem was that he didn’t know how to do this.
Willie had been so much better at dealing with stuff like this. When Connor passed away, Willie had taken Liam under his wing and promised that everything would be okay, but he’d done more than that.
He’d given Liam something to do, something to take care of. He’d given Liam a purpose in life, and that purpose had been to guard the harbor, to guard the dragons. His purpose had been to take care of an island of creatures so fantastic, so incredible, that nothing else mattered.
Soon the pain of losing Connor began to fade, and the feelings of pain were replaced with other emotions.
Contentment.
Happiness.
Hope.
He could do that for Cadence, Liam realized. He might not be able to bring Willie back, but he could help Cadence learn to cope with her father’s death. He could help her realize that everything was going to be okay. He could help her find passion.
He could give her hope.
First, he had to make sure she didn’t get sick.
“Cadence,” he said. His voice was firm, steady. He felt neither of those things, but he had to be in control for her. For Willie. He had to do this for his friend. “You’re going to go downstairs and get undressed, and then you’re going to take a hot shower. Can you do that for me?”
Cadence stood up slowly and looked at him. Her eyes were weary, and she looked so tired. He wondered how long she’d been traveling for. How long had it taken this woman to make it to Nellenston? How long had she journeyed to come find her dad?
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“There’s a robe in the bathroom you can wear,” he said. “And I’ll put some clothes on the bed for you. Then we’ll make some tea, and we’ll sit at the table, and I’ll tell you about your dad, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, and she looked relieved he was taking charge. Years ago, Liam had been far too scared to do anything like boss people around, but sometimes you had to step up and do things that made you uncomfortable. Cadence didn’t need Liam to feel bad for her. She needed him to help her, and this was how he was going to do it.
First, she would dry off. Then they would have tea. Then he would tell her everything he knew about Willie, and he’d tell her everything he knew about where she came from.
That was why Cadence had come back, he knew. He’d read the letter Willie left. He knew all about little Cadence and who she really was.
The problem was that she didn’t know, and Liam was going to have to be the one to tell her.
3
Cadence climbed into the tiny shower stall and let the water rush over her. She focused on taking deep breaths in and out, and she tried to shake the dread that was threatening to take over her heart.
Willie was dead.
Dad.
Dad was dead.
It had been forever since she’d seen her adoptive father, but Cadence had never stopped missing him. When her parents got divorced, it had been messy, and she’d never understood why Mom had been in such a rush to get away.
Cadence hadn’t wanted to go.
She’d begged to stay.
Cried.
She’d thrown herself on the floor and promised she would be good, that she’d never get into any trouble, if only her mother would let her stay. Just for a little while longer. It hadn’t mattered, though. Maryanne had made up her mind and when Maryanne made a decision, she stuck with it.
Cadence knew that.
She finished washing and got out of the shower. She dried her body and slipped into the robe hanging on the back of the door. It smelled like the man from upstairs, and she liked it. His scent was comforting to her, which was just weird. Now that she knew what she was, little things that had bothered her for years suddenly seemed to make sense.
Cadence had always been into scents and smells. She’d always been quick and had incredible reflexes. Now she knew those things weren’t because she was just an incredible human, but because she wasn’t really human at all.
Not even a little bit.
And that was the problem.
She went into the bedroom and saw the clothes laid out carefully on the bed. She peeked around, but there was no one in sight, so she dropped the robe and slipped on the t-shirt and sweatpants. It was nice of the man to be so welcoming to her. She had basically woken him up in the middle of the night and demanded he help her, and he had.
She went upstairs and he was sitting at the table with tea, as promised.
“Sugar?” He asked politely. He didn’t look her up and down, didn’t scope her out. She wasn’t sure why, but she liked this about him. He didn’t comment on her appearance or point out she hadn’t put a bra on after her shower. Cadence didn’t feel threatened around him. She felt safe.
It didn’t make any sense.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”
“Clothes fit all right?”
“They’re perfect.”
She sat down and gripped her cup of tea, and then looked at the man expectantly.
“My name is Liam,” he said. “And I worked for your father.”
“How long? How did you meet? Did he ever talk about me?”
“Slow down,” Liam said. “I’ll tell you everything. Drink your tea.”
Cadence frowned, but sipped the tea. She wasn’t used to being bossed around. She wasn’t sure that she liked it very much, but Liam didn’t seem mean. He just seemed like he was decisive. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Maybe that’s what she needed right now. A little bit of stability could go a long way, and Cadence had been struggling in that area.
“My brother died,” Liam said slowly.
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” Liam said, but the pain he still held was obvious. “Willie helped me.”
“How?”
“He took me in, gave me a job, helped me find a place to live. He was basically a surrogate father. I didn’t know how to cope with the pain of losing someone close to me. If it wasn’t for Willie, I probably would have…” His voice drifted off, but he didn’t have to finish the sentence because Cadence knew what he was going to say.
And she hated that he had hurt so deeply.
“I’m really sorry about your brother,” she whispered. “But I’m glad my Dad was able to help you.”
“He helped me more than you’ll ever know.”
“What happened to him?”
“Your parents divorced,” Liam said slowly, and Cadence nodded. “Your father didn’t want that, Cadence. He told me about it. He talked about you all the time. Willie missed you like crazy, but your mom…well, she didn’t think you should grow up around the people who hang around these parts.”
“Dragons, you mean.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So you know?”
“What I am? I know.” She paused, and then add
ed, “I didn’t. Not until very recently. My mom died, and I found a journal she had kept. She talked about it. I’m adopted,” Cadence shook her head. “They never told me. I’m adopted, and I’m a dragon shifter, and my parents didn’t tell me. They didn’t know for certain I could shift, but then one day, I started displaying a bunch of dragon tendencies.”
“Your skin turned purple,” Liam said. “Your father told me.”
“Yeah. So my parents got divorced and my mom took me far away from here. Mom said it was just a fluke. She said I’d gotten a virus, but not to talk about it, and eventually, I just forgot about it. Now she’s dead, and I’m a shifter, but I have no idea what to do with this information.”
“Why didn’t you come looking for your dad sooner? I’m not trying to be insensitive. I’m just curious.”
“I thought he didn’t want me,” she said sadly. “My mother always blamed me for their divorce and she made it clear my dad wanted nothing to do with me. After she died, I discovered that wasn’t true.”
“It wasn’t true at all. I’m sorry your mother did that to you, Cadence. It must feel like a harsh betrayal.”
“Yeah,” she sniffed, irritated she was still crying over the secrets her mother had kept. “But finding out Willie is dead is even worse. I didn’t know I was adopted. I didn’t know where we’d moved from. I didn’t know anything about my dad except what I remembered from when I was little. All of his information was in my mom’s journal, though, so I decided to trek across America and come find him.” She shook her head. “Stupid, huh? I should have known I would be too late.”
“It’s not stupid,” he reached for her hand. “You aren’t stupid. You couldn’t have known. He searched for you, Cadence. We both did. Like I said, I even managed to find your mother, which was something Willie never could. She promised me you had left, though. Said you had run away and she hadn’t heard from you.”
“Did you believe that?”
“Not at first, but then I could never find you.”
“She changed my name,” Cadence said. “She changed my last name to Gait. That’s why you couldn’t find me.”
He sighed sadly. “I’m sorry your father isn’t here for this. He was so proud of you. He knew you were going to be an incredible woman one day, Cadence. He even named his boat after you.”
“I saw,” she said quietly. She had shed a tear over that, too. It didn’t make sense that a man she thought hated her had really been the one person who seemed to want her, and now he was gone. Where was the fairness in that? Where was the justice?
“He wrote you this letter,” Liam produced a worn envelope. “I read it,” he said. “It wasn’t addressed to you and I opened it to see what was inside. The letter makes it clear that he loved you to the very end, Cadence, and he wanted you to know the truth about who you are.”
“You mean what I am.”
“I mean your dad loved you,” Liam said firmly. “And he didn’t want there to be secrets between you. I don’t know everything that went down between him and your mom, but I think he really cared about you, even after so many years apart.”
“I don’t want to read it,” she whispered. Then she looked up at Liam. “I don’t think I can read it,” she clarified. “I’m going to cry on it and ruin it.”
“Would you like me to read it to you?”
“Would you?” She felt bad asking, and it was kind of weird. Not only had she woken up this stranger in the middle of the night, but now she was asking him to hang out with her and read her a letter from her dead dad.
It’s like she had no manners at all.
Life was too short to care, though, she thought. She should have reached out to her dad years ago, should have found out exactly what had kept him back. Maybe then she would know why her parents had gotten a divorce. Maybe then she would have understood exactly what happened when she was a little girl.
“Of course,” Liam said. “I would do anything for you, just as I would do anything for Willie.”
He pulled the letter out of the envelope gently. Cadence wondered how many times Liam had read the letter her father wrote. Once? Twice? A dozen? They had been friends, obviously. They had been very close, and then Willie had been gone. Hell, his death had probably been harder on Liam than it was on Cadence.
Liam had been a son to Willie.
Cadence had just been the daughter who disappeared.
She closed her eyes as Liam began to read, and she imagined her father was speaking to her. As the words passed Liam’s lips, she began to remember her father. She began to remember the things her mother had been running from. She began to remember who she was.
She began to change.
4
“You need to calm down,” Liam set the letter down.
“What?”
“You’re turning purple, love. I can’t have you shifting in my house. I’m sorry. I don’t do this job for the money, but I also don’t have anywhere else to live. So you see, Cadence, if you shift into a dragon right now, especially if it’s your first shift, you’re going to completely destroy the house boat, and then I’ll be stuck with no money, no job, and no place to live. You understand.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. Good. He would help her learn to shift and he would teach her how to keep her dragon-side under control, but it would take time and patience and practice. He had all of those things. Helping Cadence would not be a problem.
Keeping his heart from wanting her: that would be the problem.
He liked her. She was sweet, but she was brave. When he’d told her about her father, Cadence had fractured, and that broke Liam’s heart. She had been sad, devastated, but she hadn’t let it keep her down. She wasn’t going to let one setback hold her back for the rest of her life. No, she was going to keep moving forward.
She was going to get through this one step at a time.
“Breathe in and out,” he said, setting the letter down.
“How do you know so much about shifters?” She whispered.
Liam raised an eyebrow. “You do know what your daddy’s job was, right? That’s my job now, Cadence. I take care of the dragons. I’m a guardian, of sorts.”
She stopped and cocked her head. “That sounds lonely.”
Her words surprised him, but she was right. Too right. His job was a lonely one, and it was something most people wouldn’t understand. Liam didn’t have the luxury of dating people, of falling in love. That was much too dangerous for the type of person who looked after dragons. That was much too deadly.
If he met the wrong person and let his guard down, they could release information about Dragon Isle to the world. If he dated someone who simply wanted access to the island, that was just as bad.
Cadence looked nervous, but she kept breathing. Soon, the deep purple hue faded from her skin.
“Much better, sweetheart.”
“You help the dragons,” she said slowly.
“I do.”
“Is it a pretty good job?” She whispered.
“Are you asking me if it pays well?”
Cadence nodded, and Liam laughed. That wasn’t a question he’d been expecting.
“I suppose it pays all right,” he chuckled. “I don’t have many expenses. I live pretty simply. I do get paid for boating the dragons to and from the island, though.”
“This might be a stupid question,” she asked slowly. “But why don’t they just fly?”
“How much do you know about dragons?”
“Not enough,” she admitted. “Considering…you know. My condition.”
“First off, you’re a dragon, love. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s certainly not a ‘condition’ to be afraid of. Your mom might not have wanted to admit what you were, but Willie knew, and he loved you all the same. He tried to find you, Cadence. He looked for you. We both did. Your mom left with you in the middle of the night, though, while Willie was off helping a shifter. He didn’t know what had happened until it was too late.”
“I know. I remember. It all happened so fast.”
“Well, the thing about dragons is that they get pretty big. I’m guessing your mom wanted you to live a normal life. Being a shifter? Well, that’s about as far from ordinary as you can get. Shifting into a dragon, feeling the wind on your face, and flying free? Those are all incredible things, but dragons are also at risk for things most humans never worry about.”
“Like what?”
“Poachers, for one.”
“Is that an issue?” Cadence looked surprised. She had likely never thought about the dangers of being a dragon. No, if she was anything like most people, she had thought about all of the benefits of dragon life and none of the risks. That was fine. She didn’t need to spend her life worrying about danger, but she did need to be aware.
“Sometimes. It’s not common around here, but the clan leader of Dragon Isle is a good man, and he’s put precautions in place to keep everyone safe. That said, most dragons don’t fly directly to the island. They tend to take a boat back and forth, lest they make themselves a target for poaching or unwanted attention in general.”
“So you do that for them,” she said. “You’re like, like a dragon keeper.”
“Something like that,” Liam smiled.
Cadence sipped her tea and set her glass down. Then she started chuckling, reached down, and pulled Mischief up into her lap.
“Aw, you have a kitty. Hey, buddy.” She pet Mischief’s face and rubbed his soft fur.
“His name is Mischief.”
“That’s a good name,” Cadence said seriously. “I like it. So,” she turned back to Liam. “What should I do?”
“That’s a bold question. You really want my opinion? You barely know me.”
She shrugged. “My dad trusted you. I trust my dad.”
“What you do is up to you. You’re back now. Willie left me in charge of the harbor and his boat, but he was your father, Cadence. If you want it, it’s yours.”
“What?”
“You can have it. You can have the boat. It is named after you, you know. You can have the business, and the harbor. You can have all of it. I’ll stay and help you, or I can walk away. Whatever you prefer is fine.”