Alec (Keepers Of The Lake Book 3)

by Emilia Hartley

  Charlie hadn’t looked particularly surprised when Alec came back to tell her that putting gas in her car hadn’t worked. Alec didn’t think he was being particularly loud, but it caught Jude’s attention anyway. He wanted to tell her to go away, but she was the clan leader now. Alec knew he couldn’t afford to step on any toes if he was going to stay and help.

  “That settles it!” Jude announced after clapping her hands together. “You can stay in my cabin until the car is fixed.”

  Alec growled. That wasn’t what he’d wanted. Charlie should have been two towns over, set up in a hotel. He should have called a tow-truck to haul her car away to someplace an actual mechanic could look at it.

  Pouring gas into the car hadn’t helped it start. If anything, he thought he heard gas already in the tank when he poured it in. That hadn’t been the issue after all. He didn’t know what else could cause her to lose power like that. He knew the bare minimum about cars. Just enough to keep his own running.

  A certified mechanic should have looked at it, but Alec couldn’t bear to part with Charlie yet. It was selfish, but he liked seeing her again. This wasn’t the time or place. If they’d crashed into one another at any other time he would have called it fate and rejoiced.

  Again, he considered buying her a hotel room.

  Instead, he and Asher had to go out and hitch the car to Alec’s truck. On his way to the truck, Alec spared one last look at Charlie. She was watching him with such forlorn eyes. He couldn’t bear it.

  If he acknowledged her, if he revealed that he knew who she was, then she would stay. Alec hoped that if he played dumb, Charlie would lose interest and leave. The others had told him horror stories about how Jude and Buffy had been sucked under the lake. He’d waved them off as nightmares. Since seeing Zane’s face in the lake, since hearing his voice, Alec knew anything was possible.

  3

  Jude helped Charlie get her things out of the truck. Charlie had brought everything she would need for a stay. She’d thought she would have to get a hotel and stick around town until Alec remembered her. Dropping her bags in the cabin, Charlie felt a twinge of excitement race up her spine. She was closer to Alec this way. And yet, there were so many unfamiliar faces, so many blank stares, that she felt like she was intruding.

  Clearly, the clan had changed. Charlie didn’t recognize the women. Cole and Asher had shadows and scars. Heath looked happy until his mate left the room. Then his eyes would find the lake and become distant. It was like they’d all been to war and come back changed.

  Charlie didn’t know what had happened. The only thing that was different was the leader. Where there had once been a man was now Cole’s mate. Jude was nicer than the man. Jude shoved open the cabin door and gestured for Charlie to enter.

  The inside was incredibly small. There was a kitchenette with a small table and two chairs. A narrow hall led past the small bathroom to a bedroom. If there had been a window in the back, it was gone now. In place of the back wall was a piece of plywood.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Jude began. “We’ve had some issues with a…vandal.”

  Charlie laughed. How many times had she been called a vandal? The worst she’d done was spray paint on the side of the bridge. Never before had Charlie demolished a wall.

  “Is this okay?”

  Charlie nodded. “You didn’t have to do this. I appreciate it.”

  When Jude was about to leave, she hesitated in the doorway. Charlie thought she would say something about Alec, about stalking. Charlie wasn’t ready to be chased out of town.

  “If you don’t have a clan…well, our doors are always open. I know that being alone in the world isn’t easy. You could have a family with us if that’s what you want.”

  Charlie didn’t expect the open expression on Jude’s face. Her heart was on her sleeve in a way that Charlie had never seen in any other dragon leader before. The clan leaders Charlie had worked with had always been gruff men with firm hands. They’d bent Charlie to their will, forced her to behave instead of helping her with her problems.

  It would have been tempting if her leader didn’t expect her home. Charlie needed to be claimed by her mate if she was ever going to escape the clan she’d been pushed into.

  Charlie swallowed the lump in her throat. Unable to answer, she gave Jude an appreciative nod and let her go on her way. Jude’s offer wasn’t an option. Not yet. Maybe, if everything worked out the way Charlie wanted, then she could join Jude’s clan.

  Unpacking her things, Charlie dropped her phone into the nightstand drawer. She didn’t even give the screen a cursory glance. She was miles away from her clan, from her leader. They wouldn’t be able to punish her for not responding. Not unless they wanted to fly the miles over to her.

  With her phone stashed away, Charlie could breathe. She left her bag on the floor and made her way back to the kitchenette. Her stomach growled. Her last meal had been a granola bar on the road. She’d been in such a hurry to get back to the lake cabins that she hadn’t allowed herself the chance to stop and eat.

  Every roadside diner she’d passed had boasted the best pancakes in the whichever state she’d been in. A fierce craving for blueberry pancakes and cheap maple syrup overcame her. When she opened the fridge, she only found a half-eaten chunk of cheese, a bag of pepperoni slices, and some hard cider.

  It was hardly a satisfying meal, but Charlie knew to take what she could get. If she wanted to order food, she would have to look at her phone. That was the last thing she wanted to do while she was here. This was her childhood stomping grounds. She wanted to visit the falls near the park. She wanted to dive into the lake.

  She wanted Alec to recognize her.

  That was all she really needed.

  Once Alec accepted her, then she wouldn’t dread looking at her phone. She wouldn’t search the skies. So many things would change. Her life would be…better.

  But she wasn’t going to force him to remember her. If he couldn’t, then that was a sign that life here wouldn’t be any happier. She couldn’t accept Jude’s offer and live beside Alec, pining for him when he didn’t care about her. That would be worse than living with her current leader.

  Far worse, and she was running away from that man.

  Charlie was thinner than he remembered. She’d been in her early teens last he saw her, but he still didn’t like this unhealthy look. Her clan should have been taking better care of her. Alec couldn’t risk touching her without worrying that he might break her. And his beast roared at him to hold her close, to never let her get away again. He couldn’t let this go on. Asher said nothing as Alec made a detour. He picked up a stack of pancakes at a diner in town. Blueberry.

  That had always been her favorite. He remembered sitting on the falls with her as she devoured an entire package of the little berries. Her fingers would be sticky and purple by the time she was done. Mostly because she would throw some at him and they would get squished.

  Alec didn’t realize how much he’d missed her until now. They’d kept in touch for a bit after her parents moved them away. He figured, as he got older, that her parents probably intercepted anything with his name on the return address. They changed their numbers, too.

  Alec had been prepared to hunt her down, but then Alistair had turned on them. Everything was set aside in order to keep Alistair from ruining the world they knew and loved. After that, after everything changed, Alec couldn’t think about finding her. Not while his sleep was plagued with horror.

  By the time that had passed, he figured she’d moved on with her life. He hadn’t been a part of it for years. He couldn’t just drop into her world and expect her to fawn over him.

  Yet, he knew that she recognized him. She’d come to the cabins because she knew them. Had Charlie hoped for a reunion? Was she searching for him? Or just the clan?

  Alec didn’t have time to figure it out. He needed to help his clanmates free Zane from the lake. Until then, nothing was safe. He’d wanted to hold onto the idea
that Alistair was trapped in the lake, that the spell was holding and that they had nothing to worry about. It was a fanciful thought, the foolish hope of someone who had been away for too long.

  He should have trusted his clanmates. They’d been here. They’d seen what was happening.

  Takeout container in one hand, Alec hopped out of his truck. Asher immediately set about unhitching Charlie’s car from the truck. Alec could feel his clanmate’s attention on his back, but he walked away without saying anything. Alec’s chest was far too tight. His beast felt constrained. If Asher said anything aggressive in the least, Alec wasn’t sure he could hold back his anxious beast.

  Alec expected Charlie to be at the door before he could even knock. She should have heard the truck coming up the gravel drive. But the door didn’t swing open before him. Immediately, his stomach clenched. He thought Zane must have gotten her. Already, Zane was trying to hurt him.

  There was a soft sigh on the other side of the door that told him Charlie was inside. His heart settled as he stole a moment to catch his breath. He hadn’t been around this woman since they were both teens. Since he changed her. Alec shouldn’t react to her the way he did, yet it was like she held a string that drew him tight.

  Finally, he got the nerve to knock. He listened to shuffling on the other side of the door. When it opened, there was a split second where Charlie’s face was raw and untamed. Alec caught the fear and grief filling her eyes just before she placed a blank mask over her face again.

  If she thought there was no chance of a reunion, she would move on. Alec wanted Charlie as far away from the cursed lake as possible. Even if it meant hurting her feelings. She would recover from that. Not from Zane’s evil machinations.

  “I brought you food.” Alec thrust the takeout container into her hands.

  He told himself to turn around, to leave, but his body refused to listen. His feet were stuck to the porch, his eyes glued to Charlie. She’d grown into a full woman. There were tattoos on her upper arms, scars around her wrists. The beast in him sank its claws into him, growling low and menacingly. Charlie almost never came back to him. There had been a point in her life where she struggled, where she’d wanted it to end. Had she been human, it would have worked, and Charlie would have left this world. His beast roared, angry at the life that must have made her feel that way.

  He wanted to pull her hand toward him and kiss the raised skin and make a promise that her life would never feel that way again.

  The urge slapped him in the face so hard he nearly gasped. Instead, it was a small inhalation that Charlie didn’t notice. That was because her eyes were on the takeout container. Her nose flared, twitching cutely as she sniffed the air.

  “Are these…blueberry pancakes?”

  It was then that Alec realized his mistake. He was supposed to be pretending that he didn’t remember Charlie. Stupid as he was, he’d grabbed her favorite food.

  “It was the special at the diner,” he lied. “I hope that’s alright.”

  She tilted her head, a demure smile slipping over her lips. The grief and fear were gone, replaced by a sparkle he couldn’t quite read. It tugged him toward her. Alec had to use all of his restraint to back away. He left Charlie standing on the porch and went back to her car.

  All he had to do was fix it and tell her to get on her way. Then, she would be safe. That was all he wanted. Charlie didn’t need to go through what Jude and Buffy suffered at Zane’s hands. Charlie had already been hurt by this clan.

  By him.

  A roar of frustration simmering behind his lips, he lifted the hood of her car again. Asher was loitering nearby, like a voyeur watching a train wreck. Alec wanted to punch him in his bemused face.

  Maybe a fight would help take some of this pent-up energy away. Then Alec wouldn’t race back to Charlie’s door in the middle of the night, begging her for…what? Alec wouldn’t let himself finish that thought. If he did, if he acknowledged what he felt, then he would never be able to let her go.

  He needed to stay here. Charlie needed to leave.

  That was that.

  “That’s Charlotte. Right? Why haven’t you told her who you are?”

  “Shut up, Asher.” Alec ran his fingers over the parts of the car, trying to focus on what might be causing the issue.

  Asher sidled up to him. Alec let out a warning growl, but Asher was oblivious to the threat. That, or Asher was looking for a fight, too. Well, he wouldn’t give it to him. Alec wouldn’t play Asher’s juvenile games. If he wanted to fight, he could jump in the lake and wrestle Zane for all Alec cared.

  “I’m serious. It seems like she missed you. You could get some.”

  Alec spoke through clenched teeth. “Get what?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know.” Asher humped the air with a stupid grin on his face.

  Clenching his fists only did so much to abate the anger burning in Alec’s chest. He was normally a smooth talker. Alec had charmed his way past other dragon clans and pack alphas. He was welcome in thirty out of fifty states. Yet, a minute in Asher’s presence and Alec lost all ability to think.

  “You’re infuriating.”

  “That’s what my opponents say. I get them all riled up and then I strike.” Asher jabbed at the air. “But that’s not what I’m trying to do here. I’m honestly asking why you aren’t welcoming Charlie back. She was a nice girl. Now she’s a nice dragon girl. She’d be a good addition to the clan. There’s already too much dick here. And we just keep getting more every day. With you back and Zane trying to give us the shaft, it’s just too much for this man.”

  Alec rose to his full height and looked Asher in the eye. It was an outright challenge, but he needed Asher to listen.

  “Charlie leaves. That is that. Don’t argue with me. Not while Zane is causing havoc from inside that lake. I’m not taking any risks with her. Not Charlie.”

  Asher seemed to sober. His grin fell away and he nodded. “Still, you have to wonder what brought her all the way out here after fifteen years.”

  Alec slammed the hood back into place. “No. I don’t.”

  Asher lingered, but he eventually padded away. Alec sucked in a breath and tried to steady himself, but the world felt like it was constantly shifting beneath his feet. He couldn’t hold on. Sooner or later, it would drop him, and he would go tumbling.

  This should have been a happy reunion, but Alec regretted coming home at all.

  His beast snarled because that was a lie. If he hadn’t come home when he did, he wouldn’t have found Charlie. Alec could die happy knowing that she’d grown into a woman. She even seemed at peace with her beast. He saw no struggle between the two, no flash of the beast in her eyes or growls that indicated her beast was fighting her. The beast in her was not the stem of her problems. He’d expected her to have trouble with it after her parents ran away from town.

  She was nothing like the Charlie he once knew. But that could be a good thing. This woman was a dragon. She was stronger. All she needed was a bit of food and… and what? Affection?

  Alec couldn’t keep her here. He couldn’t let her stay when everything was falling to pieces around them. Maybe if she was in better condition, if she didn’t look so frail, then he might be willing to risk it. He doubted it, though.

  4

  Alec had bought her favorite, blueberry pancakes. And they were from her favorite diner. Nothing about them had changed. She sat on the floor, fork in hand, in a blissful state of euphoria as she downed the entire stack. Once the container was picked clean, she wiped the last bit of cheap syrup off the bottom with her finger.

  Fed, her beast was content. It was home. The lake land was the only place her beast was truly happy. The creature knew that Alec was nearby. It could finally rest now that the long search was over. She’d worried that he wouldn’t be here. Over the years, she tried to imagine where the clan had gone. Clans don’t always disperse, but the lake clan here had been mostly young men with bright futures.

 
They could have gone in so many different directions.

  Yet, Charlie found them all in one place. Well, most of them. The leader and Zane were both missing. She didn’t care about Alistair. He’d always given her the creeps, even if he charmed everyone else. It was Zane that Charlie wanted to see again. Not because she yearned for him. That was reserved for Alec.

  Zane had been her friend, too. When they were younger, the three of them did everything together. When she and Alec went to the falls, Zane was right behind them. He kept them grounded when they wanted to go on wild adventures.

  What changed while she was gone? Alistair was no longer a part of the clan. That must have had something to do with it. If she asked the others, it would give away who she was. Then they would tell Alec, and he wouldn’t have discovered on his own. Charlie had to wonder for now. She couldn’t risk Alec hearing who she was from someone else.

  She drummed her fingers over the top of the takeout container. Alec might have already remembered her. What was the chance that blueberry pancakes were the daily special at the diner? Considering that the only special she remembered on the board was the Thanksgiving sandwich, she thought it was a pretty slim chance that someone erased it and put pancakes up.

  Charlie got up to throw the container away when an incessant rumbling came from the bedroom. She groaned, not yet ready to check her phone. It rumbled again and again. She waited for the call to go to voicemail, but just as soon as it stopped ringing, it started up again.

  Norman wasn’t going to leave her alone. She swallowed back her dread and approached the nightstand. Beside her, the wall was nothing more than a thin layer of plywood. This was the kind of damage that happened around dragons. Instead of answering the ringing phone, she ran her hand along the wood. What happened to destroy part of this old cabin?

  The ringing still would not stop. Norman was inescapable. If she didn’t answer, he would come down to retrieve her.