8
When Alec gestured for her to slip away with him, her hopes had soared high. They walked along a trail in the woods, each step bringing her back to her youth. Up ahead was the waterfall where they had lurked like teenage gargoyles. Yet, each step was quiet. Alec didn’t say a word.
She’d hoped that he would confess that he knew who she was all along once they were away from the group. Those were the words she yearned to hear. Why couldn’t he just come out and say them? Alec must have remembered her.
He wouldn’t have bought her blueberry pancakes two days in a row if he didn’t. He wouldn’t have brought her to the falls, their old stomping grounds, if he didn’t.
Ahead, voices rose. Laughter bubbled in the air. There was a short shout and a thud as someone slid down the falls. Alec leaned in close and whispered in her ear. His lips brushed her skin and she nearly didn’t hear what he had to say. Her mind was wound up, assaulted by the chills that crept toward her scalp.
Only when he slipped into the trees with a devilish grin did she recall what he’d said. The clan didn’t want humans coming this way. Not when this was Zane’s part of the lake. Alec went to shift, and Charlie could do the same.
Her beast leapt in joy at the thought. It’d been too long since she’d let the creature out. She turned in the opposite direction, stepped between trees until she found a spot large enough to change. Letting her beast out felt seamless. She couldn’t tell where the human part of her ended and the dragon began.
It was like she had always been a dragon. Alec had just helped her find her truth. She couldn’t tell him that until he acknowledged her. Then she would be able to tell him all the ways that he had made her life better. How he had given her hope in times that felt too dark to escape, when she’d been walking blind.
The voices of the teenagers rose again. They were daring each other to climb the falls and find the dragon on the other side. It seemed that someone had already exposed themselves here. They called it the Black Dragons Falls. Charlie couldn’t imagine Cole being the one to giveaway the fact that dragons were here.
Then again, they were trying to keep humans away from Zane. While Zane might not mean her any harm, she couldn’t imagine that Zane would feel the same toward anyone else. Humans were fragile. They were cannon fodder that Zane could use to hurt his old clan.
While the teenagers sounded young and dumb, Charlie didn’t wish them any ill will. So, she dropped low to the ground and wound between the trees until the falls came into view. None of the kids had made it to the top yet. She dropped her belly to the ground and waited.
Across the way, the sun glinted off Alec’s eyes. His dragon blended in with the scenery. Its forest green scales looked like dappled foliage. The small horns that protruded from his brow were the color of young wood. He was the king of the wood.
Her beast, on the other hand, did not have the benefit of camouflage. When she started dying her hair pink, it wasn’t because that was the hot color at the time. That was the color of her dragon’s scales. When she had pink hair, she felt like she had a bit of her beast’s strength with her at all times. It was silly, because hair was still only hair no matter the color, but she’d felt better.
A hand reached over the top of the falls, grabbing Charlie’s attention. Then, the top of a head appeared. The kid pulled himself up to the top of the rocks, huffing the whole way. The trees across the way moved, leaves dancing. Then, a plume of flames shot from the shade.
The kid shouted in surprise and leapt back. Charlie buried her nose behind her claws, trying to fight back her laughter. Another tongue of flame grazed the stone ground. She didn’t have fire of her own, but she let out a low growl that rumbled along the falls.
“Guys, things are crazy up here!” the kid shouted down to his friends.
Charlie decided to move things along. She lunged out and snapped at the air in front of the kid. His eyes went wide. For a second, he seemed frozen in place. Then, in the blink of an eye, he took off running. His lanky legs carried him down the side of the falls. At the bottom, he tripped and rolled into his friends.
They looked up and fire filled the air. Charlie and Alec lounged at the top of the falls, letting the water run around them, as they listened to the kids run away. Charlie rested her head atop Alec’s shoulders. He, in turn, wrapped his neck around her body. They made a gaudy heap of pink and green scales, but Charlie’s heart was content.
She didn’t have to worry about Norman or the dragon he’d sent after her. All she cared about was Alec’s heartbeat in her ear and the fresh scent of the water pooling around her. This was her heart’s home. Her beast flexed its claws, feeling the stone break and giveaway.
This was what she’d returned for. It was what she always wanted her life to be. Now that she had a taste of it, of family and love, Charlie didn’t want to leave. Her heart had grown stronger in the hours she’d spent with Alec and his clan. Maybe, when Norman came to retrieve her, she could finally say no.
Charlie deflated. No, she couldn’t tell Norman no. That would only put this family at risk. To bring all of Norman’s clan down on their heads would be cruel. There were only a handful of dragons here. Seven shifters were hardly enough to hold back all of Norman’s clan. Charlie didn’t want to think that Norman would send his entire crew after her, but Norman had spent most of her life trying to break her.
He wouldn’t just give up now. Not when his ego and his reputation were on the line. The only thing that would set her free was Alec. His admission would be the first step. She could hear the way his heart sped up when she nestled close to him. Her heart did the same. It pattered with excitement whenever he was near.
Didn’t that mean he loved her? Charlie had never known love from anyone else. She was only going off her own feelings. There was a possibility that she was reading everything wrong. The pancakes could have actually been a coincidence. Alec could have gotten them for her twice because she’d devoured them the first day.
Her confusion tightened her chest until it was impossible to breathe. A spot appeared in the sky above them. Panic ripped through her chest. She thought that Norman’s man had finally found her. Alec didn’t remember her so he wouldn’t stop the unfamiliar dragon from taking her away.
She dug her claws deeper into the stone until she felt them break. Blood bloomed in the air. It pooled around her talons. Alec moved beneath her. He watched her, but Charlie’s eyes were on the dragon slowly drifted toward them. It circled above, dropping lower and lower.
She tensed. Alec made a sound and nudged her cheek, but Charlie couldn’t take her eyes off the figure above. Lower it came. Closer. Clouds passed over the sky above, thick and grey. They obscured the shape drifting toward them.
Alec tossed his head. Not in threat, but in celebration. Beside him, Charlie was trembling. Was Alec a fool? Couldn’t he see that she was scared? She thought he cared about her, that he would protect her.
A white dragon landed on the falls. Charlie didn’t recognize the beast as one of Norman’s men. Maybe he was new. If he was young and dumb, she might be able to get away.
The white dragon slapped the ground. He lowered his head and jumped around like an excited dog. To her surprise, Alec mirrored the dragon. He jumped up and down. The two chased each other in a circle.
Then, as her panic began to recede, she realized she had seen this exact beast earlier that day. It was Asher. And he appeared unharmed. If anything, the dragon had too much pent-up energy. Had he not found the dragon Norman sent after her?
Belatedly, Charlie realized that it might have been a bit too early to send Asher in search of the incoming dragon. To her credit, Asher had taken off before she could tell him where the dragon was coming from. Her nerves sharpened to blades that cut through her heart and lungs.
She dropped to the ground, weak and tired. Living in constant fear was so much worse than just dealing with Norman. She didn’t know how much longer she could handle this. As much as she tried to tell
herself she could fight back, she should have known that she didn’t have it in her. She would crumble at the first hint of conflict.
The two dragons, green and white, took up place on either side of her. They pressed against her body like cats in need of attention. With their warmth and strength protecting her from the world, her worries eased a bit. Her chest still hurt, but she was able to drift off into a peaceful sleep with Alec and Asher beside her.
When Charlie woke, the sun had set. She shook herself and stretched her wings. Alec and Asher were already awake. While Asher leapt into the sky and became a cloud once more, Alec turned to her. He gently nudged her cheek. Their scales scraped across one another, making a rough sound. It vibrated through her and settled the weariness still gripping her soul.
Alec turned, making sure that she kept up the entire time. When he jumped off the falls and into the air, Charlie followed suit. This was the life she’d never gotten to live. The lake territory was beautiful, even at night. The nearby town twinkled in the distance. They banked and swung back toward the lake where more lights awaited them.
There were strings of them hanging between two of the lakeshore cabins. Asher touched the ground first. He left ruts in the earth as he frantically beat against the air. Finally, he came to a stop. The two mated pairs looked up at Asher with disdain. Buffy, though, was hiding her laughter behind her hands.
When Charlie landed, she saw that Asher had come close to destroying the barrel grill that was filled with hot coals. Asher slowly crept away like he hadn’t almost ruined the evening.
Charlie shifted back, and one of the women at the cookout tossed her a bundle of clothes just as she finished. It was a threadbare top and a pair of jersey shorts, but the night was hot, and the fabric was soft.
While she tugged them on, she could feel Alec’s attention on her. His gaze trailed over her skin like wildfire. No one else made her feel that way. It was only him. She found him staring, his jaw tight. What was it that bothered him? Was it her tattoos? Her scars? Or the way her spine protruded from her back?
Maybe it was all three, because after he made a plate of food for her, he never left her side. His heat was all over her. She couldn’t escape it. The hunger in her gut changed. It became carnal. Insatiable.
But Alec still hadn’t said her name.
She needed to hear him say it. That was all she needed. The claiming mark could wait. If only he would acknowledge who she was and their history together, she would be satisfied. But no. His lips remained sealed. He barely uttered a word the whole night other than a sorry when his hand brushed hers.
She wanted to tell him it was okay, that he could touch her. When his skin met hers, she wasn’t reminded of anyone else. She didn’t think of Norman’s too friendly touching or the way the others in her clan leered at her. All she knew when Alec was this close was the way her core turned molten hot.
That part of her begged for him. It cried out for a release that she had never known before, the kind that only he could give her. Yet, she kept her hands to herself. She didn’t reach for him the way she wanted. She didn’t run her hands along his thighs while he sat beside her at the picnic table.
So long as he refused to acknowledge her, she had to keep her feelings to herself. It would be too much like seduction to give in this early. She didn’t want to sway his mind with her body. She wanted Alec to want her for everything she was.
The way that no one else wanted her.
Across the table, Heath asked Asher where he’d been all day. Asher looked to Charlie. Her heart leapt into her throat, but he said nothing about their deal. Asher just shrugged and said he’d gotten waylaid by a particularly prickly shifter.
He mentioned coming across a fox shifter in the woods. His words made it seem like he wasn’t interested, but the way he talked at length about her made Charlie think otherwise. Though, she couldn’t tell if the shifter had gotten under his skin or into his heart. The way that Asher shrugged emotions off hadn’t changed in fifteen years.
The white-haired shifter flirted with Buffy, drawing growls from Heath. It shifted the conversation away from him and away from Charlie’s request. He tossed her a wink that she hoped no one saw. If they knew she was putting them all in danger, they would throw her out so quickly.
Even Charlie hated herself for what she was doing. A part of her wanted them to fight for her, but she knew she couldn’t ask them to put themselves in harm’s way. Not for her. Their happiness shone too brightly tonight. Even though what happened to Alistair and Zane seemed to hang in the air like a ghost, they managed to ignore it in favor of hope.
Charlie wanted to soak it up. It gave her life, filled her with a weightless kind of light. Under the table, she reached for Alec’s hand. He didn’t pull away when she squeezed it tight. She didn’t dare look to his face or try to read his eyes. A part of her was afraid of what she would see.
Confusion?
Rejection?
She couldn’t bear it in that moment, so she held onto him and basked in the laughter of the others, allowing herself to think for a moment that maybe she belonged.
She almost didn’t hear the splash over the jokes the shifters were throwing at one another. The sound of the water grew louder. Across the table, Buffy stiffened. Smoke curled out of the small woman’s nose.
Their voices died down. The Christmas lights gleamed over the water. A wave rose and crashed over the shore. It reached over the grass, leaving behind raking claw marks in the ground even though there was no dragon there.
The air around them grew humid, pressing against their skin. The water crashed over and over, aggressive in the silent night. Charlie could feel what was coming, but she didn’t want to believe it. This couldn’t be the boy she once knew.
But the Christmas lights illuminated the shape of a dragon, rising out of the water. It tossed its head and flung droplets in every direction. The way the light shone across them, they looked like embers. The beast’s jaw dropped, and an unnatural roar filled the air. It encircled them. It rattled their bones.
The beast lowered its head and charged. Cole and Heath shouted. They both leapt into action. Charlie found her body stiff and slow. It responded to her commands, but not fast enough. There were grunts of shifting beasts around her. She ran past the changing shapes and put herself in the way of the incoming beast.
Footsteps slapped the earth behind her, but she kept her eyes on the beast ahead. When the light moved through it, she realized this wasn’t a real dragon. It was dragon-shaped but made of the lake water. Confusion hit her when the water began to churn. More figures were appearing.
What kind of magic had the witch cast over her friend? How could it become something like this? She wondered, briefly, what the clan would have done had it been Alistair in this mess. Could the scarred and broken dragons have been able to stop the changed Alistair? It seemed they couldn’t stop Zane.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t stop him. It was that they wanted to save him. Charlie knew her old friends. She knew her mate. Their hearts were good. The cloud that hung over everyone was guilt. It pressed against them and kept them from being able to move on with their lives. Had it been a true enemy in this lake, the clan could have held their ground.
Instead, they were trying to protect Zane while he snapped at them. Couldn’t he see that they were doing their best for him? Zane should have been able to trust them. That part of him must have drowned long ago. Charlie knew that nothing was permanent. She fought to escape the life she’d been thrust into. Zane could escape this, too.
She had to believe that or else she would have nothing.
“Quit your shit,” Charlie tried to shout, but her voice came out too small. She quaked in the face of the power rising out of the lake.
The others stood behind her. No one moved.
Another dragon made of water crawled out of the lake. Charlie stared it down, seeing her friend in the beast’s face. Zane was there, even if the spell had changed him. Eve
n if hatred wrought his features into a ferocious visage.
“You can’t act like this,” Charlie said, standing her ground. “Your family didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
His growl was a whisper on the wind. It surrounded her. It tugged at her. She held fast to her stand, refusing to let him drag her into the water even though the waves had reached her ankles. Zane didn’t want to kill her. They were still friends.
“Get back!” Alec shouted. He grabbed her and spun them both around.
He tensed, but no blow ever came. Charlie watched Alec blink in surprise. He met her gaze. She wanted to think that understanding had dawned on him, but she still wasn’t sure if he knew her.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Zane wasn’t going to attack her. She whispered as much to Alec. Slowly, he let her go. The way he stayed close to her shoulder told her he wasn’t exactly convinced.
The water-beast snarled and prowled around her. More followed, rising out of the water. There was a crash, then Alec shouted.
“I just fixed that!”
The water-beast snarled in return. It couldn’t speak. The snarl didn’t come from it or any of the other water-beasts. It came from the magic of the lake, the magic that had become one with Zane. He was all at once frightening and awe-inspiring. Charlie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the water creatures he’d summoned.
He was mad. The clan was having fun, remembering what it was like to be a family. All while Zane was kept apart. He was trapped in solitude. Unable to leave the lake, Zane’s jealousy had warped. It must have become a twisted thing full of rage and indignation. Now, that jealousy was aimed at the clan like a sharpened arrow.
“They want to help you,” Charlie whispered to the water-beast. She wasn’t sure if Zane could hear through his creations. “Are you going to kill the people who want the best for you? They’re they only ones who can help you.”
Alec (Keepers Of The Lake Book 3) Page 7