From outside the door came a stage whisper. “This is where you tell her that she will be under you by the end of the night.”
Alec snarled and reached for someone outside the cabin. Asher howled in pain and stumbled down the porch steps, into view. He winked at Charlie and took off running.
“Is everyone a master in meddling around here?” Charlie asked as she grabbed the black denim jacket by the door.
“Apparently,” Alec grumbled. “I’ve been away for a while. Shit might be a mess, but everyone has more energy than I’ve ever seen before. It’d be great if they didn’t channel that energy into messing with me.”
“Aw, but how else would they show their love?”
Alec mumbled. He used to be like that, she thought. Alec had a fix-it drive. Just like he’d done with the wall in the bedroom and her car, he wanted to fix things he thought were wrong. From broken mailboxes to troubled relationships. But he’d always done those tasks with bright optimism. Whatever happened here, among his clan, had broken that optimism.
Charlie needed it right now. She needed someone to smile and tell her that everything would work itself out. Instead, she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was ticking away, counting the seconds until sundown, marking the moments until Tuesday came to steal her freedom.
She wasn’t going to leave with Norman’s dragons. Not when she had this clan on her side. All she hoped was that Norman’s dragons didn’t put up a fight. She didn’t want anyone here to get hurt. Not on her behalf.
The diner lights buzzed overhead. The seats weren’t as big as she remembered, but the milkshakes certainly were. The chalkboard nailed to the wall hadn’t changed since she’d been gone. It still boasted their famous thanksgiving sandwich.
Charlie hid her grin behind her milkshake. Blueberry pancakes were never the special. Alec had bought them for her because he remembered. Now, the question was why he didn’t tell her that he remembered.
The man across from her stared down at the menu on the table. His eyes were still dead. She wanted to touch his chin and draw his gaze up to her. Would his eyes flicker with life again? The man who wanted to fix everything was trapped in the worst position. His childhood friend was suffering because of something he did and there was no way to free him. If there was, they would have released Zane already.
Charlie wondered if she had arrived at just the right time or the worst possible time. Knowing her luck, it was probably the worst. She bumbled through life, finding herself in situations that would only lead to more and more trouble. Her bond with Zane seemed beneficial, but he was capable of absolute destruction.
She wanted to help bring Zane back to the person he used to be. Maybe then, Alec would be able to shrug off the guilt darkening his gaze.
None of it mattered so long as she could revive the spark in Alec’s eyes. If she could make him smile like the old days, then whatever else she endured would be worth it.
“What are you ordering?” Alec asked, never taking his eyes off the menu.
“I don’t know if I’ll have room after this milkshake. It has chunks of cookie dough in it!”
He huffed a laugh, but still wouldn’t look at her. When he spoke, his voice was near whisper. “You’re a dragon shifter. You can’t tell me that a single milkshake will fill you.”
He was right, but she wouldn’t tell him that.
“Maybe I should just come out and tell you before you eat.”
She paused, hope surging through her veins. It made her sit up straighter, but then she noticed the shadows weighing down Alec’s face. Doubt crept in. What could he have to say? The only thing she wanted to hear was acceptance of their bond. She knew it was there. The gentle tug in her gut that pulled her toward him could be nothing else. It had brought her back to him after fifteen years, when he could have been anywhere in the world.
She pushed the milkshake aside and reached for his hands. He jerked away from her, still avoiding her eyes.
“Goddamn it, Alec. I’m tired of playing games.”
He bent his head, scratching the back of it. He was buying time. The moments stretched on and on. It was clear that whatever he was holding back was so large that he couldn’t quite get it out. Charlie didn’t know if there was anything he could tell her that would hurt her anymore.
She had lived through Norman’s torture. She’d survived being apart from Alec. She’d survived the change. There was nothing he could do that would hurt her.
“Charlotte,” he breathed.
Her heart fluttered. The sound of her name on his lips was all she had been waiting for and it did not disappoint. There was such longing and fear in it, wrapped in one that she understood why he’d been fighting against this moment.
Their façade had failed long ago. Probably the moment he brought her blueberry pancakes. Maybe after he carried her to bed and set about fixing the cabin wall. She didn’t know exactly when it happened, but they’d been so stubborn and clung to the lie long past it’s expiration.
Now that they’d both said each other’s names, it was like a veil had been lifted. Only truth sat between them now.
Alec ran his hand over the scruff on his chin. “It wasn’t an accident…when I made you. I did it on purpose. I mean, didn’t you think it was weird that all I did was scratch you? I didn’t bite you. It was just a scratch.”
Charlie remembered that day vividly. Her sneaker had slipped on the wet stone of the waterfall. She’d shrieked as she fell off the cliff. The fall wasn’t far, but she surely would have broken something. She’d been human at the time. Soft and fragile.
Lightning quick, Alec was there. He’d caught her, but his hand had shifted. Instead of a calloused palm, a clawed hand caught her. His talons had dug into her skin. She’d let out a scream when her veins began to burn. It had been like fire was trying to replace her blood. Fire burned in her heart, pumping through her limbs.
The simple scratch had changed everything. It had remade her.
But Alec was right. A scratch wasn’t enough. Shifters were often made through bites, where the blood came into contact with saliva. Blood to blood worked, too. Charlie had been in the throes of the change. She hadn’t noticed anything strange about the situation at the time. Looking back, though, she remembered the trickle of blood on Alec’s hand.
The thin trail had trickled down his scales, over his talons, and across her skin.
Alec had purposefully cut her. He’d done it so that his blood would mingle with hers.
“Why did you do it?” she asked, breathless.
He shook his head, clearly heavy with guilt. His eyes glistened with unshed tears. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it tight before slowly repeating her question. Her chest burned with that same fire. She needed to know.
“Because I was a selfish brat who thought I could take what I wanted. That’s why.” He shot the words out so fast, so brutally.
Charlie laughed. The fire in her heart was strong and warm, not hot and searing. Alec had wanted her all along. He’d felt the bond between them long before she had and made a move to make sure she would always be his.
Her beast purred. Fate had tied their souls together. It was obvious that they would never be far from each other. A part of his soul lived inside her now. Her beast. His creation.
“I’m glad you changed me,” she told him.
“But everything you’ve gone through! It has all been because of what I did. Don’t you blame me even a little?”
His thumb was rough over the scars on her wrist. His words were loaded, heavy with the weight of what she’d endured. It was no lie that Charlie had tried to kill herself when she was younger. She was glad now that she’d failed.
“I’ve become who I am not just because of that one incident. You aren’t to blame for everything that happened after. There are a million forces at work in this world. My parents. My own decisions. My clan. Every single person I’ve come into contact with has shaped my life.”
“But you wouldn
’t have had to live with that awful clan if I hadn’t made a decision for you!”
Everyone in the diner turned to look at them. Charlie waggled her fingers at them, grinning wide to show them that nothing was wrong, before turning back to Alec. Guilt was eating him alive.
“There’s nothing to fix,” she told him. “Not for you to fix, at least. I will admit that I came here broken and desperate, but it is up to me to fix myself. You don’t have to do anything.”
He growled, shaking his head. “That’s not right. This is because of me…”
“No. You can’t think that way! Do you realize how many awful decisions I’ve made in my life? There’s no going back on any of them. All I can do is move forward. That’s what my tattoos remind me. They’re memories of stupid things I’ve done. Those decisions are a part of me, but they don’t define me. I define myself.”
The waitress slowly approached the table. She eyed them both warily. It could have been the smoke pouring from Alec’s nostrils. Or it could have been Charlie’s volume. Either way, it was obvious they were disrupting the diner.
“Two burgers to go,” Charlie ordered.
They couldn’t stay here all night. The locals would start to get suspicious. As far as everyone knew, there were only small shifters here. Small was a relative term when the local pack leader was a giant tiger shifter. Every other shifter was small to a dragon.
They got their burgers and left the diner behind. Alec was still smoldering. She let him battle his demons while munching on the fries in her container. They walked along the street. The lamps above created orange bubbles of light until they reached the bridge that cut through town. Festive lights hung between the supports. They reminded Charlie of stars and made her smile.
She spied a park bench on the other side of the short bridge and tugged Alec toward it. There, they could sit and eat their burgers. They ate in silence, but their knees and shoulders nudged each other the entire time. He might have issues to work on, but Charlie hadn’t been happier in years.
“I know you want to send me away, but I’m not going back to Norman. He can eat a gym sneaker. I’m going to stay and help keep Zane under control.”
She expected Alec to argue. This whole time he’d fought her. He’d pretended not to know who she was. He told her he would send her home. He’d done everything in his power to chase her away. All for her safety.
But she was safer here. Alec couldn’t understand because he didn’t know what it was like to live among the clan in Washington. A smile spread over Charlie’s face as she thought about Jude’s offer. She’d love to go back just to see the look on Norman’s face when a gold dragon descended upon him.
“The truth is…” Alec began. He twisted in his seat, and she saw the raw yearning written all over his face.
How had he hidden that from her before? She leaned into him, drawn in by what she saw. The same kind of yearning blossomed in her chest.
“I don’t think I could let you go.”
Her lips were on his before he could finish. His kiss was ravenous. Yet, as it prolonged, it became tender. He touched her cheek, letting his thumb graze her skin as it dropped to her shoulder. If it hadn’t been for the food on their laps, Charlie would have crawled onto him. As it was, she couldn’t get close enough. Only once they were skin to skin would she be content.
“You can’t make me go anywhere,” she growled into their kiss.
Alec laughed and pulled her closer. Only when her burger began to slip off her lap did she pull back. A dragon shifter never let any food go to waste.
Alec let out a deep sigh and pressed his forehead against hers. The night created a gentle veil around them. Charlie thought nothing could get through to disturb them. Not in this precious moment, the one she had waited fifteen years for.
Alec La Sala was hers. Body and mind, they were bound. It was their fate, unavoidable. Nothing could keep them apart. Not her parents or Norman. She wound her hand around the back of his neck and held him tight.
But the buzz of a phone interrupted her bliss. It grew louder and louder, more insistent with each buzz. Hers was tucked away in the nightstand back in the cabin, so it couldn’t be hers. Alec snarled and whipped the phone out of his pocket. There was a message on the screen, but she couldn’t read it at that angle.
She knew something was wrong when he lurched to his feet and his food dropped to the ground. He was already halfway to the bridge when she caught up.
“Is it Zane?” she asked.
He spun on her. “Stay here. Go back to the diner. Don’t go outside. Everything will be alright.”
Her brow furrowed. She looked up at Alec, confused. He continued to stalk away from her. Her lip curled. No one was going to tell her what to do anymore. She was tired of being pushed aside. It wasn’t going to fly. She was more than capable of holding her own.
But when she tried to follow Alec, he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Just…stay. Can you do that for me? If they take you, if I can’t find you again, my beast and I will tear apart the world trying to find you.”
She jerked back, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Slowly, while Alec was still walking away, it dawned on her. The message had not been about Zane, but about Norman. He must have sent more dragons after her. She never thought of herself as all that important. Sure, Norman had taken pride in breaking every female shifter in his clan, but she never understood the lengths he would go to just to keep them.
Norman must have sent more than the one dragon. Vincent had come to fetch her with the plans to meet up with the others, a veritable convoy of dragons just to take her back. Zane had intercepted Vincent, showing the shifter that this clan was a force to be reckoned with. Vincent’s only course of action would be to come back with more help.
She cursed under her breath and took off running after Alec. She wasn’t going to let him go in there alone. Only she could get Zane’s help. Only she could stop Zane when it was all over.
Alec tried to stop her. He tried reasoning, begging, and outrunning her. Charlie was done being left behind. She wasn’t going to be a pretty face to be kept safe behind glass. She knew that breakable things could be put back together. How else would she have survived this long?
Charlie had been broken so many times that her spirit should have been nothing but dust on the wind. Instead, once she had left the town, she spread her arms and became a dragon on the wind. No one had to fight her battles for her. She could do it. Bolstered by the people around her and the love they offered, Charlie could do anything.
Alec leapt into the air behind her. He made sounds of protest half the way, but he finally gave up once the fight came into view. Charlie expected to see water in the air, geysers and waterspouts. Zane was nowhere to be found. Instead, she saw a fierce battle between her old clan and the new one.
Charlie dove past the battle and right into the lake. There was little difference between the darkness above water and the darkness below it. The only difference was the ominous feeling that crawled over her scales. Trying to shake it off, she cried out. The lake tried to swallow the sound, but she was sure Zane must have heard it.
It was a plea for help. This was her family. This was Zane’s family. They needed help.
Fire above illuminated the water. Charlie saw the flickering shape of something darting below. She let out another gargled cry before pumping her wings and rising to the surface. She couldn’t leap from the water to the air, so she made her way back to the shore.
In the dark, it was hard to tell the dragons apart. Jude, Cole, and Heath were all dark shapes. Only Buffy and Asher could be seen clearly in the dark. Charlie thought she might be just as visible. Her scales weren’t that different from Buffy’s lavender ones.
Charlie crawled out of the water only to leap back into the air and circle over the lake. Her presence would get everyone’s attention. If that was good or bad, Charlie didn’t know yet.
14
Alec watched his
mate bait the dragons attacking his clan. She circled low over the lake, and the six dragons took the bait. He could barely believe that her clan leader sent six dragons to escort her back to Washington. It was ridiculous.
Her clan leader must have had plans for her. Charlie wasn’t just another woman in his clan. She was the one the leader wanted the most. Which sparked a burning whirlwind in Alec. He flew high over the dragons and watched them divert toward Charlie.
Alec let loose a roar and dropped. Air screamed past his ears. He took aim for the dragon closest to Charlie. Right beneath the dragon was the flat surface of the lake. Alec plowed into the dragon’s back and slammed him into the water. It splashed outward before crashing back in and swallowing them.
Did Zane know that these dragons had come to take his only friend? Alec couldn’t scream it the way he wanted to, but the dark shadow ahead told him all he needed to know. Before Zane could reach them both, Alec darted away. He didn’t look back. Not even when the dragon let out a muffled scream.
Alec made his way back to shore. Charlie had attracted more dragons. Four of them circled her now. All save for the one that had come earlier. He mustn’t be that smart if he hadn’t told them to avoid the water. Alec took to the air again. He picked out a dragon and shot like a dart out of the sky.
The dragon he aimed for spun at the last minute. Alec didn’t hit the beast’s hard back, but its soft stomach. While Alec’s claws dug into flesh, the enemy dragon also raked talons over his scales. Alec hissed, but they crashed into the water just like he wanted.
Except, the dragon clung to him. He couldn’t shake the beast to leave it behind. Its tail wrapped around Alec’s leg. Its talons pierced his shoulder. When Zane came to collect this dragon, he would drag them both down. Zane didn’t care about Alec’s safety. Only Charlie’s.
Alec kicked, but it was to no avail. Annoyed, he brought his head down. The water slowed the blow, but Alec’s twisted horn connected with the dragon’s temple. The beast’s grip on him slackened. He shook the creature off and swam back to the surface.
Alec (Keepers Of The Lake Book 3) Page 13