“Clearly, she’s not the only one,” a new voice said.
They all looked up to find the russet-haired man standing on the cabin steps. He had a beer in one hand, but it did nothing to make him seem at ease. His shoulders were clenched tight as he stepped toward them.
Immediately, Evangeline heard a warning growl from Casey. He inched forward in his seat until she reached over and took his hand.
“You said your friend is afraid of us,” the russet-haired man said. “She knows what we are?”
Evangeline shrugged, determined to keep Nellie’s secret. “You leave her alone and she’ll leave you alone.”
Tension hung in the air. Casey, Dillon, and Erik all looked like they were waiting to pounce. But the fourth man grunted, stepped forward, and yanked the tongs from Erik’s hands.
“Out of the way,” he growled at Erik. “If you apply too much direct heat, you’re going to make the ribs dry as hell.”
“I always imagined hell was steamy. You know, all the fire and nervous sweat.” Erik grinned as he sidestepped the fourth man.
He glanced over his shoulder at Evangeline. “Keep your friends far away from here. Casey is the only civilized man here, and you’ve already taken him.”
She wanted to ask if he counted himself as uncivilized, but the question caught in her throat. Whatever these men were, she could tell that he was the biggest. The only one who didn’t walk on eggshells around him was Casey.
“Cute mate,” the fourth man said. “Don’t let her figure out what you are, or she’ll decide to cut and run.”
Casey lurched out of his seat, but Evangeline grabbed ahold of his back pocket and held him back. She gave him a soft smile.
“He might be a miserable fuck right now, but someday he’ll meet someone who will make him regret what he said.” She turned her gaze from Casey to the fourth man.
He glared at her like he could set her on fire with his eyes. Maybe he could but held back for Casey’s sake.
Erik released a whistle. “That was the kindest back-handed remark I’ve ever heard in my life. I like her. I’d happily listen to her put Gavin in his place every day.”
Her cheeks warmed as Erik clapped her on the back. Casey growled when he touched her, but Erik obviously had no ill intent. Erik was looking for a good time with his bros, and her response had marked her as one of the bros.
She couldn’t shake the smile overtaking her face. While the guys snapped back and forth at each other, dodging subtle nut-punches as they milled about, she pulled her sketchbook from her bag. Soon, she’d covered the pages and her fingers in graphite. She captured Dillon’s softness trapped in his massive form. Erik pushed his sunglasses on top of his head, giving her the perfect profile as he stared out into the valley below.
Capturing Casey was the easiest. She drew him lounging against the deck railing as he watched her. Desire radiated off him. She captured it in the way his knuckles tightened on the railing, the way he seemed like he was about to push off it and pounce on her.
The hardest to render was Gavin. His portrait became a study of shadows. He seemed to wreath himself in them. Part of her wanted to introduce him to Nellie. She couldn’t figure out why she wanted to see them together. Perhaps she wanted to see if Nellie’s nervous energy could soften Gavin’s shadows.
He’d probably just get annoyed with her and run away. He vanished on them several times, only to come back with wet hair. Evangeline raised an inquisitive brow in his direction, but he didn’t stop to offer any kind of explanation.
Casey and the other two were here to help Gavin. She couldn’t tell what his problem was, only that extended periods of friendliness seemed to frighten him away. He eyed her from time to time, like he expected her to run screaming.
These men weren’t normal. They moved with preternatural grace and speed. Within minutes, she’d heard them growl at each other like animals several times. Erik would remember that she was around and lower his glasses over his mismatched eyes again.
The day she’d run into Casey at the grocery store, he’d left her all of a sudden. She remembered looking into the sky and seeing something that hadn’t made sense. Not until Casey had sent her the stuffed dragon. Even then, she’d told herself that it couldn’t be possible.
There was no way she’d seen a dragon above town.
Yet, she’d started to believe. Casey and Dillon didn’t give them away, but Gavin and Erik prowled like predators. Every so often, she’d catch Gavin cocking his head. The gesture reminded her of lizards.
And so, her pencil scratched over the paper, marking the shapes for a creature she’d never thought she’d run into. Curled horns came into existence, framing a snarling muzzle. Scales and talons grew darker with every pass of her pencil.
This beast was not her Casey, but she figured it had to be one of the men present.
She sat back, a triumphant smile on her lips. Casey might have doubted her, but she’d gotten to the bottom of his mystery. Now, her mind spun with possibilities. Later, when they were alone, she wanted to know what his dragon looked like. It couldn’t look like the stuffed version he’d bought her. Casey’s dragon had to be more manly, more like him.
Clutching the sketchbook close to her chest, she rose from her seat and went to lean against the railing beside Casey. He raised one brow but said nothing as she peeled the sketchbook away from her chest. At first, he seemed confused. Then his eyes landed on the dragon.
“I saw it that day,” she whispered. “Didn’t believe my own eyes until now.”
He searched her eyes for a long moment, but she stayed beside him and watched his shoulders slowly relax. Before he could move, she stood on her tip-toes and placed a kiss on his lips. Casey caught her and pulled her into his chest. She couldn’t melt into him with the sketchbook caught between them.
But before she could set it aside, Casey pulled back.
“Gavin!” Casey shouted. “Come check this out.”
Gavin snarled as he marched toward them.
Evangeline rocked on her heels then spun her sketchbook around and pointed at her sketch. “It’s you!”
The image stopped him dead in his tracks. His shadows fled as his features softened. Slowly, he reached out, and she let him take the sketchbook from her. She warned him not to touch it when she saw him try to run his fingers over the image.
“Pencil lead has a tendency to smudge,” she said, apologetically.
Casey playfully punched Gavin’s shoulder. “She saw you the day you took off and perched on the top of the mountain.”
Gavin’s shadows returned, darkening by the second. He shoved the sketchbook back at her before looking to Casey. “Just because she’s here now doesn’t mean she’ll stick around forever.”
Heat unfurled in the pit of her gut. Scowling, she reacted without thinking about the consequences and kicked Gavin in the shin. He yelped and leapt back from her.
Evangeline pointed a finger at Gavin. “Don’t make assumptions about me, dickhead.”
Casey stepped forward and put himself between her and Gavin. The others fell silent, clearly stunned by her display.
“Do you know who I am?” Gavin roared.
“Buddy,” Erik said. “Cool it. Out here, you’re nothing. You just another part of the misfits clan. If anything, you’re the original misfit. Pull the stick out of your ass and admire the girl’s gumption.”
She waited for Gavin to strike Erik, but neither moved. Gavin glared at Erik for a moment before turning that anger toward her. Little by little, it died. Even with Casey standing between her and Gavin, she still felt the urge to run and hide. Her lips trembled, so she pressed them into a tight smile to hide her fear.
Evangeline crashed back into her seat as Gavin stormed away. With him out of sight, Erik picked up the conversation once more, acting as though nothing had happened. She appreciated his attempt to go on, but she understood why Nellie feared them now.
Watching a man throw a table at his friend mean
t nothing until that anger was directed at her. The urge to run back to her apartment and hide under her bed was almost overwhelming, but if she turned tail now, she wouldn’t be able to keep Casey.
The part of her that had given way to fear now pulled itself together. He gave her a look that bore a silent question. She nodded, unwilling to share how she really felt. Not yet, at least. Casey watched her like she was a scared rabbit that might scurry away.
Was this what fate had prepared her for? Had it put her in the arms of men who wouldn’t think twice about hurting her, so she could see the good in these terrifying men? Though it had hurt at the time, she could now look back and see how strong she’d become. She wouldn’t run just because Gavin growled at her.
She searched for him, now determined to make a friend out of him, but he’d vanished.
“So,” Evangeline said. “Y’all can turn into dragons?”
“I can’t believe you came to that conclusion on your own.” Erik pointed the grill tongs at her as he spoke. “Most humans would find any way to deny our existence.”
Having known Nellie for the past five years, there wasn’t much that could surprise Evangeline anymore. She wished she could explain, but she’d promised to keep Nellie’s secret, and so her lips were sealed on that subject.
She wrinkled her nose and cast a wry smile at Casey. “I think finding a mate makes it a little easier.”
His spine suddenly straightened. She thought he would sprout wings and fly off into the distance like any other hot-blooded man facing a confession of love. Casey’s startled eyes softened, and a grin eclipsed any doubt that might have lingered. He swept low and plucked her from the folding chair so he could spin her around.
A bubbling laugh slipped out of her as the world spun. He clutched her tight and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Barely pulling back, he whispered, “You’re so damn sexy today. I like that I can see your legs through your pants.”
Her heart flipped. Casey had finally called her sexy! All it’d taken was a pair of ripped jeans.
She wound her arms around his neck and stole a kiss from him. Beyond them, someone cleared their throat. She didn’t bother pulling away to figure out who’d made the sound. She didn’t care.
Casey didn’t seem to care, either. He carried her away from the others, towards privacy.
In the distance she heard Erik call out to Gavin. “You wanted to tell me how to cook these ribs. Come back and finish what you started!”
Gavin might have scared her shitless for a moment, but he was still Casey’s friend. Had he not been, Gavin wouldn’t have walked away to cool down. He would have acted on his anger, regardless of the consequences.
There was hope for these guys. Fate had handed them a hard life, but only so they could grow into the people they were meant to be. Evangeline believed that right down to her core. If fate had prepared her for Casey, then she knew fate was busy with the guys, too.
Away from prying eyes, Casey set her down. She spared only a moment to peer around and take stock of her surroundings. They stood beneath a copse of towering pine trees. The air smelled of earth and sap, a scent that spoke to her soul.
“You’re not going to get me up against one of these trees,” she warned him. “I might be wearing my messy pants, but pine sap is no joke. I’m not risking getting that between my butt cheeks.”
Casey’s smoldering expression dissolved as he gave in to laughter. Once again, he closed the distance between them to scoop her up and swing her around.
“I never thought I’d have a mate,” he said.
She held onto his shoulders, head light as the world blurred around her. The only constant was Casey, and that was fine by her. She would be there for him, a constant in his life the same way he’d become the security in hers.
When he set her down, his joy slowly faded. His hands never left her, though. She leaned into him, trying to silently promise that she would go nowhere.
“Do you really want to be my mate?” His voice was barely more than a whisper.
“I don’t think I have a choice in it,” she said. When his face fell, she explained. “I love you, and I can’t think of any other way to spend my life!”
His fingers grazed her shoulder as he pushed the collar of her shirt aside. She watched his lashes flutter over his cheeks as his eyes lowered.
“I want to claim you,” he said. “It might hurt. If you’re not ready or if you don’t want to go through this step, then we can skip it.”
“Do I look like the kind of person who shies away from pain?”
The corner of Casey’s mouth quirked in a smirk that made her stomach do backflips. She tightened her grip on his arms as his head descended toward her shoulder. Barely a second later, he pressed his lips to her shoulder. She shuddered in his grip and recalled the way his teeth had grazed her skin before.
His growl rumbled along her chest and pulled her nipples taut. The moment stretched on, making her heart race faster and faster, until Casey’s lips finally parted.
Evangeline cried out as sharp teeth broke her skin. She expected pain, but sensation unfurled in her core and washed over her like an unforgiving tsunami. Her body spasmed, falling limp in his arms.
That was not what I expected.
Casey licked the wound like a cat trying to ask for forgiveness. She shivered, shock waves rolling through her until her fingertips tingled. She could barely hold onto him, let alone reach for him. He leaned back, eyeing her as he shifted her weight in his arms so he could wipe a bit of her blood from his lips.
That was easily the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.
My mind has never been so blown.
You’re never going to get rid of me now.
Evangeline could think of a hundred things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t get her lips to function while the throes of climax still held her. Casey laughed, like he could tell, and helped set her back onto her feet.
She wavered, but his sturdy arms held her tight until she could lift her arms enough to cling to his shirt.
“I’m not going to…” Worry suddenly smashed through her happiness. “Am I going to become like you now? I’m sorry. I don’t know how any of this works.”
Casey brushed a tendril of her hair away from her face. “I would have to shift and bite you in order to change you.”
He fell silent.
“Is that…is that what you want? Do you want a mate that’s like you?” Evangeline wasn’t sure how she felt about the idea.
Of course, she wanted to feel strong around Casey and his friends, but she didn’t know what she would have to endure to become like him. The process of changing and then learning to exist as something she’d never been…it seemed daunting.
He cupped her cheek. “I want you to be happy. And alive. There have been cases of women being changed into dragon shifters, but they’re very few and far between. Most women of our kind are born shifters, like my sister.”
She gasped. “You have a sister?”
Though Evangeline knew she loved Casey with every ounce of her soul, she still knew so little about him and the life he’d led before coming to her.
“Oh, Daphne is going to have a field day when she finds out that I’ve found a mate. I apologize in advance for anything she might do or say. She can be a bit…well, let’s just say that the gate between her brain and her mouth is almost always open.”
“I can’t wait to meet your family,” she said.
* * *
Casey couldn’t believe his luck. He had a spring in his step as he and Evangeline made their way back to the cookout. She’d left her shirt slightly askew, displaying the new bite mark on her shoulder like it was a new tattoo.
Everyone saw it, there was no ignoring the bite or the smell of sex that wrapped around the two of them even though they hadn’t actually gone that far. Casey smiled, proud to know that his claiming mark had taken Evangeline that far. To him, that meant he’d found the one. No one would ever
be able to convince him otherwise.
His sister would try. Daphne would fly all the way here just to tell him he’d screwed up by mating a human instead of a nice dragon girl. She’d yet to understand that mating wasn’t a choice they got to make. One day, she would learn that lesson for herself.
He only hoped he would be there when it happened.
Casey pulled Evangeline into his lap and cleared his throat. Gavin shot him a glare, but Casey wasn’t afraid of him.
“We need to talk about what we’re going to do when Zander comes for us.”
Dillon’s brows crashed together. He looked between Casey and Evangeline, as if to ask if Casey really wanted to talk about this in front of his human mate. Evangeline was a part of his life now. She would inevitably get caught in the crossfire. She deserved to know what was going on.
“Zander is looking for a reason to dispose of us. We need to convince him that we’re not going to be a problem for him.” Casey wanted Zander to forget about them. To let them set up here and never cross paths again.
“If he comes, I’ll take care of him,” Gavin growled.
Erik seemed taken aback. “Do you really think we’d let you do that on your own? No offense, but even if you are your father’s son, there’s a chance you could actually win this fight if you let us help.”
Evangeline stiffened at the mention of a fight. Casey tried to silently comfort her, but she needed to know about this. He would not let her live in ignorance because that would not end in bliss. Not in this instance.
She needed to be prepared for when Zander came for them. If they had a plan of action in place, then she would be able to get out before Zander struck. Casey would be able to fight alongside Gavin and Erik with everything he had so long as he knew she would be safe.
She’d become his everything. Casey couldn’t risk losing her just because Zander was jealous of his son. He eyed Gavin.
“Are you going to fight?” Casey asked. “Or, are you going to sacrifice yourself to him?”
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