by Sadie Sears
He stood quietly, staring at me like I was the dessert we’d missed at the restaurant. Or maybe I just hoped so, but my body warmed. And I wanted…things. His things. At this rate, I was going to need an ice bath to cool the fire burning inside me. Better to let him leave before I embarrassed myself.
“Sam.” It was all that would come out. A breathy rendition of his name.
He cleared his throat. An adorable nervous habit.
"We didn't get to finish our date.” He paused uncertainly. “I think, I mean, I don’t think we’ve quite accomplished our objective.”
“Our objective?” I chuckled. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
His skin went pink then darker red, but he powered on, and I really liked him for it. "I think we need to go on another date.”
When I didn’t answer, he shoved his hands into his pockets. His cheeks puffed out on an exhale, and I got the sense that he was nervous. But, if he was getting paid for this, why would he be? Unless, could he want to go?
“I think we need to continue going on dates until Bill is convinced you’re going to be Mrs. O'Lachlan. My wife. And once he gets his crap out of your place, you’ll be able to better focus on getting that research position."
My wife. It wasn’t just the words or the way he said them, which was smoother than churned butter, but the look he put with them. Oh, but if only. Mrs. O'Lachlan. Why did the sound of that have me so flustered?
"He's right!" Lila shouted from the other room, and both she and Zoe laughed.
Sam was right. I closed my eyes but then nodded. Getting Bill out of my life wasn’t a priority. The research position was. And ensuring the former would allow me to concentrate on the latter. It was a win-win, and looking at Sam, at his soft smile, going out with him wasn’t a hardship. Not at all.
6
Samuel
I stood outside Lila’s house, hesitating, wishing. Gretta adored her sister and her niece. I’d seen it up close. And I yearned as much as I’d ever yearned for anything before to feel some of her attention for myself. Maybe someday.
Forlorn but still smiling, I turned toward my truck, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up. This wasn’t Gretta awareness—that hit a few inches lower. This was something else. Dread, thick and heavy, sat in the air, and I was instantly on alert. Someone or something was watching.
I stood and took a long, slow look at the woods surrounding Lila’s property. Nothing moved, not even the leaves on the trees, and I held my breath. There wasn’t even a whisper of wind.
Sometimes my dragon acted out. Maybe this was just one of those moments. He probably wanted me to stick around, protect the house, but the last thing I wanted was for Zoe to come out and catch me creeping around the house. I couldn’t stay. Not on the ground, anyway. I jumped in my truck and drove higher on the mountain. A couple of days ago, I’d found a good take-off and landing spot. Flat with plenty of room to shift and space to move.
As I parked, the urge to shift had my heart beating wildly. I stripped and put my clothes in the back of my truck, and then let my dragon take over. He went full size this time. It had been a while since I’d felt so large, so dynamic and imposing.
I inhaled the cold night air, a sharp contrast to the fire inside me and the burning desire for Gretta. The packed dirt vibrated under my pounding feet, much more so than before because I was nearly three times the size of my smaller dragon. It would make landing in a small space harder, but it made flying long distances so much easier. At the mountain edge I stretched my wings and leaped over the crevice.
In dragon form, it was typically easy to release anxiety and tension because nothing mattered but the rush of air and the freedom of flight. But as seemed to be a regular occurrence, I couldn’t get Gretta out of my mind. She was my mate, and according to the legends, to lay claim to her and let the world know she was mine would complete me. She would help me become the man and the dragon I was meant to be. We would fly together, be together.
But if I showed her my true nature, it could be the end of our relationship, as fake as it was.
Even lost in thought, I still sensed another dragon nearby. The air faintly crackled with the sound of wings, and I went on high alert. We didn’t usually fly together recreationally, so I circled, waiting, watching. When I realized it was Dominic, a friend from my military days, and who had also recently moved to Spruce to be part of the protection agency we were building, I flew closer to him. He dipped left then right, a signal that he wanted me to follow him.
He led me to an area over the forest where gravity grew denser, dragging on my wings, pulling me down. I grew tired and lethargic, and when I glanced at Dominic, I saw he was similarly affected. This wasn’t normal fatigue.
Wizards!
I roared a warning and quickly swerved out of the danger zone before I glimpsed Leath’s dark green dragon flying on the horizon. Why was he out here? I roared again and signaled for him to follow as I led the way back to the side of the mountain I’d taken off from. Dominic stayed close behind until we landed.
I shifted back and handed out some of the spare clothes I kept in my truck.
"How have you been, Dominic?" Despite the shift in energy when we were flying, having another fire dragon around calmed me.
"Good, thanks.” He flipped the deep red hair off his forehead and glanced at Leath. “Did you feel that back there?"
"Yeah. A kind of heavy, magnetic pull, right? I was about to come closer when Sam warned me off, but I felt it even over where I was."
"Wizards. I think we need to meet up with Mitias and let him know what we’ve found." I studied Dom, and he nodded.
"Set it up. There's been a lot of strange stuff going on around here. I was trying to check it out again when I saw you. It’s definitely wizards."
Leath groaned. "Man, I thought it would be easy moving out here, but I guess not. New town, same old problems."
I drove Dom and Leath back to their trucks, then after a quick call to Mitias, we decided to meet up at Sprucie’s.
Vincent stood at the bar, glowering at a server. She’d probably asked for his ID. It wasn’t her fault he looked young, but he took offense every time. He shoved his wallet at her, and I knew it had a fake ID showing he was twenty-five because no one with eyes would believe he was sixty-one like it said on his birth certificate.
I grinned and slapped him on the back. "Relax. She’s just doing her job.”
He frowned. "Sometimes my boyish charm works in my favor. Sometimes it doesn't."
I ordered a scotch, then Vincent and I headed for Cameron’s table. He circled his finger over the rim of his wine glass while he stared off into the nothingness of a wall by the door.
“You okay, Cam?” I asked.
He looked up and smiled. “Sam! How are things with Gretta?”
Vincent cocked his head. He was always ready for some juicy gossip, but before I could reply and disappoint, Mitias walked in with Ben, Taurus, and Theo.
Mitias didn't stop to chat, just brushed on past us and waved his index finger toward the room at the back of the bar. Theo, one of the oldest in our clan besides Mitias, glanced at us. As an ether dragon, he would have picked up the tension that settled over the group. He was more lighthearted and fun-loving than Cam, so I relaxed as I strode beside him.
“Where are Dom and Leath?” he asked.
“They should be here in a minute if they’re not already.” I hadn’t noticed them, but as we headed toward the private room, I saw them at the corner of the bar with Dom being flanked by two women. I motioned to let them know where we were going, and Dominic waved in response.
As we passed a couple of guys playing pool, one of them turned to stare. He was a wolf shifter. It wasn’t always easy to tell, but the faint scent of canine gave him away. His sense of smell would have told him we weren’t human or one of the more well-known shifters. Like Justin, he’d probably picked up on our unusual eye color, which wasn’t always apparent to hu
mans.
Either that, or he’d already heard several dragons had moved into his town. That in itself wasn’t too unusual, especially since dragons gravitated to rural towns. We liked space to fly and stretch our wings. But he might have been wary that so many had moved here within a short period. I nodded to him, and after a moment, he nodded back before he returned to his game.
Once everyone settled in the back room, Mitias stood at the end of a long table.
"There’s an excess of energy up in the mountains. I’m positive it’s one of the wizards’ energy hubs. I’ll head up there with another of the elders, and we’ll drain it of energy. The problem is, we know there are more of them, but we don't know where, and we don’t really know who these wizards are or what they're doing with all the energy they’re stealing." Mitias ran his hands through his short gray hair. "So, I could use your help."
I nodded. "You got it. Tell us what you need." I didn’t speak for the group because I was some sort of leader. I spoke for the group because there was no way we could turn down a request for help, especially from an elder. We lived for this kind of thing. Nobody here would want to beg off.
"Yeah, whatever you need, Mitias." Theo locked eyes with Cam. I assumed they were conversing with each other. Well, not exactly, but as ether dragons—and these were the strongest ones I’d ever known—they could sense what another dragon was thinking, and I hoped they were coming up with a plan.
"What's our next step?" Taurus asked.
His sharp, handmade suit draped his muscular frame. He made an effort to always look good, and that meant tailored suits, two-hundred-dollar haircuts and hand-stitched Italian leather shoes. But fancy clothes and a trim by Alejandro didn’t hide the worry in his intense green eyes. He didn’t like the unknown.
Mitias looked at each of us until he’d made his way around the table. “Right now, I want you to keep an eye out. Don’t engage with a wizard but let me know immediately if you run into one. They’re not all bad, but something is happening around Spruce, and we can’t be too careful.”
General assent went around the room, and Mitias smiled. I thought he was going to say something else, but a server walked in.
"The two guys playing pool out there bought you a round of beers." She took the orders and came back with a full tray of bottles and mugs.
The mood lightened—who didn’t appreciate free drinks? —and we toasted each other like scoring free alcohol was a great accomplishment.
"How is the business coming? Are you all making friends with the locals? Offering your services?" Mitias asked as he took a sip of his dark lager.
Leath shook his head. "So far, I’ve helped retrieve a cat from a tree.” He held up his arm. “Got a scratch as payment.” Dragons healed faster than most shifters so there wasn’t even a mark for him to show. They all laughed, except for me. I sat staring into my beer because it was only a matter of time until someone asked about Gretta.
"It'll come together, don't worry," Ben said. Of all the guys, he was the one I’d expected to be all over me about Gretta, about having found my destined mate and being too chickenshit to tell her I was a dragon. Not to say he wouldn’t, but he hadn’t yet.
Dominic frowned as he glanced at the group. "Yeah, all right for you lot, but I don't really know what I've got to offer."
"You could always teach boxing and self-defense," Cam suggested. He always came up with brilliant ideas, but he said them in such offhand ways he made it seem easy. Except when he’d come up with the idea of me being Gretta’s fake boyfriend. I’d never have come up with anything like that. No one else would either unless they knew who she was to me.
Dominic tilted his head, nodded a couple times then smiled. "Yeah, I could do that. Thanks a lot, Cam."
“What about you, Samuel? How is your role of fake boyfriend coming along?” Mitias’s grin would have done Theo proud.
I groaned, and Leath grinned before shoving a sharp elbow in my side. “Go on, tell them.”
I took another sip of my beer, stalling for precious seconds. It wasn’t like it was their business.
"Well, I’m sure most of you have heard by now anyway because no one keeps their damned mouth shut.” I cocked an eyebrow at Leath and clicked my tongue against my teeth. “Gretta is my destined mate. But I haven’t told her. Or that I’m a dragon shifter.”
I looked down because I didn't need to see the guys staring at me. They didn’t need to know the why. We didn’t commonly hide our nature. It made it too hard when people discovered. I had a good reason, but Vincent was the only other one who agreed with my sentiment.
Vincent nodded at me. "I think we need to all stay under the radar. Don't let the humans know we're dragon shifters. They don’t need to know more than we're skilled ex-military."
Cameron scowled. I didn't have to be an ether dragon to understand he thought I should go for true love and claim my destined mate. I sighed. If only it was as easy as he thought.
Dominic set his mug down on the table. "I don't know, man. I wouldn't let anything get in my way if I found my destined mate. I don't think humans treat us any differently than any other shifter."
I shook my head. He didn’t have the history I had. The heartbreak. "I do."
"I'm just saying, I’d go after what's mine." He squeezed my shoulder, then Taurus put his two cents’ worth in while Vincent frowned. They started the great to tell or not to tell debate. Thankfully, before I got drawn in, Leath and Cameron waved me over to where they were huddled together. I blew out a hard breath.
Here it comes.
"You look constipated." Leath cocked an eyebrow and chuckled.
I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms. “And you look like you need a shave.” He always looked like he needed a shave. It was part of his charm.
Leath smiled. "I’m just saying tell her, claim her, make her fall hopelessly and deeply in love with you. Then, everything will come out a lot better.” He shot me a smug smirk. I had to get a better best friend.
Cameron leaned in. "Wounds don't heal without care and attention. It's time you allow your destined mate into your heart and your life."
He never lied. Ever. I trusted Cam and Leath more than anyone I’d ever known. They'd never steer me wrong.
"Yeah." They were right. Because of course they were. Now, if only they had a plan on how I could make it happen without sending Gretta running. That was the hard part.
I peeked around the corner of the nurses' station. What Gretta did for scrubs was what Elvis did for music. They weren’t tight, but they fit in all the best ways. Her hair was piled on top of her head in some kind of haphazard knot that looked like she’d done it on purpose, and her stethoscope hung around her neck. Dark wire-framed glasses accentuated her high cheekbones and enlarged her beautiful eyes. Gretta killed the sexy doctor look.
I’d spent the weekend mulling over what everyone had said to me, and although I respected Vincent’s opinion, I knew Cameron and Leath were right. I had to push past my fear, reveal my dragon nature to her. I had to find a way to tell her that we were meant for each other.
This wasn’t 1915 anymore. Wasn’t even the 1900s. Things had changed. We were an accepted part of society now and being a dragon didn’t automatically mean rejection anymore.
My heart raced as Gretta walked slowly toward me, smiling at the tablet she had in her hands. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and my dragon sighed. I reminded myself, again, that she had a shifter for a best friend, so chances were, she could accept me, too. Maybe she wouldn’t see being a dragon as a bad thing.
She gazed up from the chart she studied, and her eyes sparkled.
“Sam, what are you doing here?” She smoothed back the little pieces of hair that fell over her forehead.
“I came to see you.” Truth. All truth, all the time. That was my new motto.
Her full smile eased some of the tension in my stomach. I could tell her. Definitely. Probably. Maybe.
“Well, you’ve seen me.” She set t
he tablet on the counter and twisted the engagement ring—my ring—on her finger.
“You’re wearing it.” I would’ve facepalmed because she was probably aware she was wearing it. But she was watching, and I didn’t really want to point out I was an idiot. I was sure she already knew I was.
"Oh, yes. In case I saw someone who…you know…” She looked around surreptitiously. “Bill. I thought I should stay in character.” She blew out a quiet breath, a red flush creeping into her cheeks. “Plus, bonus for me, it really is beautiful."
I’d made her uncomfortable, and I quickly changed the subject. "How's Lila? Is she feeling better?"
"Yes, she seems to be in remission for now, thank goodness." Gretta laid her hand on my forearm and gazed into my eyes. "Thank you so much for asking and for being there the other night, Sam. It means a lot to me."
She slid the palm of her hand down to lie on top of mine, and warmth inched along my skin as she allowed her fingers to briefly linger. Before she completely withdrew, I captured her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to the back. Gretta stood silent; her pupils dilated. I swallowed and dropped my gaze to her parted lips, which glistened as she ran her tongue along them.
“Get a room, you two.” Justin appeared behind Gretta and grinned, pulling his phone out. “Wow, isn’t this just a perfect picture moment?” He motioned for us to stand closer together. "Make it look real now."
Gretta leaned in closer, rested her head on my chest, and I wrapped my arm around her. Today she smelled like strawberries, which was soothing. Or it would’ve been had she not been standing close enough that I could feel her body against mine, every breath, every touch. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head and it felt as natural as blinking. She sighed, and I squeezed her tighter.
"Yes, you guys look so happy. That's perfect." Justin winked and took a few more shots.
"We're playing the part well, then." Her voice cracked, then she cleared her throat and took a step away.