by Roxie Ray
Great. Here we went. “You’re married?” I asked.
He stopped short and stared at me. “No,” he said loudly and vehemently. “Never that. Nobody but you. There’s never been anybody for me but you.”
“Well, that’s nice to hear, but then why are you hiding stuff from me?” I asked.
He groaned. “It wasn’t a place of ill intention. I’ve got some family drama that’s hard to talk about. And I had to be sure, like a thousand percent sure about you before I could think about telling you.”
I straightened my spine. “And what does this have to do with Damon?”
“It’s complicated, and it’s best explained if I can show you. To show you, we have to drive out to my mom’s land.”
I arched an eyebrow at him as my anxiety spiked. “What’s there?”
“Proof of what I kept from you and why. I promise you’re in no danger.”
“Sweet baby Jesus, you’re going to take me to the woods and induct me into your cult, aren’t you?” I shook my head.
“What?”
“No, thank you. I should’ve known it was an actual cult.” I stood and started for the door.
“Briana.” Jace caught my hand and tugged on it, but only a little and he let go right away. “Do you trust me?”
I looked at him and thought about the dates and time we’d spent together. The time with Hayden. “I would’ve before today.”
His eyes lit up. “You trust Skye, though, right?”
Instantly, my suspicions were intensified. “What does my friend have to do with all of this mess?”
“Call her and tell her exactly this: Jace has a big secret to tell me. Should I trust him and go with him to his mom’s land?”
I arched an eyebrow at him, but I did as he asked, pulling out my phone and dialing Skye. She answered on the second ring. “Hey, Bri! How are you?”
“I’m in a really strange situation, that’s how I am. Jace is sort of freaking out, he wants me to go with him to his mom’s land to show me something about him and his life, and he’s scaring me. He says to ask you if I should trust him.”
“Yes,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. “Do it.”
“I—” I looked at the phone in confusion. “You know the secret?”
“Yes, and when you do, everything will be made perfectly clear. Go with him. Love you, bye!”
She hung up.
I stared at the phone, just as confused as before, but far more intrigued now. “Fine,” I said. “But I’m telling you now, I’m not joining any cults.”
Jace bowed his head and motioned me toward the kitchen. “Perfectly reasonable. Let me show you this, and then we’ll get down to business and deal with Damon, okay?”
I grumbled, but I walked down to his truck. He started to open the door for me, but I jerked in front of him and did it myself. A little petty, but he’d been keeping stuff from me. I was allowed to be a little petty.
I was a nervous wreck as we pulled out of the bar parking lot. Damon was out there trying to make up stories just to take my daughter from me; I wasn’t sure how much more I could deal with. But I buckled down and braced for whatever it was Jace was about to tell me.
As we drove out of town and trees enveloped the truck, he glanced at me several times. “Keep an open mind. I promise you I’m not crazy, okay?”
That didn’t help my nerves at all.
“So, there are things in this world that most people don’t realize are here. Supernatural things.”
“Like demons and ghosts?” I asked skeptically.
He paused. “Uh, probably. I wouldn’t doubt it. I’ve never seen either, but that’s a great question.” He grunted. “I should ask Sammy.”
“Who?”
“More like people who shift into animals and witches. Oh, and vampires.”
I gaped at him. He said he wasn’t crazy, but then he talked crazy. “Shit,” I whispered.
Skye had told me to trust him. I’d at least hear him out. Maybe the cult was some sort of fetishists. I wasn’t into that bag, so I’d just smile politely and then ask him to take me home, where I’d nurse my broken heart and figure out how to fight my ex-husband for custody of Hayden.
“I’m a shifter,” Jace said. I turned my gaze from the passing trees to Jace, who kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
Oh, fuck, I bet he dressed up as a pony. Or a cat. Lord help me. “Oh?” I smiled at him and tried to be bland. I didn’t want to set him off, especially while he was driving on a winding road.
“I turn into a dragon, as do all the members of the cult everyone talks about. We stick close to each other for protection and secrecy.”
I nodded, playing along. “That makes sense.” How was I going to get Skye and her babies out of this mess? Maybe they could run with me. Kaylee would help and she had plenty of money if we needed some to get out of town.
“Dragons take a mate. We mate for life, usually. We’re fiercely protective and loyal, and if we choose a mate, it’s because we really care about them. But we also have something called fated mates, where the universe, or our dragon half or something, chooses for us. And it just means that the fated mate is a person that is most compatible with us.” He turned up a driveway and kept talking. “Not that we’re forced to care about each other, but if we nourish the relationship, it’s almost guaranteed to work out.”
I kept nodding and smiling. “Sure, sure, makes perfect sense.”
He parked the truck in an open field just off the driveway. “I thought we were going to your mother’s house?” I asked.
“No, just her land. This is clan land.” He hopped out of the truck and circled to open my door.
“I think I’ll stay in here, if that’s okay with you.” I turned the handle on his truck windows and smiled. Inside, though, I was beginning to be scared he was going to kill me out here. But he’d left the keys in the truck and I’d locked the door when he looked away.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to prove this to you. I can see you’re humoring me because you think I’m looney tunes.” He put one hand on the truck door and leaned in. “Stay in the truck if you want to, but listen to me now, okay?”
I nodded and paid attention.
“I’m going to turn into a dragon. An actual, like from mythology, dragon. But I still have my mind when I’m shifted. I will not hurt you. Okay?”
I nodded. As soon as he was far enough away from the truck, I was scooting over and driving the fuck out of here.
Jace backed into the middle of the clearing with his eyes on me. He nodded, and I figured he was far enough away, so I swung my leg over the console on the floor and scooted over into the driver’s seat.
When I looked back up, a dragon stood in the middle of the clearing.
A dragon.
An actual dragon. Holy shit. A dragon.
I gaped out of the front window of the truck, fear coursing through me, and reminded myself that he’d promised he wasn’t dangerous. And Skye said to trust him. I pulled my phone out and glanced at it just long enough to dial Skye before bringing my gaze back to Jace’s big scaly form.
She answered on the first ring this time. “Did he show you?”
“There’s a dragon outside the truck,” I whispered.
“Well, go touch him!” she exclaimed. “This is the coolest thing ever, and we’re in the tiny, select group of people who are allowed to know. Go enjoy it and forgive me for not telling you!”
She hung up on me. My heart tried to thump straight out of my chest, but I set my phone down and opened the truck door.
Jace shifted on his feet, and I froze.
He lowered to his belly and put his head on the ground. He was trying to show me that he was submissive and wasn’t dangerous. I highly doubted he was actually submissive, but I got what he was doing.
Jace was a dragon.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, and walked forward to see the dragon, my fated mate.
20
/> Jace
Bri’s shock and fear were like a living and breathing thing. It permeated the air. She didn’t seem to be able to speak for a moment. I ducked down and put my head on the ground. I didn’t know how else to remind her that she had nothing to fear from me.
“Holy shit,” she whispered, and finally walked forward. I chuffed at her and she froze again. Inching forward, I looked up at her and rolled onto my side, showing my belly. It would’ve been an incredibly submissive move in front of another dragon, but now, it was perfect.
Briana burst out laughing, then clapped her hand over her mouth. I rolled back to my feet and turned, showing her my tail. I thumped it on the ground a few times.
“Are you showing me how impressive your tail is?” she asked. The fear in the air thinned and amusement and wonder slowly overtook it.
I walked in a circle, then moved closer. As quietly as I could, I growled while looking at Bri.
She raised her eyebrows. I backed away and ducked my head, then did it again, backing and ducking.
“You want me to stay here?” she asked.
I nodded my head up and down, then raised my head toward the sky.
Drawing on my natural water reserves—the going theory was that we took water out of the air—I sprayed the clearing with a stream of water.
Briana gasped. “It’s not fire!” she exclaimed.
I figured she had enough questions to ask me by now. Shifting back, I walked toward her across the clearing. “See? I’m still me.” Bri’s blank face concerned me a little. She stared at me, blinking rapidly. Her expression slowly gained meaning as she processed the fact that she’d just seen me shift into a dragon and back. Confusion, awe, fear, and a bit of anger flashed in rapid succession. It helped that being near her and her being my mate, even though we weren’t bonded, meant I could read her emotions, though not strongly, not like I would be able to once we’d bonded.
She shook her head and met me in the middle with her hands in front of her to keep some distance between us. “Why did it take you so long to tell me? All this time…” As Briana looked at me, her face went from full of wonder to looking a bit crushed.
“What is it? It’s new and different, I know, but it’s not a bad thing,” I held out my hands, hoping she’d take them, but she backed up a step.
“Have you thought about the way my life would change? The secrets I’d have to keep from my family, my friends? It would be one thing if this were our home, and I didn’t have the past I did with Damon, and my parents and sister hadn’t moved with me. But for them to do all that and then me turn around and keep such a massive secret?” She was moving into a really big freak-out now. “And I’ll remind you that Hayden is seven. How long do you think we could keep who and what you are hidden from her?” It’s not like we could tell her. She’s seven, kids don’t do well at keeping secrets. What if she let something slip and it got back to Damon that his daughter was talking about shifters? He’d use it against me to get custody in a heartbeat.
“Hang on, Briana, calm down. We can deal with all that.”
She was too far into having a very obvious meltdown to listen to me, though.
Her fear was gone, and anger and confusion filled the air. “I can deal with a lot of shit. I have dealt with a lot of shit. An abusive husband, a nasty divorce, and yet I got through it. What really has me pissed off is that you lied to me. You chose to keep things from me. And not just the shifter thing, because you can’t control what you are, I’m not even mad about what you are. But it was your choice to lie and keep things from me for weeks.” She turned and walked back toward the truck. I followed and let her vent her spleen.
“And the fated thing! You said we’re just compatible but are your feelings genuine, or if it’s just some mystical voodoo and you feel forced to be with me?”
“No,” I said firmly. “I don’t feel forced at all. As a matter of fact, it was my choice and it’s always been my choice. You know how I looked near death there for a while?”
She nodded with her arms crossed.
“That was because I have major father issues, and also I had a relationship way in my past that screwed me up. It made me think that I could never have a fated mate, never be a husband or a father. So, I tried to break the fated mate bond. I was at the cusp of doing it. You never would’ve seen me again.”
“What happened?” she whispered with wide eyes.
“Our clan witch,” she flinched when I said witch, “Sammy, gave me visions of what our life would be like if I gave in to the bond. It was incredible. Beautiful and happy and…” I trailed off, at a loss for words. “Perfect.”
I stepped forward again. “What matters is that I love you, Briana Wallace. I’m in love with you. And I love Hayden to the moon and back. I made stupid choices trying to handle everything myself, but I know better now, and, in the future, I’ll work harder on this being a team effort, not me fixing everything for you.”
She sighed. Her eyes had definitely softened when I told her I loved her. She had to know it was true. “I need time to think, some time away from you to just think about everything.”
She walked around the truck and got in the passenger seat. I walked with heavy legs to the driver’s side. When I got in, she looked out the window and didn’t speak again until we were nearly back at her car at the bar. “It isn’t because of you being—what you are, even though that is trippy as hell. It’s everything that comes with it.” She finally looked at me. “Having to lie and keep secrets. You keeping things from me, especially things that directly affect me and my daughter. That’s what has me the most upset and questioning. I can handle a lot, but when it comes to Hayden…”
“I understand,” I whispered. “You have to make the best decision for her. But just know, there are spells we can do that would prevent her from telling anyone once we decided to tell her. We have to do them for our own children as well.”
She blinked. “I’ll take that into consideration. I want to talk to Skye and think.”
I parked beside her car and turned in the seat. The ache had returned to my chest. Our bond was pulling and not in a good way.
“I care for you still,” she whispered. “I’ll call you. Please, give me space.”
“I can give you time and space,” I said. I just hoped and prayed that in time she didn’t decide to leave me for good. She got out of the truck, and my chest ached harder the farther away she got.
I remembered one more thing I hadn’t told her and jumped out of the truck as she shut the door on her car. “Bri!” I called.
She heard me and rolled down her window. “Yeah?”
I jogged over. “One more thing I almost forgot. Not intentionally.” I held up my arms.
With a tight smile, she nodded. “Accidental forgetfulness is forgivable.”
“Now that you know about all this, I can tell you, our clan witch said she gave Hayden a necklace?”
Bri’s brows furrowed, then her eyes widened in recognition. “The dragon. That old lady on the beach was a witch?”
“Well, Sammy’s not an old lady. Or she could be, actually, but she doesn’t look like one. She probably had a spell on to look like an old lady. Anyway, the necklace will protect Hayden from Damon. Make sure she wears it, okay?”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. “Well, I don’t think she’s taken it off. She wears it under her shirt because she says it feels warm and comfortable there. But I don’t know how I feel about her wearing something that has a spell in it.”
“You have my word, if you can still trust it, that there are no known problems relating to any of Sammy’s protection spells. I’ve never even heard of them going wrong. I have heard of them helping immensely. I’m not a witch or a scientist. I can’t say that the spell absolutely positively will not affect Hayden in any way. But I promise you I would eat my shoes if it did. I trust Sammy with my life and yours, and Hayden’s.”
She stared at me for a long second, then nodded.
“I’ll risk it. She can wear it.”
I patted the top of the car and watched her pull out of the parking lot. My heart wanted to follow her, and the tugging in my chest made it feel like it was trying. But knowing that Hayden would wear the necklace made me feel marginally better.
Over the next few days, I knew I had to make peace with the choices I made. The first was my mother. After giving myself a couple of days to process, I went to see her and was incredibly relieved when she didn’t turn me away.
She was busy in the kitchen, cooking dinner, and it gave her an excuse to keep her back to me. A sure-fire sign that she was still terribly upset with me.
“I’m so sorry, Mom. After dropping the Bri bombshell on you, I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell you about Porter reaching out to me. I know now that was a mistake.”
“I’m not a child, Jace,” she said. “I can handle two bits of bad news at one time.”
“Not necessarily bad, either one. But the thing is, Mom, you knew about Porter? And you never told me.”
She sighed and finally turned to face me. “I never mentioned him because I wanted to protect you. I didn’t want you to know that your dad chose his first son and his mother over you and me. I didn’t want to build resentment between you and your brother even if I was envious of them for a while. Out of sight, out of mind. And I didn’t think Porter would ever find out about you. It’s been decades.” She sighed and put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry for not telling you that you had a brother. I’d wanted no further parts of your father’s life and Porter was the final connection to him.”
“Don’t forget that my father abandoned Porter and his mother as well. It wasn’t just us.”
She nodded. “I couldn’t say I was surprised when you told me that. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, even Porter’s mother after she forced the same outcome on us.”
“She’s dead,” I told her. “That’s why Porter knows about me. She told him on her deathbed.”
Mom moaned. “That poor child.”