Alone.
He kept arguing with her, alternately trying to persuade her to stay, and telling her what a big mistake she was making, but thirty minutes later, she’d finally gotten through his thick skull.
“I can’t change your mind?” he asked.
“No.”
He kissed her, and she let him. She would always be fond of him. He and his club weren’t the most clean-cut guys, but they weren’t thugs either.
She hugged him once more.
“Are you going to say goodbye to the guys?”
She shook her head again. “I can’t. I need to go, and I don’t want anyone coming here looking for me.”
She pressed her face to the glass and looked inside the bar and clubhouse one last time. A group of guys sat in front of a big screen television watching a hockey game. Another group was making spicy chili in the kitchen. And the rest were still playing pool.
A few stood outside, polishing their bikes in preparation for the big ride the following day. She tightened her backpack straps and climbed on.
Jim held out a helmet. “Please wear this.”
She took it from him. She’d wear it until she was out of his sight. It was only for show. Or maybe she’d keep it on.
Dragon shifters didn’t need helmets, and that was the last thing she wanted to look like right now—someone who wasn’t human.
Thirty minutes later, she was getting close to the Vegas airport. She could feel the shifter getting closer. She scanned the open sky. The air was thick and hazy, but she saw no movement in the sky. There was nothing at all. He hadn’t shifted—not yet.
She gunned the engine and kept going. If she could get on a plane, he’d have a lot more trouble tracking her. She’d pulled over on the side of the road, and from her phone, she’d bought a one-way ticket to Panama. The flight left in thirty minutes, but she had no luggage to check.
Once she was in Central America, she’d decide what to do next.
If she’d thought that far ahead, if she’d had some warning, she could have spent her savings on a private plane. If she made it out of here, she’d do that next.
For a second, she considered ditching her bike and shifting. If she got inside the airport terminal and the flights were delayed, she’d be trapped. She’d never be able to hide from him inside a building.
In spite of her racing heart, she took a second to breathe deeply and concentrate. He was still close, but not close enough to catch her.
You can make it, her dragon insisted. Go.
She made it to the terminal parking. She laid her cheek against her warm bike. She’d never see it again. It had served her well during the last few years, and gotten her through a very difficult time.
She sent Jim a text. She was planning to leave her phone behind too, so this would be their last communication.
I left my bike at the airport, parking spot in C34. Please donate it to someone who might need it. Be well. Love, Carrie
At least in South America, she could go back to her true name and ditch the bland name Carrie Smith. She’d missed being Carolina Rosa Ramires. She hadn’t wanted anyone to ask if she was Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, so she changed it, and she worked hard to modify her accept and pick up American slang.
She pressed send on the text, and then turned her phone off.
Shit. She had lingered too long. The shifter was closer.
She took off running and raced up the stairs. If she could get on the top of the parking deck, maybe she could see him coming.
A black SUV came rolling toward the parking garage. She was prepared to jump to the ground and run when her heart caught in her throat. Her pulse skyrocketed. Every single nerve in her body lit up with an electric spark.
She could feel him. Before he was out of his car, she knew him.
He slammed on the brakes and left his SUV on the side of the entrance to the parking deck. Then he stepped out. The shifter was gorgeous. He could have been a movie star with his straight nose, high cheekbones and his strong jawline. He wore a plain gray polo shirt and blue jeans. He was taller, his shoulders were broader, and his posture was rigid in a way it hadn’t been five years ago.
But there was no mistaking him.
This was no stranger.
Mine. Mate, her dragon insisted.
It was him. Her mate. The one she’d thought was lost forever. From the top of the parking garage, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “Davi!”
6
Davi
Davi tipped his head back, staring up at the female that he hadn’t seen in five long years.
Davi knew her. He might not know her name, but he knew her face. With every fiber of his being, he knew he belonged to her, and she belonged to him.
His dragon growled. Mine.
Now he understood what this voice inside his head was. For years, he’d been driven to do things, but he’d had no idea why. He’d assumed it was instinct.
But now thanks to Niall, he could make sense of it. He knew that his human side and his dragon shifter side were mostly the same, one integrated person, but sometimes the feelings were so intense and so primal that the dragon made himself known.
This was one of those times.
This dragon shifter female was his. Finally, he had a piece of himself back.
She was too far away. He could scale the side of the building with no trouble, even without shifting. But there were cars coming and going. He would be spotted.
“Don’t move!” He shouted. “I’m coming!”
Immediately, he could no longer imagine his life without her. He would do anything to avoid being separated from her again. In all the work he’d done with Nora, he hadn’t imagined this. He had never fathomed that the missing female would mean this much to him.
During the weeks Nora had been willing to assist him, he had sat with her for hour after hour. Sometimes she chanted. Other times, she took his hands into hers, and they meditated. Sometimes she made potions and made him drink them. She had him memorize short spells and long spells.
Sometimes she made him read incantations before he slept, and he had to record his dreams in a journal. Often, she just made him recite every single memory he had, which wasn’t much.
After weeks of her helping him, he knew he’d had a close friend in his hometown. A female. He knew he’d lived on the coast. And he knew he’d been very happy.
This female was the main reason why he’d felt so much happiness. He didn’t know much, but he knew that now.
He ran into the parking deck and into the stairwell. He took the stairs two at a time, running so quickly with so much force that he dented the metal doors as he shoved them open.
By the time he’d bulldozed his way through eight doors and eight flights of stairs, he could feel her. For the first time in five years, he felt complete.
Almost there.
There were humans coming and going, slamming car doors, dragging luggage from cars.
None of it mattered.
He burst onto the roof. The sun was shining, and the day was scorching hot, but that didn’t faze a dragon shifter.
There she was. She was tiny compared to him, but tall and lean for a female. Bright blue eyes and smooth olive skin complemented the black hair curled around her shoulders. She wore a leather motorcycle jacket and worn blue jeans. She was the most beautiful thing in the world.
He stepped toward her.
For some reason, she had been running from him for hours. She had even tried getting to the airport, he assumed to get away from him. He’d been in an absolute panic—what if she’d gotten on a plane? Kellan’s plane was back in Texas where it belonged, and Davi would have lost track of her.
Thank God he’d managed to get close.
And then she’d yelled his name.
Not wanting to alarm her, he didn’t rush forward, but simply held out his hand. “Do not run from me again,” he said. “Please.”
“I won’t,” she replied.
; “I will not hurt you.”
“I know,” she whispered.
He realized then that she wasn’t scared. Her cheeks were pink, and her blue eyes danced with joy.
He could not confess to her that he did not remember her name. At that moment, names did not seem important, only the force of his feelings mattered.
Then she spoke again.
“Davi,” she whispered.
7
Carolina
Davi. Her mate.
Mine.
She couldn't believe her own eyes.
He stood in front of her, still tall, still smoking hot. Now that he was close she could see that his shoulders were even broader than they’d looked before.
His hair was shorter than it had been in the past, but it was darker and it curled over his ears. His already tan skin was more olive, and his jaw was even stronger and more masculine than it had been when he was twenty. His dark eyes were wide with emotion as he stared at her.
She understood the feeling. She could stare at him all day. But she wanted to touch him too.
He had stepped forward, so she stepped forward as well, meeting him halfway. She held out her own hand, and their fingertips touched.
She gasped. The feeling of rightness surged through her body.
Around them, people began to clap. They were in public, and they’d gathered a small audience. Luckily, at the Las Vegas airport, no one minded a public display of affection.
“Davi. Oh my God. I can’t believe it. You’re alive.”
Davi grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. “I am alive. And I found you.”
Nestled against his chest, she inhaled his scent. “How? How did you find me?”
“It’s a long story.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “But why were you leaving? Why were you running from me?”
“I was confused. I didn’t understand. As soon as I saw you though…” She trailed off. She pulled her head back and looked up at him. “I don’t plan to go anywhere. Tell me. Tell me where you’ve been.”
His arms tightened around her. “I made my way across Europe. I ended up in Macedonia. I’ve been serving in the military there for years.”
She leaned back and smoothed her hands across his firm chest. His muscles were more defined than they had been. “You’re a soldier?”
Before the battle, she’d never have imagined her sweet, artistic Davi joining any kind of military. He’d always been the peacemaker in their clan. He always could see both sides of an argument, and he never threw a punch. Like her, he was a good listener.
He’d attended all the training classes with the others his age to learn evasive maneuvers and how to defend himself, but he’d never relished it.
Then they were attacked, and all of that changed. But she wasn’t going to think about that now.
He traced one finger over her cheek, looking at her with wonder. “Yes. I took a leave of absence. But I won’t be going back if you’re here.”
“How long have you been here in the States?” She had to know how she’d missed his presence if he’d been here very long. It called out to her like a beacon.
“I just got here from Macedonia. About seven months ago, I was working customs at the train station, and I met a dragon shifter. His name is Niall. He’s from Ireland, and he introduced me to another shifter named Brynne, who now lives in Texas. She’s going all over the world looking for us. Shifters.”
“Other shifters,” she whispered.
“Yes. I’ll make sure you get to meet them all.”
Her spine stiffened. She couldn’t help her reaction. Other non-humans meant danger. She wasn’t sure she wanted to meet them. She’d been away from that life for five years. She wasn’t sure she trusted shifters she didn’t know. Except Davi. She trusted him completely, and just having him back was enough.
Images of the two of them engulfed her mind. Davi at ten, proudly showing her the fish he’d caught. Davi at fifteen, dancing with her during their Winter Solstice celebration. And finally, Davi at nineteen, asking her to become his mate.
She hadn’t cried in years. But now she couldn't stop the tears. “How did you survive?” She clutched at his arms. “I saw you. I saw you stab him. You killed him. And then everything exploded.”
His face seemed to pale. “I’m not sure how I survived. I woke up in Austria. I was the only one.”
He wasn’t sure how he got there? She wished that bastard wizard Henri-Augustin was alive, so she could kill him all over again. “Austria,” she breathed. It was so far away from Portugal.
He took her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. “If I had known you were here, there is nothing that could have stopped me from finding you. I would have flown or swam. I would have crawled to get to you,” he said. “Nothing would have gotten in my way.”
“I feel the same way.”
He tipped his head forward until it was touching hers. “We’re together now.”
“We need a meeting place. In case it ever happens again.” She never wanted to be separated from him again.
“Yes. We do.” He framed her face with his hands. “Have you been back home? To Portugal?”
“No. I was afraid. I thought she’d be there. I thought she’d want revenge. Have you?”
“No. I haven’t. I got lucky when I found you here.”
“Maybe we weren’t lucky. Maybe it was meant to be.”
“Fate,” he said. And then he kissed her.
She met his kiss with all the passion she’d suppressed for five long years. But when she pressed her entire body against his, he sighed and broke the kiss.
“We must leave this parking lot. I don’t know your public indecency laws here, but I do not relish having to run from the police.”
She laughed. Public indecency in Vegas? “This city is the least likely place to get worked up over us kissing in public. It’s called Sin City for a reason.”
“Even so, I would rather have you all to myself. I am staying in the Bellagio. Would you like to go there?” He brushed a hair back from her face. “It will only take us about fifteen minutes.”
“Yes. Now.” She no longer had a home here in Vegas. But she could tell Davi about that later. Never mind that she couldn’t parade her true love back to her home where she’d lived with Jim. That wouldn't be fair. Jim would be outraged and try to attack Davi, which would not end well.
And she didn’t want Davi to feel territorial. He’d always been gentle, but he was also possessive of her, as was natural for a shifter. She had no idea if he’d feel angry that she’d dated a human male.
She grabbed onto his hand as he led her to the black SUV he’d been driving earlier. He’d left it parked haphazardly. She was surprised it hadn’t been towed away already. She wasn’t letting go of his hand. “Nice ride,” she said.
“It’s a rental. One of the Texas dragons insisted on taking care of all of the arrangements. They’re all going to be excited to meet you.”
She froze. She couldn’t even manage to open the car door. Her own kind had never attacked her, but they’d shown poor judgment years ago, including her own parents. She was finding it hard to want to jump back into a clan. Of course the people who’d hurt them the most had not been shifters at all. But her heart didn’t seem to know the difference. “Are you sure they’re safe?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are they going to turn on us?” she asked.
His handsome face twisted into a frown. “No. They’re friends. They’ve offered me a place in their clan.”
Her stomach twisted. What if history repeated itself? What if this new clan betrayed them the same way the wizard and her aunt had?
Her chest heaved. She swallowed hard, trying to catch a breath as panic washed over her.
“What is wrong? What has happened?” he asked.
She felt like the ground would swallow her whole. “I can’t lose you again.”
“You will not lose me again.”
&
nbsp; She worked to bring her breathing under control, but she wasn’t doing a very good job of it. All she could think of was waking up without Davi again, with endless days stretching ahead of her—without her mate. “You don’t know that.”
“I do. I will not let it happen.”
She inhaled, expanding her lungs. She never lost control like this. Never. She rubbed her face. Today she’d left her human boyfriend, given up the bar she’d owned, and left her motorcycle behind, all while she thought she was being hunted by an unknown dragon shifter and the Fae who’d betrayed her.
And then her mate had showed up.
Her world had turned upside down.
Her head spun. Davi’s strong arms came around her and held her tight. He kissed the top of her head. “It will be okay. We are together now. We can handle it.”
“We didn’t before.” They had been torn apart with no recourse.
“I will not lose you again either.” He kept his arm firmly around her as he opened her door and helped her in. He even buckled her seatbelt, although she didn’t need it.
He navigated the streets like he’d lived here forever. When they arrived back in the city, he still held her hand.
She barely noticed the inside of the Bellagio Hotel, even though it was famed for its fountains and its casino. The brightly colored stained glass in the lobby caught her eye for just a second, and then her eyes were back on Davi. They didn’t let go of each other, even as they rushed toward the elevators.
The rest of the ride up passed in a daze.
The room was by far the nicest she’d ever stayed in. It almost wasn’t accurate to call it a room. It was more like an apartment, but it was massive, far bigger than the boxy house she’d lived in while in Vegas. “Wow,” she said as they stepped into a full-sized living area. The decor was modern, with bright splashes of lime and green accent colors.
“Courtesy of Kellan.”
“He has good taste.”
“He’s a billionaire.”
A shifter with that much money… She wasn’t sure how she felt about meeting someone with unlimited resources. But she’d have to think about it later. For now, she wanted to focus on her mate.
Soldier Dragon's Second Chance Page 4