It was at that moment that Alice caught on that her triplets were having a silent conversation without her. Alice slammed the planner down again. Quincy chuckled, but quickly fell silent after Alice served a dark glare in his direction. She turned that glare upon her children. The first two seemed unruffled by the threat of the look. By the time it reached Raven, she felt nothing.
“I can’t plan a wedding by myself,” Alice said. She gestured to Raven’s phone, still in her lap. “If you like him so much, you should apply yourself to this wedding.”
Raven’s stomach turned. Could Alice see the way Raven’s face drained of all color? Raven was sure she was as white as a sheet now. Alice refused to see the lie right in front of her. It was for the best if Raven was going to keep following this path. Yet, Raven was still unsettled.
“Set the rehearsal dinner for next Friday.” Raven surprised herself with the conviction in her voice. She certainly didn’t feel it.
She was becoming a great actress.
It was a thought that she didn’t particularly like. Her heart yearned for the man who’d held her the night before. She wanted to wake up beside him and see that roguish smile. That was a future in which she would be able to see her sister, love her children, and figure out who she wanted to be along the way.
But Raven wasn’t going to bring Alice’s wrath upon everyone’s heads just because she wanted a minute of happiness. Raven would rather be the one who suffered than ask others to suffer on her behalf. It wouldn’t be fair of her to ask others to bear such a great burden.
“Perfect! I’m so glad you’re finally getting on board with this!” Alice began jotting down restaurant options.
Raven stole a sidelong glance at her Uncle Quincy in the corner and wondered what had brought him to this meeting. She feared there was another reason he was present. If Raven had rebelled and tried to leave, would Uncle Quincy clip her wings? She had no doubt that either her mother or Uncle Quincy could force her to shift.
She just wondered which would be the one to strike her wings.
She wanted to believe that Reece and River would step in, but the other two were the most powerful shifters in the area—aside from, perhaps, Logan. Though many of the defiant mated pairs had flocked to Logan as their new clan leader, Raven worried that Logan wasn’t whole.
That man needed something before he could become the leader that the others wanted him to be. Raven was afraid that what he needed had been lost to the past. No one could resurrect Elliana Barnes. He would never be able to find his dead mate in the here and now. Why the others put their faith in him, Raven wasn’t sure.
Sighing, she sat back in her seat. Uncle Quincy raised a brow and looked her up and down, as if he could see handprints where Adrien had touched her. She almost wished she had some sort of physical evidence to show off so that she could be free of the secret squatting in her chest.
But Raven had to be the good daughter. She couldn’t take what she wanted when everything was already planned for her.
The thought sent a bitterness cascading over her tongue. She nearly gagged. Every time she saw Adrien, it was harder and harder to go back to the path her mother wanted her on. If Raven ran into Bastien now, she wasn’t sure she would be able to deal with him. As it was, she had a few words she wanted to share with him.
“The next subject of this meeting shall commence,” Alice said with a cold formality.
Everyone in the room sat up straighter, their eyes on Alice Montoya. Quincy bore a wariness that was very much unlike him. River and Reece, on the other hand, wore their usual suspicion.
Alice smiled demurely. “We should discuss leadership within the Montoya clan. It seems that we are unstable and in need of proper direction.”
Quincy launched himself off the wall. He towered over Alice, but she remained unflinching as she turned her face toward him.
“I figured you would take this as a personal affront,” she said to him. Then she shifted her attention to River. “I’m surprised to see that you’re still here, considering that you’ve given up your claim to our family.”
River’s face flickered with a whirlwind of emotions before falling back into neutral placidness again. “Don’t mind me. I want to watch the shit storm as you tear everything apart.”
Raven was startled by the small smile that reached Alice’s lips. It was there and then gone, almost as if Raven had imagined it. Was…was Alice proud of her rebellious daughter? Alice had complained and denounced River, but that smile turned everything Raven thought she knew on its head.
Was Alice waiting for her children to leave the nest? Perhaps River hadn’t gone about it the way Alice had wanted, but she’d still stepped out on her own. Raven stared at the table, her mind churning. Had that always been an option? Could she become her own person and still have her mother’s respect?
She shouldn’t have wanted it. Alice’s respect should have meant little to Raven at this point, but she found that she still yearned for it. Raven wanted the love of her mother that always should have been hers.
Raven didn’t hear much of what happened around her. She understood that her mother was trying to undermine Uncle Quincy. No one here cared much. The family had grown small. It was Alice, two of her children, and Quincy.
Why were they fighting over something so small? Raven didn’t know. A leader shouldn’t scrabble to reach the top. In her opinion, a leader took their time and made sure their clan was thriving.
It occurred to Raven that this was not a clan. They didn’t have leadership, but two people screaming at one another while everything else fell apart. Raven released the breath caught in her chest. No one looked to see if she was okay. They were all too rapt by the argument between two would-be adults.
Raven stood and slipped out without drawing her mother’s attention. Outside of the meeting room, Raven could breathe easier. Her chest didn’t feel like it was stuck in a vice-grip anymore. Belatedly, she realized that was how she always felt. The night with Adrien had shown her what it was like to let her guard down.
The door behind her opened. Raven glanced back and saw her siblings stepping into the hall with her. They stood there, silent for a heartbeat. Reece shoved his hands into his pockets. River looked her sister up and down.
River smiled deviously. “You got railed last night. Didn’t you?”
Raven’s jaw dropped. A look of fury twisted Reece’s expression.
“I did not need to hear that,” Reece growled.
“Why? Because you aren’t getting any?” River teased. “Are you mad that your weak little sisters are having the sex of their lives? With Barnes men, no less?”
Reece recoiled and gaped at his sisters. “Barnes men? The both of you?”
Raven blushed. River grinned from ear to ear.
“Barnes men. The both of you,” Reece repeated as if he were sourly accepting the fact. He shook his head and stormed away only to pause at the end of the hall. “Let’s go get breakfast.”
They didn’t stick around the house while Alice and Quincy duked it out. Instead, the triplets made their way to the diner in town, each excited about something different. Reece craved hash browns while River practically drooled over the cinnamon roll pancakes.
Raven thought of one thing, one man. She wondered what Adrien was up to.
Adrien had just stepped out of the shower when someone knocked on the front door. He toweled his hair, wrapped the towel around his waist, and greeted the visitor. The man in all black made Adrien’s stomach drop. He plucked it up off the floor and forced a steely expression onto his face as he stared Bastien down.
“I don’t want whatever you’re selling,” Adrien said, suspicious of this surprise visit.
If Bastien thought he could come here and strike some sort of deal where Adrien got visitation rights to Raven, then Bastien was out of his damn mind. Adrien wanted nothing to do with a deal that would give him a taste of a life he could have had, especially of Bastien was making her miserable th
e whole damn time.
Adrien wouldn’t be able to sit on the sidelines. He wouldn’t be able to watch Raven hurt in the situation her family forced her into. Eventually, Adrien would want to help her. That, or he would lose control.
The beast grumbled that it would never steal control from him, but Adrien knew better. He knew that the stress of such a situation would wear away at him until there was nothing left, and his beast had to step in. Then, he would lose all ability to reason. Logic would get thrown out the window. He would become a creature made of need.
Bastien closed the distance between them. A cruel smile spread across his face. The light of his beast flared across his eyes, revealing his insidious intent.
Adrien growled and stopped the man with a hand against his chest. “Take another step forward and you will find yourself face down in the snow.”
Bastien didn’t heed Adrien’s warning. He walked into Adrien’s hand, heedless of Adrien’s resistance. “I’m not here to bargain. Raven belongs to me. Do you hear that?”
Adrien’s beast roared. The sound deafened him. No, that was his blood rushing in his ears. He narrowed his eyes at the monster that pretended to be a man. This guy, and those like him, was the reason women say they hate all men.
“I meant what I said,” Adrien repeated, his voice surprisingly steady despite the power now flooding his body.
He tensed, his entire being ready for a fight. It occurred to Adrien that Raven wouldn’t have to marry this guy if he died. No one could marry a dead man.
But Raven wouldn’t be able to love Adrien again if she knew that he’d killed a man. Adrien had to keep his hands clean for her. He wouldn’t stoop to Bastien’s level. Doing so would make Adrien no better than him.
“Does Raven know that you’re here?” Adrien asked.
Confusion passed across Bastien’s face. “Why does that matter?”
Adrien nearly laughed. “Every time you act like a fool, you push her further and further away. I know it doesn’t matter to you if she loves you or not. Here’s the thing, though. Raven isn’t the meek woman she pretends to be. Alice Montoya gave birth to that woman. Raven has all that woman’s strength and more love than you could imagine. You don’t cross a woman like that.”
Again, Adrien’s statement clearly went way over Bastien’s head. Could this man not imagine a reality in which a woman was stronger than him? In which love and other emotions counted as strengths? Adrien wanted to pity him, but Bastien had proved himself unworthy of pity.
“Raven is mine,” Bastien said again, though there was a hint of doubt plaguing him now.
Adrien pushed Bastien back, out the door and back onto the porch. He followed and felt the caress of the cool air washing away the heat of fury that had nearly won out a moment go. Adrien wasn’t the kind of man to give in to anger. He would never be like his uncle. He wouldn’t be cold like Alice Montoya, either.
Adrien would be the kind of man that Raven needed. She was all that mattered to him. Her future and her happiness were his only concerns from here on out. Hell, she had always been his only concern. From the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, he’d known that she would be the only woman for him.
“She will marry me next Sunday and bear my children soon after,” Bastien said.
Furious heat washed over Adrien. It nearly broke him. He took ahold of it and tempered it so it could become a tool in his arsenal rather than an unyielding force of violence. Bastien didn’t make that easy. The man kept talking. In the process of spewing garbage, Bastien told him how he was going to break Raven and use her as a broodmare.
The roar that filled Adrien’s skull didn’t reach the outside world. He simply grinned at Bastien. Adrien’s rage must have reached his eyes because Bastien took one look at him and faltered.
“Can you have children without balls?” Adrien felt his teeth sharpen. He didn’t stop the semi-shift. “Because I will relieve you of them if you keep speaking in my presence. We both know that if you could have, you would have killed me already. I’m not stupid. You’re a big sack of talking shit that someone has set on fire and left on my doorstep. I’m not going to be tempted to stomp on you because I don’t want to get shit on my boots today.”
Adrien wasn’t surprised when Bastien shifted. The hulking black dragon crushed half of the front porch. It made a great cracking noise, like thunder. Adrien leapt back. He pulled out his own beast. He hit the ground on all fours, claws digging into the ice and earth.
He rounded on Bastien and lashed out. Claws connected with the other shifter’s skull. He shoved Bastien down. The shifter buckled under the force of Adrien’s blow. He hit the ground, then Adrien leapt onto him. Teeth around Bastien’s neck, Adrien waited for the man to give in.
Bastien had too much pride. He bucked. The motion caused Adrien’s teeth to slice past scales and into flesh, but Bastien got free. Bastien rolled away and got to his feet. He opened his wings, preparing for flight.
Adrien was not finished with him, though. Bastien needed to learn a lesson. No one challenged a Barnes dragon and got away without discovering how they’d held their territory against the Montoyas. Adrien was not a fool or a pushover.
He was a dragon.
Lunging after Bastien, Adrien caught the man’s haunches. He raked his claws down the man’s flank and turned flesh into ribbons. The wound was not enough to kill. Adrien wanted blood, not death. He reached up and grabbed ahold of Bastien’s wing. When Adrien yanked it down, Bastien plummeted.
They hit the ground in a heap, not far from the house. Bastien struggled to gain the advantage, but Adrien grappled the man into submission once again. This was the only way their fight would end. He hoped that Bastien had realized that by now.
No matter what Bastien did to escape, Adrien would catch him. Adrien would drag him back down to the ground and show him who was the superior dragon. He would also make sure Bastien knew that mercy alone kept him above ground.
Bastien shifted back into his human form and scrambled to escape. Adrien caught him once, like a cat with a mouse, then let the man disappear into the woods. Adrien waited to make sure Bastien didn’t come running back with the hopes of catching Adrien off guard. Then he turned and shambled back toward the house.
He was bone tired. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d slept. Though the night had been the best of his entire life, he had spent a lot of energy between lovemaking and fighting. Exhaustion dragged at him. It grew heavier when he caught sight of his front porch, half collapsed and unsalvageable. It would have to be replaced, a thought that shouldn’t have been on his mind when his mate was going to marry an asshole.
Adrien was too tired to be able to distinguish between annoying and world-ending. He settled down onto the ground and closed his eyes. Sleep didn’t come as quickly as he would have hoped.
He could win fight after fight with Bastien, but that wouldn’t change Raven’s mind. She had to choose Adrien on her own. The night they’d spent together made him think she would choose him, but he couldn’t tell if her will would hold out against her family.
Raven had protected him the night Bastien tried to get him killed. She’d put herself between Adrien and the Old Lizard, Quincy Montoya. The move had been brave, like the person Adrien knew she could be.
But would she hold onto that bravery? Could she believe in herself the way he believed in her? He knew she had it in her, but if she couldn’t have the same faith, then her resolve would waver. He would help her back onto her feet if she fell. Time and time again, he would do whatever was necessary to make sure she got to grow into herself.
Time was running out.
Adrien stretched his wings and considered flying to her. He dug his claws into the earth to hold himself back. She had to choose him.
14
The days leading up to the rehearsal dinner sped by without Adrien around. Time with him slowed to a crawl so that Raven could savor it. Without him, the world became a dull blur.
River tri
ed to convince Raven to give up and leave this arranged marriage behind. She spent days trying to talk Raven out of her decision. Raven only wavered when Reece agreed with their sister. He’d never liked the Barnes shifters, but he didn’t think that their mother should run their lives, either.
Raven almost did it. She approached Alice Montoya with the intent of breaking things off with Bastien but caved at the last moment. She took one look at her mother’s face and lost the will to fight. The uphill battle was more than Raven could bear. She knew that Adrien was worth it, but she didn’t know if she was worthy of him.
If she couldn’t end this before it was too late, then she never deserved him anyway.
She found herself at a fancy restaurant with what was left of her family and her glowering fiancé. He had silvery scars across his cheek that made her wonder what he’d been up to while her back had been turned. No, she didn’t have to wonder. She knew what had happened.
The waiters returned with their dishes. Raven wasn’t hungry, though. While the waiters approached, she used their presence as a distraction in order to escape. She slipped out onto the patio and gripped the iron railing while trying to get her breath under control. The fancy lights strung overhead should have charmed her, but there were walls closing in all around her. Even outside, she couldn’t escape the feeling.
She spared a glance back. Her mother stood, a wineglass in hand like she was about to make a toast. If she noticed Raven wasn’t there, she didn’t show it. Alice delivered the toast without Raven. This had never been about Raven anyway. It’d always been Alice’s way to get a foothold into her husband’s clan.
Raven suspected that her mother planned on overturning the leadership there since the Montoya family had collapsed. Alice was like a cruel politician. Raven wished that Alice had never dragged her kids into this. They weren’t living in the middle ages.
If Alice needed a foothold in the other clan, she could pretend to love her husband for a while. The triplets knew there was no love between their parents. Raven’s attention slipped over to Bastien. There was even less love between the two of them.
A Star Crossed Fate (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 4) Page 12
