by R. E. Butler
They stopped at the concrete divider. Even though it was only waist-high, it felt like it might as well have been twenty feet tall for how vast the distance between her and the wolves seemed.
“Alpha Irvine, I know you met Torrence previously, but as you have heard from Andrea, he and I are mates.” She pressed her index finger to her forearm to indicate the mating mark. Wolves didn’t have that sort of magic within them to create identical marks, but she knew that the alpha would understand what it was. “Torrence shifted suddenly when we met, and he wasn’t able to return to his human form until the next day. We’re prepared to pay for the damages. I don’t understand why you’re trying to keep us from town. I have a legal right to be at my place of business.”
Alpha Irvine held out his hand and Jerris, smugly smiling, put a set of folded papers in it. He handed it to Cecily, and she unfolded them, her heart sinking as she read that the building owner had terminated her lease due to “catastrophic and wanton destruction of property,” and “allowing of dangerous shifters on the premises.”
“Your deposit was used to cover the damages to the shop, but as it wasn’t enough to make all the repairs, the equipment is going to be sold as well. The apartment was cleared of your belongings. As the mate of a dangerous male, you’re also not welcome in town. I can’t stop you from living in the mountain because it’s outside of the city limits, but I can ensure that you and your mate are no longer a threat to the safety and well-being of the town.”
Cecily folded the papers and fought the urge pick up a rock and chuck it at the alpha. If she also happened to hit Jerris in his stupid face, that would be a bonus.
Jerris said, “You know, Cecily, if you would walk away from the dragon, I would gladly take you as my mate. Then you could have your business back, which I know is what you really want.”
Torrence snarled. “She’s mine.”
Cecily shook her head at Jerris. “Do you seriously think that I want to have my shop back badly enough to walk away from my mate for you? I don’t want you and I never have. If choosing my dragon means that I don’t have my shop, then I still count myself immensely lucky.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Jerris said. “Everything you love is here.”
Narrowing her eyes, she took Torrence’s hand. “Not everything.”
Jerris snorted and growled, but the alpha raised his hand and silenced him. Cecily was tempted to argue about losing her shop. She could threaten to get a lawyer and fight back against the building owner for breach of contract and selling her stuff without permission, but instead, she felt a strange sense of relief. And part of it had come through the conversation with Jerris. She had Torrence, and whatever else came in her life, she was grateful for the strong, protective male at her side.
Ignoring the rest of the wolves, she turned to Andrea, and said, “Let’s get the rest of my stuff from your car.”
Andrea gave her a strange look but led the way to the car. While the wolves watched, the three of them emptied the car, setting everything on the mountain path. Cecily hugged Andrea. “Thank you for being a great employee and the bestest best friend in existence. I’m sorry to leave you in the lurch for a job, but if you need a recommendation just give me a call. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
She and Torrence walked to her belongings and picked up what they could carry, and then, without a word to the pack, they started up the mountain. It was super tempting to tell off the alpha, Jerris, and the other wolves, but she didn’t want to make things harder than they were, or to put Andrea in the crosshairs for helping her out. She heard the vehicles’ doors open and close, and the engines roar to life as the wolves left. She glanced back and saw Andrea waving out the window of her car as she pulled away.
“You were so upset earlier, but you seem fine now. Happy almost. Are you okay?” Torrence asked.
She laughed. “I must seem like a nutcase.”
“Not at all.”
“It’s weird, because when Andrea said that we weren’t allowed back in town, I was so angry. It felt like my world was just crumbling around me. But on the way to meet the wolves, I thought about our kids and what it would be like to live in the mountains but never be allowed in town. What kind of life would that be for them? For us? I think the wolves didn’t want you here, and they took what happened as a way to get rid of you. I don’t want to fight, I just want to go home.”
“Home?”
“Yeah. To the clan. They made me feel so welcome, so quickly.” She set down the large box she was carrying and turned to face the town below. “I thought that my home was there. It’s all I’ve ever really known – I grew up here, everything I cared about was here. But then I met you. You tore the door off my plans, literally, and I feel like the alpha’s asshole behavior is fate. If he hadn’t overreacted to what happened by banning us from town, then we’d be moving along fine with this path, but I think our destiny is with the dragons.” She gave him an appraising look. “Unless you want to stay here, where we’re not welcome, and fight for something that neither of us is interested in anymore?”
He put down the boxes he’d carried up the mountain and grabbed her roughly around the waist, a low growl in his throat. “I think fate’s on our side in all this, too. I don’t want to live where we’re not wanted. That you think of Pine Mountain as home now is amazing. But what about your job? You love making donuts. Having a shop of your own was your dream.”
“It’s still my dream, but it’s only part of it. I can make donuts anywhere. The important thing is that we’re together. Will you be my official taste-tester?”
He lifted her over his shoulder and she shrieked in surprise to find herself hanging upside down. “I’m ready to taste something right now.”
He gave her butt a squeeze as he strode into the cabin.
“You have the best ideas, Torrence.”
“Only since you came into my life.”
He kicked the door shut and carried her to the bed, where she forgot all about the wolves and their pettiness, and lost herself in the pleasure that she shared with her mate. She hadn’t thought she could be happy anywhere but in Tomb, but as she said goodbye to her old life with her gaze set on the future, she knew she could be happy anywhere, as long as Torrence was by her side.
Chapter 11
Torrence smiled as he heard Staz’s dragon call, the sound slashing through the quiet morning. He stepped out onto the porch and saluted his friend, who circled the mountain and then swooped in to land. Shielding his eyes against the dust and debris that Staz’s wings kicked up, Torrence walked down to him with a pair of sweatpants slung over his shoulder.
“Thought you might need some clothes,” Torrence said as Staz changed to his human form.
“Aw, don’t want the missus to see what she’s missing?”
“She’s not missing anything,” Torrence promised, tossing the pants at Staz.
Staz laughed as he tugged the pants on. “Sorry things went south here. I know you wanted to be here for Cecily. Is she upset?”
Torrence glanced over his shoulder into the cabin where Cecily was talking on the phone with Andrea. He turned back to Staz. “I think she’s more disappointed than anything, but she’s in good spirits.”
“Life’s funny like that.”
“Thanks for coming to help.”
“You’re welcome. As long as I get the second donut fountain you carve, and Jules gets a dragon for our flower bed, too.”
Torrence rolled his eyes. “Are you going to copy everything we do?”
“Only the awesome stuff.” He clapped his hands and looked around. “So how are we doing this?”
“If you’ll help me rig up things, we packed all our belongings in boxes, which we’ll secure together with straps and then we’ll be able to carry the boxes by the straps in our shifts.”
“Cool, saves on multiple trips.”
“Exactly.”
“Hey! We could start a moving company. I bet huma
ns would pay a bundle to have a dragon carry all their belongings in one trip.”
Torrence laughed. “I bet.”
He and Staz secured the boxes with straps to make it easy for them to carry. As they finished, Cecily came out of the cabin blotting her cheeks with a tissue.
“Hi Staz. Thanks for coming to help.”
“Happy to, that’s what family is for.”
Torrence kissed her cheek. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Andrea wanted to come say goodbye, but she started her new job today.”
“Ready to go?” he asked.
She stared toward town, far below the mountain. He knew it was hard for her to deal with that part of her life closing, but even though she’d cried when she’d gone through the boxes that Andrea had packed, she’d still been happy to go back to live with the clan.
She inhaled deeply and put her arm around him. “I’m ready. It’s time to go home.”
Buttoning up her wool coat, she put her gloves on and pulled her stocking cap down a little further on her head. She turned her back to Staz, so he could strip and shift, and then Torrence shifted. Stretching out his wings, he watched as she gathered their clothes into a knapsack and then put it on her back.
He lifted her against his chest, settling her gently but firmly in the crook of his arm, and then he grasped the carrying strap and lifted from the ground, the stack of trussed-up boxes dangling from his hand. Staz picked up the other boxes and joined him in the air, and they headed toward home. He didn’t bother looking back. The cabin had been home for him for a short while, but there was nothing there now but a lonely existence he didn’t want to go back to.
Although he’d only been with Cecily for a few days, he was happier than he’d ever been in his life and he owed it all to her. She was his everything – his mate, his friend, his dragon’s treasure. He was fast falling for the sweet human who always smelled of sugar and spices, and as soon as he was able to speak, he’d tell her exactly how he felt. For the first time in his life, he had everything he’d ever wanted, and it was all because of an allergy to fruit.
* * *
After they returned to the clan’s mountain and had help carrying all the boxes up to their third-floor suite in his parents’ home, Torrence took Cecily for a walk. There were many paths leading away from the main house, some going down the mountain, some further up, that led to cleared areas where dragons built their homes. Traditionally, males built a home for their mate on their family land, but there were other clearings that weren’t utilized by a family and offered more privacy. Not only would he and Cecily be close to his parents if they built a home behind their house, but the clan held celebrations and parties there, not to mention that his parents were the clan leaders which meant a lot of dragons coming and going at all hours.
“We can go to town whenever we need to,” he said, holding her hand as they walked away from the main house. “There’s a nice restaurant down there, plus a pharmacy and grocery store. The clan also has a dedicated delivery service, so if you want something, you can put in a request to have it picked up for you.”
“That’s cool,” she said. “Is the town mostly human?”
“It’s all human as far as I know.”
She hummed. “They won’t try to ban the clan from town, right?”
He snorted out a laugh. “No, sweetheart. Not only has the dragon clan been here longer than the humans, but they respect us and have no reason to dislike us being around. We keep their businesses running. It would be foolish of them to try to keep us away.” He stopped walking and said, “If we were going to build a home on my family’s land, we’d do it here. Close enough to walk to the big house for family meals, meetings, and parties, but far enough away that we’ll have some privacy.”
“I can see your mom in the kitchen window,” she said, squinting. “It’s not very private.”
“I didn’t say it was super private, I said it had some privacy.”
She chuckled. “What kind of house?”
“What do you want?”
“I grew up in a trailer and I shared a tiny house with Andrea and then the minuscule apartment over the donut shop. Anything would be bigger and better than what I’ve known in the past.”
“We can do a two-story home, three or four bedrooms.”
“Three or four?” She arched a delicate brow.
“It depends on how many kids we have. We could always add on.”
“Will you have a workshop like you have at your parents’?”
He nodded. “And we can have a commercial kitchen.”
She blinked rapidly a few times and tilted her head. “Why?”
“I talked to my dad, after we got here, about you starting up a shop. Instead of driving down the mountain every day, if I built you a commercial kitchen, you could make donuts here. The clan would love them, first of all, but we could employ some of the younger dragons as a delivery service and you could sell them in town, too. We could put a deck off the kitchen, so the clan can come there, and they won’t have to be in and out of the house.”
Her mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”
“Sure. I know that you’re giving up your dream because of me. Unless you just want to lay naked in bed all day and let me pleasure you. I’d totally be okay with that, too.”
He waggled his brows at her and she giggled, her cheeks pinking as she blushed. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Only for my mate.”
“You’d really do that for me? Build me a commercial kitchen so I can sell donuts out of our house?”
“I’d love to,” he said, in all honesty.
“That’s so sweet.” She jumped into his arms and kissed him.
What he’d wanted to say since they flew here tumbled from his lips. “I’m crazy about you, Cecily. I’m falling hard.”
“I’m already there,” she murmured, brushing her lips over his. “My sweet, sexy, fierce dragon.”
“So many adjectives,” he teased. “I must be pretty wonderful to have such an amazing mate.”
“You are. I just realized that I haven’t even made a donut for you yet, and here you are wanting to help me set up a home business,” she said as he set her gently on the ground.
“I’m looking forward to being your personal taste-tester.” He looked around the area and then said, “There’s another spot we could build a house. We could have our own family clearing.”
“Is that normal?”
“Whatever we want is what’s normal for us.”
“Oh. I like this place, though. The view is spectacular.”
He smiled down at her. “It sure is.”
* * *
Once they’d decided to build a home on his family’s clearing, they headed back to the house and Cecily gathered the ingredients to make a batch of donuts. Torrence kissed her cheek. “I’m going to go to the builders and get them started on plans for our ten-bedroom house.”
Her eyes widened. “Ten?”
He laughed at the shocked expression on her face. “Just teasing. Four.”
“That’s better. We could always add on if we wanted.”
“Very true. I’m going to the workshop after that, do you want to stop by when you’re finished and see what I’m working on?”
“Is it shaped like a donut?” she asked.
“It might be.”
“Then I’d love to see.”
He kissed her lips and, although tempted to stay longer and kiss her a lot more, he left and headed to a path that led to the builders’ house. He knocked on the door and opened it.
“Anyone working today?” he asked.
“Come on in, Torrence,” Fedder, the clan’s head builder, called.
Torrence found him and several of the builders at drafting tables and greeted them. Shaking Fedder’s hand, he said, “I wanted to get on the schedule for a home build.”
“Great! On your parents’ clearing or an empty one?”
“Behind their house.”<
br />
He sat down at a desk and double clicked a mouse, opening a blueprint program. “Give me the basics and we’ll squeeze you in. We’ll want to get the supplies ordered in the next few weeks before the snow hits.”
“Sure. And I’m happy to help in any way I can, too.”
Torrence explained that the house layout that he’d discussed with Cecily, going over the idea he had to make the back deck an outdoor restaurant of sorts, so people had a place to sit and eat her donuts.
“Sounds good. When we heard you two were coming back to stay, a lot of us are really happy to have a baker in our midst. Since Isabell passed away, we haven’t had anyone making baked goods.”
Isabell had been a great baker. Her specialty was breads and cakes. Torrence didn’t know anything about baking, so he wouldn’t attempt to say what his mate could and couldn’t make, but he was very sure that she was happiest when she was talking about her donut shop, and he wanted her to get back to work as soon as possible.
“Well, the sooner we get the house ready, the sooner she can start working. She’s looking forward to it.”
“Us, too.” Fedder stared at him for a moment, and then said, “It’s strange what happened to you. We all thought you’d never get your dragon, but somehow you were meant for a human mate. Makes some of the younger males wonder.”
“About what?”
“If you’re unique or if it might be the start of a new future for our people.”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Torrence said. “I suppose that anything is possible. Maybe I am unique, or maybe it’s a taste of things to come.”
“The important thing is that you’re happy.”
“I am.”
“Good. Nothing like a mate to make everything in the world right.”
“You can say that again.”
Torrence said goodbye and walked to the masonry workshop. His father was there working on stone pavers for a sidewalk for a new build. He sat down and said, “I wanted to work on the forms for Cecily’s fountain, so I could get the concrete poured for it. While it’s curing, then I can get back to working on the list of clan projects.”
