Mina didn’t look very happy with him at that moment. Her lips were pressed into a thin line and her arms folded over her chest. He was being serious, though.
“I’ll do that,” he mumbled. “I just…I need…”
Help.
Her.
He needed her. But she’d put a gap between them, and he wasn’t sure what he could do to bridge it. He’d scoured the internet for more things he could send her, but nothing seemed right. Mina didn’t look like the kind of girl who would care about jewelry. If anything, he thought it might intimidate her. Or send the wrong message.
Not yet, he told himself when he’d bookmarked a ring he’d found.
“You made it clear that you need a maid,” Mina snapped.
A shifter appeared from between the shelves. The shifter glared at Mina, making her shrink. Her defensive demeanor disappeared. Gone was the dragon woman and in its place was the mouse he’d first met.
Ryker spun on the other shifter. He felt the beast close to the surface, filling his features with its ferocity. The other shifter startled and fled back into the labyrinth of shelves.
“I have to go back to work,” Mina muttered.
An older woman with brightly colored hair, as if she’d plucked it out of a crayon box that morning, strutted up to them. She placed a hand on Mina’s arm and smiled wryly.
“You’re done for the day!” the woman declared.
Ryker narrowed his eyes at the old woman, trying to figure out where he’d seen her before. Of course, the answer was Grove, but he had a feeling he knew her name, but it’d been so long since he’d even visited home that almost everything he once knew was gone.
“Georgia,” Mina began. “I can’t just leave. The library needs my help!”
Georgia held up a hand. “You’ve already done enough for the day…”
“I haven’t done anything!”
Georgia met Ryker’s gaze. This was the woman who streaked through town when her divorce was finalized, Ryker remembered. His father had been on the police force when that happened. It’d been his favorite story to tell every holiday.
Now, she was slightly hunched and had, apparently, dipped her head in a sunset. Her eyes sparked with mischief. “Take Mina home, for us. You don’t have to be quick about it. Explore a bit of Grove before you give her up for the night.”
Ryker eyed the old, meddling woman, but in the end, he nodded. He wasn’t going to say no to the chance to get Mina alone. It wasn’t that he wanted to re-enact what happened in Ashton’s bedroom, but he desperately wanted a chance to talk to her. He struggled to do this right. Ryker was sure he was saying all the wrong things from the way Mina reacted, but he wasn’t sure what was wrong about them unless she told him.
Mina would never speak up if she was constantly cowed by those around her.
Ryker glanced back over his shoulder, scanning the shelves for the shifter who’d glared at Mina earlier. The desire to hunt the woman down and give her a piece of his mind was strong, but his beast kept him near Mina. She needed him more. At least, that was what the beast told him.
He doubted Mina would ever need him.
The dragon woman was quiet, but strong. She was the ever-moving river. While one could make ripples in the water, they wouldn’t last forever. The river just kept rushing.
He held out his hand. Mina looked at it, sighed, and acquiesced. But she didn’t take his hand. She went to claim her purse and brushed past him on her way to the door.
“That woman is worth a lot more than everyone has told her,” Georgia told him. “She’s so quiet because she doesn’t think the world wants her voice, but you do. I can see it.”
“Did you meddle in all of my cousin’s relationships?” Ryker asked.
Old Georgia just smiled. “Only Ashton and Makenna as far as I can remember, but she got me back for that one. The wily girl revealed my feelings to my own crush.”
Ryker didn’t want to know anything more about the older woman’s crush or her relationships. He heeded her advice and tried to forget her last statements as he ran after Mina. He found her outside, holding her purse to her chest.
The temperature had dropped, and fat snowflakes were starting to fall from the skies. Her cheeks were pink, and he caught a hint of a faint shiver. He shrugged out of his leather jacket and set it on her shoulders.
Mina didn’t jump like he thought she would. Instead, she deflated, looking at him over her shoulder. He wanted nothing more than to lean into her and claim her pink lips, but she pulled away before he could move. It was probably for the best.
As much as Ryker wanted to show her how he felt, the time wasn’t right. Their home was still in danger. Jasper had not yet made contact with the dragons squatting on the edge of their territory. Until he did, they didn’t know what the dragons had planned. The thought of dragging Mina into the fray terrified him. It made his stomach turn cold and his fingers tighten into fists.
“Don’t mind Georgia,” Mina muttered. “She’s old and likes to think she’s doing everyone a favor with her meddling.”
Ryker noted that she slipped her arms into the sleeves of his jacket. She snuggled into it, breathing deep, a sight that made his beast growl with satisfaction. What Mina did not do was make any move to head to her car. She stayed on the sidewalk with him. Ryker was not sure if that meant she wanted his company, or if there was something else anchoring her to this place.
Chapter Nine
Mina didn’t want to go home. That was the whole point of volunteering. It meant she had a reason to escape the house on her days off. When Old Georgia suggested Mina was done for the day, her stomach had dropped like a bucket of stones.
She knew she shouldn’t be hanging around Ryker. She couldn’t wean herself off his attention. The only way to do it was to cut him off completely, and yet she walked through town beside him. While she told herself it was because she wasn’t ready to go home, Mina knew there was more to it. Tucked inside his jacket, she felt safe.
Not even her life could threaten her inside the thick layer of leather.
But she recalled the way her uncle’s friend had glared at her in the library. It’d been a warning, that Mina was taking too many liberties. As much as her uncle told her she would be punished for even looking at the metallic dragons, the Drake family had been nothing but nice to her.
Every thought felt like a rock. As they spun around her mind, they crashed into her skull and made it ache like nothing she’d ever felt before. Everything she’d been told was at war with what she’d seen in the past few days. Mina struggled to figure out who was right.
Was her uncle right, and Mina was just buying time until Ryker threw her away? Was his family nice because she was one of Ryker’s playthings, a respect they paid to him and not her?
“I told Wyatt I would help him deliver a table later.” Ryker’s fingers brushed her as he spoke. “Would you want to come along? You don’t have to do anything. No heavy lifting, I promise.”
Mina didn’t know what to say. She wanted to spend more time with him, a craving that would never go away, but there was a strong possibility this would all blow up in her face. Would the hurt she felt when he forgot about her be any different than the hurt she already felt? Mina reasoned it would feel the same no matter how it ended, and she found herself nodding.
Ryker grinned and slicked back his unkempt mohawk. For once, it was not standing on end. His hair unceremoniously flopped from side to side.
“Why didn’t you spike your mohawk?”
“Huh?” Ryker paused, door to his truck open. He spun and hunched to peer at himself in the side mirror. He plucked at it, ran his fingers through it, all sorts of attempts to make his hair stand up, but they all failed. He scowled at himself and shook his head but didn’t offer an answer.
Mina jumped into the passenger seat. The truck smelled of Ryker, making her stomach tighten. She had to clench her knees together and think of succulents and lost lip balm tubes to ignore the warmth
between her legs. Being in such a small enclosed space with him was not making it any easier.
She watched his hand on the gearshift, oddly enthralled by the way his muscles moved as he shifted into second gear. Because she was watching him, she didn’t pay attention to where they were going. She didn’t see the familiar neighborhood outside the window, or the house they pulled up to until it was too late.
Mina stilled. An unfamiliar truck was parked in the drive, but she knew who lived at this address. Another of her uncle’s friends.
“Is everything okay?” Ryker leaned over the steering wheel, half twisted toward her. There was a murderous look on his face and a threat in his clenched hands.
Mina tried to smile and assure him that everything was okay, but in truth, she did not want her fellow dragon shifters to see her cavorting with the Drake family. It was clear she didn’t belong with Ryker. She shouldn’t even be his friend.
The longer she stayed quiet, the more Ryker vibrated. She opened her mouth to explain but found only cold air on her tongue.
“Does this have to do with the way that woman looked at you earlier?”
“What?” Mina jumped in her seat.
Ryker nodded. “I saw the way you reacted to her. It was like she walked up to you and slapped you in the face, but with her eyes.”
Mina wanted to argue, to tell him his analogy was silly, but he wasn’t wrong. Having Beatrice see Mina hanging out with a metallic dragon had shaken her. The other shifter had warned Mina with one look that Mina was crossing boundaries.
The problem was, Mina already knew. And, to be brutally honest, she was close to no longer caring.
Being around Ryker felt different from being with her own family, with other dragons of her rank. With him, she was free. There were no restrictions or expectations placed on her head. He didn’t try to remind her of her rank every second of the day.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mina said finally. She reached to undo her seatbelt, but the touch of Ryker’s hand stopped her.
His eyes were molten when she looked up at him. “It does matter. I don’t like the way they affect you.”
“You can’t help that,” Mina said with a shrug. “We’re part of different worlds. How things work with you and your family isn’t the way things work with the rest of us.”
Ryker’s brows furrowed with confusion. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re part of the same world. There is no separation between us.”
His words left her breathless. Though she wanted to argue the point, she also wanted to hold onto what he’d said and believe in it with every ounce of her soul.
Before either could say more, Wyatt slapped on the truck window. He threw his hands in the air before gesturing to his own truck. Ryker flipped him off with both hands and kicked open his door. Mina laughed, comfortable between the two Drake dragons.
Wyatt yanked a tarp off the table in the truck bed. What it revealed was nothing like what Mina expected. Instead of a finely hewn wooden table, it was a turquoise-colored resin slab resting on two squat wooden legs. Both he and Ryker were careful as they pulled it out. Once it was free of the truck, Mina could see the small details hidden in the resin. Tiny evergreen trees stood on the wooden base, turning something ordinary into an extraordinary forest.
She followed them to the front door, hands in the pockets of Ryker’s leather coat. Before anyone could knock on the door, it opened. Zach Vaughn grinned at his delivery. He moved aside to let both Ryker and Wyatt inside. Mina hesitated in the doorway.
Zach realized she was there and raised one inquisitive eyebrow, his eyes hardening. He gave a shake of his head, as if in disappointment. Mina stiffened. To avoid confrontation, she stayed outside.
While being around Ryker felt impossibly easy, those she should feel closest to were cold and confusing. If Ryker took pleasure in her company, who was Zach to disagree? Mina couldn’t help but feel like an interloper again. The feeling pinched her heart and made her beast restless. The creature paced inside her. It fed her thoughts that she had to keep batting away.
Greedy, territorial thoughts. The beast was convinced that Ryker was Mina’s mate. While Mina was smarter, she couldn’t help but slowly succumb to the beast’s insistence. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t see Zach until he grabbed her arm.
He dragged her away from the front door, away from the metallic dragons. “What do you think you’re doing with them? You’re going to give us all a bad name by being a fool around them. Do you think that if you follow a metallic dragon around enough, he’ll fall for you? I didn’t think you needed to be told this, but you aren’t the mate of a metallic dragon.”
She opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words to argue. She had considered the idea. There was no arguing that. Her gaze slid back to the house, but neither Ryker nor Wyatt were in sight.
“Go home, Mina. Go back to where you belong and save us all the embarrassment.”
Her jaw tightened. Before she could say anything, Zach pushed her away. His stare was hard, watching her as she retreated. He looked down the street, a silent command to walk away. Her heart was breaking. This wasn’t right, but Mina didn’t know how to challenge it. There had to be a way for her to be around Ryker. She couldn’t be cursed to this life forever.
Fisting her hands at her sides, she stalked forward. Zach growled. He leaned forward and shoved her away. He pointed past her. It was all over. Her time with Ryker ended far earlier than she’d thought. The sudden loss of it hurt more than she’d ever thought possible.
***
Ryker burned with fury. He stormed toward Wyatt’s client, hands balled into fists at his sides. Mina had mirrored him only a moment ago, but she was now crumbling under Zach’s assertive commands.
“Hey now!” Ryker grabbed Zach’s shoulder and spun him around.
The man wobbled on his feet before finding his footing. He looked up at Ryker, like he might say something then thought better of it. Whatever he might had said was trapped behind tight lips now.
Ryker was more than annoyed. He was pissed. Quickly, he took in Mina to make sure she was okay. She’d wrapped her arms around her middle and turned away from them, her face hidden by a veil of dark hair. He could no more read her expression than he could the future.
His grip on Zach tightened as he pulled the lower shifter under his arm. Ryker made sure to dig his fingers into the man’s shoulder. He leaned in and whispered in the man’s ear. “What makes you think you can treat her like that?”
Zach was stiff as a board beneath Ryker’s grasp. The man couldn’t seem to find any words at all, his eyes wild and his lips trembling. While it was satisfying, it didn’t solve the problem. This was how Mina reacted to every chromatic dragon they’d come across. The woman he knew, the one he craved, would shut down and turn away.
There was something going on here, and Ryker did not like it. Not one bit. His lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl. The man in his grip shuddered once. Ryker’s gaze slid back to Zach. Ryker’s beast squirmed beneath his skin. It wanted out, wanted to bite into Zach.
Wyatt mentioned that the chromatic dragons were troublesome, but Ryker was beginning to think that the metallic dragons had failed them. For too long, the metallic dragons had been grouped together. They kept themselves apart from the rest of their clan and it was starting to show. Ryker had a feeling that the chromatic dragons had developed their own hierarchy.
He committed himself to dismantling it right then and there. If this was how it affected their dragons, then Ryker wanted it gone for good. This perceived hierarchy was doing nothing for them other than drawing lines.
“If I ever see you intimidating another shifter again, I will hunt you down and render you sterile. Do you hear me?” He squeezed Zach’s shoulder for emphasis. “And that’s only for the first offense. Do it again and I promise the consequences will be a hundred times worse.”
Ryker shoved the shifter away from him. He turned, intending to find Mina,
but she was nowhere to be seen. His breath left him as though he’d been punched in the gut. Immediately, he knew he’d screwed up. Somewhere along the line, he’d messed up.
The worst part was Ryker didn’t even know what he’d done. All he knew was that Mina was gone and he had to make this better.
Beside him, Wyatt sighed. “I’ll tell Kennedy to make something tonight. I’ll bring it over tonight. Tomorrow, you give it to Mina as an apology.”
“Is that how apologies work?” Ryker was not being sarcastic. For the first time in his life, he truly wanted to know.
Wyatt shook his head. “No, but it will keep her in the same room as you while you manage to tell her you’re a sorry ass yourself.”
He rubbed his hands over his face. This town was a mess. Maybe the other dragons had every right to perch on the edge of their territory. Grove clearly needed help. Somehow, the metallic dragons needed to get Jasper under control and their lesser shifters in order.
Ryker had no idea how they were going to accomplish all of that before war rained down on them. It seemed like time was slipping between their fingers. He’d wanted to tell Mina how he felt once the foreign dragons had left, but he was starting to think he didn’t have time.
Chapter Ten
Mina was annoyed. No one else at work could take on Ryker’s house for her, leaving her to go back when she knew she needed to steer clear of Ryker altogether. Clearly, their worlds were never meant to mingle. The way the metallic dragons lived was vastly different from the way the smaller chromatic dragons lived. Their rules, their interactions, everything was different.
It left Mina confused and aching. If she’d had her choice, she would have called in sick. But, that would have meant staying home with her uncle. She would much rather face the chasm between her and Ryker than listen to her uncle. Zach had called him, and she’d had to sit through a lecture that night.
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