She wouldn’t let him strike. He couldn’t fight these people. She didn’t know much about them, but if Zara was happy here, then these people couldn’t be that bad. Zara had lived through hell with her biological family. Chelsea found it hard to believe that Zara would align herself with awful people after that.
Chelsea picked her way in the dark toward the dock. The pink-haired woman called out for her and gave chase. She had damn long legs and kept up all too easily.
“How do you know Zane?” the pink-haired woman challenged. She sounded territorial.
Chelsea fisted her hands at her sides. The tone in the woman’s voice that tried to lay claim to Zane pissed Chelsea off. She wanted to whirl on her and tell her that Zane had found a mate. The urge surprised her. It wasn’t like her, the girl who refused to believe in love.
Especially when she’d only known Zane for a few days.
“Excuse me,” the pink-haired woman snapped. “I’m Zane’s friend. Who are you?”
“Charlie,” someone else snapped. Another woman. “Who do you think she could be? Calm down.”
Chelsea reached the end of the dock. Her momentum nearly carried her over the edge. It wouldn’t have mattered. Zane was there. He would catch her again. Right? It would be an awful time to start believing in him, especially if she slipped and sank to the bottom of the lake. She had a feeling that Charlie would let her drown.
The woman that joined them had russet hair that fell in waves over her shoulder. She wore a men’s shirt and loose pajama pants like the cold air meant nothing to her. Charlie was similarly dressed. Chelsea noticed that the air was warmer around them. Were they dragon shifters like Zane?
He burned hot, but not as hot as these two. They felt like they had furnaces glowing inside them. Chelsea broke out in a sweat under her sweater.
“You’re his mate, the one that freed him from the curse.” Charlie spoke like she could barely believe what she was saying.
“I guess…if you believe in curses and such. I thought he was pulling my leg. He was just some weirdo I met on the beach.” Chelsea half expected to hear him laugh in the distance. It would have been nice if he revealed himself.
A conversation passed between the two other women, one that consisted of grunts and other meaningless sounds they made in their throats to keep Chelsea from knowing what they were trying to say. Finally, Charlie sighed.
“So, it’s come to that? It’s going to be a war?”
“No!” Chelsea shouted. She was trying to stop a war. There was no use for fighting.
“If you’re his mate,” the other woman began, “and he’s avoiding you, then his thirst for blood has won out. He won’t stop until his original clan is dead.”
“No! It’s not like that,” Chelsea argued. The way they spoke made Zane seem like a monster. Sure, he could be angry and aggressive, but he wasn’t bloodthirsty. He was just a man trying to make things safe for the world. “The spell, it’s confused him. He thinks someone bad is going to make you all do horrible things.”
“If you can’t get through to him…” the other woman began.
The lake slapped the dock. Everyone flinched at once. Chelsea knew that meant Zane was watching. She wasn’t sure how she came to that conclusion. It was like he’d whispered to her himself. She looked out over the water and silently challenged him to stay hidden.
She’d been dragged into a mess of miscommunication. Zane thought one thing. The clan prepared for another. They would clash if Chelsea couldn’t stop them. She didn’t know how to keep them from hurting one another, though. If she could make them talk and sort things out, then there wouldn’t have to be any bloodshed. She had the feeling that they wouldn’t last five minutes together before trying to kill one another.
And it would end in Zane’s death. He might be able to take some of them with him, but that wasn’t a conclusion Chelsea wanted either.
This wasn’t what she expected when she brought Zane into her house. The first night intoxicated her and might have been the first step towards an addiction she would never shake. She wanted him at all moments. When he wasn’t near, she thought of him and the sound of his voice. When he was near, she stepped closer to feel his skin on hers.
Was this how she would lose him? Not to other women or distractions, but to a fight he couldn’t win? She studied the faces of the two women. The brunette had serious eyes that flashed gold in the night. She looked ready to kick ass should Zane appear out of the lake. Charlie, on the other hand, looked sick.
She said she was Zane’s friend. Charlie might know Zane better than Chelsea did, an idea that surprised Chelsea when it curdled in her stomach. She was growing far too attached to Zane. It had to stop soon, or there was no going back.
Was there any going back now? Was that even an option after racing to get here before Zane? All this time, Chelsea had been telling herself to get away. She told herself to guard her heart. All those warnings she gave herself had been tossed aside. She was knee deep in this.
And it terrified her.
Chelsea was a small human who wasted away her days with drinking and sex. She had no greater desire than to settle down with someone rich and devour all his money. Now, she was stuck between two forces that were afraid of each other. This clan thought Zane would rain hell down on their heads. Zane, she figured, was probably preparing to do just that. And all for what? What were they fighting over? In the time Chelsea had lived in this small town, the only strange thing to happen had been the wave at the beach.
Which, she guessed must have been Zane. The thought should have scared her, but it only reminded her that he could cause so much damage.
Chelsea tugged at her hair with frustration. The cold wind licked the back of her neck and tried to settle her.
“Do you want to come inside?” Charlie asked.
Chelsea shook her head. “I think I’m going to walk home. It seems like I was wrong.”
Both women tried to talk Chelsea out of her decision, but she didn’t want to spend the night here. Not when she was sure Zane was waiting for her. Somehow, she’d beaten him to the cabins. Just like she thought, the moment she was out of sight of the cabins, Zane stepped out of the darkness.
“Oh, you’re naked again.” That was all she could say. Even in the dark, she could see him and everything he had to offer perfectly. Honestly, his dick distracted her from the scowl on his face.
“What were you doing there?” he snarled. “You could have been caught in the middle of a battle if they saw me.”
She swallowed. “I was stopping you. You’re welcome.”
She kept walking. It was very cold outside, and the walk was going to be long. Her apartment was on the other side of town, a good hour and a half away on foot. And if Zane walked her home, anyone with their headlights on would see a naked man walking beside her.
“I don’t want you to fight them,” she declared. “How did I manage to beat you there? I had to wait for a cab. You have wings!”
Zane grumbled something indistinct as he turned away from her. Chelsea raised a brow and stepped around him to block his path.
“What was that?”
He leveled an annoyed glare at her, but she saw the crack in his façade. He was hurting. Without thinking, she put her hands on his chest. She would have pulled him inside her if she could. She couldn’t bear to see the pain hiding in his eyes.
“I couldn’t fly the whole way,” he snapped.
Chelsea staggered back, terrified of the force in his words. They dripped with venom. It wasn’t aimed at her, but it stung all the same. She raced all the way here, against a clock, to keep him from starting a fight with this clan, and now he was angry with her. It wasn’t her fault that his wings weren’t working. She had no magic to make them work. Chelsea was only human.
She folded her arms over her chest and backed up. They walked a mile in silence. Zane was still fuming. Probably because nothing had gone the way he wanted. Chelsea was a disaster, but she was doing h
er best to keep him from getting hurt. If his wings weren’t doing what he wanted, then she wondered what else would hinder him in a fight. He couldn’t run into this head first.
Not as long as she was here. Not if he wanted to make things work between them. She wasn’t going to find a man who might actually stick around only to have him die before her. That seemed pretty unfair, especially considering how often she brushed up against death. If he beat her to it, then it meant he was racing headlong toward it.
The thought made her chest tight. Chelsea didn’t want to love this man, but he was worming his way into her heart no matter how many defenses she threw up. She feared there would be a day when he broke it with his carelessness. Just like every other man she tried to keep.
What was with her and loving idiots? First, it was her high school sweetheart. He’d taken everything they made together and smashed it. Repeatedly. Chelsea cut a sidelong glance at Zane. He didn’t seem like the type to cheat on her. Somehow, she knew it in her bones. He was a dedicated man.
But he was also a stubborn ass.
She ran her hands through her hair and wondered what happened to the cold-hearted girl she had been, the girl that wanted marriage for money. That girl could have handled this. She would have tossed Zane out and told him to get his own place if he had a secret stash of money. This Chelsea couldn’t stand the thought of being away from him.
Even if he was a brooding bastard and a reclusive monster. He belonged to her.
She sighed.
“Look, I didn’t ask for this. For you. But if you’re going to act like we’re a thing, then you better respect that thing.” Her demands were messy, and she wasn’t sure she was getting her point across, but Zane was listening. “Don’t run off into danger. If you say that I’m your mate, then respect the forever you’ve been promising me. Forever isn’t a week. It’s a lot longer than that.”
He was silent. Her heart thudded in her ears. Chelsea wanted more, and she hated herself for it. She was slipping into a place she told herself she’d never go back to. Love. Affection. Need. It was going to break her all over again.
Suddenly, the apartment came into view. The busted little house squatted close to the ground, all the lights on. It felt like their chance to talk was over, even though they were entering a private place.
Chelsea swallowed her sigh and charged ahead. Zane wasn’t going to talk. She could tell he would be stubborn and quiet for the rest of the night. If he needed room to work through his own feelings, she would give it to him. Once inside, she tossed her phone onto the table, went to her room, locked the door behind her, and threw herself onto her bed.
The sheets smelled like Zane.
How could she have gotten addicted to this scent so quickly? She wrapped herself in it and breathed deep, wishing he would put her first. No one ever did. It was a hopeless wish that she should have given up on.
Zane would focus on his quarrel with the clan of shifters. She would only matter once that was over. If he survived it. Hadn’t he already gotten what he needed from her anyway? They’d slept together once. Again, Chelsea feared she hadn’t been good enough. The sex had been wonderful for her, but what had she done to keep him?
Nothing.
And now she would lose him.
8
Zane wasn’t sure what was going on. He stood in the living room, thoroughly confused. Was Chelsea mad at him? What had he done to deserve it?
He didn’t know how to navigate the tender emotions of his mate. The whole night fell through his fingers, bits of his life crumbling away. He couldn’t fly. Not like he used to. He managed to get wind beneath his wings, but they weren’t strong enough to carry him for long distances. They crumpled and he plummeted.
The impact had hurt his pride more than his body. Ten years in the spell changed him more than he thought. His domain was now the lake. He couldn’t take to the skies and watch the world unfold beneath him. The witch’s magic had bound him to the dark depths of the lake. Forever laying low and living in darkness.
How could he strike Alistair down from there? It would take finesse. It would take cleverness and patience and perseverance. He had to give himself over to this mission or else the world would suffer. Zane was the only one who could stand in the way of this monster.
He had a bright ray of light in his life, but she was angry with him.
A buzz rumbled through the room. Zane’s brows folded together. He scanned his surroundings and followed the sound to the kitchen where a flat tablet lay on the table. It was a phone, though vastly different from the ones he remembered ten years ago. Back then, his phone had a sliding keyboard built into it. This one was just a flat screen that lit up.
He tapped the notification and saw the message preview. A man around Chelsea’s age grinned, his chin on the head of another woman. Her hand was displayed, and a diamond glinted on her ring finger. The man’s name was listed as Jackass Ex.
Zane’s stomach tightened. Cold fury slapped him like a wave. It rushed through his veins and tightened his hands into fists. He couldn’t tell what the rest of the message said because it was locked behind a passcode, but the photo was enough.
If he hadn’t checked the price of these new phones earlier that day, then he would have chucked the thing out the window to keep Chelsea from seeing the message. She didn’t need to see it when Zane had already failed her once.
He went to her room and tested the doorknob, but it was locked. His voice escaped him. Maybe it would be better to leave her alone. He could go out again, spy on the clan some more. Zane needed to figure out why they hadn’t struck the nearby town yet.
But his dragon held fast. It wasn’t going anywhere. Not when he recalled the way the predatorial man grabbed the back of her head outside the bar. The scene played out behind Zane’s closed eyes once more. The guy in the suit grabbed her and shoved her into his car. The look of pure terror on her face had been enough to send Zane into a fury.
The beast in him roared. Zane was torn. He had two duties and no idea how to attend to either. Chelsea locked him out of her room. He could speak to her through the door, but he worried that she would come out and want her phone. If he went to spy on his old clan, he could be caught, and Chelsea would have every reason to be mad.
Was it so wrong to want to protect both? Couldn’t he stop his enemies and then return to her? If only she would wait. It was his job to stop Alistair from harming anyone else. Zane was older and stronger.
So long as he was in the lake.
Falling from the sky had punched a hole in his chest. He felt for the imaginary wound with a hand over his heart. Zane had been emptied out over and over. He couldn’t fly. He couldn’t stop Alistair. He couldn’t convince Chelsea to wait for him.
There were moments where it seemed like she loved him, like she was falling for him the same way he had fallen for her. He wanted to hear her honking laugh when she made a dumb joke. Not just now, but for the rest of his days. He could get lost in her thighs, in her soft moans. He could make her come in his arms if she would let him.
He wasn’t enough, though. The lake had taken more than just years from him. It’d taken great hunks of his soul and left him only half a man. He would never have anything. Never defeat Alistair or make Chelsea love him.
His curse would never end.
Zane made breakfast again. This time, Chelsea picked at the crispy bacon and fluffy biscuits. If she wasn’t careful, she could get used to this.
Since she had no classes, she settled down at the kitchen table with the pot of coffee Zane made and dropped her stack of ratty textbooks next to them. All of her schoolbooks were used, with dicks drawn in the margins and all the wrong answers circled in the back. She could barely afford the used copies. New editions were so far out of her budget that she nearly cried in front of the bookseller when they announced the tally.
Even though she was paying nearly every penny of alimony to this school, she still couldn’t summon enough interest to c
are about her classes. She was slightly jealous of Zara who discovered her heart’s desire and changed majors. Chelsea wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life.
For so long, she held onto the hope that she could land a hot pre-med student with a rich family. Chelsea scraped by, barely getting C’s in her classes. She couldn’t remember a damn thing she’d been taught. None of it mattered when she didn’t see a future in it.
She had a future. Right?
She wasn’t just hobbling from class to class, man to man? What was the point in any of this if she wasn’t trying to create a life for herself? Chelsea struggled with where she stood. As it was, she would skate through her classes again. After this semester, she would have to work harder for her higher-level classes. If she didn’t, then she would be forced to drop out.
And then it would all be a waste.
Pinching the bridge of her nose and dying for a shot of liquor for her coffee, she stretched to reach for her phone. Surely, it would be blown up with messages from Zara. Chelsea wanted to chat with her friend. Maybe then her head would be less of a mess.
Instead, Chelsea opened her phone to a message from her ex. She did her best to swipe away all of his messages, only keeping his number in case anything happened to the monthly alimony check that she lived on. This time, the message opened right up like someone tapped the notification.
Her stupid ex grinned at the camera. His arms were around a woman who looked suspiciously like Chelsea. The woman raised her hand to the camera to show off a stunning rock on her ring finger. A ring Chelsea once wore. Immediately, Chelsea’s gut curdled. She was overwhelmed by the urge to warn his new fiancée, but it wasn’t her place.
“You told me you couldn’t find the ring,” she growled at her phone.
When she found out for the last time that he was cheating on her, she’d taken off her ring and thrown it as far as she could. The grass had swallowed it, and her ex-husband bitched time and time again that he never found it. Apparently, he found it just in time to tie another woman to him.
Zane (Keepers Of The Lake Book 6) Page 7
