Damaged Daddy Dragon

by Leela Ash

  Now, he knew better. And he was never going to make that mistake again, no matter what. The cost would be far too great, especially with his little girl involved.

  Speaking of Vera, he was due for a phone call with her. He had to get back to the hotel and get everything situated. Checking in was one of the things he was really dreading. Maybe it made it more real to him that all of this was really happening and that the challenging times were about to begin. The other alphas would be arriving soon, and their mission would begin in earnest.

  With a heavy sigh, Apollo made his way to the motel, where the vacancy sign was flashing in bold red letters. He shook his head. The place looked just about as dingy as the rest of Greendale. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to his stay here. So far, his impression of it had been less than stellar.

  When he entered the motel lobby, a loud bell rang above his head and Apollo grimaced. Shifters had heightened senses and would never have the poor judgment to place a bell like this so close to earshot. But humans tended to lack that courtesy. He shook his head slightly and made his way to the desk, already in a sour mood.

  The little balding man behind the desk didn’t speak to him. He seemed consumed in his business of typing importantly on an outdated looking computer. The clicking of the keys was starting to agitate the hell out of Apollo, so he located the little bell on the counter and tapped it hard. The loud ring broke the man’s concentration.

  “How may I help you?” the man asked, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose, so they were centered on his face.

  “I reserved a room. Apollo.”

  “Ah yes, of course. Apollo.”

  The man turned once more to his computer screen and began typing again. “What a funny name.”

  He caught Apollo’s glare and balked, quickly turning his eyes back to the screen. “Unique, really. Ahem. Apollo… yes, here we are. Room 352. In the back and up the stairs. Take a left.”

  The man retrieved a little key, and Apollo stood there, waiting. He had specifically requested three keys. One for each person who would be staying at the hotel. So far, none of this was going right, but he didn’t have the patience, at the moment, to fight about it. He didn’t trust the dragon within him to handle it without escalating things to a needless level of aggression. Apollo sighed and instead decided that this would be a battle best left until the other alphas had arrived, and he’d had the chance to talk to his daughter.

  Apollo found his room, then pushed inside and narrowed his eyes. This place was dim. And small.

  He opened the curtains and let in a subtle stream of light from outside. He would sleep here tonight, but this was less than ideal.

  The phone was located on an end table between two of the beds. Apollo sat down on the edge of one of them and made his call.

  “Hello?”

  “Gavin?”

  “Apollo, hey…”

  Gavin sounded nervous, and Apollo immediately picked up why. His daughter was in the background, wailing at the top of her lungs.

  “Bad time?”

  “Usually…”

  “Yeah…”

  Apollo felt a tug of guilt. His daughter hated being away from him. She had been making the banished dragons’ lives hell for the past week. Ever since she’d arrived there, none of them had been able to console her. She was convinced Apollo was never going to come back for her again.

  Who could blame her after what had happened with her mom? Damned Heidi. She could have at least tried to visit. But then again, maybe that would have made things worse. It was already hard enough to try to keep his daughter placated. Imagine the emotional mess she’d be in if Heidi showed up and then just took off again. It would recreate the trauma of the first time.

  Not that the little girl would even remember any of that. She had just been a baby. Still, Apollo remembered. And in a way, he was convinced his daughter did too.

  “Daddy!”

  “Vera!”

  The child’s breath was coming in deep gulps. She had been sobbing. The poor thing had her mother’s emotional nature, without half of the selfishness. How had Apollo been so blind to the fact that Heidi just wasn’t capable of a functional relationship? He couldn’t talk himself into loving anyone else. Nothing good would come of it.

  “When are you coming to get me?”

  At three years old, Vera was beginning to believe her will was as strong as any seasoned shifter man’s and had been testing and challenging the six banished all the way.

  “You already know the answer to that, honey. When this job is over, then I can come and get you.”

  “I miss you!”

  She started to wail again, realizing her will simply wouldn’t be enough to bring her father to her.

  “I miss you too. But you’re safer there, remember? And isn’t Gavin funny?”

  “I don’t care!”

  Apollo sighed.

  “How about this… Once I make some progress, I will come for a visit. How does that sound?”

  “No! I want to stay!”

  “It’s dangerous, sweetheart. You don’t want to get hurt, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Then do as I ask, okay?”

  Vera was beginning to wind down and her sobs were becoming sniffles and hiccups. “Okay.”

  “Good girl. Did you have something good to eat for dinner?”

  “Mhmm.”

  “I know Gavin’s wife is an incredible cook.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Dragon food!”

  “Dragon food!”

  Apollo smiled warmly to himself. That was one thing the child had definitely inherited from him.

  “Okay, sweetie. Try not to give them a hard time, okay? They care about you and are working really hard to take care of you and keep you safe. You don’t want to make them feel bad, do you?”

  “No…”

  “Good. So, be nice. I know what a fierce little dragon you can be but save it for the bad guys. Everyone there is good. So, take it easy, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m gonna go now.”

  “No!”

  “Vera…”

  “Nooo!”

  “Honey. It’s going to be okay. We’ll be together again soon, I promise.”

  “Okay.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  When Vera gave the phone back to Gavin to hang up, Apollo sighed as he parted on the verge of another of his daughter’s meltdowns.

  She was having such a tough time out there. Even though there were several other children near her age to help her through it all, and she had always loved playing with them before, for whatever reason, this time she just wasn’t having it. She wanted Apollo there with her. And it just wasn’t possible right now.

  But all his fatherly instincts were kicking in. He had half a mind to shapeshift into his dragon form right that second and take off toward where his daughter was staying. He wanted her there with him just as much as she wanted to be there, but he knew the harm in it. He couldn’t subject her or himself to that sort of danger. With Vera there, it was nothing but one major distraction after another, and that also left them both vulnerable to the dangers of the dark forces that sought to control the portals.

  They would do anything for that power. Including harm a child. He simply wouldn’t let that happen. He had to focus on making sure the powers of good were the ones in control of the portals. And he couldn’t do it without the help of the other alphas.

  He gazed at the phone, an aching in his chest as he thought about his child and the huge, looming task at hand. It was his job to stay put and set them all up for success. It was the dragon shifters who had managed to learn the secrets of the portals first. Therefore, it was their responsibility to help inform the other shifter races and try to unify them in their quest to deny the enemy forces from getting their hands on the kind of power that would ultimately destroy them all. The secrets of the portals couldn’t
fall into the wrong hands.

  And so, he would leave Vera right where she was, no matter how hard it might be for both of them, staying put to welcome the wolf and bear alphas in the morning. It was then that they would be able to start making progress in their goals. They would try to find the Portal Room and ultimately, attempt to contact the home worlds of the other shifter species to protect them from the looming threat. Nothing else was more important than that.

  5.

  “Is he cute?”

  “Mother!”

  Quinn sighed and shook her head. Her mother, Eileen Winters, laughed, clearly delighted with herself.

  “He must be.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Quinn pouted as she folded napkins. The bed and breakfast, aptly titled “Winters” after her family’s surname, was a rundown little place. It was barely open for business at the moment due to the renovations they hoped would bring the place to tip-top shape, but there were a couple of people who had come through and wanted a place to stay despite knowing the place was a work in progress.

  They would be out in the morning, but until then, the derelict bed and breakfast had to pretend it was up to standards and serve the people their meals. Quinn had been summoned to help with the unexpected work, just as she was called in most weekends to help her father with repairs and her mother with interior design.

  “I’m glad you did. Honey, if those guys are harassing you this much, don’t you think you should bring it up to the gym? Or maybe to law enforcement? Somebody should be able to help you.”

  Quinn sighed. “I don’t think it would help anything. Some guys just don’t get a clue. And you know how small this place is. If I made a big deal out of it, what little business and potential business I had might be affected. I don’t want to risk it.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Quinn.”

  Quinn’s mother’s mouth set in a thin, disapproving line.

  “Look, not to point fingers or anything, but you weren’t exactly the picture of a ‘stand up and fight’ feminist while I was growing up. I don’t want to hear about how I should be tough and firm and stand my ground and refuse to let the man get me down, okay? Not when Dad would shout at you the way he did, and you would just let him.”

  “Do as I say, not as I do,” her mother muttered. “And anyway, you know things have gotten much better with him. Are you going to hold a grudge about it for the rest of your life?”

  Quinn sighed. She didn’t feel like she was holding a grudge about it. She just got angry whenever she thought about it. And she was certain her fear of her father was somehow directly correlated with the fact she never stood up for herself against bullies like Isaac and his lackeys.

  Still, she had found her voice over the past year or so. Ever since she had broken free of that terrible relationship, she had learned more about the kinds of things she could do to feel strong and empowered when she spoke with others. No matter how she might have been trained, she was the master of her own destiny and she wasn’t going to let anybody stand in the way of that. Even if that meant never dating again for the rest of her life.

  “It doesn’t matter, I’m over it,” Quinn lied. It was sometimes easier just to drop the heavy topics. Especially when it came to her family. That didn’t mean it was right or that it was better, but it could just be too damn difficult to talk about these things.

  “Do you want to go check on the roast?”

  “Sure.”

  When she arrived in the kitchen, Quinn let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. she usually didn’t bring up what they had experienced with her father’s short temper. Instead, they skirted around it and tried to embrace their new lives together. He had reformed and that was good enough. Wasn’t it? It should have been.

  But for some reason, the combination of talking about Apollo and her mother’s disapproval had left a bitter taste in her mouth. She didn’t want to think about Apollo in a romantic sense. it was clear he was the dominant type and any man who wanted to dominate would trigger that helpless, terrified little girl deep within her. the one she had been working so long to heal and give a voice to. The woman she had become would never let a man tell her what to do or how to act or what was appropriate for her to be feeling. And any real man would accept that.

  But most men thought being a real man meant being a controlling, possessive, alpha punk who gave no consideration to other people and only did what they wanted. They didn’t care about respecting women and only cared about what served them the best in the moment. Quinn had no need for that nonsense. And she wasn’t about to make herself vulnerable to another man who would try to steal from her what she had been working so long to reclaim.

  Not that Apollo had even shown any real interest in her. but the chemistry she had felt between them couldn’t have been something she was imagining. There had to be more to it than that.

  Regardless of whether she had imagined it or not, she had felt herself being drawn to the man. Irresistibly, helplessly drawn to him. Despite her best judgment, he seemed comfortable in a way. As if she had wanted to get to know him more. But that was the warning sign, wasn’t it? She was comfortable with terrible relationships and men who tried too hard to assert themselves. She was comfortable being submissive and letting people walk all over her.

  She would never let it happen again.

  “Hey, Quinnie.”

  “Oh, hi Dad.”

  Quinn’s irritation peaked at the sound of her father’s voice, but when she faced him and saw the warm smile on his face, the agitation melted away. He hadn’t been that raging bully in quite a long time. He had reformed very heavily, though he had never actually owned up to the harm he might have done or apologized. Still, he was a different person and she couldn’t stay angry at him. He had been a flawed man, but who didn’t have their flaws? At least he had changed.

  “When you’re done in here do you want to give me some input on the cabins? I was thinking we could talk interiors. I know you have always been pretty talented with that kind of thing.”

  “Sure, Dad.”

  “Great!”

  Her father beamed and headed to the storage pantry, where he gathered an armful of greens and went outside with it. When Quinn returned to where her mother was working, she had forgotten all about her anger. Her mind was now on the small, fenced-in area where her father had decided he was going to start raising small rabbits. The bunnies were an adorable addition to the homestead, and really gave the place some character.

  “I can’t believe he actually started raising rabbits,” Quinn said, chuckling to herself.

  “Oh, he did that for you. Because when you were a little girl you were always talking about wanting a pet bunny. You had a little stuffed animal you would carry around with you… he remembers trivial things like that very fondly.”

  Quinn smiled. It was nice to know her parents had paid attention to her and knew her thoughts and dreams when she was a child, even if they weren’t always the greatest of examples when it came to conflict resolution.

  “Well, he’s definitely going to win some points with people if they’re animal lovers, but what about the people who aren’t? do you think they would still like to come here?”

  “Of course,” Quinn’s mother said. “They don’t need to interact with the rabbits.”

  “They probably shouldn’t read the pamphlet then, about how everything we feed is organic so when the rabbits excrete, they are naturally fertilizing the vegetable garden… and how those vegetables are meant to go into the fresh daily salads…”

  Quinn’s mother laughed. “Your father is overly excited about doing things in a natural and sustainable way. You know how he can be. Deeply passionate man.”

  “I know,” Quinn said.

  She loved her father. She loved both of her parents. She only sometimes wished things could be easier.

  “Oh no!”

  Quinn frow
ned in concern at the tone in her mother’s voice. Ever since she had been released from the hospital, Quinn and her father had been extra attentive of Eileen’s every up and down.

  “What’s the matter, Mom?”

  Quinn stood, moving immediately to her mother’s side.

  “I just got a message from my doctor. They found something they want to talk about as soon as possible and wanted me to stop in tomorrow morning. This is awful! You know how your father is. He’s going to want to come hover over me and leave nobody here to mind Winters.”

  Quinn sighed. “I can go grab Daisy and stay the night out here so you guys can make the appointment. How does that sound?”

  “Oh darling, would you? That would be wonderful.

  “Yeah, it’s no problem, Mom. Daisy loves it out here anyway.”

  “Thank you so much. That’s one less thing to worry about.” Quinn’s mother sighed. “I hate having to tell your father things like this. You know how neurotic he gets!”

  “He just worries about you, Mom. We both do. I can finish up here. Why don’t you go talk to Dad?”

  “Okay, honey. Thanks again.”

  “It’s nothing, Mom.”

  Quinn watched her mother go, her own chest tightening with concern. Her mother’s health just hadn’t been the same since the first bout in the hospital. There was really nothing she could do. She wouldn’t leave. She would stay in Greendale as long as she had to and see to it that her parents had everything they needed, just as they had when she was a child. It was the only way.

  6.

  “Vera, be reasonable, now…”

  Gavin winced as the little girl’s eyes filled with tears and a loud wail began to erupt from deep inside her chest.

  “I… want… my… daddy!” she sobbed.

  “I know!” Gavin searched the room, hoping to find a solution but there were none in sight. “Do you want a horsy ride?”

  “Daddy!”

  “Why don’t you try, Max. What woman could resist you?”

  Max scoffed but approached the child anyway. He lifted her up into the air. Vera, startled, stopped crying for a moment, but when she saw Max’s face, her own contorted again and she let out another anguished sob.