A Fate Forbidden (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 3)

by Emilia Hartley

  She shoved a book back onto the shelf while her mother complained beside her. Not even her grip on the cart could help River stay anchored. She didn’t understand why her mother had to follow her all the way to work and linger for several hours.

  The library was supposed to be River’s quiet oasis. Here, she could do her job and stay far away from any conflict.

  “I’m so glad I raised you to be smarter than that Barnes girl,” Alice huffed.

  River paused. Was her mother berating Baylee for mating with Gale? No matter what Gale did, he was a Montoya. Alice shouldn’t say such things.

  “I don’t have to worry about you and your sister. The two of you have good heads on your shoulders. And you have me to thank for that,” Alice went on.

  River stayed quiet, though her mind raced. She and Raven stayed out of trouble because they couldn’t get away from their mother long enough to cause any. Born small and weak, both River and Raven had nearly died in infancy. Alice had never recovered from the fear of losing her girls, though she would tell everyone that it had been Alice’s lack of fear that had kept the girls alive.

  Alice had kept the girls close by and never let them far from her reach.

  A scream gathered in the back of River’s throat. Like every other time, she swallowed it down and gave her mother the smile-and-nod combo that Alice had come to expect. River quickly slipped down the next aisle and took a sharp turn.

  If she kept going, the stacks would become a labyrinth. She might lose her mother and have a moment alone to breathe.

  As she looked over her shoulder, her cart crashed into something that made a small, pained sound.

  “Whoa, hold up. What are you running from?” A male voice laughed softly.

  River startled. Jensen grinned down at her, his smile so wide and bright that her brain misfired. She opened her mouth, and nothing came out. Nothing would come to mind, either. Her thoughts remained blank as she stared at the distressingly beautiful man in front of her.

  The sides of his head were shaved, but the top had grown long enough to flop over his brow in a boyish way. A leather cord wrapped around the back of his neck and vanished beneath the neck of his shirt. She absentmindedly wondered what might hang from the end of it.

  Then, reality caught up with her.

  “Shit,” she muttered. She checked over her shoulder again.

  Her mother hadn’t caught up yet, but that was only a matter of time.

  “You can’t be here right now,” River hissed.

  Jensen’s thick brows furrowed in innocent confusion. “I don’t see why not. This is a public library. Is it not?”

  River sputtered. “Well, yeah.”

  Jensen flashed another heart-stopping grin. He leaned against the shelves, one arm overhead as he leaned forward. But the shelf pitched. River made a helpless noise. Jensen jumped, startled.

  He caught it at the last second, but not before a handful of books fell from the other side of the shelf. River closed her eyes and sucked in a calming breath. Her mother had to have heard the chaos. Alice Montoya would rain hell upon their heads if she caught them together.

  River grabbed Jensen by the front of his shirt and whispered urgently, “You need to go. You can’t be here because my mother will lose her goddamn mind.”

  “Your…mother?” He raised a single brow.

  River almost squealed at the sound of her name on her mother’s lips. Jensen’s eyes widened. He clearly recognized Alice Montoya’s voice. She waited for his face to pale, for him to rip free of her grasp and run to safety. Instead, a dumb grin lifted the corner of his mouth.

  River almost asked what he was thinking. Then Jensen backpedaled and gave her a teasing wink before disappearing around a corner.

  “River Montoya,” Alice snapped. “How could you have been so clumsy? I thought you valued the library.”

  River said nothing. She swallowed her sigh, nodded, and went to pick up the books that had fallen in the next aisle over. Curious, she checked in all directions, but couldn’t see a sign of Jensen anywhere.

  Why had he smiled like that? What did the wink mean? River didn’t know anything about dealing with men. The ones who came to flirt here at the library were often frightened away by her mother. If that didn’t work, meeting the rest of her family often did the trick.

  The Montoya dragons were…intense. Even if a suitor didn’t know anything about shifters or dragons, the Montoyas were still too much for some.

  Not for a Barnes man, though. The errant thought flitted through her mind before she swatted it away. Jensen had heard Alice’s voice and darted away. She couldn’t expect anything more from him than she could from any other man.

  Alice followed her, continuing her rant even though River had tuned her out. Something about Cash being an ungrateful shit. River had never seen Cash so happy as he had been lately. River guiltily considered if that was because he’d gotten out from beneath Alice’s wing.

  River shouldn’t have entertained such thoughts about her own family. She did her best to remind herself that she was safe with such a strong lineage. Alice’s blood ran in River’s veins. She would be lucky to inherit that kind of strength eventually.

  Meandering away from her mother, River saw a flash of movement ahead. She froze and noticed Jensen peering around the far end of the shelf. He winked and waved before vanishing out of sight.

  Her heart jumped. She pushed forward and peered around the corner. Jensen was nowhere to be found, but his scent was still strong in the air. He smelled of wood and dew, like a treehouse in the evening. She found herself smiling as she followed the scent trail.

  Each time she rounded a corner, she caught a flash of him before he disappeared again. Faster and faster, she followed. Laughter reached her lips as she found herself trying to leap out of the stacks to surprise him.

  “Too slow,” he whispered behind her.

  She spun, but he was gone again.

  When she turned back, Alice stood before her. Her mother’s nose scrunched up, one lip curl away from a snarl.

  “What are you up to?” Alice asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  River instinctively shut down. Her words failed her. She could not argue against her mother, who left no room for explanation nor complaint.

  “Why does it smell like a barn in here?”

  River tried to inconspicuously shrug. “Because it’s a public place? All sorts of people come through.”

  Alice fixed her with a dark glare. “You know what I meant. Not a barn, but a Barnes.”

  “Like I said, this is a public place. I’m sure the Barnes family enjoys reading or needs a book on how to fix electrical wiring, or a cookbook every now and then.”

  River wanted to find him. His scent still danced around her, beckoning her to run through the stacks in search of him. Alice’s attention kept River trapped, though. So long as Alice loomed over her, River couldn’t do anything.

  She couldn’t enjoy her life, not in the slightest.

  “You don’t have anything to worry about,” River said, her voice small. She ducked her head.

  Alice watched her. The Montoya matron likely didn’t believe River, but there was no obvious reason to doubt her, so Alice had no ammunition to press further. Finally, Alice pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin, a sure signal that she was about to leave.

  River nearly breathed a sigh of relief. Instead, she kept it down and gave her mother a soft, placating smile. Alice studied her daughter for a long while. River knew how to keep a straight face while dealing with her mother—perhaps the first lesson River ever learned.

  “I have business to tend to in town,” Alice stated.

  River nodded because she didn’t know what she should say in response. More often than not, Alice didn’t want a reply. Alice wanted to be heard, to be obeyed, and to be honored. River often wished Alice could give all that in return.

  Alice spun on her heel and marched down the center aisle. River didn’t let go
of the breath she held until she heard the door close behind her mother. Relief allowed her shoulders to ease away from her ears.

  How could Alice not see the many ways her children tensed when she approached? It took a special kind of person to willfully turn a blind eye to such behavior. Alice wanted to be top dog—or top dragon, rather. She paid little attention to the desires of those around her.

  “I thought she would never leave,” Jensen said.

  River spun. Jensen leaned against the end of a bookshelf, his arms nonchalantly crossed over his chest. He shook his head and pushed off the shelf. The way he stalked toward her, like a man with a singular purpose, made her heart leap into her throat.

  “You’re playing a dangerous game,” River warned.

  He cocked his head playfully. “Am I? I haven’t crossed any boundaries or suggested anything inappropriate. I simply came here to see if you were the dragon I met the other day.”

  River wanted to lie and say that he’d come across her sister. When they were younger, she and Raven had played that trick more times than she could count. They’d looked enough alike, in either form, that people often fell for it. Though their human forms weren’t so similar anymore, their dragons still looked strikingly similar. But River didn’t want to send Jensen to her unsuspecting sister’s doorstep.

  No, River wanted to keep him all to herself.

  She ducked her head. “Maybe I was.”

  “Well then, should I send you a bill for all the pumpkins you smashed?”

  Her head snapped up, but when she met his gaze, she saw the spark of mischief in his eyes. She picked her jaw up off the ground and tried to give him a chastising look. Jensen shrugged it off and sauntered around to the end of her book cart, blocking her exit.

  “If I did that, then I’d have to bill Ember, too.” Jensen leaned forward and folded his arms over the top of the cart. When he looked up at River, her heart did a backflip.

  Her heart was doing a great many things in Jensen’s presence. She had no idea how to wrangle it into submission. Was he flirting? Or was this Jensen’s natural demeanor? She didn’t know anything about this man. What she saw as flirting could have been how he treated everyone. She shouldn’t take pleasure in his company, but her beast argued otherwise.

  The dragon curled up inside her purred softly. River wasn’t used to such a sound. Was this…happiness? She wanted to believe so. Could her life really have been so drab that a few winks from an unfamiliar man made her beast purr with delight?

  “I have lived the most awful existence up until now,” she muttered.

  Jensen leaned back, one brow raised in alarm.

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to say that out loud!” She covered her mouth with her hand.

  Jensen laughed. The sound came from his whole body and filled the stacks with wholesome sound. Her lips parted as she soaked it in. Muscles that had been wound tight for most of her life finally came unbound. Any longer in Jensen’s presence, and River would melt into the carpet.

  “I think that’s something we can fix,” Jensen said. “I don’t particularly want to spend all my time in the middle of dragon politics. I doubt you do, either. The smart thing to do would be to avoid them together.”

  “T-t-together?” River tripped over the single word like it was a racing hurdle.

  Jensen shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I’m asking you to fall madly in love with me. I’m not in the market for a mate right now.”

  River’s stomach plummeted. “Oh. Well…”

  “Are you going to let your stuffy mother stop you from living your life?”

  While she was grateful Jensen hadn’t noticed her disappointment in his statement, she kind of wished he had picked up on it. Being around him turned her inside out in ways she’d never known possible. If she did as he asked, then she didn’t know if she would be able to stop herself from falling harder and harder for him.

  Perhaps that was only because Jensen was the first man to show interest in her and not run at the first sight of her mother. River wanted to latch onto Jensen because he gave her hope that she might not be alone for the rest of her life.

  “Besides, I would never mate a Montoya woman anyway.” Jensen waved his hand in the air. “That’s more work than I want to commit to.”

  River blinked. She shoved the cart forward, into his shins. Jensen yelped and jumped back. She feigned surprise, her hand over her mouth to hide the slight rise at the corners of her lips.

  “I’m so sorry,” she lied. “Are you okay?”

  Jensen scowled at his shins but wore a jovial expression when he looked up at her. “All is forgiven. It’s not like you did it on purpose.”

  Definitely not.

  But, in many ways, Jensen had been right. Dating River would come with some heavy baggage. Her mother would make her life a living hell for getting involved with a Barnes man. Even if he was cute and sweet and playful and made River feel like she’d taken her first ever breath.

  Alice Montoya would never let her precious daughter form a mate bond with Jensen.

  Mate bonds were inescapable. Dragons didn’t get to decide who they loved. Fate had woven those threads ahead of time. The thing was, if Alice found out that River was flirting with Jensen, then Alice would make sure that they didn’t have enough time together to form a bond. River would spend the rest of her life not knowing if he could have been the one.

  She was getting ahead of herself, though. Jensen wasn’t flirting with her. He’d made it clear that he didn’t want a relationship like that with River.

  Much to her disappointment.

  “I don’t get off work until five tonight,” she said, unsure of what Jensen wanted from her.

  He shrugged. “That’s fine. You have Sunday off, right? Libraries aren’t open on Sundays.”

  She smirked. “I’m impressed you could remember that.”

  He bit his lower lip, suppressing a devious grin. Her heart thumped wildly at the sight. It was so simple, yet so lewd at the same time. Her thoughts undressed him from the top down. She had to shake herself out of it before she got too far. Her cheeks were already burning as it was.

  “Sunday,” he repeated. “You and me. Meet me at Logan’s.”

  River knew better. This couldn’t last. They would get caught eventually. Then Jensen would have to deal with the hell that was her mother.

  Still, she found herself nodding. A real smile crossed her face for the first time in ages. “Sunday,” she said in agreement.

  “Sunday,” Jensen agreed.

  He jammed his hands into his pockets and walked backwards while holding her gaze. He tripped over a stack of books someone had left on the floor. She laughed as he windmilled and found his footing again. When he looked back to her, the corner of his mouth lifted with laughter.

  She couldn’t help but chuckle at his graceful display before heading to pick up the stack of forgotten books. Normally, she would have a few things to say about someone who willfully left a mess in a public place, but she couldn’t stop smiling. Her heart felt light for the first time.

  Was this how others felt? Had Baylee or Ember lived their lives this way? Or had they felt the pressure of their family before absconding with a Montoya man?

  River had been jealous of the Barnes women and their romances. They’d felt like something that River would never be able to obtain. Love had always been out of her reach. Perhaps it would remain that way.

  Jensen didn’t want this to be a date.

  Jensen couldn’t believe he’d asked the Montoya girl out on a date. He didn’t even know her name. Alice Montoya had called her name several times, but not once did it sink through his thick skull. He’d been too useless to ask after that. Stricken by the sight of her, his mind had tied itself in knots that he couldn’t unravel at the time.

  He would have to ask Gale or Cash about her. They would know more about her, like her name and her favorite flower and her favorite snack. The important things.

  Jensen wa
nted to stay out of this. The bubbling war between the families and the internal struggles of the Montoya clan would only make his life harder. He had priorities that he needed to pay attention to. Dating was out of the question.

  Maybe he could play it off like a fun outing between friends. His beast, on the other hand, disagreed. A hunger pinched his stomach tight. It was the same hunger that had hit him at first sight. She had her red hair bound into a tight bun, but everything else had been loose. Her oversized sweater made him want to grab one of his own and pull it over her head. While hiding in the stacks, he’d watched her chase him, her skirt dancing around her legs.

  He’d spent half the time wondering if she was wearing tights or if her legs really were that pale.

  A feud created by dragons they’d never met kept Jensen from pursuing his feelings. It wasn’t so much that he thought the Montoyas were evil. He knew better now. Instead, it was the rising tension between everyone else that made him keep his hands to himself.

  Had the situation been different…maybe he would have pulled her into a dark corner of the library and shown her all the things he could do when they were alone. His blood rushed south at the thought.

  Once the dust settled and a balance of power had been established again, then Jensen could give this a try. Until then, they were just friends. He needed friends. It seemed like she did, too.

  Jensen stopped by his sister’s house once again. Shouts spilled out the open front door. He paused, trying to discern the voices. When he didn’t hear Quincy or Alice, he let out a breath and stepped inside.

  Baylee gave her brother a welcoming wave before turning her attention back to Gale and Logan. The two male shifters glared at one another. If looks could kill, both would have been piles of dust on the floor. Cash and Ember sat in the far corner, enjoying their drinks while watching the glaring contest between Gale and Logan.

  “You can’t keep taking off like that!” Gale bellowed.

  Logan looked down his nose at Gale. “I can damn well do what I please.”

  “I understand you’re in charge here, but if you don’t start taking your safety more seriously, then someone is going to ambush you. Do you really think Quincy and Alice play fair?”