A Fate Forbidden (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 3)

by Emilia Hartley

  Quincy lashed out weakly. His claws raked through the air, missing River. But that had only been a diversion. His tail sliced towards Baylee. Jensen snarled and leapt on it before Quincy could hit Baylee. Like trained dancers, Baylee slithered over Jensen and struck.

  River’s heartrate quickened. She didn’t want this to become a drawn-out fight. She’d hoped that Uncle Quincy would see that he was outnumbered and back down. Her theory had been flawed, though. He wasn’t the kind of man to accept defeat. He would win or escape. There was no option in between.

  Lost in her thoughts, River didn’t see Quincy rushing towards her. He was upon her before she could move. Jensen slammed into the side of Quincy’s head, but Quincy’s claws still came down onto River. She crashed into the floor.

  Quincy roared when Jensen dug his claws into the yellow dragon’s empty eye-socket again. The weight atop River lifted, and she scrambled out. Baylee appeared at her side. Jensen leapt off Quincy and positioned himself between the women and the Old Lizard.

  Fuck this, River thought.

  Fire licked the back of her throat. She tossed her head back and released the flames gathering on her tongue. They caressed the ceiling and the exposed beams. This manor had been in her family for a hundred years, but it no longer meant anything to anyone other than Quincy. He’d hunkered down here and turned it into his last stand.

  He could escape, but she wouldn’t go after him. If Quincy tried to break out and run, she would stay and ensure that he had nowhere to return to when he came crawling back.

  No one came here out of love or a need for family. The space had grown empty and cold. River would burn it to the ground and rid the world of such a useless space. She cast off the duty her family had burdened her with and felt the weight lift from her shoulders.

  She didn’t have to be anyone she didn’t want to be. This manor couldn’t hold her. Her family name wouldn’t stop her. She could be anyone.

  Quincy made a sound. If he’d had human lips, it might have sounded like knock that off. Instead, it came out as a weird, garbled sound. River breathed fire over the nearby walls. The flames eating the drapes were now joined by a blaze devouring the room.

  She lowered her head and locked gazes with her uncle. If she had a middle finger, she would have given it to him. This wasn’t going to be a fight much longer. If he dragged it out, they would turn it into a demolition.

  18

  Jensen had never seen River like this before. Defiance made her even more beautiful. She remained unflinching even as Quincy stalked towards her. Jensen rose to his full height between the Old Lizard and River. Quincy wasn’t about to reach River while Jensen was there.

  This fight had come to an end, anyway.

  The cavalry crowded outside. To the left, Jensen glimpsed Alice’s trademark red scales. To the right, he saw Logan’s blue scales. Between them were Gale and Cash. The house trembled. He wondered if that had been Ember, landing on the roof.

  No matter what, Quincy was outnumbered.

  Jensen studied the Old Lizard. This man no longer governed a dragon clan. It was clear that none of them wanted to follow his lead anymore. The moment Quincy realized that, he would become even more dangerous, for he would have nothing left to lose. As it was, his legacy was on fire.

  Quincy’s form shrank. He staggered on two feet before straightening his spine and raising his chin. He looked down his nose at everyone, his gaze jumping from dragon to dragon.

  “You’re all making this out to be much more of a problem than it actually is,” he said. “Once you realize that you cannot follow an unhinged dragon—” he gestured to Logan, “then you will see that I have only ever been trying to do you all a favor. He will lose his grip on this world and turn on you.”

  Logan bared his teeth. Quincy didn’t flinch. He turned his back on Logan and calmly walked over to a side table that had been knocked over. He grabbed the phone on the floor near it.

  “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to call emergency services to put out the fire River has started. The repair expenses are coming out of your inheritance, missy.” Quincy held the phone to his ear and ignored the dragons still around him.

  Outside, Alice lowered her head and snarled through the hole in the wall. Jensen turned just in time to watch a shiver rush over Quincy.

  Though this fight had ended in a stalemate, there would be more battles on the horizon. Jensen looked between the dragons present. He didn’t know who to trust. Quincy would never hold anyone’s favor, but the other options weren’t great.

  Alice would always be overbearing, and Jensen doubted she would relent and forgive the Barnes family any time soon. Logan, on the other hand, held promise. But Quincy hadn’t been lying when he called Logan unhinged. There was something about the man that did not sit right with Jensen.

  The two clans were now irrevocably intertwined again. Nothing and no one could tear them apart now that there were three mated pairs between the two clans. Jensen could no longer avoid fighting, because he needed to ensure his own future as well as his sister’s.

  That meant standing behind the right leader.

  Alice and Logan stood tall as the three dragons wrestled their way out of the manor. Jensen waited for River and Baylee to leave. He cast one last look back at Quincy and found the man watching him. Jensen knew that Quincy would have him killed first. Quincy would work his way through the clans, killing them one by one until the rest relented.

  Murderous rage crashed through Jensen. He stiffened. It would be all too easy to lunge forward and finish Quincy off right here and now. The shrewd look in Quincy’s remaining eye told him it would not be that easy.

  Sirens sounded in the distance. The cacophony of them mixed together into a chaotic warning. If Jensen attacked now, the authorities would arrive to find a dead man’s body and evidence pointing toward Jensen.

  That was how Quincy wanted it. He’d called 911 at just the right time to keep this fight from escalating. The moment humans arrived, then everyone would have to set aside their grudges in order to hide what had been going on.

  Outside, everyone had shifted back. They were quickly donning clothes before the authorities arrived. Jensen didn’t want to shift yet. He didn’t trust Quincy not to pull something while everyone had their guard down. But Jensen couldn’t stay in this form, either.

  Reluctantly, he shifted back to human form. River rushed up to him with clothes, which he put on without question. The shoes she handed him were a smidge too large, but no one noticed other than him. She hooked her arm in his and led him back around to the front where everyone else was gathered.

  Somehow, Alice had pulled herself into her perfectly manicured guise in that short time. She greeted the emergency services and apologetically explained the circumstances with a lie about circuitry in an old home. The chief firefighter didn’t even bat an eye. He nodded and got his people to work.

  While Alice kept the police busy, everyone slowly dispersed. One by one—or, rather, couple by couple—they disappeared. Jensen and River left last. Alice gave them a meaningful look that Jensen wasn’t sure how to decode. It could have been a warning, or it could have been approval. He wasn’t sure.

  Either way, he and River got into his truck and back onto the road. Alone with his mate, he sucked in a deep breath.

  “I love you,” River said before he could speak.

  His breath sputtered out of him. He tore his attention off the road to look at her. She leaned her elbow against the window and rested her head in her hand. The easy smile on her face warmed him through and through.

  River meant it. Around him, the knot in her chest eased. She melted in his presence. No one ever made her feel so wanted before. When he reached across the space for her and pulled back in hesitation, she took his hand and placed it on her thigh.

  Jensen’s shoulders fell away from his ears. A smile crept onto his face.

  This was her mate. Her forever.

  She leaned back and admired him
, every line of his face and every movement he made as he drove. It didn’t matter where they went, so long as they were together.

  The misunderstanding with the other woman had been stupid, in retrospect. River had been jealous and let it consume her. The glimpse she’d gotten of Jensen and that other woman hadn’t hinted at anything romantic or even sexual. It had been River who leapt to conclusions.

  She owed him an apology, but words didn’t seem like enough. She would make it up to him later, another way. For now, she hoped that her confession was enough to make him stay. She knew that her behavior hadn’t been right. Erratic and easily upset, River might have chased him away.

  The fact that he was currently touching her wasn’t enough to convince her that he felt the same way she did. In her mind, this was only to placate her.

  Though she’d been comfortable in his presence, her mind quickly spiraled. Her thoughts spun in every direction while her beast rolled its eyes at her. The beast knew Jensen wouldn’t have gone after Quincy if he didn’t love her. The beast also knew that no mate bond could form if the other did not love her in return.

  Mates were fated. They loved one another unconditionally.

  “I never thought I would hear those words,” Jensen said.

  River bit her lip. She waited for the but…

  Yet, it never came. Jensen’s smile widened and widened until he grinned. Looking young and foolish and full of love, he kept stealing glances at her that made her heart flutter. Her hopes soared higher than ever.

  “I love you, too.”

  Her breath trembled between her lips. When she sucked in another, relief flooded her. She’d been so afraid that everything she’d done would drag this out and keep him from feeling the same as she did, but that wasn’t the case.

  Jensen loved her.

  As they drove around, they discussed their next moves. They didn’t bring up the fight or how she was feeling. Instead, they made plans for the future. They focused on what they could control, on what would make them happier. River never thought she would find this kind of romance. She’d never been able to see past the cage that had held her back.

  Thankfully, she’d proven stronger than the bars of that cage. She’d broken free and found the life she’d always wanted.

  19

  Alice crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Jensen as he carried boxes out of River’s bedroom. Of course, River’s mother loathed the idea of her moving out. Since Jensen wasn’t exactly welcome under Alice’s roof, he couldn’t move in with River.

  “She’s going to be perfectly safe,” he assured the scowling woman.

  Alice’s expression remained unchanging.

  “Oh, get over it, Mom.” Reece clapped his mother on the back.

  The woman staggered forward, caught herself, and narrowed her eyes at her son. Reece grinned devilishly. Jensen couldn’t believe this was the same man who’d said horrible things about the Barnes family not too long ago. Though they couldn’t see it at the time, Baylee’s work was slowly changing everyone.

  Even those with the most vitriol towards the other family were starting to adopt an optimistic outlook. It helped when River skipped into the hall with a jaunty tune on her lips. Her hair was up in a high ponytail that swung back and forth as she passed between Alice and Jensen. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her.

  When he looked back to Alice, he found her scrutinizing him. Whatever she saw on his face must have eased some of her tightly wound concern because her shoulders dropped, and she issued a deep sigh.

  “As long as you can promise me that oaf, Callum, won’t lay a finger on her, then we can give this a trial run.”

  At the end of the hall, River stopped and faced her mother. Despite River’s jovial smile, her eyes gleamed with anticipation of a fight. “This will not be a trial run. I am moving out, and that is final.”

  Alice opened her mouth to argue, but Reece hooked an arm around his mother’s shoulder and turned her away. Jensen listened to Reece’s jovial chatter as he led his mother into another room. Once she was gone, Raven poked her head out of River’s bedroom door.

  “I thought she would never leave,” Raven whispered.

  River shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. She can’t stop me. What is she going to do? Ground me?”

  Raven’s brows furrowed. It seemed as though she hadn’t yet grasped the concept that Alice couldn’t force them to do anything they didn’t want to do. River had shrugged off her mother’s controlling nature and embraced her own life. Jensen hoped that her sister could do the same soon.

  He wasn’t going to be the one to help her do that, though. Jensen looked to his mate and felt his chest flush with adoration. He hadn’t known it at the time, but their bond had freed the both of them. Jensen had been holding himself back. He’d walked a fine line and ignored the fact that it was a cage he had created for himself.

  He couldn’t walk that line forever. If he did, he would end up nowhere. Worse, he could have led himself in circles for the rest of his life. Meeting River had yanked him off that path and back on the correct one.

  “Is that about it?” Jensen asked, jerking his chin to the box in his mate’s hands.

  “I think Raven has the last box.” River bounced on her heel and continued down the stairs.

  Jensen followed, enamored. He couldn’t believe his luck. He had come across this woman by chance one night. He’d infiltrated her life with the hopes of making her happier. Instead, she’d done that for him. Every time he looked to her, his heart lifted higher. His beast purred with satisfaction.

  Outside, she set her box onto the truck bed. Jensen took her empty hand, spun her around, and pulled her flush against his body. The same satisfied purr emanated from her. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and breathed deep. Her scent filled his lungs and the soft cascade of her hair brushed across his cheek.

  “I don’t need to see this,” Raven muttered as she set the last box onto the truck.

  River held Jensen, clinging tightly. A laugh as light as a bell’s chime left her lips. He rose and claimed that mouth, showing her all the ways he loved her with the stroke of his tongue. When he pulled back, he gave her a look that promised more where that came from.

  River’s face flushed. Satisfied, he laughed and released her. She remained there, stunned.

  “Well, are you coming?” he asked, knowing full well that this was his doing. “We have a lot to unpack back at the house. I’m sure my mother already has a big dinner waiting for us, too.”

  She twisted and narrowed her eyes at him. She would tease him later, but he would enjoy it. He savored the fire now sparking in her eyes. This woman who had diverted her gaze when they’d first met now looked him head on and grinned with devilish intent. His blood raced south, heady with anticipation.

  When all was packed and they were buckled into the truck, Jensen checked the rearview mirror. The sight of Alice’s half-smile caught him off guard. Perhaps there was hope yet for the cold-hearted woman. The smile died when Raven ran out the front door and leapt on the back of Jensen’s truck as they drove off.

  Alice yelled at her daughter, but Raven ignored her mother. Laughter filled the inside of the truck, echoed on the outside. Jensen couldn’t believe how his life had changed for the better.

  “Oh, hell no!” Adrien shouted from the living room.

  River’s eyes widened. Jensen cringed. They had finished carrying River’s things up to Jensen’s bedroom and were fighting over a plate of chocolate chip cookies while Marjorie talked to another Barnes shifter in the living room.

  River had a lot to get used to. Here, the air was always warm. River could go to the kitchen and get a hot cup of coffee or a fresh cookie whenever she wanted. No one here would tell her that the cookie would go straight to her waistline.

  Here, she could be whoever she wanted. Though River was savoring her own personal heaven, someone else was experiencing their version of hell. She shared a look with her sister, w
ho had stayed to help unpack.

  “That can’t be good,” Jensen whispered.

  In unison, the three peeked their heads around the corner to see what had happened.

  Marjorie stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed over her chest. Behind her was Adrien, another young Barnes shifter. They both faced the same blonde that River had seen with Jensen not long ago.

  The blonde wore a pout that seemed almost comical.

  “I am not agreeing to a court wedding,” she said.

  “Because there isn’t going to be a wedding!” Adrien threw his hands in the air. “I’m not marrying this woman!”

  The blonde laughed in his face. “This isn’t an arrangement for love. This is a business deal. If you don’t like it, I can take this—” she gestured to herself, “elsewhere. You won’t get to experience anything I have to offer.”

  Adrien guffawed. “Do you really think you’re my type? I hate to tell you, I don’t like skinny women.”

  River’s sister made a surprised sound. For every pound that River had tried to avoid, Raven had packed them on. She was River’s curvier counterpart—which should have shown their mother that it wouldn’t have mattered if River gained any weight. Despite their mother’s ravings, Raven was beautiful.

  Cheeks pink, Raven ducked back behind the wall.

  “I’d rather marry the Montoya woman in the kitchen than look at your face for the rest of my life.” Adrien spun on his heel and marched toward them.

  River swallowed her yelp and jumped back into the kitchen. Everyone assumed inconspicuous positions, as if they hadn’t been hanging onto every word of that argument a moment ago.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing out on!” the blonde yelled after him.