Rainey dropped her eyes to the ground and her cheeks warmed.
“What is it?”
“A kiss, traditionally,” she admitted.
His eyes searched hers, then he lowered his face. And the world stopped again as their mouths collided. His lips were soft, their touch firm, and the way they moved on hers was delicious. A blissful sensation spread across Rainey’s whole body, washing the pain away, and inviting hope and happiness. They kissed for hours, but it felt like days. First standing up, then they collapsed onto the ground, moving as one, and Boreas laid her down and held her in his arms, caressing her through her clothes. He was gentle and tender, and she felt safe and protected in his embrace.
“Sometimes I wish I could start life over and go back to the point where I was playing chase in the playground and never had to deal with all the crap that came afterwards,” Rainey said when they finally stopped kissing. She was lying on her back, and his big, strong body was curved around her, surrounding her with his warmth and his sexy masculine scent. His tenderness and protection made her feel fragile and strong at the same time, and she wished the moment would never end.
“Well, I started a second life here on this island,” Boreas said. “Maybe you can, too.” His expression turned more serious. “What if we take it slow? Play chase, hold hands, and I’ll give you gifts. I’ll give you many gifts.” He cupped her cheek and kissed her on the nose.
Rainey was quiet for a moment, negotiating the tangle of thoughts and feelings in her head. “Maybe I can,” she said finally. “Maybe we can try.”
Boreas looked at her, his eyes sparkling with happiness. “These are the best words I’ve heard,” he said and he claimed her mouth in a kiss once more.
Chapter 13
Boreas
“Her best friend, Marina, told me she has been bullied by her co-workers for years,” Eurus said to Boreas next morning.
“Damn. That’s awful,” Boreas said. “How long has Erica been missing?”
“More than thirty hours. She spoke with Marina the night before last, and no one has heard from her since then.” Eurus sighed.
“Has she taken anything from her house before leaving?”
“It doesn’t seem so. We had a quick look. We’re going to search more thoroughly today.”
“Alright. Get Tharos and Zane to patrol the sky and look for her, and you and Notus search the house again.”
Eurus nodded. “Okay, boss.”
“Don’t call me that,” Boreas said. “Xephyr is coming back next week, and he won’t like it. Plus, I’m your friend, not your boss.”
“Okay, friend.” Eurus winked. “I’ll see you later.”
“I’ll drop by the office later to check how things are going. Give me a call if something happens before that.”
“Will do, bo— uh, friend.” Eurus chuckled and waved goodbye.
Boreas walked into his cabin and returned to the gift he’d been wrapping for Rainey before Eurus came over. He’s been giving Rainey two or three gifts and half of his lunch every day since they’d decided to be kindergarten sweethearts. She seemed a little surprised at this, but he wasn’t sure why. She had said that’s what kindergarten boyfriends did.
That morning’s gift was a little box that played a very beautiful melody when the lid was opened. When he’d finished wrapping it, he’d bring it to her along with her breakfast. He was an early riser, while Rainey, because of her insomnia, didn’t usually wake up before seven-thirty a.m.
The last days had been some of the happiest of Boreas’s life. He and Rainey had been spending a lot of time together, talking, kissing, cuddling, laughing. Telling each other stories about their childhood and their life before they knew each other. Going on more flights around the island and long walks. And every day he fell for her a little bit more.
They never spoke about the future, but Boreas didn’t want to push anything. Rainey had told him she needed time, and he was going to respect that. He desired her like he’d never desired anyone before, but he didn’t want her to do anything she didn’t want to. And if she was never ready, so be it. He knew he’d never forget these days they were spending together.
He finished wrapping the gift. It looked quite nice in the red and white striped paper. He carefully put a little red ribbon on top of it and attached a small card, which hung to the side. He drew a heart on the card, and a B below it.
He prepared two of her favorite twelve-grain bagels with cream cheese and put them on a tray, alongside a glass of orange juice, a cup of coffee, and a brownie. He put the gift in the corner of the tray and a small red rose next to it, which he had bought yesterday from a florist next to the Dragn Protection office. He took the tray and walked slowly toward Rainey’s cabin, taking each step carefully, trying not to spill the coffee or the orange juice.
The walk, which normally was less than a minute, took him twice as long this time, but he’d made it to Rainey’s place without spilling a drop of coffee. Rainey loved having her breakfast on the veranda, so he laid the tray on the table between the two rocking chairs and rang her bell.
He could hear her through the thin curtain, walking across the floor. He made a note to ask her if she’d like to have a door installed. Perhaps she’d like more privacy. She was taking longer than normal to come to the door, but he waited patiently, tapping the fingers of his right hand on his leg to the rhythm of Jingle Bells.
When the song finished playing and Rainey still hadn’t come to the door, Boreas was about to ring the doorbell again when he heard what sounded like a sob from inside the house.
“Rainey?” he called, panic stabbing at his gut. “Is everything all right?”
There was no answer. He heard another sob, louder this time. His firebox started heating and his jaw tensed as he ground his teeth.
“Rainey, I’m coming in,” Boreas called and stormed into the cabin. Rainey was sitting on the edge of her bed, her face in her hands, crying.
“What’s going on?” Boreas asked. A hard, quick pulse started throbbing in his throat.
“Boreas—” Rainey said, between tears. “Dwayne has kidnapped my parents. He sent me a picture. He said that I’d never see them again if I didn’t get back with him.”
“That miserable bastard,” Boreas cried out, clenching his fists. “Rainey, everything will be okay. I will find them.” Boreas took her in his arms.
“No, he’s already thought of that.” She pressed her head into his chest. “He said if you or any of the others try to do anything, he’ll kill my parents. So, please, Boreas, please, don’t try anything.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t worry,” Boreas muttered, his mind working fast to come up with a plan. He didn’t doubt that rotten excuse for a wolf would make good on his word.
“You have to promise me,” Rainey said. “Promise me that you won’t go after Dwayne or come to look for me.” She broke off, face crumpled with a mixture of sadness and desperation, and Boreas saw raw pain fill her eyes as she realized the implications of her own request. She was asking him to never see her again and the plea was tearing her heart. And his.
“But Rainey—” he began. How could he make such a promise? How could he tell her he wouldn’t do anything while she went through a life full of pain with Dwayne? How could he bear to live without her?
“I’m strong. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I know how to live in Dwayne’s shadow,” Rainey said. “There’s no other way, Boreas. Please promise me.”
Boreas looked at her, sadness gripping his chest. “I promise,” he said quietly.
“You have been my savior.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. “You have shown me that life can be happy. That I can be happy. And that is something that I would have never believed for myself before I met you.” She took his face in her small hands. “You mean the world to me. And I will hold onto our memories forever. I will never forget you and everything you have given me and done for me. I may spend the rest of my life living in sa
dness, but the happiness and love you’ve given me will always be with me. You’ll always be with me. Here”—she placed his hand on her heart—“I will love you forever.” She pressed her lips against his, and he tasted the saltiness of her tears.
She stepped away and took her bag from the floor. “Please don’t say anything to stop me. This is so difficult for me.”
Boreas nodded, and looked down, swallowing his emotions. There was a lump in his throat. His animal was roaring wildly inside him, and it was all he could do to contain it.
“I’ve asked Quinton to give me a ride to the mainland,” Rainey said. “I can’t do goodbyes.” She stepped toward him and kissed him on the cheek, resting her head against his for a short moment. Then she walked away through the curtain, down the veranda steps, and into a world that Boreas was no longer part of.
Chapter 14
Boreas
A week later
“Why don’t you take a rest,” Xephyr said to Boreas, his golden eyes narrowing with worry. “You’ve been working non-stop for days now. You look exhausted. Go take a shower, relax, shave that thing off your face,” he gestured to Boreas’s beard. “Ciro and Alaric can take over.”
“I prefer to work,” Boreas said and grabbed another wooden clapboard. “It distracts me. And what’s wrong with my beard?”
“Nothing,” Xephyr said in an unusually soft voice. “But I’m worried about you. You don’t look so well. You should take it easier on yourself. We will find them, you know? We’ve got four dragons on the case, patrolling for Rainey’s parents constantly, and I’m about to join them, too.”
“We’ve been searching for days, Xephyr, and we haven’t found anything,” Boreas said.
“It’s just taking a while, that’s all,” Xephyr replied. “I’ll go help the others now. Take it easy.” He patted Boreas on the shoulder and left.
Xephyr had been working tirelessly on finding Rainey’s parents since he and Josie came back from their vacation six days ago. But Boreas knew that Xephyr had doubts about their success, too. Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong, and it was killing Boreas he didn’t know what.
Boreas had originally thought it’d take them no more than an afternoon to find Rainey’s parents. They had great advantages over humans and wolves, with their strong sense of smell, keen eyesight, darkvision, and ability to fly high, fast and escape detection. But it’d been seven days, eleven hours, and twenty-three minutes since Rainey had left, and they were drawing a blank.
He’d barely slept. He couldn’t join the search for her parents because he believed Dwayne’s threat that he’d kill them if he found out, so he’d asked Tharos, Alaric, Ciro and Aquilo to help him. They were the only members of the clan that Dwayne hadn’t met, so he didn’t know their smell. He hadn’t met Caden either, but the man had been such an asshole to Rainey that Boreas didn’t want him involved with any of it.
Boreas used his forearm to wipe the sweat off his forehead and drank some water from his bottle. It was late in the afternoon, but the sun was still strong. His face felt hot and prickly, and he went to the temporary sink they’d installed next to the construction site and splashed some water on it. He saw his reflection in the mirror above the sink. Xephyr was right; he looked like hell. His hair was all tousled and unruly, he had a week’s beard on his face, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He would have looked even worse if his face hadn’t tanned from being exposed to the sun all day.
The previous days were a blur. He’d been working on the cabins almost around the clock while keeping in constant contact with the patrolling dragons via the pocket phones. He’d completed all the original cabins to surprise Xephyr and Josie, and then he’d started on some new ones. He tried to keep away from the others during the day, and during the night, he went on long flights by himself. His panic attacks had come back, and his scars smarted worse than ever.
“There’s something you should see.” Boreas heard Caden’s voice behind him as he washed his hands.
“What are you doing here?” Boreas turned. “I thought you were supposed to be at the agency tonight.”
“I was. But I came back,” Caden said. He was holding a newspaper in his hand. He seemed quieter and less cocky than usual.
“What do you want?” Boreas asked.
Caden handed him the newspaper, which was folded in half. Boreas looked at the page and his blood froze in his veins. He saw a picture of Rainey standing alongside Dwayne in an embrace. She looked utterly miserable. Rainey Hampton to marry Dwayne Veitch was written above the picture in bold, black letters. Boreas read the text alongside the picture:
Mr. and Mrs. Rod Hampton of Seven Rivers announce the engagement of their daughter, Rainey Hampton, to Dwayne Veitch, son of Gordon Veitch and Lorie Veitch of Seven Rivers.
Mr. Dwayne Veitch is an esteemed businessman, entrepreneur, owner of Veitch Lumbers, and a very well-regarded member of the Seven Rivers community. Ms. Rainey Hampton is a landscape architect who works for Veitch Lumbers. The wedding will be held this afternoon at Trinity Episcopal Church in Seven Rivers.
Boreas threw the paper on the ground and roared. “Leave me alone,” he snapped at Caden, walking away.
Caden sprinted past him and came to a stop directly in front of him, forcing him to stop as well.
“I mean it, Caden!” Boreas yelled.
“I have to tell you something.”
Boreas scowled at him with undisguised impatience. “This had better be good.”
Caden swallowed. “I know where Rainey’s parents are.”
Boreas stared at him. “What did you say?”
“I-I helped Dwayne Veitch kidnap them.” Caden lowered his head.
Boreas’s fists bunched. “What have you done?” he hissed.
“I was so angry, Boreas,” Caden explained. “At you, at Rainey, at being here. At everything. Dwayne approached me on the mainland one day. I don’t know how he found me. But he knew that I was hostile toward Rainey, so he may have been watching me for a while. And I agreed to help him. I told him he should keep them somewhere airtight under the ground, lay sacks of coffee beans around, so you won’t be able to smell them.”
“Where are they?” Boreas asked urgently.
“I’m sorry, Boreas. I was beside myself with anger and rage. I thought if you weren’t so preoccupied with Rainey, we’d find dragonettes and mate with them, and then we’d regain our strength and find a way home,” Caden muttered. “But I saw how miserable Rainey looked in that picture in the newspaper today and I couldn’t do that to her. And to you.”
“Where are they?” Boreas roared, loud enough to make his own ears ring.
“I will show you,” Caden said and started shifting into dragon form. “Follow me. We need to be quick. The wedding is only in a few hours.”
Boreas spread his arms wide and focused his mind and strength, willing the shift. But nothing happened. He tried again. And again. But he couldn’t shift. This sometimes happened at times of terrible emotional stress. Caden saw his unsuccessful attempts and approached him.
He laid an arm around his shoulders. “Boreas, we will find them. I promise you that. We will find them, even if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Caden’s voice was full of determination. “The parents aren’t far away. They’re kept in a disused mine in the western part of Seven Rivers. It won’t take us long to get there. And the church is only a few minutes from there, very close to the north bank of the river. We have time.”
Boreas took a breath. He closed his eyes and counted to ten, listening to his breathing, trying to calm himself. He spread his arms again and forced himself to shift. His dragon’s roar erupted from his lungs, shaking his body. His bones crunched and his black scales ripped over his skin. The skin on his back broke and wings sprang out, while claws tore from his fingertips and toes. He flapped his wings and felt his senses sharpening.
Caden nodded at him, encouragingly, relief in his eyes. “Let’s go,” he said.
&n
bsp; They flew for about thirty minutes, which was longer than it should have taken, but they had to fly higher than they usually did to make Boreas’s black dragon less noticeable. They landed on a small clearing in the Lakewood Forest on the western edge of town, shifted into human form, and quickly put their clothes on.
“We’re almost there,” Caden said. “Follow me.”
They ran through the forest for about ten minutes, Boreas’s body throbbing with panic. What if he couldn’t get to Rainey on time? What if Dwayne had moved her parents?
Caden stopped next to a thick pine tree and took a few breaths. Boreas’s lungs were burning.
“Over there,” Caden said between breaths, pointing slightly left. “See that giant stone? There’s a secret entrance to the mine underneath it.”
“Thank you,” Boreas said. “Now, please go.”
“I can help you,” Caden offered.
“I want you to leave me alone, Caden. You’ve caused enough trouble already,” Boreas snapped and ran toward the rock.
Chapter 15
Rainey
Rainey ran the cold water faucet, dipped her fingertips in the flow, then patted the water underneath her right eye. She repeated the procedure for her left one and examined herself in the mirror. The whites were still red and stinging and her eyelids were as puffy as marshmallows.
She didn’t care how she looked at her wedding. She didn’t give a damn if it was obvious from more than thirty feet that she’d been crying for days. But Dwayne had told her that unless she looked perfect, he’d get a stylist to apply her makeup, and she’d been doing her best to avoid that. She wanted to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible so she could see her parents. Dwayne had assured her that once the wedding was over, he’d bring her parents back. He’d allowed Rainey to hear their voice on the phone once, so she knew they were okay.
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