11
Baylee couldn’t believe it.
She’d watched Logan Montoya emerge from the mines with her own two eyes, yet the idea still seemed completely illogical. Dragons burrowed for life. Logan had slept while two generations of dragon shifters grew up hating one another. The moment he saw Gale and Baylee together, he’d laughed.
Not in a demeaning kind of way. No, Logan saw them together and seemed happy!
Baylee sank into her seat at the café. The aroma of coffee that permeated the air would slowly erode Gale’s scent on her skin and clothes. Hiding out at the café also gave her time to get her thoughts in order.
She’d had a strange day, for sure. Her thoughts kept slipping back to Gale and the promise he’d made. She’d nearly begged him to not go through with it. Challenging the leader of his clan could get him killed if he wasn’t prepared for it.
Logan’s presence changed everything. By clan traditions, Logan could assume the position of Clan Leader without any contest. It was his right as the eldest in the family.
Not that he looked older than the Old Lizard. The ground had preserved Logan, as if time had stopped within his cave. Baylee hoped that his muscles had been preserved, as well, because this could turn into a war.
Guilt trickled through her. She had no intention of causing a civil war among the Montoyas. Yet, it seemed inescapable now.
Gale had called her his girl. He’d offered to fight Quincy Montoya for her. What had begun as an act of rebellion had turned into love for the both of them. She didn’t know when that had happened or how she could take it back.
She didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
With a groan, she let her head fall onto the table. Growing up, Baylee had always hidden behind her big brother. She’d sought him out whenever the world seemed too big or too mean. Now, she flexed her hands and wished Gale could be there to hold them while she figured all this out.
The chair across from her softly thudded over the floor as someone pulled it away from the table. She peeked at her visitor, saw Jensen, and buried her face in her arms again.
“I bought you a peace offering,” he said.
She heard something hit the table, but she didn’t want to look up. She didn’t care about Jensen’s attempt to bridge the gap between them. Earlier, he’d proven that he would never understand.
“Are you ready to stop being a child?”
Dragon fire immediately scorched her throat. It licked the roof of her mouth and nearly fought its way out of her clenched jaw.
“We all have a duty,” Jensen said. “We aren’t like…the others in this room. You and I have to respect our family’s wishes so that we don’t die out.”
Baylee lurched upright and fixed her brother with a hot glare. Yet, he seemed unaffected. Once again, he’d reminded her that she was ineffective. Nothing she did would ever change anything. The feeling would have knocked her feet out from under her had she not been sitting already.
“Grow up and do what you’re supposed to,” he said. Though his voice was soft, his words slapped her across the face.
She stared at the iced drink sitting between them as his supposed peace offering. “Why won’t you defend me anymore?”
Jensen sighed. “I’m not an idiot. I know what you’ve been up to. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that you’ve been seeing the Montoya guy behind our backs.”
Despite the cozy warmth of the room, her blood turned to ice. She stared her brother dead in the eye and challenged him to stop her. He wouldn’t. She knew he wouldn’t lift a hand against her. This was her mistake to make.
Gale wasn’t a mistake.
What she and her beast felt for him was more than infatuation. They’d formed a bond that couldn’t be broken. A man wouldn’t offer to challenge the head of his family over someone he didn’t love.
She let out a shaky breath. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe fate wanted to repair the ties between our two families? This isn’t a star-crossed tragedy. It’s real, and no one can tell me otherwise.”
Jensen’s jaw tensed. She was sorely tempted to punch him and see if he spat out any teeth afterward. But, because they were in public, she had to hold back her dragon’s rage.
“When was the last time you were on my side?” she asked.
“Baylee, you don’t understand. I am on your side. Your side is with your family.”
“And when Mom marries me off to another dragon family and my last name changes? What then? Will I still be a part of your family? Or will you wash your hands of me? I’m tired of this. I don’t want to worry about where I belong or if I’ll ever find out who I can be.”
Jensen lifted his chin, a silent order for her to stand. “We’re going home. Maybe some time around family will undo whatever brainwashing that guy has done to you.”
Baylee sucked her teeth as they sharpened. Her beast’s rage turned red-hot. She wanted nothing more than to launch herself across the table and knock some sense into her brother. The implication that she was weak and therefore easily manipulated stung more than it should have.
He might have loved her, but he was a fool who blindly followed tradition.
Baylee had never been one to accept her role in this life. She’d always broken the mold. Every rule set before her was nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. That’s who she was.
“I don’t think I’m coming home tonight.” She stood, took the drink Jensen had paid for, and pulled out her phone. “If you need me, I’ll be at Ember’s apartment tonight.”
Jensen tried to stop her. He grabbed for her wrist, but she wasn’t about to be stopped. Using her dragon speed in public was frowned upon, and she paid the price by spilling the drink all over her hand. It was worth it, though. She shoved her way through the exit while Jensen cried out after her.
An hour later, Baylee sat on Ember’s couch.
Ember had her hair pulled up so that the ends—currently slick with firetruck-red dye—wouldn’t touch her clothing. She dropped onto the couch beside Baylee and put her feet in Baylee’s lap.
Instead of talking, Ember turned on the television. Though the actors on the show were cute and should have been distracting, Baylee couldn’t stop thinking about the whirlwind of a day she’d had. It had begun and ended with a fight with her brother.
“I’m tired of how hateful we can be,” Baylee said.
Without missing a beat, Ember nodded. But she turned blazing blue eyes on Baylee. “Our generation will be the one to change everything.”
Could they? Did any of them have the power to make changes on their own? It was in their power if they could band together, but the argument with Jensen made Baylee doubt anyone else would understand.
Ember had, though.
“Why hasn’t Uncle Callum tried to get you a husband yet?” Baylee asked.
Ember’s upper lip curled in derision. “I’d like to see him try. No one is going to tell me who I can and can’t love.”
Baylee didn’t understand how her cousin had managed to avoid family tradition for so long. Her own plight felt inescapable. How was she supposed to fight back against the relentless persistence that was her mother?
Ember’s mother, a human, had died in childbirth. Even if she hadn’t, her human upbringing would have clashed with the dragon traditions. Perhaps Callum wanted to honor his wife’s memory by giving Ember a choice.
Baylee had lost a parent, too, but she had no idea how her father would have acted. She liked to think that she could have been his little girl, but the image her mother painted of him was not kind. Baylee didn’t want to think that she’d been spared by his death, but it was likely true. Besides, she didn’t have the energy to focus on what could have been.
She needed to have her attention on what was to come.
“I think I’ve started a war in the Montoya family,” she whispered.
Ember stilled. She studied Baylee for a long while, as if trying to measure her words before speaking. “What kind of a war a
re we talking about? Will Ca—” Ember stopped speaking. She looked away, a frown taking over her face.
An epiphany hit Baylee like a ton of bricks. She blinked at her cousin for a long moment. Ember’s eyes were on the stack of unsent letters sitting on the corner of her desk. Everyone in the family knew that Ember loved stationary, but no one knew who she’d been sending letters to. In that moment, Baylee thought she had an idea.
She wasn’t going to bring it up, though. Instead, she explained her situation to the only person in her family who might understand what she was going through. Ember listened patiently. She smiled and laughed at all the right parts. Jensen’s words made Ember shake her head.
“I’ll call my step-sister and see if she wants to come over for a girl’s night. I think we’re overdue for one.”
Baylee bit her tongue. The information she’d given Ember wasn’t for everyone to know. But they didn’t bring up the Montoya men again that night. Instead, they caught up for the first time in ages. Since becoming adults, the women had gone in separate directions when they should have stuck together.
Gale knew that this could destroy his family.
He’d found some clothes for Logan and passed them off, but they revealed just how long Logan had been asleep. Logan raised a brow at the t-shirt and the logo on the front of it. Once he finally put it on, the shirt hung from his body and made him seem small.
Logan wasn’t going to overthrow Quincy any time soon, to Gale’s disappointment. Once Gale parked in the driveway of Logan’s old home, he wondered if he had any chance of winning against Quincy himself.
“I take it I’ve been asleep for a very long time,” Logan said after taking in the state of his home.
“Disregard the dragon on the side of the house. It was…a prank.” Gale still hadn’t gotten around to calling the painters to fix the side of the house.
The house had been in their family for generations because it had once belonged to Logan Montoya. He wasn’t going to like what Gale and Cash had done with it. But once inside, Logan surveyed the space and gave an appreciative nod as if he understood any of what he saw. Gale couldn’t imagine that Logan knew what a flat-screen television was.
Did they even have televisions in Logan’s day? Gale was out of touch with how long Logan had been asleep. It seemed like forever to someone who’d never seen the mines in action.
The door behind them swung open. Gale and Logan turned in unison.
“It smells like that Barnes girl again,” Cash grumbled. He dragged his guitar case through the door, paused, and slowly looked up.
Cash’s eyes widened the moment they locked onto Logan.
“Is that a problem?” Logan asked, a note of open warning in his voice.
Cash looked between Logan and Gale, like he wanted Gale to come to his defense. Instead, Gale shook his head. It was time for the grudge to end. And that was going to start with Logan’s side of the story.
Gale didn’t ask Logan about what happened between him and Elliana until after he’d made everyone food. Gale wasn’t the best cook, but he figured food was the best way to keep everyone at the table peaceful. At least, for a while.
But canned biscuits could placate three restless dragon men for only so long.
Cash slammed down his butter knife. The table trembled under the force of his statement. “What the hell is going on?”
Gale shrugged as if to say do you really think I have any idea?
Logan cleared his throat. “Will you pass me the butter…um, substitute?”
“We just call it butter,” Gale muttered.
Cash looked at both of them like they’d lost their minds. Perhaps Gale had really lost it. He had told Baylee that he wanted to overthrow Quincy so that they could be together. Now that he had time to think, he could see how foolish the idea had been.
He couldn’t overthrow the Old Lizard on his own. Not yet. Perhaps not ever. And it would take some time before Logan would return to his former power. Gale worried he didn’t have the time it would require.
“What did you do?” Cash asked.
Gale looked up to find Cash’s attention on him. Immediately, his mind wandered back to what he and Baylee had done outside the mines. Gale had turned to the only place he knew no one would look for them. The mines were a relic that everyone did their best to ignore. There, Gale had finally let down his guard with the woman his beast wanted to call mate.
“The young man didn’t do a damn thing,” Logan growled while slathering his biscuit with margarine.
Gale had never experienced a more tense family dinner in his life. Not even when his father filed for divorce and slapped the papers down onto his mother’s plate of spaghetti. That was what happened when dragons who weren’t mates tried to make a relationship work.
The Montoya family hadn’t mated in years. They fell back on arranged marriages just to make sure the family name didn’t die out. He suspected that the Barnes family had done the same. That had to be why Baylee’s family had put so much pressure on her. Even if they didn’t share her maiden name, Baylee’s children would carry her bloodline.
Gale sat up straight in his chair. Slowly, he turned to Logan. “What happened?”
Logan stilled. He held Gale’s gaze.
The fury of their beasts made the air waver with heat. Cash groaned that they would spoil everything in the fridge if they didn’t get themselves under control. Logan hadn’t recovered from whatever happened between him and Elliana, but Gale was living the same story. He needed to know what had happened.
Finally, Logan sighed. He sank in his chair, deflating. His eyes grew distant. Though they were on the plate before him, Logan must have been watching the ghost of Elliana Barnes.
“I was set to inherit the title of Clan Leader,” Logan began.
A chill rippled down Gale’s spine. No one had been declared heir to the title since Quincy had claimed it. Gale and his cousins wondered who would be next, but none of them had been groomed for it like Logan had.
“Ellie… she’d been paired off with a man from out of state. It was said he had scales like gold. Dragons with metal in their blood bred strong. The Barnes family wanted more power, and they thought that was the way of doing things.”
Logan fell silent. The knife in his hand slowly folded beneath the force of his grasp. Logan seemed to notice what he’d done, sighed, and did his best to bend the butter knife back into a straight utensil. Though it was a little crooked when he was done, it was still useable.
“Fuck what happened,” said Cash. “What does this mean going forward?”
Logan and Gale locked gazes. Possibility hung in the air, undercut by the rumble of violence vibrating in their chests. Anger crackled between them. Not at one another, but at their circumstances. Gale could not risk becoming like Logan.
He couldn’t lose Baylee.
Cash sighed, clearly annoyed with the both of them. He’d been dragged into something that he knew nothing about. Gale had been keeping a lot from his cousin.
Gale straightened in his seat. “I want to challenge the Old Lizard.”
Logan tilted his head in confusion, but Cash leapt to his feet. Eyes narrowed at Gale, Cash’s upper lip curled.
“Don’t go getting yourself killed over a Barnes woman. I swear, if you throw away everything over a woman who will betray you…” Cash didn’t finish his sentence. He trailed off as if the silent implication was enough.
Logan pushed his chair back and rose. He turned toward Cash and fixed the young shifter with a dark glare. Cash shrank back before a look of revulsion crossed his face and morphed into defiance. He leaned into his stance and held his space even though Logan had circled the table and now loomed over him.
Cash wasn’t a small man, but Logan made him seem young and feeble. Even though time had caused Logan’s muscles to atrophy, he still filled a room with power and dominance. So much so that Cash finally shrank back.
Logan turned his attention on Gale. “This Old Lizard.
If he has taught you to act like this,” Logan smacked Cash upside the head, “then leave him to me.”
“I don’t know if you’re going to be ready for that anytime soon,” Gale said. “Quincy has held the title of Clan Leader for as long as he has for a reason.”
Logan laughed. It wasn’t a sound of joy, but one of disbelief. “Quincy? Little Quincy took my place? I’m going to enjoy this very much.”
Gale and Cash shared a look. This could end very badly. But, it could also reshape the world they lived in. Gale hoped that Baylee was having the same kind of luck.
12
Baylee woke with her skull throbbing. She hadn’t meant to drink away her worries, but the bottle of cheap wine Teagan had brought had gone down all too easily. She picked herself up and stumbled into the kitchen for a glass of water. Her dragon constitution wouldn’t allow this to go on for long. She could wait it out with her head against the kitchen counter.
The three of them had spent the night building dreams. They had discussed what they would do if their family hadn’t placed expectations upon their shoulders. Ember wanted to open a bar outside of town where musicians could get their start. Teagan wanted to open a second-hand bookstore and disappear amongst the shelves.
Baylee’s answer had been simple. She wanted to stay and help her cousins achieve their dreams. She wanted to see the joy that both could bring. When they asked her what she would do if she didn’t have anyone to help, Baylee floundered. The few years she had left seemed to flicker and fade right in front of her.
There wasn’t enough time to figure that out. Not for her.
But Ember had taken the seat beside her and promised they would make sure Baylee found herself. Baylee had become so resentful of family, but her cousins reminded her what it meant to enjoy the company of family.
“We’ll even be witnesses when you elope with Gale!” Ember had said. She’d even raised a glass in celebration.
Baylee wondered what Gale and Logan were up to. Thoughts of violence and bloodshed washed through her already pain-addled mind. She fervently hoped they hadn’t done anything stupid.
Conquered Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 1) Page 9
