Conquered Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 1)

by Emilia Hartley

  “The Old Lizard won’t give up power, and he won’t change,” Gale said as he took her hand. “So, I told him that I would rather follow Logan. I don’t know what this means for my inheritance. Hell, Cash might even try kicking me out.”

  Baylee threw her arms around Gale’s neck. She breathed in deep and savored his scent.

  He staggered back and let out a nervous laugh before hugging her back.

  “I didn’t want you to fight. I’m so grateful that you found a way to avoid it.” Though fear of the future still loomed overhead, Baylee was glad to have this small reprieve.

  This meant that no one in his family could support him without first leaving their Clan. His cousins would have to walk away from their legacy and pledge to Logan in order to support Gale’s decision. Baylee doubted many would go so far.

  Breaking the chain of hatred within the Montoya family would become difficult.

  But not impossible.

  That was a worry for another time. She let Gale carry her back to the house. This time, they were stopped before he could walk over the threshold with her in his arms.

  Cash sat on the front porch. He shook his head when he saw them both naked. Gale paused, a growl vibrating in his chest. She dug her nails into his skin, knowing that his beast would bend to her will if she showed concern.

  Gale swallowed, sucked his teeth, and finally spoke. “Do you have a problem? This house is mine as much as it is yours.”

  “It might belong to us on paper, but this is Logan’s territory now that you’ve given him a clan to lead.” Cash never uncrossed his arms.

  Would this become another fight? Couldn’t they have a moment of peace? Why did dragons always escalate arguments so quickly?

  “I called the others and told them what you’ve done,” Cash said. Finally, his arms fell by his sides. Baylee watched for clenched fists, but he remained relaxed. “No one understands what you’re doing, but they like the idea of having someone else at the head of the family.”

  “How long do you think we have before the Old Lizard pays us a visit?” Gale asked.

  Baylee’s heart thumped. While they’d had one victory with her immediate family, they were now looking down the barrel at another fight with Gale’s family. She knew that it was only a matter of time, but she’d hoped for more time than this. The idea of looking over their shoulders wouldn’t outweigh their bond, though.

  She refused to let this stop her. After the last day and the hollowness that she’d endured, she would gladly face down an army in order to remain by Gale’s side.

  “Quincy won’t burn the house down around us tonight.” Cash pushed off the wall and shoved the front door open. Once inside, he said, “The Old Lizard will probably test the others. He won’t make a move until he knows who will side with him and who will stay out of it.”

  Gale’s grip on Baylee tightened. He followed Cash inside but made a detour to the laundry room. There, he handed Baylee a t-shirt that she assumed was his and a pair of bike shorts that fit surprisingly well. Once he had dressed, he took her hand and led her back to the kitchen where Cash awaited them.

  Cash looked them both up and down now that they were clothed. Baylee assumed Cash hadn’t done so earlier out of fear that Gale might get territorial if Cash looked at her too closely. Once mated, dragon men were known for being territorial. Baylee never thought she’d be able to see that firsthand.

  Gale raised a brow. “Where’s Logan?”

  “How the hell should I know? I’m not his keeper. He’s a grown man.” Cash pulled out his phone.

  Baylee licked her lips. She’d never seen anyone other than Gale talk to Cash. She couldn’t deny the intimidating aura that surrounded him, but he was Gale’s cousin. Her voice only trembled a little when she spoke. “Are you going to call him?”

  Cash scoffed. “We haven’t outfitted him with a phone yet, so I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I’m ordering dinner for us because I think we’re in for a long night.”

  She grimaced. “Oh, I don’t have my wallet on me.”

  “Fuck off. Do you really think I’m going to make you sit here and watch us eat? I’m not that heartless.” Cash shook his head as he finished placing the order on his phone.

  The mysterious version of Cash that she’d watched from afar slowly disintegrated. It was replaced by this slightly cantankerous yet loving version. Maybe this small clan would feel like home sooner than she thought. And maybe, it would grow quickly as more shifters left their families and their hatred behind.

  An hour later, a delivery driver arrived with four bags worth of Chinese food. Cash hadn’t asked what anyone wanted. Instead, he’d gotten a little bit of everything. Logan arrived not long later like the aroma of food had drawn him back towards the house.

  Logan greeted Baylee like she’d always been there. A new era had begun. She wasn’t sure what her next step was, but she knew it was her job to make sure this didn’t fall apart.

  Gale set down his fork and faced Logan. “Where were you today?”

  Without missing a beat, Logan said, “I went looking for the reason I’m awake right now.”

  Gale’s jaw clenched. Baylee put her hand under the table and touched Gale’s knee. Now wasn’t the time to start infighting. It didn’t matter what Logan had been up to. Everything had gone right today, and that was all that mattered. She hoped a simple touch could convey that.

  The look Gale gave her told her that she’d come close. While tension still cinched his shoulders tight, Gale let the conversation die. He didn’t have the support that he’d had the day before. Baylee understood how helpless that might make him feel. Gale had a lot to fight for now, and he needed everyone on his side in order to do it.

  “You’re not going to find Elliana,” Baylee said after finding her voice.

  Logan’s eyes blazed hot. Baylee almost shrank away from the intensity in his glare. Almost. She managed to pull herself together and sat up straight.

  “She died after you burrowed. If you’re looking for her, you’re not going to find her. I’m not saying this to piss you off. I would never do that. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t waste your time on a ghost.”

  “What do you know?” Logan snarled.

  The table shuddered. Gale towered over them, a murderous intent in his eyes as he stared Logan down. But Logan’s attention never swayed from Baylee.

  She swallowed. “I know what Elliana felt like now. She died because a part of her had left and that loss had hollowed her out. With no desire to go on, her beast let her die. I know because I would have let the same happen to me had Gale not come back for me.”

  Baylee had ignored the divide between her and her beast up until now. The way it had abandoned her after she’d been taken from Gale frightened her. She never wanted to feel that empty ever again, but the possibility of falling back into that emptiness sat on the horizon. If Gale…if he died in a battle, she wouldn’t press on like her mother had.

  The world would lose all color. She would forget what it meant to be happy. Her beast wouldn’t burrow or turn feral, like some male dragon shifters did when their mates died. Baylee would simply cease to feel until she faded from this world altogether.

  Was this a curse the Barnes women carried? Did they love so deeply that a piece of them left with their mates?

  This small clan was a bit of a mess now, but Baylee had to trust them. If she didn’t give them everything she had, then she could lose that much and more.

  She stole a glance at her mate. He had reclaimed his seat but hadn’t pulled it back toward the table—as if he still wanted to leap at Logan. She pushed the big pan of fried rice toward Gale and motioned for him to eat.

  “If you can’t be nice to one another, I’m going to paint another side of your house.”

  Cash’s eyes went wide, wider than she’d ever seen them before. “You! You’re the one who vandalized my house?”

  Gale tensed.

  Logan laughed. “Your house? I don’t
think so. This is still my house.”

  Cash sneered at Logan but turned his attention back to Baylee. “If you touch another square inch of this house, I’m going to—”

  Gale launched out of his seat. He cleared the table without even touching a crab Rangoon. He and Cash tumbled to the floor. Cash’s chair shattered beneath them. Baylee jumped to her feet, but Logan put a hand on her arm to stop her.

  “They have a lot of aggression to get out of their systems. They won’t hurt one another, so just let them have at it for a little while.”

  “But…” She flinched at the sound of bones cracking.

  Logan gave her a very unconvincing smile. “They won’t hurt one another…too badly.”

  The fight raged on for a while. They rattled the cupboards and broke a side table, sending its contents skittering over the floor. Finally, Logan got up and grabbed Cash by the back of his shirt.

  He flung Cash over the table. Baylee ducked. It almost felt like home. She remembered how Jensen and Theo had brawled like this before Theo’s accident. This wasn’t unusual. It was just a symptom of being a male dragon.

  She grabbed the container of spicy fried chicken and popped a piece into her mouth as she watched Logan get pulled into the fight.

  Several days passed. Baylee spent most of them looking over her shoulder, waiting for Callum or Quincy to fall from the sky. When neither happened, she tried to figure out how she fit into this new life. Most days, her hands felt too empty. She wanted something to do aside from trying to avoid Cash at every turn.

  Gale trailed his hands down her bare back that morning. He needed a bigger bed, but Baylee didn’t mind for now. She enjoyed how close it brought them. She savored how they could relax in one another’s arms without having to hide.

  When he pulled away from her, panic raced down her spine like an avalanche. Her first instinct was to look to the window. The sky was clear, though. When she turned back to Gale, she found him reaching under the bed.

  He came up with a bag. “I have a task for you.”

  She eyed the bag. It was hard to tell what it carried through the opaque plastic, but the heft of it made her curious.

  “Since we left your spray paint cans at your Mom’s, I bought you a new set of paints.” He gently set the bag between them.

  “No canvases? What am I supposed to paint on?” She looked him up and down, playfully suggesting that she could paint on him.

  Gale was the sexiest canvas she’d ever known. He already had a bit of ink in his skin. She’d had plenty of fun tracing his tattoos in the early morning, before he woke. Or, perhaps, he had been awake every time and pretended to sleep so he could savor her touch.

  Yeah, she liked that idea.

  Everything about her relationship was new and unfamiliar. There were still warning bells in the back of her mind, telling her to watch out even though everyone under this roof knew about her and Gale. She couldn’t quite shake the fear of doing something wrong.

  She had taken her future into her own hands after being told that she would never have control over it. That must have been the feeling that haunted her still. She hoped, that with time, it would slowly fade away.

  “I want you to paint the walls. Paint whatever your heart desires.” Gale grazed her arm with his knuckles.

  She shivered and let out a small laugh. “Won’t Cash get angry?”

  “That’s half of the point.” He kissed her forehead. “Other than that, I can tell you need something to do. While I can’t tell you what to do with your future, I can give you a way to keep your hands busy while you figure that out yourself.”

  She lifted herself so she could kiss Gale. She pressed him back into his pillow. At first, he laughed, but the sound quickly turned into a moan of desire when he threaded his fingers through her hair.

  Paint wouldn’t give her the solution to her problems, but it would do exactly what Gale promised. Once again, he’d found a way to help her just by paying attention. She didn’t deserve him after all the trouble she’d caused for everyone, but she was so glad to have him now.

  “I love you,” she whispered into his lips.

  He grinned. His beast filled his eyes. “I love you, too.”

  Though his hand slid down her bare thigh and warmth spread through her core, excitement to begin painting prompted her to jump over him and grabbed her clothes from the floor.

  “Forget those,” Gale said. He twisted and reached for something else under the bed. “They need to be washed. How about you try these on?”

  “When did you have time to buy me clothes? And how did you figure out my size?”

  Gale winked. “I might have traded a favor with Callum’s daughter.”

  Baylee cocked her head. “Which one?”

  “The dragon one. Not the other one.”

  She sighed. “Their names are Ember and Teagan. If you’re going to call them out of the blue, you should at least learn their names.”

  Still, she was surprised that he’d called on one of her relatives for help. He had plenty of female cousins who could have helped him pick out clothes for her. Yet, he’d reached out to those who would know her better, even if they were part of the family that had been cruel to him for years.

  “What favor did you do for Ember?”

  “She told me that she would ask when she needed it,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I hope she understands there might be a time limit on that.”

  Baylee stopped what she was doing and leveled a glare at her mate. “Do not talk like that.”

  Gale slumped onto the bed. She dropped the bag of clothes and climbed onto the mattress so she could straddle him. The blanket separated them, but only barely. From her new vantage point, she grasped Gale’s chin and forced him to look at her.

  “I’m not losing you,” she said, voice firm.

  His breath caught and a sliver of golden light slid into his irises.

  “I will do anything to keep you safe,” she said. “Do you hear me? Anything. I cannot go through that emptiness again.”

  Gale’s expression softened. He tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. She leaned into his touch and released her own shuddering breath. Fear crackled inside her chest. Could he hear it? Could he sense the turmoil constantly swirling inside her?

  “So, prepare to fulfil whatever favor Ember has in store for you,” Baylee said.

  “You make it sound like she’s going to ask me to do something illegal! All I did was ask for your clothing sizes and favorite store. I don’t think this is going to end well for me.”

  Baylee laughed and rolled off her mate so she could get dressed. He’d bought everything in black. She wondered if Ember had told him to do so, or if Gale paid that much attention to her wardrobe. Either could have been true.

  She paused and looked to the window once again. “This feels wrong. I want to enjoy this honeymoon feeling, but I can’t ignore the danger looming ahead of us. Will Quincy actually attack us? Is he that petty? I don’t think Logan is dangerous, but what will we do if Quincy convinces everyone that Logan is a threat?”

  Gale shoved back the covers and threw his feet to the ground. This time, it was his turn to come to her. He gently cupped her cheek and kissed the tip of her nose.

  “Remember that what we’re doing is the right thing,” he whispered. “We’re not criminals on the run. We’re standing and facing the world so we can make it right again.”

  She held onto him and basked in his words.

  But Cash’s voice cut through their moment. “I swear, did you give her another set of paints? She doesn’t need to fuck up more of my house!”

  How did he know, Baylee mouthed to her mate.

  Gale kissed her, quick yet hard. When he broke away, he snatched a pair of sweatpants from the floor and ran out to intercept Cash. Baylee finished getting dressed and grabbed her paints. Sneaking away, she went in search of a blank space she could call a canvas.

  It kept her occupied while Gale and Log
an tried to recruit more Montoyas for their new clan. She stayed home because she didn’t want her lineage to get in the way of what they were trying to do. It seemed counterproductive, considering that she wanted to bridge the gap between the Barnes and the Montoyas. But she didn’t want to force this to work.

  So, she painted a strip of wall in the hall with swirling designs and considered what she would do after they got rid of this feud. Her current purpose in life wouldn’t last forever. Not if they actually managed to pull this off.

  Baylee filled the house with hidden paintings. She painted two cuddling dragons behind a frame on the wall and one behind the stove in the kitchen. Watching Cash find them all, one by one, would make her laugh for days. More than that, she finally felt like she belonged here. It was as if she needed to leave her mark on the house so that it would finally stop feeling like a waypoint.

  Home.

  This was her home.

  She took photos of the dragons painted all over the house and sent them to Gale and Jensen. Her brother promised to drop off her spray paints, so she could become an even bigger nuisance to the Montoya boys.

  The idea of him stopping by filled her with hope. She hadn’t realized just how detached she’d felt from her old life. Her mother had given Baylee her blessing. Baylee didn’t have to hide from them.

  But she knew they would have to get used to having Gale around. Once they saw how well he treated her, they would come to love him the way she did. Perhaps, they could even visit her, here.

  Every moment reminded Baylee that she now had so much more than she’d ever thought she would find. Not only had she found the enduring love of a mate, but her family had grown. Jensen, Ember, and Teagan supported her. Her mother supported her. And now even Cash was becoming like a cousin to her, too.

  When the house shook and sent her brush water tumbling to the floor, her stomach dropped with it. She spun on her heel and ran for the door just as the house shuddered again. This time, the heat of fire reached it. Smoke began to infiltrate the air.