The Rookie

by Abigail Owen

  He tossed the phone on the counter and bracketed Sera’s face with his hands, his warmth barely penetrating a solid chill that had taken over her body. “Breathe.”

  Until that moment, she hadn’t even realized she wasn’t. Sera sucked in raggedly, and her brain defuzzed a tad. Enough to drown in her thoughts as the air in her lungs also brought an edge of panic. “I can’t be…”

  Oh my God. Blake.

  “It’s okay. I… We will help you.”

  “No. It’s…not…possible…” She could barely get the words out of her mouth, her lungs still not completely functional. Blackness danced at the edge of her vision, threatening to pull her under.

  “Shit. Come here.”

  Vaguely, Sera was aware that Aidan picked her up to sit on her couch, with her across his lap, his arms wrapped around her. More warmth soaked into her body from the contact. His familiar woodsy scent wafted toward her as well, comforting her in the strangest way. Aidan murmured low words in her ear, words she didn’t even recognize, except they helped. Maybe because that low rumble reminded her of all the times he’d held her in her dreams, soothing her with words meant to convey safety and protection and solidarity. His hand feathering through her hair, soothing her, was equally familiar. Clenched muscles, so tight she’d been shaking, she realized, eased under his touch.

  “That’s it,” he murmured. “Breathe. I’ve got you.”

  Sera closed her eyes and slumped into him. “This can’t be happening,” she whispered.

  Everything Delaney had explained about dragon mates came rushing back. Male dragons wouldn’t mate the few dragons born female, like Lyndi, because they were born sterile. Instead, they hunted down and turned the few human women who showed dragon sign into mates for themselves.

  Not hunted, a little voice whispered. Not exactly. More like desperately seeking mates who didn’t know they were seeking the same thing. Because by all descriptions, including Delaney’s, becoming a dragon shifter felt too right, like she’d known all her life she was something else and belonged somewhere else. Being with her mate was instinct. She’d been compelled to be with Finn and appeared to be blissfully happy.

  Except…Delaney started a fire. That had been her dragon sign.

  “I didn’t start a fire,” Sera whispered. She couldn’t be one. He had it all wrong.

  “Your eyes shifted to dragon.” Aidan said the words as he smoothed his hand over her hair.

  “Oh.” Right. Shifting parts or smelling of smoke were also signs. She vaguely remembered that.

  As the panic ebbed, a sense of…belonging drew her like honey. She didn’t have to leave because now she’d be one of them. She hadn’t wanted to leave in the first place. She’d only wanted to protect her son, and now she could. As a dragon herself.

  Wait…

  What else had Delaney said? Sera’s dragon sign would only escalate, getting worse and more violent, until she was mated. What if I start lighting fires? She’d be dangerous for Blake to be anywhere near.

  A battle inside her heart threatened to rip her apart as a maelstrom of thoughts raged.

  Immediately on the heels of that elusive sense of belonging came an image of Blake and a tumble of questions. Would she have to find a mate to keep her son with her? Would he remain human and terrifyingly fragile, even if she turned dragon? Her guess was probably. Every protective instinct a mother could claim came roaring to the forefront.

  “Nope.” She pulled out of Aidan’s arms, struggling to her feet. It was either that or wrap her arms around herself and rock until her soul settled.

  But she wasn’t a weak woman, even if she appeared frail. Losing her mind had never been her style.

  “What do you mean?” he asked, watching her as if she’d declared the sky was green, not blue.

  “I mean even if I am, I can’t be.” Sera walked to the table and started clearing up their barely touched breakfasts, needing a piece of normal to anchor herself.

  Aidan got to his feet, watching her closely, but giving her space. “We should go to the headquarters. Finn and Delaney—”

  “I have a winery to sell,” Sera snapped. He seriously didn’t get it. She had responsibilities, and a life, and a son, and…responsibilities, dammit. “Then I’m leaving.”

  Aidan let out an irritated growl and she glared at him. “You’d put Blake in danger just to get away from us?”

  “Damned if I do. Damned if I don’t.”

  Her mind was all over the place, emotions crowding in and scattering her thoughts. She’d just thought the same thing. But… Blake was in danger either way. Her first instinct had been right. Sell the winery, leave here. She was going to have to cut ties and figure out the fire situation if that happened. Blake would be heartbroken. Sera dropped the plates in the sink and covered her face with her hands.

  The shaking was starting again, along with the black dots dancing in her vision.

  “Fuck,” Aidan muttered. Then he was there again, surrounding her. “Any man would be damn lucky to have you. A dragon mate is precious. Don’t you get that?”

  Precious. The word tripped off a jolt through her. A pleasant jolt, as if her soul was responding to something that her mind couldn’t wrap around yet. “I guess that’s better than a breeding factory.”

  His smile tickled against the back of her neck, and she swallowed as that small touch set off shivers down her spine. Which reminded her… “Is there a thing?”

  “A thing?” he said, voice low, growly, like he was as strangely affected as she was.

  “On the back of my neck.” Delaney had one now, although she didn’t until she and Finn mated. “A…um…a mark.”

  Aidan let her go, his arms dropping loosely to his sides. “A brand.”

  Why did he sound so…hard? “Yeah. One of those.”

  “You should have one.” His expression had shuttered, closing her off, like he had since they’d met. Only worse. Like he was pissed.

  “So do I?” Irritation edged her voice. Man, her emotions were on the roller coaster from hell. Sera took a breath and turned her back to him, lifting the fall of her short hair.

  “We should wait for Finn.”

  She half turned to glare over her shoulder. “Is it there or isn’t it?”

  “I have to blow fire across your neck to make it show.”

  Oh. “Does it hurt?”

  “No. I control it.”

  “Well then?” She turned back and waited.

  “Finn should be here,” he repeated, that stubborn set to his jaw making him all angles and hardness.

  Sera lifted her gaze to the exposed beams across her ceiling, searching for patience in what was easily one of the craziest moments of her life. “Stop being a baby and do it.”

  Still, he waited.

  “Please,” she begged softly. “I need to know.”

  After another pause, total silence, Aidan’s hands fell on her shoulders. Were his hands shaking? “Drop your head forward,” he said before she could comment.

  Closing her eyes, she did as he asked.

  Aidan took a long, deep breath, and the sound of billowing flame contained inside his body came from behind her, like a low rumbly rush. Warmth poured over the nape of her neck, spreading everywhere, flowing over and through and into her body in the most delicious way before pooling at her core.

  “Oh,” she whispered on a sucked-in breath.

  Her body vibrated with a sudden urgent need, and she had to clench her hands to keep from touching herself or reaching for the man behind her who’d already lit up her body once this morning, even if only in a dream.

  “Is…” She cleared her throat when the word didn’t come out right. “Is there anything?”

  The heat cut off, and she slowly turned to find Aidan staring at her with an unreadable expression. Which scared her more than anything.

  “Aidan?” she prodded. “Is there a brand?”

  He opened his mouth to answer when a loud knocking at her door made them b
oth jump.

  “Sera? Are you okay?” Delaney’s voice sounded through the heavy wood. They must’ve risked flying here to arrive that fast.

  Before she could stop him, Aidan moved away. He opened the door, stood aside for the group standing there to come inside, then walked out the door.

  And kept right on going.

  Mothertrucker. He’d walked out on her? Shock and anger swirled with that utter haunting loneliness.

  He left me.

  And this time, it wasn’t a dream.

  Chapter Eight

  Exhaustion didn’t begin to cover the state Sera found herself in driving to the crew’s headquarters. While Saturdays working the winery usually left her zonked, today she had a bigger reason.

  “At least tomorrow the winery is closed,” Delaney said from the seat beside her in Sera’s small blue SUV.

  Sera had insisted on driving herself over to see Blake. He’d spent the day with the guys, and she needed to hold her son, ground herself in reality again. Because ever since this morning, her head had been spinning like someone gave the earth a mighty shove on its axis. Maybe she should cut ties now and run, like she’d first thought about.

  Although Aidan had beat her to it.

  Except Finn had convinced her that Blake was guaranteed to be hurt, if not killed, by the fires sure to come. Fires she wouldn’t be able to control as her body insisted she find her mate.

  They hadn’t had time to dig much more into things than that.

  As soon as he’d let Delaney in, Aidan had done a Houdini ghosting on her. He’d left her to deal with this alone. Not even when the police had come to inform her of Devlin’s death had she ever felt so…abandoned.

  She couldn’t blame it on a dead man, but this time, she could definitely lay all this at Aidan’s feet. Sera took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she stared at a red light.

  Delaney squeezed her hand, which rested on the gearshift. “Talk to me, sweetie.”

  They’d had to hold it in all day as they’d dealt with customers and worked the wines. An entire day to stew in her own thoughts, and without all the information. She was about to find out, though.

  Sera barked a laugh. “I have no idea where to even start.”

  “Yeah. I remember how that felt.” Delaney hadn’t been mated to Finn for that long.

  “At least you had a choice,” Sera muttered.

  Unlike her, Delaney hadn’t shown any brands on her neck, which apparently was unheard of. It had caused some debate about whether or not she was a dragon shifter.

  “You still have a choice.”

  Sera tossed her a glance. “Do I?”

  Delaney nodded. “You can choose not to mate, but to live with dragons who could control your fires for you.”

  Tempting. Except the whole she’d-been-trying-to-get-Blake-away-from-dragon-shifters thing. Sera gripped her steering wheel harder. Part of her needed to talk to Aidan, and the other part sort of hoped he stayed gone for a bit. “I guess I need to know all the options.”

  Her friend nodded. “The guys are all waiting for you.” Except Hall and Kanta who sat in the back seat, remaining quiet. Letting Delaney help her through this. “We’ll have a talk, and then figure things out. Okay?”

  “Sure.” Even Sera could hear the rather desperate hope in Delaney’s voice.

  I doubt anything they have to say is going to make this better.

  After a long, bumpy trip down a gravel road, dust flying out from behind their tires, they followed an even bumpier gravel drive full of potholes the guys seemed to love to cultivate. While the shifters’ headquarters and home was located no more than a twenty-minute drive from the winery, it still gave the impression of disappearing into wilderness, buried in the Sierra Nevada mountains south of the highway.

  The road dead-ended outside what appeared to be a warehouse or training facility, which was where Sera parked her car. The two-story structure built into the side of the mountain sported wooden siding and a metal roof. Inside she knew she’d find offices, a conference room, training space, a gym and lockers for all the men’s hotshot firefighting gear for when they were pretending to be human, and, toward the back, a bunkhouse for show. However, she also knew that, through a secret, palm print scanner-protected door, the true headquarters lay deep inside the mountain.

  This building was a front for any humans they dealt with. Until Delaney had shown her dragon sign, they’d kept her only to the bunk rooms and training room out here. Once Sera had been brought in on the secret, she’d also been allowed into their mountain home. Blake, too. They’d wiped his memory the first couple times, but Sera hated that, so they’d stopped when Blake promised to keep it a secret.

  Sera shoved the “what happens next” thoughts away. What she needed, right this second, was her son.

  “Mom!” The instant she opened her door, Blake’s high-pitched voice floated across the large open space where the team parked. She’d hardly extricated herself from the vehicle before he was across the lot.

  “Is Aidan here?” He searched the faces emerging from the truck, unable to hide his disappointment when his hero didn’t show. “Dang. I wanted him to see.”

  “See what?” Sera asked.

  The right question apparently, because he grabbed her by the hand, tugging her toward the building. “C’mon.”

  His exuberant enthusiasm had her smiling, her heart lighter already. She’d never get tired of this. Already, her little boy was changing before her eyes, growing up so much faster than she’d thought possible. Without a father.

  Sera nodded at Rivin and Keighan, who watched her with unaccustomed seriousness. The two stood guard inside the large garage door that opened into their training and weight room from one side. A matching door on the other side of the building let in the night breeze, which had cooled, raising goose bumps on her arms. The fresh scent of wind and pine trees did nothing to help cover ingrained odors of smoke, dirt, and sweat.

  “Check it out, Mom.” Blake dragged her over to the row of floor to ceiling lockers along the back wall. Painted to look like flames, and oversize, each locker contained the forty-plus pounds of gear a hotshot firefighter carried into the wildland fires they fought.

  Each locker also had a name of a member of the team. Finn, their leader. Levi, their Beta. Titus. Drake. Kanta. Hall. Rivin and Keighan. Sera flicked a glance at Aidan’s locker as she passed it, only to stop, because Blake had.

  “Look.” Pride shining from dark eyes so like his father’s, Blake pointed to the locker next to Aidan’s.

  A nameplate had been added with Blake’s name etched permanently into it. Sera stiffened. Did they do this because she was a dragon mate now? Trying to pull her in. Sera took a step back, glancing over Blake’s head at the two men in the doorway.

  “Pretty cool, huh?”

  Rivin stepped forward, gaze watchful though he was smiling. “We surprised him with that last night.”

  Sera swallowed and gave a jerky nod. Turning to her son, who was puffed up with his own importance at being included in the team, she managed a smile.

  “See.” He swung the locker open.

  Sure enough, inside she found miniature versions of the clothing they wore when fighting fires in human form—flame-retardant green pants, orange undershirt, yellow long-sleeved shirt, and white helmet. She’d seen the guys in this gear once. The day they’d shown up at her winery when her barn was going up in flames. At the time they claimed to have been “passing through” and stopped to help until the local fire department could show.

  “This is the best part.” Blake pulled the helmet off the peg it hung on and put it on his head, grinning as he turned to the side.

  Sera forced herself out of her own head and chuckled. They’d spray-painted a word on the side. “Blaze” instead of “Blake.” The guys all had nicknames on their helmets, too.

  I wonder if Aidan’s still says “Rookie.”

  Sera shook off the thought. “You look like the guys, budd
y.”

  “I know.”

  Sera shared a chuckle with Rivin and Keighan. Only kids could get away with being that arrogant and still come off adorable.

  “Wanna see it all on?” Blake asked.

  “Of course.”

  As soon as Blake disappeared, the men turned twin grins of devilry on her. “Can we see it?” Rivin asked.

  No doubt meaning her brand. Sera crossed her arms. “No.”

  Keighan’s face fell. “But we—”

  “I don’t even know what it looks like yet.” Something in her expression must’ve got through to them, because they exchanged a glance.

  “We’ll see it later,” Rivin said, almost soothing.

  “See, Mom!” Blake burst back into the room in his full uniform.

  Jeez, he looked like a little man. One ready to go out and fight fires beside… How was she supposed to raise her son among dragon shifters? With a mate?

  Up until this moment, panic had been more like a trapped bird, beating its wings against her rib cage to get out. The rush of emotion that slammed through her now was more like hot molten lava doing its best to explode past the barriers and consume her in the path of its annihilation.

  Sera tried to force her breath through her mouth in silent bursts and plastered a smile to her lips for Blake’s sake. “You’re ready to go out with the guys.”

  That freckled face both beamed and managed to give off arrogant confidence. “I know.”

  All at once, she was pulled back to the day Devlin had died. Blake had been young, too young to comprehend, and she’d had to hold in the devastation behind a strong, brave front while she told him that his father was dead. Ripped from them by cruel, senseless, accidental fate.

  Fate. What a goddamn joke.

  The lava burn of panic turned to anger, spiking hot and heavy inside her. These men expected her to give in to some fate that said she had to mate one of them? The stars, or the fates, or whoever the hell was behind this could go fuck themselves.

  The two shifters watching must’ve caught a whiff of how near the precipice of losing it she stood.