by Abigail Owen
“I’ll ask around.” His tone was casual, but she still got the sense that Aidan was concerned. Or jealous maybe?
Stupid hopeful heart. She’d drop kick it if she could.
“Okay.” Whatever. Someone had been nice and guessed right.
“You won’t be truly safe until you mate,” Aidan muttered.
“What? Why?” Yet another thing to fear. She was getting pretty darn sick of being in danger.
“Mates are more and more rare these days, and some dragons don’t play by the rules. If you are taken, or someone tries to mate you who isn’t your mate—”
“I die,” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
Yet another reason to get this mating thing with over quickly.
Chapter Eleven
Having her sit next to him and not being able to touch her manifested as physical pain. An ache deep inside that he could do nothing about.
She wasn’t his to touch. Not anymore. Not ever. Except that idea felt wrong. What if…?
Aidan mentally slapped his own head. Not with the other brands on her neck. Even if she wasn’t meant for the High King, no way could Aidan fight his own teammates for her. No way. Titus had already suffered and was older than the rest of them. Drake might be closed off, but he deserved his chance.
I should want one of them to be hers.
Except he couldn’t make himself do it. A fact that threatened to unravel everything in the world he’d built for himself, dismantling his claimed brotherhood brick by brick.
Aidan had had one brief instant of letting himself believe maybe he could be hers… Gods, he’d been a fucking moron.
He did his damndest to push that ache down deep and join in the conversation happening in the room, which had turned to the dragon still held in their cells.
“I can’t believe you found an orphan, man.” Mike nodded at him, as did the others with Lyndi. Aidan nodded back, acknowledging that bone-deep truth that none of them was worth a damn according to their society. Rejected. Isolated. A waste of fire.
He intended to prove them all fucking wrong. For himself. For Mike and Attor and Coahoma and Demyan and all the others.
Kanta put his book down. “We’re sure he’s not with Rune?”
“Rune might work with rogues,” Titus said. “But even he wouldn’t use a kid.”
“Not even to infiltrate us?” Kanta pressed.
“I know Rune.” Titus set his stance—feet wide, arms crossed—a sure sign he didn’t want to be asked again. Being from the same clan, the two had always been close.
Kanta didn’t take the hint. “I thought I did, too.”
“You do when it comes to this,” Titus stated, expression hard.
Kanta glanced at Finn, who nodded his agreement. The green dragon shrugged his acceptance and picked his book back up.
“How old do you think this orphan is?” Lyndi asked from the other end of the room where she sat at the table.
“Couldn’t be more than in his early teens,” Aidan said.
“A kid like me?” Blake asked.
“Not quite.” Aidan ruffled Blake’s hair. “Early teens in dragon aging is around twenty or so in human years, buddy.”
“That’s young to be shifting?” Sera asked around a bite of eggs.
“Yeah. Natural-born dragons don’t tend to shift until what is essentially our later teen years which could be as many as a hundred human years.”
Her gaze slid to Delaney. “But you shifted for the first time like a month or two ago.”
“Mates shift sooner, because you’re already in your twenties or thirties, physically,” Lyndi answered. “Your aging will slow to a dragon’s life span after you mate.”
“Oh,” Sera glanced around the room. She blinked a couple times then shook her head and mumbled something about rabbit holes.
Aidan couldn’t help leaning over to whisper in her ear. “I promise you’re not Alice, and this is the real world, not Wonderland.”
She scoffed. “I’m still tumbling. I’ll let you know if I agree when I land.”
Her gaze strayed to Blake. Was she realizing that she might outlive her child? Aidan reached out to squeeze her hand but stopped himself. Not mine. He fisted his hand and returned it to his lap. If she noticed, Sera didn’t indicate it, still watching her son.
“I only hope we can give Demyan a home,” Lyndi said, her lips pulled into a concerned frown.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Levi muttered into his coffee.
Lyndi leaned forward to glare at the usually affable Beta who sat at the opposite end of the table from her. The men between them sat back slightly to get out of the line of fire. “Good thing you don’t get a say,” she snapped.
Levi glowered right back. “The hell I don’t. This will be a team decision, Lyndi.”
Garnet flames leaped into Lyndi’s eyes, a sure sign of her ire. “You mean you aren’t even sure if you should save him, don’t you?”
Levi clamped his mouth shut.
She hopped to her feet, fire glittering in her gaze. “You’d put down a dragon not much more than a child because of the damn rules?”
Levi remained seated, though his set jaw didn’t bode a favorable reply. “Don’t put words in my mouth. We’ve agreed he doesn’t deserve to die. Hell, half the kids you’ve raised, including Aidan, we should’ve put down, but we didn’t.”
Beside him Sera straightened and whipped her head around to look at him.
Lyndi’s shoulders dropped at that, the flames disappearing, though a glow lingered. “Okay, then—”
“But he could still be dangerous,” Levi cut her off to add.
With a snort, Lyndi waved that away. “Not to me. I have the guys, and we deal with this all the time. Don’t we?”
Almost as one, the seven dragon shifters who’d come with Lyndi stood and formed a wall of muscle behind her.
Aidan grimaced at how Levi’s jaw clenched, a muscle ticking at the side. “You would know best of course,” the gold shifter finally relented.
Lyndi bobbed her head. “Damn right, we would.”
Drake, standing as far away as he could while still technically being in the room, said nothing either way, though as Lyndi’s brother, Aidan figured he was on her side. Then again, the red shifter could be on Levi’s. Hard to tell.
“Finn will have to sign off on any decisions, though,” Levi reminded her.
Her head stopped mid-bob, her lips going flat at the reminder.
Levi picked up his fork and kept eating, ostensibly oblivious to the tension crawling through the room as Lyndi tried to slice him in two with her glare.
Those two should fuck and get it over with, Aidan thought, not for the first time. That was between them, though.
After a few more heavy moments, Lyndi sat back down and resumed eating.
“What did Levi mean, you should’ve been put down?” Sera asked quietly beside him.
Aidan grimaced. He’d hoped to avoid any talk of what he was and what that meant.
After staring at him expectantly for a moment, Lyndi answered when he didn’t. “You know Aidan’s parents were both killed, leaving him an orphan?”
Sera nodded.
“Tell her the history first,” Kanta said.
Lyndi glanced Aidan’s way and he gave her a reluctant nod. “Family anchors your dragon to your human side, giving you something to return to. If a dragon loses his parents before he reaches the maturity of twenty, roughly two hundred in human years, he usually can’t control himself in dragon form. He’ll go wild. Become super dangerous.”
Sera swallowed but listened without comment.
“Orphans like that rarely even shift back to human. Long ago, families tried to take them in, but the bonds weren’t usually strong enough. Once out of control, they’d kill anything and anyone in their path until they were stopped. But it’s proven difficult for shifters to kill children who’ve been part of their community, so more often than not, they are
forced to go rogue without a clan or group to shelter them. Some figure it out and survive, but most die or are killed.”
“That’s awful.” She turned to Aidan, turquoise eyes a sea of pain, for him. “You went through that?”
“Yeah. But I was lucky.” And he didn’t want to talk about this anymore. He stood abruptly.
But Sera wasn’t done, turning to Lyndi. “So how are you able to have an orphanage?”
Lyndi raised her eyebrows at Aidan, but he had no intention of talking. She sighed. “I take in the boys who aren’t as wild when I can. By staying with a group, still protected under the laws of the clans, they don’t have to go rogue. Though figuring out who is redeemable is…tough…to say the least.” She smiled. “Aidan was the first one I took in, actually.”
“Your clan didn’t want you?” Sera asked him, voice low.
“The group of colonists we’d lived with?” he clarified. “No. Though they didn’t kick me out immediately. The Blue Clan in Europe wouldn’t take me, either.” His petition had been rejected by King Thanatos. He couldn’t say he was too unhappy that dick had been dethroned by the new king.
Under the table, Sera softly laid her hand on his leg, the gesture full of intended comfort. “I’m sorry.”
Aidan gave himself a moment of weakness, one where he squeezed her hand back before stepping away. “I proved them wrong.”
“Yes, you did.” Sera smiled, the sadness banished from her eyes.
Aidan stood a little taller, her praise filling a void inside him like not even Lyndi’s home, or even becoming an enforcer, had been able to do. Sera had always seen him as worthy. Now, even knowing his background, that he could still be dangerous, she still didn’t pull away.
“He had help,” Lyndi put in drily. “And I found more boys who needed second chances. Sometimes with the team’s help, but don’t tell the Alliance that.”
Sera grinned. “Got it.”
Aidan stepped toward the door. “Speaking of which, that kid has been waiting long enough.”
“Can I come?” Blake, who’d listened to everything with rapt attention, asked.
Aidan squeezed his shoulder. “Not this time, buddy.” He wasn’t fully confident that the white dragon shifter in their cells was fully in control, and Blake was human. Frailly mortal.
“Ah, man.” Blake’s frown threatened to turn into a full-on pout.
“I’ll play with you when I’m done. Okay?”
That earned him an eager nod.
They left Sera and Blake with Drake and Titus and everyone else headed down several levels. They found the kid lying on his bunk, a hand flung over his eyes, but he got to his feet the second they entered the space, coming to stand at the bars facing them.
Damn, he was young. A thought that struck Aidan harder each time he saw the kid. He didn’t even have peach fuzz yet, let alone facial hair. His shock of white-blond hair needed trimming, and even though Delaney had been doing her best to fatten him up over the last few days, he was still way too skinny.
Demyan watched them warily with those pale eyes so like Rivin’s and Keighan’s. “Are you killing me?” he asked in thickly accented, broken English.
Rivin stepped forward, speaking in Russian. He waved a few times at Lyndi and the boys towering behind her.
Demyan’s eyes grew wide. “Dah,” he said. Then repeated it a couple of times.
Rivin turned to them. “He says that his parents died, trying to get here across the Bering Strait. He made the rest of the trip to the Americas on a fishing trawler. Sounds like he might’ve swum the last bit to get to Alaska.”
“Jeez,” Aidan said. “How the hell is he not feral yet?” He stepped closer to the bars. “You’ve proven that you can shift back to human. As long as you can hold your dragon at bay, do you want a home?”
Mistrustful eyes gazed back. “Why?”
Why what? Aidan glanced at Rivin who rattled off more in Russian. “He wants to know why we’d bother to be kind to him.”
Aidan swallowed. Until the day Lyndi stopped Drake from taking his head off, Aidan had known the rejection, isolation, and fear this kid was still dealing with. Not anymore. Not if he could step in.
“I was an orphan like you. My parents were killed when I was young.”
Those white eyes narrowed. “You are enforcer.”
“Yes.”
“Rogues cannot act as enforcers.”
Aidan smiled, though the resentment probably gave his smile an edge. “I didn’t go rogue. I was lucky enough to have already shifted before I was orphaned, learning to control it. Then Lyndi found me.” Or he found her, in a way. “But orphans often get lumped in with rogues, regardless, so I’m proving them wrong.”
“Damn, right, he is.” Aidan caught Coahoma’s murmur, and knew if he looked over his shoulder, every one of those guys would be standing straighter.
Confusion scrunched up the kid’s brow, and Rivin translated. Based on how long he talked, Aidan guessed he was explaining in more depth, probably the same story they’d just told Sera only with more info about Lyndi’s home. When he finished talking, the kid looked from face to face, as if assessing the truth for himself. It would likely be years before he trusted anyone.
Aidan made a mental note to visit Lyndi’s home soon, make sure he helped this one settle in.
“I would have pleasure to…” He searched for the word, before tossing more Russian at Rivin.
“Join,” Rivin provided the word.
He nodded. “Dah. Join.”
Beside Aidan, Lyndi grinned. “Welcome to the family.” She turned to Levi who stood toward the back, silently daring him to say no.
But Finn didn’t say anything, so neither did Levi, though he crossed his arms with an unhappy glare. Aidan also allowed himself to relax. He’d gone to bat for the kid, had thought he’d convinced their leader that he deserved a second chance. Finn could still have said no, especially because Demyan was so young, which made his control more unpredictable.
Damn good thing Finn didn’t object, because no way would Aidan have let them harm the kid. He had enough troubles without having to go rogue for fighting his team or helping a prisoner escape.
“Right.” Lyndi stepped forward. “Let’s get you out of there.”
Aidan punched in the combination on the electronic keypad and swung the door wide. Demyan paused beside him and offered him a hand to shake, like a man. “Thank you.”
Aidan grasped his hand, serious. “I’ll check in on you now and then.”
The kid grinned, suddenly turning more into the boy he was. “Spasibo.”
He went off with Lyndi who was chattering a mile a minute then making Rivin translate because she was talking too fast for Demyan to follow. The others trailed behind, but Aidan paused. Sera was upstairs, and her presence here drew him in a way that could prove…distracting. If not dangerous, if he let it become a problem.
Drake and Titus were upstairs, too. Possibly with her.
He should go somewhere else. Maybe even help escort Demyan to Lyndi’s. But gods help him, he wanted to check on Sera. Talk to her without the entire team there to witness. Make sure she was okay.
Just keep your hands off, he silently ordered himself.
Chapter Twelve
“Aidan’s too busy, so will you show me your dragon, Titus?” Blake had pleaded, pulling Sera’s gaze from the door Aidan had left through.
She turned to find Titus beside her, Blake tugging at his hand, not that he made a dent. Given their usual interactions, she expected the black dragon shifter to head off happily with Blake, but he paused.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a hushed voice, gaze concerned.
Sweet of him to check. Everyone else had run off like the world was still normal, when she was still tumbling. “I’m fine. Actually, it might help to have him occupied for a bit if you don’t mind. I know I can trust you with him.”
Titus straightened, gaze serious and proud, like she’d given him the most i
mportant job in the world. “I’d protect him with my life, Sera. I hope you know that.”
Given the steadiness in his gaze, the soft spot he’d always seemed to have for Blake, she didn’t doubt it. “Thank you.”
Titus nodded, then turned to Blake with a grin he seemed to only reserve for her son. “Let’s go, buddy.”
“Suck-up,” she thought she heard Drake mutter before he turned away.
Blake gave a whoop and sprinted out the door. He didn’t even give her a hug or a wave or anything. Just…whoosh. He was out of there.
I should be hurt. Still, she couldn’t help the amusement tugging at her lips as his mop of hair disappeared around the bend in the hall, followed by a hulking man who looked equally eager to go play if that big ol’ grin he tossed back at Sera was anything to go by.
The thing was, Blake loved it here. What boy his age wouldn’t? Especially now that dragons were involved. He got rock climbing, and living in caves, and flying, and fire, and all the things little boys dreamed of.
And he got these dragon shifters who not only tolerated him but loved him in their own ways.
Maybe we do belong here.
With a shake of her head, Sera cleared her place and dropped the dishes off at the sink. Drake, who was elbows deep in suds and water, was still, seeming to stare at his hands, which he kept turning over.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Fine.” He plunged his hands deeper into the water and gave her one of his glowers, which she interpreted as go away.
Unfortunately for him, she’d never found him intimidating. Closed off and sort of lonely, more like. She usually tried to draw him out with kindness, not that it worked. She beamed at him anyway. “What can I do to help?”
He scrubbed a pot harder than necessary. “Delaney cooks and one of us cleans.”
Sera lifted a single eyebrow. “I didn’t cook,” she pointed out. “So I can help clean, too.”
“But you’re a guest.”
The man didn’t know how to give in gracefully, but she could be just as stubborn. “Not anymore.”
He paused in his scrubbing and turned a narrow-eyed gaze on her. “When did you get so pushy?”
