Cafés weren’t really Jude’s thing. She liked coffee but preferred it black and for breakfast. Besides, it was well past noon. Jude was craving something much more substantial than coffee and a pastry.
She drove around for a bit longer, slowly drifting from street to street. The town was filled with shifters. She could smell them on the air. Every now and then she saw someone who stood out. A guy in a leather vest on a motorcycle. A woman chasing a too-fast child down the street. She made a game of guessing what kind of beasts were inside each shifter she picked out.
But the game became boring. Her thoughts drifted to the man living alone on the shore of Lake Superior. Why wasn’t he a part of this pack? A dragon his size could have easily ruled over it.
She slammed on the brakes. Someone behind her blared their horn and raced around her, but she’d found the perfect place. The little shack tucked away from the road had a column of smoke rising from a chimney. The scent of roasting meat drifted on the wind. Her stomach growled greedily, making her mouth water.
A pot-bellied guy worked the counter. He flashed her a smile, exposing some missing teeth. A woman appeared behind him with a baking sheet of cookies. She was sold. Baking cookies in Colorado was difficult because of the altitude. Here, at water level, there was little someone could do to mess up a cookie.
And these smelled delicious.
“You’re not like anyone we’ve ever seen around here,” the man said, eyeing Jude.
She gave him a toothy grin. He leaned back, sensing her beast. Jude liked it that way. She liked it when people recognized her strength. She’d gone her entire life having to slink under the radar when she knew she was stronger than what people wanted her to be. Her parents wanted her to be a submissive shifter. Humanity wanted her to be unassuming.
All Jude ever wanted was acknowledgement. She wanted people to know her for what she really was. The guy behind the counter ducked his head in recognition and began filling a take-out container with food. The offering of the day was barbecue rubbed chicken, salt potatoes, and mac salad.
“Make that two,” she said when he set down the first container.
The woman was filling a glass cabinet on the counter with cookies, making Jude’s mouth water even more. But her mind was sorting through what the man had said.
“You’ve never seen a dragon shifter?” There was one living maybe twenty miles away from them. Her neighbor had to have run into the pack at some point.
The man grunted. “Just once. Our alpha’s second in command stepped a little too close to a surly dragon. He came to tell us off, threatened to eat anyone who stepped close.”
She digested his words. Dragons weren’t naturally solitary like bears. The sky lizards liked to live in groups, naturally forming ranks and looking to a king. But the one here in Michigan was defying everything she’d ever known.
No, not everything. Jude, herself, had been an outcast. She’d lived apart from her own system. While she understood her parents’ reasoning for sending her out of Colorado, she didn’t think it was the same for this dragon shifter.
Cole groaned as he walked up to his cabin. The insufferable female dragon shifter had returned, and she was sitting on his porch, her feet on his porch railing. In her lap was a Styrofoam container that smelled like smoke and spice.
She grinned and his stomach clenched. He wanted to know what it was like to turn that cocky smile into a look of pure pleasure. He doubted her face would know what to do, because he didn’t think anyone had ever tried. He would love to teach her, to make her scream his name.
His beast growled. It writhed beneath his skin and pushed him toward the woman. Cole shook himself. This wasn’t like him. His thoughts weren’t his own. The beast must have been filling his mind with errant urges. That was all he could think of, because he knew nothing about this woman on his porch.
Nothing except that she was stubborn.
“I told you to leave.”
She popped a piece of chicken into her mouth. He watched her berry-colored lips move, and his beast gnashed its teeth. Cole struggled to catch his breath beneath the beast’s sharp desire.
“I told you I have a job to do,” she purred.
“Is this why your clan kicked you out? I take it they couldn’t stand you either.”
Her smile vanished, replaced by pursed lips. A spark of hurt flashed in her eyes, and Cole immediately regretted it. Not that he was going to tell her that. Instead, he changed the subject.
“Are you so hungry that you bought two servings?” He gestured to the container sitting where Sybil had drawn her cards.
This was her, the woman he’d seen on Sybil’s cards. Had he not realized the witch was interfering, he might have thought this was a divine intervention. Instead, it was just Sybil’s way of shaking up his life. She’d conjured the images on her cards. Not fate.
“It’s not for me,” Jude said. “I thought I would try wooing you with food. You can’t go wrong with grilled chicken and a bag of cookies.”
“A bag?”
Sure enough, at her feet was a paper bag that was starting to absorb grease from the cookies inside. She set aside her container and reached into the bag, drawing out a cookie the size of his palm and bit into it, her eyes rolling back in her head. His gut tightened and a growl rattled his chest. He could make her do the same thing, if she wanted.
Again, he had to shake himself. He’d been living alone for too long. The silence had turned his beast into a pervert, apparently. It wasn’t that he was attracted to this woman. That couldn’t be it. She was too dominant, a sassy hellion that he wouldn’t be able to live with every day.
His dragon might be lonely, but this wasn’t the woman for him. She would do whatever it was she came to Michigan to do and then she would go back to her clan.
“A whole bag of cookies?” He dragged his chair a few feet away from her before sitting down.
“The altitude messes with them back in Colorado,” she said around a mouthful. “I wasn’t home for long, but I missed good cookies so bad. And brownies. I haven’t had a good brownie in a while.”
He chuckled to himself.
“That container is for you,” she said before taking another bite of her cookie. Her eyes were on him, carefully watching his response.
She was looking to get something out of him, he realized. He would eat the food she brought, but he wasn’t going to tell her a damn thing. His story, his clan’s story, wasn’t one he could share.
They sat in silence for a while. Cole pulled apart his barbecue chicken while listening to Jude breathe. Her eyes roved over the landscape. He imagined he saw her easing into the world here, like she was becoming a part of it. This wasn’t her home, though. She belonged in the Colorado mountains.
And yet, he found himself disappointed when he thought of her leaving. He grunted at his own idiocy. The years alone had warped his mind if he was attaching himself to such a stubborn dragon woman.
“Why aren’t there more of you here?”
Oh, she was stubborn all right. Cole didn’t say anything. He just continued picking at his chicken. While she popped a salt potato into her mouth, she avoided the mac salad.
“Watching your figure?”
She snorted. “I don’t have to watch my figure. There aren’t any mating prospects for me.”
Cole wanted to ask a thousand questions, but he kept his mouth shut. She passed the leftover mac salad toward him. He accepted her offered food and dumped it into his container.
Jude wasn’t an ugly woman. She was thick in all the right places, a plushness that hid the muscle underneath. Her lips were plump, and her breasts beckoned his gaze with a deep cut V-neck that exposed the little stretch of skin between them. She would have made any dragon shifter happy. Her persistent nature wasn’t even that unbearable. In fact, Cole could have liked it if she wasn’t prodding the very thing he was trying to keep secret.
Her swallow was audible. When he looked to her, her eyes were distant
. Finally, she shook her head. The moment of weakness was gone. In its place was that cocky grin again. She turned it on him and asked his name.
“What’s it to you? You aren’t going to stay here forever.” He was being difficult. He knew that, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed to put distance between him and this woman. If he didn’t, something bad would happen.
Cole could feel it in his bones. It was in the way she looked over the lake. A possessiveness was growing in her, one that he’d seen on other dragons before. His beast knew that this was home. It was the only land he’d ever known, but it was like her dragon was still looking for a place to call home.
Weren’t the mountains her domain? But he remembered how she mentioned that she hadn’t been in the mountains for long. And she’d found one of the town’s hidden gems in a couple of hours. Not many knew about Ernest’s chicken shack, certainly not tourists. This was a woman who was used to moving around.
Cole couldn’t understand why a Drake dragon would live outside of Colorado. Her home should have been in the king’s court. But when her head bowed and her shoulders shuddered, he saw the gold that flared over her dark eyes.
Only one family in Colorado was allowed to be gold. All other golden bloodlines were either married to the head of the family or defeated. At least, that was how it used to be. Now, Cole thought that they had taken the more painful route. Instead of handing this gold dragon a parcel of land or putting her out of her misery, she’d been kicked out.
Everything and nothing was hers. She had the world at her fingers, in a way that her cousin would never have, but at the same time, she was probably adrift.
Cole felt for her. He knew what longing felt like. It haunted him every day of his life. He longed for a thing he’d once known. Jude might have never known what it was like to belong. As much as he told himself that wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t stop watching her.
“I’m just trying to be friendly. Make the best of my time here, you know.” She winked at him, hiding the shudder that had passed over her only seconds ago.
“Cole,” he said finally.
“Like charcoal?” she rasped out.
He gave her a narrow-eyed glare but leaned back in his chair with a shake of his head. His beast was begging him to pull her out of her seat and into his. The creature demanded to know what her hair smelled like. It would be metallic, of course. She would smell like blood and earth, a realization that sent a chill down his spine.
He swallowed and shoved the thought aside.
“Cole Barton,” he repeated. “Spelled C-O-L-E when you look it up online later.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not here to overturn your life.”
She might as well be. Jude didn’t know it, but she was digging into history that was better left alone. Cole would make sure that Jude found nothing, one way or another. He still needed to visit Sybil and get the woman to rescind her contract. No one should be on this shore other than Cole. He hadn’t spent the past ten years living alone for a stray dragon to wander into his life and muck up everything he’d worked for.
He ran his hands over his face. Abruptly, he stood. His dragon lurched and shoved him toward Jude. She looked up at him, eyes wide and bright. Gold flashed over them as her lips twitched. He saw the moment her breath caught in her throat. He wanted to lean down and capture those lips, to feel the freedom she’d lived for just a moment.
But before his beast could make him act on any of it, he turned and stomped inside. He couldn’t let this woman turn him inside out just because he was lonely. His life had no room for a gold dragon shifter. It barely had room for a woman at all.
Over the years, he’d imagined himself settling down with a sensible human woman. Someone he could love and worship, who would never question why he didn’t leave the lake area. Now, when he thought of a mate, it was Jude who slipped into his mind. Jude, naked and writhing in his bed. Jude, asleep with only a sheet over her body. Jude, smiling at him as he woke.
“Fuck,” he cursed.
“Stub your toe in there? It might help if you turn on a light.” She called out to him, all her smugness returned.
“Go home,” he snapped.
“What difference does it make if I’m on this rickety porch or that rickety porch?”
That wasn’t what he’d meant. When he said home, he meant Colorado. He meant away from here, away from the secret that he was supposed to protect. This wasn’t Jude’s place. He couldn’t have her. It wasn’t a risk he could take, no matter how badly his beast wanted her.
Jude’s beast was restless. She fought to hold the creature back, but it was too close to the surface. It was making demands that Jude couldn’t follow through with. This wasn’t her territory. It belonged to the tall, dark, and grumpy gentleman beside her. The one who clearly didn’t want visitors.
She knew she was trespassing and being pushy, but she didn’t think she was that unbearable. Her dragon liked him, wanted to know what his skin tasted like and the sounds he could make, but Jude would have settled for a thank you.
She’d brought him a peace offering in the form of food and he didn’t seem to care in the least.
Jude didn’t understand what she’d done wrong. No, that was a lie. She was ignoring what happened. Her beast was too much. It was trying to convince her that this was the place for them. She’d only been on the shore of this great lake for a day and already her beast was trying to lay down roots.
It didn’t seem right. She chalked it up to the years of moving around. Her beast was eager for a place to call her own, but this wasn’t it. There was already a surly dragon here. She couldn’t take his home from him, no matter what her beast was trying to say.
But her beast whispered that he was part of why she wanted to stay. She was painfully aware of tall, dark, and grumpy. His presence was like a brightly lit beacon, summoning her in a painfully dark place.
Jude forced herself to her feet. He didn’t want her around, so she had to gather her things and go back to her own cabin. She knew that all she would be able to think about all night would be him. When she touched herself, his name would be on her lips. Her core throbbed just thinking about it.
Damn, she needed release.
It would have been better with him. Which was part of why she’d brought him food. The peace offering should have been the first step in seducing him, but the air between them crackled until they were shoved apart again. It just wasn’t meant to be.
Which disappointed her more than she wanted to admit.
Jude had a mission here and it had nothing to do with tall, dark, and cantankerous.
4
Cole stepped outside, heading for his truck, when he saw Jude on her porch. She wore a little silk bathrobe that made his blood rush south. Her feet were up on the railing again, a laptop over her thighs. From where he stood, he could see that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath the bathrobe.
His gut clenched. He would be late for work if he didn’t move. There was a group of fishing tourists waiting for him to take them out onto the lake, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He was being an absolute pervert. He shouldn’t linger, but that was exactly what he was doing.
It was exactly what he’d been yearning for the day before, an image of a future he could try to have. If he wanted to betray everything he’d stayed for.
The others had left. They’d gone on to build their own lives, healing from what happened ten years ago in ways that Cole had sacrificed. He’d made the sacrifice for them. It’d been his choice. But he found himself regretting it when Jude was around.
Had his old clanmates found women? Were they living happier lives? He hoped so, or else his sacrifice meant nothing. Cole did what he did to make sure that the others had a chance at living their lives. They might not be together or a happy family like they had been, but there were other forms of happiness.
Like a strong woman who didn’t mind flaunting her goods. His beast was practically begging Cole t
o go to her. It wanted to sink its claws into the earth and drag Cole toward her. While she looked like a hearty breakfast, Cole had a job to do. There was no amount of woman who could keep him from work.
Not when he had property taxes and electricity bills to pay. Still, he lingered, hand on the handle of the truck door. His gaze was drawn back to her again. He traced the line of her, trying to memorize everything about her. Like the way she wiggled her toes while she tapped away at the keyboard. Or the way she tilted her head back to catch the rays of the early morning sunlight.
She had him enchanted. Cole wanted to think that it was only because he’d been alone for so long, but his beast was acting strangely. It had never wanted anything as much as it wanted Jude.
Which was dangerous for everyone involved.
Belatedly, Jude realized she was giving her new neighbor a peep show. Her cheeks flared hot and she dropped her feet to the porch planks. Her core throbbed. Anyone else, and she would have stormed off the porch with hot words on her lips. But with Cole’s eyes on her, and the way they glimmered with fire, she found herself rooted to the spot.
Finally, he yanked open the door of his truck and disappeared behind the darkened windshield. Jude let out the breath she’d forgotten she was holding and relaxed into her seat. The truck sped toward the street, leaving her alone with her thoughts and aching desire.
Cole really was a wrench in her plans. His presence was distracting. All night she’d thought of him and the many ways she could go over to his cabin. She’d briefly considered wearing her bathrobe to knock on his door. Apparently, that would have been the right choice for getting what she wanted.
But that wasn’t why she was in Michigan. She needed to get to the bottom of the missing clan. She couldn’t get the truth from Cole if she was banging his brains out. If she was smart, she wouldn’t have to get the truth from him.
Cole Page 2
