She’d already uncovered a number of news articles from ten years ago. The local libraries had catalogued both online and paper news, making her job easy. She’d been rifling through the stories that she’d grabbed when Cole appeared.
Taking deep breaths to calm the beast inside her, Jude turned back to her mission. Reading through local disappearances was enough to calm her turbulent insides. Some of them struck her as shifters who couldn’t cut the change, but when a pair of local doctors were declared missing, she thought that maybe the local pack had enacted some kind of justice for lost friends.
She sighed. That wasn’t what she was looking for. She needed to know about dragon shifters. So, she dug deeper, further back through the years. That was how she came across an image of young men standing in a boat. There were six of them in total, all fresh and young faces. The one that caught her eye was Cole.
What shook her was the fact that he was smiling. There were no tattoos on his body, no ink that seemed to peer out from beneath his sleeves or the collar of his shirt. Instead, he looked hopeful, not an emotion she would have thought Cole capable of. Around him were other young men. Dragon shifters, she assumed. At the head of the boat was a man with shadowed eyes. He looked over the lake, not at the camera like the rest of the men.
Jude’s gut told her this was the dragon clan that had gone missing. These were the shifters she needed to find out about. Quickly, she found the caption for the photo and jotted down the names that flanked Cole’s. Alec Walker, Zane Thompson, Asher Knuden, Heath Cumberland, and Alistair Webster.
They were celebrating the opening of a fishing tour company. The fact that the photo was in the papers at all told Jude that their lives had been very different back then. The Cole she’d found would have shouted at anyone who dared step near his front door. Something happened to scatter these men to the wind.
At least, that was what she hoped. She ignored the sinking feeling in her gut that whispered they might all be dead. Her hand shook as she closed the laptop. The only survivor she knew of was Cole. There was a chance, no matter how badly she wanted to ignore it, that Cole was the one who had done away with his clan.
The thought sickened her. Especially when her dragon was so infatuated with the man. There was no way he could have done anything like that. Cole couldn’t have killed his clan. Her beast would never fawn over a murderer. Gold dragons were too righteous. A fact that had led Jasper to make contact with every dragon community in the states. While he wanted to protect everyone, Jude could at least rest easy knowing that her dragon would be able to sniff out a murderer.
Like a sixth sense. Murderer sense.
She took a steady breath in through her nose and peered at his cabin. While he was gone, it was left unguarded. She stood, intending to break in. Instead, her feet brought her close to the shore. The waters lapped at the rocks below, filling the air with a calming sound.
When she sucked in a breath, it smelled of silt and wet things.
Home, her dragon whispered.
Jude shook her head. This wasn’t her home. She didn’t get one, no matter how the dragon inside her persisted. She was an outcast beast with no place to claim. She knew it would lead to unrest, that there was a chance her dragon would overcome her. If that happened and the dragon had chosen a place, the beast would burrow in caves and become a part of the land. It would sleep away the years, unable to partake in a life above ground.
It was her one fear. She had a grandfather who had done the same in Colorado. When his brother assumed the title of King, her grandfather was said to have been inconsolable. The man found his way into the mines from the gold rush. He dug and dug, and no one ever saw him again.
Sometimes, when she visited the mines and saw old veins of gold, she wondered if it was metal or a dragon. How many of her golden ancestors had buried themselves because their brethren cast them out?
She imagined immersing herself in the shifting waters of the lake. The darkness would swallow her as she dug deep into the silt below.
No. She hugged herself. She wouldn’t allow it to come to that. She had a life she wanted to live. The beast would not take her to ground. Not yet. Not ever, if she could help it.
The water crashing against the shore became a murmur. She thought she heard whispers and strained to make out the words. Holding her breath, she waited to understand what was calling out to her. She took a step forward. Then another.
Release me. Grant me freedom. Set me free!
The whispers repeated the same thing over and over. The water was around her feet now. She didn’t know when she’d stepped out onto the rocks. Her heart thumping in her chest, she scrambled back onto the shore. The water clung to her skin, as if to remind her that it could take her back anytime.
She looked back to Cole’s cabin, questions buzzing in her mind, but he wasn’t here. A loud rumble sounded over the water. When she looked up, a boat was speeding over the lake. It turned to the side and she glimpsed a familiar shape watching her.
Cole.
He turned the boat back around and went back to wherever he’d come from. A group sat in the back, fishing rods pointing toward the sky. He was working, but his eyes never left her. She could feel the force of his gaze from across the water.
And it didn’t feel nice.
She backed away from the shore, confused. Once again, she yearned for a quiet hotel room. When she met with the landlord for the cabin, she’d known that all chances of a spa treatment were gone. Yet, she’d held onto hope that the cabin would be quaint. She could deal with quaint.
Instead, the cabin turned out to be musty from disuse. There was a cracked window in the bathroom, and the sink faucet ran on a manual pump that she’d never seen the likes of. Would the shower work the same? She really hoped she didn’t have to crank a pump just to get washed.
The thought brought her attention back to Cole’s cabin. His looked as though it had been better kept. It was certainly cleaner, though a swatch of vines was creeping up the western wall and trying to pry the window casing apart.
She looked back over the water, searching for Cole. His boat was a speck on the ever-stretching water. She grinned and rushed toward the cabin before he could turn back. What she would find, she didn’t know.
5
His cabin smelled of her. The scent permeated everything. It drove his beast wild, to the point where the creature expected Jude around every corner. Her scent was faint in the kitchen, like a ghost had passed through. It grew stronger in the bedroom, where his sheets made him think she was still there, waiting for him. Cole wrinkled his nose, knowing that Jude had broken into his cabin. But to what point?
What had she expected to find?
He should have left the metallic dragon alone. Then she wouldn’t have been able to bother him about the clan that had lived on this shore. His feet, though, had other plans. They brought him outside and halfway to her doorstep before Cole could stop himself.
Why was he going to confront her? There was no point, no need to push the issue further. As long as he put space between himself and the woman, then his secrets would stay safe. She would find no one willing to tell his story because no one left in the area knew it.
Aside from Sybil.
Cole growled. Why were all these women meddling in his life all of a sudden? Sybil was making midnight calls and influencing her cards so that they showed him lies. Now, this metallic dragon was breaking into his house. He wanted them all to leave him alone. And yet…
When he heard the soft hum coming from the next-door cabin, he leaned toward it to hear more. He took a step and then another. The front door was open and through it he could see Jude. She wore a pair of ridiculously short shorts, the flimsy kind that women wore to bed. Her tank top bared her shoulders and the flowers tattooed over them like a mantle. It also hung low between her breasts, dragging his attention lower as she moved.
More flowers graced her thigh. She was a garden. The petals unfurled gracefully along her
skin, beckoning him like her sex. He wanted to run his fingers along them and hear the soft sigh that would escape her lips.
This woman had such a pull over him, a gravitational draw that he’d never felt before. Cole was the kind of man who would gladly give himself over to duty. The responsibilities that he’d shouldered were what kept him on the shore of this lake. Without a clan or even friends.
The only fools who ever showed up on his doorstep were teens looking for trouble. They would climb the nearby waterfall and venture forth until they found the row of cabins. As so many were in disrepair, the place easily looked haunted. The kids were always disappointed when Cole answered the door. Some day he would have to buy a hockey mask and chase them off the property.
But that was all he had. Just kids every few weeks who thought they were disturbing ghosts and not a man with his own ghosts.
Jude’s head snapped up. She pinned him with her stare, watching him like a rabbit watched oncoming traffic. It made him laugh and smile to see her so stunned.
“Did you discover anything from my cabin?”
She shrugged. “Only that your bed is comfier than mine.”
That explained why her scent was so strong. She must have rolled in his sheets. He would have to wash them later. Her scent would drive him mad if he let it linger. He’d never be able to wash her from his mind.
“Figure out that you’re not going to get to the bottom of your story?” Cole took a step forward. He should have gone home. Should have done some laundry.
Jude looked up at him as she bent to put something in the oven. She threw her hair over her shoulder and grinned. Cole’s eyes were dragged down her chest, to her exposed breasts. His breath caught in his chest. Need came over him, an oppressive desire that tightened his lungs. His beast shoved him forward until he stood in her doorway.
“I have a feeling I’ll be here for a while,” Jude said as she stood upright again. She winked, as if she knew she’d just given him a peepshow. “No one needs me back in Colorado and my cousin is footing the bill, so I’m going to be your neighbor for a long time.”
“Not if you keep breaking into my cabin. I’ll have to call the cops on you. Get a restraining order. Maybe tell your landlord that I can’t have you next door to me anymore.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to break in again.”
Even though a part of him wanted her to. He wanted to see her sitting on his sofa, lying on his bed. Cole told himself that it was just loneliness. It’d been ten years since he’d seen another dragon shifter. Jude was fulfilling a part of his nature that had been ignored for a decade. He missed having company, someone who understood what it meant to be a monster, unable to hide among nature.
It wasn’t like they were bear shifters, who could prance around the woods and never be noticed. They were dragons, the lords of the sky. Monsters in everyone’s eyes.
“Come in and tell me about your business. You use your boat to take people fishing on the lake. Right?”
He grunted. “It’s not much, but it pays for the few bills I have.”
“And your co-owners? I didn’t see any photos of them in your cabin. Are they still around?”
He froze. His heart thumped once. Images of his old clan flashed through his mind. Pain needled his heart and then the images disappeared. He felt drained. Shuffling forward, he sank into a chair at the table. The chair groaned, threatening to snap beneath him, making him readjust his position.
“You’ve been doing your homework,” he said, voice flat.
Her grin of triumph was too much to bear. A part of him was breaking all over again. He could hear the screams from that night, the water as it was forced apart. But it was all over. What was the harm in telling her what happened? If he could get it off his chest, he might feel better.
“They’re dead.” He couldn’t tell her the truth and risk having her bother his old clanmates. They were living their lives. Cole was the one who had to watch the shore. He gave his clanmates the gift of moving on.
Yet, if she found out for herself…A part of him hoped she would. Then he wouldn’t have to betray his promises. Then, he would have someone to talk to. The desire was strong, gripping his lungs as if it could propel the words from his mouth.
Jude’s prideful grin faded. She stepped toward him until her knee brushed his. Sparks leapt between them. He nearly reached for her in that instant. Instead, his fingers twitched, but remained on his thighs.
Perhaps he could bring her back to his cabin, have his way with her, and then wash his sheets. Maybe then he would be free of this need that gripped him every time she stepped too close. Then he wouldn’t have to wash his sheets twice.
Cole wasn’t that kind of person. Asher had been. He’d been the kind of guy to take a different girl home every weekend. Cole had always wondered how the man’s beast didn’t grow attached to any of them. Here, with Jude damn near naked once again, Cole was feeling a possessive streak raise its ugly head.
Any longer in her presence and his beast would start to believe that she belonged to him. She didn’t. She belonged to her family back in Colorado. They would be pissed if he touched her. She was probably hanging out in Michigan to avoid marrying her cousin.
The thought brought a growl to his throat. He clenched his fists and tore his gaze away from her.
She couldn’t figure out why he was still lying to her. They were both dragons. Couldn’t he see that she wasn’t a danger to him? All Jude needed was the truth. Then she could report back to her cousin and use the rest of her time here as vacation.
Then Cole would no longer be the subject of interest, but one of infatuation. An electrical jolt jumped from where their knees touched and raced to her core, cinching it tight. She fought to breathe past the rush of heat that flooded her.
The urge to straddle him, to brush her fingers along the baby hairs on the back of his neck, filled her. But she held back. She stepped away and felt disappointment curdle her stomach. Her beast flung itself back at Cole and made Jude stagger.
He surged from his seat, hands out to catch her. She lurched toward the counter and rasped that she was okay. The beast in her head snarled. That wasn’t the direction the beast had wanted her to go. If Jude wasn’t going to do what the beast wanted, it was going to start taking control.
Horny creature, she thought.
But Jude had never been with another dragon. Even she was curious.
Nope. No. She had a job and needed to focus on it. Her crazy hormones could wait till later. That was, if Cole was still willing to be around her once this was all said and done. He was clearly hiding something, and if she succeeded in digging it up, he might grow to hate her.
She regained her footing and turned toward the oven to distract herself. Peering inside, she saw that her frozen French fries were getting crispy. Her stomach growled with a new hunger, the kind that said she could devour the entire tray of fries.
“Do you have any mayonnaise in your cabin?” she asked as she pulled a bottle of ketchup from the fridge.
Cole raised a brow in question. “Of course, I have mayonnaise. The real question is if you’re willing to share those fries once I bring it over.”
She frowned. It hadn’t been her intention to share, but she did have half a bag of fries still left in the freezer. If she was still hungry, she could make more later. Once she agreed, Cole stood and disappeared.
The cabin felt empty without him. It was like he had been throwing warmth and light into all the empty corners. Now that he was gone, the cabin went back to being a shack. It was just another waystation in her life, as she moved from one place to another to avoid Colorado.
Her chest ached. If she hadn’t been here to prod Cole’s past, then maybe she could have tried for something more. She would have let her creature throw her at Cole. She would have lost herself in his warmth. And maybe he needed the same. It seemed lonely out here. He probably only ever took men out to fish on the lake.
She hoped.<
br />
Unless that was his type. From the way he kept coming back, she couldn’t help but think that he was a little attracted, too. Or maybe that was all in her mind.
Jude knew next to nothing about relationships with other dragon shifters. She was a lonely girl who’d only ever had mucked up relationships with human men. Men who ran away when she told them what she was. Men who feared her strength.
Cole wouldn’t fear her. She’d seen the size of his beast. They were equals. He could handle her heat, her strength. Perhaps that was the only reason she wanted him so badly. He was the first dragon shifter she’d met outside of the Colorado mountains. He was fresh and new and all the things she never thought she would find.
The timer on the oven beeped at her. She got up to pull the fries from the oven, but Cole wasn’t back. After sitting at the table with the oven-crisp fries for twenty minutes, Jude realized he wasn’t going to come back.
She threw the plate of fries into the microwave and went to bed. She pulled her pillow close to her face and fought back tears that she didn’t understand.
6
Cole paused at the sight of the figures standing on his porch. One was immediately recognizable, Sybil with her glowing cigarette and grey hair in a high bun. The other took him a moment to remember. It’d been ten years since he’d seen his fellow dragon.
They shouldn’t be here. It was Cole’s job to watch the lake. It’d given the others the freedom to leave and move on. Cole didn’t understand why any of them would come back. He slowly approached the porch steps.
Sybil’s eyes flared with magic when she looked at him, glowing like cat eyes in the dark. Across from her stood Asher, like Cole’s very thoughts had summoned the shifter from his past. Except this Asher was older. There was a scar on his jaw that hadn’t been there when he left. Of all of them, Asher was the one who had escaped with the fewest scars.
Cole Page 3
