“Maybe,” Drake said. “But Griffin might not be all that happy to see us. Word is that he uses his shotgun to try to run off anyone who tries to come visit him.”
“That’s true,” Theo said. “But we’re not just anyone. We’re perhaps the only other shifters in the world who truly understand his pain. He knows that I know better than to dredge up the past for no reason. If he sees me, he’ll at least give me a chance to state my case. Whether he wants to help us after that, well, that’s anyone’s guess. But we have to try.”
Theo ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “It’s been a long day, and I need to get home and check on Maddie. She’s probably heard by now that there was a dragon sighting, and I’m sure she’s worried sick about me. She knows I wouldn’t shift in the middle of the day unless there was a serious reason for it.”
“How did you know I needed help?” Drake asked.
Zane laughed. “We were having a coffee at the café and saw you through the window. We knew you wouldn’t have shifted into a dragon in the middle of the day, either, unless there was a serious reason for it, so we came to help you.”
“How are we going to explain this away?” Levi asked. “You know how fast the gossip mill churns in Persimmon Springs. People are probably already freaking out about dragons and a panther on the loose.”
“Let’s blame it on Molly,” Zane said. “We can probably get away with doing that at least once.”
“Good idea,” Drake said, “If you think people will buy it.”
Molly was Zane’s lifemate, and a talented magician. She had become famous in Persimmon Springs for her magic shows, and was something of a local celebrity in that respect.
“I’ll have Maddie write up a story in the paper about Molly successfully performing a dragon illusion,” Theo said. “That should explain things away well enough to make the town settle down. After all, the alternative is for people to believe that dragons actually exist, and you know most humans have a really hard time with that. No offense, Kaiya.”
“None taken,” Kaiya said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
“I think that plan will work,” Drake said. Maddie was Theo’s lifemate, and owned the most popular local newspaper. If she printed the story about Molly in her paper, most people in town would probably accept the story at face value. “But what about the journals and going to see Griffin? When should we do that?”
“Can everyone get off work tomorrow?” Theo asked.
Drake nodded. As luck would have it, he’d left this Monday free from appointments so that he could take care of some of the business aspects of his dental practice. Business could wait, though. There were more serious matters at hand. Everyone else nodded, too. Even Kaiya piped in.
“I’m coming with you guys,” she said. “I can have my part timer cover the store tomorrow. She’s been begging for more work hours, anyway.”
“It might be dangerous,” Drake said gently. “We don’t know for sure how Griffin will react.”
Kaiya smiled at him. “I’m not scared,” she said. “And after tonight, I think you owe me one. I’m coming with you.”
Theo laughed. “Looks like you found yourself a spirited one there, brother,” he said.
Drake grinned back at him. “Well, then, she should fit right in with Maddie and Molly.”
“Fair enough,” Theo said. “Let’s all plan to meet at my place at dawn tomorrow. We’ll caravan over to Griffin’s place and keep our fingers crossed that he’s in a good mood. I’ll ask Max to tag along to, as long as no one has any objections to that?”
“No objections from me,” Drake said. “I have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Max was a tiger shifter who was Theo’s best friend, and he might as well have been family to the group. The Wilson boys all thought of him as a brother.
“Alright, good,” Theo said. “I’ll see you all in the morning then. Right now, I really need to get home to Maddie.”
“Yeah, Molly’s probably worried about me, too,” Zane said.
“I ain’t got no girl to worry about me,” Levi said with a grin. “But if we’re getting up at the crack of dawn I want to get home and get some rest. I’ll see you all in the morning.”
The group dispersed, leaving just Drake and Kaiya in the store.
“You should come home with me tonight,” Drake said. “You don’t have to sleep in the same bed as me if you’re still angry, but I don’t think it’s safe for you to be by yourself right now. It’s possible that the snake had friends.”
He saw Kaiya shudder. “I’ll come home with you,” she said, then gave him a devious look. “But you own me dinner and a bottle of wine. I need something to calm my nerves. I might even demand a massage.”
Drake grinned. “I think I can handle that,” he said. “Come on, let’s go.”
He followed her out of the store, and wondered for the thousandth time that day how he had been lucky enough to win over Kaiya Wallace’s heart.
Chapter Eleven
Kaiya peered out the side window of Drake’s truck, surprised at the steepness of the winding road, and at how thick the foliage had become. She hadn’t spent much time in hill country. Usually, when she wanted to go to a big city, she’d headed for the flat streets of Dallas. She’d heard that there were some beautiful spots outside of Austin, but she’d never made the time to come out and see for herself. Now, she was kicking herself for not coming out here sooner.
She shivered at the steady stream of cold air that was coming from the truck’s air conditioning, but she didn’t bother asking Drake to turn it down. Soon enough they would be at their destination, and the sweltering July heat would once again be making her sweat. Drake and Levi were riding silently in the front seat. The radio was crooning out the latest country hits, but no one seemed to be paying much attention to them. It was hard to think about anything else right now other than the dragon journals.
Ahead of them, Theo, Max, and Zane were riding in Theo’s truck, along with the journals. Drake had argued with Theo this morning over whose truck the journals should ride in, but Theo had eventually won that argument. Kaiya suspected it was partially because Theo was the oldest brother, and partially because Drake was still feeling badly for keeping everything a secret from his brothers. Drake didn’t want to rock the boat much at the moment.
Kaiya glanced at the reflection of Drake’s face in the rearview mirror. His brow was creased in a worried expression, and his eyes looked distant as they scanned the road ahead. She had been so angry at him yesterday, but her anger had faded quickly into sympathy. He was a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he was doing the best he could at the moment. He hadn’t intentionally left her open to harm. In fact, he’d been trying to shield and protect her. Kaiya didn’t understand all of the emotions that swirled behind his dragon eyes right now, but she knew he loved her deeply. There was no doubt in her heart about that.
She was surprised at her own ability to forgive him, too. She had never been the type to be patient with a man. She figured she was better off lonely and alone than putting up with some guy’s bullshit. But perhaps the difference was that, even though Drake fumbled and made mistakes, he wasn’t actually full of shit. He was a man with a deep sense of honor and commitment, and he was doing the best he could.
She felt her heart swell with love as she looked at his sculpted face. Even with such a worried expression, he was unbelievably handsome. She would have loved to have been alone with him right now, so that she could tell him to pull over and find a secluded spot off the road somewhere. She would love to kiss all of those worries off his face.
But now was not the time for reveling in her lover’s arms. They had work to do, and Kaiya had the feeling that she couldn’t fully understand how serious this situation was. All the talk of unicorns and dragons and protectors and shifter wars and secrets…it all seemed like some strange fantasy story to her. She was a bit surprised that
the men had let her tag along on this journey, but she got the impression that they were used to strong-willed woman by now. If their respective lifemates had requested to come along, Kaiya was sure they would have let them.
None of the other woman had wanted to come, though. Maybe that should have told her something, she thought ominously as the two-truck caravan continued to snake its way through the heart of hill country. Maybe she really was getting in way over her head.
Fifteen minutes later, Theo’s truck slowed ahead of them, and Kaiya saw that they were approaching a narrow dirt road. Drake carefully followed Theo down the road for a few more minutes, and the trucks stirred up so much dust that Kaiya couldn’t see much of anything out of her windows anymore. The road was barely wide enough for the men’s trucks to squeeze through, and it looked like it wasn’t traveled on very often. Kaiya figured the only place it led to was Griffin’s solitary home. She wasn’t sure how Drake and the rest of the men had even known where Griffin’s place was, since Griffin seemed like the type who would want to keep it a secret. But, somehow, the men in the group had known, and now they were almost there.
Kaiya felt the anxious, twisted feeling in her stomach growing. With every passing second, she was questioning more and more her decision to come on this journey. But it was too late for her to turn back now. She saw Drake glance at her in the rearview mirror, and her face must have given away her worries, because he reached one of his long arms back to gently squeeze her knee with his hand.
“You alright, Babe?” he asked, concern filling his voice.
“I’m fine,” she said. But her voice sounded strained, and she knew it. Levi glanced back at her, too, then. His eyes looked troubled, but he didn’t say anything. He gave her what she assumed was supposed to be an encouraging smile, and then turned around to face the road again.
Kaiya didn’t feel very encouraged right now, though. She felt like she had made a mistake by coming here, and that she was being too bold thinking she could hang with shifters. After all, she had only just discovered that shifters even existed. What did she know of their world? She had a lot to learn.
And she had a feeling she was about to get a hands-on lesson.
The trucks had come to a small clearing now, and Kaiya could see through the cloud of dust that there was a small cabin at the end of the clearing, nestled among the trees. She was still straining to make out the full outline of the place when she heard a loud voice shouting.
“This here is private property, and I don’t take kindly to visitors. You’ve got about fifteen seconds to turn those trucks around and leave before I start shooting.”
Kaiya felt her heart beginning to race with adrenaline. She couldn’t see much through the dust, but it was obvious that Griffin was standing somewhere near his cabin, and that he’d noticed them coming. It would have been hard not to notice them, of course, with the giant dust cloud billowing up behind them.
A shot sounded out, and Kaiya yelped and jumped as the sound startled her. But the dust was starting to clear now, and she could make out Griffin ahead of them. The gun was pointing straight into the air. It had only been a warning shot.
“Griffin, put the gun down,” Theo’s voice yelled from up ahead. “It’s Theo Wilson. We’ve got some news.”
Through the settling dust, Kaiya could make out the look of utter shock that crossed over Griffin’s face. He slowly lowered his gun, and strained to see who was in the trucks. Slowly, his eyes flickered with recognition.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “It is you. And your rascal brothers, too.”
“I’m sorry to show up so unexpectedly,” Theo said. “But we need your help with something urgent. Can we come in?”
Griffin threw back his head and laughed. Kaiya suddenly got the feeling that all his years of solitude had left him a little rusty on social skills, but at least he didn’t seem to want to kill them. That was a nice bonus.
“Get your asses inside,” Griffin said as he turned to head back toward his cabin. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot all of you to smithereens.”
Drake let out a long breath, and looked back at Kaiya with relief. “Looks like we’re safe, for the moment at least. You can wait out here if you don’t feel comfortable going inside.”
“Oh, stop being so overprotective,” Kaiya said with a grin. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
She hopped out of the truck and followed the men into the cabin. Despite her show of courage, though, she had to admit that she appreciated it when Drake slipped a protective arm around her waist. The cabin was dark inside, and Griffin looked like even more of a wild man up close. Even though the temperature in July frequently soared above one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, Griffin was sporting long shaggy hair and a thick, dark beard. He had catlike eyes, which Kaiya realized must come from his mountain lion side. She was beginning to realize that shifters retained certain subtle animal characteristics even when they were in full human form. That’s why the snake man’s eyes had been so cold and beady. Kaiya shuddered at the memory.
“What you got there?” Griffin asked, gesturing toward the box of journals that Theo was holding. Theo looked at Drake and nodded, indicating that he should explain to Griffin why they had come.
“I’ll cut right to the chase,” Drake said. “These are journals left for us by one of the unicorns, and we’re worried that troubled times are coming.”
Kaiya saw Griffin’s eyes widen and then darken, but Drake didn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he continued speaking, telling Drake the entire story of how the journals had been left by a unicorn shifter, but he hadn’t been able to decode them. He went over how the snake had come to try to find the journals, and that they weren’t sure whether there were more evil shifters after the journals, or why the information contained within might be so valuable.
“I tried to decode the writing,” Levi said. “But the language is too ancient for me to decipher. You’re the only one I know of who might be able to read them. Well, you or the unicorns. But we all know the unicorns are nearly impossible to find when they don’t want to be found.”
“Not impossible,” Griffin corrected. “Just difficult. I’ve done a fair bit of studying over the last few years on the subject of unicorn hunting. It’s actually quite a fascinating subject.”
Kaiya had to hold back a laugh at the looks of annoyance the others gave Griffin. Clearly, they weren’t all that impressed with his study of obscure subjects. Even Griffin seemed to notice their impatience.
“Right, then. But you didn’t come see me to ask about unicorn hunting. You want me to read the journals for you. Can I see them? I can certainly try to read them, but no promises. I know a lot of ancient languages, but not all of them.”
Theo had set the box of journals down on the small wooden table in Griffin’s kitchen. Now, he slid the box toward the man. “Have a look,” he said. “If you can’t read it, we might be needing your unicorn hunting skills, after all.”
Griffin grunted, as if to reprimand them for teasing him about unicorn hunting. Then he opened the flaps of the old cardboard box and pulled out one of the journals. He ran his finger across the leather on the cover, and whistled.
“I haven’t seen a journal of this quality in quite some time,” he said. “My dad used to have a few of these. The leather is treated with a special protective process unique to the shifter world. It’s becoming something of a lost art, which is sad. You won’t find leather of better quality anywhere.”
Drake gave Kaiya a sideways glance, and she met his eyes and smiled at him. While the rest of the men in the room were impatiently waiting for Griffin to stop blabbing about some strange leather treatment process and get on with translating the journals, Drake was clearly fascinated with Griffin’s intelligence. Kaiya was as well. The subjects Griffin had studied were numerous and deep. Drake and Kaiya both respected that, and they shared a private moment of appreciation for it when their eyes met. Kaiya was once again reminded of how much
she loved Drake. He was not perfect, but he was perfect for her. Her heart beat in her chest not from fear now, but from love and admiration. This world was new to her, and there were sides to Drake she still didn’t understand. But he was hers. Her man. Her prince. Her dragon.
Her attention was brought back to the present by a long, low whistle coming from Griffin’s mouth. “This is incredible,” he was saying, his eyes widening as his fingers traced over the neat lines of handwriting in the journals.
“What is it?” Theo asked, trying but failing to keep the impatience out of his voice. Griffin was so enraptured by the journals, though, that he didn’t notice Theo’s annoyance.
“Your dad wrote all these journals in Dracovitae,” Griffin said. “It’s the oldest known dragon dialect, and, until I saw this, I didn’t think there was anyone in modern times who could speak it well enough to be able to write more than a few sentences in the dialect. But your dad filled several journals full, it seems.”
Drake peered over Griffin’s shoulder at the journal, even though he had already studied the pages for hours. The words were certainly just as nonsensical to him now as they had been the last dozen times he looked at the page. But the fact that Griffin at least recognized the language gave hope to everyone in the room.
“Can you read it, then?” Levi asked.
Griffin looked up at Levi and laughed, as though Levi had just asked him if he could walk on water.
“I know enough to know how to translate it, but it will be a slow, tedious process,” Grant said. “I would guess it would take me at least a week to work through it.”
Kaiya heard Drake let out a sigh of relief beside her. Of course, they wanted to know as soon as possible what the journals said. But just the fact that Griffin thought he could translate them at all was welcome news. If Griffin had run them off, or had not been able to recognize the language, the group would have been at a very real dead end.
“That’s fine, Griffin,” Theo was saying. “Take your time and be thorough. I don’t think whatever is in there is anything particularly time sensitive. Otherwise, the unicorns wouldn’t have waited so long to show up and give us the journals. We’re just glad you think you recognize the language.”
Lone Star Secret (Shifters in the Heart of Texas Book 4) Page 8
