Dragon Waves: A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance (Dragon Island Hideaway Book 2)

by Rinelle Grey

  And then he’d messed it all up.

  He cursed himself for taking a stupid risk. He should have known that shifting that close to the resort was a mistake. It had never even occurred to him that Audrey might be anywhere nearby. That anyone might.

  He’d acted on a whim, just as he’d had when he’d been a kid. He’d thought he’d outgrown all that years ago, but apparently not.

  Apparently, being around Audrey had made him reckless.

  It should have made him more cautious. He’d known that it wouldn’t take much to shake her trust in him, and yet, he’d stupidly let out the biggest secret he had. Of course she was never going to forgive him now.

  “Hayrian, are you there?” Rowan’s voice floated up the stairs.

  He was the last person Hayrian felt like talking to. Did the hassles at the resort never end? He didn’t feel like dealing with them right now. He just wanted to wallow in his misery for a little while.

  “Come on, I saw you come in. I know you’re there,” Rowan persisted.

  “I’m on a break,” Hayrian called out. “I can have a break, right?”

  Rowan opened his door without knocking, and not for the first time, Hayrian felt irritated at the lack of privacy in this house. No one else seemed to feel the least need for it. But he always had. That was part of the reason he’d built his little hut. But even that would never feel the same again. He’d never be able to go there without thinking of Audrey.

  “I just wanted to let you know that Damrian and Zara are back,” Rowan told him. “So yeah, take a break if you need one. Sorry this week has been so hectic. You’ve really gone above and beyond.”

  He gave Hayrian a long, searching look, as though he knew something was up. Something more than Hayrian was letting on. But he didn’t say anything more.

  Hayrian felt bad for snapping at him. He heaved a sigh and dropped the phone face up on the bed. “Yeah, it has been pretty crazy. It’s good that Dam is back though. That’ll make things a little easier. How are you coping?”

  Rowan never complained. He was always cheerful, no matter what any of them threw at him. But Hayrian suspected that he must stress out when no one was looking, even if he didn’t show it.

  Sure enough, there were lines of strain around Rowan’s eyes, even though he smiled. “Oh, you know, it’s never ending. Nothing major, just a whole bunch of small things. We’re going to need to write up an ad for a new photographer. Wendy’s mum is going to need around the clock help for at least six months. And I have to chase up a few deliveries. I have no idea why there’s always something missing every time we get a shipment.”

  Hayrian frowned, an idea coming to him. If it had been only a few hours earlier, he would have suggested Audrey for the photography job. But now he suspected she wouldn’t want to stay anywhere near the island. She wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him.

  If he offered it to her, there was no way she’d accept. She’d probably think he was bribing her or trying to convince her to forgive him or something.

  But despite her anger at him, he still wanted to help her. He’d seen the expression in her eyes, when he’d suggested that she could actually make something of her photography, a light of hope and dreams mixed with fear.

  He wanted to show her that anything was possible. Even if she never spoke to him again.

  But he was going to need help to do it, which meant telling Rowan at least some of what was going on.

  “I think I may be able to help you on the photographer,” he said slowly.

  Rowan raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been watching tutorials? I’m not sure that’s really going to cut it long term.” He sounded amused.

  Hayrian gave a laugh. “No, not me. I’m not that crazy. But one of the guests has some photography skills. And I happen to know she’s looking for a new job. I’m not sure she wants to stay here, not now anyway, but… well… I’d like to make the offer. Or at least, I’d like you to make the offer.”

  Rowan was staring at him, curiosity on his face. “Is this the woman who was with you at your hut this morning? Why don’t you ask her yourself? I hear you two were pretty cosy.”

  Hayrian raised an eyebrow. “Where did you hear that?”

  This time, Rowan gave a grin. “It’s a small island, Hayrian. People talk.”

  He shouldn’t have been surprised. But he was. Especially that Rowan hadn’t let on earlier. Now though, his brother was watching him expectantly, waiting for the rest of the story.

  Hayrian hesitated. He should tell Rowan everything, especially the bit about Audrey knowing he was a dragon, but somehow that felt like betraying her. She’d insisted that he could trust her, that he should have. If he made a fuss about her knowing the truth now, it would just confirm his lack of trust in her.

  So even though it went against everything he’d ever been taught, he just said, “Yeah, I really liked her, but it didn’t work out. She’s pretty mad at me.”

  Rowan raised an eyebrow, but Hayrian just stared at him, refusing to elaborate. Eventually he said, “Well, I might need a little more than that to go on. At least a name.”

  That drew a slight laugh from Hayrian. “Her name’s Audrey. She’s in cabin seven with her friend Eliana.” He hesitated for a moment, then retrieved his phone. He wanted to make sure Rowan really pushed Audrey. He suspected she was going to need it. “These are some photos she took earlier today.”

  He showed Rowan all of them, even though they were private.

  Rowan stared at them all, his face expressionless, then he looked up at Hayrian. “She’s good,” he said quietly. “I’ll see what I can do.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Do you want to talk?”

  Hayrian gave a short laugh. “No,” he said honestly. “But thanks for the offer.”

  Rowan meant well. If it were him, he’d want to talk. But while Hayrian could talk all day about trivial nonsense, when it came to actually talking about his feelings with his family, that he wasn’t so good at. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. Rowan couldn’t fix this. No one could.

  “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.” He hesitated for a minute, then added, “Do you want something to take your mind off it, or would you prefer to take that break?”

  Hayrian heaved a sigh. That probably meant there was something Rowan needed help with, but wasn’t game to ask for right now. If Damrian was back, he could manage it, but the reality was, sitting around and dwelling on his problems probably wasn’t the best plan. “What is it?”

  “We have a boat coming in this afternoon. A VIP. Someone will have to meet him.”

  Hayrian raised an eyebrow. They did sometimes have private boats bring in visitors, but usually they had a bit of warning.

  At least it might distract him from thinking about Audrey. “Sure. Do you know who it is?”

  Rowan shrugged. “Some Senator. Mark Harris, I think his name was.”

  Hayrian was about to nod and move on when something about the name tickled the back of his mind. It was familiar somehow, but why? Then he remembered. “That’s one of the senators who was on TV talking about dragons,” he pointed out. “And he wasn’t too flattering.”

  Rowan frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure. I heard it while we were getting the snake from bungalow nine, remember?”

  Rowan still didn’t look convinced, so Hayrian pulled up his phone and flicked through until he found a report on the news mentioning his name in conjunction with the dragon negotiations going on down south. “Here.” He showed it to Rowan.

  His brother’s forehead furrowed. “That’s not good. I wonder what he’s doing here? Do you think someone suspects us?”

  Hayrian couldn’t help feeling a little concerned too. Especially considering his earlier conversation with Audrey.

  She couldn’t be behind this, could she? It seemed a huge coincidence, considering she’d found out he was a dragon only an hour or two ago.

  But no, even if she had gone straight b
ack to her room and phoned someone and told them, there was no way that a big wig politician could be on his way here by now. This had to be a coincidence.

  For the first time, Hayrian had an inkling about why Audrey had struggled to trust him so much. Trusting people was hard. Especially when circumstances kept giving you reasons to doubt those closest to you.

  “I don’t see how they could,” he told Rowan. “This is probably a coincidence. Why don’t we see how it goes?”

  Rowan nodded slowly. “Okay,” he agreed, “but I think perhaps we should both go and meet this guy. Just in case. I’ll go ask Audrey about this job, then meet you there.”

  Hayrian wasn’t in the least bit sad to have company.

  Just in case.

  Chapter 17

  Audrey was exhausted by the time she arrived back at her room, both physically and mentally. When she’d been searching for Hayden, the walk through the bush had seemed fun and exciting. But the trip back wasn’t nearly so uplifting.

  She had to admit, she’d cried at least half the way. And the other half, she’d kept wondering if she should turn around and go back, maybe listen to his explanation. She’d half hoped he’d catch up to her and insist she listen.

  But he hadn’t, and she’d made it back to her room without seeing anyone. Which was good, because Audrey was sure she was a mess. Her face was red from crying, not to mention hot from the walk back. She just wanted to have a shower, and then curl up in a corner and cry.

  It wasn’t so simple though. Eliana looked up when she came in the room, and her friend’s face fell. “Audrey, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I just need a shower,” Audrey tried, brushing past Eliana into the bathroom.

  But Eliana followed. “Is it Hayden?”

  Trust Eliana to guess, although it probably wasn’t that hard. “It’s over,” Audrey said flatly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Eliana though, wasn’t going to let it go that easily. “What happened?”

  Audrey stared at her, no idea what to say. She couldn’t tell her friend the truth, even if she’d wanted to. Despite being angry at Hayden for not telling her that he was a dragon, keeping this secret was obviously important to him, even more important than the way they felt about each other.

  No matter how angry she was, she couldn’t do that to him.

  As much as she wanted to hear an outside opinion, to hear someone else tell her that she’d done the right thing, she couldn’t. So instead she just said, “He lied to me.” That was the truth, anyway. That was what this was all about.

  She wasn’t angry at him because he was a dragon, she was angry at him because he hadn’t told her.

  Eliana raised an eyebrow. “What about?”

  Audrey winced. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  But Eliana never did know when to shut up. “It must have been something pretty big, for you to not be speaking to him about it,” she guessed. “Did you find out that his parents own the resort?”

  Audrey turned to stare at her. “You knew about that?”

  The real secret was far bigger, but she was still surprised Eliana knew that much and hadn’t mentioned it to her.

  Eliana shrugged. “Sure, Ryan told me. It’s common knowledge around here. And it’s really not such a big deal you know. Maybe he wanted to be sure you liked him for him, not for the mountains of money he must have. You know, like one of those billionaire romance novels where the hero lies to the heroine about being rich.”

  Audrey couldn’t help raising an eyebrow in amusement, despite her pain. “This is not a romance novel, Eliana. This is real life. And in real life, people tell each other about who they really are before getting involved. Lying isn’t romantic.”

  In some ways, Eliana’s guess wasn’t really so different to the truth. The facts might be different, but the reason Audrey was upset was the same.

  “Come on,” Eliana cajoled. “This isn’t the same as Mark cheating on you. Hayden’s still the same man, whether he’s rich or not.”

  The truth of her words hit Audrey hard. Was Hayden still the same man even though he was a dragon?

  Was that what she was really afraid of?

  The existence of dragons was so new in the world that no one really knew what they were like. Audrey had probably heard more facts about them than many since Mark occasionally talked about his meetings with them.

  All of his thoughts about them were negative, of course. Mark hated change, and the dragons definitely signalled a huge change.

  Was her anger at Hayden really a fear that he wasn’t who he said he was?

  Could she really blame him for lying to protect his family?

  The only reason to do that would be if being a dragon changed something fundamental about who he was.

  But she’d seen no change in him once she knew. Yes, he’d been huge and blue and flying around the cove, but once he’d transformed back into human form, he’d been the same person she’d known these last few days.

  When she’d challenged him, he’d tried to reason with her. And when she’d stalked off, he hadn’t even tried to force her to listen.

  No, Hayden the dragon was no different to Hayden the man. He was the same sweet, caring, kind man she’d fallen in love with.

  Her heart ached at the thought. That was the real problem. She’d fallen in love with him.

  Just what Eliana had warned her against. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “I’m going to have to leave him in a few days anyway, so this is probably easier…”

  Then she burst into tears, belying her words.

  Eliana looked stricken. She stared at Audrey for a moment, then came across the room and put her arms around her friend. She hugged her for a moment, patting her back, then as Audrey’s sobs eased, she said slowly, “Maybe I was wrong.”

  Audrey was so surprised she looked up at Eliana. “What?”

  “That’s what I’d do,” Eliana admitted. “But maybe it’s not right for you. What if you could have made this work somehow? What if you’re giving up your one true love?”

  Audrey gave a gulping laugh. “I don’t believe in true love, Eliana. You know that.” It was right up there with superstition, the idea that everyone had only one person in the world they were destined to love.

  But Eliana stared at her, her face perfectly serious. “Maybe you should.”

  Audrey shook her head in amusement. “That’s crazy.”

  But for some reason, the idea wouldn’t be dismissed that easily.

  What if Hayden was her soulmate? It had certainly felt amazing when they were together. And she’d felt a connection to him she’d never felt with anyone else.

  Was she making the biggest mistake of her life?

  The soft knock at her door set Audrey’s heart racing. Was it Hayden? If he’d turned up at right this moment, was that a sign that they were meant to be together?

  She shook her head and wiped her eyes. That was crazy talk. But the idea lingered.

  “I’ll get that,” Eliana said, but she paused before moving. “If it’s him…”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Audrey said quickly. A little too quickly.

  But when Eliana opened the door, an unfamiliar man stood there. Though there was something familiar about him.

  “Can I help you?” Eliana asked.

  “Are you Audrey?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

  Eliana glanced over at Audrey and the man followed her gaze, his expression sympathetic for some reason.

  Oh, yeah, her tearstained face was on full display. Well, he’d have to live. “I’m Audrey. Is there something wrong?”

  “Uh, no. Just the opposite actually. I… ah… I’m Rowan.” He held out his hand.

  Mystified, Audrey stepped forwards and shook it automatically. What was this about?

  His next words gave her the answer. “I’m Hayden’s older brother.”

  Excitement warred with uncertainty in Audrey’s chest. Her he
art thumped, and her hands shook. “Oh,” was all she could manage.

  Eliana put her hands on her hips and stared at him a little accusingly. “What do you want?”

  Rowan glanced up at Eliana, then back to Audrey. “Actually, I wanted to offer you a job.”

  Audrey stared at him in shock. She hadn’t expected that. She’d thought he might try to plead his brother’s case. She’d even wondered if she might let herself be swayed. But this…

  “Hayden showed me some of your photos,” Rowan said, “And he’s right. They’re stunning. Our photographer just had to leave on short notice. I can understand if you’re not interested, but at least take a look.” He handed her a folded up piece of paper.

  Audrey took it, but didn’t open it. She was still trying to take this in.

  Had Hayden suggested this to keep her on the island, thinking she’d change her mind about him? Or was it some attempt to get her invested in the resort so that she wouldn’t reveal his secret? She searched Rowan’s face, but she saw no sign of suspicion in his eyes. Surely if he knew, then he’d be pushing her more?

  Did she blame Hayden for wanting her to stay? When he’d come up with such a sweet, thoughtful way of doing it. He’d managed to find an offer that not only kept her on the island, but proved that he supported her dream.

  “I’ll look at it,” she offered, needing some time to think more about this. To try to figure out what it meant. Not to mention what she wanted to do about it.

  Rowan nodded, but didn’t move. He stared at her for a few moments before saying, “Look, I don’t know what happened between you and my brother, but…” he broke off, searching her face for a few moments. “But he’s a good guy,” he said simply. “And sometimes… sometimes he puts his family and his responsibility ahead of what he wants for himself. This resort would fall apart without him around.”

  Audrey couldn’t help giving a laugh at that. “I bet it would.”

  Rowan smiled too. Then his expression grew serious. “He wouldn’t show it, but he’s pretty cut up about things between the two of you.”