The Snow Leopard's Christmas Surprise

by Emilia Hartley

  Drystan left him standing there, the world spinning around him. Gareth leaned forward, placing his hands on the wall to steady himself. Distantly, he could hear the dial tone of Drystan’s cell phone as he began to call in his favors. His leader detailed exactly what needed to happen to the local law enforcement. Gareth wondered who his leader knew on the police force.

  Gareth pulled his fisted hands from the wall and slipped out the door while Cameron was trying to talk sense into Owain, Drystan’s father, as the old dragon shouted his opinions and no one listened. Gareth’s house was caught in chaos. No one heard him softly close the door behind him or start his truck, even.

  He would go to Rhiannon. He had to make sure that she was safe. He couldn’t trust his human connections to help her. Humanity had been failing her for as long as she’d been alive. It was a chance he couldn’t take.

  Chapter Twelve

  Her old partner jerked the van door open and shoved her inside. Distantly, Rhiannon could hear Maggie shouting at someone, but she couldn’t hear what was said because the van door shut in her face. The world around her grew dark. The van’s engine roared to life. She looked up and realized that she was alone in the van with Everett.

  Dread settled over her as she realized what his intentions were. Wilson must have whispered in his ear. That, or she’d put her foot in her mouth earlier. She did, in fact, know everything Wilson and Everett, by proxy, had done recently. She knew their dark dealings and their communication with the white dragon.

  That meant he couldn’t afford for her to make it to detainment alive.

  “I see you realize what this means,” Everett said.

  She swallowed hard. She wished her beast would rise through the silver, but all she could feel inside of her was the stormy sea that was her stomach. Everett’s foot connected with her stomach and she collapsed, gasping for air. Her chest was on fire. The feeling of being human again was crippling.

  “You don’t want to do this,” Rhiannon rasped. She bit back the bile rising in her throat. “We are still friends. We’ve known each other since we were teens. Our history has not changed.”

  Everett knelt beside her, his face twisted in an angry sneer. “You lied to me through it all.”

  Rhiannon laughed, tired and exasperated all she could do was laugh. Everett didn’t seem to agree. His hand struck her face. Her cheek burned.

  “Wilson lied. He lied to me. He lied to you. Do you know that I dug a silver implant out of my arm a week ago? This is as much a surprise to me as it is for you.”

  Everett paused, his entire body going still while he processed her confession. “You’re lying again. Wilson warned me that you would lie and slander his name.”

  Rhiannon let her head fall against the cold metal of the van’s floor. “Wilson was the man that raised me. Or, did you forget that? I lived with him most of my life. Do you really think that I planned on infiltrating GOE at the tender age of three?”

  “Stop. Lying.”

  Rhiannon just had to keep talking. Maybe Everett wouldn’t believe her in the end, but if she could keep him from killing her on the way to GOE headquarters, then there was a chance she could get through the rest of the day alive.

  “Wilson stole me from a pair of dragon ambassadors that died thirty-three years ago. He had a piece of silver implanted into my arm and over the years, without the dragon inside of me, and with Wilson’s upbringing I forgot what I actually was. That doesn’t mean I am any different from the girl you grew up with. I just realized that I was on the wrong side of the moral line.”

  “Did you forget that a dragon nearly levelled our city years ago? One dragon came from the wilds of Wales and set Bangor on fire for no reason. They are evil creatures that will stop at nothing until they see humanity dead or enslaved.”

  “Is that really true? If it was they why haven’t the dragons actually done anything in the past decades? If they wanted to destroy humanity why haven’t they done so already?”

  Everett paused, the answer not waiting on the tip of his tongue this time. He was forced to mull over her words in order to submit a rebuttal. Rhiannon knew that her words wouldn’t instantly turn him to her side, but it made him think. Everett was a smart man. He joined GOE to make a difference, to protect people from the chaos and disaster of the Occurrence.

  Outside the van, Rhiannon could hear the wailing of sirens. The van made a sharp turn and her body slid across the floor until her back jammed into the metal leg of the bench seating. She hissed in pain.

  The sirens followed them, familiar even though they were muffled. Was the GOE van being chased by the local police? It was impossible. GOE ranked above the PD. Still, the sound of the following sirens brought a small amount of relief to her, lifting the hand that had been clenched around her heart. She shoved herself into a sitting position and turned her head up toward her old partner.

  He looked down at her with indecisiveness in his eyes. Here sat the beaten and bruised woman that had been his best friend for years, his lover for months, and the person that had his back since they met.

  “I’m not going to sit here and fight for all dragons. It’s clear that Raphael and his gang of brutes are up to no good, but nothing they’ve done so far has even been against humanity. They hate the red dragons for living in a place that they think is their rightful home. The red dragons are just trying to live in peace. They have mates and families.”

  Everett sank onto the barely padded seat, his hands in his lap. Rhiannon felt a jolt of surprise. Had she managed to sway his mind, after all? It felt far too easy after what she’d gone through. That was when, through the dim light in the van, she noticed the weapon in his hand. He looked down at it, his shoulders slumped.

  His eyes moved toward the van doors, the sound of the sirens growing louder by the moment as other cars joined the chase. Soon, the van would be forced to stop. Everett raised the weapon and aimed it at Rhiannon. She felt her heart stop.

  This was it. She was going to die by the hands of a friend. In that moment, all she could see were Gareth’s sad eyes. She was sorry that she never had the chance to see if she could love him. She was sorry that she threw away the opportunity to live a long life with him. She could only hope that her death would be questioned. That Everett and Wilson would finally take the blame for their actions.

  But, she sat there with her eyes closed for several long moments. Daringly, she cracked an eye open. Everett’s hand shook and tears brimmed his eyes.

  “Really?” she sneered. It was a familiar jeer that the two shared. “No bollocks, eh?”

  The weapon fell to his side. He released a breath. “Apparently not. You’re giving me an existential crisis, you know.”

  Rhiannon laughed, relief a cold rush through her system. “You have no idea.”

  Everett banged his fist against the metal partition between the driver and the van cab. The van slowed to a halt, Rhiannon rocking forward at the sudden stop. The doors flew open after a moment. Everett took the time to holster his weapon as though he never pointed it at her.

  Outside, four PD cars sat with their lights blazing. An officer approached, his weapon trained on Everett. Another appeared beside her, a phone in his hand. She raised her bound wrists to grab the offered cell phone.

  “Here,” Everett said as he attempted to stand.

  “Freeze,” the officer with the weapon demanded.

  “I’m not here to hurt her. I just want to unbind her so that she can hold the phone properly.”

  Rhiannon studied Everett’s face, wondering if she was ready to let him near the tender veins in her wrist with a sharp object. There was nothing but honesty presented to her. She nodded and the weapon fell to point toward the pavement so that Everett could lean forward and snap the rope and silver zip tie that bound her.

  Like a rush, her beast surged forward. It took her breath away, making her chest tight. She was forced to take a moment to close her eyes and assure the beast that they were safe now. The beast di
dn’t want to lie down and die for all of the enemies surrounding them. It took a while to convince the beast that there were no more enemies. Rhiannon had made sure of that with her words.

  Eventually, she reached for the phone without opening her eyes for fear of showing the gold in them. She put the phone up to her ear and managed to squeak a hello into it.

  “Fuck me,” Gareth breathed on the other end. She was nearly sure she knew what he was feeling in that moment. It was the cold wave of relief she heard in his voice.

  “You’re telling me,” she said in return. “I’m alive and in one piece. Not even a scratch on me.”

  She sat there for a while, just listening to Gareth breathe on the other end of the call. She was sure that he was doing the same, relieved that she was still alive. Eventually, a police officer directed her out of the van and into their custody. Everett and his driver were cuffed and pushed toward a police cruiser. Rhiannon couldn’t help herself. She broke away from the officer and ran toward Everett.

  “Promise me,” she began. “Promise me that you will testify against Wilson and Raphael. Show the city that they aren’t in any danger from the dragons on the Territory.”

  Everett didn’t speak for a long moment. She was afraid that she’d lost him when the cuffs were placed on his wrists. Then he nodded. Her heart fluttered inside her chest.

  “I won’t let either of them get away with ruining more lives,” Everett said. “He’s already fucked our lives up enough.”

  Rhiannon laughed with her former partner as they directed him into the caged seat of the cruiser. Another officer appeared by her side and directed her toward the ambulance waiting to serve her. She refused aid, because she, truthfully, didn’t need it. Once the silver was removed from her wrists, her beast sped up her healing. The bruises from Everett’s attack were already gone.

  A familiar face broke through the crowd, shouting her authority for all who stood in her way. Maggie rushed toward Rhiannon once she spotted her through the thick crowd of uniformed bodies.

  “You get to come with me,” Maggie informed her. “Drystan is evacuating the Territory until this blows over. If it ever blows over.”

  “What do you mean? Evacuating?” Rhiannon hissed.

  Maggie held a finger to her lips, pointedly looking at the people around them. “We cannot afford to stay where we are. Drystan has ordered a retreat to a place that we know will be safe.”

  “Even after we have Raph and Everett in custody? Everett agreed to testify against Wilson and Raphael.”

  Maggie shrugged. “Tensions will be high for a while to come. We can afford to wait out the testimony.”

  Rhiannon looked back at the commotion that she had caused. Police cruisers had silenced their sirens, but their lights still flashed into the sky. All of this just to save her, a dragon they’d only known for a short while.

  Another face appeared in the mingling bodies that made Rhiannon’s heart flip. She turned back to Maggie and shook her head. “I’m not going to hide. I’m staying right here and I’m going to show the city that I am not a threat.”

  She pulled away from the woman who was trying to suppress her smile of pride. Rhiannon slipped between the commotion to find her way to Gareth. He waited, leaning against his beat up pick-up truck.

  “Take me home,” she said, running a hand through her knotted hair.

  He pushed forward, ready to explain that there was no more home. She shook her head before he could speak.

  “Let’s go back to my place. I’m staying here in the city to show them that I will not be a threat. If that doesn’t work, all attention will be on us instead of the missing red dragons.”

  Gareth made a face of appreciation. “Sounds like a good idea. Am I still sleeping on the deck?”

  Rhiannon laughed and felt joy rising in her chest. “Not anymore big man.” The joy faded as she realized that she would have to tell him the truth of her body sooner or later. It might as well be sooner. But, before she could speak, he closed the distance between them and captured her mouth in a hungry kiss.

  His arms wrapped around her middle, protective and possessive. After the afternoon she’d had, she didn’t argue. She felt safe for the first time in a long while. A sharp pain of regret spiked through her heart at the thought of what she was about to do.

  She put her hands against Gareth’s chest to push him back, but didn’t look up. She couldn’t bear looking him in the eye as she did this.

  “What’s wrong?” His fingers gently brushed her hair back from her face.

  “I have a confession to make,” she whispered. His body stilled for a moment. “When I was a teenager a doctor told me that… He told me I would never be able to conceive children. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I really should have. This isn’t a small thing. I know that.”

  She babbled on, but before she went too far, Gareth pulled her into his body. His lips fell on hers. His hand moved to cup the side of her face, his thumb wiping away a tear she hadn’t realized fell. When he pulled back, she was breathless.

  “It doesn’t matter to me that you can’t bear children,” he whispered to her as though she were the only person in the universe. “All that matters is that you survived this day. All that matters is that I get to sleep by your side tonight and for the rest of our lives.”

  She felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Her head fell back so that she could look into the endless blue of his eyes. She could see the soft sadness in his gentle smile. Her news had impacted him, but he was determined to let nothing come between them. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rhiannon spent the next few weeks trying to make her presence in the city known while, also, trying to seem harmless. It was a careful mix of action, most of which placing her at the hearings that Wilson and Everett were facing. Agents and officials that worked for GOE cast wary looks in her direction. They were people that she worked with and knew most of her life. Now, they treated her as though she might attack at any moment.

  She refused to live up to their expectations. The dragon shifters were not animals.

  This city needed to see that. She hoped that, eventually, the world would see that, too.

  Wilson cast dagger like glares in her direction, effectively erasing the years of tough love that he’d shared with her. Everett, on the other hand, was more welcoming to her presence. That earned him Wilson’s cold hatred, too.

  She and Everett were in this fight together. He was following through on his promise. He told the truth about Wilson’s dealings with Raphael, the white dragon. He confessed that they knew Raph was a white dragon the entire time and had done his bidding more than a few times.

  Raph and two of his dragon friends were being held by GOE, bound with silver ties that effectively made them near human. She knew what that must feel like. She knew the helplessness that Raph must be going through behind those bars. Or, what he should have been going through.

  When they brought him to the hearings to speak, he sat silent. He refused to speak. He refused to look defeated in the least. He showed no signs that he understood the predicament he was in. It made Rhiannon wonder what was left up his sleeve. Certainly, no one would look in the face of the enemy and sit so confidently if they didn’t have a plan B.

  Rhiannon thought about it while she sat on the edge of her tub. A line of tests sat around her bathroom sink. She stared at them while she wondered what Raphael still had planned. It seemed that the future was unpredictable because the impossible happened several times over in the past two months for her. First, she learned that there was a beast curled up inside of her. One that was currently looking in the same direction, pleased and content.

  Gareth paused as he passed the bathroom door. He back tracked and turned to face her. She could hear his heart pounding with fear.

  “What’s wrong?” Fear was palpable in his voice. That was understandable. Last time he’d seen her like this she’d bled all ov
er the small room.

  “I’m…” she paused. How did she tell him this? How did she tell him the unthinkable happened?

  Gareth closed the space between them, his hands instinctively searching her for wounds. With a small smile on her lips, she gently pushed him back so that she could look up at him. His brows knit together at the sight of her soft smile.

  “I’m pregnant,” she blurted out. Her face warmed, embarrassed by her own clumsy communication.

  He very carefully stilled around her. She could see the mirth in his eyes, but he was still wary. She didn’t understand his mixed emotions. It made her stomach do anxious flips.

  “Is this what you want?” he whispered to her.

  She pressed her lips together. A million thoughts rolled through her mind, tumbling one over the other so fast that it was hard to keep up with all of them. Instead of thinking, she turned to how she felt. She inspected the overall emotion that filled her. There was a warm feeling that filled her, crackling at the edges with nervous excitement.

  “I can’t tell you how this could have happened. I was told that I was barren. Yet… I think I’m okay with this,” she confessed. “I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would become a mother, but a lot has happened that I didn’t see coming. I’m living a whole new life.”

  “We should see a proper doctor to confirm this,” Gareth said as his eyes roved over the pregnancy tests that ringed the sink. “I know what the doctors told you before, but what if that was caused by the silver in your body? What if your body refused to reproduce because it wasn’t completely functioning?”

  Rhiannon weighed his words. They made sense. For humans, it was hard to become pregnant if there was stress or sickness in the body. The silver could have very well had the same effect on her body, inhibiting its functions. But it brought about a whole new set of unknowns.

  There was still so much to come. GOE might have come to their senses, but the white dragon clan were still out there. They wanted Snowdonia for themselves at any cost. If they couldn’t push the red dragons out, then they might very well attack. Rhiannon’s hand hovered over her stomach. Could she bring a child into that?