by Riley Storm
It took her several long seconds after Valla trailed off for Liz to clue in to the meaning behind his words.
“We,” she said at long last. “You said, that ‘we exist’. Not that ‘they’ exist.”
Valla was silent, letting her work through it on her own.
“You’re one too,” she said at last, watching his face for any sign of a lie, or confirmation, or…or anything really.
“Yes.”
Again, she couldn’t detect any semblance or source of a lie. Either Valla was much better at it than she thought, or he was telling the truth. Another thought came to her abruptly, one of many, but she latched onto this one.
“And Victor?” she asked tentatively.
Valla nodded slowly. “He too.”
Which meant… “Cheryl,” she gasped, standing up. “We have to tell Cheryl! She needs to know the truth of—”
Liz hadn’t realized she was heading for the door, but when Valla’s long arm snagged her by the waist, holding her still, she realized she’d started for the exit.
“She knows,” he said, his arm not moving, not allowing her to leave.
Her course for the door was abruptly forgotten as more revelations sank in. “She knows. Cheryl knows.” Liz repeated that over and over again, stepping back and sitting down on the bed rather heavily. “She knows, but she didn’t say anything.”
The weird look that Cheryl had given her at that first meeting where Valla had shown up suddenly clicked into place. As did the times Valla had spoken about ‘humans’.
“So, you’re aliens,” she said, thinking she’d reached the right conclusion. “From where? Mars? Jupiter? Another solar system?”
Valla’s face contorted in confusion. “What? No. Not at all. I’m from earth. I was born right here in Plymouth Falls, thank you very much.”
“But…a dragon,” she said weakly.
“Yes. I can change into a dragon, as can my brothers. They aren’t literally my brothers, we share no parents, but, being that we’re all the same species of shifter, it’s easier to think of it that way.”
“Right. Of course. The same species? Are there more?”
Valla sighed. “Yes. Sometime in the fourth century, during the decline of the Roman empire, something happened. Only the elders or rulers of the various species have any idea of what, and they don’t share that information lightly, so don’t ask. I don’t know myself. But shifters burst into the scene. Five sub-species, each dividing themselves up into their own Houses.”
“Five?” Liz asked, hardly believing her own voice.
“Yes. House Draconis, the dragons. House Ursa, bears, House Canis, the wolves. The three of us are the most powerful. Two smaller groups, House Panthere, notoriously private, is composed of big cats. Lions, tigers, panthers, etc. The last is House Raptere.”
“Let me guess. Raptors. Birds of prey?” she supplied.
“Yes, though not all are what you might expect.”
Liz found she really didn’t have the energy to pursue that line of questioning any further.
“So, you’ve all been here for what, sixteen centuries, by my math? How has nobody figured out you exist yet?”
Valla bit his lip, shrugged, and then quite obviously forged ahead with an answer he hadn’t wanted to give.
“We are but one part of a larger world that most of humanity does not know of. Not only are they blind to our presence though, Liz, they want to be blind. To be oblivious. Nobody wants to know that they might be living next door to a troll, or that a group of mages lives across the way. That the tracks made in the forest aren’t from any natural group of wolves, or any number of other things exist. Your legends tell about us about our world in a way that educates you to what we’re like, while insulating you from the reality that we do exist. Because people don’t like what they can’t understand,” he said softly.
Suddenly, Liz understood it all. The secrecy, the hiding away from humanity.
“The witch hunts,” she said.
“That…that was something else,” Valla said uncomfortably. “Part of a long-running war between shifters and mages that only ceased a little over a century ago.”
“Oh,” was all she could say.
“This is becoming too much for you, isn’t it?” he asked quietly. “How are you holding up? Do you want to get some food, let this knowledge sit for a bit?”
Liz nodded, feeling slightly discombobulated, not really noticing the movement of her head even as her vision swung up and down. “That would be nice.”
Even her voice sounded distant, uncomprehending.
“Come, let’s go. We both need to eat anyway. Especially you.”
It wasn’t much. So slight, she might not have noticed it normally, but after he finished speaking, Valla hissed. Her head swung up from where she’d been staring into nothing at the floor, once more focusing on him. What was it? What had he…
“Valla,” she asked, the world snapping into place about her with startling alacrity.
“Yes?”
“If you’re a dragon…then what is growing inside of me?”
She was pregnant. Which is why she “especially” needed to eat. Fuel for two, as so many had been saying.
I’m pregnant with Valla’s child. Valla, who is a dragon.
“A child, Liz,” he said, coming over to her and crouching down to be able to look at her straight on.
She noticed he didn’t reach out to touch her and appreciated that. There was no telling how she might react just now while she absorbed everything.
“A human child,” he went on. “In human form, at least. We don’t begin to manifest our powers until puberty.”
“I see.” Anger started to fester in her. “And just when were you planning on telling me all this, Valla? When were you going to break the news that my child is one day going to turn into a dragon?! Don’t you think that’s somewhat critical information that I as a mother should perhaps have?”
Valla rocked back on his heels. “Yes,” he said. “I do think so. But look at it from my side of things, Liz. Think of the lengths I and my kind must go to, to keep ourselves secret, the things we have done to prevent humanity from knowing we exist.”
Liz started to protest, but her brain, damn its rationality all to hell, started to process what he was saying.
“I didn’t know you,” Valla continued. “At all. Imagine how it would have gone if that day in the hallway at your work, after you’d told me that you were pregnant, I had just casually told you that I’m a dragon shifter and so too will our child be one.”
She wanted to say that she would have processed it and thought it over. That she would have asked him for proof, and rationally accepted what she was seeing.
That’s what Liz wanted to say.
“How would you have taken that?” Valla asked quietly.
Neither of them spoke. Both knew the truth.
24
“I did what I did because it was necessary at the time,” he continued, thinking her silence indicated understanding.
Valla wasn’t proud of his actions, of denying her the full truth about their baby. He had wanted to tell her, to give her all the information, but she’d been so upset with him for not being around for the first three months, that he’d wanted to get past that before springing even more on her. As if motherhood wasn’t already enough for her to bear.
It wasn’t that Liz wasn’t strong enough. Valla had every faith in her ability to accept this new information, adapt, and learn to exist within the world it opened up for her.
But he hadn’t known that then. It had taken him time, and even then, his hand had been forced by another party before he was ready.
“So many people over the course of history have done what they thought was necessary,” Liz said quietly, still sitting on the edge of the bed.
“What would you have had me do then?” he asked, spreading his arms wide in defeat.
“I don’t know, maybe tell me the truth? Or how�
��s this, don’t up and disappear for the first three months of my pregnancy?”
Valla stood at that last, walking over to a closet. He removed a pair of sweatpants and a sweater, quickly tossing them on before digging deeper for another set, this time much smaller. He handed these to Liz, suspecting she wouldn’t want to get into her evening gown for breakfast.
“What are these for?” she asked, eyeing the drab gray material.
“Something comfortable to eat in,” he rumbled.
“So that’s it? Just like that? We’re done talking about this?”
Valla turned, giving her a stony look. “You need to get over the fact that I didn’t call you. Neither of us had any indication going in that there would be a need for me to. We both had an itch to scratch that night. I don’t know why you felt the way you did, but we had fun, then we went our separate ways. I did not intend to get you pregnant. That was not my plan, and when I left, neither of us knew. You didn’t know for weeks after, and I doubt you were wondering where I was each and every one of those days. Were you?” he said, challenging her to prove him wrong.
Liz remained silent, but her glare told him his point was hitting home.
“I don’t judge you for bringing me back to your place. Nobody is doing that, Liz. Except perhaps yourself. Yes, something happened, you got pregnant, I still don’t know how. Accidents, miracles, whatever you want to call them, they happen. It happened to us. But I did not abandon you for three months. If I had known, I would have been there from the start.”
“Would you have told the truth from the start?” she said, fires lighting in her eyes again.
Valla just looked at her, letting her know he didn’t consider the question worth answering. Especially as he’d already answered it.
Things weren’t going the way he’d hoped or planned.
Then again, what exactly did you have planned for this sort of occasion?
Even in the worst scenarios he’d run through in his head, they had all started with Valla initiating the conversation. None of them had included a random encounter that had left him totally unprepared and blindsided.
I should have listened to Aaric and Victor. Stayed here and only gone out looking for my mate. She wouldn’t hold it against me. Not if we were meant to be together.
Guilt at his actions, already tucked away in the corner of his mind, started to grow stronger as he gave it legitimacy. Not only had he potentially ruined Liz’s life, but now he was bringing a child into a world without the absolute best support system possible.
Valla didn’t want to have a fragmented relationship with Liz. He wanted to patch it up, to make it strong. Even if she wasn’t his mate, he still wanted to be on good terms with her. To co-parent—a term he’d learned in one of his books—their child with her. As a team, even if they weren’t a mated one.
Now all of that was in jeopardy.
“Come on, let me make you some breakfast,” he said, extending an olive branch. Perhaps, with some food, he could explain things further. Help assuage her fears which he knew were taking over, providing most of the source of the anger as she shielded herself from him, fearing more revelations that might turn her life upside down.
The worst part of it all was that he couldn’t blame her. Valla suspected that just about anyone exposed to the information in the method and manner with which Liz had been, would react the same way. Fear, anxiety, and a lot of doubt.
“This is exactly why we don’t reveal ourselves to humans,” he said as they walked. “You don’t understand us. You fear us. Many of you would try to hunt and kill us, thinking us abominations.”
“I don’t—” Liz started to say, but he sliced the air with a hand so sharply, she stopped abruptly.
“Yes, you do. It was written on your face when you asked what you were going to give birth to. A human, or one of us.” He shook his head. “I don’t blame you. Like I said, it’s the uncertainty that does the most damage. But even if I don’t hold it against you, it still hurts. We’re people too, Liz, but we live in fear, because if people found out about us, they would hunt us down. Kill us.”
“You’ve done a good job so far of hiding away,” Liz replied.
“Because we’ve taken extreme measures to hide,” he said heavily. “Things we don’t talk about. Won’t talk about. Because all it takes is one accidentally pregnant human woman to blab to the world about us because she can’t accept it.”
Liz stopped walking. “What do you mean by measures?” she asked quietly, holding her stomach protectively. “Do you intend to kill me?”
Valla snorted. “Preposterous. Absolutely not. We’re not murderers. We would never end a life.” He looked down, ashamed. “But we have taken them.”
“That…that’s the same thing?” Liz sounded confused.
“Not quite. By take them, I mean we’ve deprived humans of their ability to live the lives they wanted. We’ve taken their life away from them, by confining them here. Imprisoning them, effectively. It’s not something we do lightly, nor have we done often, but we do what we must to keep ourselves secret.” He did not meet her eyes at this confession, knowing the judgment he would find there, and unwilling to face it.
“I see,” Liz said softly. “So that’s what’s in store for me?”
Valla shrugged. “I doubt it. Although you’re reacting unwell at the moment, there is an inner strength in you that shines through. It will help you process it, to understand what is going on, and in time, I believe it will help you come to be at ease with it all. You may never forgive me, but you will keep our secret. I believe that.”
I have to.
“This is reacting badly?” she asked, surprised. “I thought I was doing rather well, considering, you know, dragons and all that. I haven’t run off, have I? Not fallen to the ground screaming, thinking I’m delusional. I’m right here, standing in front of you, well, walking beside you right now I guess, if you want to get literal.”
Valla had to admit, she was right. “I don’t have a lot of experience in this,” he admitted. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you are taking this well. It has to be a lot to absorb, doesn’t it?”
He thought back to when he’d been awakened, and everything he’d had to learn. It had taken Valla six months of solid focused learning to come to terms with everything, to accept the changes in the world, and to believe that the vampires were back, the biggest threat the shifters had ever faced, returned once more.
Liz, on the other hand, had been given a half hour so far, at best. Perhaps he was being a bit harsh on her.
“This isn’t how I wanted it to happen,” he said as they reached the kitchen. “I wanted to tell you. To break it to you as gently as possible, once I felt we had reached a point where you trusted me and didn’t hate me.”
Liz sighed. “I don’t hate you, Valla. I never hated you. Not really. It’s just that…”
He looked down as she hesitated. Without thinking, he reached out and took her hand in his, engulfing the small dainty thing in his giant paw. Then he gave it a squeeze. It wasn’t much, just a little bit of reassurance that he was there.
But it seemed to help.
“I’m scared, Valla,” she said, the truth coming out at last.
“I know,” he said. “Me too.”
“You are?” she asked, surprised.
He nodded. “Of course. I’ve never been a father before. I want to give my child the best possible life, to raise him or her properly, and do a good job. I’m terrified of screwing that up,” he said, looking away, unable to stare at her as he confessed his feelings. “How could I not be? I don’t want to let them down, and I don’t want to let you down.”
“Then just be there, Valla. Just be there. For me. For the child. That’s the best thing you can do.”
“I will,” he said. “I pr—”
Liz shook her head. “Don’t,” she said quickly, cutting him off. “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”
He frowned. “I promise,” h
e continued, overriding her protest. “I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make this world a better place for our child. That I will always be there when they need me.”
Liz bit her lip, but she was stopped from saying more by a soft cough from behind them.
Valla turned to see Francis standing at a respectful distance down the hallway.
“Go inside,” he said to Liz, ushering her into the kitchen. “Eat whatever you want. I’ll be there in a moment.”
He watched her go for a second, then walked over to the Keep steward.
“You have something for me?” he rumbled.
Francis shook his head. “No, I just wanted to eavesdrop on your conversation. Very nice words.”
Valla growled and swiped at the smaller man, but Francis was ready for it and already dodging backward. For a human, he was very quick on his feet.
Probably needs to be, with a mouth like that.
“Spit it out, Francis,” he said, shaking his head, half laughing, half wanting to throttle the insouciant little man.
“They’ve been spotted.”
Valla stiffened, looking over his shoulder at the entrance to the kitchen. His hearing picked up the sound of dishes clinking together as Liz busied herself with getting food.
He was going to have to leave her.
Again.
25
“Thanks so much for driving me,” she said, climbing into the back seat as Cheryl slipped into the passenger seat, joining Olivia who was already buckling up behind the steering wheel.
“Not a problem!” the cheerful little blonde replied. “Cheryl and I do this all the time. It’ll be so nice to have a third person to come with us sometimes now.”
Liz frowned. “I’m not planning on doing this on the regular,” she explained as the SUV backed out of the parking spot and headed toward the surface ramp at a leisurely pace.
The two women looked at one another, then back at Liz, and then they laughed.
When neither of them gave her an explanation, Liz frowned, first at Olivia, whom she’d just met, and then at Cheryl, who she considered one of her very close friends. “What’s so funny?”
