by Abigail Owen
“Who said anything about interrogation?” Now he could see where Cami got that whole innocent act she did, and maybe her stubbornness. “I want to know about your friend. Is that too much to ask?”
“It’s fine, Cami,” Drake said.
Cami grimaced and Mrs. Carrillo’s eyebrows shot up practically to her graying hairline, probably because of the nickname, but Drake pretended not to notice. He could handle a curious mother without being a total dick, if that was her concern. Not his preferred way to spend an afternoon but being here was as much about helping Cami situate her family for after she left as it was about protecting her. Something he could relate to.
Mrs. Carrillo led them into the house, and Drake paused on the threshold as Cami’s shoulders rose and fell on a deep breath. Suddenly he was happy that he’d saved this place. At the time, after leaving Cami and her family safely on that road, he hadn’t known why he’d stopped to save the house or create a fire line around as much of their pasture as he could.
But he’d done it for her, and he couldn’t not be glad.
Over the odor of smoke, Cami’s jasmine scent filled the air. Like she filled this house. Other human scents blended with hers, those of her family, but he was surrounded by her here. That wasn’t what had him pausing, though. The way his dragon eased inside him and his muscles unlocked as that smell surrounded him, that had him hesitating.
What was wrong with him?
He forced himself to continue following the two women down a long hall off which they passed a small office behind French doors, and a formal dining room before reaching a large great room that was a combination kitchen, family room, and breakfast room space. The house itself reflected most of the stucco houses in this area of California. But the inside was all Carrillo. They’d decorated in all natural wood tones, giving a rustic feel, but proudly displayed their Mexican heritage with pieces of furniture and mementos on the walls that he knew, based on the age of the items, had to have been passed down through generations.
Cami had told him that her family had been here since the time of the Spaniards. The splashes of color made the house feel warm, lived in, like a home with history. The antiques made him think of his own family’s history, pieces his brothers had kept. Drake and Lyndi hadn’t been able to bring much with them when they’d come here via long months on a boat crossing the Atlantic Ocean centuries ago. Did Lyndi wish they had? Ridiculously, he found himself missing that physical connection to the past.
After getting them some water, Christina Carrillo sat them all down on one of the worn leather couches in the family room.
She smiled around a sip from her glass. “So…where are you from, Drake?”
Cami rolled her eyes then looked at him like, I warned you and you said you could handle this.
For his part, Drake cleared his throat and settled in to satisfy the curiosity of a mother. An hour later they’d covered his family, his job—the usual story of a hotshot firefighter, but he incorporated looking to get into ranching now. They’d discussed how his parents were both gone but he was one of eight, and his hobbies. The hobbies he’d had to make up since he couldn’t very well tell her his involved flying, fighting, and fire.
Footsteps outside caught Drake’s attention, and the sound of the voices beyond indicated more of Cami’s family had arrived. He pretended he hadn’t heard as her mother talked about Cami’s childhood. The sound of the door opening had all three of them getting to their feet.
Cami with a little relief. Not that he blamed her. Christina Carrillo had been going on and on about Cami’s make-believe friend as a child. A boy named Doug. He’d disappeared when her sisters had been born.
“Do we have guests, Christina?” a familiar male voice sounded down the hall. A second later, the recognizable figure of Cami’s father appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood several other men and women of varying ages, a few of whom he recognized, including Leo with crutches and a walking boot cast.
Cami’s father stopped at the sight of her, blinked, then grinned and crossed the room to yank his daughter into his arms for a long hug. “Mija. Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”
“She wanted to surprise us,” her mother answered.
“Of course she did.” The head of the Carrillo family held Cami back by the shoulders as if inspecting her for damage. They smiled at each other, in perfect harmony.
This was so different from his family who’d tended to be more formal, more distant. Except Lyndi.
Then her father shifted his gaze over Cami’s shoulder to Drake and every trace of his smile disappeared. Releasing his daughter, he held out a hand to Drake. “Miguel Carrillo. Cami’s father.”
Drake clasped the man’s hand with a firm grip, like he hadn’t ever met him before, careful not to apply the extra strength the gods had graced shifters with. “Drake Chandali. Cami’s boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Christina Carrillo’s smile could’ve lit a moonless sky. Then she turned accusing eyes on Cami. “You said he was just a friend.”
Drake didn’t look away from Cami, who stared at him with wide eyes full of questions. Almost like his declaration had surprised her. But they’d talked about this. She seemed to give herself a shake. “I didn’t want him to feel any pressure,” she finally said.
“You don’t think he can take meeting his girlfriend’s family?” Miguel asked.
Cami and Christina both rolled their eyes in identical expressions of exasperation. “No, Papá. That’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“We haven’t been dating long. That’s all.”
But the frown tugging her father’s thick, black brows down over hard eyes had Drake jumping in.
“But you should know that I am in love with your daughter, sir. I have only honorable intentions as far as Cami is concerned.”
Across from him, Cami flashed him a look somewhere between shock and warning even as a sweet mauve crept into her cheeks. In all their interactions, she’d never blushed before. Her reaction only fed his own, because the second the words were out of his lips, they didn’t feel like a lie to set her family at ease.
They felt like the truth.
Which counted as the stupidest fucking thing he’d ever thought. Cami was meant for someone else. Hopefully he’d be dead before she found that someone else. That was something he didn’t particularly want to witness.
Miguel’s expression didn’t lighten exactly, but the hardness in his eyes changed subtly to one of respect. Still tinted with suspicion, so more convincing would have to happen in that quarter, but progress.
“Let me show you to your room.” Christina Carrillo broke the tension with the offer.
“Room?” Cami and Miguel asked at the same time. Miguel shot Drake a glower as if this was his fault. Drake kept his mouth shut.
Christina didn’t even blink at her husband’s glower. “They’ll have to take the twin beds in Valerie and Isabelle’s room since the girls are at school. We can move Leo to the pullout couch in the office. With the rest of the family staying here until we can rebuild, every other space is taken.”
Cami tossed him an imploring look this side of desperate.
Drake grimaced and jumped in. “I’m fine on a couch, Mrs. Carrillo.”
“Please call me Christina. And no, unfortunately, the only couch that opens to a bed is already taken, and too small for you anyway, and you won’t fit on the two that don’t fold out. The twin, which is an extra-long, is the only option.”
“They are not married,” Miguel pointed out. As if everyone in the room didn’t already know.
Drake turned to the man and looked him straight in the eyes. “You have my word that I will be a perfect gentleman with your daughter.” After Cami shutting things down in the car, he should be able to stick to that. But he intended to spend most nights on patrol, making sure she was safe. Re
move that temptation and do his fucking job as protection.
After a long stare down, Miguel grunted.
Being familiar with grunts, Drake knew he’d won this round, not that Cami’s father was happy about it. He gave a nod to indicate his thanks for the trust. “I’ll go get our bags.”
Before anyone could offer to help, he left the room, giving the family a chance to argue it amongst themselves.
As he walked to the car, information his senses were picking up gradually penetrated his thoughts, and his steps slowed until he stopped, tension coiling his muscles back up like overwound springs.
A familiar scent drifted on the breeze. Above the still heavy scent of smoke and scorched earth. Above the fresh bite of pine needles from the trees that had survived. Over the top of the sweeter scents of the women close by, and the sweat of the men from their work.
Nidhogg. That green motherfucker.
The Alaz enforcer team’s lead interrogator. Drake had got up close and personal with the man when the enforcer team had held him, along with Titus, Hall, and Aidan, for questioning after Sera’s escape. He could never mistake that scent. Smoke, like most dragons, but along with something overly sweet, like a diabetic’s breath when their blood sugar was up too long. Now it blended with something sour, like skunk, but still unmistakable.
The way the guy had enjoyed those brutal sessions with him, when the Alliance had thought they were in on Sera’s disappearance, despite all evidence pointing to Rune, wasn’t something Drake was likely to forget only a few months later. Decades wouldn’t erase that one.
Nidhogg was close.
Why the fuck was he here? Close to Cami’s house? It had to be for a reason. Finn’s team already finalized the investigation of this particular fire since it occurred in their territory and they’d put it out. Had the Alliance decided more was needed? Taken over? Sent another team? If they had, that meant that they didn’t trust Finn or the Huracán team.
Shit.
Drake shoved his hand—the one that should bear the mark of the High King but no longer did—in his pocket. If Nidhogg was nearby, seeing the lack of the brand which marked Drake as a rogue would not end well. Why a dead man was walking around alive, and sort of well, was already a hurdle.
“Drake?” Cami’s voice from inside the house caught him on the raw.
He hadn’t closed the door behind him. It took a fuck ton of effort to hide a grimace behind a semblance of a stiff neutral expression, or as much as he could manage as he turned to face her. As close as Nidhogg was, the likelihood he’d heard Drake’s name on Cami’s lips was high. Would he check? Find Drake here with humans?
That, in and of itself, wasn’t against their laws. Many dragons took human women as lovers for short periods of time.
But what if the Alaz Enforcer figured out Drake had located a mate? That Cami existed and the Huracán team hadn’t reported it to the Alliance? Luckily, Cami’s smoky scent blended with the lingering odor of the fire. That should mask her for now. But they wouldn’t have long if Nidhogg dug deeper. Except now they couldn’t run, either, or the Alaz team would know for sure.
I need to warn Finn.
Chapter Thirteen
Drake coasted over the tops of familiar trees and stuffed the poignant ache of nostalgia down deep, because this wasn’t home anymore.
“It’s me.” He cast the thought to all his team members, including the newbies, not sure who would be on guard duty tonight. “Don’t take me down.”
“What the hell are you doing back? You’re supposed to be dead.” Hall’s voice, as dark as the others but more grating as far as Drake was concerned, was unmistakable. Of course, that was who would be on duty.
“Which way do you want me entering?”
He knew exactly where Nidhogg was. It had taken him twenty minutes to track the fucker down to what Drake assumed was a vacation home not in use by the owners. Close enough to keep tabs on both the Carrillo ranch and the Huracáns. Drake had still been careful and, after circling back several times, had come in from the south, assuming the secret entrance that led directly into the bottommost levels of their mountain base would be preferred.
“We changed the password after you left,” Hall said. “Good riddance and all that.”
Seriously? They had bio scans, not passwords. Hall was going to start in on him already?
“Shut it, Hall.” Finn’s darker tones penetrated Drake’s mind next. “Back entrance. We’ll meet you in the war room.”
“Got it,” Drake relayed back.
“Hall, swap out with Demyan,” came Finn’s next order.
“Yes, boss.”
Drake landed in the small clearing near the back entrance and took a precious extra few seconds to shift. Then he shook out his right arm which was tingling in a very real threat of going numb. The renewed tingling was a warning that perhaps the reprieve from his disease would be short-lived. A fact that only strengthened the suspicion floating around in his head about why his body had so miraculously improved.
He didn’t want that reason to be true, but it was becoming harder to deny.
Bedtime had been accompanied by a lot of grumbling from her dad, like Drake would try anything with them right there to hear every creak, every moan. Because if he was going to make Cami moan, it would be loud.
Shit. Get Cami moaning out of your head.
With grim determination, he approached what appeared to be an old, large black oak tree, but a hidden panel showed his way into the mountain. A quick palm scan and a massive door opened, like the rock in front of him was a garage door. He stalked down a long dark passageway, one large enough for a dragon to fly through, barely. Levi, being a gold dragon, and larger than the rest of them, barely made it. Drake wasn’t going to attempt shifting again just yet, though, so he went on foot.
Gods, it even smelled familiar—with nothing much alive in the dark, the air turned crisp and clean with a steady heartbeat of rock and earth underlying. Rune’s hideout in the Andes had been similar, but somehow not the same. The scent wrapped around his heart like a fucking boa constrictor.
Fuck.
Up a level and a few turns later, he could hear his teammates long before he made it to the war room. The second he walked in the door they all shut up and stared at him.
He stopped inside the room to survey them. Rivin and Keighan sat side by side in office chairs in front of a console of monitors—way more sophisticated than Rune’s setup. Likely one of them pulled war room duty tonight while Hall was on patrol, and the other hadn’t left his buddy alone. Kanta stood to the back of the room, his forest-green eyes steady and calm as always. Levi stood beside Finn, arms crossed, both Alpha and Beta grim, if the hard set of their jaws was anything to go by.
“What?” Drake asked. “No hugs?”
The second the words were out of his mouth he wanted to squash them like bugs. Especially when Kanta’s eyebrows shot up. Why would he even bring up the concept of hugs? Maybe Cami was rubbing off on him. Which was bad on so many levels.
“We’ll give you hugs, man.” Rivin jumped up from the desk chair he’d been lounging on.
As usual, Keighan wasn’t too far behind. “More than hugs if you want to bring a woman into it.”
Both the white dragons made like they were going to embrace him. Drake crossed his arms and glared, which had them stopping, their grins fading.
Keighan shook his head. “Mixed messages, man.”
“Not cool,” Rivin said.
“I’d like a hug, though.” Delaney’s voice preceded her into the room, coming from behind him. She didn’t give him a choice, wrapping her arms around his waist so he had to put his own arms somewhere. “I know it hasn’t been long, but we’ve missed you around here.”
Drake held back a growl of irritation that her words struck a chord in his heart but gave her a quick squeeze of th
anks.
She stepped back and looked him over thoroughly. “You’re looking better.”
“Better than what?” Hall slid into the room with a grin. “He’s still a sour-faced fucker.”
Drake ignored him. “Where’s Lyndi? At her house?”
After the way he’d left so abruptly, he’d take a second chance to say goodbye.
Finn grimaced. “She’s out with Mike and Coahoma on a small fire that popped up.”
Well, shit. Seemed like he couldn’t win for losing. Better get on with why he was here then. “Sorry to just show up. We have a bit of a problem.”
“We figured.” Finn stepped forward to tug Delaney to his side. It had been over a year since they mated, but that wasn’t long for shifters, and he was still uber possessive of her, eyeing Drake in a way that almost made him grin. He could’ve let his Alpha know that hugging Delaney was nothing like hugging Cami, but no way was he copping to that.
“Why are you here?” Finn asked.
As succinctly as he could, Drake told them about the mate he was with, her family situation, and bringing her here to help them. Then wrapped up with Nidhogg’s presence. “Either the Alliance or the Alaz team or both are checking our work, doing their own investigation, or they followed me,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the latter.”
Not given the way Skylar had sent them. He’d left that part out.
“That was a damn idiotic thing to do, letting her come here,” Levi muttered. “Isn’t the point to protect those mates?”
Drake aimed a glare his way. Usually Levi was the laid-back one of the group, though not as zen as Kanta, more happy-go-lucky. “I don’t think you get it. She was leaving with or without me.”
“Then fucking stop her,” Levi snapped.
Hall whistled. “Be glad Lyndi wasn’t in here to hear that.”
Drake barely caught the aside as he stepped into his Beta’s space, hands fisted at his side. “She’s not a prisoner,” he snarled.
Levi jerked back, surprise rather than anger flaring his eyes with gold flames. Then he held up both hands. “Okay, okay. Better to be around to help. I guess I get it.”
