“Erik, Dillon, and I designed a clan tattoo,” she said.
Startled, Casey’s attention snapped up to her again. His lips slowly parted. For a moment, he looked like he might not like it. Then, he broke into a grin.
“Well, fit me into your schedule because I need one, too.”
She squealed and clapped her hands together while Casey laughed. He stood and put an arm around her shoulder.
Evangeline had resigned herself to a life with either horrible men or no men. She never expected to meet Casey, so strong and yet so gentle. The way that he held her, his fingertips never far from hers, made her think he felt the same. He no longer threatened to leave, no longer warned her that he wouldn’t be able to stay.
He’d found roots here, and she would forever be grateful for Casey and the others were like family to her now.
She hoped none of her roots came back to bite them. While she loved this town and her shop, she knew she had ties to less than savory characters. Trevor hadn’t made much fuss lately. She’d been certain that he would try to get her back for the tire incident. His silence made her nervous.
Whenever he disappeared, he would come back worse. He would come back with a temper, with a vendetta against her. She wanted to think that he was gone from her life forever, but she’d been so lucky in finding Casey. Surely, her luck had run out, and it was only a matter of time before Trevor tried to get payback.
If she still had an ounce of luck, he was busy sabotaging her shop. If Trevor broke anything, she could pay to replace it. Casey could help her fix broken windows and busted walls. It was her new family that she worried about.
So long as Trevor stayed far away, then everything would be alright, and they would be able to focus on what really mattered.
Gavin’s father.
* * *
Casey hated the fear that had crossed Evangeline’s face when he mentioned the upcoming fight. There had been no taking it back. His only option had been to move forward and really take in what she’d wanted to show him.
She’d gone and gotten a tattoo…
He’d thought he would be alone for the rest of his days. Gavin had up and left him. Zander had betrayed him. Just when Casey had resigned himself to an empty life, Evangeline came in and blessed it. She brought color back into his black and white world.
She’d gotten a tattoo.
His mate had bound herself not only to him, but to this small clan. He couldn’t have been prouder of her.
Neither of them had seen her ex for days. Casey thought they were finally done with Trevor and his antics. She and Casey could start a fresh life. He’d already applied for a business license. Evangeline had raised a drink to him, pulling Erik and Dillon into the celebration.
To have a future, he and Evangeline needed money. He had one skill, so he might as well put it to work. The first thing he wanted to build was a house for the two of them. No more living in the small apartment downtown. No more trying to keep quiet in Gavin’s cabin.
Casey had looked at some places, but he hadn’t made any decisions. Evangeline needed to be a part of them. He wanted her to see the plots, see his designs, and make sure the drive back and forth to the Grumpy Sailor wasn’t too bad.
That night, he curled up behind her in bed. His skin touched hers, their breathing rising and falling in unison after making love. His beast had gone quiet. Everything about Evangeline put him at ease.
So, when he woke in the middle of the night, he figured his beast had roused him because Erik needed help again. Casey pressed a quick kiss to Evangeline’s temple before slipping away. No cries pierced the silence like they had the night before. Casey strained to listen, but he heard nothing.
No, that wasn’t right. He heard a truck heading toward the cabin. He wondered why Erik had gone out this late until he went downstairs and found Erik’s truck in the driveway.
Casey’s beast snarled. The sound ripped through his thoughts, tearing him away from any and all questions so he could see the headlights heading toward the cabin. His beast heightened his hearing until he caught a hint of voices, all rowdy and possibly drunk.
He shook his head and went back inside. His beast had laid claim to this part of the mountain and wanted to protect it, but he couldn’t protect the drunk locals from themselves. They would find their way home, one way or another.
For a second, he paused and debated giving them a hand. He would have to shift, and if they saw him, he could give away his identity and put the others at risk. As much as the thought of their impending accident soured his gut, Casey had a family to protect now.
He spared a moment to check the skies for Gavin. If the man lost control of his beast again and decided to screw with the drunk locals, that could cause even more problems. He saw no sign of Gavin, beast or human.
Casey went back to the room he shared with Evangeline. She stirred, strands of pink hair falling over her face, and reached for him.
“Where did you go?” she whimpered.
Casey crawled in beside her and wrapped her in his embrace, but his beast’s hackles refused to lower. The creature was still on high alert, but Casey couldn’t figure out why.
“I’m just a little restless,” he told her as he smoothed her hair away from her face.
She blinked, but in the end couldn’t keep her eyes open. He thought his beast would settle when she rolled into him and buried her face in his chest, but the creature refused to stand down.
Casey told the beast that there weren’t threats around every corner. Just because they had a mate now did not mean they needed to be on full alert. The beast grumbled at him. Fire built in his throat. Casey swallowed it down and grimaced at the pressure in his chest.
Evangeline was fine. She was in his arms, safe and sound. Perhaps his beast worried about Gavin, but Gavin was an adult. Whatever mess he got himself into, he could find his own way out of it. Casey knew he’d never let that happen, but he wanted to sleep and was willing to tell himself anything just so the tightness in his chest would go away.
“Burn the bitch down with the rest of it!”
Casey shot upright, sleep still clinging to him. He didn’t know when he’d dozed off, only that danger had come while he’d been asleep.
The smell of smoke, familiar and acrid all at once, drifted through the window. Light danced oddly against the far wall. Casey leaned to peer outside, ignoring the ache behind his eyes as they adjusted to the bright fire.
Fire.
He frantically woke Evangeline, telling her she had to get up and move. He needed to get her out of the house before more of it caught on fire. His thoughts were of her and not whoever had set the cabin ablaze, though his beast rose with a growl in its throat. He would save that anger for after, for when Evangeline was safe.
“You fucking bitch!” someone screamed outside.
The shout was accompanied by howls, men having fun as they destroyed the cabin. Casey heard the crunch of wood breaking. Shattering glass soon followed, and a fireball erupted not long after. Casey heard a chorus of cheers.
The drunk locals had made their way to them, and Casey knew exactly who was at the head of the operation.
Trevor.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Evangeline’s words slurred together until alarm shook her awake. She blinked and peered around.
Smoke poured into the hall. The air heated around them. While Casey was unaffected by either because of what he was, Evangeline hunched and coughed beside him. The tremble that shuddered down her spine made his beast want to roar.
He couldn’t break through the window and snap Trevor’s neck. Not yet. He needed to get Evangeline to safety first, but he didn’t know if any part of the cabin would be safe. The façade burned. The fire would reach inside; it would eat away at the walls until they collapsed around them.
“What the hell is going on?” Erik asked, devoid of his usual sunglasses. He stood in the hall, wearing nothing but boxers and a mask of rage.
> “Humans,” Casey said. “Probably packing Molotovs and some pent-up anger.”
Soon, Dillon appeared as well. The large man blinked and peered around.
Casey sent them outside to deal with the humans. Evangeline coughed again, and the sound threatened to rip Casey’s heart in half. Panic made his beast feral. He snarled at Erik and Dillon as he passed them because they weren’t already moving. They launched into action as he passed.
Casey needed to get to the trucks out front. If he could get Evangeline into one and get her onto the road, then he could handle the humans outside.
But, just as Casey and Evangeline reached the side door, a roar shook the house. Gavin’s dragon swooped overhead and unleashed a spray of fire over the humans. Casey pulled his mate into his arms, spun, and put his back to the flames.
Heat licked over his skin. It would have burned Evangeline.
Rage filled him. His hands trembled as he tugged her along. He wanted nothing more than to pull Gavin out of the sky and fling him into the gaggle of angry humans, but he couldn’t.
“Can you drive?” Casey asked his mate.
She opened her mouth to respond, but the fresh air sent her into a fit of coughs.
He swallowed back his anger and waited beside her. “Small breaths. Your lungs are hurting. Don’t overwhelm them.”
* * *
Panic made her heart race. Her chest hurt, burning from the inside out. Tears stung her eyes and made it so she could barely see.
Even though Casey spoke, the only voice she could hear was Trevor’s. He screamed obscenities, all of them aimed at her even though she was still hidden out of sight. How he knew she was at the cabin with Casey, she didn’t want to know.
Her apartment was probably trashed, but that was nothing compared to the state of Gavin’s cabin. She blinked away her tears only for pain to bloom across her skull as she took in the bright flames licking the cabin.
This is my fault.
Evangeline had thought that fate had prepared her to love Casey and deal with his family, but now she doubted everything. Fate couldn’t have meant for this to happen. Guilt churned in her gut and brought fresh tears to her eyes.
“Can you hear me? Are you okay?” Casey bent to look her in the eye.
She nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks.
For a moment, Casey’s attention went skyward. A strong wind buffeted them. She had to throw her arms up to protect her face.
Casey straightened and called out, “Dillon. Erik. Forget the assholes. Contain Gavin.”
Evangeline’s jaw dropped. She looked up to find a familiar shape circling overhead. Light sparked around his muzzle, and Casey cursed.
Before she could move, Casey swept her into his arms again. Light flashed around the landscape. Heat crackled in the air. Trevor and his friends screamed, but she couldn’t see what was happening.
This was a disaster. All because of her.
Casey pulled her along, keeping his body over hers. They reached the trucks and slipped between them. Inside Casey’s truck, he flipped down his visor and a key fell out onto her lap.
“Get away. Get as far away as you can.”
She gaped. “I’m not leaving without you!”
He pressed his lips into a firm line, shook his head, and backed up. She wanted to say more, but he closed the door on her and sprinted away.
Outside the windshield, Trevor turned toward Casey. Evangeline cried out as Trevor lobbed something in their direction. Casey snatched the object out of the air inhumanly quick. Evangeline swallowed, gripping the keys with shaking hands.
She didn’t want to leave. This wasn’t a shifter fight. It was just her dumb ex and his drunk friends. There had to be something she could say to make them leave and end this madness.
Casey’s silhouette was a dark shape against the flickering flames devouring the cabin. Beyond him, Trevor snapped out of it and pointed a finger past Casey.
At Evangeline.
Casey shot toward Trevor. Evangeline caught movement beyond them. She cried out as another dark form lifted a shotgun. The blast was muffled inside the truck. Or, maybe her outcry had muted it. Casey paused. She threw the door open and leapt out.
She got two steps before Casey threw his hand back to stop her. He straightened and raised his chin.
“A shotgun doesn’t mean shit to me,” Casey growled.
The bass vibration in Casey’s voice brought the men to a halt.
Fire lit across the skies. Gavin raced toward them. Evangeline’s heart leapt into her throat. She told herself to run, but her feet refused to move. She couldn’t believe how useless she was in this situation. When Gavin’s father came for the men, she would be just as useless.
Before Gavin could reach the ground, two shapes crashed into him. A blue dragon, built like a brick wall, clung to Gavin’s side and dragged him down to the ground, away from Casey and Trevor’s posse.
Evangeline heard Casey’s sigh of relief. Her attention flicked back to her mate. He rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck before taking a step forward. One of the human men raised a shotgun in warning.
“This wouldn’t have had to happen if you could keep your pants buttoned!” Trevor shouted at her.
Rage burst inside her like a fireball. Evangeline crossed her arms over her chest. “If he punches you, he’s going to snap your neck. Fuck off now, before…”
She so did not want to say before we have to dig a shallow grave for you, but that was the only thing running through her head. The night was on fire, everything turning to ash in her hands. She could tell that Gavin was not acting right. Casey was being smart. He was fighting on two legs, without the aid of claws or flames that his beast could offer.
Casey was trying to protect his secret.
Evangeline searched for Gavin and the others, fearful of what else could still go wrong. If Trevor and his friends didn’t leave now, they could become dragon food. When the men disappeared, authorities would come looking for them. She didn’t want cops sniffing around in the business of dragons.
Evangeline realized, in that moment, that she was all in. Despite her fear and hesitation, she loved Casey and his friends. This was her new family. It didn’t matter that Gavin had shit to work through. It didn’t matter that they didn’t always get along. She wanted to be there while they grew closer. She wanted to make this family bigger, make it happier.
“Trevor!” she called out. “Go home and I won’t tell the cops that you committed arson. I know you don’t want to spend the next few years in prison.”
Trees cracked. The sound echoed through the yard. Movement caught her eye again. This time, it was the trees in the distance as they fell. Light flared between them. Roars shook the earth beneath her feet, growing more intense as the fight came nearer. Soon, Gavin would plow through the humans.
Through her, if she couldn’t get herself to move.
Not that Casey would allow Gavin to trample her. She might have been afraid before, but there was nothing like having her ex come and set a house on fire to make her realize what she should have feared all along.
14
Casey’s heart thumped, counting the moments until Gavin crashed through the truck full of humans. If Dillon and Erik couldn’t contain him, then Trevor’s cronies could get hurt. They were a liability Casey couldn’t have. Not when he’d just applied to start a business.
Evangeline tried to reason with her ex, but the commotion behind Trevor had distracted him. The humans all quieted and turned toward the source of the sound. Silence washed over them as they watched Gavin come barreling toward them.
Casey waited for Dillon and Erik to stop him. Any moment, Dillon would send Gavin off course. Any moment…
Neither appeared.
Fire glowed between Gavin’s teeth. There was no mistaking what Gavin was now. Before, he’d been nothing more than an ominous shape in the distance. Casey had hoped that Trevor and the others were consumed by their destruction and hadn�
�t seen Gavin.
They stared at him now. One even tried to lift his shotgun, even though his hands shook.
“If that didn’t stop me, do you really think it will stop him?” Casey snapped.
His own shotgun wound had already healed. He didn’t tell the humans that’d it hadn’t hurt any worse than hot grease splatter. He didn’t think their egos could handle the blow while they faced down a monster that should have existed only in myth.
Casey charged past the humans, toward Gavin. Casey braced himself. Should he catch Gavin with his bare hands? Or should he shift? Indecision caught him. His beast begged to be set free, but he didn’t want to frighten Trevor’s posse into doing anything stupid. He didn’t know what they’d do if another dragon appeared in front of them.
As it was, they didn’t know that the beast racing toward Casey was Gavin. They saw only a dragon, not a man.
Casey stared Gavin down. Once upon a time, they’d been inseparable. Then a chasm had opened between them and filled with leagues of anger and confusion. Anger that they’d both been abandoned. Neither knew how to cross what now separated them. Now that Casey had a mate and Gavin still grieved his loss of one, it would take even longer for them to reconcile.
Casey could only hope that Gavin recognized him as they crashed together. Maybe then Gavin would hold back. The impact made Casey’s feet sink into the earth as he flew back. Human shouts filled the air with chaos.
Behind Casey, the group scrambled to safety. To his right, Gavin’s house continued to burn.
While he pushed back against Gavin, he wondered where Erik and Dillon had gone. Gavin’s scales bit into Casey’s palms, slicing his skin open. Casey clenched his jaw and shoved back. Gavin didn’t move far. The scales only slid further into his hands.
Human skin was far too fragile. Casey felt like wet tissue paper in a tornado. Gavin would tear through him if he didn’t shift.
“You don’t want to do this, buddy!” Casey said.
Gavin was too far gone, eyes rolled back like he was nothing more than a wild beast.
Rogue Dragons Series: Box Set Books 1-5 Page 13
