by Roxie Ray
I pulled over, parking my truck at the curb between two houses and thanked Carlos. I was in the middle of sending her a text when Maverick called. I finished it quickly, just asking her to call me and answered.
“Hey, Mav.”
“Stefan, I’m at the manor with Dad. We found out more about Tyler and Harley’s dad. Can you come over here?”
“Yeah, but she called—”
“I know. I think she’s safe. If I’m correct, she’s with a cousin of her father’s. And her grandmother knows far more than she’s let on.”
My mind churned with that news. “I’m on my way.”
I sent one more text to Harley, telling her I was going to Maverick’s and to call me when she could. I had to trust that she’d told Carlos the truth and that Maverick knew something more. I didn’t want to suffocate her, no matter how many times Eros growled that we needed to go to her.
The drive to Maverick’s went by without me noticing as I wondered what in the world Harley’s Nana could know that she’d been hiding. The next thing I knew, I was parking in front of the manor.
I jogged up the front steps and Maverick opened the door before I knocked. “Come in,” he said.
James sat on the sofa visible from the entrance. We walked through the foyer and into the living room. He stood and held out his hand. “Stefan. Good to see you.”
“Thanks. Forgive me, but what in the world is going on?”
James sighed. “I’ve been keeping secrets. Part of it was intentional, part was accidental.”
The springs in the armchair squeaked as Maverick settled into it, drawing my eye. “Sit, it’s a long story.”
James offered me a cup of coffee, which I declined. I didn’t want a drink, I wanted answers.
“Richard Addison, Harley’s father, was a dragon in Black Claw when Mav was a kid. Axel might remember him, but I doubt it. We had more non-clan dragons here back then because we had no alpha. A few times, we had alphas try to muscle in, but I managed to keep them at bay.”
He was a beta, but a strong man. Being the local sheriff probably hadn’t hurt.
“Richard was a good kid. But he got mixed up with some bad rogues that had drifted in. I was trying to get them to move on when they found him and realized he was an alpha without a clan. I didn’t know his history. Never found out. But he challenged me for the territory.”
“What did you do?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine trying to challenge the man. He might’ve been a beta, but he was a force to be reckoned with. The Kingstons didn’t make for weak dragons.
“Kicked his ass,” James said with a chuckle. “What else could I do?”
Maverick looked at his dad with admiration. “Dad never told me about Richard.”
I couldn’t help but be jealous of the bond between them, wishing I’d had that with my sire.
“It wasn’t intentional,” James said. “Juanita came to me not long after I banished Richard and told me that since Richard’s child was a girl, she wanted to raise her as human. That was her right, especially considering she had no more familial ties to dragons. So, I told her my clan wouldn’t speak her name concerning the dragons again, or her granddaughter. So, I didn’t. I put the whole thing out of my mind and when Maverick took over as alpha, I completely forgot about it.”
“But now it’s come back to bother us,” Mav said. “And you needed to know.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Does Harley know?” I knew the answer to that. “Never mind. If she didn’t, I bet that long-lost cousin is telling her right now.”
Damn it. I’d been working out how to tell her. I knew I had to soon but hadn’t worked out exactly how yet. This put things into a rush. “Do you think Richard is planning to cause trouble?” I asked.
James shook his head. “He hasn’t come back on our land, I’m sure of it. And there aren’t many alphas in the world with the balls to challenge Maverick. Especially considering he has three strong betas here, plus Maddox is an alpha.”
“Plus me,” I added. “I’m a beta, but I don’t want to leave. I’d stand by you any day.”
Maverick grinned and straightened up, then leaned over and held out his hand. “And I would stand by you.”
I shook it and tried not to feel too much affection for the man. He was a friend, certainly, but he wasn’t my brother. I couldn’t get too attached. Attachments led to pain. My deep feelings for Harley were bad enough.
My phone shrilled in my pocket. It was Harley. I held up a finger. “Excuse me.”
She didn’t wait for me to say anything after hello. “Where are you?” she demanded.
“At Maverick’s. Are you okay?”
“Can you come home? I’m on my way to your place.”
Damn it. Her voice wasn’t right. She knew something. I didn’t think she could possibly know about me, but she knew something. “Yes, I’ll be right there. Wait for me on the stairs?”
She agreed and hung up without saying goodbye.
“You better hurry,” Mav said. They both stood. “She sounded rough.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll let you know.”
It was a good thing my best friends made up most of the Black Claw Police Department because I went home way too fast.
Harley sat at the top of the outside stairs to my apartment, staring off at the woods behind the building.
“Hey,” I said. She had to have heard me pull in, my truck was damn loud.
“Hey,” she mimicked in a quiet voice. Nervous energy flowed off of her strong enough for me to feel all the way at the bottom of the stairs. “My grandmother told me a pretty wild story today.”
I climbed the stairs and sat beside her. She didn’t scoot away, so that was a good sign. “What about?”
“Dragons.” She turned her head away from looking at the trees and looked into my eyes.
Fuck. What a way to find out.
“I also have a half-sister, and my father has been trying to get in touch with me for years, but Nana didn’t want me to know about the dragons, so she kept denying him.”
“Damn,” I whispered. “That’s a lot.”
Careful. She’s terrified.
Eros was right. She trembled; fists clenched as she stared at me. “Are you like them?” she asked. “Like the Kingstons?”
My heart splintered, seeing her fear.
Easy. Don’t make any sudden moves. She’s like a rabbit being hunted.
I didn’t move any part of my body but my lips. “I am,” I whispered. “And I would never hurt you. Ever. I couldn’t.” Her breath hitched and her trembles turned to outright shakes. “It doesn’t change anything. I still care about you so much it distracts me every day. I can’t go to sleep without thinking about if you’re safe and happy. And believe me, please, when I tell you...” I shifted slightly to take her hand. She jumped, but only a little, and she let me caress her knuckles as I spoke. “I didn’t know. I had no idea you were descended from a dragon. I didn’t know your grandmother was.”
She drew back. “Wait. How did you know that?” Her fear turned to outrage.
I held my hands up. “I just found out at the same time you did. Maverick’s dad was out of town fishing. He just got home, and Maverick asked him if he knew anything about your dad or Tyler and it turned out his dad did know.”
She relaxed. “That makes sense and coincides with what Nana told me.” Her brow creased as she considered my words. “What exactly did he tell you?”
I repeated what James and Maverick had told me in as much detail as I could remember. She relaxed a little more by the time I finished but still seemed pretty bothered. “That matches what Abby and Nana told me, pretty close.”
Turning my hand over and reaching out, I hoped she’d put her hand in mine.
She did, to my delight. “When were you planning on telling me?” she asked.
“I was working up to it. I had a plan about taking you to a nice dinner, and talking about supernatural things, and then telling you. It’s
part of the reason I didn’t, you know, go all the way the other night. I wanted to tell you before.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Wow,” she breathed. “Good answer.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing at her response. “It’s the truth.”
She still trembled on occasion. “I feel like I’m in hyperdrive. It’s so hard to believe. I was hoping I’d come here, and you would be just flabbergasted by what I said, totally confused. And I could believe that Nana and Abby were pulling one over on me or something. But you weren’t. You knew exactly what I was going to say.” She pulled her hand away and wrapped her arms around herself. “My dad was in jail for killing one of the dragons that helped him attack the Kingstons. Jail! That’s part of the reason he left when I was a little girl. He couldn’t come back for me or my mom because he was in prison.”
That didn’t look good for her outlook on dragons. “I know that’s scary, that he killed someone. But we aren’t dangerous unless we’re attacked. Think about Ava and Charlotte. Do they ever seem scared?”
She shook her head. “No. They’re both blissfully happy.” That helped settle her even more, thinking about her friends. Then she looked mad. “And they didn’t tell me.”
“They couldn’t.” I had to defend them. “They’re forbidden.”
“And if they did anyway? What would happen to them?” She fixed her glare on me.
I opened my mouth to respond but realized I had no idea. “I actually don’t know. Nobody I know has ever told someone frivolously. Besides, wouldn’t all this have been better coming from me, your mate?”
She nodded, seeming to glance over my mention of mate. I hadn’t meant to say that word. “Do you think I’d ever be able to hurt you?” I asked.
Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to think that, not at all, but this is so overwhelming.”
She began to sob and put her head on her knees. I tried to discern what she was saying, but I only picked up a little. She seemed most upset that her father had been taken away from her because of all this. I knew her mother had left by choice, but knowing what I knew about Richard, it sounded like he would’ve come back for her.
She sucked in a deep breath and leaned toward me. I wrapped my arms around her and stroked her hair as she sobbed a lifetime of hurt into my shirt.
I didn’t mind. As much as I hurt with her, I was glad I was there to help her, comfort her. Be there for her.
“Most of my life was a lie,” she whispered.
I scooped her up and stood, unlocking the door with one hand as she cried into my shoulder.
My apartment wasn’t too messy, thankfully. I’d just changed the sheets a couple of days before and neatened up. I laid her on the bed, then climbed in beside her and held her until she’d cried out all her tears.
When she went quiet, she stayed that way for a long time, but she was stuck in her head. I knew what that was like.
Eventually, she shifted and turned to face me. “You were planning a date, huh?”
Her puffy eyes looked sorrowful, but I had hope. She’d come around and get used to this news soon. “Yeah. I wanted to break it to you gently.”
“Did you hate me at first because you’re a dragon?”
She jumped when I laughed. “The opposite. My dragon liked you too much. I had to try to push you away. It was a mistake, but I did it because of how attracted I was to you.”
She still looked confused, or maybe bothered, by the news. I considered waiting to tell her, but at this point, getting the truth all out was probably the best bet. “Sometimes dragons feel a strong pull toward the person that is the most compatible for them. The person that will make their best life partner. Eros, my dragon, was pulled toward you. I tried to fight it, partly because of my past and partly because I wasn’t sure how long I planned to stay in Black Claw.”
“But now?”
“Now, I can’t imagine being anywhere else.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
She seemed to fully relax then, and we lay there for a long time without speaking. “I have to go talk to my Nana again. I left her pretty abruptly.”
Damn it, I didn’t want her to leave. At least now I felt reasonably sure she wasn’t being stalked by some rogue dragon or anyone from my past. “Okay. I understand. I’ll be here when you’re ready to come back to me.”
She put her hands on my cheeks and pressed a feather-light kiss to my lips. “I’m not going anywhere either. I need some time to process and come to terms with this new world, but leaving isn’t on the agenda.”
She sat up and got off the bed. I followed her to the door, where she turned and gave me another kiss. “You don’t have to walk me down.”
Of course, I didn’t want to listen, but I knew that consent was important to my Harley. So, I shut the door behind her, then stood with my forehead pressed against it, listening to her walk down the stairs and around the building. I didn’t relax until the sound of her car faded in the distance.
The cat was out of the bag. And she’d reacted better than I worried she would.
At least the hard part was done.
17
Harley
If someone asked me how long it would take to get over being told that dragons existed when I previously didn’t believe in anything paranormal, I would’ve said weeks or months.
It took me two days. For two days I cleaned house, asked Nana random questions when I had a moment alone with her, worked and cleaned at the shop, and considered everything.
The first thing I decided to do was call on Ava and Charlotte. They’d been in my shoes before, somewhat, and might give some good advice.
I hoped they’d actually been in my shoes when it came to their partners. Stefan had told me his dragon chose me, but I wasn’t clear exactly what that meant. Hopefully, they’d know. I was still a little upset with them for not telling me anything or even helping me figure it out on my own, but still, a girl with a dragon boyfriend couldn’t be picky. I sent them a text and asked them if we could meet for lunch. Ava replied pretty quickly inviting us to her house.
I sent back a thumbs-up and told Nana I’d be back later.
They both met me at the door. I shut off my car and sighed as I looked up the porch at my friends waving enthusiastically at me. Charlotte’s belly had popped more, and she had the sweetest bump under a shirt with a stork on it.
Darn it. I’d missed them and craved their advice. Being mad at them didn’t mean I didn’t care about them. So quickly they’d become an integral part of my life. I made myself get out of the car and walk up the stairs.
They spoke over each other before I could say a word.
“I’m so sorry,” Ava said. “We would’ve told you if we could.”
“We wanted to tell you.” Charlotte had big crocodile tears in her eyes. “Believe me, I did. I was so mad at Ava when she didn’t tell me. But now I understand why she didn’t, and all we could do was sit back and hope Stefan was able to tell you soon.”
I let them spill their guts, and my heart softened. Their husbands had explained about my family history, and they were so upset at the thought that I was mad at them. When they wound down, I smiled. “I was really mad at you.”
That put them into another round of apologies, and I had to hold up my hand to shut them up. “But I forgive you if you’ll help me get through this.”
“Of course,” Ava exclaimed. “Come in. We’ll tell you about our experiences and answer any questions you have.”
We settled in Ava’s living room and she assured me that nobody but us was in the house. Maverick was at work, Hailey at school, and Maddox somewhere with Jury. They told me their stories, which I already knew the bulk of, but they filled in the blanks about the dragons.
When Charlotte finished her story, I sat back and contemplated all I’d learned.
“Stefan said that his dragon chose me. That Eros was pulled toward me to be his best life partner.”
Ava grunted. “I’ve never heard
it described that way.”
“Honestly,” Charlotte said with narrowed eyes. “If Axel had described it that way to me, I might not have been so resistant.”
Ava laughed. “You didn’t believe him for a long time.” She turned her gaze to me. “We’ve always heard the term ‘fated mate’. As if some higher power or fate decided we belonged with our mates and that was that. But it sounds so much better to think it’s a sixth sense of the dragons’, and they know when they meet someone who would be perfect for them.”
Charlotte nodded eagerly. “Yes. I’m going to mention it to Axel and see if he thinks Asher might’ve chosen me.”
“Fated?” I asked. My voice came out weak and a little scared. “That does sound much more intimidating.”
“Don’t let it. It doesn’t mean he only likes you because of that,” Charlotte said. “That was my hang-up, that Axel only wanted me because fate said so, not because he loved me for me. But it doesn’t work that way. Stefan is pulled toward you and protective of you, but that’s because either fate or their dragons knew that you’d like each other. It took me some time to come to terms with it even after I said I had.” She smiled sheepishly. “It bothered me for a while.”
Ava nodded. “I never considered that Maverick might only like me for that, but we had the relationship as kids. We’d known each other for so long and he didn’t know we were fated until we saw each other again and he’d gone through his first shift.”
First shift? I raised my eyebrows at her. When she didn’t immediately understand what I was curious about, I explained. “When do they start shifting? And is it a literal shift? How does it work?”
Charlotte and Ava’s jaws dropped. “Did Stefan not show you?” Ava asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes, and Ava cursed under her breath. “No wonder you’re so questioning. This is one of those things that’s almost impossible to believe until you see it.”
