by J. L. Wilder
He got to his feet and stalked away, leaving the split-level house behind him.
The thing was, she had made him feel so guilty about ending their marriage. She had made him feel so bad about calling her a liar and a manipulator. And all this time, she had known full well that she’d been getting her revenge. Keeping his own son from him, squashing the one ambition he’d ever had—the goal of leading his clan well and raising a child to take over for him one day.
He should have had that chance with Danny. If he had known the boy existed from the beginning, he would have had it.
It was a clear night. The moon was high overhead. Although Ryker would have dearly loved to seek refuge from his troubles by taking shelter in his dragon form, he knew he couldn’t do it. The sky was too clear, and the risk of being seen was too great. If they had still been in Shifter Town, it would have been a different matter, but he didn’t know what this area was like. There could easily be humans around, and he couldn’t run the risk of being seen.
And speaking of humans—were those voices he was hearing?
By habit, he froze where he stood and turned to the evidence of his senses. The fine hairs on the back of his neck had lifted, indicating that there was something worth taking note of. His eyes flicked back and forth, but he saw nothing. He listened, but if someone had been speaking, they had fallen silent.
He inhaled, scenting the air—
The dragon surged forward. Only years of practice and self-control allowed Ryker to contain the rush of power and rage that threatened to burst forth. Grizzlies!
He heard a low chuckle, and then a firm voice hissed, “Shut up, Colin!”
“Jesus, Steve—”
“They could hear us. And you know there’s a male with her now. We’re not going to have anywhere near as easy a time with her this time.”
“We’re not going to be dealing with her at all. We’re not making our move until we’re sure she’s asleep. Then we take the kid. That’s what you said when you told us we should track them here.”
“Yeah, but is she going to go to sleep if she hears your ass cackling away in the woods outside her house, Colin? Use your brain for once in your life. Or do I have to do all the thinking around here?”
The man named Colin grumbled but said nothing.
“She got the best of us once,” Steve said. “We’re not going to let that happen again. This time, no fucking it up. We grab the kid and run before anybody else has time to get involved.”
“Are you really sure we need this kid?” Colin said. “We’ve been through enough over him, haven’t we? Maybe it’s time we let this go. I mean, shit, this is going to be the third time that we’ve tried to get our hands on him, and every time, something stops us. The first time, we had him but the mother showed up—”
“Which is what we’re trying to avoid this time by leaving her out of it.”
“Yeah, but last time we tried to take her out of the picture and that male got in the way,” Colin said. “Who was he?”
“I don’t know. Probably her boyfriend.”
“She hasn’t got a boyfriend; we’d know if she did. Who the hell is going to date her?”
The dragon was seething, panting. He wanted to break free. Ryker felt as if the beast was a completely different entity from himself. He felt as if he was holding it back with his fingernails, as if it was a friend that he wanted to keep out of a fight.
Just a few more seconds, he thought desperately. Let’s just see if they’re going to say anything more about their plan—
But the dragon didn’t care about their plan. The dragon had heard enough. He was ready to taste blood.
“We’ll bring the kid up to be one of us,” Steve said. “A few years with us, and he’ll think we’re his real parents.”
A roar ripped through Ryker, and he burst forward into the clearing where they stood, scales glistening in the moonlight.
Chapter Thirty
RYKER
“Attack!”
Ryker wasn’t sure which of the three men before him had spoken, but it didn’t matter. They came at him like a wave, surging, changing in midair, crashing down upon him.
His scales gave him protection from their claws—he hunched his back to protect his more vulnerable belly—but their bulk was plenty menacing enough. Together, they were able to knock him off his feet and hold him down.
Jaws found their way around his neck and bit down.
He felt his scales crack. It was painful, like a broken bone. He knew there would be no blood—not yet, at least—but those jaws were strong, and if he didn’t get free, he wouldn’t last long like this.
He forced himself upright and shook himself hard, throwing the bears off in all directions. They landed a few feet away, but one of them launched himself back at Ryker the moment his feet hit the ground.
This time, Ryker was prepared, striking out with a claw and catching the grizzly in the side. The bear grunted in pain and fell to the ground. He struggled to stand, but his front leg collapsed under him with the pain of his injury.
One down.
He circled the other two bears warily, sizing them up as they sized him up. They were big—not as big as he was, of course, but bigger than a true bear would have been. That was something that varied with shifters. Sometimes they ran large, sometimes small. His heart beat a little faster with the realization that the two who were still in the fight probably outweighed him, put together.
This wasn’t going to be easy, and he was already injured.
He whipped his tail around quickly and felt the force as he hit one of them broadside. Satisfaction surged through him—
And then pain.
The other bear, the one he hadn’t hit, had snuck around to his front side and lashed up at Ryker with a claw, cutting through the unprotected skin of his wing and leaving it hanging ragged.
The pain was so bad that it ignited in the pit of Ryker’s stomach. He had to let it out. He opened his mouth as if to scream, and the dragon let out a fiery roar.
The bear’s howl of pain as the fire caught was inhuman. He took off at a run, leaving the air behind him full of the stench of burning fur and skin.
Two down.
But his head was spinning with pain now. He couldn’t even pause to take stock of what had been done to his wing, because he couldn’t take his attention off of the bear that remained in front of him. It was the biggest of the three, and while he had stunned it momentarily by hitting it with his tail, he hadn’t done any permanent damage.
If he could have hit the bear with another burst of fire, he would have done so. But there was no chance of more fire so soon after that first burst. Even the most potent dragons took between twelve and twenty-four hours to recharge their flame. That was one reason Ryker did his best never to let the fire out—you couldn’t predict when you might need it.
The bear was moving cautiously now, though, and Ryker knew that he realized he was in the weaker position. If it came to an all-out brawl, Ryker would win.
For a moment, he thought about falling back. Letting the bear escape.
This one’s their leader.
It didn’t feel like his own thought. It felt like something the dragon was trying to tell him.
This one’s the leader—and they keep coming after Haley. They’re not going to leave her alone.
Not unless I make them leave her alone.
He had never killed before in his life. But he was going to have to find the stomach for it now because that was the only way he could show these bears what was going to happen to them if they kept up their pursuit of Haley and Danny.
He spun again, lashing out with his tail, lowering his shoulders this time so that his tail struck a bit higher. Turning back, he saw that aiming for the bear’s head had worked. The bear had stumbled to the ground and was struggling to get his feet back under him.
Ryker allowed himself to let go of his own instincts and let the dragon take over.
What ha
ppened next was a messy confusion of claws and slashing and fur and hot blood. The only thing Ryker knew for sure was that he could feel the moment the life left the bear’s body. It went limp beneath him—became a thing instead of a person.
The remaining bear—the one he’d injured at the start of the fight—let out a cry of rage and dismay. He turned and set off at a run away from Ryker, limping, disappearing quickly into the woods.
Ryker sank to the ground.
The pain washed over him now, sharper and more overwhelming now that the adrenaline from the fight was fading. His breathing was coming in gasps, and his vision was swimming. He felt nauseous. It took him several long moments to realize that he’d shifted back—the dragon had let go of this body and fled, and all that remained was the man.
He didn’t even want to look at his shoulder. He didn’t want to know how bad this was.
They’ll leave us alone now. That’s what matters.
But he felt as if he was going to black out.
He turned and staggered back in the direction he had come, hoping against hope that he would make it back to Haley’s house before the pain got the best of him.
Chapter Thirty-One
HALEY
Haley woke up to an empty bed and an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It was strange. She had been sleeping alone for years. She had gotten used to it. Waking up next to someone should have been the weird thing. And yet, as soon as she’d come awake, before she had even opened her eyes, she had expected Ryker’s presence beside her.
The fight last night—that hadn’t been so bad, had it? She knew he’d been frustrated with her, but she had expected that he would come back. She’d stayed awake as long as she could, waiting for him, but eventually, exhaustion had claimed her. The last twenty-four hours had been so full and overwhelming that it was a miracle she hadn’t fallen asleep any sooner.
But she’d been sure he’d be back by the time she woke up.
She got out of bed and pulled on her flannel pajama pants and a hoodie. This house didn’t have a guest room. There were four bedrooms, which seemed like an insanely luxurious amount—one for her, one for Valerie, and one for each of the kids. Ryker must have fallen asleep on the couch, she realized with a stab of guilt.
But the couch was empty. The only people in the living room were Danny and Sarah, who were sitting on the floor and watching cartoons on TV.
“Hey, kids,” she said, feeling uneasier still. “Danny, have you seen Ryker this morning?”
“No,” Danny said, not taking his eyes off the screen. “We’re the only ones awake.”
Haley frowned. Maybe he left.
He wouldn’t have done that, would he? Just taken off after an argument and not come back?
She realized she didn’t know. She had no idea what he would have done. She’d thought she knew what to expect from him within their marriage, but he had certainly caught her off guard there. If he could throw her out of the clan for failing to become pregnant, he could ditch her for not letting him have what he considered to be a fair part in his son’s life.
It was a logical line of reasoning—but it felt wrong, somehow. It didn’t feel like the man she was getting to know. They’d argued, but Haley understood why Ryker wanted to be an active father to Danny. That made sense. Ditching the family now wouldn’t make any sense.
Still, it couldn’t be denied that he wasn’t here.
She went to the kitchen and started boiling a pot of water for coffee, then went outside to see if maybe he had slept on the porch. Sleeping outside wasn’t totally out of character for Ryker.
And sure enough, there he was, collapsed in a heap on the ground a few yards from the house. She smiled and shook her head in exasperation—
Then she looked closer.
What she was seeing was all wrong. He’d been wearing his boxers when he had left the house last night, but now he was naked. And his back...
Her feet had hit the ground at the bottom of the porch steps before she was aware of beginning to run. She covered the distance between them in a matter of seconds and fell to her knees by his side.
“Ryker,” she gasped, her hands hovering over his body.
Now that she was closer, she could see the shredded skin on the upper right side of his back, around the shoulder. Right where the wing joint would be on a dragon.
She felt dizzy and sick. She was breathing too fast. “Valerie!” she screamed.
Valerie emerged from the house at a run. “Oh my God,” she said. “What happened to him?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I just found him like this. Help me get him inside—”
She took an arm and hauled it on her shoulders, doing her best not to put too much pressure on his back, thanking God that he was unconscious and didn’t have to feel this part. Valerie took the other arm. Even working together, he was too heavy for them to lift, so they dragged him back toward the house.
“Kids!” Valerie yelled as they entered the kitchen.
Danny and Sarah appeared, white-faced and staring.
“Danny, clear everything off the kitchen table,” Haley said. “Sarah, go get some clean towels or shirts or something.”
“Get the clean t-shirts from the laundry basket, Sarah,” Valerie said.
When the table was clear, they eased Ryker onto it, face down. Haley grabbed the water she’d just finished boiling for her coffee and poured it into a bowl. Sarah returned with an armload of t-shirts, and Haley took one, dipped it in the water, and started to clean the wound.
“Take the kids out of here,” she murmured to Valerie. “They don’t need to watch this.”
Valerie gathered the children and shepherded them out the door and back into the living room. A moment later, Haley heard the TV volume increase and knew that her friend was doing all she could to distract them from the goings-on in the kitchen.
Haley knelt at Ryker’s head, reaching over his shoulder to dab the dirt and blood away from his shoulder.
Ryker stirred and groaned.
Her heart leaped. “Ryker?” she whispered.
His eyes fluttered open. “Hey,” he said, his voice raspy.
“What happened to you?”
“Grizzlies.” He closed his eyes. “Won’t bother you anymore.”
Haley felt a chill. “They were here?”
“Yeah. But...” He drew a long, slow breath. “They won’t be back.”
She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest. “Okay,” she said. “You can tell me the details later, okay? Rest for now.”
He nodded and went still beneath her hands, almost as if he had been waiting for her permission to fall asleep.
Haley felt as if something hard and frozen was breaking apart inside her.
He had risked his life to protect her. To protect Danny. He had made them safe from the grizzlies at last.
My mate.
Chapter Thirty-Two
HALEY
“Hey, you’re up.”
Ryker turned around. He’d been rummaging in the fridge. He was still moving carefully, thanks in part to the tight bandages wound around his arm and torso, but he was on his feet. “Never been more grateful for the dragon than I am today,” he said. “I was in bad shape, huh?”
“If you were a human, I think you’d be laid out for weeks,” she said. “Honestly, even with your quick healing, I’m surprised you’re up already. You’re not pushing it, are you?”
“I’m all right,” he said. “Really.”
“Well, if I see you bleeding through that bandage, I’m going to make you lie down again.” She eyed the open refrigerator. “You’ve got your appetite back?”
“With a vengeance.”
“Let me make you something.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Haley said. “You’re hurt. Sit down. I’ll get us something to eat. Do you know what you want?”
“No, anything’s fine,�
� Ryker said.
She nodded. “There’s spaghetti in here. I could heat it up. Maybe add a little olive oil, and...” She pushed a few things aside. “Hey, fresh mint!”
“I forgot how you used to do this,” Ryker said, moving aside and taking a seat at the table.
“How I used to do what?”
“Make meals out of just...nothing. Leftovers and scraps. You’re a whiz at it.”
“I hate to think what you’ve been eating for the last ten years,” she said with a laugh. “TV dinners, I’ll bet.”
Ryker laughed too. “There have been a few TV dinners,” he admitted. “I never did learn to cook. But I guess it was always obvious to me that I wouldn’t be able to live up to the meals you used to make, so I didn’t see a need to bother.”
“That’s right,” she agreed, dumping the spaghetti into a colander and turning the tap on the sink to hot. “You wouldn’t. If anything, you should have kept me around for my cooking prowess.”
She glanced at him quickly to see what his reaction would be. Would the conversation devolve into awkwardness and anger again, as it so often had?
But he was still smiling. “I think if I was going to keep you around, it would have been for your sexual prowess,” he said. “Though I have to say, you seem like you’ve learned some new tricks since you’ve been away.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t,” she said. “I’ve only had a couple of one-night stands, and none of them was anything to write home about. I feel weird saying this, but the best I ever had was always you.”
“Are we actually getting along?” he asked.
She sighed and turned off the tap. She couldn’t face him while she said what she had to say next. “I think we are,” she said quietly. “Ryker, when I saw you on the ground today...I don’t know. I didn’t think anything could hurt me that much.”
“Hey.” He was standing right behind her, unexpectedly. She hadn’t heard him get up. His arms snaked around her waist. “I’m okay,” he said. “Everything’s okay.
