by Kayla Wolf
”It’s beautiful,” she said, that lightning-flash of a smile making him dizzy again. “Thanks for walking me over, Harvey.”
”It’s the least I could do, given that I nearly killed you yesterday,” he joked—but the joke fell flat. A flash of something in her eyes—fear? Panic? “I mean—when I knocked into you—”
”Oh! Right. Of course.” She uttered an odd little laugh, then took her suitcase from him. “Thanks again.”
”I’ll leave you to settle in,” he said quickly, worried he’d made her uncomfortable. God, what was wrong with him? He was never this awkward around guests. He’d given the welcome speech a thousand times. “There’s a list of numbers by the phone inside, you’ll see it. Anything you need, give me a call. Give us a call,” he corrected himself, not wanting her to feel like he was taking a personal interest, even though he was. Get it together, Harvey. “And—enjoy,” he finished a little lamely.
She thanked him one more time, and then the door was shut, leaving him standing outside the cottage with a blush burning his cheeks. Could he have been any more awkward around a woman he had had a certain interest in impressing? And what the hell was that interest, anyway? What did it mean? Why did it feel like his dragon was taking a keen interest in this wolf? Could it have something to do with his past, with the trauma of the battles he’d gone through with wolves? That wasn’t the feeling he got when he looked at Lori, though. He didn’t want to fight her. He wanted … his blush deepened as he made the short walk back to reception. Well, never mind what he wanted.
What he wanted right now was to bury himself in work to get his mind off Lori, but to his dismay, there wasn’t much to do at the office. There were no more check-ins to prepare for, no check-outs for a few days, and he’d gotten all the filing sorted that morning. Nothing left to do but sit in the office, twiddling his thumbs, daydreaming about the wolf who was staying with them.
Definitely not, Harvey decided. He’d find something more useful to do with himself. It had been a little while since he’d been on patrol—that was as good a way to spend the afternoon as any. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that wolf he’d seen the day before on his drive back. The wolf that had been bounding through the trees at the top of the peninsula … well, he’d thought he’d seen it, anyway. He certainly wasn’t going to rule out the possibility that he’d imagined it. After all, he had wolves on the brain at the moment. But it wouldn’t hurt to check. The walk might get his mind off it, at least.
It was a beautiful day—still hot, despite the approach of fall, but once he’d gotten into the tree line, the pleasant sea breeze cooled the sweat on his skin. He walked fast, following the trails he and Emerson had marked out decades ago—the paths that wound through the trees, that covered the full length and breadth of the peninsula. He knew this particular part of the country intimately well, he thought with a smile as his stride settled into the familiar patterns of the paths. It was strange. He’d lived so much of his life as a nomad, drifting from place to place, carrying his home on his back. Occasionally, he forgot that he had a permanent home now—that this place, this country, was where he’d spend the rest of his life.
He kept his eyes low, scanning the vegetation for any sign of disturbance. He knew how he and his friends walked, and he knew these paths were off-limits to tourists—so any unfamiliar footprints would immediately be suspect. But there was nothing out of the ordinary. Not so much as a broken branch disturbed his walk as the hours wore on. And as much as it reassured him to confirm what he knew—that nothing was wrong, that the wolf he’d seen had been a bizarre little dream—still, it prickled uneasily at his conscience. What he’d seen had seemed so clear, so real, but with no tracks to back it up, he was forced to conclude that the wolf had been a figment of his imagination.
And just like that, his mind was back on Lori. And it seemed determined to stay there. He heaved a sigh as his mind started racing afresh, wondering about her. Where was she from? What did she do? What was her pack like—were they wolves like the ones who’d almost destroyed his home, all those decades ago? Was he really this paranoid about wolves? No, it was something else, when it came to the silver-eyed woman with the jet black braid. Something else about her had arrested him. Was it possible …?
”No way,” he breathed aloud as he pounded down the trails, heading for home as the afternoon sun began to fade in preparation for sunset. You’ll know it when you feel it, that was what all his friends said. Well, he felt something, that was for sure. But was it attraction? Could it be that he felt so strange around her because she was his soulmate?
Or was it his old instincts, still sharp as a well-honed blade even after all this time, telling him that there was something not quite right about this woman?
Chapter 5 - Lori
Her father called early, as was his habit. He’d always gotten up early, as long as she could remember—it was almost as though it was a point of pride for him to be up before anyone else in the family. An energy as though he was judging them for not being awake like he was, as though he was more productive than anyone else, more serious about the pack’s welfare, a harder worker. It was exhausting to be around. She hadn’t realized how much she hadn’t missed it until her phone rang right on the dot of six am—a sleep-in by Harrison’s exacting standards. She sat up blearily in the warm, comfortable embrace of the bed in the cabin, irritated to have been woken from the best sleep she’d had in years.
”Hi, Dad,” she said, fighting to keep the sleep from her voice, trying her best to sound like she’d been awake for hours. If she’d been back home, she would have been. The kids tended to wake early—it was a wolf thing, she suspected—and she’d been in the habit of getting up before they did if only to have a few minutes of peace before the day started. But down here … down here, she had as much peace as she wanted. It was unbelievably luxurious.
”You made it there? Checked in?” Straight to business. Not so much as an inquiry about how she was doing. She supposed she should have been used to it, but still—something about that complete lack of regard stung.
”Yeah. All good. The cabin was booked. Everything’s fine.”
”What have you learned?”
She found herself hesitating. She’d learned plenty so far—she knew roughly how many dragons were here, she knew the layout of the settlement, she even had an idea of how many guests were staying there since she’d headed up to the big communal dining hall for dinner the night before. But for some reason, she felt a strange reluctance to tell her father too much. She was booked in for a week, but part of her was worried that if she gave them too much information too quickly, they’d tell her to come home before her stay was over.
And she didn’t want that to happen. She hadn’t fully realized how desperately she’d needed a break from people, from her family, from obligations—from needing to be there for someone twenty-four-seven, whether that someone was a baby sibling, her parents, her pack, or her Alpha. And she hadn’t started making plans for how to get away from her pack for good, either. The further away from them she got, the more she felt that she desperately needed a break from them. A real break—not the kind of break she’d had in LA, where she’d simply swapped her controlling parents for a controlling husband. Thank god she’d gotten away from him when she had.
”Lori?”
She cleared her throat, realizing her mind was wandering. “Sorry, Dad. I—”
”Slept late, didn’t you?” She winced at that disapproving tone. God, how she hated it. “What can you tell us about the dragons?”
“I’ve only met one of them so far,” she said, taking a deep breath. She liked Harvey a lot. It felt strange to talk about him like this—to tell her father about him like he was the enemy and not the handsome, friendly man who’d helped her with her bags and genuinely seemed to want her to have a good time here. It was his job, of course. There was nothing personal there, but it had been a very long time since anyone had taken any real intere
st in Lori having a good time. No wonder she couldn’t stop thinking about him. “He’s got these intense blue eyes. He said his whole species do.”
”That’s the water dragons, alright,” Harrison said with a mixture of scorn and satisfaction in his voice. “You talked about shifter stuff with him?”
”We had to be careful,” she said, not wanting to give too much away just yet. “There were humans around, so it was a pretty low-key conversation. But I’m going to try to get to know him a bit better,” she added, feeling an odd flutter in her chest at the thought. “I think he’ll be able to tell me more about the dragons down here.”
”You have an idea of their numbers?
”Around a half dozen, I think.”
”You sure? That’s less than there were. But it makes sense. Dragons don’t have the same kind of loyalty to each other that we do. It wouldn’t surprise me if half of them had left their pals high and dry for some reason.”
She thought of how Harvey had spoken about his adopted family, the other dragons who lived here on the peninsula with him, and frowned. What her father said about dragons lacking loyalty didn’t seem to make sense. Had Harvey been faking it? Or was her father wrong? “Well, anyway. I’ll find out more and keep you up to date.”
”Send photos. Buildings, points of attack, that kind of thing.”
”I’ll do my best. I don’t want to arouse too much suspicion,” she said, improvising a little. She needed to buy as much time here as possible. “So I’ll take it slow. I’ve got a week, right?”
”Don’t drag your feet,” her father said sharply. “We’ve already been banished from our rightful home for decades. Every minute you delay is another minute you’re delaying your pack’s rightful destiny.”
”Okay, okay. I’ll move as fast as I can,” she said, masking her irritation. “I’ll send some photos through today, okay? When it gets light,” she added, her tone pointed. Her father, to his credit, ignored that little jab.
”Fine. Your sister wants to talk to you,” he added, and before she could react, she heard a shuffling of the phone’s handset and the excited voice of Bella on the other end of the phone. Grinning to herself, she sat up in bed, feeling her spirits buoyed by the little girl’s enthusiasm. They talked for a few minutes, Bella telling her elaborate stories of daring adventures she’d had that were absolute fabrications, and then she heard her mother in the background impatiently calling for the little girl to come along, now. Then, without any further ceremony, her father hung up the call, leaving her with profoundly mixed feelings.
She loved her family dearly. It was in her bones, in her blood—it was everything that made her who she was, as a wolf as well as a woman. But she felt so conflicted when she thought about what the rest of her life was going to be like. Could she really make this kind of sacrifice—spend the rest of her days caring for the young ones? Find a mate among the pack, eventually, have children of her own, raise those until she was old and gray, then die as another soldier in the pack’s ongoing war against … well, anyone that wasn’t the pack? It made her feel like clawing her skin off. She loved her family, but she so desperately wanted to get away from them that it made her head spin.
Maybe that conflict was why she hadn’t been able to shift in years.
She’d first noticed this strange block in LA. Dennis had taken her on a rare trip out of town to a beautiful secluded spot, at which point he’d promptly had to drive back into the city, leaving her completely by herself in the cabin. She’d headed out—it had been a long time since she’d had a chance to stretch her wolf shape’s legs, and she was looking forward to spending a little time in that powerful form. But when she’d tried to shift—to invite the magic into her bones—nothing had happened.
And it hadn’t happened since. Honestly, it had been part of what had made her so reluctant to go home in the first place, even when her relationship with Dennis had turned so sour—she was ashamed of losing touch with her wolf side. It felt like a punishment, somehow, for leaving her family behind. And she’d hoped that returning to her pack (albeit in disgrace) would restore her power. But that hadn’t been the case. She’d been able to hide it from them, thankfully—it wasn’t a conversation she was interested in having with her parents, that was for sure—but the more time passed, the more she was worried about the block. Was she ever going to be able to shift again? She missed her paws, her fur, the unbelievable feeling of joy and freedom when she ran in her wolf shape, flying through the trees …
Did the dragons miss their forms, too? She couldn’t imagine that Harvey and his friends got much of a chance to fly, what with so many humans around all the time. A shiver of apprehension ran down her spine at the thought of the dragons’ true shapes. She’d never seen a dragon, but the curious ancestral memory that wolves shared meant she had a clear memory of a dragon in all its terrifying glory, wings spread, teeth bared, talons dripping with the blood of the wolves that were her ancestors. She didn’t like visiting those memories, stored in her mind like other people’s belongings.
But she supposed if there really was a war coming, that soon enough she’d have her own memories of dragons in battle.
Well, after a phone call like that, she was hardly getting back to sleep. She got up and dressed quickly, not quite sure how to spend her day. She’d send a few photos to her dad to keep him off her back—and then, well, maybe she’d just spend the day on the couch. That was how she’d spent the previous evening. There was something almost sinful about it … something so indulgent about sitting and relaxing, letting the time go by without a care in the world about what she could be doing else …
After a quick breakfast of some fruit she’d picked up at the grocery store (and a lingering smile at the memory of Harvey helping her with her things), she put on some flip flops and headed out for a walk, her phone in her pocket. The day was absolutely gorgeous—not a cloud in the sky. The sun was heading towards the middle of the sky, but this early it was still pleasantly cool out. She’d intended to head into the center of the settlement to take some photos, but she found her feet carrying her towards the beach instead.
The beach was unbelievable. She’d seen pictures on the website when she’d booked her stay, but the pictures paled in comparison to the real thing. A picturesque crescent of sand, stretching like a new moon from the tip of the peninsula all the way along to where a rocky bluff emerged, parallel with the tree line. There were sand dunes where the sand joined onto the tip of the peninsula, and from here, she could see that several of the settlement’s cottages had backyards which almost opened up onto the beach itself.
What an unbelievably perfect place to live, she thought, feeling an odd flare of jealousy and anger in her belly. This was her family’s birthright, wasn’t it? This was the place she should have grown up if they hadn’t been betrayed by the dragons. How dare they? she wondered, putting her affection for Harvey aside for a moment as she confronted the real purpose for her visit here. How dare they banish their allies, the wolves, then go about setting up a little resort so they could profit from it? While her pack lived in poverty, barely scraping by … was this her ancestral memory speaking? Or was it her own feelings? Either way, she felt oddly angry as she wandered down onto the beach, taking her flip flops off and carrying them in one hand so she could feel the soft sand squishing between her toes.
”Good morning!”
She jumped, lost in thought and startled by the sound of a familiar voice interjecting. It was Harvey—he must have just come out of the ocean, she realized with a start. His chestnut hair was dripping wet, and though there was a towel around his shoulders, it wasn’t doing much to hide the fact that he wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of board shorts. That chest … that physique … she could feel her heartbeat accelerating despite herself, and she tried to keep her eyes forward as he dropped easily into step beside her.
”How are you finding your cabin?”
”It’s great,” she said, glad she didn’t ha
ve to mislead him on this point. “I haven’t slept so well in years. Those beds are amazing. And beautiful,” she added, thinking of the ornate engraving she’d been admiring on her bedhead—at least, in the few minutes it had taken her to fall fast asleep.
”Hand-made,” he said proudly. “One of my old friends, Bryce—he’s basically a master carpenter. I mean, our lifespans do give us an unfair advantage when it comes to mastering skills,” he added with a smile. She blinked.
”Lifespans?”
”Dragons, I mean,” he said, lowering his voice a little—an old habit, it seemed. The beach was certainly deserted enough that they could pretty much scream about their species without risking being overheard. “We live for a long time. Gives us lots of time to master things.”
”I guess being immortal has its perks.”
”Not immortal,” he shrugged, and a strange shadow came across his face. “We can be killed. And long lives mean lots of opportunities to make enemies.”
She realized they were getting dangerously close to a subject she’d intended to avoid. Her cover story was that she knew nothing about the history of this clan of dragons or the wolves they’d battled so long ago. “What kind of enemies would a group of dragons who run a hotel have?”
”We didn’t always run a hotel,” he admitted with a rueful smile. “We had … well, we had a bit of a past. With a wolf pack, actually.”
”Yeah?” Her heart was pounding—she had no idea how to handle this. Lying wasn’t exactly one of her skills. She tried to seem interested but not too interested. As though he was a near-stranger, telling her some interesting facts about his past and not her ancestral enemy, a man who may very well have killed one of her ancestors with his own talons.
