by Kayla Wolf
”Oh my god,” Serena sighed. “Imagine. Imagine a real summer.”
Kath wrinkled her nose. Her roommate was very much a cold weather person. “Yeah, he looks like a beach guy, that’s for sure. He’s hot. What’s wrong with him, do you reckon?”
”What do you mean?”
”It says he’s a single dad to a three-year-old. Where’s the kid’s mom?”
“Being a single parent doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you,” Serena scolded her friend, grabbing the phone back from her. “You’re too judgmental.”
”That’s why I’m never having children,” Kath grinned, leaning back against the couch and stretching. “Would you seriously move to California?”
”I mean, I’d move anywhere if it meant a steady job.” Serena read the listing carefully, smiling a little at the photo that had been included of her potential future charge—a bright little three-year-old girl with a mane of curly blonde hair pulled into pigtails and huge brown eyes peering inquisitively up into the camera. The listing described Delilah as ‘a bit of handful’, and looking at that cheeky little face, Serena knew she’d have her work cut out for her.
She scrolled back to the top of the listing, noticing the photo of the employer that Kath had been looking at—and the color-coded line of text underneath the picture. Red. That meant he was a dragon. Serena felt a prickle of apprehension run down her spine at that. She’d never met a dragon before… her mother had told her that wolves and dragons historically didn’t get on very well, that there were often territory disputes between them, wars that waged for years and years. It was amazing to think that there was a whole secret history that humans weren’t aware of. And as much as she knew she was a wolf, she still felt more like a human than a shifter.
”He’s hot, right?” Kath asked, prodding her with her foot. “Bit of a perk of the job.”
”He’d be my boss, Kath, don’t be gross,” Serena said irritably… but a treacherous part of her had to admit, Kath wasn’t wrong about the guy. He looked to be in his early thirties, with sandy blonde hair and a smile dancing in his pale blue eyes. “Lachlan, it says. No last name.”
”Like Madonna,” Kath said. Her nose was back in her book—she’d clearly finished with this particular distraction.
”I think I’m going to take it,” Serena said, looking down at the phone in her hand with her heart pounding.
”You sure? Moving halfway across the country for a job? I support you, whatever happens, babe, but—it’s a big change.”
”I know,” Serena admitted. “But… I need a job. And something about it feels right.”
“Trust your gut, that’s what I say,” Kath said. “And if it all goes to hell, you can always come right back here to regroup. My couch is your couch.”
”Thanks, Kath. Really.” Serena smiled up at her friend—then turned back to the app, tabbing into the message section and realizing that Lachlan had already sent her a message. She read through it, her eyes widening as she went.
”What’s up?”
”Nothing. Just—he says the job’s mine if I want it. And that the sooner I can start, the better.” Serena took a deep breath. Could she really do this? Move halfway across the country and start a new life in California? It wasn’t as if there was anything holding her here… no family left, no job prospects to speak of. Kath was the closest thing she had to family, and they could always talk on the phone and visit each other.
Serena took a deep breath… then replied to the message before she could lose her nerve. She hit send on the message and squeezed her eyes shut hard.
”Well? Are we celebrating?”
”I’m doing it.” Serena stared at Kath, her heart pounding. “I took the job.”
”You’re moving to California to work for a man you’ve never met,” Kath said, grinning. “That’s cause to celebrate, I reckon.”
Kath padded into the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine. Serena stared down at her phone, scrolling through the job listing. It was a huge relief to have finally found a job… but still, her stomach was full of apprehension. She didn’t know anything about dragons. What if she couldn’t do this? What if she was making a terrible mistake?
Well, one way or another, she supposed she was going to find out.
Chapter 3 – Lachlan
Lachlan stared around the room, taking a deep breath as he tried to look at it through an outsider’s eyes. It was a pretty small room, all things considered… but then again, so was the rest of the house. He’d built his own cottage when he’d arrived a few years ago, sleeping in a tent in the backyard until the work had been complete, and at the time, his only consideration had been himself and Delilah. So the master bedroom was a good size, but the second bedroom—the one he’d intended for his daughter, once she got a bit older—was definitely child-sized. But there was nothing he could do about it now. Maybe he’d build an extension to the house when Delilah got old enough, so she could have her own room, but for now, she and the nanny would be sharing this small room.
Would Serena be okay with that? He’d asked her via the messaging system on the app that had paired them, and she said she’d been happy to share a room with her charge, but he wondered whether Delilah’s high-energy little presence would prove to make that a difficult prospect. Well, he supposed they were going to find out, one way or another… but still, he gnawed anxiously on his lip as he headed into the living room, mentally making plans to add a third bedroom to the little cottage. The kitchen was good, at least. Lachlan had always enjoyed cooking, and he’d made sure that the kitchen was a good size when he’d built the little house.
Serena was due any minute now. It had all happened unbelievably fast—it had only been a week since Alice had helped him navigate the app, searching for a nanny who was willing to move to an isolated little community in California. There had been a few prospects, including a few dragon women that Alice had strongly encouraged him towards… but none of them seemed right. When he’d seen Serena, something about her had stuck out—and it wasn’t just the bright silver eyes that marked her as a wolf.
”She might not want to work for dragons,” Alice pointed out—but he’d insisted on sending a message regardless. Her qualifications were excellent. And his gut was telling him that she was the right choice… although his gut had said something similar about Sarah, of course. But hadn’t that been the right call, in the end? Without Sarah, he wouldn’t have ever had Delilah… and she was the best thing that had ever happened to him, hands down.
And to his surprise and delight, she’d replied straight away. They’d exchanged a few messages, getting the details sorted out, and she’d booked a flight the following day. She was from Montana—he hoped she was ready for the hot weather down here, he thought with a grin. It was late afternoon, but the day was still fiercely hot.
Delilah was running up to Lachlan, and he smiled. ”We’re meeting someone special today,” he reminded her. “Best behavior, alright?” Delilah gave him a beady-eyed stare. He sighed, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Of course. You’re always on your best behavior. How silly of me.”
There was a tap on the door, and Lachlan turned to answer it, nervous despite himself. He hadn’t met a stranger in years—not since he’d first come to the settlement. But Serena wasn’t a stranger. She was a qualified childcare professional who was going to make his daughter’s life better—and let him get his work done without ruining the lives of everyone around him. He took a deep breath before pulling the door open.
”I’m so sorry I’m late, I must have gotten lost a dozen times on the way here.”
She was tall, that was the first thing he noticed—he usually dwarfed women, especially human women, but she was only a few inches shorter than him and was able to smile confidently up into his face. The second thing he noticed was how absolutely gorgeous she was. High cheekbones, those dazzling bright silver eyes, a few pieces of flyaway red hair escaping the long braid her hair was pulled back i
nto—and a smile that made his heart light up. Suddenly, he was an entirely different kind of nervous. That wasn’t like him at all. He realized he was staring, and that an awkward look had come across Serena’s face.
”Serena? I’m Lachlan,” he managed, extending his hand for her to shake and scolding himself a little for how taken aback he’d been. It had been too long since he’d met anyone new, that was for sure. “Glad you made it here okay—I know it’s a long way from civilization.”
”The trip was okay. Very beautiful. Lots of—nature.”
”Well, you’re from Montana, you’d be used to that, right?”
”I haven’t been to California before. It’s very different.”
He felt a tug at his hand, and he looked down. Delilah, uncharacteristically shy, was standing behind him, her little hand creeping into his as she peered around his legs at the stranger. That brilliant smile lit up Serena’s face again—but this time it seemed more genuine, somehow.
”This must be Delilah. Hi, little one! I’ve heard so much about you!”
“She doesn’t meet many new people,” he explained, a little embarrassed by the way his daughter was hiding behind him—but to his surprise, she was already creeping out, her eyes fixed on Serena’s face. The woman had dropped into a crouch and was letting Delilah approach her.
”I’ve heard you’re the boss around here,” Serena said seriously to the little girl, who giggled delightedly. “I hope you’ll show me around?”
”Come on,” Delilah said firmly, and before Lachlan could react, she’d grabbed Serena by the hand and set off determinedly in the direction of the room they’d set up for her. “Come to my room.”
”I’ll bring your bag,” Lachlan laughed, stepping out onto the porch to grab the red suitcase Serena had brought with her. It was strange—talking to Lachlan, Serena had seemed oddly severe, almost awkward around him. But as soon as she’d started talking to his daughter, her face had lit up, and all that awkwardness had faded away. Could she be nervous, perhaps? He supposed it was a daunting prospect—moving so far away to work for a family you’d never met. But at least Delilah seemed to like her. He wasn’t sure how the little girl was going to be around new people—she’d known everyone in the settlement since she was a baby, so he’d never had to actually introduce her to anybody before. She was doing great so far, he grinned to himself, hearing her chattering away as she showed Serena her toys. It was amazing how quickly she’d learned to talk. From a single-syllable ‘dad’ as her first word to a working vocabulary of a few hundred words that seemed to be expanding every day… it was miraculous. He wished he had more time to appreciate it.
”I’ll put your bag here on the bed,” he broke in, and the woman nodded, giving him a quick smile. “This is your room—sorry it’s a little small—”
”It’s great,” she said briskly—and then her attention was back to Delilah, who was demonstrating the way her favorite toy horse made a squeaking sound when it was squeezed.
”Okay. I’ll leave you to settle in, I guess.”
”Thanks, Lachlan,” she said, and he could tell he’d been dismissed. Lachlan stood in the hallway for a moment, feeling an odd sense of freedom. Delilah was in safe hands—he could go anywhere he wanted, do anything he felt like doing. He could get up in the morning and head to work all day without worrying about his daughter. It was exactly why he’d hired Serena in the first place. So why did he feel like all he wanted to do was go back into the room and hang out with the two of them all night?
It wasn’t long before it was Delilah’s bedtime—and Serena, saying she was pretty tired from the journey, turned in at the same time, leaving Lachlan awake by himself in his curiously empty house. He tidied away a few of Delilah’s clothes, feeling oddly useless. Usually he’d be busy all evening, giving Delilah her bath, getting her to eat her dinner, coaxing her to sleep. But now… well, he could get to bed early. Even do some reading. Start catching up on some of the sleep he’d lost, being a single dad for three years.
* * *
He woke earlier than usual the next morning and decided to cook breakfast for himself and Serena. He had a meeting later that morning with a few of the other dragons at the town square, but he figured it might be nice to have a meal with his new—employee? Family member? It was an odd relationship, that was for sure—and it wasn’t improved by how awkward she’d seemed around him. Maybe she’d been tired, or something. It had been a long trip, after all.
But to his dismay, when Serena joined him at the kitchen table for breakfast, all her focus was on Delilah. It was almost as though she didn’t want to talk to him—when he directed questions to her, she’d answer in as few words as possible before turning back to Delilah. His daughter was loving the attention, he realized with a rueful grin—but he couldn’t help but feel strangely left out. It made sense, he supposed. He hadn’t hired Serena as a friend for him—she was his daughter’s carer, not his. But he couldn’t help feeling a little sad as he headed out to his meeting, giving Delilah a hug goodbye before he left.
”You be good for Serena, okay?”
”Go,” Delilah said imperiously, pointing at the door.
”She must like you. I only get the ‘go away Dad’ treatment with her favorite babysitters,” Lachlan said, raising an eyebrow.
”I’ll take it as a compliment,” Serena smiled. “You’d better get to your meeting.”
The guys were waiting for him when he arrived. It was an informal meeting—a half dozen or so of the guys who took responsibility for keeping the settlement running, that was all. They’d become his closest friends here—a kind of unofficial town council. Not that the settlement was anywhere near big enough to call a town. There were a few dozen dragons living here in total, all water dragons, and all bearing the same pale blue eyes that marked their species. And the vast majority of them were men. He felt a little uncomfortable about that—there was something oddly patriarchal about the town being run by men—but the few female residents of the town seemed happy enough, and it wasn’t as though the men had any real power. They just kept things running.
“How’s the new arrival?” James asked immediately as Lachlan took a seat on the bench they shared for these little catch-ups. James was Alice’s older brother—he shared her dark, curly hair and her inquisitive outlook, but where Alice was dedicated to her profession, James was more interested in chasing after women. He was always bragging about some new conquest—he seemed to spend more time in bars on the mainland than he did here at home.
”She’s great. Delilah loves her.”
”She’s a wolf, right? Maybe she could talk to our old friends,” Harvey grumbled, running a frustrated hand through his light brown hair.
“What do you mean?” said Lachlan.
”We’ve got trouble,” Bryce said succinctly, clapping Lachlan on the shoulder as he sat down.
”What, with the wolves?” Lachlan frowned.
”Yeah. It’s the pack who were chasing us before we settled down, I’m sure of it,” Harvey said, his jaw tight. He was usually an easy-going guy, but when it came to issues of security, he was defensive as anything. And if what the other guys said held any water, he was the guy you wanted at your back in a fight.
”That was decades ago, though, wasn’t it?” Lachlan had heard a dozen versions of the story. The settlement held the remnants of a much bigger community of water dragons who’d used to ride up and down the coast decades ago, living dangerously, committing crimes to pay their way and generally making a menace of themselves. They’d fallen afoul of a wolf pack, and after a pretty terrible battle, the group had split up. A few of them had headed north and found this peninsula, where they’d settled down. Some of the current residents had joined them later, like Lachlan, but most of them had been here since those dark old times. There had been a bit of suspicion when Lachlan had announced he was bringing a wolf to live among them, that was for sure—but the fact that she was from Montana had allayed their suspicions.
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”Have they done anything, the pack? Encroached onto our territory?”
”Not yet. They’ve just been spotted in town.” That was Emerson—he was sprawled back in his chair with his usual aloof, hardly-listening expression on his face as he stared at the clouds. But Lachlan knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t have missed a word.
”But I wouldn’t put it past them to try something,” Harvey said, teeth gritted. He’d been part of the original group that had settled here. “Patrols at night, I think. Anyone who can be spared.”
Lachlan sighed. He’d been hoping to avoid losing any manpower from the construction effort—they were behind enough on their plans. But security was more important. “Of course. Take whoever you need. I’ll take a few shifts, too. I’ll have time now that Serena’s looking after Delilah full time.”
“Speaking of,” Emerson said, raising an eyebrow. And sure enough, Lachlan looked up to see Serena and Delilah making their way across the town square. He bit his lip—would it increase her awkwardness to be introduced to all his friends like this? If it was meeting a dragon that had put her on her guard like that, meeting five more was hardly going to help.
But before he could do anything to stop it, Delilah had spotted them—and with a shout of delight, she started dragging Serena across the town square to meet them.
Chapter 4 – Serena
God, it was a whirlwind. Serena could hardly believe she was here—it had all happened so fast. From talking to Lachlan on the app to booking her flight to actually packing her things and Kath driving her to the airport… it felt like she’d barely left Montana before she was there, in a cab moving through the California wilderness, completely at a loss as to where she was actually going. Lachlan had said the settlement was pretty remote, but she’d thought California was mostly cities. This far up the coast, away from the big cities, she was surprised to find so much nature. So much untouched wilderness… it seemed to touch something deep in her chest, a part of her she didn’t know very well. Was it her wolf instinct, maybe? She’d never felt any of these things before…
