Chapter 6

Cynthia flew over the plantation grounds, eyeing the ground below. Days had passed since she’d heard Cal’s haunting howl, and she’d been out every night since, looking for him.

No, wait. She’d been out every night honing her fighting skills, right?

Sure, her dragon murmured. Right.

Well, the fighting part wasn’t entirely a lie since she really had been out sparring. She’d even caught Jenna off guard often enough for her friend to go wide-eyed and say, Wow. You’re getting really good. You must be more of a natural than you thought.

Even Connor had been impressed. Holy crap, Cynthia. Have you been training on the side?

No, she hadn’t, but she’d been reading up on aerial combat in a book she’d borrowed from Silas’s library and rehearsing the moves in her mind. Cal’s arrival had heightened an inexplicable instinct to be prepared — something she’d felt for a while, but never as urgently as now.

Prepared for what? she kept asking herself.

But neither instinct nor destiny bothered filling her in. They just left her worried, wondering.

A gust of wind funneled between the mountains, and without thinking, she dipped, rolled, and shot off to one side. Then she blinked, realizing what she had done.

Wow. Maybe Jenna was right. She really had mastered her new moves. She glanced down toward the plantation house. When she pictured a foe swooping in, she couldn’t help spitting fire, if only briefly. She would never allow anyone to harm her son.

Once upon a time, that anyone had been Drax, the ruthless dragon who had murdered Barnaby and other members of the shifter establishment. Silas had finally killed Drax, putting an end to that evil. But a new force had arisen in Drax’s place — his mistress, Moira, who was growing ever bolder in her bid to rule the shifter world. Moira had gone so far as to stage several attacks on the shifters of Koakea, and it seemed only a question of time before her attacks escalated.

At the same time, a whole new threat was rising with the influx of evil dragons from the Old World.

Cynthia allowed herself to spit a little more fire. She wouldn’t let anyone harm her son. Not Moira, nor her henchmen, nor Kravik. And if they so much as tried…

For the next few minutes, she kept a sharp lookout and practiced her moves. Far in the distance, something glowed red, and she couldn’t help but picture dragon fire. But that was just Kilauea — the volcano over on the Big Island, putting on another display of Mother Earth’s power.

She turned her attention to the landscape below. A dark shape moved on the north end of the estate, and her heart rate rose. Was Cal out roaming on four feet? When she flew closer, she spotted Tim, lumbering around in bear form. She dipped her right wing and cut away, feeling foolish. She wasn’t a love-struck twenty-year-old any more.

But the moment she caught sight of a shadow in the hills above the plantation house, her pulse skipped, and her spirits soared.

Cal. Her dragon cheered. It’s him.

She headed for the mountains, flying at low altitude so as not to be seen.

Then she circled around, watching.

It was Cal, and he was getting ready to howl again. She could tell from the way he braced himself on those massive paws and squared his shoulders.

Then he took a deep breath, lifted his muzzle, and howled.

Aroooo…

The sound was long. Low. Mournful. His voice didn’t just sound sad — it was tragic. Every stretched-out note gutted her. Full of pain, sorrow, and regret. So much, she nearly joined in.

We could have had a life together, her dragon whispered. We could have had it all.

Cal’s voice cracked then steadied as his lament went on.

Aroooo…

Cynthia bowed her head. Why had fate brought her and Cal together all those years ago, only to tear them apart? And why had it reunited them now that it was too late?

Dragons didn’t cry, but her eyes sure did burn. It’s not too late, her dragon insisted. It can’t be. Aroooo…

Cal held on to another long note, giving his years of suffering a voice. But suddenly, he snapped around to peer south. His ears perked up, and one of his paws lifted off the ground.

Cynthia blinked, following his eyes. What had he sensed?

An instant later, Cal took off down the slope. Cynthia followed, keeping her distance. What had set him off? And why was he sprinting toward the center of the grounds? Sprinting toward her house, in fact.

At first, she watched, curious. Then his urgency jumped over to her, and a growing sense of fear made her joints tense.

Joey! she cried as Cal made a beeline for her house.

Precious seconds ticked by before she managed to shoot off in pursuit. Had Cal detected an intruder? Worse, was he after Joey? Her heart thudded as

she raced along. But Cal had just enough of a head start to arrive at the house before her, and he sprinted up the front steps in wolf form.

“Hey!” Hailey shouted, jolting out of a chair. The hand she reached toward Cal started turning into a bear paw, but by then, the wolf was inside.

Fueled by a burst of adrenaline only a mother could summon, Cynthia rushed after Cal. The moment she touched down on the front lawn, she shifted and ran into the house. Up the porch steps, then the inside steps, where she hurried past Hailey.

Cal, stop! she wanted to scream, but her throat had seized up. He was sprinting right for Joey’s bedroom.

“Mommy!” Joey cried.

The wolf burst in a moment later, and time slowed down for Cynthia. Every step stretched into the quagmire of eternity, the way it did in nightmares.

“Joey!” she screamed.

She reached, ready to turn her hand into a dragon’s claw to fight the enemy — whether that turned out to be an intruder or Cal. But when she reached the open doorway of Joey’s bedroom, she froze.

“Joey?” she whispered.

Cal was there, still in wolf form, right by Joey’s bed. No intruder in sight, just her son, flailing in the throes of a bad dream.

“Mommy,” he wailed in his sleep.

The blankets had fallen to the floor, and Cal brushed up against Joey’s body — comforting her son, not threatening him. When the floorboards creaked under her uncertain step, Cal whirled and bared his teeth. Huge, ivory teeth that glinted in the shaft of moonlight illuminating the dim room. A drop of saliva extended from his canines, and the hair along his back stood in a sharp ridge.

Most of the time she’d spent with Cal, he’d been a surprisingly fun, tender lover, if a little short on the kind of social graces her family would approve of. She’d only seen Cal angry — really angry — a few times, and mostly when his possessive, alpha side came out to protect her around other men. But she’d never seen him look as murderous as now.

Come one step closer to this child, and you will die, his eyes dared. She stared.

I will lay down my life for this child, those wolf eyes said.

An instant later, his eyes softened as he recognized it was her and not an intruder. Then they hardened again when Hailey appeared at the door in bear form.

Cal growled. Hailey chuffed a grizzly warning. Joey tossed in his sleep.

Cynthia’s hands fluttered in the air, not knowing whom to calm down first. “It’s okay,” she assured the others before running to Joey. She fell to her

knees and hugged his slight, sweaty body. “It’s all right, sweetie. Mommy’s here.”

Her heart was tearing apart at the seams. Joey was afraid. Cal ached for something he could never have, and as for her… It was a good thing she had Joey to comfort. Otherwise, she might have broken into sobs as all the hopes and shattered dreams of the past hit her again.

Cal nudged the blanket toward Joey, and Cynthia spread it over her son. “Everything is all right, sweetie. Everything is all right.”

But it wasn’t all right, because her heart was breaking all over again. All the more when Cal huddled his furry flank against her side.

Hailey chuffed in a question, but Cynthia waved her hand. “It’s all right.

We’re good.”

If Hailey had asked her who we meant, Cynthia would have been hard- pressed to answer. Her and Joey? Her and Cal? All three of them? That

shouldn’t be possible, because Joey represented everything that had driven her and Cal apart — as well as everything destined to keep them apart forever.

Joey flung his thin arms around her neck, crying. “Mommy. The bad dragons were back.”

Cal tensed and sniffed the air as she rocked Joey.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It was just a dream. Daddy fought the bad dragons, and they’ll never come back.”

The moment she said Daddy, Cal edged away, and the warm, powerful presence that had reassured her ebbed.

“Never?” Joey whimpered.

She gulped and cast an eye toward Cal, whose wary look asked the same thing.

Never would be lying, but she had to comfort Joey somehow.

“We’re safe here, with lots of powerful dragons to protect us. Bears, lions, and tigers. Wolves too.”

Her gaze snuck over to Cal, and their eyes locked. She’d meant the wolves of her pack, of course. But the image in her mind included Cal, and the oath in his gaze backed that up.

I will protect your son as I protect you, those smoke-gray eyes said. With my life.

Cynthia closed her eyes and went back to rocking Joey. It helped him calm down, and it helped her too.

Are you sure you’re all right? Hailey asked, shooting the question into her mind.

Cynthia nodded. Which was definitely fibbing, but heck. Even Hailey couldn’t help her now.

False alarm. Thanks so much. We’ll be okay, Cynthia replied.

Hailey’s hesitant step suggested she was weighing up the danger Cal posed, and again, Cynthia’s heart warmed. All her life, she’d been taught that dragons were superior to all other shifters. But few dragons exuded the kind of warmth Hailey and the rest of Cynthia’s packmates did. They were so unabashedly loving and loyal, they made her ashamed of her own species. Would a dragon race to the side of another shifter’s offspring at the slightest hint of trouble?

She gulped and glanced out the window. At least it was just a nightmare and not the real thing. Then she buried her face in Joey’s fair hair and held him tightly, murmuring, “Everything is all right.”

Her dragon huffed. For now, at least.