Chapter Thirteen

Drake coasted over the tops of familiar trees and stuffed the poignant ache of nostalgia down deep, because this wasn’t home anymore.

“It’s me.” He cast the thought to all his team members, including the newbies, not sure who would be on guard duty tonight. “Don’t take me down.”

“What the hell are you doing back? You’re supposed to be dead.” Hall’s voice, as dark as the others but more grating as far as Drake was concerned, was unmistakable. Of course, that was who would be on duty.

“Which way do you want me entering?”

He knew exactly where Nidhogg was. It had taken him twenty minutes to track the fucker down to what Drake assumed was a vacation home not in use by the owners. Close enough to keep tabs on both the Carrillo ranch and the Huracáns. Drake had still been careful and, after circling back several times, had come in from the south, assuming the secret entrance that led directly into the bottommost levels of their mountain base would be preferred.

“We changed the password after you left,” Hall said. “Good riddance and all that.”

Seriously? They had bio scans, not passwords. Hall was going to start in on him already?

“Shut it, Hall.” Finn’s darker tones penetrated Drake’s mind next. “Back entrance. We’ll meet you in the war room.”

“Got it,” Drake relayed back.

“Hall, swap out with Demyan,” came Finn’s next order.

“Yes, boss.”

Drake landed in the small clearing near the back entrance and took a precious extra few seconds to shift. Then he shook out his right arm which was tingling in a very real threat of going numb. The renewed tingling was a warning that perhaps the reprieve from his disease would be short-lived. A fact that only strengthened the suspicion floating around in his head about why his body had so miraculously improved.

He didn’t want that reason to be true, but it was becoming harder to deny.

Bedtime had been accompanied by a lot of grumbling from her dad, like Drake would try anything with them right there to hear every creak, every moan. Because if he was going to make Cami moan, it would be loud.

Shit. Get Cami moaning out of your head.

With grim determination, he approached what appeared to be an old, large black oak tree, but a hidden panel showed his way into the mountain. A quick palm scan and a massive door opened, like the rock in front of him was a garage door. He stalked down a long dark passageway, one large enough for a dragon to fly through, barely. Levi, being a gold dragon, and larger than the rest of them, barely made it. Drake wasn’t going to attempt shifting again just yet, though, so he went on foot.

Gods, it even smelled familiar—with nothing much alive in the dark, the air turned crisp and clean with a steady heartbeat of rock and earth underlying. Rune’s hideout in the Andes had been similar, but somehow not the same. The scent wrapped around his heart like a fucking boa constrictor.

Fuck.

Up a level and a few turns later, he could hear his teammates long before he made it to the war room. The second he walked in the door they all shut up and stared at him.

He stopped inside the room to survey them. Rivin and Keighan sat side by side in office chairs in front of a console of monitors—way more sophisticated than Rune’s setup. Likely one of them pulled war room duty tonight while Hall was on patrol, and the other hadn’t left his buddy alone. Kanta stood to the back of the room, his forest-green eyes steady and calm as always. Levi stood beside Finn, arms crossed, both Alpha and Beta grim, if the hard set of their jaws was anything to go by.

“What?” Drake asked. “No hugs?”

The second the words were out of his mouth he wanted to squash them like bugs. Especially when Kanta’s eyebrows shot up. Why would he even bring up the concept of hugs? Maybe Cami was rubbing off on him. Which was bad on so many levels.

“We’ll give you hugs, man.” Rivin jumped up from the desk chair he’d been lounging on.

As usual, Keighan wasn’t too far behind. “More than hugs if you want to bring a woman into it.”

Both the white dragons made like they were going to embrace him. Drake crossed his arms and glared, which had them stopping, their grins fading.

Keighan shook his head. “Mixed messages, man.”

“Not cool,” Rivin said.

“I’d like a hug, though.” Delaney’s voice preceded her into the room, coming from behind him. She didn’t give him a choice, wrapping her arms around his waist so he had to put his own arms somewhere. “I know it hasn’t been long, but we’ve missed you around here.”

Drake held back a growl of irritation that her words struck a chord in his heart but gave her a quick squeeze of thanks.

She stepped back and looked him over thoroughly. “You’re looking better.”

“Better than what?” Hall slid into the room with a grin. “He’s still a sour-faced fucker.”

Drake ignored him. “Where’s Lyndi? At her house?”

After the way he’d left so abruptly, he’d take a second chance to say goodbye.

Finn grimaced. “She’s out with Mike and Coahoma on a small fire that popped up.”

Well, shit. Seemed like he couldn’t win for losing. Better get on with why he was here then. “Sorry to just show up. We have a bit of a problem.”

“We figured.” Finn stepped forward to tug Delaney to his side. It had been over a year since they mated, but that wasn’t long for shifters, and he was still uber possessive of her, eyeing Drake in a way that almost made him grin. He could’ve let his Alpha know that hugging Delaney was nothing like hugging Cami, but no way was he copping to that.

“Why are you here?” Finn asked.

As succinctly as he could, Drake told them about the mate he was with, her family situation, and bringing her here to help them. Then wrapped up with Nidhogg’s presence. “Either the Alliance or the Alaz team or both are checking our work, doing their own investigation, or they followed me,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the latter.”

Not given the way Skylar had sent them. He’d left that part out.

“That was a damn idiotic thing to do, letting her come here,” Levi muttered. “Isn’t the point to protect those mates?”

Drake aimed a glare his way. Usually Levi was the laid-back one of the group, though not as zen as Kanta, more happy-go-lucky. “I don’t think you get it. She was leaving with or without me.”

“Then fucking stop her,” Levi snapped.

Hall whistled. “Be glad Lyndi wasn’t in here to hear that.”

Drake barely caught the aside as he stepped into his Beta’s space, hands fisted at his side. “She’s not a prisoner,” he snarled.

Levi jerked back, surprise rather than anger flaring his eyes with gold flames. Then he held up both hands. “Okay, okay. Better to be around to help. I guess I get it.”

Finn landed a hand on Drake’s shoulder, and Drake tensed, vibrating with an anger outside of his control. Hell, way over the top for a mate who wasn’t his.

He forced his muscles to ease, unclenching his fists. “I think they’re here for the team, not her. But he’s seen me with her. Cami’s scent is covered by the fire that happened for now, and she can pretend to go to her fictional class. My being dead is the biggest issue I can see.”

“You’re not dead yet,” Finn said.

Drake frowned. “What?”

“We haven’t told the Alliance you’re gone.”

Shit. “Why the hell not? That video clears you in their eyes. What if Nidhogg knows I’ve been gone? They’ll ask questions, dammit.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Finn said.

“Is there anything special about this mate we need to worry about?” Kanta asked.

The green dragon was the thinker of the bunch. Drake would bet a book delving into some ancient philosophy was somewhere nearby. A glance at the long desk showed a hardbacked tome with gold lettering that read, “Pre-Socratic Philosophies.” He almost smiled. At least some things stayed the same.

Still, this was a question Drake should’ve asked a long time ago. “Not that I know of. I didn’t ask.”

“What brand is on the back of her neck?” Finn asked.

Dammit. “I don’t know.”

“Rune would’ve warned him if it was bad,” Keighan said.

But would he? Rune did things for lots of reasons, and that included not sharing vital information on the chance it would cause more problems than it solved.

“What’s her name?” Hall asked, suddenly dead serious.

Drake turned to face him, a sense of dread sitting cold in his gut. “Cami Carrillo.”

Hall blinked and his eyes, for a split second, turned slitted and serpentine, his dragon close to the surface. Why would he care about a woman he’d never heard of?

“Was she part of the group of humans you saved from that fire this summer?” Hall asked. “The one we thought Rune set?”

Thought? Hadn’t he set it? But that small question faded as that cold dread spread through his body. He hadn’t mentioned that yet. “Yeah. That’s her. How’d you know?”

Hall’s lips flattened in a grim line.

“Hall?” Levi prompted. Drake apparently wasn’t the only one picking up on odd vibes from the man.

“Do you know something?” Finn asked.

“Shit,” Hall muttered. Then he ran a hand over his short hair, the burr of sound obvious in the silent room, and sucked in a deep breath. “I want you to remember that Rune was proven right about a lot of things, and we’re his allies now.”

Dark realization hit hard and fast like a viper delivering venom to his blood with one strike. “You’re the traitor.” Drake couldn’t have kept the anger from his voice if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to.

Every man in the room loosed a growl, eyes going to flame in an instant as their dragons pushed to the surface.

Hall paled and held up hands that trembled slightly. “Rune and I had a deal. I shared only information that had to do with mates and the Alliance’s movements. Nothing that would blow back on the team. I swear.”

Drake wasn’t buying that shit. “That fire Rune set last summer almost killed Cami.”

At the memory of how the flames had reached for her, like a living thing trying to snatch the life from her body, Drake was done. He stalked forward only to have Kanta step in front of him. “Calm down.”

“I know you’re from the same clan, but you don’t want to get between us right now.”

“We all have a right to be angry.”

“He almost killed Cami,” Drake snarled. “Get out of my fucking way.”

Even Kanta flinched at the rage pouring off him. Drake lunged, knocking Kanta to the side like he was a feather pillow and went for Hall. He managed to slam his fist into the man’s face a couple times in quick succession. Except Hall didn’t fight back, taking the hits without raising a finger to defend himself.

“Fight back,” Drake snapped, then slammed a fist into Hall’s face again.

Dark red blood gushed from Hall’s nose and fire lit in his eyes, lime green adding to the host of colors flickering in the semi-dark room. Drake grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, practically lifting him off his feet, and raised his fist to do it again.

But Hall did nothing.

Drake gave him a hard shake. “Defend yourself, you worm.”

Hall spat off to the side as blood continued to ooze down his face in thick rivulets. “There’s nothing you could do to me that I haven’t already done to myself.”

Drake gave him another shake. “I could kill you. Finish the job.”

At that, Hall smiled. Though not amused, more sad, which was the only reason Drake didn’t rip his head off. “You won’t kill me, brother.”

Fuck.

Drake stared hard at Hall, flexing his hand, arm still raised to deliver more physical punishment. Except he couldn’t fucking do it.

“Goddammit.” He threw Hall to the floor and stalked away, breathing hard with the conflict ripping through him.

“Can’t say that wasn’t a long time coming,” Rivin muttered off to the side.

Drake shot him a glare that should’ve withered him to a pile of ash on the floor, but Rivin just shrugged, unconcerned.

At the tread of footsteps, he turned in time to see Finn squat in front of where Hall still lay on the floor, semi-propped up by the curved rock wall at his back, still bleeding like a spigot needed to be turned off at the source.

“Why’d you do it?” Finn asked quietly.

Hall flinched, because the quieter Finn got meant the more pissed he was. “Because Rune was right.”

From the side vantage point he had, Drake could see the way Finn’s jaw worked as he struggled with a few truths.

The team had done this. Together. Rune had been wrong to leave. He should’ve spent more time trying to convince them, win them to his way of thinking. He’d been dead wrong to bring the fight to their doorstep. For years. Causing fires, and mayhem. Hooking up with the very rogues they were sworn to hunt down.

But they’d been wrong, too. They’d been wrong to deny Rune’s observations about the mating process and the politics that were becoming too dangerous. Looking back, it was so damn obvious. But hindsight didn’t help fix shit.

“Why tell us now?” Kanta asked. He sounded tired. Hell, they were all tired.

Hall raised a hand to his nose and winced. The way it sat on his face, it was definitely broken. With both hands, Hall jerked at it, and, with a loud grunt of pain, it popped back in place with a crack that echoed in the silent room. He spat more blood on the floor beside him then looked at Kanta. “Because you won’t be able to get in touch with Rune. He’s got a…thing.”

“A thing?” Drake snapped.

Hall shrugged then winced. “He doesn’t give me details. Only what I need to help him. Plausible deniability and all that. But he’s been off the grid for several days. That much I do know.”

Except needing to ask Rune some basic questions shouldn’t have made Hall out himself. There had to be more. Dark dread seeped through his pores to lay heavy in his bones. This was about Cami. It had to be. “Why do we need Rune for this?”

“If the Alaz team is here, the Alliance can’t be far behind.” Hall pushed himself more upright with a wince. “I think you’re right. They’re not here for her. Yet. But you should know who she is. Just in case.”

Drake was getting damn sick of this long-winded explanation. “Because she’s a mate?”

Hall stared him down around the blood and swelling. Unflinching. “Because the brand she carries is yours.”

…

“A human you say?” Ogun stared at the face on his phone screen. “Drake doesn’t seem the type.”

Nidhogg’s shrug looked more like a weird head bob from this angle, with the camera practically going straight up the gold shifter’s nose. Behind him, darkness consumed the sky and Ogun could make out the tops of trees. The spires of pine trees mixed with the broad canopies of black oaks.

“They arrived together in a car. Looks like a rental.”

“Is she merely a human lover? Or something more?”

“I couldn’t get close enough to determine,” Nidhogg whispered, close in to the microphone which picked up his heavy breathing.

Ogun practically felt the humidity from here and wrinkled his nose with distaste.

“Did she show any dragon sign? Smell of smoke?” This would be all he needed. Proof that the Huracán team were hiding yet another potential mate. He could take that to Mathai.

“Everything smells like fucking smoke,” Nidhogg hissed.

“Why are you whispering?” Ogun demanded. “Speak up.”

“He’s close,” came another hissed reply, only even more muffled.

Ogun straightened in his bed, not that the action could make him see around Nidhogg’s head on the screen “Drake?”

“Who the fuck else?”

“Does he know you’re there?”

“No. I killed a skunk and have been dragging its carcass with me everywhere to cover my trail. No way could he know.”

But Nidhogg still had to be careful. Drake’s reputation as a tracker preceded him.

“Where are you now?” Ogun asked.

“I got lucky and crossed his path while doing a night surveillance of the headquarters. He’s returning to his human now.”

Which gave him nothing. All dragons took human lovers from time to time.

“She may know what he is.”

Ogun perked up at that.

“The two scents I discovered near her home, other than Rune, were Titus and Drake. Especially Drake.”

Damn. Ogun deflated. “I need proof.”

“He’s spending most of his time with her, rather than with the team.”

“A minor infraction. Any sign of Rune?”

“None.”

Damn.

“Keep looking. I need more.”

“Shit. I have to go.” The screen went black.

Ogun hardly noticed, running through options in his head.

…

Something was wrong with Drake.

Cami could tell.

He’d been quiet since they woke up. That by itself wasn’t unusual. At least he wasn’t glowering or snapping at her parents. He was just…quiet. But not in a Drake way. More in a weird way she couldn’t pin down.

And he hadn’t looked at her once. Almost like he couldn’t.

She knew he’d left last night, though he hadn’t made a sound as he’d snuck out of her room, but she’d been awake when he went, staring at the wall like she had as a child when her mind wouldn’t allow her rest. She’d gone to her window, but he was already a ghost. He hadn’t come back till close to four in the morning. Where on earth had he gone? His team maybe? Or did he have a woman close by? Another person he’d had to give up?

Cami refused to acknowledge how her own mood had grown murkier with each passing hour he’d been away, like silt and sludge poured into clear water, turning it stagnant and thick. Soon she’d turn sour and putrid.

In an attempt to put Drake out of her head—difficult with him sitting right there—she turned to her dad. “What are we doing today?”

“We’re working on the farthest pasture. It’s in decent shape, but the fences need repair before we can move most of the herd there.”

Ugh. The farthest pasture was also the land with the highest points and the most difficult terrain to traverse, which meant by foot most of the time. Fencing the area was a pain in the ass.

“Maybe you could feed the doelings before you go?” her mother suggested.

Something to occupy her that didn’t involve thoughts. Sounded good. Cami stood and started gathering plates to clear the table. She paused as Drake did the same, moving to the sink to scrub dishes. A glance at her mother showed her small smile at the display of manners. Cami just shook her head.

Yesterday, while her mom had grilled Drake about his background, Cami had learned some things. She knew the bit about his large family was true but didn’t get a chance to ask about his growing up near the borders of Nepal and China. A large village, but still old-fashioned, he’d said. Was that code for the Red Clan’s home base of Everest?

While his father was from Nepal, his mother had come from Russia, though more Kazakhstan. He’d even managed a stiff smile, commenting on the constantly changing borders. His knowledge of human geography was fascinating. Dragons apparently kept to themselves, interacting with humans on a limited basis, but had he witnessed other aspects of human history through the years? Or did he need to know borders simply to get around? She wanted to ask, but her father and uncles had returned.

That had been entertaining.

After the initial respect moment, as soon as the bedroom situation had been made clear, her father had asked terse questions, his expression anything but impressed. Drake had replied with equally terse answers. This had gone on until her mother put a stop to it.

“Stop interrogating the boy,” she’d said in Spanish.

Cami had to bite back a smile at the “boy” reference and Drake’s immediate scowl, though he hid it quickly.

“It’s fine, Mrs. Carrillo,” Drake had replied also in Spanish. “I understand Cami is…worth protecting.”

Even now, she still warmed at the memory of those words. Had he meant them? Or had all of it been a show? Drake wasn’t the type to lie for comfort’s sake. He didn’t put people at ease. But he’d gone against his personality and bothered to try. For her family. Which sort of made her want to snuggle into him and dry hump him at the same time.

But where the hell had he gone last night?

“Where are we keeping the doelings?” Cami asked, trying to stop her colliding thoughts in favor of the practical.

“In the smaller pen.”

Up behind where the barn used to be. Like the main house, a patch of grassy fields had somehow managed to remain unscathed there.

Cami paused in scooping leftover migas into a container. What if that hadn’t been sheer luck? She glanced at Drake’s back, distracted by the play of muscles under the blue jean button-down shirt he’d worn, his movements as he did dishes economical and easy. Like he did dishes all the time.

Someone had to do dishes. Rune’s guys and the women under their care took turns with kitchen duty, both the cooking and the cleaning. No doubt Drake’s team did the same.

“Drake and I can take care of the babies.” She probably wouldn’t get him alone again today, and she needed to know where he’d been. The curiosity was eating at her like rust chewed through metal.

She slipped the leftovers into the fridge then went to stand by him, leaning a hip on the counter. “Let’s go.”

“You go.” He didn’t look at her but must’ve felt the power of her frown anyway. “I’ll finish these and come find you.”

Yeah, right. Her first instincts had been dead-on. The man was avoiding her. “Tio Matt can finish. Or Mama. You’ll love the doelings. They’re so cute.”

She didn’t miss his derisive snort, though it had been quiet. Cami grinned. “Come on.” She reached over and turned the faucet off.

He rested his hands on the sink and aimed a scowl her way, except his eyes still held a distance they hadn’t yesterday. “You’re a pest. You know that?”

“Yup.”

“My daughter is not a pest,” her father declared from the kitchen table.

Drake grabbed a towel to dry his hands and turned to face him. “I’m sorry, sir. But Cami can be damn stubborn. Como una burro.”

Cami grabbed the towel from his hands and snapped it at him while everyone, except her father, laughed. “Come on.”

With a put-upon groan, he followed her out of the house. Cami kept her thoughts to herself as she led him around the charred remains of the barn to a fenced-in pen on the backside. Most of the area was nicely flat, and more on the green side than the gold side, thanks to recent rains most likely. Though, given the way goats ate everything in sight, more dirt than grass was left in the pen itself. The fencing went up the slope of a small hill, corralling pines and black oaks, under which the ground was covered by pine needles.

The second Drake appeared around the blackened wood that used to be the side of the barn, a tiny tan goat with a darker stipe down its back and black-and-white markings around its face and hooves gave a joyous bleat and ran over to them.

“Clover, you are so silly.” Cami laughed at the little goat’s antics as it continued to bleat and hop around.

As soon as Drake was inside the pen, Clover went wild, jumping up beside him, almost to the level of his waist, before leaping around the pen. She jumped over two of her fellow doelings, then off the back of another black one. The stockier goat tumbled to the ground with a cry of outrage. More flying about the pen, then Clover jumped on the back of another goat, paused, and did a spinning flip dismount that a parkour enthusiast would’ve been impressed with. The other goat also ended up pushed off its feet.

That didn’t stop Clover, who proceeded to circle Drake in a joyous dance. Of reunion, if Cami wasn’t mistaken. Yet another beneficiary of lives saved that day? The last thing Cami remembered before they ended up on that road away from the fire was abandoning Clover, who wouldn’t leave her mother, to run for the truck.

For his part, Drake stood, feet planted wide and arms crossed, and tried to ignore the tiny creature’s antics.

Cami pretended not to notice and went about feeding them.

But Clover, usually the best eater despite being the runt of the bunch, stayed right where she was, not leaving his side.

“Can you get her to stop?” Drake asked. Growled more like.

“Why don’t you pick her up?”

Drake’s frown morphed to an expression closer to horror as he stared the tiny animal down. “Stop that,” he said, when she landed another of her fellow goats on its back.

Sensing he was talking to her, Clover flew back to his side, circling him and bleating. With a grrrr of annoyance, Drake bent and scooped the animal off the ground.

Immediately, Clover quieted and snuggled into his arms, tucking her nose into his armpit, practically like a damn cat.

Cami stilled at the sight, delight and something softer, more dangerous, taking hold inside her. Drake, however, turned to granite, his lip curled in irritation.

Cami couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. “That’s what happens when you save a life, I guess.”

She shook her head and went back to feeding the goats.

A hole of silence opened up behind her, growing until even the breeze through the trees stopped its soft rustle.

She finished what she was doing and turned to face him. Her lungs seized at the way he was watching her. An odd combination of wariness and reluctance…but with a shadow of relief in the way his shoulders had eased, his stance loosening.

“How long have you known?” he asked quietly.

“Rune told me before Skylar sent me to San Francisco.”

His eyes narrowed at that. “You didn’t say anything.”

She glanced away with a shrug. “I didn’t think you’d want me to. I get the feeling my gratitude would make you uncomfortable.”

The way he shifted on his feet at even the mention of it told her she was right. So did his next words. “I don’t need your gratitude.”

“No?” A spark of mischief had her wanting to mess with him a bit, just to see his reaction. But also because containing her thanks was a growing problem, making her damn antsy. “How about my undying devotion?”

Drake’s lips went flat. So did his eyes. “Not that, either.”

And she almost laughed then but managed to keep a straight face. Her dragon shifter was so easy to mess with. “Don’t I owe you some kind of life debt? I have to stay by your side until I save your life in return. Isn’t that how it works?”

“Save someone else.” Now his jaw was going all tight and the laughter bubbled inside her, contained like fizzy lifting drink.

“Can I at least say thank—”

“No.”

The teasing urge disappeared as Cami narrowed her eyes at his curt interruption. She strode across the pen to glare up at him. “No way are you getting away without at least a thanks.”

“I don’t want it.”

Stubborn man. She couldn’t simply sweep this under the rug, this huge thing he’d done, not only for her and her father, her uncle, and two of her cousins, but for Clover, and the other goats they’d had with them. A new urge rode in on the bubbles still trapped inside her. An urge she should ignore. Except she didn’t want to.

Just a small show of her thanks, then she’d let it go. Walk away.

Before he could guess her actions and stop her, Cami went up on her tiptoes. She took his face in her hands and placed a soft kiss on his stubble-covered cheek, the hair raspy against her lips even as his skin was smooth.

And warm.

And familiar in a way that made her heart ache.

She meant to step back, immediately return his personal space to him, but the heat of him under her palms, the feel of him, ensnared her and she paused, her face near to his. Lips a whisper away, because he’d turned his head slightly.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Her lips were close enough that she brushed the skin of his jaw. Barely, but boy did she feel it to her very core. A molten heat that poured to the rest of her.

Neither of them moved or said anything. They stood there, Cami on tiptoe, pressed against his arm, Clover still between them, their faces close, the sound of their breath mingling and twisting together.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

Then he speared his hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head, and brought his lips down on hers in a soft, soul-possessing kiss that she felt to the bottoms of her feet.

Barely a sweep of his lips across hers, but the way she held her at the same time, so fierce…the dichotomy of the two sensations wrapped around her like a promise.

“More,” she whispered against his lips, her thoughts escaping in the hush.

As if compelled by that one word, he deepened the kiss, lips turning demanding and utterly possessive against hers.

Her body, already on that precipice when anywhere near him, came to throbbing, fizzing life as she opened for him, urgency bringing small cries of need up her throat. He swallowed every whimper and fed them back to her with deep groans of his own.

Lips that were always so hard, so unforgiving, were soft against hers. Soft but challenging. A combination that turned her on to the point of aching pain, like she’d come out of her skin at any second.

Clover, still grasped in Drake’s other arm, gave a plaintive baaah of protest and an awful stillness seized them both.

No. She wanted to wail the word.

She’d barely thought the word before Drake lifted his head, and any breath left in her lungs punched out of her at the sight of eyes fully ablaze in crimson flames.

“Fuck,” Drake snapped.

He released her and stepped back, glaring at her like this was entirely her fault.

“Dammit, Cami. We can’t be doing this.” He wiped the back of his sleeve across his mouth as if erasing the taste of her, the feel of her from his body.

That one small action sent a legion of arrows straight through her heart which took to bleeding internally. She lifted her chin to fire back. “Why not?”

If anything, the flames in his eyes glowed brighter. She could practically feel the ripples of heat disturbing the late autumn air from here.

“I can’t.” Under the words was a deep growl, no doubt the sound of his dragon barely leashed inside him.

She shook her head. “That’s not good enough.”

“I wasn’t finished.”

She clamped her lips shut and waited.

Mouth set in a grim line, he blew out a heavy breath. “I can’t ruin your life like that. It would haunt me to the grave.”

Cami’s arms fell to her sides as she stared at him with a dawning sort of frustrated awe. He cared. A lot, if she was reading this right.

Her stomach clenched at the realization.

Before she could even think of what to say to that, Clover lifted her head to complain at him, and Drake loosened his grip that had visibly tightened around the doeling. Then he stalked past Cami, still holding Clover.

Not turning, Cami closed her eyes. “I want you,” she said quietly. She knew the words were the wrong ones to use with this man. But he needed to know. She was so sick of resisting this.

A forlorn bleat had her spinning around to find Clover on the ground staring out the pen with a pathetic face, and Drake disappearing around the charred remains of the barn.

“Damn,” she muttered.