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Molly
I jumped up and released the hybrid from beneath me. I had to know if it was true, if someone like him truly existed, and now that I had my answer, I didn’t need to continue to attack.
Unless he asked for it, of course.
God, he’s gorgeous. So much better looking than anyone had said. There should have been some sort of warning. All throughout our confrontation, I had been distracted. I couldn’t let him know that, however. I couldn’t let him know he had an advantage over me.
My eyes flickered over him again. I’d been hunting for him for weeks. Now that I had him, I was bringing him in. No matter what he said. No matter what he tried to do to me.
The shifter named Logan stood up slowly and I looked up at him. Quite literally.
At almost six foot, I was a tall woman.
More than tall, I was huge.
This man, this hybrid shifter, he made me feel small, which wasn’t something I had ever felt before.
He was at least six foot six, with massive wrestler style shoulders and hands the size of dinner plates. I had confidence in my abilities to defend myself and attack, if need be, but I knew this man, this shifter, had the strength to land serious blows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, pushing himself up.
My body was still tense, could I trust him not to attack me? If he did, I couldn’t blame him if he attempted to fight for his freedom. Hell, I would. Instead, he brushed the dirt off his overalls and flicked his dark hair out of his face.
“I’m just a builder,” he stated, making it seem like I had lost my mind.
When he made direct eye contact with me, I had to lock my knees so they didn’t tremble.
I hated how weak he rendered me. I didn’t even have to touch him to be affected by him. All it took was one look and I was speechless.
I was pathetic.
He is incredibly hot. Like, super please take me to bed and fuck me three ways from Sundays hot!
I cleared my throat with a cough and straightened my shoulders.
Stop getting distracted just because you’re in heat! You’re here to do a job.
It was one thing to be attracted to someone. I could control myself if I was merely attracted to him. The fact that I was in heat, where everything was heightened and everything was enhanced, made him impossible to ignore.
“Ah, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. Logan, isn’t it? I’m Molly.” I stuck my hand out and gave him my most charming smile.
He stared at my hand for a moment. Then a reluctant smile tugged up his lips and he took my palm with his.
“Molly... I’d like to say nice to meet you, but it isn’t.” His voice reminded me of thunder—low and grumbly and holding a heavy threat of a storm coming.
A shiver raced down my spine, but I suppressed it. The last thing I needed was for him to know he had an effect on me and my traitorous body.
He dropped his hand away from mine and began walking out of the alley and down the street. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, his shoulders loose and casual, as though he hadn’t just engaged in a physical confrontation. As though it was nothing to him.
I tilted my head to the side, pretending it wasn’t because I enjoyed watching his body. I ignored the thrill it sent straight to my pelvis. Why he walked home from work every day, I had no idea, but I took complete advantage of it.
You realize you have to take him in, right?
I shook my head and sprang to my feet. I ran after him, pushing myself to keep up with his long strides. Tracking him down had been hard enough, but chasing him down the street was almost harder.
“Hey, look.” I cut him off, standing in front of him so he couldn’t continue to walk away. “I only need an hour of your time.”
He grunted, barely even looking at me. I hated how personally I took his casual dismissal.
“Well, keep up then.” He said.
I walked alongside him, the dragon shifter inside me practically vibrating for joy that another dragon was within reach.
I could feel it within him.
The heat.
The power.
I’d seen it in his eyes when I had him beaten. His pupils had flicked to a dragon’s eye, the black part of the eye no longer circular, but a diamond shape.
Not that I thought I’d win in a truly fair fight. When he forgot that I was a woman and hit me with everything he had, I would be blown away by the sheer force of his strength.
I had the advantage of surprise this time, and him being a decent guy, I’d won.
For now.
And what he didn’t seem to grasp was that I didn’t care if I had to walk for twenty blocks to talk to him. I’d scoured the whole state looking for him. I could wait another half an hour or however long it took.
So, we marched and didn’t talk.
And I didn’t care.
At least, I wouldn’t let him know if I cared maybe a little, miniscule, insignificant bit.
All that mattered was I found him.
I’d found him!
We finally passed the last of the city streets and arrived at a small house that was crumbling in parts.
When he stepped up to the front stoop and opened the door, I couldn’t hide my surprise.
Why here? Of all the places in the world, why would he choose to live here in this rusted shack that was falling apart? Most dragons liked things that were shiny and new. I would have thought he’d be attracted to a building in the city or a mansion in a gated community. Not this dump. Not when there were so many other options.
“Come in if you’re coming in,” he called out and I hurried in behind him. I ignored the fact that he must not see me as a threat if he invited me in like it wasn’t a big deal. Was I really that shit at fighting? Clearly, I needed to work on my intimidation skills.
After stepping inside, I looked around. My lips tugged into a frown. The inside of the house wasn’t much better than the external facade, with peeling wallpaper and a kitchen I hoped he didn’t cook in. How was this place considered liveable? Didn’t he care at all about cleanliness?
He sauntered towards the silver fridge, which looked blessedly new.
“You want a beer, or something?” he asked.
Hospitable... who would have guessed? It almost put me on guard, like he was up to more than just being nice. I wasn’t used to it.
“Ah, no... no, thank you.” I shook my head, offering a polite smile.
He pulled a beer from the fridge, popped the top, and drank most of the contents in a few swallows. He didn’t even seem perturbed at all.
I couldn’t stop staring at him. He was different in every single way than I’d expected, from his looks to his attitude to his house to his alcohol intake. I appreciated the fact that I couldn’t easily read him. It also made me slightly wary. At least predictability made me feel like I was in control. I had been hunting him for months and now that I had him, I felt as though he had me.
“What?” he asked as he tossed the now empty bottle in a nearby trash can and grabbed another beer from the fridge.
I blinked. I hadn’t realized my staring was obvious. I dropped my eyes to the floor, some strangely colored carpet.
“Ah... I didn’t think you’d drink,” he said.
He sipped at the new beer while leaning against old granite counter.
“Why not?”
I cocked my head to the side and stared at him. Was he baiting me, or did he really not know? He must know.
“Because alcohol affects your shifting ability,” I said slowly, as though this was as obvious as the answer to what color the sky was or what one plus one equalled. “And if you drink, like that”—I indicated to the bottle in the bin that he’d drunk faster than I could finish a bottle of water—“your shifter wouldn’t be able to surface.”
He stared at me as though I was the stupid one. “Exactly.”
Then the truth hit me and I realised, I was the stupid one.
I sighed. He was deliberately intoxicating his shifting animals. It probably made it easier to hide them.
I’d never thought of that
I’d never heard of anyone who wanted to suppress themselves in such a way.
It was his turn to stare at me. “So.” He nodded at me after taking another sip of his beer. “Come on, Molly. Out with it. You’ve hunted me down, for god knows what reason. What can I do for you today? Do you need a house built? I’m good with my hands.”
He didn’t smile, but the double entendre wasn’t lost on my heated body. I tensed my spine, so I didn’t shiver visibly in front of him.
I’m sure you are very good with your hands.
I shook myself, hard. “Nope. Thanks for the offer, but I have a house.”
And I did. A small, but well-built home deep in the forest, away from civilization but not so isolated that I couldn’t go out myself and make contact with someone.
He saluted me with his beer. “Well, I’m waiting.”
I took a deep breath. Now that I was finally here, in front of him, the words were harder to find than I’d expected.
“I’ve been looking for you for weeks,” I began.
His eyebrows flew up. “Why would you be looking for me?”
“Because I’d heard there was another hybrid shifter in the state,” I said. I looked down at my hands, unsure what to do with them.
His response was slow. Deliberately, cunningly slow.
He put his beer down, and then flattened both palms against the granite counter.
I took a step back at the veiled violence in the air. My dragon shifter leapt to my mind, ready to take over my body if she was needed.
I swallowed.
“What did you say?” he asked, narrowed eyes flashing to me, beer seemingly forgotten.
I bit my lip. “Um, which part?”
“What did you call me?” Logan corrected himself, his voice changing tone so he was vibrating in a totally different way now.
Was he angry?
I cocked my head. I couldn’t take the time to care now. So, I pushed on.
“You’re a hybrid,” I repeated. “Two shifters in one. Surely you know that, don’t you?”
His posture relaxed a little, though I could still see the tension in his neck and shoulders.
It was obvious he’d been alone, for way too long.
Even then, I couldn’t get a read on him. I couldn’t tell if he knew all along what he was or if he was trying to mask his ignorance.
“What sort are you?” he asked. He took the beer bottle in his hand and raised to his lips. For some reason, he didn’t sip. Instead, he slowly put his arm down, tilting the bottle in a way where liquid wouldn’t spill out of it.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “The same as you.”
I wasn’t going to say anything more. I wanted to know what he knew.
His blue eyes flicked up and the wolf raised his head, the iris turning silver in front of me.
“And what am I, exactly?” he asked with that slow voice again.
I rolled my eyes. Why did he play these games?
“Geez, you seriously don’t spend any time with any other shifters do you?” I asked in a huff, because if he had he’d know how easy it was to sniff out the type of shifter someone was.
He didn’t answer, but a muscle in his jaw tightened and ticked in response.
I walked forward, risking bodily harm if I was interpreting his angry glares properly.
“You’re half wolf, half dragon shifter,” I said. I stopped directly in front of him. This was probably the worst decision I could have made because being so close to him caused my body to thrum with desire. I forced myself to continue, hoping my voice didn’t shake. “Same as me. One of the rarest of all the hybrid combinations.”
All the steam seemed to go out of him. He set down his beer, leaning forward so his shoulders hunched up, revealing just how broad and muscled they were.
“Rare? Us?” he finally said, his voice low.
I risked a smile.
“You couldn’t tell what I was?” I asked, tilting my head to the side so my hair fell over my shoulder.
God, I hoped I didn’t look like I was a fucking flirt. That was the last thing I needed right now.
I could easily see the dragon within him. The scent of him, the size of his body. Not to mention the way his eyes changed when he was in fight mode. He was mesmerizing.
He shook his head. “No. I grew up in the foster system. I didn’t have much exposure to other shifters. Barely none... actually.”
My jaw dropped, my lips making an o.
Holy crap.
“Shit, that must have been hard.” I dropped my gaze to the floor.
I couldn’t imagine him coming into his shifting powers as a teenager and not knowing what they were, let alone how to control them. Not having anyone to be there for him, to tell him what to expect and what was going to happen to his body.
I swallowed down my sympathy. The last thing I wanted was to feel sorry for him, and I highly doubted he wanted that either.
He shrugged as though it didn’t matter, but I could see from the defeated posture of his shoulders that it did.
“Yeah, well, I burnt a house or two down when I was fifteen, but I’ve managed to control it since then,” he grumbled, lifting his beer and the alcohol finally made sense. He’d spent his adult life neglecting a huge part of himself. He hadn’t embraced his shifter self and shut up the voices like an alcoholic drowning out his demons.
Empathy and sadness flowed through me as I looked at him in a whole new way. This time, I couldn’t stop the feelings even though I balled my hands into tight fists and dug my nails into my palms.
He didn’t shift often by the looks of his rigid form. He probably didn’t even trust his shifting animals not to hurt anyone. Now I understood the shitty shack, the isolation. He did this, all of this, on purpose because he didn’t believe he was worthy of anything else and wanted to protect others. And, maybe to a degree, he wanted to protect himself.
I forced a smile to my lips and ploughed on with my planned speech.
“Well, I’ve come with an offer,” I said quickly. I rubbed my hands on my jeans, surprised by how much perspiration had accumulated. I didn’t know why I was nervous. I had recited this speech plenty of times in the mirror, just in case I actually found him. “I have my own hybrid pack. There’s twelve of us at the moment, but with the attacks growing, we need someone like you. Strong. An alpha. You’ll fit right in.”
I gave him my most winning smile, but he frowned in response.
Okay, not a good sign.
“What?” It almost sounded like he was in disbelief. He ran a hand along the counter, then finally looked back at me. “You have a pack of misfits, and you want me to join?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
I flinched. “That’s not fair. You don’t even know us.”
He huffed. “I know you don’t fit in anywhere else, so you’re trying to make up your own club so you’re not alone.”
I ignored the way the derision in his tone caused me to bristle with annoyance. What did I care what he thought about my pack? yet, his words affected me more than I was willing to admit.
“Well, thanks, but no thanks,” he said, picking up his beer. “You can show yourself out.”
He threw the bottle at the bin and went to the fridge and pulled out a cold pizza.
All shifters burned through thousands of calories in a day, and I could only imagine how much a hybrid dragon-wolf, who spent his days building houses, could eat.
It was the only observation I could focus on that prevented me from attacking him again. Because, unfortunately for him, despite his dismissal, I wasn’t going anywhere. I refused to give up so easily, especially considering I had finally found him.
I expected no. I was hoping for i, obviously, but I had considered he wouldn’t be easy to convince. But I could work with no. I could turn that no into a yes.
Logan was a loner. I could see that. Hell, I understood it. I used to prefer being alone. But through personal experiences, I realized that I couldn’t do it all on my own. I needed help. I needed others like me.
It wasn’t unusual for a wolf shifter to go rogue when they didn’t have a pack. Well, this guy had never had a pack, so it would be hard to convince him of the advantages of family when he’d never known them before, especially when he thought he was a source of destruction and pain.
“It isn’t safe for a hybrid in the modern climate, Logan.” I dropped my hands to my sides, ensuring I wasn’t coming across as either demanding or aggressive. This needed to be his decision, and I highly doubted he was going to agree to something merely because I pushed him too hard. I needed to be patient. I needed to be soothing. Those weren’t exactly qualities I was known for, but I still had to try. “I know you don’t know anything about pack politics, or the shifter world, but a lot is happening out there at the moment.”
He stuffed some pizza in his mouth and asked between bites. “Yeah, like what?” It was dismissive, almost like he was humouring me.
I bit back a smart retort and let out a slow breath. It wouldn’t help if I bit his head off.
“Bad things are happening to anyone who isn’t a pure breed, and no one is coming forward and owning up to the attacks,” I said slowly, meeting his eyes. “There are stories, whispers, of wolves and dragons that attack anyone who is different. They find us a threat to the species, and they want to take us out.”
The fact that is was shifters hunting us was the most daunting part of all of this. Not humans, not poachers, not para-brokers who wanted to sell us as some sort of slave to the highest bidder.
No.
It was actual shifters.
Why couldn’t it be the bears? Bears were easy to take out. Bears were slow and predictable and not exactly the brightest shifter species. Bears I could handle.
But it wasn’t them.
Logan grunted and shrugged as though he didn’t care. “That doesn’t apply to me.” He stuffed the last bit of pizza into his mouth and went back to the fridge to pull out another slice. “No one knows what I am. And it’s gonna stay that way.” He gave me a pointed look that seemed to say if I revealed to anyone what he was, it wasn’t going to be good for me.
I ignored the veiled threat, though I was slightly offended he would think I would out him just to prove a point. “But wouldn’t you like to be part of a pack?” I asked. “Part of a family? Having you would help us a lot, I’m sure we could help you too.”
He grunted again and lifted the pizza to his lips. “I doubt it.”
I threw my hands up in the air and groaned loudly. I was ready to rip that slice of pizza from his hands and stomp on it.
What was it going to take to get through to this thick head?
I wanted to scream, but I suppressed the urge. I knew, deep down, he needed us. I also knew that he was as stubborn as all hell.
What I didn’t know was how to get him to agree to come with me. And if I couldn’t get him to do that, then the lives of my people, and his, may be forfeit.