“It’s stronger than it used to be, honey. Just like yours is. I think it was only a matter of time before I got caught.”
“Then let them come. Stay, and we can face them together. Maybe we can reason with them. I see them all around us. Dragons and ursa mostly, but the other kind too. They don’t scare me. I’m not afraid to talk to them.”
His mouth turned down in a grim frown, and he shook his head. “I don’t think these men are anything like the others. I don’t know what they are, but they aren’t any of the four higher races. They’re…something else. All I know is that I need to get as far from here as I can, honey, for your sake. And it’s better if you don’t know where I went. Then they can’t hurt you.”
I wanted to object again, to try to talk some sense into him, but it had always been impossible to talk my dad out of a scheme. I clenched my eyes shut and forced my breathing into an even flow, then looked at him again. “At least tell me what to look for if they come.”
His attention turned inward, and he blanched as if visualizing some horror. He shook his head. “I think you’ll know them well enough if they show up. With any luck, they’ll keep chasing me and leave you alone. But if they come, you should run. Go back to Bear Island to the house where we lived when you were little; you’ll be safe there. I’ll try to check in, just to make sure you’re okay, but I’d better go.”
He stood up, his hat clutched in one hand, and hovered over me. With a soft smile, he plucked at one of the stray ringlets that had escaped my haphazard braid. My chest clenched with sadness, and I lurched out of my seat, flinging my arms around him.
“Please be careful, okay?” I wasn’t sure what else to say, or do, and only released him when he gently but forcefully peeled my arms away from his body.
“Good luck with your show. I’m sure it’s going to be spectacular.” He kissed me on the forehead then turned to go.
Somewhere in the kitchen, the crash of breaking glass echoed, just as he walked out the door.
2
Gray
The afternoon sunlight gleamed through the skylight above, warming my bare shoulders. I enjoyed the fatigue in my muscles from the long weeks of work and the time spent getting reacquainted with a craft I’d set aside for far too long. With sure swipes of the polishing cloth and a little dragon fire, I put the finishing touches on the hand-carved stone details of the tile wall I’d been working on.
It was perfection, and with the last puff of magic breath, I finally stood back to bask in the glow of a job well done.
I was surrounded by four walls of polished stone that enclosed the recently completed shower in the Chimera’s Malibu home. The colorful granite tiles were shot through with veins of dragon stone that could only be appreciated by the current residents, as well as the intricate, hand-carved design that stretched in a narrow band around the walls at eye level. Somewhere beyond the walls came the dissonant plucking of a guitar being tuned and a PA system being set up for the party that was about to happen.
“Wow, you’ve outdone yourself,” a deep voice said from behind me. I glanced over at Tate, whose bearded face peeked through the glass door. The big ursa stepped inside and stood close, thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans. His warm, woody scent filled the cozy space, inciting a pang of bittersweet longing.
“Do you think it’s fit for a goddess?”
“I don’t think Deva would have minded had you called it done without the extra touches. You know how much she’s itching to move in.”
He crossed his arms and gave me a searching look. I could only shrug because he knew me too well. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, well… I guess I’m not quite ready for this project to be done.”
His expression grew tender, and maybe even a little sad. Clearing his throat, he glanced away, but not before I caught the shine in his eyes. “It’s time for us to head home. It’s been a good run, but an ursa pilgrimage isn’t meant to last forever, and the best place for me and the other two to find a mate is in the Sanctuary.”
Tightness gripped my chest, and I turned back to the wall, rubbing my polishing cloth over the already gleaming surface. If I polished it anymore, the detail I’d carved into it would get worn flat again. “There are other options, you know.”
Tate let out a long sigh. “I’m not the only one in the mix. Chayton and Eddie are on the same page as me. We love you three scaled bastards, but we need more. We need a female willing to take on three unruly ursa males, and that isn’t something we’ll find out here. Human women are…more restrained.”
I let out a soft snort. I’d met a few human women who weren’t all that restrained, but even if there was one willing to take three ursa, Murdoc, Stuart, and I would still be left out in the cold. We were dragons, who typically didn’t share, unlike Tate and his two partners, who needed to remain a unit in order to attract a worthy female ursa.
If we wanted mates, the best bet for us dragons was to split up and go solo, no matter how much it hurt to let each other go.
“You could come to the Sanctuary with us and request entry to the Haven,” Tate ventured. “There are plenty of nymphs who would jump at the chance to mate three dragons.”
“Maybe if we were any other color but white. Guardians like us aren’t exactly at the top of the list for any of the higher races’ females. After what happened with the Lamia, nymphs tend to steer clear of white dragons.”
He knew as well as I did that our ancient immortal leader, the white dragon Aodh, was instrumental in creating our oldest enemy. She inflicted us with centuries of fear of being captured and tortured in her labs until we finally fought a war against her and her minions and killed her. That war had only been three years ago, and the nymphaea had long memories.
“Then ask Deva for help. You know she’d jump at the chance to match up more of her precious Bloodline with members of the higher races.”
I shook my head. “Bloodline women with enough dragon blood to reliably match one dragon are rare enough. Three of us would be too many. And before you tell me Aella managed just fine, we all know her blood was concentrated enough to attract the very Winds themselves. Most female members of the Bloodline don’t possess that quality. We can find mates just fine solo. Besides, I wouldn’t want to bother Deva unless she could guarantee all six of us could stay together, and I’m not about to ask her to make that kind of promise.”
Tate tutted. “I never knew you were such a sentimental fool. This all-or-nothing shit is new.”
“You know it doesn’t have to be an issue.” I shot him an irritated look. “The six of us are good together. Why change what works?”
“Because it isn’t enough,” he said with a helpless shrug. “I know we all feel it. As good as what we have is, it’s missing something. When we worked for Aella, we had a synergy that isn’t there when it’s just us. Even though all we did was watch over her, she was the center of our universe. It’s natural for ursa to want that with a woman, and it sure as hell felt like it was natural for the three of you too. We were a well-oiled machine until…”