Daphne needed to settle in, which really meant that she didn’t want to be put on babysitting duty right away. The beer that Erik brought her wasn’t enough to slake the exhaustion trying to take hold of her.
Later, when she sat at the picnic table on the ledge over the cabin with Casey, her mind tumbled from one subject to another. From Zander, to Evangeline, to the mystery man in town. Thoughts of the mystery man made her heart flutter, but no matter how hard she tried to hold onto that feeling, her stomach sank. Zander’s phone call crept back into her mind and left her unsettled.
“Why did you leave?” she asked, her voice soft and quiet.
Casey groaned, like a heavy weight had settled on his shoulders. She stole a look at her brother. They’d spent their lives together, nigh inseparable since her birth. The only person who’d ever stolen him away from her had been Gavin. She understood that part of why Casey left could be blamed on Gavin and the fight he had with his mate, but spats between mates never lasted quite this long.
Something else was going on, and she had the feeling that she’d been dragged into it.
“We didn’t leave,” Casey said. He took a long swig of his beer, his Adam’s apple bobbing with every consecutive gulp. The bottle was empty when he set it down. “We were sent to retrieve Gavin. Not long afterward, Zander betrayed us.”
“I get that he runs a strict clan. I don’t think Zander betrayed you. Maybe you and the others misinterpreted his commands,” Daphne said.
Her older brother pinned her with a dismissive look. She straightened her spine, refusing to be shut down. She’d worked damn hard to keep men from doing such things. Her place in the clan had been earned through hard work and sacrifice, and she’d be damned if her brother wouldn’t respect her.
“Zander gave us a deadline. We had to bring Gavin back by the predetermined date. The repercussions weren’t clearly defined until Zander decided to move that deadline. Again, and again, until finally Zander decided that we’d defected and declared war on us. What were we going to do when he kept changing the rules?”
Daphne ran her hand through her hair. She wanted to believe in her clan leader. While she and Zander had never been close, he’d kept their clan safe for decades. She refused to believe that he would abandon Casey like that. Or Dillon.
Erik made sense, or she thought so until she saw how Erik had changed since leaving. His sharp tongue hadn’t dulled, but the edge that he seemed to stand on all the time had vanished, leaving him apparently stable for the first time.
The others had flourished as well. She hadn’t caught up with Gavin yet, but Casey beamed when Evangeline was around. Around Isabella, Dillon stopped being a brick wall and turned into a man with surprisingly sharp wit. Bree had worked some sort of dark magic on Erik.
Daphne wondered if she would ever find the same kind of love, or if she would be doomed to taking care of one mess after another for the rest of her life. Every day was another shifter incapable of handling their beast. Every day was another demand from Zander. Another request from her brother.
“Fuck,” she said under her breath. I need a vacation.
Instead, she said, “Don’t drag me into your conflict. I have it good right now. If I lose my place in Zander’s clan, then I lose everything I’ve built.”
Casey’s jaw tensed.
Her jaw dropped. “Did you think I would come over here and lay down everything to participate in your squabble?”
His expression softened. “I just want to know you’re safe.”
“Of course, I’m safe. I’m a dragon shifter.” She chugged down the last of her beer and chucked the glass bottle into a bin under the ledge.
The satisfying clang of the glass in the metal bin eased a knot in her chest. She couldn’t sit around and watch all the happy couples. They made her want to stay and try to find that kind of love for herself. With her luck, she’d end up with the kind of mate who demanded she be a housewife. Plenty of the women in Zander’s clan had ended up with the same fate.
Daphne tucked her yearning away, like she had for years, and told Casey that she was going to borrow his truck. She didn’t wait for a response. This cabin full of happy shifters thinking they were in the middle of a war confused her. She couldn’t stand another moment where the world seemed skewed.
The truck purred down the winding roads, feeling like an unwieldy beast. She’d tamed more difficult monsters. This truck wouldn’t get the best of her either. It led her back to the restaurant, just like she wanted. Getting out, she beeped the key fob to lock it and gave it a pat on the nose like she might with a horse.
The mystery man’s scent lingered inside the restaurant. The lights had been dimmed for the dinner service. She found a seat at the end of the bar, in full view of the kitchen door, and hoped that he was still around. Her mind spun from everything she’d learned, from everything she still had to do, and all she wanted was a short reprieve. Mystery man might prove to be a good distraction.
Twenty minutes later, Daphne considered giving up. Doubt made her feel like a stalker. She never should have tried to track him down again.
“You again?” he muttered.
His voice felt like fingertips dancing down her spine. She let out a laugh as she shuddered. When she turned toward him, he wore a mask of indifference, but she could see the faint glimmer of his beast in his eyes. Her own reached the surface of her being and watched him with curiosity.
“I told you I can’t be recruited for your little spat,” he growled as he passed by to put something behind the bar.
“I’m not part of the fight,” Daphne said. She shrugged. “That’s kind of why I left tonight. I didn’t want to listen to my brother try to get me on his side, either.”
The man huffed, a sound that could have been laughter. It could have been indifference, too. He refused to open up to her. She would have said anyone, but as the bartender made a passing joke, his face lit up, and he let out a real laugh.
Daphne would have lied if she said jealousy didn’t roll over her like a road-roller in that moment. She shoved it back down and reminded herself that she hadn’t come here to find a mate. Love wasn’t on her to-do list. Especially not when there was a shifter in need of help and another preparing to become a shifter.
While she was distracted by her jealousy, the mystery man vanished once more. She hailed down the bartender to ask for another drink and inquire about his name so she could stop calling him mystery man. The bartender raised a brow but obliged and claimed that Ford could loosen up a little.
“If you know what I mean,” the bartender said with a wink.
Daphne would be a liar if she said her cheeks didn’t warm. Her beast retreated, pleased to know that the bartender hadn’t been the one to help Ford loosen up. Daphne took hold of her jealousy and punted it as far as she could send it. She imagined it flying over the treetops and slapping her brother in the face.
The thought gave her a laugh as she finished off her cranberry vodka and waited for Ford to make another appearance. Unfortunately, she found herself several drinks in and still sitting at the bar when the bartender flipped the open sign to closed.
Daphne paid her tab and removed herself. Outside, the night sky glittered with a thousand tiny diamonds. She pulled her denim jacket tighter around herself and stared up at the endless expanse above. The quiet did nothing to calm her, though. Her mind still tumbled.