Filed to story: Reclaimed Book by Roxie Ray
Harley tucked herself next to me. She pulled her feet beneath her body and leaned against my side. I cracked the seltzer for her and draped my arm around her shoulders, and we both watched as Dylan chattered away to the clan members surrounding him.
“He really fits right in, doesn’t he?” Harley murmured.
I squeezed her closer. “Never doubted he would.”
Striker leaned closer to Dylan, and then burst into exuberant laughter. “The call signs? Well, they’re earned.”
Dylan peered at Hawk curiously. “How do you get a call sign like Hawk?”
Hawk rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, we don’t have to talk about that?-“
“During his first shift,” Striker said, “he tried to catch a squirrel, but misjudged the dive, hit the ground, and bounced like a volleyball all the way into the lake. Since he’s such a good hunter, we started calling him Hawk.”
“Oh my god,” Hawk said. “Should we talk about how yours comes from the Lakeview bowling alley?”
“No, no, there’s no need for that,” Striker said. “We’d better brainstorm potential call signs for Dylan. You don’t get one until you shift, kid, but that doesn’t mean we can’t test drive them.”
“I think ‘Joker’,” Hawk said, “since he’s a mini-Ace.”
“No way,” Dylan said. “I want a cool name. Like Bullet. Or Trebuchet.”
“You’d fit right in with Tank, here,” Striker said. The reason for Tank’s call-sign was obvious: he was built like one, taller than me and all muscle, but he was as sweet as a kitten. As long as you didn’t piss him off. Tank had a son, too, I remembered suddenly. And he was around Dylan’s age. The thought of Dylan leading the next generation of shifters in the clan made my dragon rumble with pride.
“Trebuchet?” Tank asked. “Where did you even learn that word?”
“I got this cool new game…”
Harley laughed as Dylan began to recount the plot of his latest video game to twenty full-grown dragon shifters. She took a sip of her seltzer and wiggled a little closer to me.
After the chaos of the morning, my dragon was finally settled. Warmth and pride spread through me as I watched my son with my clan members-the members that I hoped, one day, he might lead.
A missing piece of my life-of my heart
-had finally slotted into place.
I’d spent so long trying to live without Harley. Trying to build a life where I was a good alpha, a strong leader. But there was an emptiness at the center of it all. Having Dylan laughing with my clan and Harley tucked into my side felt right.
They belonged here, in Lakeview, with me.
I couldn’t let them go back to Atlanta. I knew it with a surety that spread through my body like a slow-burning flame. Summers wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t lead the clan through the year knowing Harley and Dylan were in Atlanta without me.
I had until the end of the summer to convince her to stay.
HARLEY
“How’s that feel?” Stephan asked. The low rumble of his voice sent delicious heat rolling down my spine.
“Really good,” I hummed. “Ugh, right there.”
He pressed his thumbs harder into my neck, right where my shoulders met my back. We were standing beneath his big rainstorm showerhead again, enjoying the quiet of the morning before Dylan woke up. I’d slept in his bed last night, not wanting to be alone after the car accident. But we’d only slept. Barely even kissed. Somehow, that felt just as intimate as sex.
Now, I was beyond grateful for his seemingly infinite hot water tank. I’d woken up sore all over from the car accident, like my whole body had been tossed around. Which it sort of had been. My neck especially hurt from the whiplash. The paramedics had said it would.
He slid his thumbs up and down the tense muscle, and the scent of his woodsy body filled the air around us. I let my eyes flicker shut with a hum as a deep pleasure replaced the ache.
“Don’t fall asleep on me,” he said with a chuckle.
“M’not,” I mumbled, even though I definitely could’ve. I felt so safe with him. If I passed out while leaning against him, I knew he’d bundle me up and carry me back to bed. Too bad I couldn’t do that. I was sure there was a pile of paperwork waiting for me, since the rental car was definitely screwed. “Did the SUV make it to the shop?”
“Mm-hmm,” he said. “The guys got in touch with the rental place. It’s all taken care of.”
I blinked, suddenly more awake. “What do you mean?”
His hands moved down to my shoulders and kept massaging me. “You had a good policy on the rental, and as you know, the shop’s in the repair network, so it’s taken care of. We’ll fix it up and return it when it’s done.”
“Seriously? I don’t even need to get on the phone and fight with customer service reps for a few hours?”
He laughed. “Not unless you really want to. There will be a few things for you to sign, I’m sure, but my guys at the garage are on it. They’re tuning up one of our automatic sedans, too, so you’ll have a new ride by the end of the day. Even asked them to fill up the tank.”
Relief washed over me, and the tension in my muscles eased even further. My sigh must’ve sounded a little dramatic, because Stephan squeezed my shoulders in gentle questioning. “What is it?”
“I’ve been a single mom for nearly a decade. I’m so used to handling problems like this myself. Even when it’s frustrating. It’s just like… Problems stack up, and there’s no one else to handle them. It all falls on me. And I mean, I get it done, and everything’s fine, but I never really get a break.” I laughed, but it sounded a little sad, even to my own ears. “It’s nice to have a break.”
Stephan turned me around, and I wound my arms around his neck like it was second nature. The water slicked his hair back and ran in rivulets over his shoulders and chest, like it was following the pathways of his tattoos. His hazel eyes bored into mine. “You’re not alone anymore, Harley. You and Dylan are my first priority. I want you to be safe here. In every way.”
My heart thundered, and heat prickled behind my eyes. If I started crying, I definitely couldn’t blame it on the shower. I blinked hard, willing the tears away. The force of my own emotion surprised me. I’d been alone since my father died. I’d thought I’d be alone for the rest of my life.
Stephan made it sound so easy. He made me want to rely on him.
I cleared my throat. “You’re overprotective.”
His concerned expression split into a smile. “Must be a fated mates thing.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him before he could say anything else devastating.
Fated. He kept throwing around that word like it was a regular fact of life. And I supposed, for him, it was.
It filled me with equal parts desire and anxiety. How could I be mated to a dragon who I might lose all over again?
He tugged me against him. His skin was hotter than the water pouring over us. A similar heat rolled through me as he kissed me slowly, surely, like he had all the time in the world.
He pulled away, smiling. Then he tucked my wet hair behind my ear. He liked doing that. I liked it, too-I liked feeling like he was always looking at me.
“Come on,” Stephan said. “Let’s get breakfast going before that little dragon wakes up.”
It took a few more kisses, but we disentangled from each other and left the shower. I heard a suspicious clacking downstairs, so I dressed in a hurry and wrapped a towel around my hair as I rushed downstairs.
“This thing is more complicated than a spaceship,” Dylan said. He was leaning over the counter, staring at the array of buttons on the coffee maker with a frown. “I was trying to start the coffee.”
I laughed. “The last thing you need in your system is caffeine, bud.”
“It was for you guys, not me.”
I pulled him into a side-hug, still laughing. “That’s sweet of you, Dyl. Here, I’ll show you how to set it up.”
