Filed to story: Reclaimed Book by Roxie Ray
I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t need to have a sixth sense to recognize these shaky, pathetic lies. “How long have you been hanging around this clubhouse? And you still think you can lie to me?” My dragon rumbled in my chest, and my rage tasted like brimstone on my tongue.
“I didn’t run her off!”
“Blakely!” I roared. The dragon’s power infused in the sound made Blakely blanch and quiver backward. “I’ve missed nine years of my son’s life because of you. Now tell me what you did.” I enunciated each word sharply, like a physical blow.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant!” She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as her mouth twisted into a pained frown. “How was I supposed to know that?! I was sick of seeing her around the clubhouse and… and sick of hearing everyone talk about how good you two looked together! It wasn’t fair! She showed up out of nowhere, and suddenly that was all anybody cared about! That was all you cared about!”
Blakely dropped her hands from her face. She risked a look at me, and when I said nothing, she kept going. “I’d already spent so much time making you fall for me. I wasn’t going to let some outsider swoop in and steal you from me. What the hell else was I supposed to do?”
“Outsider?” I nearly laughed in her face. Blakely wasn’t even a shifter or a member of our clan. And yet she thought Harley was the outsider? “Do you even know what you did?”
“I did what I had to do,” Blakely said. “For you. And for us.”
“There is no us! Harley was never an outsider. She is my fated mate.
The only woman I ever wanted to share my life with. The only woman my dragon ever wanted. And not only did you take my fated mate from me, you took my son, too. Nine years, Blakely. Nine years without knowing my son. And for what? So you could convince me to have a few more rolls between the sheets? Harley trusted you, and you took advantage of that.”
Blakely’s eyes shone with tears-of sadness or anger, I didn’t know. “I’m the one taking advantage?” she shot back. “If she stayed, you would’ve just claimed her, then? Who cares what she wants, right? Then she would’ve been up shit creek without a paddle when you were in prison.”
“I never wanted her to be part of this life,” I said. “No matter what my dragon wanted, I was going to reject her.” My dragon whined at the mere thought of that. “I wanted to protect her from this world-my world. But you took that choice away from me, too. Instead, I’ve spent the last ten years yearning for my fated mate. And Harley has spent nine years raising a son without a father. I lost the woman I love because of your selfish lies.”
Blakely pulled her feet up onto the bed and wrapped her arms around her knees. “You’re serious?” she asked in a small voice. “You love her?”
Again, I almost laughed. It was like asking me if the sun rose each morning. I didn’t even deign to answer her. “What you’ve done is not acceptable to the rules of this clan and this clubhouse. You kept me from my own flesh and blood.”
“Ace, I didn’t mean?-“
“You’re banned,” I said firmly. “From this moment forward.”
Her eyes widened. She unfolded her body and got unsteadily to her feet. “Wh-what do you mean, banned?”
“Expelled. Banned. Unwelcome. You are no longer allowed to attend events, social nights, or even step foot on clubhouse property. I don’t want to see your face anywhere near this clubhouse.”
“But… Ace, you can’t do this to me! This-this is my family!”
“Family doesn’t do what you did to me,” I said. “Family would be happy I found my fated mate. They wouldn’t lie the way you did.”
Blakely’s face crumpled, and tears spilled down her cheeks. Even as anger burned like flame through my veins, I understood her pain. To me, Blakely was a hang-around looking for a good time. She’d been around for ages, and some of the dragons had thought I’d take her as a mate. And if not me, then another dragon. Blakely was a loner in Lakeview, and this clan really was the closest thing she had to a family. Removing her from the clubhouse would keep her away from the inner circle, but she’d still be able to stay in touch with her friends in the extended clan.
“Ace, please. You can’t do this to me.”
“Even if I had rejected Harley, I never would have chosen you as a mate,” I said. “You’ll never get what you want from me or from this clan. Leave now, Blakely, before I have to remove you myself.”
Blakely sobbed once, a broken sound. “You’ll regret this,” she hissed. “You’ll regret taking everything away from me, Ace, you bastard!”
“Get out. Stay away from Harley and my son.”
Blakely rushed down the stairs, still in tears. The clubhouse door slammed behind her.
I sat down at the foot of my bed and rubbed the palm of my hand over my forehead. I’d only been awake for a few hours, and I was already exhausted. Banning Blakely had been the right decision, but it wouldn’t fix the last ten years. I couldn’t get that time with my son back. Or that time with Harley.
All I could do now was try to make things right.
I went downstairs. Striker had arrived for the morning shift, and he was mopping the wood floors near the bar. He straightened up and leaned against the mop. “Everything all right? Blakely just ran out of here like a shot.”
“She’s banned. Fully, from the clubhouse and all clan activities,” I said. “I’ll explain later, but spread the word, will you?”
“Goddamn. All right, Ace, if you say so.”
I grabbed the keys to one of the cars I kept at the clubhouse-an old Cadillac I worked on as a side project, just for fun. For the first time, I glanced at the backseat of the old car and wondered if it was safe for a nine-year-old.
God, my life was already changed.
I drove through the narrow, quiet streets of Lakeview, away from the lake itself and back into the quiet woods outside town. I knew Liz Founty well enough, and we’d been cordial over the years. Now, I wondered if Liz had told Harley anything about me. Since Harley hadn’t known about my time in prison, I took that as a no.
I parked the car in the gravel driveway and got out. Leaning against the hood of the Cadillac, I stared at the cabin. What exactly was I doing here? What was I going to say? Did I want Harley to be pleased that I’d banned Blakely? Should I even tell her? Ah, shit, I should’ve brought coffee, or flowers, or something…
I didn’t really have a game plan. But I wanted to see Harley again. My dragon was desperate to see her, smell her, maybe even touch her. I’d take anything I could get.
Before I could make a decision, the front door flew open. Dylan stumbled out of the house and staggered down the porch stairs. He was pale and sweating. His legs gave out, and he tumbled onto the gravel.
I remembered that sensation all too well. When I was that age, it had felt like my dragon was scratching at my skin from the inside. Tight, itchy, uncomfortable, and at times, truly painful. The power of my dragon’s instincts dragged me a few steps forward. He was roaring at me to take Dylan in my arms and help him.
“Dyl!” Harley’s voice rang out like a bell. She rushed out the door right behind Dylan. In loose sweatpants and a white tank-top, with her auburn hair falling around her shoulders and her feet bare, she looked as gorgeous as I’d ever seen her. When she saw me, she froze, her eyes wide, then her attention snapped right back to her son. “Dylan, what is it? What’s wrong?” She rushed to his side and knelt in front of him, cupping his face. “Talk to me, baby, please!”
“Hurts,” Dylan said in a thick voice.
I stepped closer, then knelt on one knee beside Harley. “Pull down his lip.”
Harley glanced at me sidelong. There was a flush high on her round cheeks. Then she turned back to Dylan, set her thumb in the center of his lower lip, and tugged it down.
Dylan’s lower fangs were out for the first time, and they were huge. No doubt he was going to be a massive dragon, just like me. The two fangs were long and sharp, having emerged right over his human incisors. A small amount of blood pooled at the gums where they had pushed through.
“Hurts.” Dylan’s eyebrows pinched together, and he sounded like he was near tears.
“I know it does, buddy,” I said.
“Stephan, what-what do we do?” Harley asked in a terrified whisper. She scooted to the side, and I took her place in front of Dylan.
I put both hands on Dylan’s shoulders and squeezed reassuringly. “You’re gonna be just fine, all right? You wanna learn how to pull them back?”
Dylan nodded desperately. His hazel eyes were wet with unshed tears. I still couldn’t believe how much he looked like a tiny version of me. I wondered if I’d ever get used to it.
“You know how to wiggle your ears?”
Dylan blinked.
I reached up and tugged one of his ears. “These. You know how to move them?
He nodded slowly, confused, then wiggled his ears.
I grinned. “Good. Most dragons do. Weird little commonality. Retracting your fangs is a little like learning to wiggle your ears. You need to focus on the muscles in your jaw and pull them back, same as you would pull your ears back.”
Dylan nodded again. He didn’t look convinced, but he trusted me. That was what mattered.