Chapter 13
Elana
The lake was totally worth it.
The path opened up without warning, and suddenly there in front of me was a lake so perfect it looked like someone had photoshopped it into existence.
The water was an impossible blue you only see in travel brochures.
The mountains around it still had snow on their peaks.
The whole scene was so picturesque, I half-expected a freaking unicorn to trot out of the trees and start grazing on the perfectly green grass.
It was the somewhat creepy-looking sign next to the path that ruined the perfection. Much older than the signs we’d seen in town, it proclaimed, in faded, crusty lettering, “Welcome to Crystal Lake.”
“Why does that look like the start of a scary movie?” I asked.
“I promise you there are no axe murderers here that I know of. Just the most beautiful view.”
Beautiful didn’t do it justice. The afternoon sun scattered across the lake’s surface, making the water shine like crystals.
Emmett stopped beside me, watching my face like he was waiting for a reaction.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed.
“Beautiful,” he echoed. But there was a hunger in his voice, and when I glanced over, Emmett wasn’t looking at the lake at all. He was looking at me.
Heat climbed up my cheeks, and I turned quickly back to the view in an attempt to ignore my rising libido.
With my hand still in his, we started walking toward the rocky outcropping that jutted out over the water.
We reached the edge of the rock, and he helped me sit down.
The stone was warm from the sun, like it was storing up heat for later.
I let my legs dangle over the side, feeling suddenly very small in the majesty of this place.
These mountains really had a way of reminding me that I was just one tiny human in a great big universe.
Behind us, the trees rustled, and it was the only reminder Flame and Blaze were out there somewhere, playing invisible bodyguards.
Emmett sat beside me, close enough that our shoulders brushed. “I told myself that as long as the townsfolk left the beauty of the lake and the land intact, I wouldn’t interfere.”
“I see why you decided to settle down here.” I kicked my feet, watching the water ripple. “It’s like a fairy tale.”
“When I first arrived here, this whole valley was empty,” Emmett said.
He crouched, picked up a flat stone, and turned it over in his fingers.
“No towns. No roads. These mountains were sacred to the indigenous people who once lived here, and their medicine women would climb to the peak to harvest herbs and bark. But often, not a single soul bothered me for weeks on end.” He skipped the stone, and it danced across the surface of the crystalline water before sinking.
“I told myself I preferred it that way.”
“And now?”
He straightened, and the look he gave me made my heart skip a beat. “Now I find it even better because you’re in it.”
The line was so cheesy, but it didn’t fail to make me blush.
“Oh, stop, Emmett. I’m in my fifties. I know I have great genetics and keep myself in shape. But—”
“No buts,” Emmett said firmly. “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. I’m much, much older than you. Next to you, I’m ancient. Age is just a number. I see you the way you’re meant to be seen.” His hands stopped just short of my body, like he was touching my aura.
“I thought Seth hid my magic.”
“I’m not talking about your magic. I’m talking about you. And you’re beautiful, and all my dragon wants me to do right now is kiss you.”
I froze.
I should’ve remembered what Luella said to me in the playroom.
But the moment Emmett’s mouth crashed into mine, all logic burned away.
His hands were rough, possessive, one gripping my hip like he was afraid I’d disappear, the other tangled in my hair, tilting my head to deepen the kiss.
His tongue swept against mine, hot and demanding, and I met him stroke for stroke, my nails digging into his shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing like we’d run a marathon, his forehead pressed against mine, and his breath ragged against my lips.
Emmett’s hands slid down to my waist, pulling me closer. “You know,” he murmured, his voice soft, “I think I could get used to this.”
Me, too. I thought to myself. And it was exactly what I was afraid of.
We stood there for a moment, just holding each other, the world around us fading into a blur of colors and sounds. Finally, he pulled back, his eyes looking more reptilian than usual.
“Ready to head back?”
The morning light spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, painting the room in the soft glow of dawn.
I stretched under the covers, my muscles loose, my mind quiet.
I’d slept well, without waking in the middle of the night, the way I could only do when I felt safe.
It surprised me a little that I felt secure in such a new environment.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. The castle was silent. Somewhere downstairs, the scent of coffee drifted up, and my brain perked up just a little from the smell alone. And beneath everything, I felt something else. Something warm, a like pulse, a second heartbeat.
Melly.
I could almost feel her calling to me.
The connection had been growing since I’d arrived, a thread I couldn’t see but felt all the same, anchored somewhere close to my heart. I’d told myself it was my imagination at first. Now I wasn’t so sure.
I dressed quickly, pulling on a soft tunic and leggings, and made my way to the playroom. The door was ajar, and when I pushed it open, I found Melly curled around the new stuffed dragon Natasha had helped pick out on our trip to town.
Luella sat in the armchair across the room, phone in hand, barely paying attention to the dragonlet. She looked up when I entered, and something cool flickered across her face before she smoothed it away.
“You’re up early,” she said. It wasn’t quite friendly.
“So are you.” I crossed to Melly anyway. The little dragon lifted her head when she saw me, golden eyes bright, and let out a happy chirp. I didn’t miss the way Luella’s mouth tightened at the sound.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I murmured, crouching down beside her.
She pressed her snout into my palm, then sat down on her haunches and reached up with stubby claws.
Up! Up! It was the universal demand of every small child who’d rather be held than left on the floor.
I scooped her into my arms, and she made a happy, gurgling sound that was far more baby than beast.
Luella was suddenly there, standing over me. “I have her schedule handled,” she said. “You don’t need to trouble yourself.”
“It’s no trouble.”
The look that crossed Luella’s face—there one moment, and gone in a flash, so fast I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been looking right at her—was pure resentment.
“I see you didn’t take my warning seriously.
I was trying to be helpful. But I guess Emmett has you so mesmerized you can’t think straight.
” She shrugged. “It’ll be your jail cell. ”
The thing was, I had been thinking about her warning. In fact, I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since we got back from the lake yesterday. The kiss had felt so real, and I swore I could feel his dragon right under the surface. That couldn’t be faked, could it?
And if it wasn’t fake? Then what did it mean?
That I was his mate? No way! I was a grandmother!
Surely his dragon would pick someone more suitable.
Maybe Luella herself. She had a ton of magic too, and she was beautiful, thanks to the wizards choosing only to marry either the incredibly beautiful or magical, preferably both.
The only way I knew of that he could prove to me that I was his mate was to bathe me in his dragon’s flames.
Only a dragon’s mate or egg can withstand their fire.
Melly was probably young enough that his flames would still treat her like an egg, but as she grew older, Emmett’s flames would hurt her too.
“What? Cat got your tongue?” Luella quipped, reminding me that she was still there, being a thorn in my side.
Before I could reply, Luella’s phone buzzed.
She glanced at it, and her whole posture shifted.
“Fine, you get Melantha for now, but only because I have another job to do,” she said, already rising.
She hesitated at the door, her gaze sliding to Melly, then back to me.
“Don’t overexcite her. It makes nap time difficult. ”
And then she was gone, leaving the playroom lighter.
Melly’s mood lightened too, and I felt it brightening like sunlight through a window.
We spent the next hour playing: stacking blocks, reading the new board books, and even attempting a simple wooden puzzle, which, as I’d expected, was a little too difficult for her age.
She was using her claws now, her movements more deliberate, more careful.
Eventually, she’d realize things were a lot easier with human hands and hopefully shift.
When I held up the chunky board book with the dragon on the cover, she pressed one tiny claw to the page and went very still, staring at the little painted creature like she was trying to puzzle out the resemblance. Then she huffed a curl of smoke and batted it away, thoroughly unimpressed.
“Critic,” I told her.
A flicker of warmth pulsed down that strange thread between us, and for half a second, I could have sworn I felt an echo of her contentment as if it were my own. With every passing minute, the bond tightened, a thread pulling taut in my chest.
I was in trouble. Because now my brain was wondering what it would be like to stay. To watch her grow. To be more than a visitor with an expiration date.
It was a dangerous thought, and I knew better than to indulge it. I’d raised Seth. I’d done my time as someone else’s everything. I was much too old to go through all that again. The smart and safe thing was to keep my heart behind walls where it belonged.