Chapter 14
Jaceon's POV
I was pacing around the cave. Seeing Blaze had been amazing, but the update about Valentino had me upset. Not because I wanted to go back — because I wanted vengeance. I had given everything to the organization, and he had cast me out. Humiliated me. All because his daughter had lied.
"Hey, Jay. Are you okay?" Kendra asked. She was sitting on the bed, watching me.
"Yeah. I'm good," I said.
The truth was, I was worked up. I had just found out her ex had put her in a dangerous position, and then she had forced me to promise I wouldn't hurt him.
My dragon loved her, but even he wasn't pleased about that decision.
I wasn't sure how I was supposed to live with the knowledge that he was still out here.
But I had promised I wouldn't hurt him. Not that he wouldn't be hurt.
When I got some time, I would reach out to Blaze.
Pick his brain for one of his connections.
Because there was no way in hell this man, David, got to escape these repercussions.
"Jay, you never told me about Treasure."
I stopped pacing and looked over at her. That was the one thing I hadn't been anticipating about Blaze's visit. A name I hated. It felt like acid on my tongue.
But I wouldn't lie to my mate.
I walked over and sat next to her. "Treasure is Valentino's daughter. She is a year or so younger than me."
"Were you her bodyguard or something?"
I shook my head. "No. Not per se. But Valentino trusted me.
There for a minute we had leaks — people making moves against us — and I was the one he kept close.
And I don't know if she was rebelling or what, but she started trying to seduce me.
That wasn't happening, so I didn't pay her any attention.
But I guess I messed up by not mentioning it to Valentino.
I mean, hell. How do you say, yeah, boss, your daughter keeps trying to have sex with me? It doesn't even sound right."
I looked down at my hands. Rubbed them up and down my face.
"Anyway. She kept escalating. I kept avoiding. But then she got pregnant, and Valentino was trying to figure out whose baby it was. He was going to kill whoever it was. And she said it was me. She figured he loved me like a son, so he wouldn't kill me."
"So, he took your wing."
I nodded. "It grew back, of course."
She reached out and squeezed my hand. "Do you want to go back and make it right?"
I turned and looked at her. "No. I want to go back and burn it down."
She made a face. "Remember what you promised me."
I reached over and stroked her face. "I promise," I said, before I kissed her.
I had promised I wouldn't do anything to get myself taken away. I didn't say I wouldn't pay to make it happen. But as for Valentino. That was my problem.
My dragon tensed inside of me.
Look, we aren't lying to her. We are just sort of stepping around her, I said.
He unclenched. But I knew he wasn't happy.
Thirty minutes later, Kendra was lying across my lap. I was staring at the wall, trying to figure out how I was going to make that call. I had a few contacts. A few people who owed me favors. I just had to put the word in.
Since Blaze's visit, I felt different. It was like seeing my brother had awakened that part of me. A part of me didn't want Kendra to ever see. But I would tuck it away again as soon as I had David handled.
She sat up. "I'm going to call my mom real quick. I haven't talked to her and Zoe in a while. I'm starting to feel like a deadbeat."
"Don't say that."
I watched her walk away. It was because of me that she was out here, away from her daughter.
If I were decent, I would just let her keep the money so she could go home.
The thought pained me. I wanted to keep her out here with me.
And not because of the whole David thing, but because she made me happy.
And I was willing to be just a little selfish to hold on to the feeling.
A few minutes later, she walked back in.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I called my mom. She said they were at a farm with Santa and Krampus, but the signal was bad. But I swear to God she said something about horseback rides."
I scoffed. "This damn town, man. I tell you."
She laughed and looked back at her phone. "So Moondrop is recommending things to me."
"What kind of things?"
She walked over and sat next to me, but I pulled her into my lap so that she was facing me.
“Look. They’re showing me hiking things and date night things.”
“Let me see,” I said.
"They have s'mores kits and all kinds of camping things." I held her by the hips.
“You want to go camping?” I asked.
She smiled and nodded.
"I don't think so. It's too open."
"Please, Jaceon. We need some fresh air after the whole David and Treasure thing. I feel like they drained us."
"Okay," I said.
She kissed me. Then she moved off my lap and started clicking on her phone.
An hour later, the packages had arrived. She had paid for expedited shipping. I had them stacked on top of each other, some in the carry bag I had gotten from Howling Meats.
We were a few miles away from the cave.
I set her down in the clearing.
"Stay here. I'm going to get wood," I said.
"Okay. I'll start unpacking." She sat down and started going through the bags.
I inhaled. Nothing close. The air around her was clean. She was safe.
Then I shifted and took off.
I swept the tree line. Scented the ridge, the approach, the ground below. There were animals out there, but I could feel them moving away from me. Everything with sense on this mountain was already putting distance between us.
Nothing was coming for her.
I grabbed the wood on my way back.
When I got back to Kendra she was sitting there surrounded by everything she'd bought. Skewers, mugs, bug spray, a thick blanket. But she looked upset.
"What's wrong?"
"I didn't order a tent."
I looked at the things again. She had bought this entire date night in a bag, and it didn't come with a tent. The way she was pouting was almost cute. This woman, who had been through hell and back, felt safe enough to vent about missing something.
"Hey. Don't worry. I can keep you warm."
She shook her head and smiled. "You would say that."
I set the wood down. “Get the fire going, and then we can at least eat,” she said. I chuckled. She had only been with me a few days, and she was already out here bossing me around.
I blew a stream of flame onto the wood, and she came up beside me with the skewers.
"Here, take one." She pulled out a pink piece of meat and pushed it on the end.
"What is that?" I said.
"A hot dog."
"Yes, but what is it?" I asked, looking at it curiously.
"Jay, you have never had a hot dog? It's basically a sausage."
"What did you eat differently?"
I shrugged. "Growing up, it was whatever I could scrounge up. And then with Valentino, it was steak and shit every day. So, there was never really an in between. But I wasn't out camping. I was enforcing."
I looked at her. "What about you? Was this something you did often?"
"Yeah. My mom took me camping." She smiled. "Well, actually, it was us and tents in the backyard."
"She raised you alone?"
"Yeah."
"No friends?"
She shook her head. "No. It was just us.
Christmas, Thanksgiving, all of it. But don't get me wrong, it was a blast. I'll never forget the time she tried to fry the turkey.
That thing was damn near boiling in grease.
It scared her so bad she just unplugged it.
We had Denny's that year." She was smiling.
I could tell her mother meant the world to her. And that made me nervous. This was the same woman I had chased down the mountain.
I looked at her.
What if she hated me? She had every right to. And that was crazy — I shouldn't care what a human woman thought of me. But I did. Would Kendra leave me if her mother didn't accept me?
The thought rattled me. Kendra wouldn't just walk away. But I didn't want to introduce any more pain.
She was handing me a s'more.
"Try it. Please," she said, batting her eyes at me.
I laughed. How did she have me wrapped around her finger?
I took a bite. It was so sweet it nearly made me gag, and the crisp on the marshmallow was not appetizing. I shook my head. I used the top cookie to scrape off the sticky middle, and then I bit into it.
"The cookie itself is good. I don't care for the rest."
She made a face at me and smiled. "You are such an old man, Jay. Seriously, was it too sweet?" she asked.
I grabbed her and pulled her onto me. "Actually, I do know what is sweet. Something I don't mind indulging in."
She laughed and wrapped her arms around me.
I laid her down on the blanket, and she lay on top of me, her cheek against my heartbeat. We stayed like that for a minute. I rubbed her back and looked up at the sky. Hard to believe I was out here in the middle of the night with my mate wrapped against me. And for a minute, my eyes got heavy.
Then I heard movement.
I grabbed her and held her still. I was listening. Inhaling. Trying to figure out what was coming. It only took me a second or two to realize it was just a bird passing through.
I relaxed.
Then her stomach growled. She hadn't even felt me go still.
"Are you going to have more hot dogs? Or your cookies?"
She shook her head. "No. There's only so much camping food I can take."
I scoffed. "But you were going to feed it to me."
She laughed. "Look, I want you to try new things. I still have an adult taste palate."
I laughed and sat up. "There's a stream nearby. Come on. I'll grab us some fish."
We walked over to the stream. The sound of the water trickling was relaxing. Then she turned and looked at me.
"Jay, are they easy to catch?"
"Easy?"
"Yes. Look, they're literally jumping out of the water."
I scoffed. "Okay. If they're so easy, try it."
She raised an eyebrow at me. "Is that a dare?"
I smiled. "I guess it is."
She smiled, kicked off her shoes, rolled up her pants, and then stepped into the water. I looked around, making sure she was steady on her feet. I moved in closer, just in case I had to step in. But she was looking at the water like she was plotting it out.
She lunged for one and almost slipped. I reached out and steadied her. When she looked at me, she was smiling. Then she reached in again. I did my best not to laugh at how serious she was being.
Then one swam between her hands, and she clamped down and had it. It thrashed against her palms. The tail smacked her wrist, and she yelped and threw it. It hit the water and was gone.
"I caught it."
"You threw it."
"Yeah. I didn't like the way it felt."
I helped her out of the water. She was shivering, arms wrapped around herself.
"I'm cold," she said.
"Go get your blanket. I'll grab a fish for the fire."
She headed back toward the campsite. I watched her reach the blanket and sit before I turned to the water.
I shifted. My dragon wanted to show her how it was done. He waded in, and it took him one pass — clean, a fish in his jaws — and then he lifted, because carrying it back wasn't good enough. Not when he could bring it to her the way he wanted.
He dropped down out of the sky and laid the fish in her lap.
Then he curled around her from behind, proud of himself, his head coming to rest over her shoulder.
A shriek came through the phone.
His head snapped toward it — and there she was, right in Kendra's hand. A gorgeous older woman, staring back at him out of the screen, her mouth open.
It's her.
I shifted back.
She was already yelling.
"Kendra Michelle. You gave me all this bullshit about needing some me time. That's fine. But not once did you say you were going to be laid up with a damn dragon. And not just any dragon. The one that chased me down that mountain."
"I can't believe you would do something like this."
"Mom. Jaceon isn't who you think he is."
Diane scoffed. "I know for a fact he tried to kill me. That's enough."
"Mom—"
"This is too much. I need to call my husband. He would be at some damn training right now."
I squeezed Kendra. Kissed the top of her head. And I walked away.
Any other person raising their voice at my mate would have sent me into a rage. But not this. I knew what I was looking at. My own mother had stood between my drunk father and me more times than I could count.
I respected that Diane was protecting her daughter against what she thought was a threat.
It just hurt that the threat was me.