Chapter 27
Erin
I bolted through the woods, my breath ragged and my heart pounding against my ribs like a frantic bird seeking escape from a cage.
No, prey escaping the beast. Branches whipped at my face, leaving thin, stinging lines in their wake.
My mind could not erase the image of that dragon—its massive wings outstretched, shimmering with an otherworldly brilliance as sunlight danced along the giant scales.
Its leg, a colossal column of muscle and sinew, was as thick as my waist. The impossibility of it all clawed at my reason.
No human could transform into such a creature. It was impossible. Yet, Ashton had. I'd seen him do it! He was a freaking dragon!
I stumbled into the clearing behind the inn, gasping for air, and made a beeline for Nathan's house. When I arrived, he was outside, leaning against his porch railing, nearly collapsing.
"Erin, what's happened?" he asked, concern etching his features as he caught me by my shoulders.
"I saw... a dragon," I choked out through the fear. I nearly didn't tell him. He might've thought I had finally gone completely bananas.
"Come inside," Nathan said gently, guiding me into his home.
We stepped directly into his kitchen, a large, inviting space that smelled faintly of brewing coffee and something subtly sweet, like cinnamon.
The room was clean, but lived-in, with warm, honey-toned wooden cabinets lining the walls and a large, sturdy farmhouse table dominating the center.
Once we were seated at the table, he handed me a glass of water.
"Now, Erin, you need to understand something about this town. "
I took a trembling sip, my gaze fixed on him, waiting for an explanation that could possibly make sense of the madness. There had to be something to make it make sense.
"Pretty much everyone here... well, they're magical," he said, his eyes never leaving mine. "Most of us have abilities or... are a bit more than human. Those who aren't gifted with magic, like you, the humans, are deeply trusted to keep our secrets."
"Magical? Like storybook magical?" I said quietly, the water glass shaking in my hand. Was that why people hadn't talked to me much when I came to town? Because I hadn't known their secrets?
"Exactly," he nodded. "Like me, I am a wolf shifter."
"A what?" I blinked in disbelief. I looked around his kitchen and glanced out into the living room. "Is Elle a wolf shifter too?"
As the words left my mouth, I realized that if he was, his daughter probably would be too.
He nodded. "She is, and so is Gavin."
The chief of police was a wolf shifter. "That's crazy." Holy frick.
He stood up, a serious look crossing his face. "I'm going to show you. Please, don't freak out. It's still me. I'm still Nathan."
Before I could protest, he stripped to his underwear. Ashton hadn't had to strip.
Nathan's form blurred, fur sprouting, muscles growing, and bones popping as he morphed seamlessly into the shape of an enormous wolf. His underwear tore off his body in the process, ripping to shreds.
His fur was a rich brown that matched the color of his hair in human form except it was thick and dense, catching the dim kitchen light in shifting waves of umber and gold.
A majestic mane of darker hair fanned out around his neck and shoulders, giving him an even more imposing silhouette.
Every individual strand seemed to vibrate with a wild, untamed energy. I tensed.
My first instinct was to scream, but the softness in the wolf's eyes held me still. He was indeed still Nathan, just as he said. I could see it.
I hadn't given myself a chance to see it with Ashton. I hadn't taken the time to really look. Even after him telling me I was safe. Even after I promised I trusted him. His roar had just cut through me, igniting my fight or flight.
I stared at the wolf, at Nathan, my mind racing to piece together the fragmented reality that had been my life until now. Every oddity and whisper about the town suddenly fell into place, aligning with a truth too fantastical to believe yet impossible to deny.
"Okay," I finally uttered, a shaky acceptance of the world I'd been blind to—a world where dragons soared in the sky above me, and neighbors turned into wolves.
As the wolf before me took his clothes in his mouth, turned and padded out of the room, my heart still hammered against my ribs, but the terror had subsided into a dull throb of wariness.
Nathan's transformation hadn't been as jarring as witnessing the dragon, Ashton, in all his terrifying glory.
The idea that I was surrounded by magic, by creatures from fairy tales, was taking root in my mind.
Moments later, Nathan re-entered, now back in human form, wearing jeans and a simple tee as if he hadn't just been a four-legged animal.
"Better?" he asked with a tentative smile.
"Better." I managed a weak smile of my own. "Why did you have to take your clothes and get naked before? Ashton didn't strip before his shift."
"Dragons must've made some sort of deal with an extremely powerful witch a very long time ago," he said. "Because wolves have to shift naked. Magic makes his clothes, I don't know, go into some kind of limbo, I guess. They shift with him and return when he's back in his skin."
"Oh," I said, feeling very, very small.
He sat down across from me, his expression sober. "Dragons are powerful, ancient. They're not the monsters you think."
"Then what are they?" I whispered.
"Protectors, usually. Guardians of something precious or dangerous. It's in their nature."
"Like what? Treasure?" I half-joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Sometimes." He chuckled. "There's more to it than gold and jewels. They're people. Just like you, just like me. They have problems and loves and hatreds. Some are good and some are bad, most are somewhere in between, just like everybody you've always known."
I nodded, absorbing every detail. This was my new reality, and I needed to understand it.
"Thanks, Nathan. I should... I need to go home. To find Ashton." I stood up, feeling steadier on my feet than I had since running from the woods.
"Anytime, Erin. Just knock if you need to talk."
"Will do."
The walk back home was short, but my thoughts raced miles ahead. What would I say to Ashton? Could I even look at him without seeing the dragon?
Opening the door to my house, the aroma of tea greeted me, and there was Ashton, human again, standing in the kitchen. He looked up, his eyes meeting mine, filled with an emotion I couldn't place.
"Erin," he said calmly. "Please, sit down. We need to talk."
I nodded, taking a seat at the kitchen table while he poured two cups of tea.
"About earlier," he said, sliding a cup toward me, "I should've better warned you about what you were going to see."
"Warned me?" I clasped my hands tightly around the warmth of the mug. "There's no way to prepare someone for that."
"True," he said. "Still, I'm sorry. I should've spent longer talking about when you saw me at the cabin."
"Tell me about dragons. Tell me everything."
He laughed. "I hardly know where to start. We sleep. Every century we’re forced to sleep for a decade.
That’s where I was when you first arrived.
Your scent woke me. It’s a curse. Created so long ago that nobody remembers how long now, a dragon and a very powerful witch were fated mates.
The dragon was a real dick, and he rejected the witch.
She cursed the dragon, which killed him, and she was so angry and so upset and so heartbroken, as a rejected fated mate would be, that she ended up cursing all male dragons accidentally to sleep. "
I shook my head. "That's insane."
"I know. It was a permanent sleep, but they weren't dead. Then she killed herself."
My heart broke for the poor woman. "Why does a rejection from a fated mate hurt that much? Did she even love him?"
"No, well, actually, I don't know, but a broken fated mate bond is usually deadly. Mates are so intertwined with one another they generally can't live without each other."
I stared at him in shock. "That's terrible. Does the mate get any choice?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "Yes, of course.
Before the mating bond is completed, either can walk away.
If they are both dragons, it's going to hurt them both terribly, but not kill them.
If they've already completed the bonding ceremony, that's a different story.
The witch and the dragon had already bonded.
Her death sealed the curse, and no witch has been able to break it since. "
"I take it many have tried," I said quietly.
"Countless. They have tried and have managed to lessen the curse to the point that instead of sleeping permanently, we sleep for…
give or take a decade every century—plus or minus a few years.
It's always a little bit different when the original curse overpowers the counter curse.
Another witch was able to put a counter curse on the dragons, which enables their curse to be broken if they find their fated mate.
"I've lived in Beck Manor since I was born. Aurelia, too."
"Wait, the manor belongs to you?" I said, surprised. "I thought it was Aurelia's or Skye's."
"Yes, it belongs to Aurelia and me. We're not here to talk about the property, Erin. But we’re here because of you."
"Because of me?" Confusion laced my words.
"I recognized you as my mate," he breathed, his gaze never leaving mine.
"You woke me up. You being in danger. If you hadn't been kidnapped, I probably would've slept for a while longer, and then maybe ran into you in town and recognized you for who you were.
Your fear propelled me out of my cursed sleep. "
"Your mate...?"
"I know this is a lot to take in, but please understand, everything I've done is to protect you, to be close to you."