Chapter 20
Randi
Randi woke up happy, sated… and alone. She rose and stretched, all effects from the drugs seeming to be gone. She couldn’t help but smile at the unfamiliar twinges she felt from the unusual activity from the hours before.
She found Chance sitting on the deck. He looked up at her and the look in his eyes almost made her recoil. Instead, she sat down next to him but made sure not to touch him. If he had switched to cold again, she wanted to be able to just walk away.
“What’s wrong?” She set her shoulders as she waited for his answer.
“Let’s start with what’s not wrong. I spoke to a friend who told me that Josh is fine. Bump on the head, but he’s alive and kicking.”
“That’s good.”
“You’re not totally relieved that your boyfriend is fine after the attack?”
She refused to rise to the challenge. “Not my boyfriend. Glad he’s okay. Now what’s wrong?” She didn’t want to be heartless about Josh, but she knew that had nothing to do with the pensive expression on Chance’s face.
“I might have to leave.”
There is was. The words were quiet but they carried enough weight to hold her full attention. “Leave me?”
She almost wept in relief when he reached over and stroked her cheek. “Not you. I couldn’t. I mean Florida.” Chance held her gaze for a moment. “I don’t think I can avoid Noriveille anymore.”
She nodded as she mulled it over.
“It’s where my father’s power is strongest,” he added. “Where everything leads back to. And I can’t bring the fight to Tampa so he can destroy everything here.”
Where everything waits to destroy him. Randi leaned forward slightly. “Then I’ll go with you.”
For a second, Chance looked at her like he’d misheard her. “You what?”
“I’ll go with you,” she repeated. It was the obvious answer and no other option was worth considering.
“That’s not…” He closed his eyes and let out a short breath as he pushed a hand through his hair. “Randi, that’s not how this works.”
“Then explain it to me,” she shot back, her tone calm but firm. “Because from where I’m sitting, I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”
“Because Noriveille isn’t this,” he said and gestured vaguely around them. “It’s not a place you just decide to visit. It’s controlled. My father doesn’t miss things. He doesn’t allow things.”
“And if you go and I stay here?” she challenged. “Then what?” She knew the answer.
“You staying here doesn’t guarantee your safety,” he admitted. “If my father’s already reaching this far…”
“Exactly,” she said softly.
“And taking you with me doesn’t guarantee your safety either.”
“I know.”
Silence stretched between them for a moment.
“I’m going,” she said. “With or without your permission.”
A faint, disbelieving huff of breath escaped him.
“That’s not how this works.”
“Seems like it is. I’m definitely not staying behind.”
Chance blinked at her. “That’s your takeaway?”
“Listen to me. You think I don’t know what I’m signing up for.” Her voice didn’t waver but instead sharpened. “My sister is there. She spent her life taking care of me, and I’m not turning my back on the fact that she could be in danger now.”
Chance’s shoulders slumped but he didn’t speak.
Randi continued with her gaze locked onto his. “You said everything leads back there? Then it leads to her, too. Obviously, Sven thinks so, and Jakob. So, I’m not sitting here hoping things work out while you walk straight into that.”
“You don’t understand what you’d be walking into.”
“Then help me understand,” she fired back immediately.
He shook his head and stood before he turned back to her. “It’s not just my father. It’s what he controls. The people around him. The expectations. The… rules.” His jaw tightened. “You don’t get to just exist there. You’re either useful or you’re a liability.”
“And we already know how he feels about me.” Randi exhaled slowly, but she didn’t back down. “I’ve already been taken once. I’ve already been dragged into this whether I agreed to it or not. So no, I’m not pretending I can just step out of it now because it’s inconvenient or dangerous.”
“It’s more than dangerous,” Chance explained with a sigh. “You could get hurt. Or worse.”
“And you couldn’t?” she challenged.
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
He started to say something but stopped. Instead, he said, “Because I’ve lived in that world my entire life.”
“And I haven’t,” she countered. “But I know enough about it that I can speak for myself.”
“That’s not enough to cover the risk.”
“It’s my choice.”
Chance studied her for a long moment. “You don’t know everything yet,” he said finally, quieter now.
Her brows knit slightly. “Then tell me.” What else could there be that she didn’t know?
Chance dragged a hand down his face. “There are things about that place,” he said carefully, “about my family that are going to sound impossible.”
Randi held his gaze. Every family had their secrets, but how bad could his be? “Try me.”
“Not yet,” he said.
Frustration flickered but didn’t break out into anger. She could see his struggle and didn’t want to push. Instead, she moved to him and kissed him gently. “Chance, you can tell me anything.”
He hesitated then met her eyes again. “I need to know you understand what you’re choosing.”
“I do.”
“No,” he replied quietly. “You understand part of it.”
“Then I’ll learn the rest on the way.”
“You’re much more stubborn than I thought,” he muttered.
“I’ve been told that before.”
He studied her one last time, then shook his head. “Fine, but you stay close. You listen when I tell you something isn’t safe. And if things go sideways, you don’t argue. You move.”
Randi held his gaze, then gave a small nod. It wasn’t a good plan, even she knew that. She also knew that Sven and Bryn probably wouldn’t agree with her.
Chance pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “You don’t even know what you’re agreeing to,” he repeated, although now with less argument.
Randi’s resolve softened as she relished in his strength. “I know what I feel.”
He stiffened instantly and pulled back. He searched her face as though the answer might be written there more clearly than in her words. “What does that mean?”
She hesitated, but only briefly. “It means that from the first day I met you, that day at the ribbon cutting, before I knew anything about who you were or any of this, I felt something.”
Chance waited.
“I didn’t have a name for it,” she continued, “and I tried to ignore it, because my life was already complicated enough, but it didn’t go away. And now I’m pretty sure it’s not something I’m supposed to ignore.”
He let out a quiet breath and his gaze dropped briefly before returning to hers with more certainty. “In my world, there’s a term for that.”
Randi tilted her head slightly, waiting.
“Fated mates,” he added. “But I think soul mate sounds closer.”
The silence that followed felt like something settling into place.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “That sounds right.”
“There’s something else.”
Randi didn’t interrupt even as her pulse quickened.
He held her gaze for a long moment. “I have a secret.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, eyeing him. He nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked nervous which was unsettling enough. Chance didn’t do nervous. He did steady.
She waited. He didn’t continue.
Randi let out a short breath. “You’re not about to tell me you’re secretly married, are you? Because I feel like that would’ve come up by now.”
His mouth twitched in almost a smile. “No. Not that.”
“Okay, good. Because that would’ve been a whole thing.”
Chance glanced out over the water like he was searching for the right place to begin.
“I need you to hear all of it before you decide anything,” he said finally.
Her stomach did an uneasy flip. “Decide what?”
“If you ever want to see me again.”
That flip turned into a drop.
“Chance…” she started, but he shook his head.
“Just let me say it.” He took a breath like he was bracing himself. “I’m not completely human.”
Randi blinked. “Umm, okay. Define not completely because that feels like a very flexible phrase.”
His gaze was dark and intent. “I mean it literally.”
She stared at him for a long second, waiting for the punchline. When it didn’t come, a laugh bubbled up. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
“Like, you’re what, then? An alien, like Area 51?” She tilted her head. “Please tell me you’re not because I don’t think I have the emotional capacity for little green men today.”
His mouth curved again. “Not a little green man.”
“Okay, good.” She clapped her hands together. “Great. So, we’ve eliminated science fiction. That’s helpful.”
He took another breath. “I’m a dragon shifter, Randi.”
Randi stared at him. “So much for tossing science fiction. Or is that fantasy?”
He didn’t say anything.
“I’m sorry. You’re a what now?”
“A dragon shifter.” He didn’t look away. “I’m human, but I can shift into a dragon.”
Randi blinked again as her brain tried to reconnect. “Okay, so, hypothetically, if that were true…”
“It is.”
She held up a finger. “If that were true, you’re telling me that you can just… what? Turn into a giant, fire-breathing, flying myth?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Randi inhaled deeply, then let it out. “Right,” she nodded although it made no sense. “Right, right, right.”
She turned in a small circle with her hands on her hips before she turned back to him. “You do understand how that sounds.”
“I do.”
“It sounds insane.”
“I know.”
“It sounds like you’ve been reading too much fantasy and decided to commit to the characters.”
A flicker of amusement crossed his face. “That would be simpler.”
Randi huffed out a breath and dragged a hand through her hair. “Okay. Okay, wait. Just give me a second.”
She stepped away from him and walked down the steps to the beach. The ground squished faintly between her toes and the familiar sensation was oddly reassuring.
Dragon shifter.
Sure. Why not. Totally normal. She stopped and looked back at him.
“You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re telling me now because I want to go to the Northlands with you?”
“Because you deserve to know and because I’m not good at pretending this is something it’s not. Not with you.”
That did something to her chest. She studied him, at the way he held himself like he was always aware of his strength. The way he looked at her like her reaction mattered more than anything else.
“You’re not joking,” she said quietly.
“No.”
Randi swallowed. She stepped up onto the staircase. “If I asked you to prove it, what would you do?”
“I’d ask you if you’re sure you want to see it.”
Randi folded her arms again. “You know, most guys just bring flowers.”
His mouth quirked. “I can get you flowers.”
“Mm. Might be a little late for that.”
A breath of laughter escaped him. Randi tilted her head and studied him again.
“A dragon,” she said.
“Yes.”
She let the word sit on her tongue. “Do you breathe fire?”
“Sometimes.”
Her eyebrows shot up despite herself. “Okay, that’s a lot.”
“It is.”
A small smile tugged at her lips. “I always did think you ran a little hot.”
That earned her a real smile, brief, but unmistakable.
“If you try to eat anyone in town,” she added and pointed a finger at him, “we’re going to have a serious problem.”
“I don’t eat people,” Chance said dryly.
“Good. Great.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
The tension in her shoulders eased a bit. She made herself comfortable in a chair.
“Okay,” she told him. “This I have to see.”