Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
OGDEN
Simon was into torture.
And not the fun, sexy kind.
He nudged me awake before dawn had even considered making an appearance. It’d taken a bit, but he finally realized I would not be leaving his bed to go to breakfast at his mother’s house. Nope . Not happening.
I didn’t care if she served Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and capers.
Of course, as soon as Simon left—since apparently his attendance was not optional— I couldn’t stop thinking about salmon. I’d never had a cat in my life before, but I seemed to recall hearing they liked fish. Maybe that was something else we could have in common. And … even better, maybe that would mean he had a tin of salmon kicking around, if only to replenish his magic. After using magic, every supe needed something to balance their energy. Most shifters needed protein, and I bet cats would prefer fish to steak. He didn’t seem the type to keep fresh fish around, but canned would work. It wouldn’t be as good as fresh or smoked or candied salmon, but it’d do in a pinch.
I rolled my ass out of the tangle of blankets and went exploring. His kitchen was sadly lacking. My cat was obviously not a cook.
That was okay. I could cook for both of us.
And it wouldn’t require either of us getting up before sunrise. Although the way Simon spoke about his mother, with equal parts love and fear, I doubted I’d be breaking him away from his family’s unnatural breakfast ritual any time soon.
My stomach grumbled.
When was the last time I ate? The kidnappers hadn’t fed us while I was there. They must, though, because those other supes in the cages didn’t look like they were starving.
And then, once Simon had summoned me, I’d become preoccupied with giving my statement to the police, making plans for my return to the cage, and getting to know the cute kitty cat. This wasn’t the first time I’d forgotten to eat because I was distracted, but now I regretted not going with Simon to his family’s place for breakfast.
I tidied up the bed, folding the extra blankets and returning them to the hall closet. Now what? It wasn’t like Simon had a lot of stuff to snoop through. I glanced around the sparsely furnished living room. This space didn’t work at all. He deserved to be surrounded by pretty things… Soft things… Yeah , I needed to fix this. He was now mine to pamper and spoil.
I especially wanted to see him covered with jewels from my hoard.
There was so much to do.
Both our lives had been upended. But for me, I had a whole life to uproot and relocate to Willow Lake . The thought of taking Simon to Aspen Bay filled me with a wrongness I couldn’t shake. And now that I’d felt the energy in Willow Lake , I wasn’t sure I wanted to live without it. How this place wasn’t fifty times larger and teeming with supes was beyond me.
Okay . I needed to make a list.
Normally I’d do that on my phone, but I didn’t know where mine was. Had my kidnappers taken it? Or was it still sitting in my car where I’d left it when I’d gone for my swim?
I itched at my arm again. The bump hadn’t gone down overnight. Maybe the hellhound was right. Maybe it wasn’t natural. I frowned.
Those bastards could have done almost anything to me when I’d been unconscious.
Maybe my kidnappers’ plan wasn’t about trafficking, but something else? Yeah . I needed to go to that doctor, because now that the thought was in my head, I needed to know if they’d done any alien probing or whatever. Dragons were regal creatures. We were not supposed to be probed without our consent.
My stomach growled again. I tried to distract it by clawing through Simon’s drawers, looking for a pen and paper, but he had the most anemic looking cupboards I’d ever seen. Where were the pens stolen from hotel rooms? Or the promotion pads of paper that businesses liked to give away? For fire’s sake, he only owned two sets of mismatched cutlery.
The state of his cupboards made my eyebrow twitch. It was good he summoned me. He obviously needed my help. Unfortunately , though, without a pen and paper, my shopping list would need to wait.
With nothing else to do, I went to the bathroom and took a shower long enough to make the warm water turn icy cold. The cold water didn’t bother me, but I doubted his neighbors would be happy when they jumped into a cold shower to get ready for work.
Oops .
In our new place, I’d make sure we had a big hot water tank and a big shower, because this one was inadequate. I needed space for everything I wanted to do to my little kitty.
What if he didn’t want to live together?
My chest ached at the thought of being separated from Simon for too long. Was that another facet of our bond? My fingers tightened around the towel I’d been using to dry myself.
He would want us to live together, wouldn’t he?
Given how our magics had merged, I didn’t think I could go too long without having him close. The intensity of the connection made me wonder if our coming together like we did wasn’t part of something bigger. Could the whistle have caused all of this, or was he maybe my fated mate too?
The link we’d formed through the whistle wasn’t right somehow. I’d heard a bond between mates was intense and beautiful and joyful. Our bond wasn’t like that, but it also felt deeper than a transactional arrangement.
So what did that mean?
I pondered that question as I pulled the ugly necklace with the tracker over my head again. If this was going to be a long-term situation, I’d need to go to the jeweler. This pouch the hellhound had given me was hideous. That I wore it was a testament to how much waking up in that cage had rattled me. Seeing the pouch resting right over my heart made my situation impossible to ignore. I stared at it in the little mirror above the bathroom sink until my jaw ached from clenching my teeth. I would find out who had abducted me. I would. And when I did, I would help all those other supes. And then I’d destroy my enemies.
With renewed purpose and conviction, I straightened and lifted my chin. The bastards wouldn’t know what hit them. I might prefer to sing songs about love and happiness, but I was still a dragon, and dragons were naturally badass. I was, of course, no exception. But sometimes, even badass dragons needed a reminder of that. There . Consider myself reminded.
First , though, I needed clothes.
I strutted naked through Simon’s house to the bedroom. Earlier , I hadn’t paid much attention, but this room was just as bare as his main living space. Its most redeemable quality was that it smelled like him. I inhaled deeply, drawing in his scent. It danced a seductive tango across my tongue. I wanted to taste him, every bit of him.
Wonderful . I shivered in delight .
Then I turned to his closet, which was the reason I’d come in here to begin with.
I rummaged through his meagre assortment of clothes. He didn’t have nearly enough of those either. I sighed as I pushed the shirts around. And the colors? Why on earth did he have so many drab colors?
I itched for my phone again. I needed to find and hire a personal shopper. My sister Bridget had raved about her personal shopper at some point, if I remembered correctly. I’d never seen the need myself, but where I adored shopping, Bridget hated it. And I suspected Simon would be like Bridget . I doubted he would be comfortable bouncing from store to store to fill in the gaps in his wardrobe. Sure , he seemed amiable enough so far, but cats had a reputation for being headstrong for a reason.
After narrowing down the selection to the least offensive options, I finally settled on a blue shirt I found shoved into the back of his closet and paired it with dress pants. The faint chemical smell clinging to both pieces suggested he’d never worn them. Someone must have given them to him when he was a teen, because the sizes weren’t too bad for me. I twisted to look in the dresser mirror at my ass. Not the best, but better than the sweatpants monstrosity I’d been forced to wear the night before. The blue shirt, though, complemented the color of my eyes, so at least that worked.
I’d just plucked out a pair of socks from Simon’s drab underwear and sock drawer when someone knocked at the door.
Hmm … We probably should have talked about our situation before he left. What would Simon want to tell people about us? But we hadn’t talked, so it was up to me, and I wanted everyone to know Simon was mine.
I strutted to the door and opened it like I belonged here. Standing in the hallway outside Simon’s apartment were two big, muscular guys. Shit . I should have looked through the peephole first. For a heartbeat I wondered if my kidnappers had found me again, but then I got a sniff of the men and a look at their mischievous grins.
“ Simon’s littermates?”
“ We’re here to bring you to breakfast,” the taller one said.
I opened my mouth to decline, but then my stomach took that opportunity to groan again.
“ Sounds like we’re just in time,” the other guy said. “ I’m Clive , by the way. And this is my brother Warren .”
“ I’m guessing you already know, but I’m Ogden .” I held up a finger. “ Just a minute. I need to go scavenging for something to wear on my feet.” I refused to go all dragon-footed again. After slipping on the borrowed socks, I poked around in Simon’s pile of shoes until I found a pair of canvas ones I hoped I could tighten enough that they wouldn’t trip me up when I walked.
The brothers watched me. I could tell they were doing some sort of sibling communication, but I ignored it. I hadn’t expected to be exposed—er, introduced—to Simon’s family already, but I’d manage. People loved me. As they should.
I expected the two to pester me with questions, but they didn’t.
“ Give me the keys,” Clive said, holding out his hand to his brother when we reached their car .
Warren scoffed. “ No way. I’d like to get back to Mama’s in one piece, thank you very much.”
“ I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Clive frowned, the picture of innocence.
Warren’s face suggested Clive was full of shit.
“ Ogden , you sit up front with me. Clive , get in the back.”
Clive muttered under his breath and followed his brother around to the other side of the car. Then , without warning, he tackled Warren to the ground. They landed with a thud. There was a scuffle, much grunting, and some colorful cursing, but from the passenger side where I was standing, I couldn’t see anything. Then Clive popped up, lifting the keys aloft in one hand.
“ Got ‘em,” he shouted. “ Get in the back, asshole.”
Warren groaned, wiping at his now bloody forearm as he crawled into the back. I sat in the passenger seat. Given Warren’s expression when Clive had originally suggested he wanted to drive, I buckled my seat belt. As a supe, specifically a very old dragon, I rarely worried about being injured, but it didn’t hurt to be pre-emptive.
As Clive guided the car out of the parking lot, neither of them said anything. I expected cat shifters to be more curious. But if they didn’t want to ask me anything, I was seizing the opportunity to ask my own questions.
“ How big is your family? Is it just your parents and the three of you?” I said just like a family of five was common these days in the supe community, but it really wasn’t.
“ Nah , our litter was four boys and there was a litter of two more boys that came after us.” Warren didn’t look at me when he answered. He had his hands on the back of Clive’s seat as he peered over his brother’s shoulder at the speedometer, which was shooting up now that we were on the main road. “ Slow down.”
Clive ignored him.
“ Wow . There are six of you?” I couldn’t imagine.
Dragon unions usually only produced one or two offspring over centuries. My sister was my clutch mate and my only sibling. Although my parents constantly talked about expanding the family, none of their other clutches had been viable. Finally , after centuries of trying, they’d given up and filled their home with animals of every description instead. Their place was more like a free-range petting zoo now, where the animals—the most spoiled assortment of creatures to ever exist—could do anything they pleased. After finding hens roosting in the bathtub, a herd of guinea pigs running around the kitchen, and a family of ferrets nesting in my bed during my last visit, I’d decided to stay in a hotel next time. But who was I to disparage another dragon’s hoard?
My parents’ clothing, though, that I could—and often did—criticize. It wasn’t seemly for a pair of dragons to run about dressed in ratty and stained work clothes all the time. Where was their pride?
But , back to the cats…
Cat shifters, I knew, weren’t usually as long-lived as dragons, so it made sense that their reproductive capabilities would be higher, but still… Having six children was unheard of for supes, particularly over the last century or so. And why have so many? I shuddered. There’d never be a moment of peace. “ And all boys?”
Would Simon want a big family like that? Over the years, I’d considered adopting—given the scarcity of supes, I’d even thought about taking in human children—so I was open to that possibility, but not too many. Only one to start. Then maybe another one a couple of decades or more later.
And there went my brain, treating us like a couple again.
Through the whistle, we’d forged a bond of sorts, but it differed from a mate bond. Would Simon’s life expectancy grow to match mine? Or was that perk reserved for mates blessed by the Eternal Magic ? My chest tightened at the thought of outliving Simon . I’d only known the cat shifter less than a day, but something had developed between us I wanted to explore. I could easily envision my exploration taking centuries.
“ Yeah , Mama says she’s waiting for the day we mate so there are more girls in the family to balance things out.” Clive shot out around a slower vehicle—you know, one that was going the speed limit instead of trying to get their car to defy gravity and achieve lift off—and I grasped at the handle over the door. This guy was reckless. No wonder Warren wanted to drive.
“ Oh ?” I said, even though Simon was definitely not bringing home a girl. Ever .
“ Except most of us are gay, so…” Clive shrugged as he sent us careening around a corner. He was looking at me instead of the road. I almost shouted at him to pay attention. Honestly , I’d never been afraid in a car before—even in the early years. As a shifter, my body was resilient, but Clive’s driving was making me question if I’d survive if we crashed. Whoever had given him his driver’s license was an idiot. “ Mama’s out of luck on that.”
Warren grinned as he rocked to the side with the force of the turn. As much as he’d fought Clive for the right to drive, he appeared to be enjoying himself now. Were all cat shifters crazy? No . I couldn’t imagine Simon liking this.
“ She’s pinned all her hopes on Justin , our other littermate,” Warren said, “but I think he’s like the rest of us. But we don’t really know. He left right out of school and hasn’t been back yet, so we can’t confirm who he’s been dating.”
Clive spun the car into the driveway of a small suburban house that looked modest but well-cared for. The car lurched as he stomped on the brakes, and my seatbelt bit into my shoulder as I jolted forward.
“ We’re here,” Warren said as he grinned and patted me on the shoulder. I half-expected him to hand me a framed certificate that said Certified Survivor of Clive’s Driving .
I pried my fingers off the handle I’d been clutching. Note to self: Never let Clive drive again. And I was a little worried about Warren’s state of mind too, given how relaxed he was after all that. I was definitely not feeling composed. I didn’t like it.
It’d take just a moment to pull down the visor and check my hair in the mirror and see if I needed to pinch a bit of color into my cheeks, but I could see a middle-aged woman with her hands on her hips staring at us through a big picture window, so I refrained. It was showtime. I waved cheerily and got out of the car. As we approached the front step, another figure joined her in the window.
Simon .
He tilted his head in confusion as he eyed his brothers. Then he saw me. His mouth dropped open. I guess this was an unexpected turn of events for both of us.
When we stepped inside, Simon rushed to me.
“ Surprise ,” I said. Some part of my brain decided this was the perfect moment for jazz hands, and I regretted it immediately. That gesture betrayed how frazzled I was. At least none of them knew me well enough to register that fact.
“ What did they do to you?” Simon glared at his brothers.
Clive and Warren lifted their hands in a placating gesture.
“ They didn’t do anything,” the woman, who had to be Simon’s mother, said as she swatted the back of my kitty cat’s head. “ I heard all about your trip to the police station last night and then you came in here smelling like a stranger this morning. How could you not bring him? Are you ashamed of your family? Your brothers are good boys, though; they went and got him.”
Simon’s cheeks were bright red again, but I didn’t find it adorable this time. His mother was making him uncomfortable because of me. This would never do.
“ Mrs . Rivers , I presume? I’m Ogden Walsh ,” I said as I stepped between Simon and the rest of his family. “ Your son was respecting my wishes this morning. He tried to wake me, but I’m afraid I’m not usually awake for another four hours or so. Simon has nothing to apologize for.” I ended my explanation with a hard tone, and I did not offer any apologies. No one should apologize for not wanting to get up at this uncivilized hour .
Simon’s littermates stared wide-eyed at me before their gazes darted over to their mother. Mrs . Rivers , for her part, narrowed her eyes. She looked me up and down as if cataloguing every piece of clothing I was wearing. Yes , I was wearing her son’s clothes—we both knew it. I grinned at her and dared her to say something.
“ You’re not from here, are you? What is it you do, Mr . Walsh ?”
“ I’m a business owner in Aspen Bay .”
She tilted her head, still assessing me. “ What kind of business?”
Obviously , she was pondering how I could be a business owner when I didn’t normally get out of bed until mid-morning.
“ I own several, actually, but the only one I manage personally is called The Drunken Drake .”
Warren and Clive hooted before they remembered they were standing with their mother. They slapped their hands over their mouths as their gazes bounced back to her. She blinked. Yep , she’d heard of it too. Simon was the only one who didn’t look like he understood the significance of the name.
“ The sleazy place with the strip club?” she managed to ask.
Warren and Clive looked like they were going to choke on their own spit as they tried to swallow down their laughter.
“ It has changed under my management,” I said. I was used to this conversation. The old reputation was the reason my lawyer had suggested I change the name when I bought it, but I rather liked the sound of The Drunken Drake .
“ Quit interrogating the boy,” a man boomed from deeper in the house. “ My porridge is getting cold.”
Everyone except Simon and me scurried away, presumably to the kitchen to be served cold porridge. I couldn’t even pretend to find that idea appetizing. All I could do was try to keep my expression neutral. Maybe I could talk Simon into stopping at a diner for a second breakfast once we were released from his family’s clutches. I was not usually a fan of the hobbit lifestyle, but I saw the merit in this situation.
“ I’ll explain everything,” I said, taking his hand in mine and squeezing. “ Don’t worry. I’m not nearly as nefarious as that conversation suggested.”
Simon’s cheeks were still flushed, but he merely nodded, then dragged me down the hallway toward what was promising to be the most unusual breakfast experience of my life.