Epilogue
Cole put down his fork. “Thank you for inviting us to dinner. Eve, this was excellent.”
“Thank you.” Eve smiled at him from across the table.
It’d only been about a month since she’d been reunited with her mate, and already, Cole could see a difference.
Her hair shone, and her cheeks glowed. She’d gained back some healthy weight, and there was a brightness to her eyes when she watched her children play.
“Think of it as our way of saying congratulations on your union,” Joel said, wiping his face with a napkin before reaching his hand across the corner of the table toward Eve. “We know how special it is to find that one person.”
“It truly is,” Cole agreed. He slipped his hand around Nia’s under the table. It was still hard to believe that he got to wake up next to the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.
“Well, that’s enough of that.” This came from Flynn, Eve’s brother. He had the same dark hair and pale blue eyes as his sister. He’d been visiting relatives until recently, so he hadn’t been at the battle. “Maybe it’s time to open that bottle of wine that’s been chilling all day.”
“You’re just saying that because you haven’t found your mate yet,” Eve chided.
“No, it’s because the only thing the two of you can talk about is how much you love each other.” Flynn grinned as he and Eve rose to clear the plates. He pinched her with his free hand. “It’s a good change.”
Joel stood as well and gestured to Cole and Nia. “Let’s get comfortable in the living room for a bit.”
“I was curious if the rest of your clan would be joining us tonight,” Cole told him as he and Nia sat on the loveseat.
“They’re conveniently occupied,” Joel said hesitantly.
“I really don’t want there to be any hard feelings between us.” Cole didn’t have a responsibility toward the dragons as he did to his pack, but he felt the need to reach out to them and at least be on friendly ground. They didn’t live all that far from Montclair territory, after all.
“It’s not that, exactly.” Joel rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncertain.
“Just tell them,” Eve advised as she entered the room, carrying a tray of glasses.
Cole looked from hostess to host and back again. “Tell us what?”
“They’re embarrassed that such a tiny creature defeated them,” Eve said, twisting her mouth as she tried to hold back her laughter. “No offense, Nia.”
“None taken,” Nia replied generously. “I never meant to make anyone feel bad.”
“They’ll be all right,” Joel insisted. “Their pride is just a little hurt. I have to claim responsibility for my part in this, too. I’m afraid I used to rule our clan with an iron fist, and they’re still getting used to the new me.”
“I hope that’s going well overall.” Cole had been wondering about this ever since Eve had gone back home. Their relationship had changed now that Joel had a new outlook on life, but how would it go over with the other dragons?
“Our long lifespan means we have plenty of time to hold a grudge for a little while,” Joel said with a wink.
“You don’t need to worry about us, though,” Eve told him. “Everything is going to be just fine, thanks to the two of you.”
“We were only doing what we thought was right at the moment. There’s no need to thank us.” Cole was happy that everything seemed well with Joel and Eve, but he didn’t need the credit for it. There was enough responsibility on his plate as it was.
“Then perhaps we can show our gratitude another way.” Joel downed the last of his wine. “There’s a secret we’ve been keeping for a very long time. All of us shifters have a hidden identity to protect, but this is something that even other shifters don’t know about.”
“Dragons only?” Nia asked.
Joel nodded gravely. “I’d say yes, except even your friends Beck and Kendrick didn’t know about it. We decided to tell them while they were here, and I think it blew them away.”
“Then why let us in on it?” Cole was burning with curiosity, but Joel was speaking in such vague terms that he didn’t quite understand what this was about. “You honestly don’t owe us anything.”
“We’d like to be friends with your pack,” Eve said gently. “We can see that you’re good people. In fact, you’re the first people we’ve even considered trusting for many years.”
“All right, then. If you insist.” He and Nia were their guests, and if Joel wanted so badly to show them this thing, who was he to say no? His curiosity grew the more Joel said.
A thump sounded overhead, and Eve clucked her tongue. “It sounds like the kids have woken up from their nap. I’m going to check on them. Joel, you and Flynn go ahead without me.”
“Are you sure?” Joel captured her wrist gently in his thick fingers, his eyes soft as he gazed at his mate. “I don’t want to leave you out.”
Cole looked away, since he didn’t want to intrude on their private conversation, but he smiled to himself.
He’d had a few doubts about whether or not Joel had truly changed after Nia had worked her magic on him.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the magic itself, but whether or not it could have a lasting impact. From what he could see, though, it did.
“It’s fine, honey. Someone needs to stay here with them, anyway, and it’s my night to read them a story.” Eve kissed Joel on the cheek, patted his arm, and went upstairs.
Joel turned to Cole and Nia. “Follow me, if you would.” He led them into the kitchen, where he opened the pantry door. Boxes and canned goods lined the shelves.
Then Joel reached down to the floor, which looked very ordinary until he touched the corner of a tile.
Cole heard a click, and a large square of flooring separated itself from the rest. Joel pried his fingers under the newly formed crack and pulled, swinging the section of flooring back to reveal a dark hole in the ground and a ladder leading down.
He grabbed a small lantern from a shelf. “I’ll explain on the way.”
Nia looked at Cole uncertainly, and he understood the questions she didn’t ask.
They liked Joel and Eve, and they were starting to become friends with them, but this was such a strange turn of events that it was hard to know whether it could be trusted.
His wolf didn’t sense any danger, only intrigue, so he stepped down onto the ladder after Joel.
Nia came next. Flynn paused long enough to shut the door behind them, but he followed last with another lantern.
The ladder was only about ten feet long, and it dropped them into a new tunnel. The walls consisted of the hard rock of the surrounding mountains, hollowed out to create a pathway just tall enough for them to stand in.
“It’s a bit of a walk, but I promise it’ll be worth it.” Joel began walking down the tunnel, his lantern throwing their shadows against the curved rock walls.
“A very long time ago, dragons such as myself lived among society in much the same way that wolves, bears, and mountain lions do. And lynx, I suppose,” he added with a laugh.
“It became clear to us after a while that it was no longer a viable option. If a human spots a bear in the woods, they don’t think anything of it.
But a dragon? That’s cause for concern.”
“I can imagine,” Cole said politely.
“We needed to find a safer way to live, but we still needed to be ourselves. We can’t be in human form all the time and be happy. It’s probably the same for you.”
“It is.” The tunnel widened a little, and Nia stepped up beside Cole and took his hand. “Both sides need to be free.”
Joel nodded. “We found there was only one way we could truly do that, and it was to keep ourselves as far from human eyes as possible. That’s why we built ourselves a whole new place to exist.”
The tunnel intersected another, much larger one.
Joel confidently went to the right, and lights appeared up ahead.
“We’ve created an underground network, and that word carries a double meaning.
There is a network of tunnels, as you can see.
These smaller branches are much like the one we just came through.
They lead up to homes or caves in the mountains.
They allow us to get around without being seen. ”
Joel turned off his lantern as they approached what looked like an open cavern ahead.
There was so much light coming from it that it didn’t seem to be underground at all.
“It’s also a network in the sense that this is how we live with others of our kind.
There are small settlements, like where Eve and I live, but there are also individual clanhouses dotted throughout the region.
Down here, though, is where everyone can come together.
” Joel moved into the cavern and stepped to the side.
Cole couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
What might have started out at some point as a large, naturally occurring grotto had been converted into an entire underground city.
Buildings had been carved into the walls in some places, complete with doors and windows, and in others they’d been built out from the rock face with wood and other materials.
These were not just on the ground level but had also been built up the sides of the cavern, creating four layers of structures stretching up from the floor.
He guessed that some of them were homes, but others looked like businesses.
There were shops selling food, clothing, and even coffee.
People moved back and forth through this strange civilization, stopping to talk to friends or heading into their homes for the evening.
Only the stalactites that stretched down from overhead served as a true reminder of exactly what this place was.
Cole found himself speechless as he tried to take it all in.
Nia threaded her arm through his elbow, steadying herself on him as she swiveled and tipped her head. “It’s incredible!”
“Not exactly what you picture when you think of living in a cave, right?” Joel cracked.
“Um, no.” Cole hadn’t even known about dragons until recently. This place had to be capable of holding at least a few hundred people. “Everyone here is a dragon?”
“Everyone but the two of you,” Flynn affirmed.
Cole thought back to the day they’d come into the mountains to find Joel. “Eve had directed us to a cave when we came looking for you…”
“Yes. That’s one of the passageways that we use sometimes. The dragons long ago established how helpful it can be to get to our homes indirectly, especially if we’re being pursued. I didn’t know you’d be coming that day, but we were near a cave that I was using a lot at that time,” Joel explained.
“I see.” But Cole didn’t really understand. This scene was so strange, he wondered if he would ever truly comprehend what he was seeing around him. “So, you’re all here?”
“Not all of us,” Joel amended, slowly walking forward down the main thoroughfare that stretched through this unbelievable underground community.
“There are actually a few other places in the mountains where we’ve established ourselves.
Mostly, we’ve been able to take advantage of natural lava tubes and caverns and such. ”
“I don’t understand how Kendrick and Beck didn’t know about this,” Nia marveled.
Joel shrugged. “Each separate community has found ways to keep to itself. It’s not like you know all the other wolf packs in the world.”
“Fair point,” Cole agreed. “What about us being here, though? That’s not a problem?”
“No,” Joel told him quickly. “I cleared it with all the right people. It’s been centuries since any of us has truly reached out to anyone. Discretion was our best plan for safety. I’m afraid we can’t stay, though. Eventually, perhaps, but not today.”
They reentered the tunnel behind them, which felt incredibly dark compared to the bright, happy place they’d just seen, even once Joel relit his lantern.
Cole followed behind him, feeling completely stunned until they climbed the ladder back into Joel and Eve’s pantry and were seated once again in the living room. It felt like waking up from a strange, vivid dream.
Eve came down the stairs and rejoined them, sitting next to her mate. She observed Cole and Nia’s faces for a moment and got back up. “Perhaps I should open another bottle of wine.”
Cole struggled to find the right words. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, we’ve had literally hundreds of years to build all that,” Joel began. “We can be very industrious when we’re trying to keep our mates and children safe.”
“No, not that.” Cole was still wrapping his brain around what he’d seen, but it would take some processing before he could truly accept it.
“I mean, why let us in at all? Why not choose to be friends with us up here on the surface, where your secret is still safe from others? Why change what you’ve been doing now? ”
Joel looked at Nia. “Because of you.”
“Me?” She cast wide eyes on Cole and then back at their host.
“In a way, yes,” Joel chuckled. “You showed me several different futures regarding how I raised my family, but there was actually more to it. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I saw the dragons slowly dying out as they continued to keep themselves segregated from other shifters.
I think it’s time we take at least a small risk and see where it goes. ”
Cole put his arm around Nia. He could sense how shocked she was, but her eyes were alight with excitement and fascination.
Eve returned with refilled wine glasses, and Joel held one up. “What do you say, Montclairs? A toast to a new life, a new beginning, and new friendships?”
It was far from the dinner he’d expected that night, but Cole happily raised his glass. “To our future as allies.”
THE END
Thank you for reading Grumpy Alpha Wolf!
Brianna finds her mate next in The Baker’s Dragon Mate. Read on for a sneak peek.