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“It’s rare,” he continued, his gaze on me. “So exceedingly rare. I should know. I had my work cut out for me. But over the centuries, there have been a small number of shifters who did mate with humans, and though the bloodlines weaken with every generation, the dormant gene remains in their descendants. It was my job to find them.”
Evan let out a heavy sigh, accepting the truth as well.
“When I met your mother and learned of you and your father, I knew you might carry the DNA in your own blood. I’d been on this hunt for a while at that point, hoping to cash in if I ever came across a likely candidate.” His eyes dropped then, as if he couldn’t bear to meet my eyes.
I didn’t know what to say. What to think. But Leonardo wasn’t finished yet.
He finally met my eyes again. “I wanted to convince your mother there was good money to be made if we just—” He paused, swallowed. “Sold you to this man. That payday doesn’t come along very often.”
Fury erupted inside me, and I felt pressure in my back, in my gums, at my fingertips. My dragon raged within.
“Mariah,” came Evan’s voice, cool, calm, and soothing, cutting through my rage even though I could sense his own pulsing within him. It was a warning that my dragon was far too close to the surface.
I took several deep breaths to steady myself. “And what did she say?”
“She refused. She’d left you with your aunt when you were only two, right after your father died. She told me she’d been in and out of your life since then, unable to support you on her own. I told her she could have all the money she could imagine if she just turned you over. Still, she refused.
“I decided the best course of action at that point was to have you kidnapped. I could still get my payout, and she’d be none the wiser. Of course, she found out about my plans. She tried to stop me. I’d thought she was fairly heartless where you were concerned, that she’d been incapable of love, but she begged me not to go through with it.”
Leonardo stopped talking then, dropping his head in his hands. A ball of dread sat heavy in my stomach, instinct telling me I wasn’t going to like what came next. But I didn’t press him, instead waiting him out, unsure how I'd handle this.
“She was supposed to come see you the weekend she died. She’d planned to pick you up from your aunt and spend the day with you, but you were sick, and she’d had to postpone the plans. I’d agreed to drop the scheme, but I didn’t call off the goons who’d been sent to collect you. When they showed up and confronted your mother, discovering you weren’t there, they killed her for interfering.”
Evan snarled, but Leonardo didn’t pay him any attention, keeping his gaze trained solely on me. He studied me through narrowed eyes, angling his head, just observing me for a long time.
“Like I said, you’re a dragon now, aren’t you?” His tone was so very curious.
I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t need to. He was a shifter. Surely he recognized his own kind.
“I’m sorry, but I have to know. You were undoubtedly human before. Now you’re not.” He paused, taking a breath. “Is it possible that the reason you’re a shifter is a man named Tomas Hawthorne? Because that man is also the reason both your parents are dead.”
Chapter 19
Evan
As I drove us back to the rental cottage, the heavy silence in the car was suffocating. Even if I couldn’t feel Mariah's anger simmering beneath the surface, a raging storm just waiting to break, I would’ve known how deeply this new development upset her. Her fists clenched and unclenched on her lap, the visible tension emanating from my mate.
“Mariah,” I said, needing to say something, but she cut me off with a sharp look that told me all I needed to know—she wasn't yet ready to talk about what had happened at the prison. I’d heard every word Leonardo said, but I could barely believe everything myself.
What were the odds? Tomas had been after Mariah for most of her life, since she was just a kid. Did he even know Mariah was within his grasp all those years ago? Had Leonardo told him then? No, or she wouldn’t have made it so long without Tomas getting his hands on her. The world was small, the shifter world smaller yet, but this was a connection I’d never seen coming.
As we pulled up to the cottage, I parked the car and reached over to take her hand, desperate to offer some small modicum of comfort. Yet instead of accepting the gesture, she jerked away from me and threw open the door, stalking toward the house without a backward glance. My heart ached as I followed her inside, knowing there was nothing I could do or say in that moment to make things right.
Once inside, Mariah's fury seemed to fill the small space, coming from her in sharp, agonizing waves.
“Mariah,” I said, reaching for her. Dragons were strong, but hatchlings were quite fragile while still in the womb. They were sensitive to the mother’s emotions, and I was afraid of the stress this was causing for them both. I rubbed my hands up and down her arms. “You need to calm down, baby—”
She growled, ferocious and wild, the sound exploding from her, and it was like a dam breaking. Her eyes shifted to a bright shade of amber as razor-sharp fangs burst from her gums, protruding from her mouth and over her lips. Midnight black claws extended from her fingertips as she jerked away from me.
I raised my hands, palms forward, and tried again. “Please. You need to breathe.”
I tried to stay calm, to be a solid rock for her, but I was half-afraid her wings might sprout from her back next. They’d been nearly six feet each yesterday, and I was afraid if they popped out now, they wouldn’t be adolescent size. Mariah was terrifyingly close to a full-on shift, and she didn’t know how to stop it.
She hissed, eyes flashing. I’d never seen her so furious, and I didn’t blame her. Tomas was the bane of both of our existences. He was to blame for the death of her parents. Mariah had been made an orphan, just like I had, all because of Tomas Hawthorne.
He’d taken so much from her. From both of us, but especially from her. He’d caused the death of our parents, but he’d also taken her humanity and ripped it from her without a choice.
“How am I supposed to breathe when Tomas has been after me since I was just a kid? How am I supposed to be okay with this? Don’t you see, Evan? He’s never going to stop. We’re never going to be free of him. He’s going to keep coming for us until he gets what he wants!”
