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“I don’t know. Sorley always has reasons for everything. Maybe he wanted you to think the threat was over.”
“Possibly, but why would he tell me a lie he knew I’d find out about? He acted like they were dead before Sean, so he had to know you would tell me the truth.”
“Doesn’t make any sense at all that I can think of,” she said.
“Well, I guess we’ll see what comes of it. I’ll have boots on the ground soon enough to get some reliable information on their ranks. I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“In the meantime, we’ll be here for a few days while things settle and I make sure it’s safe for us to go back. Plus, in case I haven’t already mentioned it, someone burned our house down on your watch.”
“So, it’s my fault a dragon came after you?”
“He wasn’t after me. He was just trying to get my attention.”
“I’d say he did a decent job of that.”
“Yeah. Sounded like a damn fine barbecue you had there, and I didn’t get so much as a chicken leg.”
Niamh’s worry gave way to his obvious amusement about the whole thing and she joined him in laughing for a moment before walking back to the cabin with him. After a long hot shower together, they prepared a huge pallet in the middle of the living room floor before both shifting into bear form and laying down to sleep. It would help his wounds finish healing, as well as some of her aches and pains.
No doubt they were quite a sight, two bears cuddled together like spoons. They slept there well into the next day, letting whatever was happening around them happen and just enjoying their mini-hibernation. When they woke, Olcan’s wounds were healed and she felt infinitely better without all the aches and pains that had set in after days of being stuck in cages, locked in boxes, and cramped up in a bathtub in hopes of escaping a dragon.
It all seemed like a vision of a lifetime ago already, as if it was something she’d only dreamed and recounted from time to time. She and Olcan spent a few days at the cabin, just enjoying their time alone for a bit. Olcan had been checking in with the clan, but all seemed to be quiet for now, though they informed him that his house was burned to the ground by the dragon and police were looking for him to explain the dead body found inside.
“Do you think they’ll arrest one of us for it?” she asked as they sat looking over the lake on their last evening there.
“Arrest us for what?”
“They might think we killed him, committed arson to cover it up.”
“They might think that, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. The police around here are very forgetful,” he laughed.
“You can’t just erase their memories. There will be a paper trail.”
“All of which is only as good as the witnesses that back it up. Hard to make an arrest when the fire marshal can’t remember his own investigation and the police can’t remember taking statements. Even if we don’t erase their memories, how many neighbors do you think are going to stand up in court and claim they saw a fire breathing dragon fighting bears in their neighborhood? Won’t happen—though I’d laugh my ass off to see James and Hannah up there making fools of themselves.”
“Ah, James and Hannah. I’ve been lucky not to see them since I came back. I guess they are mad that I left Thor there alone on my last day.”
“Not as mad as they are that you drank six thousand dollars of their wine,” he laughed.
“You mean, we drank, don’t you?”
“I suppose it was ‘we.’”
“I could pay them for it, I guess.”
“Nah. I’ve handled it.”
“You paid for it?”
“No, but they won’t be commenting on it further if they want to continue to exist.”
“You have a mean streak a mile long, Olcan,” she laughed.
“Aye, but only when someone deserves it,” he told her, pulling her close and kissing her.
Any other thought disappeared as they made love out by the lake and lay in each other’s arms. The rising moon cast glints across the shimmering lake as a light breeze blew across their skin. Niamh could feel how things had shifted now that the danger and distrust had passed. There was nothing now but love, and she knew she’d never again experience the kind of fear she’d known since her teens. Life with Olcan was as beautiful as she’d ever imagined anything could be.CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTOlcan
“YOU KNOW, THERE WAS some stuff in this house that I really liked,” Olcan remarked, picking up a piece of charred pottery from the front yard.
The place was an eyesore in the middle of an otherwise pleasant community. Perhaps he’d been wrong to think he could live among people like this, so close. He realized that, whether he liked them or not, his neighbors were innocent, and he had put them in danger. He could rebuild, but perhaps it was time to get out of the city and live somewhere not so closely placed among humans.
