Page 5 of Matched By the Dragon

Chapter 2

Durin

The Hemlock Wolf Pack, Star’s Territory

I didn’t even pull out my phone for entertainment straight away. For a long time, I watched Brad sleep curled up around his babies who had shifted back to bear cubs after getting enough milk. This was so fucked up. A month ago, I walked off a cliff, only to be saved by a dragon who happened to be flying by. Because of course it was my luck that Star Moonscale-Night Star would be flying by right when I stepped off the edge and tell me it was the hospital or his territory where he could keep an eye on me. I didn’t want my friends or in-laws to know I was rushing head long for my door. So, I wrapped up stuff there and came here. What I told Brad hadn’t been a total lie. Even if I had been admitted to the hospital, they’d have to let me out eventually and there I’d be surrounded by whispers of Liza again. I’d find my way back up to the cliff – the last place we picnicked before she took her final turn for the worse. I’d step off again.

At least, I would’ve before Brad. He might not want me around yet, hell he might never, but I couldn’t do that to him. He’d lost so much already. So, hell maybe being miserable together was better than my being dead and him being miserable and alone most of the time. Though, I liked to think that when everyone did leave Brad alone that he was happy just taking care of his cubs.

Eventually I pulled out my phone and texted Star. I’d only agreed to run things out here because I knew Raziel was his son and getting away from town usually cleared my head. It was a quick text that told him what had happened more or less. Mostly I texted him because who else was there for me to tell? Liza was dead. I figured her family would be mortified to know I ‘moved on.’ My friends back on Hemlock Mountain probably would be too. Still, one person to tell was better than no one.

A car pulled up somewhere in the distance. I was technically on the same pack link as the folks here because Star’s territory was just an extension of the main Hemlock Wolf Pack Territory, but sometimes it felt so sectioned off that I didn’t hear folks here clearly. Maybe it was just me hermiting away even magically. Still, as my bear yawned inside his inner sanctum I rose silently and peeked through the tree’s large branches. It was the wolf shifter who had three tiger cubs. He was mated to the leader of the temple’s son. Ally or Abby or something like that.

“Alby,” my bear yawned again.

“Brad,” I whispered as the man walked through the big cast iron estate gate and toward the house. “Brad, someone’s here.”

His stick whacked in my direction as he pulled his cubs closer to his body. This time I caught it before it hit me. In hindsight, that was a bad choice. Brad was too hypervigilant for my nonsense. He yanked it away from me and thrashed it wildly as his eyes barely opened. He cracked my shins twice before I managed to get out of hitting range.

“Huh?” he blinked, looking around. “Alby?”

“I think that’s him anyway,” I said, but Brad tilted his head in that way that shifters often did when they were talking to someone over a magical link.

Brad sat up and put his chest carrier on and wiggled his mostly sleeping cubs back into it. He walked past me like he hadn’t just tried to play the drums on my shins and climbed down the wall.

“I would’ve helped you,” I said, but he didn’t answer.

He still didn’t answer me. For a split second, I wondered if I turned invisible. Until I realized, him ignoring me was better than him running from me or attacking me with his stick. In the wild, a strange bear ignoring you was the best you could hope for. Especially if that bear had cubs.

Still, I followed him, because what else was I supposed to do? I felt a draw to be near him even if whatever was going on between us seemed like a surreal dream where you knew you were dreaming but still couldn’t make sense of the events unfolding inside your own psyche.

“Brad?” the wolf shifter called out.

“We’re right here” Brad called back, picking up a little speed on his walk back to the house.

Though the bruises on my shins would be gone soon, they still stung now. Maybe I should’ve been angry at him. Maybe I was too numb at the world to be angry but mostly I just understood where he was coming from. Besides, bear carriers had done a lot more damage during heightened emotional states than beat someone around the shins with a walking stick. That last time I wasn’t even sure he knew it was me he was beating on in his half-awakened state.

“Brad!” Alby grinned, giving his friend a one-armed hug. This up close and personal I could tell that he had a baby under his shirt. A second after the hug, Brad peeked down the other man’s shirt and grinned.

“Clydus,” he said. “Hey, baby.”

With some maneuvering the men traded babies as if it was some sort of odd fay swap. They sank down onto the porch steps and rocked the three little ones cooing at them. Maybe I was invisible since the wolf man didn’t acknowledge me either. I glanced back at the cave. I was about ready to go back up and double-check I hadn’t left my body behind when Alby finally glanced up at me.

“That’s him?” Alby asked.

“Yeah,” Brad nodded. “He’s still around.”

“I’d have had a panic attack too if I was home alone and a giant bear was at my door,” Alby said.

“Is that why you were so calm when I showed up? Because I’m not a giant like him?” Brad asked, his lips not even curving into a grin.

“That and you had a baby with you,” Alby said.

Their words felt like a script they had been through before. Maybe they thought if they talked about what happened enough that it would smooth out in their memories.

“Bennie’s in the car with Razlin and Ashlin,” Alby said a second later, looking right at me.

Was he warning me he wasn’t alone? Was he telling me to go talk to the tiger? Why had all omegas developed a sudden aversion to me? Did I stink or something?