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“Er...”
“Kids!” a woman’s voice rang out. A middle-aged couple had come up on our group. The woman shooed the teens back. She turned to me. “I’m so sorry. They don’t know the proper respect, at their age, and it being so long... It’s an honor to offer our hospitality toyou.”
“History in the making,” her husband agreed. He squeezed my hand briefly with a pleasedsmile.
More people were emerging from their houses and the shops around us. My chest started to constrict. My fingers itched. I jerked them back toward my body—too late. A warm metal circle pressed against my palm. I’d snagged the woman’s ring without even meaningto.
An embarrassed heat flooded my face. I ducked down and pretended to pick it up off the ground. “I think you dropped this,” I said, handing the ring toher.
“Oh! Thank you so much. I can’t think of how that slippedoff.”
I bit my tongue. A larger crowd was congregating around me. Murmurs of “Dragon shifter!” passed from person to person. “I talked to her first!” one of the teen girls wasbragging.
What did they expect me to do? I sure as hell hoped they weren’t waiting for me to demonstrate my awesome—and completely non-existent—shiftingpowers.
West wove through the gathering crowd. For the first time since I’d met him, I had to say I was glad to see him. He gave me a terse smile, but his dark green eyes were softer thanusual.
“I think we have a few things to discuss between the two of us,” he said, loud enough for the villagers to hear. They hung back while he ushered me back toward the house where I’d spent the night. His hand brushed the back of my bare arm. Even as overwhelmed as I was, my awareness of his body, just inches from mine, tingled into sharperfocus.
West stopped when we were out of hearing distance and stepped to the side to give me more space. I felt that separation, too, like a tearing inside me. Whatever I thought about the wolf alpha and his attitude, some part of me wanted him next to me very, verybadly.
“They, um, really are enthusiastic,” I said, hoping my longing wasn’tobvious.
West rubbed his jaw, which was covered with a light shading of stubble that made his handsome face even more appealing. He looked back toward the village common. “They’ve been waiting for dragons to return for a long time. Seeing you here gives some of them hope they didn’t havebefore.”
“But not you,” I couldn’t resistprodding.
He shrugged. “I haven’t made up my mindyet.”
Why should he, when all I’d been able to do was cringe in a corner yesterday while all our lives were in danger? I swallowed a grimace and turned to follow his gaze. Several of the villagers were still clustered together, glancing our way. Speculating aboutme?
Something felt off as I looked around. It took me several more seconds before I put my finger on it. “There aren’t any kids. Or is there some rule about when they’re allowed out of the house?” I hadn’t seen anyone who looked younger than their mid-teens.
West’s stance tensed. “There’ve been no shifter children born in sixteen years. At least not within the kin-groups. Kin can’t conceive in their mate-pairs unless their alpha is mated. It’s a biological block, to make sure vulnerable young aren’t born into extremely troubledtimes.”
“Oh.” My eyes widened. “Because I—” Because Mom and I had been hidden away in New York, all the shifters had gone childless all this time. I glanced at West. He was still gazing into the common, his eyes even darker than usual. “Couldyou have taken a different mate? I don’t know how all this stuff worksyet.”
“Yes,” he said. “I still could. I could forsake the existing bond in order to form a new one. But once that’s done, a shifter can never be mated to the one they gave up. You can’t go back on thedecision.”
My stomach dropped. So all this time, despite all the doubts he’d had, he’d waited for me. Even though he’d had to watch his kin go withoutchildren.
Maybe I shouldn’t have accused him of lackingloyalty.
“It... hasn’t seemed like you’d have a problem with that outcome,” I saidtentatively.
West’s gaze jerked back to me. “IsaidI haven’t made up my mind.” He rubbed his thumb over his palm, the scar there identical to the one Aaron had shown me. The mark of the alpha. “I knew you were alive, even if I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t think you’d stay away forever. It doesn’t seem smart to throw away something without knowing what itis.”
“I guess you do at least think I’m worth keeping alive,” I said, tipping my head as if considering. “You fought the vampires to stop them from coming at me yesterday. I should probably thank you for that. So, thanks. I meanit.”
“It was nothing,” West said, his voice going gruff again. “No vampire is going to manage to hurt me. Youhavebeen making an awful lot of trouble,though.”
“Yeah. I noticed. I’m sorry about that. None of this was in my life plan, youknow.”
“Of course not.” He studied my face, some of the tension leaving his. For a second I thought he was going to add something. My pulse fluttered with the intensity of his attention. But he stayedquiet.
When the silence started to gnaw at me, I had to break it. “Do you really think the old traditions, with the dragon shifters and the alphas, could bewrong?”
He looked away, toward the buildings around us. “I don’t know. I don’t like how fragile that system turned out to be. One savage attack, and we nearly fell into chaos. If the rogues had caught you and your mother... I’m not saying it’s definitely wrong. I just don’t want to assume it’s right. I have to be sure I’m doing the right thing for my kin before I take any steps I can’t takeback.”
