Emily took her seat beside Jamie. "Okay, we're all set."

"Thanks for letting Ethan use your tablet," Jamie said.

Emily waved her hand. "It's not a big deal. In fact, he can have it. I mostly work on the desktop or my laptop."

Jamie smiled at Emily and shook her head.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"You're so...nice."

Emily arched her lips. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Jamie's eyes widened. "Oh, I wasn't being sarcastic or anything. I mean it."

"Thanks."

"But I can't let Ethan take your tablet."

Emily looked Jamie dead in the eye. Her dark brown eyes softened in understanding, and she nodded. It felt good to have someone understand her stance for once. So many people that she'd let in looked at the life she'd put together for her and Ethan and scoffed at it. Then, when she turned down their help, they saw her as a bad mother.

Jamie wasn't full of pride. She just didn't want help that came with strings attached. She’d learned the power of that when her parents stopped paying for her university tuition and kicked her out when she got pregnant with Ethan.

The memories were still fresh almost six years later. It was hard for Jamie to accept that people could harden their hearts because they didn't agree with a choice she’d made. So, she preferred to work hard to give Ethan all she could. On the one hand, it would teach him the power of hard work firsthand. On the other, no one could dictate how she raised her son.

Either way, Emily was a very nice woman, which got Jamie thinking. "Wait. How do you know Corrus and Penum?"

Emily smiled. "They're Cimmeris' teammates. He's my mate."

"You're what?" Jamie asked, cocking her head.

"My mate. Like my husband or partner."

"Why would you call him a mate?"

Emily took a deep breath. "What did Corrus tell you?"

"That he's in the army."

"Anything else?" Emily asked, raising a hopeful eyebrow.

Jamie shot straight up. "Oh my god! What have I done? I brought my child to a stranger’s house escorted by two guys who could probably kill me in a second!"

Jamie paced the floor, running her hands through her hair. Her gaze flitted around the room as she took everything in. Here she was at a mini-mansion, and a woman had just given her son a toy to play with. For all she knew, she could have just been kidnapped. Wasn't keeping the victims subdued part of the process? She'd just been seduced by kindness to her son.

Why am I always messing things up? Jamie thought.

Emily stood and placed her hands on Jamie's shoulders, her grip firm. "Jamie, please calm down. You're starting to worry me, and you're starting to worry Ethan."

Jamie's gaze shifted to Ethan, and she saw him put the tablet down on the table in front of him and stare back at her.

Jamie put on her best smile. "Everything's fine, buddy. I just thought I might have left the stove on."

Ethan looked at her for a few more seconds and only turned back to his game when Jamie sat down. Emily placed a hand on Jamie's forearm, and she jumped.

"Tell me what else I need to know," Jamie said.

Emily rubbed her face. "It's been a while since I've had to do this, so bear with me. The first thing you need to know is that you're with the good guys, Jamie. From what I heard, someone tried to hurt you and Ethan. Then Corrus stepped in and helped you, right?"

Jamie nodded, her pulse slowing down. She'd never experienced a panic attack, but she thought she'd just come pretty close to having one. Everything had just turned on its head, and now she had all these questions about Ethan's father.

"I know it's a lot." Emily leaned forward. "But know that you're safe."

"Okay." Jamie took a deep breath. If she was with the wrong people, then there wasn't much she could do about it. All she could do was watch and observe. Oh, and listen. But something deep down told her that Emily and her friends were trustworthy. The gentle way she’d handled Ethan made her want to believe it.

"Alright. Here we go. Corrus is in the army along with his cousin, my mate, and two other team members who you'll meet in time. The one thing he didn't tell you is that he's not an American soldier. He's a Brevian soldier."

Jamie tilted her head. She hadn't been expecting that. Corrus' accent was American. Everyone she’d met that day had had an American accent. The fact that he was from another country wasn't a deal breaker. It just meant Ethan's father was even sleazier than she thought, for his crimes to extend to international proportions.

"Where is Brevia? I've never heard of it."

Emily chuckled. "We'll get to that later. Allow me to give you another piece of information that will make Brevia's location more believable to you."

Jamie narrowed her eyes. "Okaaaay."

"There are all types of people in the universe. Stay with me here. Some of them have magical abilities, and some don't."

Jamie stiffened as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. "I, uh,....whoo." Having met Emily less than an hour ago, Jamie would never have pegged her as a crazy person, but now she was proving to Jamie that she had made the wrong decision in coming here.

Emily stretched her arm in front of her. "Look at my hand, but make sure you don't scream."

Jamie cocked her head and bit her lower lip. She would play along until things made sense, but, first, she needed to know what she was up against. Just as thoughts of how she might escape began to run through her mind, a flame appeared in Emily's palm and danced around it.

Slapping a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, Jamie pointed at the flame. Emily smiled. "I'm a mage. That means I'm a human with magical abilities. Playing with fire is just one of them. Another thing I can do is pull objects to me."

Jamie watched in awe as Emily stuck her hand out and moved the coffee table closer to her. Over the next few minutes, Emily continually carried out various magic tricks until Jamie was convinced she wasn't faking.

"Oh my god!"

"It's a lot to take in, I know."

"Does everyone in Brevia have magic?"

Emily shook her head. "No. We have regular humans there, too, but what we mostly have on Brevia are shifters. Corrus and his team are dragon shifters. That means that they're human, but there's a whole other side to them. They can turn into dragons. It's more like their soul is split into two, and they can take on two different forms, but just to keep it simple for now, I'll leave it at that."

Jamie's breath halted. She'd had a lot over the last few minutes, and her body just didn't have the energy to react to anything in a major way. Emily had just proven that magic was real. Jamie couldn't believe that she was admitting it, but it was true, and now Emily told her that there were people who could turn into animals, and dragons, of all things.

"How does it work?" Jamie asked.

"It's a magical thing. I'm not a shifter, so I can't tell you that much about it."

"And this country, Brevia, is full of people like you?"

Emily smiled. "Yup."

"Well, how come no one's heard of this place?"

Emily chuckled. "Here's the kicker. Brevia is a planet. Certain politics and past decisions on Earth led to shifters choosing to hide. Meanwhile, your governments chose to keep knowledge of other planets hidden."

Jamie nodded then leaned back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "I think it's going to take me a while to unpack all of that."

"That it will, but the most important thing you need to know is that we're regular people just like you. We cry and we poop, just like you do."

Jamie giggled as she sat up. "I guess you can't be all that bad if you have regular needs."

"We aren't."

"So why did Corrus save me today? He seemed to have been following that homeless guy. Is he a mage or shifter, too?"

Emily nodded. "That he is, but there's more to it. There's a planet called Gleon that's full of a lot of evil shifters, but I won't get into that. One thing they love doing is kidnapping shifters of interest for their experiments. One of their hot-ticket items is half-breed dragons: children that are half human, half dragon. It's clear that you don't know this, but Ethan is actually a half-breed. I scented him myself, and there's no doubt about it."

Jamie's skin tingled as she took the news in. Ethan's father was a dragon shifter. That must have been why the fake homeless guy was asking about him. He wanted confirmation before he kidnapped her son.

"He wanted to take my son. That's why he kept asking about Ethan's father."

"I didn't know he did that, but it makes sense. Look, there's a lot we need to figure out, so I wouldn't jump to conclusions. It's just my working theory right now."

"Ethan's a half-breed." Jamie shook her head. "I don't know anything about raising one of those, and I just started getting a handle on raising a human boy." Jamie scoffed and shook her head.

"I think you're a wonderful mother. Ethan wouldn't be so nice if you weren't. Besides, no matter what happens, you now know a bunch of people who can help Ethan as he starts to develop magical abilities. For now, he's just like any other child."

"When will the changes come?"

Emily shrugged. "It usually happens around puberty, but it may happen earlier or later. Because he's a half-breed, we don't know the extent of his abilities. Male half-breeds usually have strength and size on their side. As for magic, their abilities vary depending on the power of their dragon heritage. No one can truly know what Ethan will be capable of. All we know is that he'll be big, like Corrus and Penum."

Jamie and Emily both turned when they heard the house door open. Corrus walked in with a tentative smile on his face. Emily stood up.

"I'm going to prepare your rooms and lay out some clothes for you. We're about the same size so you should be able to fit in some of my things."

A warmth flooded Jamie's chest, and she blinked back the wetness that came to her eyes. A few hours ago, she was a single mother with no friends trying to figure out how she would pay for her son's trip to the hospital. Now she had a wonderful woman and her friends promising to protect her, all while keeping her and her son comfortable. It was too much.

Jamie's voice was hoarse when she spoke. "Thank you so much."

Emily patted her shoulder. "It's nothing. You just focus on wrapping your head around everything. I'll let you know when your room is ready so you can take a nap. It's been a hectic day, I imagine."

Jamie nodded, shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she found Corrus standing a few feet away, shuffling.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I sitting in your favorite seat or something?"

Corrus chuckled, and his radiant smile made her heart flip-flop. He was so damn attractive, and it looked like his warmth had returned.

"No. I just wanted to give you a moment before I brief you. Do you mind if I sit on the couch?"

Jamie chuckled. "Of course I don't. I'm the guest here."

Corrus sat at the far edge of the couch and turned to her. "Technically, we're both guests. This is Emily's house. I live on the base down the road with the rest of the team."

Jamie nodded. "Emily told me about you and Penum. That you're shifters."

Corrus' eyes widened. "Wow. I didn't think she'd get to that so fast."

"She kind of had to. I went into a full panic mode."

"And you had every right to. It's a lot to take in."

"It is. Uh, I've got a question for you, but I need you not to laugh at me."

Corrus placed a hand on his chest. "I promise not to laugh."

The solemn tone of his voice made Jamie giggle. He was taking her so seriously when what she was about to ask him was the dumbest thing.

"Okay. So, Ethan had a cold and a fever this morning. And now, it looks like he's perfectly fine. Did you guys have anything to do with that?"

Corrus smiled. "We did. Most of us have healing abilities as part of our magic. Penum must have healed Ethan while I was away. I only have enough to heal myself."

Jamie mouthed the word "wow." It looked like being a shifter had major benefits.

"Yeah. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, I need to let you know what we'd like to do as far as you and Ethan's safety is concerned."

Jamie folded her arms, ready to make sure that she and Ethan were treated fairly. Just because she was grateful they had been rescued, didn't mean she'd go along with anything they said.

"Go ahead."

"We'd like you and Ethan to stay in this house until we find out who that dragon was. While I think he's from Gleon, we're not sure. We need to find that out, then work with our boss to make sure he never comes after you and Ethan again. For that to happen, you need to lay low. That means no work and no school. Can you do that?"

Jamie took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll need to explain things to Ethan, but I think we can handle that. I just, uh, don't have money to cover the costs of us being here." Jamie rubbed her neck.

"Don't worry about that. Brevia is the richest planet in the universe, and we get a pretty great stipend to live here. Taking care of you and Ethan will not put any financial strain on us whatsoever. You just focus on keeping both you and Ethan calm as we search for that piece of slime. We're on your side now, Jamie. You're not alone in this."

The words were simple, but Jamie couldn't help but feel there was a promise behind them. Looking into Corrus' green eyes, she saw an intensity and a fire that seared straight into her soul. She didn't understand why, but this man had made her and Ethan his business. Instead of feeling threatened that he'd try to make decisions for them, Jamie felt the walls she'd built around her heart begin to melt.

She'd been doing everything alone for so long, and she was tired. Something in Corrus' tone and gaze told her those days were over.

God, I hope it's true, Jamie thought. And what a guy to share a lifetime of bliss with.