Heart heavy, Alex packed the little he owned in a duffle bag. He wanted to do it last night, after the uncomfortable plane ride to Cheyenne and the car ride to Rocky River, but he was exhausted when they finally got back. He had a quick shower, and then collapsed on the bed, pretty much asleep before his head hit the pillow. He spent the night dreaming about Cammie’s dragon. She was beautiful, with shiny dark blue scales glimmering with iridescent light orange, and gorgeously curved horns. Her spikes, starting at the base of her neck and ending at the tip of her tail, were sharp and evenly spaced out. He was so proud when he saw her dragon. That was his mate up there, lethally beautiful, a badass as she fought ferociously with Ivan.

He hadn’t felt very rested when he woke up this morning, but there had been the little matter of tracking down the tiger shifters. Kian, much as he didn’t want to admit it, seemed like a genuinely good guy. Surprising, from what he’d heard tiger shifters were like. He’d thought Ian was the exception, but apparently Kian was, as well. Doubly surprising, since he was basically royalty in the shifter world.

Now here he was, back at Rocky River, preparing to leave. He wasn’t going far, only into Eagle Creek. Even if Cammie never forgave him, he still wanted to stay close, watch over her. He had a feeling he would be her shadow for the rest of his life. She wouldn’t be safe unless she mated another shifter. Pain seared his insides at the thought, his dragon revolting. But though it would crush his soul if she mated someone else, he would find a way to deal if it meant she was safe.

A soft knock sounded on the door, but before he could call out, it opened. Cammie took a few small steps inside, alarm crossing her beautiful features when she saw him packing his bag.

“You’re leaving?” she asked, frowning.

Taking heart from the frown and the alarm briefly on her face, he straightened up and turned to her. “I thought it was best. I know you don’t want me here, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable in your own home.”

“So you’ll leave, just like that. Without even trying to explain.”

“I tried when you saw my eyes. You didn’t want to hear it then, and you avoided the hell out of me last night. Do you blame me for not immediately trying again?”

“I can sure as hell blame you for just giving up. Am I not worth fighting for?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Absolutely you are. I wasn’t done, or giving up, Cammie. I was leaving the house, not Eagle Creek. But I didn’t think you were ready to talk yet.”

“Oh,” she replied with a nod, looking down to stare at her bare feet before she glanced up and met his eyes again. “I’m ready to talk now. I think you owe me some sort of explanation.”

“I definitely do. Have a seat,” he said with a wave toward the chair by his bed. He moved his duffel off the bed and sat down, looking at his clasped hands, trying to figure out where to start. He guessed at the very beginning.

“So talk,” she said softly as she pulled her legs onto the chair and curled up.

“Before I get into the story, let me start by saying, successfully telling lies isn’t my gift. I don’t want you to think everything I tell you is some elaborate story. My gift is actually having visions of the future.”

“Really?” she asked, eyes wide. “Wait, is that what happened the other morning when I saw your dragon eyes?”

“Yeah, it was. I don’t see my surroundings at all. I see the vision. My body shakes while I have them, and sometimes it’s hard to breathe.”

“I bet Seth doesn’t know that. He never would have let you drive his precious car if he did,” she said with a little giggle that warmed his heart and gave him hope that not all was lost with her.

“Yeah, I felt kind of bad about that. I rarely drive because of the possibility of having a vision, but I needed to go to Bear Claw.”

“I thought you went to look at your car,” she replied with a frown.

“I did. But I did that after. I had questions I needed answers to. I’m getting ahead of myself, though.”

“Okay. Start where you need to, but we’re coming back to that.”

Alex blew out a long breath. “My dad was a lion, and my mom was a dragon. I had a little sister as well. Both of us were dragons. It’s not something that happens often when there’s a parent with a different animal, but there we were. Our parents moved us often, hoping to minimize the chance of a male dragon finding us and taking my sister. Because we moved so often, we never really made friends, other than ourselves. Daria—”

“Daria?” Cammie blurted, eyes wide.

“Yeah, why?” he asked, studying her pale face. She just shook her head and waved at him to continue, so he did, vowing to come back to her reaction later. “Daria was my best friend. And when we were old enough, we shared an apartment. We were cautious, but we decided to stay in one spot, because we were both tired of moving. But staying in one place made Daria more vulnerable. I worked from home, partly to protect her, and partly because I couldn’t drive much with the risk of having a vision. But one day, I had to go in for a meeting I couldn’t get out of. During the meeting, Daria started calling. She was frantic when I answered, and she said a dragon found her and was coming for her. I raced home, but…” Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, he sighed. “By the time I got there, it was too late. The apartment was trashed, and my sister… my sister was dead.”

“Oh, God Alex. I’m so sorry,” she said softly. “I know how it feels to see a family member like that. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

“It was awful. It took months before I didn’t see her like that in my mind. I fought against that image hard. When I remember her, I want it to be how she was alive. Bubbly, happy, in love with life. Her death destroyed my parents. They never recovered from it. I wanted to see them really live again, and I burned for vengeance. I thought if I could end the dragon who killed her, I would have what I wanted, and maybe my parents would stop being shells of people, knowing the man responsible was dead.

“I was right that day when I guessed I worked with computers. I’m kind of a computer geek, and also an excellent hacker. I managed to find the man responsible, and it was Ivan.” He paused to watch her reaction, but she just nodded, looking unsurprised with the information. “I found this serum that suppresses a shifter’s animal. It left me feeling vulnerable, and obviously, I’m no fighter. So I took lessons in how to be a spy for a few months. I wanted to get into Ivan’s compound and find a weakness, something I could use to take him down.

“Once lessons were over, I took the serum and applied for a job as a tech and hacker under a false identity. I was hired, and I flew to Canada, but I had to keep taking the suppressants. They thought I was a human and they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if they knew I was a shifter, especially a dragon. I was given one job while I was there.” He paused, looking down at his hands, before glancing up and snaring her gaze with his. “To find you. I only pretended, though. I wasn’t handing another innocent woman over to Ivan. But one day, I had a vision. It was you and me, and from it, it was clear you were my mate.”

“Your visions… how do they work? You seem confident it was true.”

“My visions almost always happen in real life the way I see them, but sometimes they change. If someone changes their mind after the vision, if someone I don’t even see changes their mind… The thing is, mates are absolute. You know that as well as I do. Even if something in the vision changed, that wouldn’t.”

Eyes flickering with her dragon for a moment, she nodded. “Keep going.”

“I started looking for you then, for real, but I kept everything I found under wraps. It only took me about a day. There were reports from the shifter enforcers of a dragon here. I knew from overhearing Ivan one day that Adara lived here, but then there were also rumors of the fighters. They said there was a female in the crew who was tight lipped about what her animal was, and then I found the online school records of a Carrie Sanders who was with the fighters. Carrie Sanders, Cammie Samuels… and Cammie hiding what her animal was… it was just a hunch, but I felt, to my bones, it was you.

“I wrote down the address you gave the school, wiped all the info from the computer I used, snuck out of the compound, and flew back to Oregon where my car was. I drove straight here, wanting to warn you Ivan was searching for you, maybe talk you into running because I know from experience how dangerous it is to stay in one place. But right after I got here, I was in the wreck with Hannah, and well… you basically know the rest.”

“All that happened since is true, then? You really did have amnesia? How is that even possible?”

“I wasn’t totally sure of that myself. That’s why I went to Bear Claw the other night. I knew from listening to Ivan that Adara had taken the suppressant, and I wanted to ask her about it. She said it doesn’t just suppress the animal, but all shifter qualities. The only one you retain is your gift. I was just a notch above human status. That’s how I got amnesia, and why it took so long to heal and regain my memory. I wasn’t lying about what I am, Cammie, at least not intentionally. I really did think I was a human that whole time.”

“When did you regain your memory? I bet it was when you started acting weird a few days ago.”

“That’s pretty much when,” he replied with a wry smile. “Looking back, there were a lot of clues that pointed to me being a shifter. Knowing about shifters instinctively was a big one. Times when a voice inside me whispered something to me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was my dragon talking to me. Even my gift, though I didn’t know what it was then. I just thought I was going crazy. My memory came back one day after I had a vision in the bathroom. When it was over, I saw my eyes, and they were full dragon.”

“Were you ever going to tell me what you are?” she asked softly, looking down at where she was playing with the hem of her shirt.

“Of course I was,” he said in surprise. He yearned to go to her, take her hands in his, but he held off, knowing the truth still might not change anything. “I just wasn’t sure how to tell you. And I wanted all the facts, even if they were small, before I said anything. Which is why I wanted to talk to Adara first. I was planning on telling you when I got back from Bear Claw, but you didn’t want to talk, and then I fell asleep. Even if I could have gotten away with hiding it, I wouldn’t have tried. I don’t want lies between us, Cammie, even lies of omission.”

Cammie stared Alex in silence as she struggled to take everything in. She hadn’t been expecting the kind of story he told her, and her heart broke for his past. And his poor sister. She never would have guessed when Ivan told her about Daria and Adara, that Daria was Alex’s sister. What were the odds that the two women, besides her, that Ivan went after, were women she knew of?

His story sounded like something out of a novel or movie. Heartbreak, intrigue, danger and suspense. But she knew it was the truth. Even if Ivan hadn’t told her about Daria first, she would have known. Alex didn’t have it in him to lie about things, especially something this big.

She was exhausted last night, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. Mind spinning in circles over everything that happened that day, she turned her thoughts to Alex, hoping for a distraction. When she really thought about the man she came to know, she realized his reactions, his interactions with her and the fighters, were genuine. And then she remembered what Ian’s gift was. He knew instinctively if people were good or bad. If Alex was one of the bad guys, Ian never would have encouraged her to spend time with him, much less let him stay in the same house his daughter was in. So she’d gathered her courage to come talk to him, and here she was.

“Can I ask a question now?” he asked tentatively.

“Of course,” she replied, glancing up to meet his eyes.

“When I mentioned Daria by name, you gasped, like you recognized it. Why?”

Sighing, she closed her eyes. She’d been hoping he would forget, but she should have known better. Besides, he said he didn’t want lies between them, and this would have counted as such.

“Before I escaped, I talked to Ivan. He told me about two females he found other than me. One was Adara, and one was Daria. It’s not a common name, so when you said it, I figured it was your sister he talked about. He said she put up a fight, and the man he sent to retrieve her got too rough. I’m really so sorry, Alex. Losing her to something like that must be hard.”

“It is,” he replied softly, gazing at her with guilt in his lightened, silvery gray eyes. “I never wanted a dragon to find her and force her. And I know she would have rather died than have that happen. But sometimes, I kind of wish she hadn’t struggled so hard. She would have been miserable in a forced mating, but at least she’d be alive.”

“It wouldn’t have been a mating though,” she replied gently. Seeing the confusion in his eyes, she took a deep breath before continuing. “She would have been nothing more than a breeder to Ivan. No, let me explain,” she said hastily as his eyes turned full silver with gold swirls and he opened his mouth, questions on his lips. “When I saw Ivan, I recognized him. He was the same dragon who came for me when I was sixteen, the one who killed my parents. But even though he tried to find other females, he never gave up searching for me.

“Remember how I said being a full-blood dragon was like being a unicorn for my people? He wanted that for himself. Kept calling me princess, said I was royalty. Your sister came close, he said, but your dad was a lion. My ancestors were always pure dragons. So he kept looking for me, even while he searched for other females. His plan was to mate me, and use the others as breeders. He said the world needed more dragons. I think, even had he gotten Daria, Adara, and myself, he would have kept searching for others. He wanted his own little harem of breeder dragons.”

“Jesus,” Alex breathed out, screwing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, they were full dragon. “I’m glad you killed that fucker. I wanted to long before he took you, but it was your right, and I’m so glad you did. He never would have stopped looking for you, and you saved untold female dragons from suffering that fate.”

“It was your right, too. That’s why you were so triumphant when you burned him and ate his ashes, isn’t it?”

“It was,” he replied with a nod and a smile. “And it was just as satisfying as actually killing him would have been. I always wanted to be the one to do it, but in all honesty, he probably would have killed me. I’ve tried to learn to fight, but I’m still not very good at it.”

“I’ve told you before, it takes time. You haven’t been training long enough to really get good at it. But even if you never improve any more than you have, that’s okay. You have the heart of a fighter, and that’s what counts.” He had the heart of a fighter in more ways than one, actually, because she was a fighter, and he would always have hers.

They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again, voice hesitant. “Are we okay now? Do you understand that I wasn’t lying to you this whole time? Maybe I should have told you right away when my memory came back, I don’t know, but I wanted all the facts first. I’m still going to leave for town, but that’s as far as I go. I’m not much of a fighter, not yet, but I can still help protect—”

Shooting out the chair, Cammie was in front of him in an instant, putting a hand over his mouth to halt his words. She put one knee on the mattress next to his thigh, then the other, and straddled him, searching his beautiful gray eyes.

“I don’t want you to leave. Besides, how much protection could you be all the way in town? But I wouldn’t need protecting at all if you claimed me.”

His lips parted in surprise as he stared at her. “Does that mean you forgive me?” he asked.

Palming his cheek, she gazed into his eyes. “You never really required my forgiveness. It’s me who needs yours. Yes,” she said when he shook his head. “I do. I never should have jumped to conclusions like I did. I should have let you explain. I knew you well enough to know you wouldn’t try to trick me like I assumed you did.”

“It’s understandable, Cammie, and I would never hold it against you. You’ve survived as long as you have by not trusting anyone. You trusted me, and you thought I betrayed you. It’s okay.”

“Something else we’ll have to agree to disagree on. But know I’ll never let it happen again.”

Not giving him a chance to reply, she pressed her lips to his. Everything in her, dragon included, sighed in relief at the contact. A huge chunk of her soul had felt like it was missing, but now it felt restored, whole again, from the touch of their lips. No, more than whole. It felt bright and shiny with happiness in a way it never had before.

This man, this dragon, was her everything, and she was nothing without him.

Breaking the kiss, she shoved him down to the mattress. She followed him down but paused, hovering over him.

“You never did respond to my not so subtle hint.”

“Hint?” he asked, eyes already dazed.

Lips quirking up, she shook her head in mock despair, unable to resist leaning down and placing a quick peck on his lips. “About claiming each other. How about it? Are you down?”

“Hell yes, I’m down,” he replied with a grin.

She gasped as he snaked an arm around her waist and quickly reversed their positions, lips immediately returning to hers for a soul-searing kiss.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she returned the kiss with equal fervor. She never imagined she would get this lucky, always assuming she would walk through life alone. But then Alex showed up out of nowhere, first rocking the foundation of her beliefs, then blowing them out of the water.

Life wouldn’t always be sunshine and roses. Being claimed would stop the male dragons from trying to snatch her, but it wouldn’t stop hunters from coming after them both. They would always have to hide what they were. But with Alex by her side, being in hiding never looked so sweet.