Lori sipped her coffee as Taylor happily swung on the porch, eating from a box of donuts. She looked out blearily at the bright day outside and blamed Sever for her poor sleep.

All night, she’d had weird dreams about him. Some sensual, some alarming, and some downright weird.

In one, he’d had wings. Wings.

Yes, he was a little odd and had come out of nowhere with his good-looking face and hulking body and beautiful braid to protect them, but he wasn’t some kind of… alien.

It was just Taylor’s weird suggestions about him being a superhero that were probably getting to her subconscious.

Because who was Sever, really?

She heard heavy footsteps in his room, and sat up jerkily as she realized he was up and about. His door opened and shut, and she heard him jog down the stairs and into the kitchen. She looked up to greet him, but he was busy with someone on his phone and walked out the front door without so much as a ‘hi’ or a ‘good morning’.

She slumped over her cup with a sigh. Should she really be moping just because her horniness had gone unsatisfied? She and Sever had no promises between them. Maybe he just didn’t want her like she wanted him.

She took a sip of her coffee and nodded grimly. It was bitter. Like her heart.

She laughed at her own moroseness and got up to make some toast, putting four slices in the large toaster, just in case Sever wanted something.

She peeked out the window and saw him walking out by the road, putting a hand through his hair as he walked back in forth by his truck.

Whatever he was talking about, he seemed worried. Frustrated. Maybe even angry. Maybe things weren’t going well back at home. Maybe he was in trouble with work for staying so long.

Maybe she should stop being so selfish and just let him do what he wanted, and trust that things were fine.

She told herself to calm down and waited for the toast to cook.

When it popped up, she grabbed a plate and was busy setting out jam and butter when the door flew open, Sever standing there with a flushed face, hair in disarray.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sliding his phone in his pocket and walking over to her. He ignored her attempts to avoid him and wrapped his arms around her waist, dipping down to kiss her forehead. “I didn’t even say good morning.”

She pushed him back with her hands on his arms and looked into his steely gray eyes. “Who was that on the phone? You seemed worried.”

“No, I’m fine,” he said, releasing her and giving her an odd look, as if he didn’t understand why she was resisting him.

She took a seat at the table, raising her coffee to her lips and trying not to blush as she thought about last night, when she’d practically begged him to come to her room.

Had he really been asleep?

“Help yourself to the toast,” she said. “And I can make you some eggs or something if you want.”

He sat down and liberally applied butter and jam to the toast before putting nearly a whole piece in his mouth.

She giggled and looked away, and he chewed quickly and swallowed before staring at her.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said, looking at him affectionately. He really was adorable, and he’d given her no reason not to trust. “Did you sleep well last night?”

There was just a moment’s hesitation, and then he nodded. Did he realize how terrible he was with lies?

“Oh yeah? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Like what?” he asked, staring at her blankly, his strong jaw working as he chewed up more toast.

She sighed and sat back in her chair, wishing that even now she wasn’t just tempted to let her eyes roam over his bod.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked, finishing the rest of his second piece and brushing off his hands.

“Not really,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure there isn’t something you want to tell me?”

He looked like a rat caught in a trap. He shook his head. “Nope. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

She stood, feeling irritation rise in her. Of course he hadn’t been feeling the tension. To him, it had been a normal night: go to bed, get up, feel rested.

Why was she the only one all caught up in her mind?

She walked out the front door and let it swing shut behind her, wanting some time without him. He’d been so interested in her that night in the truck.

What had suddenly put her out of his mind?

* * *

Sever stared stupidly after Lori as she stomped out onto the porch, down the stairs, and then onto the driveway.

He scratched his head as he tried to think what he’d done wrong to her since he’d seen her the previous night. Had she checked his room or something to see if he was gone? Was she suspicious? He’d thought no one had noticed him gone. He’d crept in through the window and seen his room exactly as he’d left it, door still locked.

The house had been dark and quiet.

Of course, he’d been a little disappointed that the night hadn’t involved any fun with his mate, but some things were more important. And besides, he’d been so relentless that she could probably use a break from him.

After all, next time he got to touch her, he didn’t think he would be able to stop.

He’d want to take her, with more room than a truck could allow, feel their bodies entwined together, and…

He trailed off, glancing down at his phone in his pocket. Dante hadn’t had much info on cat shifters, except he knew they existed and their unique power was that other shifters couldn’t sense them.

Luckily, no shifters could scent dragons either, so that worked out well.

Still, now that he knew they were out there and they wanted to hurt his mate, he had to know more. Dante was going to call Citrine and try to get more information from him. Sever just had to wait and stick close to Lori and Taylor before anything else could happen.

He looked out at her, standing alone in the drive, folding her arms, hair whipping in the wind. She looked like a lonely warrior, and she was pissed at him, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

He got up and strode out of the house, passing Taylor, who had been about to stand up.

“I got it, buddy,” he said, proud that the boy had also picked up on something being wrong.

This little family would work out best with them all watching out for each other.

He walked up behind Lori, stopping when she whirled around to face him, a hard but pleasant expression on her face.

“Did you need something?”

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked. He wasn’t about to mention leaving in the middle of the night to spy on their enemies, but he did want to know if there was something else bothering her.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, turning back to the road.

“The dirt is just really interesting, then?” he asked, walking up next to her and bumping her side lightly. “More interesting than your sexy man?”

She snorted and started to walk away from him. “You’re not my sexy man.”

He caught her by the arm, being careful not to hurt her. But he couldn’t let his mate just walk away after saying that. “What do you mean I’m not?”

She jerked out of his reach, blushing furiously and avoiding his eyes. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

He reached out and caught her around the waist, pulling her in, ignoring her cute little attempts to push him off. “Hey. Seriously.” He reached for her chin, tilting it up. “What’s wrong?”

She sighed, looking away. “Fine, it’s super embarrassing, but I thought you were going to… come to me last night. That we would do something.” She let out a little shudder. “Obviously, I was wrong about what this whole… thing is.” She waved a hand and shook her head, pushing away from him in a desperate bid to head back to the house, but he caught her once again.

“Wait,” he said. “You’re mad… because I didn’t come to you?”

She crossed her arms and looked at her toes. “This is too embarrassing. I thought… we were… you know. I was looking forward to it.” She blurted the last words out rapidly, and when she looked up at him, he almost melted at the cutely embarrassed expression on her face.

He pulled her in close against him. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you I would have loved to be with you last night.” He cupped her head in his hand, stroking her hair before placing a kiss on the top of her head. “Any excuse to be with you. I just feel lucky you even wanted to be with me.”

She glared up at him. “Then why weren’t you there?”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood. I thought you would want a break from me, and after the fight, I just… was tired.”

She laughed, tension leaving her body as her arms relaxed at her sides. Finally, she looked up at him. “We’re a fine pair, aren’t we?”

He chuckled, wondering how he could be so lucky as to have a mate that wanted him badly enough to be mad at him when he didn’t pick up on signals.

Truthfully, if he hadn’t had to go on a recon mission, nothing could have kept him away from her room, as long as she wanted him.

“How about you give me another chance tonight?” he asked. Depending on how long it took Citrine to get back to him, they should have at least another day of peace before he had some kind of recommendation on further plans.

She ran a finger over his chest. “I guess I can do this.”

“I’ll tell you what. Let’s make a trip to the nicest restaurant in that town we visited a couple days ago. Take Taylor and just have a fun time and get out of here. Maybe visit some shops. Then, when we get back…” He slid an arm around her waist again, pulling her in against him. “I can make it up to you for last night.”

She gulped audibly. “Okay. Sounds good to me.”

He laughed and released her, then took her hand and began pulling her back to the house. When they were close to the porch, he called out to Taylor.

“We’re headed into town, Taylor. Go get ready, or whatever you have to do. We’re going to have fun.”

* * *

“That was amazing,” Lori said, leaning back in her chair and watching the land fly by outside, a look of utter relaxation on her face.

Taylor was in the back, eating ice cream they’d grabbed on the way home at a drive-thru, since the fancy restaurant they’d gone to hadn’t had any child-friendly desserts.

Sever pulled his eyes away from Lori to focus on the long, empty road ahead of them just in case.

She looked more content, more at peace than he’d seen her since he’d arrived, and he liked to think he had played a small part in that. Maybe more than a small part.

She was coming to accept him. To want him.

At dinner, they’d laughed about past stories of her work in the jewelry field and odd clients, and they’d talked about what Taylor’s favorite subjects were in school (P.E. and recess).

They hadn’t asked much about him, but he preferred it that way. Sever liked to live in the moment. There was too much pain in the past, and it didn’t do any good to dwell on it.

His hand tightened on the steering wheel. There was no point thinking about being tricked, being abandoned, being hurt. He was here now, with his future family, the way ahead of him clearly laid out.

Except for what they were going to do about the shifters of Cate’s Creek.

“So is there anything you do like about this place?” he asked Lori. “Aside from the land?”

She shook her head. “Not right now. But once school starts, I’m guessing Taylor will make some friends. And when I’m working, I don’t notice the isolation.”

Taylor let out a little scoff, and Lori turned back to him.

“What?” she asked.

“None of the kids are going to like me. And I don’t like them either. They smell funny.”

“Taylor, that’s not nice,” Lori said.

Sever chuckled. “Did you tell them that? If so, I think we may have the answer to their rudeness.”

“Of course he didn’t tell them that,” she said sternly. “Taylor knows better.” She looked back doubtfully. “Right, Taylor?”

Taylor folded his arms. “I know not to say mean things. Maybe if Sever is here in the school year, people will be too afraid to say mean things to us.”

She went quiet at that. “I’m not sure Sever can stay that long,” she said. “He has his own life.”

“For now, my life is here,” he said.

He knew it probably sounded odd to her, that he would just uproot himself from his prior life and be here, but she didn’t know how empty that life had been. How hard he’d been searching for some kind of meaning. How much it meant that she was his future.

He’d show her a little of that tonight.

“Well, I guess we’ll see,” she said quietly, turning back to the window and resting her cheek in her hand.

“Sever, where did you grow up?” Taylor asked. “What was it like?”

Sever didn’t know how to answer that. He couldn’t very well tell the kid he lived hundreds of years ago. “I came from a small town,” he said. “I moved there when I was really young and stayed with an adoptive family for a while.”

That was true.

“How small was the town? Was it like Cate’s Creek?”

“No,” Sever said. “Yes, it was isolated, but it wasn’t like this. They raised me like one of their own, even though I was an outsider.”

“You were a baby?” Lori asked.

“Just about,” he said. “There was an accident outside of town. A fire, and I was found in the wreckage.”

“Wow.”

He had survived because he was a dragon and the people who had stolen him from his family were not.

Titus’s father had been a stand-in for him, helping him learn what being a dragon was. Perhaps he could be that for Taylor. Perhaps Lori was right and you could choose your own family.

He wanted to.

“Did you date any girls?” Taylor asked. “When you were my age?”

“You are way too young to date!” Lori said.

Taylor harrumphed. “When you were older?”

Sever scratched his head, not sure what to say about that. He hadn’t really noticed girls until Amelia had come into his life, claiming she was his mate and making him feel wanted. Making him feel he had a chance at his own family.

Before everything had fallen apart.

“Maybe one or two,” Sever said. “But they weren’t important. They weren’t real.”

Lori raised an eyebrow. “That’s kind of a mean thing to say about them.”

Given that Amelia had been a rival dragon in disguise, trying to destroy him, no, it wasn’t.

“Well, she wasn’t who I thought she was,” he said. “Anyway, this isn’t really a discussion to have in front of Taylor. Besides, that’s my past. And we can’t choose our past, but we can choose our future.” He glanced back at Taylor. “Remember that.”

“Right,” Taylor said, looking out his window. “Our future.”

Lori was watching him pensively. “A lot has happened to you, hasn’t it?”

Sever shrugged. “There’s a lot of good and bad in everything. I choose to focus on the good, for now.”

She nodded, leaning in to put an arm around his. “Me, too.”

He felt blood rush his cheeks, making him warm all over. She was trusting him in front of Taylor, showing him affection. It made him feel proud and content all at once.

She was his. They were his.

He was going to protect them forever. His dragon would finally be at home.

When they pulled up in front of the house, Lori told Taylor to run up ahead and unlock the door, and she stayed back for a second, her hand on Sever’s arm.

“Once I’ve made sure he’s in bed, come to my room,” she said.

“Okay,” Sever said, throat tight as his eyes wandered over her curves, already anticipating being able to touch her again.

Then she slipped out of the car and ran after Taylor, kicking up dust as she caught up.

Sever took a deep breath and released it in a sigh. He was so grateful he had decided to come to Cate’s Creek.