Elise tensed up when she heard the doorbell ring. She hadn’t seen Nick for hours, but she had a feeling that whoever was at her door right now was here to complain about him. She let her hairbrush drop on her bathroom counter with a frustrated sigh, and made her way to the front door. She was almost ready for her shift at the diner, and she could not be late again. Her boss was already angry enough with her over the fight yesterday, and he was looking for any excuse to chew her out. Elise didn’t think he’d fire her. She was his best waitress, and this was a small town. He’d have a hard time replacing her with someone who could keep up the pace she did. Still, she didn’t want to see how far he would go when he was angry. If she lost this job, she’d be screwed. She had no savings, and was barely getting by as it was.

Elise took a deep, steadying breath. She couldn’t let her worries get away with her like that. She was a survivor. She’d made it through tough times before, and this would be no different. She had to stay strong for Nick. He had a good heart deep down, Elise knew that. She just had to help him through whatever was tormenting him right now. She wished he would open up to her and tell her what was bothering him, but he refused to talk about it. He refused to talk about much of anything, actually, and that hurt Elise more than anything. They used to be close, and he used to freely tell her all his worries and fears, but he’d clammed up lately, hiding in his secret world of pain. Elise had been hopeful for a few brief minutes last night that the new guy in town, Holden, might actually know how to help Nick. But then Holden had disappeared, and Elise hadn’t seen or heard from him today. Elise wasn’t holding out much hope that she was ever going to see him again.

The doorbell rang again, and Elise quickened her step, biting her lower lip to try to calm her nerves. She stood on tiptoe to peer through the peephole, bracing herself for what she would see. But what she saw was not at all what she expected, and she gasped. She’d assumed she’d find one of the angry men who was always yelling at her about Nick’s bad behavior, but the only man she saw was Holden. And in Holden’s arms, Nick lay limp.

Elise’s heart dropped all the way to her feet and she flung the door open. “Nicky!” she gasped, her voice catching in a sob. She started toward him, but Holden stepped quickly away so she couldn’t touch him.

“He’s fine, Elise. Just sleeping. He needs to rest, and I need to talk to you,” Holden said.

Elise ignored him and stepped toward Nick, putting one hand on his wrist to feel for a pulse, and placing the other hand lovingly on his forehead. Holden started to pull away again, but he stopped when another voice spoke up.

“It’s alright, Holden. He won’t wake easily while he’s under the sleeping spell.”

Elise whipped her head to the left, looking for the source of the voice. A slender woman with deep purple eyes and silky, chestnut hair stood there, twisting absentmindedly at a large purple ring on her finger that matched the color of her eyes. Elise had been so distraught by the sight of Holden that she hadn’t even noticed the woman standing off to the side.

“Who is this?” Elise asked, a note of accusation in her voice. Her stomach was twisting up uncomfortably. The woman seemed pleasant enough, but she was dazzlingly beautiful, and Elise had a feeling that no man on earth would be able to resist the woman. Jealousy burned in Elise’s core, not because she begrudged the woman her beauty but because she had a sinking feeling that this woman was with Holden. Elise had not admitted it to herself until then, but she’d been nursing a tiny crush on Holden. She should have known better than to think a man like him wasn’t taken already. He was too handsome, too kind. Too much of a catch.

“This is my partner, Violet,” Holden said. “She helped me get Nick here without being seen. But we’re going to be seen if we stand out here any longer. Can we come in?”

Elise resisted the feeling of despair that tried to sweep over her when Holden said Violet was his partner. She took a deep breath and stood as tall as she could, reminding herself that the most important thing right now was taking care of Nick, not worrying about losing a man she’d never had a claim to in the first place. Still, jealousy is a hard beast to keep down, and Elise felt it roaring up within her when Violet placed a hand on Holden’s arm and leaned over to whisper something in his ear. Holden nodded, and Elise was sure she saw tenderness in his eyes when he looked up at Violet.

Swallowing hard, Elise forced herself to stand as tall as she could, and pointed toward the door to Holden’s left.

“This is Nick’s room,” she said. “You can put him down on his bed in there.”

Holden nodded, and moved toward the room. Violet followed, opening the bedroom door for him so he could walk in easily. Elise wanted to scream at her to go away, and that her help wasn’t needed. But Elise had no real reason to dislike Violet, so she bit her tongue. The woman seemed nice enough, and did seem to be genuinely concerned for Nick, which was what mattered right now. Elise had been relieved to feel a pulse when she’d checked Nick’s wrist a minute before, but the limpness of his body and the way he slept so deeply worried her. She didn’t see any bruises or scratches on his body, which hopefully meant he had not been in a fight. But she did notice that the clothes he was wearing were not his clothes. The t-shirt and gym shorts he had on looked about five sizes too big. It was a wonder they didn’t fall off.

“What happened?” Elise asked in a shaky voice, sitting beside Nick on the bed after Holden had gently laid him down.

“It’s a long story, which I’ll tell you in a minute, but we should go to the living room to talk,” Holden said. “Don’t worry, he’s fine. But he’s been through quite an intense ordeal, and he needs to rest for a bit. Violet will stay with him while we go talk, if you want.”

Holden was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to agree to leave her son’s side. Elise didn’t want to leave Nick, but Holden was right. Nick did seem fine, albeit exhausted. And Elise was burning with curiosity. She wanted to know what the devil had happened to her son, and she could tell that Holden was not going to talk about it until they’d left Nick’s side. She wasn’t sure how she felt about leaving Violet behind to watch him, but the woman did seem capable, and kind. Elise had no right to hate her just because she’d gotten to Holden first. Who knows, maybe Holden wasn’t really Elise’s type anyway. After all, she’d barely met him. His gorgeous looks might set her heart to racing, but that didn’t mean he was actually a good match for her. With a sigh and one last look at Nick, Elise rose.

“Alright, just let me call in to work and then we can talk.”

Holden nodded, and followed her out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Elise called the diner, thankful that one of the hostesses answered instead of her boss. She told the girl that she was sick and wouldn’t be coming in. There was no way she was blaming her absence on Nick. She knew her boss would not think that taking care of your child in an emergency was a valid reason to miss work. The hostess was sympathetic and told Elise to feel better, but Elise knew her boss was going to blow a fuse when he heard she was missing. So be it. Elise had no choice but to stay home right now. Nick needed her.

She hung up the call and turned to walk to the couch in the living room. She was surprised to see that Holden had started brewing a pot of coffee. The gurgling of the pot and the familiar aroma that filled the air felt strangely comforting, and Elise plopped down onto the couch with a tired sigh.

“Where are your mugs?” Holden asked. Elise pointed to the appropriate cupboard, and Holden grabbed two mugs to fill with the strong, black liquid.

“Cream or sugar?” Holden asked.

“Just black for me,” Elise said. “And if I remember correctly from the diner last night, you take yours black, too.”

“Good memory,” Holden said, then flashed her a dazzling grin. Elise felt her heart skip a beat, and she thought sadly that Violet was a very lucky woman. But she pushed away the jealousy that was trying to rise again as Holden came over to offer her a cup of coffee. She didn’t have room in her life for a man, anyway. What man would want to get involved with a waitress who was barely making ends meet and had a son whose behavior was completely out of control?

“So what happened? What did Nicky do this time?” Elise asked once Holden had finally settled down into the couch as well. Holden took a long, slow sip before answering, and Elise felt dread filling her. She did not feel encouraged by the fact that it was taking Holden so long to come up with the right way to answer her.

“Nick has been through quite an ordeal today,” Holden said slowly. “I’m going to explain it all to you, but be prepared to be a little bit shocked, okay? Don’t worry, he’s fine. In fact, he’s going to feel much better once the dust settles a bit. But what I’m about to tell you will probably sound crazy at first. Just trust me, okay?”

Elise wanted to say that he was asking a lot of her. He wanted her trust, but she barely knew him. He’d taken off last night without a goodbye, and then today he’d shown up unannounced with her son hanging like a deadweight in his arms, warning her to be prepared for a shock. The circumstances didn’t exactly inspire trust, but Elise found herself nodding her head anyway.

“Okay. I trust you,” she said. What choice did she really have? She just hoped that whatever had happened with Nick today wasn’t going to cause any long term damage.

Holden took another sip of his coffee, and then asked a question that made Elise think for a moment that he’d lost his mind.

“Have you ever heard of shapeshifters?”

Elise blinked a few times, not sure that she’d heard him correctly. “Of what?” she asked.

“Shapeshifters,” Holden said, keeping eye contact with her. “You know, people that can shift into animals at will?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess I have. I’ve read some stories that had shifters in them.” Elise had no idea what any of this had to do with Nick, and she rubbed her forehead roughly, wondering if this was all some sort of weird dream. Nothing made sense to her at the moment.

“Okay,” Holden said. “Well shapeshifters aren’t just found in stories, Elise. They really exist. In fact, I am a shapeshifter. A dragon shifter. I can change from human to dragon and back again at will.”

Holden paused, looking at her closely and waiting for her to react. Elise wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. The man she’d thought she was falling in love with just a few moments ago had just proven he was crazy. And that meant that she was unlikely to get any real help for Nick from this guy. Elise bit her lip in that way she did when she had no idea how to respond to a difficult situation. She finally opted to make a joke of it.

“Oh, come on, Holden. Be serious.”

“I am serious.”

He held up his hand, then, and flexed his strong arm muscles before taking a deep breath and squeezing his eyes shut. Moments later, to her utter astonishment, Elise watched his human arm morph into a much larger, iridescent green limb that looked suspiciously like a dragon arm. Her mouth hung open, and stayed that way even as Holden opened his eyes and allowed his arm to return to human form.

“This isn’t real,” Elise said. “There’s no way. I’m dreaming all of this.”

“It is real,” Holden said calmly. “And the reason I’m telling you about it is that your son is a dragon shifter as well.”

Elise’s stomach tightened uneasily. “What did you do to him?” she asked in a strained voice.

“I didn’t do anything to him,” Holden said, still calm. “Shifting is genetic, which is why I asked so many questions about Nick’s father. It’s not something that’s passed along through, say, a bite, like a werewolf.”

Elise’s heart was pounding. The room felt like it was starting to swim in front of her, and she could hardly hear what Holden was saying.

“What did you do to him?” she said again, desperate. She stood up and started running toward Nick’s bedroom. Suddenly, she felt that leaving him in there with Violet, whom she barely knew, had been a horrible idea. She reached for the bedroom door, but before she could grab it, strong arms grabbed her and held her back.

“Elise, listen to me. Try to stay calm, okay. I know this is a lot to take in, but please, trust me. You said you would.”

Holden turned her so she was facing him, and she looked up at him with wild eyes. She hadn’t known when she said she’d trust him that he thought he was some sort of shapeshifter. Or maybe more than just thought—she’d seen his arm transform. Was this some sort of cruel trick he was playing, or was he actually able to transform into a dragon? How was this real? How was this actually happening?

“Nick is fine. He’s safe, and he’s sleeping. He needs the rest. I can explain everything to you, and I can help him. I already have helped him some, in fact. But you have to calm down and let me talk.”

Elise took a few deep breaths. Holden smelled woodsy, like a deep forest. Ordinarily, she would have swooned to have a man like him with his arms around her. But right now, all she could think was that he might be crazy and her son might be in there with a crazy woman.

“Is Violet a shifter?” Elise asked.

Holden shook his head no. “She’s a wizard. A good one. She’s making sure Nick sleeps well and is protected right now.”

Elise blinked. “A wizard? You two really are out of your minds.”

She started to struggle against Holden’s grip again, but he held her firmly. “Elise, listen to me. You’ve seen Nick’s eyes churning and glowing, right? You told me you had.”

Elise stopped struggling and narrowed her eyes at Holden. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“He has dragon eyes. That’s why they glow and churn. It’s his inner dragon trying to get out. His eyes have been doing that for a long time, I know. You noticed it way before I ever arrived in town, so you know I didn’t turn him into a shifter. He’s been a shifter his whole life. It’s just that he’s getting old enough now that his animal side was tired of being held back constantly.”

Elise felt weak, like her knees were going to give out. Something in the tone of Holden’s voice told her that he was serious, and that she needed to trust him. And he was right. She had noticed the strange glowing and churning in Nick’s eyes for quite some time now. She’d had no idea what it meant, but if Holden had an explanation, maybe she should hear him out. What could it hurt to let him talk? If he was crazy she could politely send him on his way. But if he wasn’t, and everything he was saying was true, if that strange trick with his arm wasn’t actually a trick…then Elise needed his help. Desperately. She forced herself to remain calm, and turned toward the couch again. Holden let her go, and then came to sit beside her.

“Tell me everything you know,” she said. Holden looked at her with great kindness in his eyes, took a deep breath, and then started speaking.

“As I said, shifting is a trait you’re born with. Shifting is embedded within a person’s DNA, and is passed down genetically from parent to child. That’s why I asked so many questions about Nick’s father. I wanted to know if he sounded like someone who might have been a shifter.”

“And did he?” Elise asked.

Holden nodded. “He fits the profile, for sure. The wild, reckless behavior is typical of shifters, especially ones who don’t have a family. Shifters are stronger than average humans, and heal quicker, so they can take more risks. And many shifters lost their families in a war that took place when I was a boy. I won’t bore you with the details, but my guess is that Joey, Nick’s dad, lost his family then, too. Perhaps when he found you, he was only looking for a good time. But he must have fallen in love with you. Maybe he thought joining the army would show you he could settle down and be someone you’d want to be with long-term.”

Elise choked back a sob. “And I pushed him away, saying I didn’t want a long-distance relationship. And I kept his child from him! Oh, god. I feel sick. But why didn’t he tell me he was a shifter?”

Holden shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Shifters are often persecuted for being different, so we usually try to hide our abilities. I suspect that Joey was trying to figure out the right time to tell you and never quite found it. Then, as you know, he was killed unexpectedly while in Iraq. He just never got the chance.”

Elise sat back against the couch. The swimming sensation in her head had intensified. “But, Nick hasn’t…I mean…how has he been a shifter all these years and I’ve never seen him turn…turn into a dragon?”

“Well, it’s kind of complicated, but the simple explanation is that Nick himself didn’t know he was a shifter, and he had no one to tell him, or to teach him how to shift. Usually, with shifter kids, their parents will tell them about their abilities from the very beginning. They’ll teach them how to shift when they’re just toddlers, and by the time the kid is Nick’s age, they’ll have learned quite well how to control their shifting abilities. But since Nick thought he was just a normal human, he’s been continuing on through his childhood as though he was a normal boy. Except he’s not a normal boy.”

“No,” Elise said softly, interrupting Holden. “He’s not a normal boy. He never has been.”

Holden smiled. “I hope you can take heart in the fact that your son is indeed very special. The stubbornness and bad behavior you’ve seen from Nick over the last several months has come as a result of his dragon being cooped up inside for too long. Very young children don’t seem to suffer much in the way of ill effects when they don’t shift. But as shifter children get older, and their inner animals get stronger, well, let’s just say a cooped up dragon is very unhappy. Because Nick never let his inner dragon out on his own, that inner dragon started to grow more and more insistent, trying to push its way out. This internal unrest has been tormenting Nick, causing him to act out in unpleasant ways.”

Elise put her head in her hands. “If only I’d told his father about him. I was trying to protect him. I didn’t want him to grow up to be wild like his dad. I’m such an idiot.”

Holden reached over and gently pushed Elise’s hands away from her face. He hooked his thumb under her chin and raised her face to look at him. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. You didn’t know. How could you? Besides, it’s all in the past now, and you can’t change it.”

Elise still felt like she was reeling. As crazy as everything Holden was saying sounded, she knew it was true. And her only worry now was Nick. “Can you help him?” she asked, her voice pleading. “You said you could?”

Holden smiled at her, and the tenderness in his eyes made her breath catch in her throat. “I can help him. I found him out in the Blackstone caves earlier today. I was out there with Violet when we heard screaming. We ran over and found Nick in quite a state. His dragon was trying to shift, and he was trying to hold it back. Of course, he didn’t know that that’s what he was doing. He just knew he felt awful and that the awful feeling was growing harder and harder to control. I walked him through how to shift, and he turned into a dragon. Then I helped him back to human form. I’ll keep helping him, assuming he’s willing. I can show him how to control the shifting, and the first shift is always the hardest, anyway. The worst is behind him.”

Elise tried to process everything Holden was telling her. Her Nicky was a dragon, and had to learn to control his dragon side. The idea seemed preposterous, and yet, everything Holden was saying made sense. Nick had grown progressively more stubborn and unhappy in the last year. He’d often apologized to his mother for his actions, yet he seemed unable to stop them. Was it really possible that all of his ghastly behavior had been caused by an inner dragon?

“Will this help with all the, uh, acting out that Nicky does?” Elise asked, almost not daring to hope for it. But Holden’s gentle smile reassured her once more.

“I think you’ll find that your boy is quite a different person when he wakes up. He’ll be more at peace than he’s been in a long time, and I’m willing to bet that many of the bad behaviors you’ve been dealing with will cease to be a problem.”

Elise let out a relieved breath. “Does it hurt when he shifts?” she asked. She was afraid to hear the answer, but she needed to know.

“Usually, no,” Holden said. “But if a shifter has gone too long between shifts, it can be a bit painful. I won’t lie to you, Elise. When he shifted today, it no doubt hurt like hell. But next time it won’t feel like much more than a little bit of pressure. As long as he shifts about once a month, at minimum, he’ll be fine.”

Elise nodded. “Does he know now that he’s a shifter, then?”

Holden tilted his head sideways. “Well, he knows he turned into a dragon. I imagine he’ll need a bit of an explanation when he wakes up.”

“Can you…explain things to him?” Elise asked. “I think you’ll do a much better job of that than I would.”

“I’d be honored,” Holden said, and Elise breathed out a sigh of relief. This day had been strange, but if everything Holden was telling her was true, and her son’s problems had all stemmed from the fact that he was a shifter and didn’t know it, then that meant better days were ahead. Nick could learn to control his shifting, and be free from the inner torment he’d been feeling. It seemed almost too good to be true, and yet Elise knew in her heart that it was.

“And he’s a…a dragon?” she asked. “I thought dragons weren’t even real. Then again, I thought shifters weren’t real until today. Are there other types of shifters? Other animals, I mean?”

“Nick’s a dragon,” Holden said, nodding. “Dragons are very real, and they used to roam the earth freely, but they’re now extinct, except in shifter form. To answer your other question, though, there are many kinds of shifters. Bears, lions, tigers, and wolves are some of the more common. But really, just about any animal you can think of might exist in shifter form somewhere. Shifters are more common than you think.”

“And wizards?” Elise asked, glancing toward the bedroom door, behind which Violet sat with Nick.

Holden chuckled. “You have had a day of it, haven’t you? Discovering the existence of shifters, wizards, and dragons, all in one go. I don’t know how common, exactly, wizards are. Their clans tend to keep to themselves and stay even more hidden than shifter clans do. But they do exist, and Violet is one of them. I hope you don’t mind, but she put a sleeping spell on Nick. He needed to rest, after everything he’d been through.”

Elise considered this. “Is it dangerous?” she asked.

“The sleeping spell? No, it’s harmless. Helpful even, since it allows him to rest.”

Elise rubbed her face with her hands, trying to rub away the feelings of confusion that filled her. She had a lot of questions, still, but right now, she mostly wanted to see Nick. She knew there would still be a bit of a bumpy road ahead of her son, but she was glad they had answers to what had been tormenting him. And she was even a little bit proud, now that the initial shock was over. Sure, some people might consider shifters to be freaks of nature. But she thought it was pretty damn cool that her son could transform into a dragon.

She looked up at Holden, who was studying her carefully, concern etched into his handsome face. He could change into a dragon, and he certainly was no freak. He was one of the kindest, most caring men she’d met in a long time. Too bad Violet had found him first. Elise forced herself to push away any lingering romantic thoughts about Holden. He belonged to another woman, and, from the little Elise had seen of that woman, she seemed like a kind person. Besides, Elise worried that any kind of romance would cause emotional trauma for Nick. It was better that she stay single for the sake of her son.

“Can Violet wake Nick up?” Elise asked. “I’d like to talk to him, if you think it won’t be too taxing?”

Holden nodded. “She can wake him up. He’s been sleeping for a bit, so hopefully he feels alright now. I should warn you, though, he’s probably going to be ravenously hungry when he wakes up. Shifting takes a lot of energy, and the first time even more than normal.”

Elise laughed. “Well, that’s bad news for my refrigerator. Nick already has one of the biggest appetites I’ve ever seen. Does your girlfriend have a spell that can make food magically appear?”

Holden looked confused. “My girlfriend?”

“You know, Violet?”

“Oh,” Holden said, laughing. “I don’t think she can make food appear out of thin air. And she’s not my girlfriend.”

“But you introduced her as your partner,” Elise said. Now she was the one who looked confused.

“Right. She’s my work partner. But we’re just friends. Trust me, there’s nothing romantic going on between us. My buddy Weston has a thing for her, and he’d kill me if I looked at her that way. Now come on, let’s go see if we can wake up your boy and explain to him what’s going on.”

Elise followed Holden to the bedroom without another word, but she bit her lip to try to hold back the smile she felt pulling at her lips. She’d completely misunderstood the relationship between Holden and Violet, and she couldn’t deny that this fact made her quite happy.

Despite her best efforts to hold it back, the smile broke free, anyway.