The next few weeks were uneventful, but Kent was ever watchful of Adrian’s every move. She had made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing to do with him, and he had to admit that some part of him was really angry about it. But why should he care? She was just a pain in the ass princess who didn’t know just how good she had it.
He had finished showing her around Oak Mountain, but now that that part of his job was done, he had to sneak around and watch her from afar. He couldn’t let something embarrassing happen to him like the last time. He was going to have to be careful.
That morning, he was waiting outside of Adrian’s cabin, keeping a close watch on the area. There was something off. He had been feeling it all day, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Logan and Blaine had been spending a lot of time together at Blaine’s place, and whatever it was they were talking about couldn’t be good. Whenever he saw them, they both had a similar wary look in their eyes, and concern etched deeply in their brow.
Now, Kent could tell that something was going on. He had trained well enough to be able to sense a shift in energy, and there was definitely one happening right now. It would be difficult for him to go on pretending like something strange wasn’t happening. There was something going on. Something very, very wrong.
It didn’t take much longer before Kent finally got a glimpse of what that something was.
Off on the horizon, he could just barely make out what looked at first glance to be clouds. But when he looked closer, he was startled to discover that those clouds were not clouds at all, but two dragon shifters flying high above Adrian’s house, circling and getting ready to strike.
“Shit,” Kent mumbled under his breath. This was the last thing he needed, but he supposed it was why the job had fallen on his shoulders. He had to protect Adrian at all costs. Two dragon shifters would be hard to beat, but if he thought on his feet, he could do it.
Kent shifted quickly into his bear form, keeping his eyes locked on the enemies as they approached the house. Slowly, they both became more visible and their nostrils flared as each of them sucked in a deep breath of air. They were preparing to release some sort of magic, breath weapon, and Kent couldn’t let that happen. Not while Adrian was still inside the house.
Without a second thought, he rushed across the stretch of land, closing the gap between himself and the dragons. He let out a ferocious roar, and one of the dragons swooped down at him. It was about to release its breath weapon upon him, but Kent gripped its throat in his teeth, aiming it up at the dragon that was still in the sky.
It flinched away, its wing singed by a horrifying burst of flames. It landed somewhere in the forest, and Kent clenched his jaw, shaking it until he heard the bones pop. The dragon fell limply on the ground and Kent raced after the other shifter, who was badly damaged already.
He found the dragon about a half mile away, struggling to move forward and in the midst of shape-shifting back into its human form. Normally, Kent would have allowed the man to live, but he had gone after Adrian. Adrian, who he had wanted to claim from the first moment he had laid eyes on her. Adrian, who was innocent and kind and sweet and who deserved better than to be sneak attacked over something she had no idea about; even he had no idea. All he knew was that it had something to do with her biological father.
A deep growl rumbled in the back of Kent’s throat and he lunged at the shifter, finishing him off before he even had a chance to register what hit him.
Whatever the dragons were planning, it had to be horrible. To put Adrian’s life at risk, there had to be some kind of explanation, and whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
“Who’s out there?”
Adrian’s voice rang out through the trees, and Kent froze. He wanted so badly to go to her, but if she knew that he was there at her house, who knew what she might think. Suddenly, he remembered the corpse of the dragon-shifter lying on the ground and he ran full speed toward it, hoping against hope that somehow she hadn’t seen it.
“I’m serious! Show yourself!”
Kent nearly collapsed with relief when he saw the dragon’s body had reverted back to its human form and was well-concealed by the high grass surrounding the cabin. Adrian clearly hadn’t seen anything and was still walking outside the cabin, demanding that whoever was there show themselves.
As much as he wanted to, Kent knew that if he did it would be the last time she would ever even grant him a conversation. So instead, he lurked in the woods, trapped in his bear form until he was convinced that Adrian was left safely inside.
Knowing the danger now was more real than it had ever been made him feel hypervigilant about being there to save her life. He hadn’t realized just how serious the situation was. Things had been quiet there over the past few weeks. Probably too quiet. Hopefully the dragon-shifters didn’t realize that Kent was there to be her body guard, but judging by the fact that the dragons hadn’t been counting on him lurking in wait, they hadn’t wised up to the fact that the bear-shifters were aware of their game.
All he really knew for sure was that he couldn’t just leave these corpses there, littering Adrian’s yard. He had to get in touch with Logan Mills and Blaine and let them know exactly what was going on.
Kent took off down the mountain to make the call to Mr. Mills. He stayed close enough that he could still see Adrian’s house and sense any potential danger, but he was paranoid that she might be able to hear his voice and determine that somehow, he was an even bigger piece of shit than she thought he was already. The assumption hurt him more deeply than he cared to admit. The truth was, he would have done anything to protect her and keep her safe. In fact, until they had spoken in the diner, he hadn’t even realized just how hurt she had been when he had left the motel room. It explained a lot about her behavior toward him.
Bear-shifters were used to coming and going as they pleased, without having to answer to anybody. He wasn’t going to apologize for going out to get some air. The motel had left him feeling caged and confined enough as it was. There was no way he was going to stay there even one second longer than he had to.
Still, he did wish that there was a way for him to go to the girl and explain to her what had been going on with him. It was personal though, and he didn’t feel like trying to make his case to someone who had already passed judgment on him. It would be a waste of time and frankly, one that he didn’t have the patience for.
“Mr. Mills, hi. It’s Kent. Something happened.”
“Kent? What’s going on, Mr. Black. Is everything all right. How is my daughter?”
Logan’s voice was high strung.
“She’s all right, but she almost wasn’t. The dragon-shifters launched a sneak attack on her house. Two of them came and tried to attack from above. Somehow their magic was working here. I fought them off but I’m afraid that this is just the beginning.”
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Mr. Mills demanded.
Kent rehashed the story, trying to remember every detail possible.
“The corpses are still here. I don’t know what to do with them. I can’t get rid of them. I’m afraid they may strike again and I’m not going to let them catch me off-guard. I won’t let anything happen to Adrian.”
“We’ll have someone come out to take care of the bodies. I need you to take Adrian out though, so she doesn’t see what’s going on. Can you find a way to do that?”
Kent nearly groaned out loud. How was he supposed to do that when he wasn’t even wearing any clothes? He supposed he could quickly head down to the convenience store. Most public places had changing rooms for shifters that offered a basic set of clothing for anyone who was in a pinch.
“I guess so,” Kent said, “but I’m not leaving until they get here. I need to make sure the area is secure.”
“Of course,” Mr. Mills said. “You said there were two?”
“Yeah. And their magic was working somehow. If it had been anybody else out here, I’m afraid she would have been burnt to a crisp. Those guys were powerful.”
“Damn it,” Mr. Mills sighed. “This is bad.”
“Well no shit it’s bad!” Kent exclaimed, nearly at the end of his patience. “I don’t have any idea what I’m supposed to do. What if they bring an army next time? I need to protect her, Mr. Mills. I can’t let anything happen to her. But how am I supposed to do that when I don’t even know what to expect?”
“Stay calm, Kent. They aren’t going to bring an army in. They know they don’t have what it is they need in order to win a war against the bear-shifters, especially not on our own turf.”
Kent sighed heavily. “Then what are they going to do?”
“They’re going to keep coming, but you’re going to have to fight. Just fight until there’s nothing left. I can have Coty watch over her through the night to keep you both rested and sane, but it’s you I need to trust in this matter. She’s easy to keep track of at night. During the day, when she’s busy going about her life, that’s when I worry. And Coty needs to take care of his side of the mountain.”
“Mr. Mills, please. Just tell me what’s going on. If you tell me more, then maybe I can help you to—”
“No, Kent,” He interrupted. “This is confidential. If I were going to tell you I couldn’t do it over the phone anyway. You would need to speak to me in person, in our ancestor’s tongue. Do you know it?”
Kent pursed his lips. After his parents had died he’d had nothing. All he had was time. Time he used to study as much as he could. There was nothing he couldn’t learn, and when he put his mind to learning martial arts, Blaine had taken an interest and led him to one of the ancient caves where he began to teach him how to read the hidden scrolls. There were many warrior stances that helped to align the bears with their hidden power; a power that was strong enough to obliterate both wolf and dragon-shifter races combined. They didn’t need that power, but Kent had begun to utilize it and nurture it during his training anyway.
“I’m familiar with the mother tongue,” Kent said. “Can we meet tonight once Coty takes over?”
“Yes, you know where to find me.”
Kent sighed. Yes, he did. “All right, we’ll talk then… and I need you to be honest with me. Because if you’re not, then it could mean your daughter’s life. You understand me?”
“We’ll talk,” Mr. Mills said noncommittally. The line of the phone went dead and Kent growled softly. He was getting tired of all the secrets. Just because he wasn’t technically part of Blaine’s big operation yet didn’t mean that he wasn’t trustworthy. They had to know he had it in him by now.
As insulting as it was not to be trusted though, it was nowhere nearly as bad as having to find some excuse to spend the afternoon with Adrian. She couldn’t know about the attacks. He was going to have to find some way to get back to her good graces. As impossible as that seemed, if being a martial artist had taught him anything, it was that where there was a will, there was a way, and he was going to find it.