Nentres

Leave? I stared at my spirit in utter disbelief. “What the hell do you mean, leave?”

“I have cousins in Pittsburgh.”

“That’s far and not in my territory. I can’t stay there. It’s not how it works.”

“I’m not asking you to leave with me.”

I leaned in. “You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m gonna let you go to Pennsylvania right before winter.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t get to”—she made air quotes—“let me. I’m not your captive, so you can’t ‘let’ me. I’m going there because I’m free to go there.”

“You are my spirit, Amy, and you are needed at this ball.”

“Says who?”

“Says Mother Nature.”

Her eyes widened, and, at first, she suppressed her laughter, but then she threw her head back and let it out.

I waited for the laughing spell to finish so we could talk this out as mature adults. “Are you done yet?”

“Mother Earth?”

“Nature.” I spread my arms out. “I am a dragon.”

Amy shook her head. “I can’t believe in this. Who is this Mother Nature, and where can I find her?”

“I don’t know.” True. I had no idea where she came from, how she existed but I didn’t need to be convinced of her existence, because I’d seen her. Not only had I seen her, I had shifted into a dragon and flown.

“Why am I needed at the ball?”

“Because the spirit must attend the ball.” I sounded ridiculous even to myself.

“Mother Nature said this to you?”

“Not to me. To my dragon brother Lance. Who is happily mated with his spirit and, Lord willing, filling her belly with babies as we speak.”

Amy swallowed, paled a bit.

Okay, I might’ve gone too far. “Forget the baby thing.”

“I’m leaving today.”

I ground my teeth and stood. “You are mine, and I know exactly where you’re going.”

“Where?”

“Nowhere.”

Amy stood and stayed on the step so she was just at my height. We faced off, her hands on her hips, mine fisted at my sides.

“You took all my inheritance, and you can keep it,” she said. “I said I’d work for a roof over my head, but you’ve tried to trip up my efforts to bring you a suitable bride for the past two days. You called a ball stupid, and I get the impression you don’t even want to hold it. So this Mother Nature is clearly in the wrong. Nobody wants the ball. Nobody wants the spirit to attend the ball. It’s all a made-up fantasy from which I should wake and get on with my life.”

Fuck. That was her inheritance in the suitcase? Better I took it than her stepmom. At least Amy’d have it here. “You get on upstairs. I’ll bring us breakfast and have you three times. As many times as I want.”

“I’m going upstairs, where I’ll pack and head out.” She spun around.

“Amy, don’t you walk away from me.”

“Watch me.”

I watched her perfect ass sway as those long legs climbed the steps three at a time. When Amy slammed the door, the windows shook.

Amy seemed not to care about many things that she should care about. She shrugged often, seeming indifferent, but all her bottled-up emotions came out today. When Amy brought out her fire, she brought it all out, ’cause I sure as hell hadn’t started the fire in the fireplace and nearly blown off the roof. Amy was my spirit. She couldn’t control the fire, but she sure could light up the flames. Amy would stay. “Jason?”

“Yup,” the silent wolf said from behind me.

I joined him at the front door. “We’re going on lockdown.” Both eyebrows shot up, and Jason opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted. “Now.”

He still stood there, so I turned the lock behind him. “Guard this door.”

“From?”

I pinched my lips.

Mary came out of the kitchen and wiped her hand on an apron I remembered tugging as a boy. “What’s cooking out here?” she asked.

Before I could answer, Jason’s three wolves came and stood behind her.

Upstairs, the door slammed closed and cowgirl bootheels clicked on the marble floors.

Click, click, click.

Thump. Amy dragged her suitcase over the stairs. It thumped, then quieted as she reached the final step. She crossed the foyer and tried to get to the door I’d blocked with my body.

She looked up, green eyes bright. “Don’t make this difficult.”

“It doesn’t look difficult for you.”

“You don’t know a thing about me.”

“But I want to piss on you all the same.”

Amy sidestepped me and turned the knob. She turned it again and again. “You locked the door. Fine. I’m going through the back.” She spun around and faced the crowd gathered there to witness our domestic dispute. While Mary glared daggers at me and moved to the side so Amy could pass, Jason’s wolves spread out and made a living wall.

Amy spun around. “You’re really not gonna let me leave.”

“I can’t. Pittsburgh is far. You have no ride, you can’t walk there, and even if you make it there, I can’t live there because that’s Knight’s territory. I can only visit, come and go every once in a while, which doesn’t work for me, not when it comes to you.”

“So I’m your prisoner, then?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

Mary raised her hand. “I would. Wait till your momma hears about this.”

Lord have mercy! “You left me no choice,” I said to Amy.

“Bull. People can choose. It’s about the only thing we have left. Our choices. And I choose to leave. Open the door.”

I couldn’t keep her here as a prisoner. I couldn’t follow her to Pittsburgh. “What do they got in Pennsylvania that we don’t got down South, hm?”

“I want to start over on my own.”

“And what’s wrong with starting over in New Orleans?”

“Nothing. I have cousins in Pittsburgh, and they’d help me out at the beginning.”

I should really thump my chest and point out I would do anything in my power to make her happy, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t let her get out of my sight. Then an ugly thought occupied my brain. Mother Nature had gifted Amy with a spirit, a mate for a dragon. When Lance had spoken with Mother, I understood any spirit could be a match for any of us. I just happened to be the first dragon to have come across Amy. Knight reigned over East United States. She could possibly trigger his element, and I’d lose my spirit. So, with these thoughts assaulting my brain, I came up with a solution. I didn’t like it but, for her, I’d do it. “I’ll help you out.”

She sighed. “You don’t understand.”

“You’d be surprised. Wait five minutes?”

“And?”

“And wait.”

Five minutes later, I returned with a backpack. I opened the door and waved a hand for her. “After you, my lady.”

Amy eyed me as if I’d grown horns on top of my human head. “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you.”

“You can’t go to Pittsburgh.”

“That’s right.”

“And I don’t have a ride.”

“Glad you figured that out.”

“Ha-ha. So then what?”

I got her suitcase and carried it down the steps. People had gathered already, the word of our shenanigans spreading fast. Every wolf watched as I stripped off my pants and slung them over Amy’s shoulder. “Keep this for me, sugar. Your ride is comin’.”

Amy

A man on a mission, Nentres strode down the steps and across the yard, stopped in the middle, and turned around. He spread out his arms and grinned wide, probably because he knew I was staring at him and because he loved attention, namely on his body, which was not too bulky, yet muscular and fit, every muscle honed to perfection. Between his blond hair and those cute dimples, I struggled not to stare and smile back at him. I tapped my foot and narrowed my eyes.

He exploded into white light, and in his place stood the red dragon. My jaw nearly hit the floor. If I saw the dragon one hundred times every day of the week, I would still stand there and admire this creature every time.

He bent his long neck, and his massive head, nearly the size of an adjacent house, hit the ground at my feet, which basically meant I could stretch out my hand and touch his wet nose. I did that. I rubbed his nose, and my hand came away wet.

Then I rounded his head and stared, trying to figure out another place to pet. He wiggled his ear. I stood on my toes and scratched the bottom of it. The scales on his body lifted, then fell back down, a motion that could only be described as a shiver. A low rumble came from him. I listened. “You can purr?”

Abruptly, the purring ceased. I lifted the frill of his ear and leaned in to whisper into it. “I heard it. Do it again.” I scratched him with both hands and felt the vibrations of his purr under my palms. “This is so cool,” I said. When he lifted his tail and wagged it, I chuckled.

The dragon sat back and positioned his tail right next to me. He thumped the arrowed tip, trying to tell me something. I stared up at him, caught in the red blaze that was his eyes. “Yes?”

“Climb on!” someone shouted.

My ride to Pittsburgh. Boy, I was gone for this guy. I’d miss him.

I remembered the last time I’d ridden the dragon. The wind had seeped into my bones. “I’ll be right there,” I said, then zipped open my suitcase and pulled out an extra jacket, wrapped a scarf around my body, put gloves on my hands and a ski hat on my head that covered my mouth and ears. Bundled up like this, I stumbled as I climbed, but finally reached that place near his head where I found a dent right between his big horns. It looked warm and cozy, made me want to curl up in there. I didn’t know why I came near his head or how I even spotted this place, but it felt right. Cross-legged, I sat inside it.

The moment I did that, the dragon rose.

I gulped, trying not to freak out.

I peeked over the edge of my…nest and saw him grab our bags into his front claws, then he spun around and began running. His wings unfurled with a loud slap of air, and he lifted. I sat up to see behind me as the mansion and all the people waved us off. It hit me then that I was finally gonna make my own life.