Chapter Thirteen
River didn’t have enough time to process everything Jacob had told her while they waited for the ferry to dock. She was about to meet, quite literally, the father of dragons—the new kind, at least. The kind that could change at will. She was about to meet a man who’d been hatched. She felt a little queasy.
“Will he be able to read my thoughts?” she turned to ask Jacob, standing beside her.
“I’m going to ask him not to,” he said on a low, rumbling murmur.
“And if he refuses?”
“He won’t.”
He sounded sure, but she didn’t want another man in her head finding out things about her without her permission. “Is there some kind of Drakkon law or code he has to follow if you ask?”
He lowered his gaze and his voice. “Something like that.”
She almost didn’t hear him. What was he trying to hide? “Something like what, Jacob?”
“If I—ehm—” He lifted his eyes to hers and, in them, she saw both the Drakkon, hungry for her—and the man, unsure if she was going to hit him. “—claim possession of you.”
She smiled and then laughed a little. “You realize how barbaric and ancient that sounds, right?”
He hooked one corner of his mouth at her.
Right, she conceded. Dragons.
She watched the people departing the ferry. There were about a dozen—tourists here for the day. Most of them were looking behind them at the couple leaving last.
River didn’t know what she’d expected to see when Jacob had told her about the Gold. How does one measure a Drakkon king by human standards? Even with her imagination, she would have fallen short if she tried. Garbed in the splendor of the sun, his hair lit like a gilded gold crown, Garion Gold looked more like a god than a king. His clothes were expensive and cut well to fit his tall, muscular physique. He carried three large backpacks on his broad shoulders and a smaller carrier in his hand.
His wife was no less beautiful and regal with wide, deep blue eyes and a mantle of pearly white hair shot through with bolts of gold piled atop her head in a thick bun. She wore a cable-knit sweater, a shade lighter than her eyes, snug-fitting jeans, and hiking boots.
“She doesn’t look like the kind of woman who can be possessed,” River leaned in to tell Jacob, keeping her eyes on the confident-looking woman on her way toward them.
“They’re life mates,” Jacob told her. “They possess each other with equal measure.”
She looked up at him, forgetting his family. “Life mates?”
Jacob suddenly went stiff. “Sorry. Helena.” He pointed to his head to indicate his sister was speaking to him. River narrowed her eyes and didn’t push it when he didn’t explain. Life mates, huh? It didn’t sound like something a guy who’d never had attachments would take kindly to. She guessed there were some things about being a Drakkon that, for Jacob, weren’t dreams come true. He clearly wasn’t comfortable with commitment. How long would he stay with her before he left?
The closer his sister and her husband grew, the harder it become to focus on anything else but them. How could they ever stay hidden from The Bane when they stood out like the sun and the stars in a fog? They appeared as surprised by her presence as she was of theirs.
You didn’t tell them about me.
Jacob turned to her, surprised to hear her in his head. I didn’t know what to tell them.
“Jake!” his sister reached them and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s good to see you.” She pinched her fingers on the tattered neckline of his sweater and tugged at it. “Though you look like a penniless drifter.”
Without skipping a beat or giving her husband a chance to speak—though by the way he was staring at Jacob, it appeared he might already be engaged in another conversation—she turned her striking smile on River. For an uneasy moment, she stared into River’s eyes as if she might know her.
“Helena Gold.” She made a half-turn. “My husband, Garion.”
Garion turned his topaz-colored eyes on River and her knees went a little weak. This tower of flames before her had power beyond compare. If not for Jacob, no man would compare. She heard a meow and looked at the carrier in his hand. A little, white Persian cat pulled his attention.
“And you are?” Helena asked her.
For a moment, River was too lost in their radiance to remember her name. They were Drakkons. She wondered what they looked like in scales and spikes. Drakkons with a cat. “I’m River…” she said in a low voice. “River Wray.”
Helena Gold flicked her sharp gaze to her brother. “You told her.”
River scowled at her. How did she know that? Had she just read River’s thoughts?
“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t do that,” River said in a soft voice, pulling Helena’s attention back to her. She’d stand her ground, but Helena Gold would be intimidating even if she wasn’t a Drakkon.
She didn’t ask River what she was talking about. She knew. She lifted her elegant brow and was about to say something when she stopped and tilted her head in her husband’s direction.
They were communicating in private, coming to conclusions about her that she couldn’t defend.
She doesn’t like me. River aimed at Jacob.
She likes strength, and you have it. She likes you.
River cast him a slight smile and then continued waiting.
They do this to me all the time. Jacob’s voice came softly to her head.
It’s rude.
He nodded, and his sister noticed.
They know we’re talking.
Good. There was satisfaction in giving them a taste of their own medicine.
She felt Jacob’s eyes on her and turned. They shared a smile. For River though, it was so much more than that. Did sharing thoughts bond one to another person in a deeper, more intimate way?
“Jacob,” his sister interrupted, “is what you told Garion true?”
What? River blinked. What had Jacob told him?
“Yes, I claim possession of her,” Jacob provided, keeping his eyes on his sister and not on River. “I’ve asked him not to probe her.”
“Jake,” his sister expelled a short laugh. “You’re not—”
River cleared her throat. “Excuse me, I’m not his possession.”
“You are to him.” Garion said, quieting the birds in the air. His voice rumbled like the foundation beneath a mountain. He smiled and River wasn’t sure if he smiled at her or because the cat he’d set free had just leaped onto his shoulder. “In his telling of us, did he mention Drakkon treasures?”
She shook her head and glanced at Jacob. “Treasure?”
“It can be anything,” the Gold king told her, touching his nose to the white ball of fluff snuggling in the crook of his neck.
“Like a cat,” his wife said beside him.
“Or a woman.” Garion pulled her close and smiled into her eyes as if she were the most priceless of treasures.
“You know,” Jacob interrupted, “I think I like it better when you keep it to yourselves.”
Garion, the bigger of the two, laughed and shot his hand out to give Jacob a playful shove.
Jacob smacked it away with a laugh of his own then reached up to pet the cat. “Come on. I’ll take you to the B&B. Carina’s freezing.”
River detoured to the shop to let Margery know she wouldn’t be coming in, then hurried back to the B&B. She met Jacob on the way. He was alone, walking toward her. His hair was tied back once again. “Is something wrong?” she asked when they reached each other on the narrow road.
“No.” He lifted a curious brow at her. “Why?”
“I said I’d meet you at the B&B. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to ask you something.”
She wondered if it was the husky timbre of his voice or the warm caress of his gaze that melted her resolve and made her belly flip and her skin feel hot.
“Yes?”
A playful smile curled his mouth. “Did you miss me?”
She felt her cheeks go up in flames and lowered her gaze to keep him from seeing the truth in her eyes. “I saw you less than ten minutes ago.”
He laughed. “All right.”
“What?” She looked up and couldn’t help but laugh with him. “How am I supposed to answer that?”
“Honestly,” he replied a bit more soberly.
She shook her head in mock amazement at him. “Sometimes, it’s like you’re newer at this than I am.”
“I am.”
She expected him to laugh at her preposterous suggestion. How could he possibly be inexperienced at courting? His flirtations were disarming and genuinely innocent, making his natural charm that much more beguiling. Could he have kept his heart from everyone until…until now? Just as she had? She stared at him, searching his eyes, his face for the truth.
Like a breeze across her mind, he let her into his thoughts. She felt his confusion and hesitation to dive into unchartered waters. She understood that a part of him was new and unfamiliar. It was his heart. She’d somehow gained access to it where none had before. She felt his affection for her like a warm cloak covering her, desire that turned the cloak to fire. She fought to keep her heart intact. He was a dragon. It might be romantic in a book, but this was real life. She didn’t know anything about dragons! How could this ever work?
“Fine,” she said, turning for the B&B, yanking herself from his thoughts, her heart pounding hard in her chest. “I missed you. Are you happy now?”
He caught up to her quickly and leaned in to say softly against her ear, “Yes, River, now I am.”
She turned her face, wanting to see in his eyes what she heard in his voice. Her lips brushed along his jaw. Something electric coursed through her blood and tempted her to grab fistfuls of his hair and drag his mouth to hers.
“Jake!” His sister’s voice broke through the pounding drumbeats. She was running toward them.
The wind had stopped. The birds had gone silent. River’s heart slowed as she halted her breath. This had happened before when—
From up over the cliff side, it rose on twenty-plus foot, slow-flapping wings the color of blood. In the stillness, the sound of his wings moving the air was amplified. It was bulkier, more muscular than the graceful beauty of the White. It must have been flying low above the surface of the loch. No one had seen it until it was too late—and directly in their path.
River looked into its gaping mouth for an instant before Jacob closed his arms around her and leaped out of the way, narrowly escaping the red dragon’s snapping jaws. They landed in the dirt but Jacob rose up instantly and pulled off his shirt.
“Jake!” his sister shouted as the dragon flew away and the people who’d come out of their businesses to see the dragon screamed. “Not here!”
But it was too late. River watched his trousers tear away and his flesh harden into scales. She lifted her head as he rose high above her, his long, muscular neck stretching toward the sky.
Drakkon! It was Drakkon! Believing Jacob was Drakkon was one thing. Seeing him was another thing altogether. He hadn’t left her. He’d been with her all this time, watching over her, opening his heart to her. His size and sheer pearly radiance stole her breath away. His limbs were as thick as a dozen tree trunks, with golden-tipped, teardrop scales overlapping to create thick armor. He breathed and sunlight ricocheted off the iridescent hues of his scales. He lowered his large, spiked head and set his fiery blue gaze on her. Jacob.
Jacob.
Silence answered her as he swung his head toward the direction the Red had just taken. He exhaled and smoke blew from his nostrils. He swished his spade-tipped tail and unfurled his wings. One mighty flap sent dirt and pebbles everywhere and lifted him off the ground, and the second gave him flight.
Someone was screaming. Was it her? This was all really happening. A Drakkon had almost eaten her and Jacob!
She stood up and looked for Helena and Garion. They were gone. About twenty people stood around her, looking dazed and horrified. What should she do? She didn’t realize she was shaking until she leaned down to pick up Jacob’s backpack. They would have been gone in an instant if not for him. Terror crept up her spine as she looked around at the faces staring back at her. They’d seen the Drakkons.
They’d seen Jacob.
She spotted Margery stepping in front of the shop and Ivy running toward her from the distillery. Who would the dragon try to eat next?
Jacob?
Go home, River, she heard him. Get your family and go to the barn. Wait for us there. Leave clothes for us outside. My backpack should be near you.
I have it. Jacob—
“River!” Ivy screamed, reaching her. She threw her arms around her sister. “River, I thought that thing had eaten you! It was a dragon! It tried to eat you!” She held River tight and cried into her sweater. “Then…then I saw you. Oh, thank God, I saw you…and Jacob.”
“Come, Ivy, we have to go.”
“River,” her sister stopped her. Then she wiped her eyes. “Da was right. He’s been right all this time. There are dragons!”
“Are you all right, Miss?”
River turned to the frantic voice of a man she didn’t know. A tourist.
“Yes,” she assured, still a little disheveled. “I’m fine, thank you.”
“I never saw anything like it,” he said. His eyes were wide, his lips pale. “I’m here from California with my wife.” He pointed into the small crowd. “We’re sightseeing. Never expected to see that.”
River didn’t know what to say. She needed to go, and take Ivy with her.
“I don’t know what I saw.” She choked out a laugh. “It happened so fast.”
He smiled and something about the heat in his dark gaze stopped her from moving. He was a stocky man, mid-twenties, his head shaved bald beneath a thin, woolen cap. He wore a tweed sweater and baggy jeans. He had one arm. “Too bad I didn’t get a picture.”
She nodded and pushed Ivy on her way. “We should probably get off the road.”
“Keep your eyes open,” the man called out as she and Ivy left. “That monster could be anywhere.”