“A gray dragon?” Draven said, listening carefully. “It must have been my half-brother Jarin.”

Zane was sitting around the kitchen table in the firehouse with Draven, Jax, Gunner, and Axel. He was telling them what had happened the night before in the forest.

“He wants you to return home,” Zane said, watching his alpha closely. “He said they were going to bring humanity back into the shadows of time, and that you should be leading them. What does that mean?”

Draven took a deep breath as he stared down at the table, thinking long and hard before answering. “It means that I have to stop running from my past.”

“He called you Dravenous,” Zane said. “Is that your real name?”

Draven nodded. “I blend in better with Draven.”

“Also, Dravenous sounds like anus,” Axel pointed out.

Draven just shook his head at him.

Jax slammed his fist into his palm as he looked around the table. “If these dragon shifters are threatening our alpha, I say we go over there and snuff them out.”

Zane’s stomach dropped as he thought back to Jarin’s staggering power. He could still feel the crushing force of the dragon shifter’s fist when it smashed into his face. He had never felt anything even close to that before. One devastating punch and he had been completely immobilized. And Draven had three more half-brothers. How were they supposed to stop all four of them if they could do that kind of damage with one punch?

“It’s not that easy,” Draven said with a sigh. “Two of my four half-brothers, Jarin and Valerius, are mated dragons.”

“So?” Jax asked with a shrug. “Are you afraid their mates will hit us with their purses?”

Draven took a deep breath before explaining. “A dragon shifter’s core ignites when they bond with their mate, and their true powers are released.”

“What kind of powers?” Zane asked, trying not to gulp.

“Every dragon shifter has a unique ability hiding inside their core,” Draven explained. “My brother Jarin, who Zane encountered last night, is incredibly fast. He can cross the ocean by the time it takes Gunner to get a manicure.”

Gunner looked impressed. He also looked down at his fingernails to see if he was due for one. The lion shifter was obsessed with his nails. He was always going for manicures and obsessively trimming his fingernails and toes. Zane often wondered if it was a lion shifter thing.

“My other brother Valerius is an ice dragon,” Draven continued. “His core froze when he found his mate, and he can spew out blue fire that turns anything it touches into ice.”

Axel was staring at him in shock. “So, if you find a mate you’ll get a cool superpower too?”

“Theoretically,” Draven answered, rubbing his fiery beard.

“Shit, Draven,” Axel said as he pulled out his cellphone. “We have to get you on Tinder.”

“It’s been centuries and I haven’t found her,” he said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t count on finding her now if I were you.”

Axel snapped a picture of him anyway and started thumbing around on his phone.

“What are you doing?” Draven asked, glaring at him.

“How do you spell Drav-anus?” Axel asked right before his alpha slapped the phone out of his hands.

“I’m a little bit lost,” Gunner said, raising his hand. “Can you start at the beginning?”

They all listened closely as Draven explained how his family was one of the great dragon houses who ruled in Medieval Europe, and how his father King Artorius was one of the old dragon kings.

“I didn’t read that in my grade ten history class,” Axel said, looking at him funny.

Jax laughed. “That’s because you were too busy jerking off to the bra section of the Sears catalog.”

“Who do you think hired the writers of history?” Draven asked with a raised eyebrow. “History is written by the winners.’

“My father was a great king,” he went on. “He’s known in literature as King Arthur.”

“Like King Arthur from the Knights of the Round Table?” Zane asked, staring at him in shock.

“Dragons of the Round Table,” Draven corrected. “But there was never any round table. I don’t know where that came from. My father always needed to sit at the head.”

Draven explained how his father was a womanizer and gave birth to five sons and one daughter with six different women. Draven’s mother was the Queen, which made him the legitimate heir to the throne.

“When my father was killed,” Draven explained, “my four half-brothers and my half-sister turned on me. They tried to kill me, but I managed to escape. I flew my dragon across the ocean to America and never returned.”

“You flew across the ocean?” Gunner asked, staring at him in disbelief. “Did they not accept your frequent flyer miles?”

“There were no frequent flyer miles back then,” he said. “There was hardly even an America. I landed in Ellis Island, changed my name to Daniel Boone and made my way to the west coast.”

“You were Daniel Boone?” Gunner asked, staring at him in shock.

“That was a long time ago,” Draven said with a shrug. He looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Why are they coming back now? I don’t get it.”

“And how did they find you?” Axel asked.

“They probably found my name listed as the owner of my cottage,” he said, running a hand through his red hair. “They may have this address too.”

The five shifters looked around nervously, but there were no dragons swooping in to attack. It was just a regular sunny morning in Colwood, Montana.

After warning everybody to stay vigilant, Draven turned to Zane with a knowing grin. “How was the rest of your date?”

“Pretty amazing,” he said with a wide smile. That was a huge understatement. “I bonded to her.”

The four guys exploded out of their seats, slapping his back and giving him congratulatory hugs.

“I’m so happy for you, bro,” Axel said, squeezing him hard. “Does she have a sister for me?”

Zane laughed as Jax pulled him in for a hug. “I’m glad you’re finally getting a chance to start a family,” he said. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you.”

“Thanks, Jax,” Zane answered, “but you’ve always been enough family for me.”

“A real family,” Jax said with a nod. “Just, please, don’t have any fucking kids.”

* * *

“What the hell is that?” Zane asked, staring at the monstrous muffin in shock. His mate was smiling widely as she struggled to hold the large platter with the enormous muffin on it. It was bigger than her head.

Gwen placed the platter on the table in front of him, and then stepped back, standing proudly with her chin in the air.

“That is for your bear,” she said with a grin. She was watching his face to see his reaction.

“Is that… salmon?” he asked as he turned back to the muffin. There were large pink chunks of salmon sticking out of it, and big bits of… “Is that elk?” he asked as his mouth started watering.

“It sure is,” Gwen said, hurrying back to the counter. She grabbed a big jar and hurried back. “I wanted to make a treat for your bear. Do you think he will like it?”

“I don’t think he’s going to have a chance to try it,” Zane said as his stomach grumbled. He lowered his nose and took a long sniff of the delicious-looking muffin. “I want to eat it.”

“Wait,” Gwen said. She opened the jar and poured sticky golden honey all over it.

Zane’s bear whined and grumbled within his chest, wanting to get out and devour the snack made for him, but Zane wasn’t about to let it go without a fight. It looked too good to give up, even to his bear.

“Can I try it?” he asked, looking up at her with hopeful eyes.

“It’s for your bear,” Gwen complained.

“He won’t mind,” Zane lied.

She didn’t look too convinced. “Fine,” she said with a laugh. “Eat it. I’ll make him another one, but you have to promise to give it to him, and not eat it yourself.”

“I promise nothing,” Zane said, licking his lips as he stuck his finger in the fresh honey. He hadn’t even tried it and it was already making him salivate.

Gwen watched on proudly as he picked it up with two hands and took a large bite. It was like the inside of his mouth was having an orgasm. It was the best thing he’d ever eaten in his entire life.

“And?” she asked as he stuffed another mouthful into his mouth. It was too good to stop and compliment her. It was too good to stop and breathe.

“Fahcking fontostick,” he said with his mouthful. It had all of his favorite things: salmon, elk, muffin, and honey. What was not to like?

Gwen clasped her hands as she jumped up and down. “Great!” she said, smiling so hard that her cheeks turned red. “I’m thinking of selling them in the shop. Do you think the bear shifters in town will buy them?”

“I think you’re going to be a millionaire by the end of the weekend,” he said before stuffing as much of the muffin as he could back into his mouth.

“Really?” she asked, staring at him with an excited gleam in her eye. “This may be exactly what I need to save my shop. Something that gets the whole town excited.”

“This will do it,” Zane said as he licked the honey off the side. He was only halfway through, but it didn’t stop him from craning his head up to look in the kitchen to see if she had any more back there. He could definitely eat another one, and then another one after that.

“I’m trying to come up with a name,” she said, tapping her chin as she looked up at the ceiling.

“Oh, no,” he said with a laugh. He loved Gwen, but she wasn’t the best at coming up with names. Anyone could see that by looking at the name of her lesbian muffin shop: Muff Rules.

“I like how you’re diving into it,” she said with a nod. “How about Muff Divers?”

“How about you let me choose the name?” Zane answered with a shake of his head.

“Why, it’s cute.”

“It’s perverted.”

“Everything is perverted to you,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“That’s why you love me.”

She grinned at him. Gwen couldn’t argue with him on that one.

“Or Muff Muncher?” she asked with her eyebrows up.

Zane just shook his head as he finished off the heavenly treat. “You can call it whatever you want, and you’ll still be a millionaire. One taste of these, and you’ll have every bear shifter in Colwood coming daily for their fix.”

His bear grumbled in jealousy as Zane picked up the plate and licked every last drop of honey off it.

“Now will you give one to your bear?” Gwen asked as she walked back into the kitchen. Zane began drooling uncontrollably as she pulled out another one.

“I sure will,” he said with his fingers crossed under the table. “Bring it over.”