Her dad rushed forward with Ben, Ron grabbing Dante and pulling him back while Ben helped his brother up, looking angry.

Dante stood and pulled away from Ron gently, so as to not to hurt the human, and dusted his hands off, glaring at Cliff.

“What is this about?” Grace said, looking impatient as she walked into the room, curls bouncing, shopping bags in hand. “We leave here for a few hours and come home to mayhem.”

That’s what happens when a dragon’s mate gets insulted. But he kept the thought to himself.

“He started it!” Cliff yelled, pointing.

“Ha,” Dante said. “He earned it.”

Ella strode forward angrily, pushing Dante back away from her family. “Stop it,” she said. “You promised me you wouldn’t!”

“Wouldn’t what?” he asked. “Defend you?”

“I don’t need to be defended! And if he’s just running his mouth, that doesn’t mean physical violence. What he says doesn’t bother me.”

“Stop lying about that!” Dante retorted.

The room froze and everyone looked over at her. She gave him an angry glance, and he felt the frustration in him well up and flow over, flooding him past his breaking point. “Whatever,” he said tersely. “I’m going outside to cool off.”

“Good idea,” Ella retorted, but she didn’t sound sure.

Dante stormed out of the house, feeling the unfairness of the situation weighing on his back.

He was tired of being in human form. He was tired of being away from his friends who understood him. From the world of dragons. Tired of not having wings to just fly away from the situation.

He missed the nighttime raids to defend the village. Missed the chance to let out the beast in him.

That was never more frustrating than when he was getting berated for standing up for his mate. How could she look at him like that? He’d been too subservient to her. Then again, she was his mate. What could he do?

He sat down on a patch of grass a little way from the cabin. He watched the pine trees rustle in the wind and took a deep breath. He would be fine. He needed to calm down, and then he could go in and explain why he wanted that asshole out of the house or he was leaving.

And taking Ella with him.

He was interrupted by the crunching of pine needles as someone crossed the lawn to come over to where he was sitting on the grass.

He turned around to see Ella coming over and felt his face tighten defensively. “What do you want?” he asked, knowing he sounded like a jerk. “Come to yell at me more? Maybe you want to humiliate me in front of your family again.”

She sighed and plopped down next to him. He couldn’t resist sneaking a look at her. He always wanted to look at his mate.

Today she was wearing a purple blouse with a fitted black jacket and another pair of sexy, fitted jeans that outlined her every curve. His eyes moved over her appreciatively until he jerked his gaze back.

“You look nice today,” he said awkwardly, trying to remind himself to stay angry. He’d done nothing wrong.

“Thanks,” she said, reaching out to brush the grass. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

He looked over in interest, surprised she hadn’t come to yell at him more. “Oh?”

She tossed aside the piece of grass she’d plucked and sighed. “Yeah. I just get really nervous about the whole situation. Especially with my family around.”

“Huh? I don’t follow.”

“I just mean everything to do with him is difficult. You’re right. I try to tell myself it’s not, but it is.”

“You were with him before?”

Her eyes widened, looking a beautiful, welcoming warm brown in the sun. Almost slightly burnt orange around the center. “Did he tell you that?”

He nodded.

“Not exactly,” she said. “Look it’s just… it’s painful, and I’m not ready to tell it.”

What had happened? Had she been dumped? Assaulted? If so, why hadn’t she gotten him thrown out of the house by telling her family?

Nothing here made sense.

“I just… I don’t know how you’d react, and… I’m not ready to find out.” She stared at the ground, and her obvious discomfort made him lose his resolve.

He couldn’t stay angry when she was upset. All that really mattered was pleasing his mate, and he’d do all he could. “Okay.”

After all, he had secrets, too. Like being a dragon. So he understood not knowing how someone would react to news and being reluctant to tell them.

How was he going to do that anyway?

“Also, you shouldn’t have to run into him in the house again,” she said. “We all decided it was best if he stayed back at his parents’ home. Given the… circumstances.”

“Your overprotective boyfriend?” he asked proudly.

She laughed. “I suppose. About that, though. Please promise me you’ll be more careful around him. If you see him, just run.”

He frowned, the dragon inside him extremely offended at the implication that he would need to. “Yeah right. I could take him.”

“Just do it for me, then,” she said, sounding genuinely worried. “Please?” She looked up at him, and her usually stern face was open and vulnerable. Her hair in its loose ponytail was swaying in the wind, loose curls lifting around her face, plump cheeks tanned in the sun.

He didn’t like that she didn’t trust him to take on another male, but he decided to let his pride go.

She was opening up to him. Trusting him. Last night she’d let him make love to her. Maybe she’d let him do that again. As long as he was at her side, they would work things out.

“Okay,” he said. “I hear you.”

She sighed in relief and leaned against him, warming his entire body against the cool mountain air. “Thank you, Dante. I appreciate it.” She ran her hand down his arm. “I appreciate you. He’s not half the man you are. You’re amazing. You make me feel great just being around you. Like no one ever has. I liked what we did last night. I don’t know what this is… but I hope we can keep going.”

He took a deep breath of mountain air and looked at his beautiful mate. She was his new reality. Even if things were difficult and complicated, perhaps that was just a part of finally letting himself get close to someone. “I want that, too.”

Then Cliff, the problems with the family, and the fight all faded away to nothing as he sat and bantered with his mate, enjoying the fresh air.

* * *

As Dante came up to get ready for bed, he was a little disappointed that after their short chat outside, they hadn’t really had any more alone time together.

Her dad had come out to explain that Cliff was gone, and they’d all gone out to a movie and then dinner and come home quite late.

Ella was still down in the kitchen, enjoying time with her family, and Dante was a little bit tired from the day, so he decided to go up and make sure everything was set up so when she was ready, she could just fall into bed.

As much as he wanted it, he didn’t imagine anything would happen between them tonight. Emotionally, she probably needed time to recover.

He was fluffing the comforter when he heard something weird outside. He walked to the window and looked out, not even sure what he was looking for.

It was newly dark out there, and the moon was full. He looked at the grass beneath the house, surrounded by trees, and squinted as he saw something moving along the trees, slinking in and out of them.

In the moonlight, he saw it was a giant cat. Not a lion because it had no mane. More like a house cat in huge scale, and he’d bet anything it was a shifter.

He opened the window, checked beneath him, and shimmied down, dropping when he was low enough.

By the time he was on the ground, the cat was gone. But the scent in the air was clear. Cliff.

He was sure of it.

“Dante?” That was Ella’s voice coming from above him. His heart skipped a beat as he realized she was alone up there, and there was a cat around, or some kind of shifter. He quickly climbed up the logs, using his strength to scale up quickly and pull himself in through the window.

“Did you just climb the wall?” she asked.

He laughed and put up an arm to flex. “Hidden talents?”

She laughed, too, walking over to him. Then she looked at the window, brow furrowing. “What’s going on? Why’d you go out there?” She folded her arms. “We have a door, you know.”

He shrugged. “I thought I heard something. I was wrong.” He didn’t like lying to her, but he didn’t know how to explain what he’d just figured out.

It’d be hard enough to tell her he was a dragon; he didn’t need to be explaining that other shifters existed. Or that the man she was afraid of held some very real danger she had no idea about.

He scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry about that. If I worried you.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said, sitting on the bed and patting it for him to join her.

He sat down. She got on her knees behind him, and he whipped his head around, trying to see what she was doing.

“You’re tense,” she said. “Relax.”

“You don’t need to—”

“Last night you took care of me. Let me take care of you.”

Then her hands sank into his shoulder muscles at the base of his neck, kneading firmly, and he let out a satisfied breath. Damn if it didn’t feel good every time she touched him. No matter how she touched him.

“I’m sorry if you felt I abandoned you down there,” she said. “It’s great to catch up with my family, but when I realized you’d left and weren’t coming back, I worried you felt neglected.”

“No,” he said, leaning back into the massage. Had he ever had someone do this for him? He didn’t think so. “I know you came home to see them. I’m just tagging along.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “Thanks to you, the trip has been amazing. It would have been awful without you.”

“Thanks,” he said, feeling a flush work over his cheeks. He wasn’t used to her compliments, and he was a little uncomfortable with them still.

Fake admiration, distant admiration, that was what he was used to.

All his life he’d been alone but surrounded by people. It was so different being with just one person and starting to get close.

Scary, almost.

Especially since she didn’t yet trust him with all her secrets.

She ran her hands over the front of his chest. “You want to do something tonight?”

He turned around on the bed, pushing her backward as he crawled over her. He stroked her hair out of her face and ran his eyes over her curvy body.

She bit her lip, and he groaned at how tempted he was to take her.

But he’d just seen a shifter, and that changed everything. So as much as he wanted to make love to his mate and keep exploring what was going on, he knew there was something else he had to do first.

“I have to make a call,” he said, pulling back from her with a sigh. “You go ahead to bed without me.” He walked over to the window and closed it, then pulled down the lock. “I may not be up until late.”

She pouted, sitting back on the bed. “Seriously?”

He wanted to stay with her. Every cell of him loved to be by her side. And there was nothing he would love more than sexy times. But right now, he had to sort something out that was more important than anything.

Her safety.

“I’ll be back soon. I’ll hold you while you sleep.”

She exhaled and nodded, curls bouncing. “Okay, but don’t be long.”

“I won’t.”

He reluctantly shut the door and headed down the hallway, his hand on his phone in his pocket.

* * *

Dante walked outside, away from where he’d seen the cat. He scented the air, making sure he couldn’t sense Cliff around listening to him, and then pulled out his phone.

He never really used it, but with his ring inhibiting his dragon powers (so he couldn’t mentally communicate long distance with his team), he had no other choice. He could still read thoughts occasionally, if someone was in the room with him, but he used to be able to hear his team across cities.

He dialed the number and put the phone to his ear as he rested against a tree that was a good way from the cabin, down by the road that led toward town.

Citrine picked up after only a few rings, sounding harried. “Dante. Is something wrong?”

Dante straightened. “Sort of.”

Citrine let out a sigh. “Something is always wrong with you three. Don’t know how Aegis handled it. What is it this time?”

“Something going bad there?” Dante asked, amused.

“Hello,” Adrien cut in.

“Hey,” Sever said.

“You’re on speaker,” Citrine said warily. “We were having a staff meeting, so it’s a good time to call.”

“Yeah, um, about that.” Dante rubbed his neck nervously. “Look, are there shifters we can’t tell are shifters? I couldn’t scent this one.”

“A shifter?” Citrine asked. “What kind?”

“Cat, I think. Not a lion.”

“Let’s see. You’re in Utah. Mountain lion, I think.”

“Whatever it is, I know who it is, and I didn’t for a second catch on that it was a shifter. Is that because of the ring?”

“No,” Citrine replied. “That’s not part of what it does. I do know that cat shifters are mostly a fairly modern development. Or at least the discovery of them. One of their abilities is that they can’t be detected by regular shifters. I’m not sure if modern dragons can do it, but I know I can’t.”

“How?”

“I met some in the New York dragons’ employ.”

“Oh,” Dante said. “I see. So can he tell I’m a shifter?”

“No,” Citrine said. “He might sense something off about you, but your ring should suppress anything else.”

“Ugh,” he said. “And Citrine, how am I supposed to fight him if I can’t take dragon form?”

“Don’t fight him,” Citrine said.

“He has history with my mate,” Dante said.

“He shouldn’t attack you. Since he assumes you’re human, he probably won’t want to do anything to reveal himself in front of you.”

“Citrine—”

“And you could handle him.”

“Not if I’m a human I can’t,” Dante retorted.

“Then hurry up and mate the human and get your ring off.”

“No,” Dante said. “I don’t even know how to tell her what I am, let alone mate her.”

He could almost hear Citrine shrug over the phone. “Do what you have to do. All the other dragons did.”

Dante put a hand through his hair. But did all the other dragons have mates who were already afraid? Who were already hesitant and dealing with so much? Not all of them were humans who didn’t know about shifters either. He sighed.

“Anything else I can do for you?” Citrine asked.

Give me my powers back, Dante thought. He wanted the ability to protect his mate. Before, he’d hated the ring because he didn’t want to have to please anyone. Wanted to do whatever he wanted, as he always pretty much had.

But now he just wanted to have all his strength at his disposal in case he needed to protect his mate.

“How else could I get the ring off?” he asked.

“I mean, you could go see Aegis,” Dante said. “But he’s a little caught up with his pregnant mate, and I wouldn’t want to see the emerald dragon when he’s bothered.”

“Hm.” Citrine had a point.

If Cliff was only a cat shifter, maybe he could take him with his bare hands. One thing was for sure; he knew Ella wasn’t ready for him. She needed him to move slow, and that’s what he was going to do, no matter what.

He’d have to find another way to deal with this and keep her out of harm, because he had the feeling her trust had already been violated by men in the past.

So even if mating her would solve some of their problems, he could never force her to move faster than she wanted.

“Fine,” he said. “Thanks for nothing.”

“You’re a dragon,” Citrine said sardonically. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“Bye,” Adrien said.

“Wait,” Sever said. “How is your mate?”

“Better than I’d ever hoped for,” Dante said honestly.

“Wow. You sound completely different,” Adrien remarked.

Dante thought about it. “I feel different.” And it was true. Before, he’d been all about his appearance, his wealth, his reputation. His power. His ability to make gold appear from thin air and make people do his will with it.

Everyone fawning around him.

But that all paled in comparison to the pleasure of holding his mate. Of even looking at her and knowing she was his.

“Be safe out there,” Sever said in a low voice.

“I will,” Dante said. Hearing his team’s voice made him realize how much he missed them. Yet his world revolved around Ella now. His heart would be wherever she went. “I’ll talk to you later.”

By the time he went upstairs and entered the room, she was asleep, book loose in one hand. She made slight snoring noises, and he smiled as he walked over to pull the covers over her, put her book away, and press a light kiss to her forehead. He couldn’t resist.

Then he changed and got in bed next to her, wondering what he was going to do when they got up the next morning.

Hopefully they could just get through the next couple of days and then get out of town before Cliff tried anything.

Dante wouldn’t allow anything to happen to his mate.