Garath
He exploded out of his chair, the force of his actions sending it flying into the door, shattering it into pieces and toppling the door outward, the frosted glass in the top half shattering.
“He’s HERE?” he roared. “Where? I’m going to find him. Then I’m going to kill him.”
Power surged through his body and he felt his eyes and skin begin to darken as he called upon his dragon powers. All this time he’d been here under Garath’s nose? How? Was Colonel Mara harboring him, keeping him safe from the onyx dragon’s wrath?
His desire for revenge purged all other feelings from within him, including the shame and failure toward Marie that had been present just a moment earlier. The knowledge that his ancient enemy from centuries earlier was not only alive, but also somewhere on the base itself was just too much for him too ignore. He’d harbored this anger for so long it was all-consuming now.
“That’s just it!” Marie exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “I don’t know! I saw him on the news here months ago when the military first started doing maneuvers out in the mountains, right before they started building this base. He was in the background of some report or another, I forget now. Anyway, I came out here to find him, but nothing since.”
Garath went cold.
Marie had no idea, but he knew the truth. The real reason why the military had done “maneuvers” out in the mountains. That was just a fiction for the first fight between humans and Outsiders. They’d battled against the mysterious creatures, driving them back through the portal contained under one of the mountain peaks. It had come at tremendous cost, but finally they’d returned to the portal.
A nuclear weapon had been sent through in an attempt to close it. Unfortunately, while it had eradicated much of the Outsider strength that was attempting to stream through the tiny rip in the fabric of space, there had been an unexpected side effect. The portal itself had absorbed much of the energy, and had expanded in size until it was now a massive thing nearly a hundred feet tall and more wide.
The only positive was that the radiation it had seeded upon the ground on the far side of the portal was deadly to the Outsiders as well. It prevented them from coming across. For now. To Garath’s knowledge only three Outsiders had remained upon Earth, and his fellow dragons had accounted for two of them. Only one remained.
What none of that information did, however, was explain to him why another dragon had been poking around the area right when the Outsiders had first appeared. There didn’t seem to be anything good that could have come out of that.
“Garath? What’s going on?” Marie looked at him, worried.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Tell me. You went from volcanic explosion of anger to cold and silent in a nanosecond. What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I’m angry about how he treated you.” He had to divert the conversation. Get it back onto something else. “I was dreaming about exacting revenge on him, of finding your father’s car.”
Marie shrugged. “I’ve sort of accepted that I’m likely never going to find it again. I just want to find him and give him a piece of my mind. To get a bit of closure.”
“I understand. I could probably help with that.”
“No. Trust me, Garath. You don’t want to go up against this guy. As big and strong as you are, you would lose.”
She knew. By trying to protect him, by keeping him away from Liam, she revealed that she knew Liam’s secret. The only question was how? The silver dragon would never have told her the truth about him. She must have discovered it by accident.
Garath wished he could tell her the truth. That he was also a dragon, and that he wasn’t afraid of Liam. After being swindled by the dragon—something they had in common now—he’d wandered the world searching for him. During that time he’d had little else to do, so he’d honed his skills, practicing for hours daily while he walked or flew. Garath was a master of his dragon powers.
If he ever found Liam again, the silver dragon would be sorry.
Why can’t you tell her the truth? She knows your kind exist already. What difference does it matter?
The answer was right there in front of him though. Liam had hurt Marie. Betrayed her and embarrassed her more than anyone else. It was a wound that would take a long, long time for her to heal. They could fix things now, he felt confident of that. But revealing to her that he’s a dragon would be too much, he felt. Better not to tell her yet.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Truly, Marie, I reacted badly. I should have stayed calm and asked you what was going on.”
She smiled. “Yes. You should have. Though I guess you might not have believed me.”
“True. There would have been doubts in my mind. It is, after all, a jarring thing to discover that your m—”He’d almost said mate. “That your girl has pictures still up of her engaged to another guy.”
Marie buried her head in her hands. “I’m so dumb. I should have taken that down when things started to get serious between us. I can’t believe I kept it up. Of course you were going to find it!”
He reached across the table, pulling her hands away. “You’re not dumb, Marie. He hurt you. Pain is understandable. Maybe you shouldn’t keep beating yourself up over it, though. That you don’t need to do. He sounds like an expert at this. It’s not your fault he fooled you.”
Marie didn’t pull her hand away. They were going to make it through this. He knew it now. Any earlier doubts he’d had about her not being his mate had been fueled by a centuries-old anger that, instead of harboring on his own, he could now let free by pretending he was enraged at how she had been treated. It wasn’t perfect, but it certainly helped.
It shamed him to think he’d acted so crassly toward his mate, and he knew he needed to do better. She was likely to be hesitant about jumping right back to how things had been, so he would have to keep a careful eye on her to ensure he didn’t push too much, too fast. But it could be salvaged.
Garath hadn’t lost his mate.
On top of that, he felt he knew a way to help her out. It would cost him a lot, but for Marie he would do anything.
Now all he needed to do was have a word with Colonel Mara. If anyone could find Liam, it was her.
“Do you want to go?” he asked calmly. “I’ll speak with Colonel Mara. I’m sure we can get you the rest of the day off.”
“Yes. I think we have some talking to do.”
“Me too.” He paused, halfway out of his chair. “I promise, Marie, never to jump to conclusions about you ever again. I will always ask questions before I get mad.”
“Good. And don’t you dare ever leave me without telling me again. Got it?”
She tried to sound stern, but he could hear the hurt she was trying to cover up. Walking around the edge of the desk, he swept her up into his arms. “I promise,” he whispered, holding her tight. “I’ll never leave you again. You have my word.”
And he meant it.