Midlife Magic Dragon (Midlife Shifters Book 7) Page 5
She hid in the corner, fear in her eyes as Scorn approached.
“Are you OK?” he asked, the rage still there, still burning. But now that she was safe, it began to fade. Maddie was bringing him back into balance.
“You...what the hell are you?”
She’d seen the wolves shift. She’d seen Scorn’s eyes glow gold. She’d seen him kill the wolves with incredible speed and power.
He’d wanted to keep his true nature a secret. But at that moment, he understood she’d seen too much for that to be possible.
Scorn took a deep breath and spoke.
“I’m not a human. And I’m the best chance you’ve got if you want to stay safe.”
CHAPTER 5
MADDIE
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“F...fine.” She felt groggy and delusional, like she’d woken up from a strange nap. She wasn’t willing to believe what he just said to her. Then she spotted the red on his elbow, blood trickling down his arm, visible through the puncture holes in his flannel. “But you’re not.”
He glanced down at the injury, giving it no more than a moment’s inspection before turning his attention back to her.
“I don’t give a fuck about me right now. You nearly died out there. What the hell were you thinking?”
Maddie put her hands onto the bed and pushed herself up into a sitting position. A moment’s rest had been all she’d needed. Despite what had happened back in the woods, she felt surprisingly energized.
“I...I needed to get back. What happened yesterday, especially what happened last night—it was too much. I needed to—”
“You did about the stupidest fucking thing imaginable,” he said.
His words gave Maddie pause. There was anger to his voice. And his eyes...they seemed to boil.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she said, raising a finger. “I’m not some helpless damsel or something. I’m a grown adult who can make my own decisions.”
In response, Scorn pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned against the desk, his eyes closed. His mouth moved as if he were having a conversation with himself—an argument.
“Just...just leave me the fuck alone,” he hissed quietly.
“What?” she asked.
He rose, standing up straight and shaking his head slowly. “Not you. Don’t worry about it.”
Scorn took another slow breath, and when he opened his eyes and turned his attention back to Maddie, she could see he was more...normal than he had been only a few seconds ago.
“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to talk to you like that. But my point still stands—that was a dangerous thing to do. You could’ve gotten killed out there. Why the hell didn’t you tell me first?”
Maddie knew the answer to that question. Sure, there was the matter of getting back to Seattle for work. Just the thought of not being there to finish up the contract, knowing it was all happening without her, was enough to make her sick to her stomach.
But there was more. When she’d woken up that morning, her head on Scorn’s chest, it was...scary. And she wasn’t a woman used to being scared. She felt a connection to him, one she hadn’t been prepared for, one that she shouldn’t have felt after only a short time.
So, she decided to leave. And she’d decided that leaving without saying a word would be the best way to do it. She’d gathered her things and left, not so much as leaving a note.
“Because I needed to get back. And I wanted to leave with as little bullshit as possible.”
He shook his head. “Not a good move. You have no idea how dangerous it is out there. Well, you do now, I guess.”
Maddie wasn’t in the mood to be lectured.
“Your arm,” she said. “Let me take a look at that.”
“It’s fine,” he said, glancing down as if it were nothing.
“It’s not fine—you’re bleeding. Let me take a look at it; I have some first aid practice from a lifeguard job I had back in the day.”
He smirked. “You, a lifeguard.”
“It was a million years ago. Now, let’s go to the bathroom. And tell me you’ve got a first-aid kit.”
“Somewhere around here.”
“And take off your shirt.”
“Bossy, bossy.”
Maddie put her hand on his broad, powerful shoulder, leading him off the bed and into the bathroom. He flicked on the lights, and she was relieved to see the room wasn’t full of beer cans and whiskey bottles.
“Sit on the edge of the tub.”
He did as if figuring it would be easier to do as she said than put up an argument. Then Scorn slipped his shirt off, revealing that perfect upper body, the one she’d had on top of her last night.
Flashes of the sex they’d had, the incredible lovemaking that was like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life, flooded her mind. Her pussy clenched with arousal, and she forced herself to bite her bottom lip just to be able to focus on the task at hand.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Fine.”
He gave her a quick, knowing look, one that suggested he didn’t quite believe her.
“I said I’m fine.”
Another cocky smirk, one that Maddie almost wanted to smack off his stupidly handsome face.
“First-aid kit’s under the sink. You’re not going to need it, though.”
“What? Why not?”
“Trust me.”
Confused, Maddie opened the cabinet underneath the sink and took out the first-aid kit. Once that was at her side, she pulled a towel from the door hook and wetted it with water from the sink. Then she leaned over Scorn, dabbing the blood from his arm and chest. But she noticed right away that the blood was...different. It didn’t coagulate like human blood. Instead, it was thick and gelatinous.
“What...what the hell’s going on here? You have some kind of condition?”
“You could call it that.”
She pushed the blood away, collecting it in the towel.
But what she saw shocked her to her core.
There was nothing there—no cut, no bite, no nothing.
“Where is it?” she asked, craning her neck around to get a better look at him. “Where’s the bite?”
“It’s gone.”
“How the fuck is it gone? What...”
She stood up straight, the insanity of what she’d witnessed coming back to her.
Maddie remembered the men who’d cornered her, who’d come out of nowhere in the woods. She remembered them...changing into wolves, attacking her and Scorn. She remembered Scorn coming to her rescue, killing the wolves with superhuman speed and power.
And then she remembered what she’d done, how she’d made that wolf stop in mid-air just by saying the word.
He stood up, going into the master bedroom and onto the balcony. Not knowing what else to do and wanting answers, Maddie followed him. She stepped out onto the balcony, the view from that height sweeping and impressive, the lake in front, the endless green of the forest behind.
A half-drunk bottle of whiskey was on the ground, knocked over from the storm. Scorn picked it up and opened it, taking a pull before offering it to Maddie.
“Almost noon. Calm your nerves.”
“A little early for me, thanks.” There was some condescension to her voice that she didn’t hide. “And what’s with the drinking?”
“Some shit’s your business,” he said. “Some isn’t. This is the latter.”
He plopped into one of the chairs on the balcony, Maddie doing the same.
“Then tell me what is my business. Tell me why the fuck I saw strange men in the woods turn into wolves. Tell me it all.”
He took another long pull from the bottle of whiskey.
“Shifters.”
“What-ers?”
“Honey, you’re in the world of shifters now.”
Maddie was confused as if he’d spoken in a foreign language for a few words.
“What the fuck is a shifter?”
“It’s what you saw in the woods. Men and women who aren’t quite human. No clue why they can change, but they can. All kinds of animals—wolves, bears, gorillas.”
Maddie continued to regard him incredulously, having a hard time believing he’d actually said what he said.
“You’re joking, right?”
“Does it sound like I’m joking? And don’t believe me—you’re the one who saw it. Men changing into wolves right before your eyes. Proof is in the pudding, Maddie.”
She wanted to argue, wanted to tell him he was talking out of his ass, making stuff up to get a reaction.
But he said the words with total confidence and calm as if he were explaining how the weather worked.
“You know about werewolves, right?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Where do you think those legends come from? People see men changing into wolves, bring the news back to the human world. And then shit like that gets spread.”
Maddie was still having a hard time believing it. But rather than press him to see if he were lying, she decided to take him at his word—for the time being.
He took another pull of the whiskey, propping his boots up on the balcony railing. There was a chill to the air, but the sun above was warm. And the sight of Scorn drinking his whiskey, no shirt on, had a hell of an effect on Maddie.
But she put it out of her head, trying to focus on the situation in front of them.
“Then, that’s what you are, right? You’re a werewolf?”
He let out a dismissive snort. “Hell no. Wolves are nothing compared to what I am.”
“And what is that?”
He glanced over to her, flashing a grin.
“You really want to know? You ready for this?”
“Tell me.”
“I won’t tell you—I’ll show you.”
One more pull and he set down the bottle of whiskey. Then Scorn rose from his chair and stepped up onto the railing of the balcony.
“What the hell are you doing, Scorn?”
He only glanced back with another smile before leaping off the edge.
“What the fuck?” Maddie sprang to her feet, rushing over to the edge of the balcony just in time to watch a huge, black lizard fly up and into the air.
She let out a shriek and stepped back, falling into the chair as she watched the animal rise higher into the sky. It flew in circles, flapping its massive wings and letting out a powerful roar. It flew over the lake, hovering in place and letting Maddie get a good look at it.
Even from a distance, she could make out its eyes, brilliant and golden—just like Scorn’s.
It was him.
He was a dragon.
He flew straight up, hovering hundreds of feet into the air before aiming his body back to Maddie and launching himself toward her like a bullet. Maddie let out a shriek as he approached, covering her eyes and waiting for the impact.
But it never came. Instead, through her fingers, she watched as Scorn shifted back into his human form, landing on the balcony and plopping back into his chair as if nothing had happened.
“You...you asshole!” she shouted, punching him in the shoulder. “You scared the hell out of me!”
“Sorry,” he said with a sexy grin. “Couldn’t resist.”
After her outburst, she grabbed onto the balcony and tried to regain her composure, to process what she’d just seen.
“You’re...you’re a dragon?”
“Yep. Pretty cool, huh?”
“I thought they were—”
“Myths? Yeah, and that’s how we like it. Harder and harder to keep a low profile these days with camera phones and shit.”
Still in a daze, Maddie dropped into her seat. Then she reached for the bottle of whiskey and yanked it out of Scorn’s hands.
“Atta girl,” he said as she took a quick sip.
But as bizarre as what she’d seen had been, there was still more—what she’d done to the wolf.
“And what about me?” she asked. “I said ‘stop,’ and that wolf stopped. What am I? How the hell do I fit into all of this?”
Scorn gave her a once-over. “That...that I don’t know. Shifters have powers, sure, but what you did...that was more like magic. Never seen anyone do something like that.”
“Wait, you’re telling me that you’re a dragon and have no idea what I was able to do back there?”
He looked away, as if something were on his mind that he didn’t know how to say.
“I’ve got some theories. But right now, we’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
“What? What could possibly be bigger than some random woman from Seattle having supernatural powers?”
“Those wolves out there—they were ferals.”
“Ferals?”
He nodded. “Most shifters are part of a larger group—a clan or pack or society or something. Ferals, on the other hand, are the shifters who, well, don’t know how to play well with others. They’re usually outcasts from their clans, kicked out of shifter society, left to live on their own.”
She said nothing, letting him go on.
“Usually, they keep to themselves. Doesn’t make a damn bit of sense to start shit if you don’t have a clan who’s got your back, right? But those ferals...they were working together. And they were after you.”
“Why me?”
“That’s what I need to find out.”
Something occurred to Maddie.
“Wait, doesn’t that mean you’re a feral?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you live out here on your own. Sure, you’re not filthy and lurking in the woods, but don’t you have a clan?”
He turned his attention forward, his jaw working as if he were frustrated, as if Maddie had reminded him of something he didn’t want to think about.
“It’s a long story. But I’ve got a clan.”
“Where are they? Who are they?”
“They’re called the Blackshrouds. And they’re one of the most powerful dragon clans on the West Coast. Easily the most powerful in the state of Washington.”
“Then why aren’t you with them? Did you piss them off or something?”
“No more questions,” he said, his tone sharp. “You’re on a need-to-know basis. No sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. But right now...me and the Blackshrouds aren’t exactly on the best of terms.”
He cleared his throat and went on.
“But that doesn’t matter now. Because they’re my people, and they’re the ones we’re going to see.”
“We? Why do I have to come?”
“Because you can’t stay here alone.”
“Well, I’ve got a life in Seattle that I wouldn’t mind getting back to.”
He shook his head.
“Those ferals hunted you down. And that means, for some reason, you’ve got the attention of the shifter world.”
He rose, offering his hand.
“Now, come on—we’re going to get some answers.”
CHAPTER 6
SCORN
“This place is a mess.”
Scorn popped his head in from the kitchen, seeing that Maddie was still poking around the living room, checking out the finer points of the place.
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it. Until I’m sure the entire shifter community isn’t looking for you, we’re hiding out here.”
“Then I’m going to do something about all this.” She swept her hand toward the messy living room. “No way I’m living in a dump.”
“Whatever you want,” he said. “But it’s going to have to wait until we get back from Blackshroud territory.”
“‘Territory’—what does that even mean, anyway? You guys live in tents in the middle of the woods or something?”
“Not quite.” Scorn lifted the duffel he’d loaded up for the trip off the ground and set it on the back of the couch. “The Blackshroud clan...I told you we were one of the most powerful clans on the West Coast,
right? You don’t get to that point unless you can back it up.”
He propped his boot up on the couch arm and started to tie it. But he didn’t get far—Maddie pushed him off the edge.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“Don’t put your boot up like that—you’re going to make this place more of a mess than it already is.”
He let out a snort, realizing it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Anyway, you heard of the New Haven Logging Company?”
“Sounds familiar. Oh! They’ve got their headquarters on the same street as my publishing company. Supposed to be this big company, right?”
Scorn nodded. “One of the biggest and most profitable in the Pacific Northwest. And it’s all run by the Blackshroud clan.”
“Wait, it’s run by dragons?”
“Yep. The bulk of the clan is in New Haven—about an hour's drive north of here. They run the actual resource collection part of the business, chopping the trees, processing them, and shipping. Then we’ve got the suits in Seattle who handle the business end. All told, it’s a few-hundred-million-dollar operation.”
“Wow. And you were part of that?”
“I was in charge of that.”
This got an eyebrow raise out of her. “Are you serious? You were the head of a company like that?”
He tied his boots before grabbing his bag off the couch and starting toward the door. His gut tightened at her question. Scorn still intended to keep his background hidden from her, but he knew there were details she’d need to know.
“Come on. I’ll explain in the truck.”
He headed outside, carrying his bag. Maddie followed him. Moments later, they were in his truck, a jet-black F-350. He turned the engine over, the truck growling to life.
“Nice car,” she said. “I’m more into public transportation, but it’s still nice.”
“Thanks for the support,” he said with a smirk.
He pulled the car out of the ranger station’s garage, the two of them soon on their way through the forest. Scorn watched carefully as he drove, wary of other ferals lying in wait. And as he drove, he realized how long it had been since he’d come this way. Since he’d gone into exile, Scorn hadn’t taken any trips further than his weekly run to the nearest town to stock up on booze and food—mostly booze these days.