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“Dylan!” she shouted as she ran up to the house. I barely had the car in park by the time she reached the door, and I had to sprint after her to catch up.

She threw the front door open and rushed inside. “Dylan! Dylan!”

“Mom!” Dylan appeared at the top of the stairs, eyes wide and hair sticking up every which way like he’d just been asleep.

For a moment, there was a stunned stillness in the house, then Dylan all but catapulted down the stairs. He crashed into Harley, sobbing as he clung to her. “Mom!” he said through his tears. “Mom, you’re okay!”

Harley wrapped her arms around her son. “Yeah, honey, I’m okay. I promise. You did so well getting back here all by yourself. My brave, strong dragon.”

Dylan cried harder. Harley shushed him gently and rubbed his back, up and down. She rested her cheek on the top of his head and closed her eyes.

I wanted nothing more than to pull them both into my arms and shield them from the world, but this was Harley’s moment. As much as my dragon longed to be close to our family, I didn’t want to interrupt, especially not when she was still pissed at me.

“Harley Founty!” Cassidy stormed down the stairs, her ponytail bouncing and her bangs falling across her blazing eyes. Only when she approached could I see the glistening of tears in her eyes. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”

“Hey, Cass,” Harley said, mustering a smile. She released Dylan, but he stuck close to her side as she pulled Cassidy into a hard hug. “Thanks for taking care of my baby.”

Cassidy hugged her back, but not before smacking her on the shoulder. “How dare you thank me for that. That’s mynephew,of course I got here as fast as I could.” She pulled away and frowned at Harley. “My god, woman, you need a shower and a hair mask, stat. Come with me. You too, Dylan, you can stand guard.”

Dylan nodded, clearly relieved to have a task to do to help his mom. Cassidy already understood dragons well—Dylan needed to be close to his mom now, and he needed to feel like he was protecting her. Dylan looked back at me. I smiled and gestured for him to go with them.

Dylan returned the smile, and I watched with a heavy heart as the three of them went upstairs.

Even with things so messy between Harley and me, it still felt sorightto have all three of them here in the house. Harley had to feel it, too. She and Dylan would stay.

Right?

A knock on the door announced Hawk and Rome. Exhaling hard, I pushed the worries from my mind.

Harley and Dylan were safe. Now, we had to figure out what to do about Sean.

34

HARLEY

“This is going to make a huge difference,” Cassidy said. “Just you wait.”

I closed my eyes. The adrenaline was wearing off, and my exhaustion was starting to catch up with me. While I showered, Cassidy had sat on the toilet and chattered away, and Dylan stood guard outside the bathroom. When I was done in the shower, Cassidy told him she and I were going to talk a little, and Dylan had reluctantly gone downstairs to see his dad.

Now, I was seated at the foot of Cassidy’s bed in one of the guest rooms with my back to her. She coated her hands in hair product, then carefully worked it through my strands. It made me feel like we were teenagers again, staying up late, doing makeovers, and giggling over the boys we had crushes on.

Except now, neither of us had acrush. We both had fated mates, apparently, though Cassidy didn’t know about hers.

And mine had betrayed me. He’d slept with Blakely. Again.

He’d made such a big deal about us being fated mates. But would I—a human—ever truly be enough for him?

“What’s the plan?” Cassidy asked as she gently worked the product over the ends of my hair. “When are we heading back to Atlanta?”

“Steph wants me to stay in Lakeview. He says it’s safer.”

Cassidy sucked her teeth. “Does he, now? He thinks it’s better to becloserto his murderous dragon brother?”

“He says that murderous dragon brother will follow us to Atlanta if we leave. And then there’s no one there to protect us.”

Cassidy’s hands stilled briefly. “Would Sean really do that?”

“Yeah.” After being in his compound, I didn’t doubt the lengths Sean would go to. “Steph has more men here. More territory.”