Page 21

I laughed at the vitriol in Mia’s voice. “Seriously? She’s caused problems before?”

“Something like that,” Hawk muttered.

Mia stepped closer, and Hawk put his hands over Bella’s ears. “That woman has fucked most of the dragons in this clan,” Mia muttered. Even with her voice lowered to keep Dylan from hearing, it was obvious she was pissed. “And she’s delusional. She was always talking about how Ace would choose her one day, even though Ace barely put up with her.”

“You done?” Hawk asked.

“With that part, yes,” Mia said.

Hawk removed his hands from Bella’s ears. The girl blinked up at her mom, then tugged at her ear. Mia chuckled. They were cute together—and Bella really looked like Dylan’s sister.

“It’s a shame it happened this way,” Mia continued, “but now we all have a chance to fix things, right?”

I wasn’t so sure about that. “I’m just glad Stephan is going to help Dylan with his shift.” I glanced into the living room, where Dylan was wrestling with the puppy.

“Well, I’m glad Bella has a big cousin to look out for her,” Mia said. “God knows I’m not having any more kids.” She elbowed Hawk. “You better be happy with a daughter and a nephew.”

Hawk rolled his eyes. “Babe, you know I’m happy with whatever you want.”

“Good answer.” Mia winked at me.

“Thank you,” I said to both of them. “Really. This is… This is a lot. And you’ve both been really kind to me.”

“Of course we have,” Mia said. “You’re family.”

I closed my eyes and turned my face away to hide my tears. This was too much—the combination of Hawk and Mia being so warm to me, and Stephan being so cold. I didn’t know how tofeel. I hardly knew what was real. Hawk squeezed my shoulder reassuringly.

“Mom?” Dylan asked. I looked at him sitting on the floor with Zoey on his lap. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Dyl, I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “It’s getting late, you ready to head home?”

“Can Zoey come too?”

I laughed and shook my head. “No way, kid, but you’ll see her again soon.”

We left Hawk’s house after sunset. He’d set us up with one of the clan vehicles and a promise to get the rental fixed and back to us in a day or so. I pulled the sedan out of the gravel driveway and onto the narrow road that would take us back to Mom’s house.

Overhead, a silhouette crossed over the full moon.

Two immense, wide wings. A long, graceful neck. Svelte, strong body. Long tail. It was a sight I hadn’t seen in ten years. Even in silhouette, Stephan’s dragon was gorgeous.

“Whoa,” Dylan whispered. He rubbed his chest absentmindedly. Even from this distance, it was obvious Stephan’s dragon was a lot larger than Suri’s, the only other dragon Dylan had met.

Mom wasn’t home when we got back, and I was more relieved about that than annoyed. Whatever she was doing, she’d probably come home late and drunk. I wasn’t interested in dealing with her right now. Thank God, we’d gotten takeout earlier, because I hadn’t managed to buy us all the groceries. Dylan polished off the leftovers of my pizza, then I shooed him upstairs so we could both get ready for bed. I timed his tooth-brushing as always and helped him change into his pajamas.

After he crawled into the single bed, I pulled the same old quilt I remembered from my childhood up over him. I lay down next to him, and he cuddled close to me. Dylan always had a littletrouble falling asleep in unfamiliar locations. He was getting so big and tall—but he was still my baby. I knew he wouldn’t want to cuddle with me forever, so I enjoyed the snuggles while I still got them. After a few minutes of silence, he finally asked the question I knew he would. The question he already knew the answer to.

“Mom, was that man my dad?”

I stroked his soft blond hair. “Yeah. That’s him.”

“We look a lot alike. Even more than me and Uncle Hawk.”

I chuckled. That was an understatement. “Yeah. You really do.”

Dylan was quiet for a moment. There was so much to tell him, but I had no idea where to begin. I decided to let him ask his burning questions first.

“Why didn’t he like me?”