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As I carefully placed the plastic containers on the counter, I felt his eyes on me. His presence was both comforting and irritating. I couldn’t like him. Not what he was, not what he had done to my family.

“The extra blankets and pillows are meant for shifters. They make nests for their… partners.”

Luis’ head popped up. “Wow, do the wolf shifters have litters of puppies?”

Abuela gasped and nearly dropped one of the crystals from her luggage, which she rolled out of her bedroom. She was in the process of setting them up on the coffee table. It was her own way of helping. Something about protection and wards or whatnot.

Anaki laughed. “No, that would be pretty awesome if they had a lot of pups. A lot of mammal shifters like to feel warm and safe. Like in a den.”

“Do you make a nest?” Luis asked. “You’re a dragon, like a reptile. Would it be different?”

Anaki’s face turned a pretty shade of pink as he stuttered and rubbed his hand over his mouth.

“If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.” I blurted. “Luis is curious, but he doesn’t need to ask all these questions. That sounds private.”

Anaki shook his head, his eyes widening. “No, it’s not private. It's just… there are only two dragons in the club. No one has ever really asked. I’m not sure how to describe it.” He rubbed his hand up and down his face.

Why was he so cute when he was nervous? I wanted to walk over and just give him a big hug, and not let him go.

“Well, it can’t be that strange. Not after all we've faced in twenty-four hours,” I chuckled.

“I doubt you are like the legends of actual dragons.

You know, that has an actual cave along with hoards of gold, and it's tucked away in a mountain somewhere where no one can find it.” Luis and I laughed, and I picked up a dish as I began to wash it.

“Like Smaug!” Luis added, and I nodded.

Anaki went quiet, and I turned to face him. His face was pale while he stroked his arm nervously. “Right, that would be crazy. Absolutely crazy.”

I dropped the dish in the sink, and my mouth dropped in a surprised ‘oh’. “Wait, do you have a hoard? Or a cave?”

Anaki bobbed his head back and forth. “More or less.”

Luis gasped. “Cool! Can I see it?”

“You can’t ask a dragon to see his hoard. That’s private,” Abuela scolded. “Any sort of nest or home to these supernaturals is very sacred. It is where they sleep, where they are comfortable. It brings them a sense of security.”

Abuela sat back on the couch and laced her fingers together over her stomach. I leaned back on the counter and assessed her. How did she know so much, while I knew none of this? Was it those books?

As a child, we would go to flea markets and old bookstores, and she would request the oddest books and scrolls. A lot of them were in Latin, special books that were out of print. Some cost more than we could afford, but somehow she would get her hands on them.

She knew a lot, while Emm and I secretly made fun of her.

She always took care of us. This was just a hobby of hers on the side, and we left her be.

An unsettling feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. How much of the warning signs have I ignored over the years, while thinking she was crazy or insane? All this time, I blamed mushrooms, fancy rocks and dementia.

“Hey, you alright?” Anaki was beside me in an instant, his hand touching my arm. The calmness of his touch made the worry go away. The ache in my body vanished.

Perhaps Abuela wasn’t so crazy after all. There was magic out there. I haven’t seen Anaki shift into some dragon, have seen no wolves or bears yet, but there was no denying the pain I usually had was down to a mere two on the pain scale.

“I’m fine.” I gave Anaki a small smile. “Just came to terms with everything that’s happening around me. That this is real.” I let out a breath as I watched Luis jump on the couch next to Abuela. She pulled out her phone, so they could scroll funny cat videos.

What kidnappers were they if they let us have our phones? We were told not to tell Emm we were here. Of course, they had to be here for the phone call.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Anaki whispered.

I hummed. “I guess so. I can't think with you not wearing a shirt, though. You should put one on.” I eyed him up and down.

Anaki smirked and puffed up his chest. “Yeah, I did that on purpose. You seemed to like it earlier.”

I smacked his stomach with my hand.

Yep. Nice, hard washboard abs.

I blushed and looked away from him. “You are part of the care team. You are just making sure we don’t all flip our shit with what’s going on.”

Anger bubbled inside of me. That’s all this flirting was… to keep my mind off being stuck in a cabin and unable to go anywhere. He was here to keep me occupied.

Because who would want someone who was broken, tired, sick… and who had a son from a previous relationship? Anaki was a dragon. Supposedly. A hot, caring man who could have a girlfriend, or boyfriend, for that matter.

It could all just be an act.

Because men lie.

“It doesn’t matter.” I schooled my face. “You should put a shirt on. It is distracting, and I don’t have time for games. I need to take care of my son and get some work done, so we have money once this is all over.”

Anaki’s playful face fell, and it felt like a stab to my heart. But I couldn’t get close to him, not when this was all over, things would go back to normal. We would move away and make sure we hid from the cartel that would still be chasing Emm.

I don’t need to be healing a broken heart during any of that.