Page 18 of Cold Foot Sentry (Wreck’s Mountains #6)

Right on the edge of the tree line of the empty lot across the street, Tawk gripped the back of his hair and yelled an agonized, and terrifying sound that shook the woods, and then he bunched his muscles and catapulted into the air. He was human, and then he wasn’t.

A wave of power nearly knocked Tammy backward as an enormous dragon with bronze scales exploded from him. Time slowed as he beat his wings. The wind from it knocked her backward a few feet, and she struggled to stay upright.

A gasp escaped from her as she stared at the mythical creature that Tawk really was. He wasn’t just a man. He wasn’t just some interesting, hot guy she had a crush on.

He was a monster, capable of monstrous things.

She’d witnessed him brawl with that terrifying polar bear that had ripped from that guy. And when the bear had gone still under him, she’d tried to stop Tawk. He wasn’t in his right mind. She couldn’t watch him murder someone, no matter what they’d done!

But as she watched his dragon disappear into the atmosphere, she had to come to terms with something big…he was not like her.

He was capable of killing. He was capable of damage she couldn’t even begin to imagine.

She’d never before felt so utterly…human.

So different.

Hanging out with Harley and Wreck’s Crew, they were just friends with glowing eyes, but they weren’t only that. They were something different. They only pretended to be normal around her. That thought felt so right.

She’d had no idea the friends she was keeping, and at this moment right here, as she watched the dragon disappear into the night, she realized how very different shifters were from her.

She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t pursue him.

She shouldn’t have slept with him.

A tear streaked to her cheek, and in a rush, she wiped it away with the back of her hand. A soft sob escaped her as she went back to sweeping glass.

“Miss, are you okay?” one of the neighbors asked from a couple houses down.

“Oh yeah. Just cleaning up a busted window. I don’t want anyone to get a flat tire,” she said in the steadiest voice she could manage.

“Do you need help cleaning it?” he asked as he walked closer. He was a nice older gentleman who had introduced himself the first week she’d moved into her rental house.

“Oh, I’m almost done. Thank you though.”

“I heard a big boom,” he called, approaching, but stopped in front of her house with a frown etched onto his face. “Or maybe I felt it?”

“Oh yeah, it’s all okay though.” She wasn’t about to try and explain a dragon’s Change.

He canted his head. “You’re okay, miss? Really?”

She forced a smile and leaned onto the handle of the broom. Time to lie. “Never been better.”

She’s just my neighbor.

Before he could see the tremble of her lips, she dipped her gaze and went back to cleaning the street.

“You ask if you need anything. I got a daughter about your age. You remind me of her,” he said, walking away.

She allowed a tiny, emotional smile. She appreciated the check-in from another human who would definitely be just as confused as her if he’d just witnessed what she had witnessed.

Tammy swept the piles of glass into the dustpan Tawk had shoved into the bucket, and when it was cleaned as much as she could get, she made her way back into his rental. She really was his neighbor now.

He’d left the door wide open, and inside, she set the bucket down and looked around.

He’d set a couple of duffle bags on the floor, and there were grocery bags still on the kitchen counter.

When he’d said he had errands to run earlier, he’d been truthful.

He’d been moving in. Why hadn’t he told her?

“Because he doesn’t owe you explanations,” she said into the quiet living room.

She was just a neighbor. Just a dumb neighbor who had pretended she could do a one-night stand, and it wouldn’t mean anything. Now, her silly heart was so confused.

She shouldn’t have slept with a shifter before she’d known what they were capable of.

She was sure she’d only seen a fraction of the destruction he could cause.

The sheer violence and fury of him fighting that polar bear flitted across her mind, and she squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

She’d slapped him three times across the face, and she could still feel the still form of the bear under her as she’d tried to bring Tawk back.

He was going to kill it with his bare hands, right in front of her.

She shook her head, trying to banish the memory.

Tammy backed out of the house and closed the door behind her, then made her way across the yard to her own home. When she was inside, she locked the door and turned, pressed her shoulder blades against it and slid down until she was sitting.

The last twenty-four hours had been such an intense roller coaster.

Being with him last night, seeing him at the bake sale and feeling those butterflies in moments just being around him.

She’d spent the majority of her shift checking the door just in case he showed up at the bar.

And then…Aaron. He’d harassed her, and then she’d come out to the parking lot to find her headlights broken out, and had to walk home.

She’d called Tawk a few times but he hadn’t answered, and still, she’d looked forward to seeing him.

And now…now…now she understood what he was.

That stuff with Jess…whatever it was she was saying about illusions, was confusing and terrifying.

She’d been mistaken this whole time. Tammy did not really understand the shifter world.

Her gown for the graduation ceremony in the morning lay draped across one of the dining chairs across the room from her. It was black, and shiny. The cap sat ready on the dining table.

Tonight, she’d had a half-Changed dragon shield her from some heat that had blistered her skin that hadn’t really existed. Even now, her skin was clear and felt fine. That wasn’t normal. None of this was normal.

She had a path, and she owed it to herself to stick to that path, not let a man take her off it with his mess.

She was in way too deep, way too fast.

Tammy stood, feeling a hundred years old, her body aching from something she didn’t understand.

Maybe it was whatever magic Jess had used on Tawk.

She still didn’t understand. How could she?

Jess had been there talking to Tawk, and then poof—nothing.

She’d disappeared. She could do that. A witch could talk to them and then disappear, and she hadn’t known that.

She was closest to Harley, but she and Jess had hung out a handful of times, and she’d always just thought she was normal and nice.

Nothing was as it had seemed.

Tammy shut her mind off and went through her routine of getting ready for bed.

She was going to have to wake up early and walk to work to retrieve her truck.

She wouldn’t need the headlights in the daytime and needed it to get to her graduation ceremony.

She opened her phone to set her alarm and noticed a text message from her mom.

We will be there bright and early! We flew in last night so we could make it.

Tears prickled her eyes again as she messaged her back. I’m so happy you’re able to make it. I can’t wait to see you. I’ve missed you. Send.

Yes, it was much more emotional than she usually was with her mom, but she was feeling everything tonight.

There was a message from Aaron too. I know I was pushy tonight but you have to understand I just really need to talk and get some things worked out.

I think if you just let me in and let me touch you again, we could get back on track.

I need to touch you. You’ve forgotten how good we were together.

You’re being too stubborn. I’m spinning out without you and it’s not fair, Tam. How you’re treating me isn’t fair.

What the hell was confusing about the word, “No,” to some men?

A flash of anger took her, and she connected a call to him. She wanted to hear his voice when she asked him.

“Hey,” he answered immediately.

“Did you bust out my headlights tonight?”

The pause said more than his lying-fucking-words.

He cleared his throat and recited, “I would never do that.” He sounded utterly unsurprised.

There was nothing protective in his voice.

If he loved her like he kept preaching, he would’ve been angry on her behalf.

He would’ve been pissed and trying to figure out who had done that.

He would be asking where she was, and if she was okay, but he did none of that. He just said, “I would never do that.”

Liar.

She gripped the phone tighter in her hand. “I’m blocking you. Don’t show up at my work anymore. I’m being absolutely clear with you and what I want. It’ll never happen, Aaron. I will never want you back. Leave me alone.”

She hung up and blocked him as fast as she could, before he could message her back.

Another sob dragged at her, but it wasn’t from being sad about closure with Aaron.

It was an accumulation of a lot of things—happiness that her parents would be at her graduation ceremony tomorrow, heartache over knowing she needed to stay away from Tawk, confusion over what she’d just been through, uncertainty of the unknown that would find her after graduation tomorrow.

Truck problems, a rough night financially at work, Aaron being in town making her uncomfortable…

realizing her friends were something she didn’t understand fully.

A soft knock wrapped at the front door.

Tammy tugged at her oversized T-shirt as she padded down the hall to the living room. Her hair was down and messy, and she didn’t have pants on under the shirt, so she checked the peephole first to make sure it wasn’t the neighbor or something before she answered.

Tawk stood a few feet off of the porch, hands clasped behind his back, staring at something on the ground.

Tammy pressed her palms against the cold surface of the door and stared at the wood grain there, thoughts racing.

She hesitated just a few seconds more before she pulled the door open.

Tawk was enormous right now. He’d grown a foot, at least, and looked wide as a house. He’d put jeans on, but no shirt, and he didn’t wear any shoes. Even his feet looked enormous. His eyes were glowing red, and his cheekbones were too sharp.

Monster.

“I…” He frowned and lowered his gaze, then gestured to his face. “It’ll go away.”

“What do you want?” she asked.

He didn’t look up at her. Instead, he ran his hand through his hair and gripped it in the back and then rested his back against the porch wall, eyes averted still. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” she asked.

He shook his head over and over, and she could see his Adam’s apple dip as he swallowed hard. “For being this.”

Something about the anguish in his voice tugged at her heart.

He pushed off the wall. “I don’t think I can stay. I don’t think I should.”

A part of her agreed. If Jess could control him, he couldn’t stay. “I understand.”

“It’s better for you if I go,” he said. A flash of red in his eyes met hers as he glanced up at her.

And a part of her agreed. “I understand.”

“My dad did this,” he murmured in a gravelly voice.

“You don’t owe me any explanation,” she said, and damn her voice as it shook at the end. “We’re good.”

Tawk ran his hand through his hair again and hung his head. “Okay.” He stepped onto the porch, eyes tortured, and for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. He got close, and then turned abruptly and left without looking back at her.

A curse echoed from him, and she squeezed her eyes closed as she absorbed an ache in her chest that she’d never felt before.

When she and Aaron had split, she’d thought her world was over. She’d thought she would never figure herself out, or be able to move forward. She’d thought losing her first love would create a hole inside of her that she would never be able to fill.

That ache was nothing compared to this ache, and it made no sense.

She’d only just met this man, but he already felt so big.

A few minutes later, she was watching Tawk carry his duffel bags to his truck from her front window. She winced as his rig roared to life, and she let the tears flow as she watched him drive away.

And just as suddenly as he’d appeared in Darby, Tawk was gone.