Page 5 of Curvy Girl and the Single Dad Dragon (Cedar Falls: Fated Mates #2)

It's been growing stronger as the day progressed, until Cole finally looked at me and said, "Just go home, Thorne. You're making everyone nervous with your pacing."

The house is quiet. Too quiet.

Usually, I can hear Ember's voice or laughter from the driveway, her excited chatter carrying through open windows or walls. Dragon hearing is acute—another trait hidden from humans—and the silence sets my teeth on edge.

I take the porch steps two at a time, my key already in hand. The door swings open before I can use it, and Luna stands in the entryway, her expression composed. Too composed.

"You're home early," she says, and there's something in her voice I can't quite identify. Not fear, exactly. Caution, perhaps.

"Where's Ember?" I ask immediately, scanning the room behind her, my nostrils flaring slightly to catch my daughter's scent.

"She's in her room, reading." Luna steps back to let me enter, maintaining a short distance between us. "She's fine, but... we need to talk."

The four words no parent wants to hear from their child's caretaker, but especially not a parent with secrets like mine. My muscles tense involuntarily, and I have to concentrate to keep my temperature regulated, to prevent the telltale smoke that would give me away if I lose control.

"What happened?" My voice comes out deeper than usual, an edge of growl beneath the words that I can't entirely suppress.

Luna meets my eyes directly, and I'm struck again by her composure. "There was an incident this afternoon. Ember accidentally knocked over a photo frame, got upset, and..." She pauses, then finishes simply: "She breathed fire."

The world stops for a moment. My worst fear, realized on day one. I close my eyes briefly, cursing myself for believing this arrangement could work, for putting my daughter in this impossible position, for—

"She's okay," Luna adds quickly, interrupting my spiraling thoughts. "We did the breathing exercises you showed her, and she calmed down pretty quickly. No one was hurt."

I force myself to look at her, searching for signs of the terror I'd seen in Jenny's eyes that first time. But Luna's hazel eyes are steady, her heartbeat elevated but not racing with fear, her scent altered but not soured with disgust or panic.

"You're still here," I say finally, the realization dawning slowly.

A small smile touches her lips. "I'm still here."

"Why?" The question comes out harsher than intended, but I need to understand. Humans don't witness children breathing fire and simply carry on with their day.

Luna glances toward the stairs, then back to me. "Can we sit down? This feels like a sitting down kind of conversation."

I nod stiffly, following her to the living room where she takes a seat on the couch. I remain standing, too agitated to sit, the dragon in me wanting to pace, to guard, to secure my territory and my offspring.

"Ember was terrified that I would leave," Luna begins, her hands folded calmly in her lap. "The first thing she said after it happened was 'Please don't run away like Mommy did.' Not 'don't be scared' or 'I can explain.' She was afraid of being abandoned again."

Something twists painfully in my chest. "And that's why you stayed? Pity?"

"No." Her answer is firm, immediate. "I stayed because a scared little girl needed me to stay. I stayed because she trusted me enough to show me who she really is, even if it was by accident. And I stayed because..." She hesitates, then continues more softly, "Because I promised her I would."

I study her face, searching for deception, for hidden motives, finding none. "You saw a child breathe fire, and your response was to help her with breathing exercises and then continue with your day as if nothing happened."

Luna shrugs slightly. "Well, I did have a minor existential crisis while she was napping, but I kept it quiet."

A startled laugh escapes me before I can stop it. This woman is either insane or extraordinary. Possibly both.

"Daddy?" Ember's small voice comes from the top of the stairs. She peers down at us, her golden eyes wide with apprehension.

"It's okay, princess. You can come down."

She descends slowly, watching my face for signs of anger. When she reaches the bottom step, she looks between Luna and me.

"Are you mad?" she asks in a small voice.

I kneel to her level, opening my arms. She rushes into them, burying her face against my chest. "No, I'm not mad. Accidents happen, especially when big emotions are involved."

"Luna didn't leave," Ember whispers against my shirt. "She saw my fire and she stayed."

"I see that." I look up at Luna over my daughter's head, still struggling to comprehend her reaction. Most humans would be halfway to the next state by now, convinced they'd hallucinated or determined to report the dangerous freaks to authorities.

"I did the breathing just like you taught me," Ember continues, pulling back to look at me proudly. "In through the nose, out through the mouth. Luna helped me."

"That's my girl." I smooth her dark curls away from her face. "Why don't you go wash up for dinner while Luna and I finish talking?"

"Are you going to tell her everything?" Ember asks, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "About how we can fly and how old you really are and about the treasure and—"

"Ember," I cut her off gently but firmly. "Go wash up."

She sighs dramatically but obeys, pausing to give Luna a quick hug before darting back upstairs. We both watch her go, and when I turn back to Luna, she's looking at me with new interest.

"You can fly?" she asks, one eyebrow raised. "And you have treasure? How old are you really?"

"This is not how I would have chosen for this conversation to happen."

"I imagine not." Luna's voice is gentle, but I can hear the underlying steel. She's not letting me off the hook. "But it is happening, so perhaps you should explain what exactly I've gotten myself into by accepting this job."

She's right, of course. She deserves the truth, especially since she's reacted with such unexpected grace to what she's already seen. I finally sit down in the armchair across from her, trying to decide where to begin.

"What do you think you saw today?" I ask, wanting to gauge her understanding before I reveal too much.

"I saw a little girl breathe fire when she got upset," Luna says.

"She called herself a dragon and mentioned that you are too.

She said something about flying and treasure and your real age, all of which suggests we're not talking about a medical condition or some scientific anomaly.

" She leans forward slightly. "So, either I've lost my mind, or dragons are real and I'm sitting across from one right now. "

I can't help but admire her directness. "Dragons are real," I confirm. "And yes, I am one. So is Ember."

Luna takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "Okay then."

"Okay?" I repeat incredulously. "That's your response to learning that creatures from mythology actually exist?"

"Would you prefer screaming and running?

" she asks with a hint of amusement. "Because I did consider that option briefly.

But then I thought about Ember, and how scared she looked, and how relieved she was when I didn't freak out.

And I decided that freaking out wouldn't be particularly helpful to anyone. "

I shake my head in amazement. "You're taking this remarkably well."

"Trust me, I'm screaming internally," she admits with a small laugh. "But I've always believed there's more to this world than what we can readily explain. Finding out dragons exist is... well, it's earth-shattering, but also strangely vindicating."

"Most humans don't react this way," I tell her. "Their minds can't reconcile what they're seeing with what they believe is possible. They either convince themselves they imagined it, or they respond with fear and violence."

"Like Ember's mother?" Luna asks gently.

I look away, old pain surfacing. "Jenny... tried. She loved us both, but when Ember's abilities manifested, it was too much for her. She couldn't live with the constant fear. Not just of what we are, but of what might happen if others found out."

"I'm sorry," Luna says, and I can tell she means it. "That must have been devastating for both of you."

"It was." I look back at her, at her delicate features, wondering how this small human woman can sit so calmly discussing the existence of dragons. "You should know that by staying—by knowing about us—you're potentially putting yourself at risk."

"How so?"

"Our kind lives in secret for a reason. Humans have hunted dragons for millennia.

For our scales, for sport, out of fear. Those days aren't as far behind us as you might think.

" I lean forward, wanting her to understand the gravity of the situation.

"If certain humans learned about us, it would put all dragon-kind in danger.

And anyone known to be protecting us would be equally at risk. "

Luna considers this for a moment. "How many of you are there?"

"Fewer than there once were. A few thousand worldwide, perhaps. We're scattered, mostly solitary except for family units. We blend in, live among humans, revealing ourselves to very, very few."

"Yet here you are, telling me everything."

I give her a rueful smile. "Not quite everything. But more than I've told any human in a very long time."

"Because I already saw Ember's fire," she guesses.

"Partly," I acknowledge. "But also because..." I hesitate, not entirely sure myself why I'm being so forthcoming. "Because you stayed. Because my daughter trusts you. And because my instincts tell me you can be trusted with this."

"Dragon instincts?" she asks with a hint of teasing.

"Yes, actually. Dragons have a sense about people. It's part of our survival mechanism."

She nods. "So, you can breathe fire like Ember, and apparently fly, which I'm having trouble picturing given your size. Do you... transform? Like in the stories?"