Page 4

Harmony stared at the tablet Zeno had handed her after she was resettled on his unreasonably comfortable sofa. She had a basic sense for how the device was supposed to work—it wasn’t like she didn’t watch television—but holding the tiny computer in her hands was surreal. Not only had he handed it over to her without any word of caution, he’d said something about giving her a minute to browse and then walked from the room. She could hear him, faintly, in the direction where she’d glimpsed the kitchen.

Her hands remained frozen on the sides of the device as she drank in the vivid color on the screen. She processed the periodically cycling presence of an ad at the top of the displayed page before her brain finally recognized different shapes and styles of shoes. Women’s shoes, categorized for her to choose from, or perhaps scroll through. She wouldn’t know without touching the screen. But before she could unlatch one hand to do as much, her gaze caught on the website logo at the top.

Harmony’s stomach rolled, dropping to the floor. Holy crap. She’d done a poor job of making herself heard before if he thought she could even afford to look through the windows of that store!

“Do you have any food allergies I should know about?” Zeno called as her mind reeled.

Harmony carefully set the tablet beside her on the sofa and twisted enough to look toward the kitchen. From across the penthouse, the kitchen had seemed large and almost imposing with its predominantly dark aesthetic, but with Zeno in it she changed her mind. It suited him. Which was a ridiculous thought to have. She watched him stir what looked like iced tea, just for a second, before blurting, “Can’t I just go to Wal-Mart?” The idea of walking through any store as she was less than appealing, but she had to be reasonable. She could pay him back the cost of whatever she needed from Wal-Mart. Presuming her parents hadn’t torn through her room and found her small stash of funds.

Zeno turned to face her, setting the spoon he’d been using onto the counter, and a frown bent his lips. “Why would you want to go there? Did nothing appeal to you at—”

“There’s no way I can shop there!” She made a stupid gesture toward the tablet he wouldn’t be able to see from his angle. “I don’t have a job, okay? My parents would never voluntarily let me work, so searching has been hard. I’ve sent out like one email resume so far and I don’t have a lot of hope for that.” It’d been over a week and she hadn’t heard back, and the job listing was gone. She blew out a frustrated breath. “I couldn’t pay you back for something from somewhere so expensive in a year . I could pay you back for some cheap flip-flops from Wal-Mart when we get to my parents’ house.”

Silence stretched for several long seconds as Zeno studied her. Then he turned toward the fridge, putting his shoulder to her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Harmony blinked. His question? “Um, sorry, could you repeat it?”

He pulled open the refrigerator. “Do you have any food allergies? I don’t want to keep anything in my home that will hurt you.”

Her mouth moved on autopilot as confusion held her frozen. “Shellfish.”

“Shellfish,” he repeated, as if to himself. His head tilted marginally to the side, the angle drawing her eye to where his hair was loosely restrained behind his shoulders. His hair looked like it should have been wild, like it was permanently windblown, yet it barely shifted with his movements.

She found herself wondering if it was soft to the touch or coarse and stiff with product, her confusion and previous flustered frustration momentarily forgotten.

Then Zeno straightened, knocked the fridge door shut, and twisted in place with a single package in hand. He said nothing as he strode through the kitchen, cutting straight for the window wall and with what looked like barely a press of his fingers stepping onto the balcony beyond.

Harmony slid the feet she’d curled beneath her to the floor, curious about his actions and about the surely breath-stealing outdoor space. Why would he have taken something from the refrigerator out to the balcony?

Her curiosity was immediately answered, and her forward momentum stalled, when Zeno gave a flick of his wrist and tossed the package into the air. Of course, it caught on the wind she could see tugging at his clothes and hair, but that ceased to matter a heartbeat later. The mysterious package of food was barely higher than his head and tumbling outward—possibly downward—when a very bright, unexpected burst of orange-red fire sliced through the open air.

Harmony clapped a hand over her mouth.

The fire blinked out, leaving only the faintest traces of dark gray smoke to waft up into the sky. The package was gone, entirely incinerated. She was as certain as she could be, though she hadn’t seen it happen, that the fire had come from Zeno.

The man who called himself her soulmate had somehow magically generated fire to obliterate something he could easily have thrown away. Or donated. For the life of her, all she could think was she hadn’t known shifters could do that.

Zeno stepped back inside, pulling the glass door shut once again behind him, and retraced his path to the kitchen. He stopped at the sink to wash his hands, then re-entered Harmony’s field of vision as he rounded the far side of the sofa, carrying two glasses of iced tea. “I wasn’t sure how you preferred it, so I made one each way.” He set the glasses onto the coffee table and indicated one. “This one is without sugar.”

Harmony forced herself to keep her breathing steady, absolutely certain he could hear her heart pounding regardless, and licked her lips. “With, please.” She appreciated that he hadn’t assumed, or taken the liberty of deciding for her. Or she would appreciate it, probably, when she could think about anything other than the stream of fire he seemed to have so casually generated moments ago.

Zeno obligingly passed her the sweetened tea before reaching for the other. He watched her over the rim of his glass as he took a long swallow, but didn’t speak until he’d set it down again. “Did that frighten you?”

She choked on her own, coughing roughly to clear her throat and holding tighter to the glass. “Seeing fire suddenly appear in the air like that? Yes. Of course. I don’t know what type of shifter you are, let alone how you did that, but I am a very burnable human.” Officially the most ridiculous thing she’d ever felt compelled to say. “For that matter, what were you even doing? Why dispose of food that way? If it was bad, toss it out or something.”

His brow pinched, just for a second, before his expression settled again closer to neutral. “I apologize for startling you. That was a package of lobster. It seemed better to incinerate it than to risk poisoning you.”

Her heart faltered. She’d watched him immediately dig through his refrigerator, but it hadn’t seemed realistic that he would do something so drastic in response to what she’d said. Feeling a strange combination of guilty and flattered, Harmony said, “You didn’t have to—I mean, you could have just eaten it.”

Zeno made a sound like a disgruntled huff. “There may be any number of reasons you choose not to kiss me in the future, Harmony. Because I’ve knowingly eaten a food to which you are allergic will never be one of them.”

Heat rushed through her and Harmony was sure her face had gone a bright shade of pink. That wasn’t nearly as scandalous as the last suggestive thing he’d said, but she wasn’t used to being spoken to that way. It was somehow both embarrassing and thrilling. She lifted her tea to her lips in a poor attempt to hide her face, took a small sip, and quietly asked, “What about the … fire?” She wasn’t aware her gaze had dropped to the coffee table until he answered her, until she realized she couldn’t see the smirk she was sure she heard in his voice.

“Dragons breathe fire, Little Dove. I promise you I have excellent control.”

Her head whipped around so fast that even the minimal movement made her dizzy. “You’re a dragon ?”

Zeno inclined his head. “Yes. And I’ll show you my other form when you’re a bit more comfortable with the idea.” His gaze dropped to the tablet before he reached out and lifted it from the cushion between them. “Of course, all of that is presuming you can decide on a pair of shoes. Do you have any concerns with this store other than the cost?”

Harmony tried not to gape at him, her mind ping-ponging to keep up with and process the conversation. The man was way too calm for what he’d just revealed. She had known shifters existed all her life, but never once had she heard that dragon shifters were a real thing. Not to say she’d investigated it. Any historical records on shifter ancestry were not easily acquired, as the general existence of them was not as widely known as she had thought when she was younger. But still! She pulled in a breath, flexed her fingers around her glass, and dug up some type of response to his latest question. “Do I need another concern?”

Zeno hummed low in his throat and lowered the tablet once more. “So we have to discuss the money issue first, then.”

Her brows flew to her hairline. “What?”

Wordlessly, Zeno reached out and plucked the slippery glass from her grasp, setting it onto the coffee table in front of her. Then he scooped up her nearest hand and pulled it across the space between them, folded between his. His warm amber eyes burned out at her, the steadiness in them somehow keeping her calm even as her heart rate spiked again. When he spoke, his tone was equally patient and gentle yet somehow strong and unyielding. “Perhaps you misunderstand. I am not offering you a loan. I fully intend to buy these shoes for you as a gift. The first of many.” He gave her hand a light squeeze. “Take advantage of my wealth and let me spoil you, Little Dove. You may choose whatever you like.”

Harmony swallowed hard. The heat of his touch surrounding her hand felt almost overwhelming, yet it was nothing compared to the intensity of his stare and the weight of his words. “That’s … a lot, Zeno.” She didn’t really mean the shoes, although at the price that designer charged, the statement was still true.

His lips lifted in a small smile that made his eyes light up like the flame of a candle, warm and somehow inviting, and he adjusted his hold on her hand to raise her knuckles to his lips. Without taking his eyes from hers he pressed his lips there in a chaste, lingering kiss. The action sent a thrilling tingle down her spine that was warm and pleasant, and felt more than a little indecent with the way the sensation dropped into a coil low in her belly. That, and the look in his eyes, reminded her of the more scandalous things he’d whispered in her ear earlier.

The things she’d only read about in the books she’d borrowed from one of her classmates well over a year prior. She hadn’t realized there were men who actually talked like that.

Definitely not the time to be thinking about those kinds of things!

Zeno recaptured her hand after pulling it from his lips, squeezing again. “As I told you before, Little Dove, all I ask for right now is a chance. Give me a chance—give us a chance—and you will understand this is simply my nature. I want to take care of you, to see you not only protected but comfortable and thriving. I hardly think a pair of good shoes is too much.”

Tears rushed her eyes without warning and Harmony found herself curling her fingers around the hand beneath her own.

Protected. Comfortable. Thriving.

Her parents had worked incredibly hard—too hard—on one of those things, in arguably all the wrong ways, up until that day. Or they’d made it seem like they had. But the others? No one had really made an issue of the others. The others were … unimportant.

“Harmony?” Concern laced Zeno’s strong voice and he leaned forward, removing one hand from hers to reach for her face and gently wipe away a tear that had trickled down her cheek.

She licked her lips and shoved down as much of her roiling emotions as she could. “I’m sorry, I … I’m not used to…” It was too humiliating to even put into words and her throat constricted. Instead, she indicated with her free hand for the tablet. “I’ll look for some shoes, if it’s okay.” Maybe he was right. Maybe one pair of nice shoes was okay. The smile he offered her before again handing over the tablet certainly said it was.

When she saw the prices attached to the shoes, she nearly gave up all over again. Add that he’d already declared his intent to pay extra for expedited processing and to pay a third party for delivery—a service the company didn’t offer—and Harmony felt ill. She opened the URL to take herself to a cheaper alternative, but the weight of Zeno’s stare over her shoulder kept her from seeing the plan through. So she thought she’d prove her own point instead, and dutifully shopped for the most appealing pair of shoes she could find.

Of course, she found so many options it took her several minutes to narrow them down again, and ultimately, she added two pairs to her cart—one pair of irresistible ankle boots with a low two-inch heel that were super cute and more fashionable than she’d ever been allowed, and one more practical but still girlie sandal. He had said he wanted to spoil her, after all. Once the cart was ready, she turned the tablet to face him with the predicted price on the screen.

“There isn’t even an option on the website for the expedited thing you mentioned, so I can’t begin to guess how much extra that will add to the total,” Harmony said. “I really don’t mind looking somewhere else.” Her mother would have beat her over the head for even suggesting spending so much on shoes.

Zeno took the tablet, scrolling briefly to examine her choices. “Only the two?”

Harmony felt her eyebrows climb up her head. “Did you see that total?”

“Harmony.” He looked over at her.

She scrunched up her lips, just for a second, before nodding slowly. She wasn’t sure why he was so dead set on this when he could just as easily drive them back to her neighborhood and have her retrieve the shoes she already owned. “Two is plenty.”

He inclined his head, tapped at the screen, and proceeded to dig his phone from a pants pocket. His thumb rolled across the smaller device as he sent a message somewhere, then he set the phone down and swiped at the tablet again before repeating the same process. After which, he set both devices on the coffee table and turned to face her.

“Your shoes should be here by hours’ end. I’ll take you home to get anything you want from your parents’ house and talk things out with them after that, and when you’re done, we can go to dinner.”

Needing something to do with her hands, Harmony reached again for her iced tea. “That … I mean—” She sighed. “Dealing with my parents could take hours.” She gulped some of her drink. “You don’t have to stick around for that.” She certainly didn’t recommend it.

Zeno’s brow furrowed. “I’m not abandoning my mate to face confrontation on her own,” he said firmly. “Let alone in such a dangerous place.” His voice hardened unexpectedly as he spoke. “If any member of that gang shows up to try and take you, I’ll make sure they regret it.”

Her breath faltered in her lungs. The truth was, she expected Ricky would come sniffing around if she was there too long. And she expected she’d be quite literally locked away the moment she re-entered that house, until her parents felt motivated to let her out. The only way she would ever taste freedom again was if Zeno were with her to make sure of it. But that seemed like far too much to ask.

Her gaze dropped to the space between them, space she knew he’d given her for her own peace of mind. Space some irrational part of her suddenly detested.

Harmony removed one hand from her glass to wipe at her face before she’d even realized more tears had rolled free. “I’m not free,” she whispered, unable to lift her gaze. “That’s why I had to run. That’s why … that’s why I can’t get a job. That’s why I had to sneak my way through college—which is not easy, let me tell you.” She choked on a bitter laugh. “I was never allowed to date, I only have like one friend and we’re not super close because my parents don’t approve of her.” She finally dragged her gaze back up to his patient, scowling face. “I don’t know what their arrangement with Ricky was, not specifically, but they won’t approve of you, either. Because you weren’t their choice.” Her mouth opened to say more, but when she heard the next words forming in her brain, her throat constricted again.

Her parents wouldn’t approve of Zeno, first and foremost, because he valued her.

Zeno reached out again, brushing his fingers over her cheek before cupping the side of her face in his larger palm. Though his fingers were faintly calloused and his hand was strong, his touch remained gentle and warm. And the fire in his eyes … she couldn’t define it, but it didn’t scare her. Not at all.

“You are strong, Harmony,” Zeno said, his voice almost rough despite the low tone of it. “I have many words I might like to say to your parents, but the most important thing is that you hear me now. It does not matter what they demand or expect. You are your own woman. Your choices are your own. Whether you choose to take a job and be solely dependent upon yourself, to stay with your parents and endure their rules, or even to embrace a life with me—the right to make those choices is yours, and yours alone.” He stroked his thumb across her cheek. “Do you understand?”

The life she had known so far, that had led to her being handed over like a prize to a disgusting excuse of a man, or the dream she had been nurturing for the past few years. Or … a different dream, so unlikely she’d never really dared to imagine it at all. The impossible ideal of a life of warmth and happiness, with affection and comfort, and possibly even respect.

Harmony trembled as she set her glass back on the table. It seemed too unlikely to seriously consider. She reached up and covered the back of Zeno’s hand with her own, her eyes seeking his. “I want to know more,” she whispered brazenly, “more about you, and of what could be.”

What he offered seemed crazy, but it would be stupid to throw away such a chance without at least looking into it, right?

Chapter Five

The sun was setting by the time they rolled up to the curb in front of the single-story home Harmony had grown up in. She’d managed to forget her nerves for a precious little while, up in Zeno’s magnificent penthouse, but the familiar sight of her childhood home brought the twisting, nauseating feelings rushing back. She had been so desperate to get away when she’d fled, she hadn’t truly considered the consequences, let alone if fleeing was a viable option.

Her parents were going to be furious.

Zeno’s hand settled on her shoulder, drawing her attention away from the sight through the window. “We can still leave. You don’t need to face this today if you’re not ready.”

Harmony attempted a smile. They’d talked for close to two hours, about all sorts of things, and even though she knew it was crazy, she felt as though she knew him much better. Enough, for certain, that she knew he understood her anxiety and reservations for more reasons than because he could smell them. In whatever ways those feelings were smellable. And in turn, she understood his offer was genuine—they had only come there at all because she had insisted, and they would leave if or when she changed her mind.

That knowledge gave her strength. It made her smile easier. “This will just get harder the longer I put it off.”

Zeno’s hand slid to the nape of her neck, his touch warm enough to raise her body temperature. “I won’t leave you to face this alone, Little Dove.”

The warmth at her neck coursed through her chest. She opened her mouth to thank him, and all at once she realized the other looming danger. It went beyond what her parents would do to her for punishment, or even the threat of her next encounter with Patrick Eades. If this went remotely wrong, she might never see Zeno again. The idea of that was unacceptable, in a way Harmony couldn’t explain. Even to herself.

She moved on impulse, not wanting to lose something she’d never truly had. Not wanting to regret the time she’d wasted. She twisted and half crawled across the bench seat of the sedan, pressing herself against him as her hands found his jaw a moment before her lips connected with his. The scrape of his trimmed beard beneath her fingers was like a tangible echo to the low rumble of his responding growl before his arms banded around her and Zeno took control.

His tongue slid past her lips as he tangled a hand in her hair, his other hand gripping the back of her dress. He leaned into her, kissing her deeply, with a hunger that made her entire body burn and clench simultaneously. It was unlike anything Harmony had imagined, let alone experienced. He held her so tightly that both their bodies moved with each heaving breath before the kiss even broke.

When it did, and his grip on her hair loosened, Harmony found herself straddling his thigh and panting in his face. She might have been embarrassed about all of that, if it weren’t for the barely contained need shining back at her from his eyes and the way his own chest rose with deep, unsteady breaths.

Zeno smoothed his hand over the back of her dress in a slow, deliberate motion, never taking his eyes from hers. “Be very careful about when you decide to kiss me like that again, Harmony. I can’t promise I’ll remember my restraint.”

She shouldn’t have smiled, and she certainly shouldn’t have laughed, but it was too surreal. “Should I apologize?”

“No. Never.” He moved the hand from her hair entirely and cupped her cheek, thumb brushing her lips.

He didn’t add more, and she felt irrationally flustered by that.

Instead, after she could breathe a little easier, Harmony said, “I guess we should get this done.” She had used the plural on purpose, but it felt wrong. This wasn’t his fight. It didn’t have to be his problem.

Zeno exhaled and carefully scooped her off his lap, setting her into a seated position at his side. “Then let’s begin.” He turned his attention forward as he dropped one hand to the door panel and projected his voice. “This could take some time. Go get yourself something to eat, and return.”

Harmony laid her fingertips on Zeno’s arm even as the driver voiced his understanding, and when Zeno met her gaze again, she spoke her new concern in a whisper. “Will he be all right?”

Zeno smiled, but this smile was not the warm and encouraging expression he’d offered her before. “Of course. This is my car, and Roland is my driver. In this neighborhood, my scent should be enough to drive off nearly any threat.” He held her stare a beat longer, as if to make sure she heard the meaning behind his words.

She did. She recognized she was bringing a freaking dragon to a neighborhood run by misfit shifters who didn’t truly have a central alpha, though several of them claimed the dynamic. She understood that the dragon at her side was already riled up, more than any of the other shifters would be, and more than likely his mere presence would stave off the threat of them. Because at their core they were creatures of instinct.

So she put her fears aside—those fears, at least—and this time climbed to her own two feet when Zeno opened her door seconds later. Her cute new boots went surprisingly well with the dress she still wore, and since Zeno had apparently tossed in a pack of socks with her shoe order, she’d opted to wear them.

If she was going to upset her parents, she might as well go all-out with it.

Harmony drew a deep, not-as-steadying-as-she’d-hoped breath, squared her shoulders, and led the way up the short, cracked concrete walkway to the front door. Her nerves were rampaging again by the time she found herself struggling with whether she should knock.

Then the front door flew open, nearly swinging into her face, and her mother stood in the entryway. Her nostrils flared and she planted her hands on her hips. “Harmony Lace, where in the devil’s name have you been? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Harmony swore she could feel Zeno’s disapproving exhale at her back, despite that—at least for the moment—he continued to hold his tongue. She held tight to the courage she’d gathered moments earlier. “Do you really want to hash that out on the front stoop where all the neighbors can see?”

Linda’s brow furrowed and her stare finally lifted in Zeno’s direction. The glare wavered for a second before she dropped the entire expression back onto Harmony and demanded, “And who is this? You run away in the middle of an important transaction, then come home hours later—”

“ Transaction ?” Harmony barely kept from shouting the word. “Dad literally shoved me into Ricky’s arms and you just stood there!”

“You weren’t moving.”

“Of course I wasn’t moving,” Harmony snapped. “You know how uncomfortable he makes me, and then after the things he was saying—”

“You’re right,” Linda interrupted sharply. She twisted to the side. “We should take this inside.” Her eyes dropped to Harmony’s feet. “Those look new. Be careful taking them off so you can return them.”

Harmony found herself hesitant. This was what she’d come out there for, more or less, but suddenly she was unsure.

In her moment of uncertainty, Zeno broke his silence. “The boots are hers. She has no need to return them.”

Linda snapped her gaze out again, her glare a bit steadier this time. “I appreciate you returning my daughter home, sir,” she said tightly, “but this is a family matter. I hope you’ll forgive me for insisting you take your leave.”

Harmony stiffened. She’d expected this, but hearing it out loud made the fear worse.

Zeno laid his hand at the small of her back and stepped close enough to warm her with his presence. “I won’t be doing that.”

Linda’s eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, look who decided to come home,” a different, unfortunately familiar voice called from behind them. It slithered into Harmony’s ears and made the hair on her arms stand up.

Zeno let out a low sound of displeasure and turned so he could see Ricky without losing sight of Harmony’s mother. The expression on his face perfectly matched the growl he’d emitted. “You must be Patrick Eades.”

Harmony shifted her weight to move again closer to Zeno, not wanting her back exposed to Ricky, but her mother shot out a hand and latched onto her already bruised forearm.

At the same time, Linda said, “What wonderful timing, Mr. Eades. This man only just returned Harmony home to us.” Her words were once again soaked in sugar, but she leveled a glare on Harmony that dared her to utter a single sound of objection.

Harmony felt her heart crack. It was as if her mother didn’t understand at all.

“Mrs. Lace,” Zeno said, something like a warning in his voice.

The metal porch railing squeaked the way it always did when Ricky leaned too heavily against it. “Interesting. It smells to me like the big guy here got a little handsy with my Harmony first.” He paused just long enough for Linda’s brow to pull tighter. “Did you help yourself to my prize, Grandpa? That’s real gross, you know.”

Harmony barely heard Zeno’s next growl over the thunderous beating of her heart. She’d known coming back would be hard, but she had na?vely thought she would at least get inside before the argument really started.

“You little whore,” Linda said in a low, poorly whispered hiss, her lips curling back. “Is that why you ran? Just to spread your legs for someone else?” Her fingers dug into Harmony’s arm, the nails biting Harmony’s skin.

Harmony stared at her mother, mouth slightly agape. Shock fizzled through her system. “Are you serious?” She tugged on her arm, but her mother’s grip didn’t budge. So she raised her voice. “You bartered my virginity to the neighborhood bully, behind my back, but I would be the whore if I had chosen to give it away instead? How dare you!” She surged forward and swung her open palm across her mother’s face.

It was enough to startle Linda into rearing back and releasing her arm.

Harmony stumbled free, adrenaline and too many emotions burning through her. “That’s so outdated, so outrageous, and so completely unacceptable! I decide my life, do you hear me? Not you, not Dad, and not Ricky Eades!”

A chuckle that had never once meant anything good for her carried on the air from somewhere over her shoulder before Ricky said, “You sure about that, Princess? Because I think you might wanna rethink it.”

Harmony whirled around only in time to see Ricky’s feet leave the ground. Her eyes widened and whatever she might have snapped at him died in her throat as she watched her longtime tormentor tumble end over end down the short stretch of half-dead lawn toward the street. Behind her, her mother gasped dramatically.

Zeno stepped just in front of the porch, almost as if guarding it. “Get on your feet, vermin. This is your neighborhood. Let’s see you fight for it.”

Ricky released a long, strained groan and flopped onto his back. Seconds passed before Harmony was sure she heard him curse, and seconds more passed before he pushed to his knees. He wiped blood from his obviously broken nose, glaring openly at Zeno. “You’re gonna have to challenge a lot more than just me if it’s the neighborhood you want, old man.”

“And I would win,” Zeno said plainly, “if that were my intent.” He let the words hang in the air. “Consider this instead.” He turned a glance toward the porch, looking past Harmony and into the house where she knew her mother still stood, before facing forward again. “Harmony is my mate. You will never come near her, nor upset her again, or I will take great pride in peeling that filthy hide from your tiny, feeble body and setting your corpse aflame.”

Harmony watched Ricky’s eyes go wide and his face pale, as if he were genuinely frightened.

“Mate?” Linda whispered.

Ricky forced out a hard laugh and shoved to his feet. “You expect me to believe that? You’re delusional! That girl’s mine, old man! I’ve been waiting years for her to ripen up, no fuckin’ way am I—”

Zeno stretched one arm out at his side and the skin rippled, shimmering under the nearly sunken sun as if it had suddenly become liquid and turbulent. He simultaneously stepped forward, his pace neither slow nor hurried, and in seconds his arm had transformed. Shifted. Probably double the size, flesh replaced by almost reflective blue-black scales, and four long, slightly curved ivory claws at the end of the hand. Or paw.

Linda gasped.

Ricky stumbled back, one foot landing in the street. “F-fuck, you’re really a—”

Zeno suddenly leapt forward, his shifted arm swinging, and dirt, dead grass, and small chunks of shattered concrete flew into the air as Ricky threw himself entirely into the street. A trail of short-lived fire chased him until Ricky’s scampering feet hit the sidewalk on the opposite side.

“O-oh my God…” Linda said in her most scandalized tone.

Ricky ran to the other side of a parked pickup, leaned halfway around the hood of the truck, and shouted, “Fuck you, old man!”

Zeno straightened, his arm doing the shimmery-rippling thing again as it shifted back to familiar bronze-colored flesh.

Harmony only then realized she’d lifted a hand to her chest while she’d watched. She’d never been one to crave violence, let alone to hope anyone would fight over her. But she couldn’t deny there had been … something appealing in whatever had just happened. She did her best to push down that feeling for the moment and pivoted on her heel to face her still slack-jawed mother. “You know what? I don’t need to come in. I think we’ve said enough.” She waited while Linda refocused on her. “I would appreciate it if you would at least tell Dad I said goodbye.”

Linda’s mouth moved, but no real sound came out.

Harmony turned and stepped off the porch before Zeno could rejoin them. At his arched brow, she drew up the strongest smile she could manage and said, “I don’t want to be here anymore, and I don’t really want to think about the fact that I don’t have anywhere else to go. Can we grab that dinner?” Not that her appetite would last long once she started thinking about the meaning behind what she’d just said.

Or why her arm hurt again.

Or the show Zeno had just put on for half the neighborhood to see.

Or how stupidly sexy it had been.

All those things were their own problems. Well, most of them. If she could delay thinking about problematic things long enough for one more good meal, that would be great.

“I forbid it.”

Harmony blinked, her eyes tracking the way Zeno’s attention lifted from her to focus on something over her shoulder while her brain scrambled to process the words. Her mother’s words. She twisted in place, keeping Zeno close at her back, and saw her mother striding toward them with a look of fury on her face. “What?”

“I forbid it,” Linda repeated. “I will not allow my daughter to go gallivanting around with some monster clearly old enough to be her father!” Her arms swept wide. “Do you have any idea what will happen to us if I let you go through with this, you selfish, impulsive child?”

Harmony opened her mouth, but the sound of ripping fabric caught her attention and the next thing she knew she was surrounded by darkness. Only the faintest light crept in over the top of the black, leathery shroud that had wrapped around her. It wasn’t until she registered the sight of an ivory, claw-like protrusion running along the top outer ridge of both sides of her new enclosure that Harmony realized what had to have happened.

Zeno had extended his wings—also the source of the ripping sound she’d heard—and folded them around her. Probably. They were so large they layered over each other, and obscured her completely, blocking any useful line-of-sight. Of course, it didn’t help that she was short by most standards. Zeno’s strong arms wound around her middle and he pulled her back to his chest, the wings sliding faintly with the movement. At the center where they intersected, Linda’s head became partially visible, and Harmony realized she’d been tuning out her mother’s ranting. Not exactly for the first time.

“ Harmony will decide her future,” Zeno said in a low, firm voice that vibrated through her. “If you wish to be her mother, I would advise you to do a little self-reflecting before we meet again.”

Zeno moved his hands as Linda sputtered in outrage. Harmony could picture the flustered flush burning brightly on her mother’s cheeks—for the moment she continued to think about it at all. Then Zeno had her spun around, an arm around her shoulders, and he swept another beneath her knees. His wings snapped out, jarring a startled shriek from Harmony’s mother, and the breath rushed from Harmony’s lungs as he used those wings to propel them upward.

Oh my God! Harmony latched her arms around his neck, barely able to see over his shoulders as her mother and the yard grew smaller beneath them. The entire street fell beneath them as he twisted in the air with a single flap of his massive wings, the buildings sliding past almost too quickly to identify. We’re flying. We’re really actually flying!

He lowered them to solid ground at the edge of a familiar circling of trees, and Harmony watched as his wings folded in on themselves before disappearing entirely in another fleshy ripple. No one shouted, nothing caught fire, and no militia of armed men burst from the tree line as Zeno gently set her back on her feet. He let his hands settle on her hips, keeping her close, and watched her as if waiting for a response.

She had so many it was hard to grab hold of one. Harmony dragged in a breath and let her fingers trail over his shirt. “I used to dream of flying,” she confessed on a whisper. “That was … wild. Amazing. Totally reckless, but exhilarating.” Her brain was starting to re-engage and she was sure they shouldn’t have done that. She blinked up at him with wide eyes. “Will you get in trouble?”

He smiled slowly and his grip tightened. “For that short little jump? Hardly.” Zeno leaned in and pressed his nose to the crook of her neck, then his lips, before murmuring, “There are still places in this world we could go where I could truly take you flying, if that was something you wanted.”

She was never going to catch her breath if he kept doing things like that. Instead of lecturing him, she curled her fingers more into his shirt. “Really? I … I might like that. Someday.” Some people went skydiving. She apparently went flying with a dragon.

Just one. Just mine.

The thought made her throat close and Harmony stretched her arms around him as best she could. Even though he was leaning down, he was just ridiculously tall. “Zeno.”

“Hmm?”

She managed to slip her fingers into his hair and let her eyes close, the scandalous truth escaping her. “Can we go back to your penthouse? I don’t think I want a fancy dinner. We’ve done so much talking … I want to do something else.”