Page 5

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.”