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PROLOGUE

HARLEY

Ten years ago

“ A nother win, Ace!”

“Hell yeah!”

“Congrats!”

The voices overlapped, shouting to be heard over the music blasting from the speakers. It was late evening, and the party was just starting to kick into gear. That was something I’d learned over this summer—the Lakeview clan really knew how to party.

It’d been a perfect summer. More perfect than I ever imagined. When I flew out here to visit my mother, I’d thought I would spend a quiet few months hanging out at the lake and escaping the sticky Atlanta heat.

I hadn’t expected to meet a man like Ace.

No, not a mere man—a shifter. A dragon shifter.

Shifters were rare, but dragon shifters even more so.

They were notoriously secretive, too, and didn’t really venture outside their clans.

At least, that’s what I’d thought. The Lakeview clan seemed to run the entire town of Lakeview, but they weren’t overbearing about it.

Sure, I knew they had their hands—or claws—in certain unsavory businesses, but overall it seemed like they had things under control.

And by they, I meant him .

Stephan. Ace, as all the other dragons called him.

Their leader. Their alpha. The man I couldn’t keep my hands off.

He was tall, muscular, and tattooed, with thick blonde hair, a square jaw, and hazel eyes that flashed gold when he touched me.

Where the hell was that man? The whole clan was in the clubhouse tonight, celebrating some big deal.

I didn’t know what it was, and when I asked Ace, he said I didn’t want to know.

Instead, we’d headed to the clubhouse to celebrate.

The place was like a big, comfortable bar, with a little dance floor and some ratty old couches, and bedrooms upstairs where clan members could crash.

I was on the dance floor, surrounded by big, tough dragons.

It should have intimidated me, but I’d never felt more at home.

Although, I still wanted to be with Stephan. I always did.

“Harley!” My best friend, Cassidy, wriggled through the crowd with two drinks in her hand. “Come on, I need some air!”

Laughing, I followed her out of the crowd and onto the porch overlooking the lake. The night air was cool and refreshing, and the floorboards vibrated from the music thumping through the glass doors behind us.

“Ta-da,” Cassidy said. “Fancy mocktail for you.”

“Soda water with bitters isn’t exactly fancy!”

“Yeah, well, I think if I asked for something actually fancy, the bartender would’ve bitten my head off.” She grinned. “So? Are you going to tell him tonight?”

“I think so,” I whispered.

Cassidy’s eyes widened. “Seriously?!”

I nodded, then rubbed my belly with my free hand. “I know I should be scared, but… It feels so right, you know?”

“I definitely don’t know,” Cassidy said. “If I got pregnant over my summer break, I’d freak. But I’ve never had anything with a guy like what you have with Ace.”

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Things are so easy with him. It really feels like this is where I’m meant to be.”

“And he feels the same?”

I nodded. “He told me something.” I lowered my voice, and Cassidy leaned in to hear me. “He said I was his ‘fated mate’.”

“Whoa. A dragon can be fated to a human?”

“Apparently,” I said. “And he said that meant… That meant I could get pregnant.”

She grinned. “And it worked.”

I matched her grin. It didn’t feel real, and yet we’d both seen that little positive marking on the pregnancy test. “I know he’ll be excited. I can feel it.”

A familiar laugh carried through the window and over the thumping music.

Through the window, I saw Stephan at the bar, laughing at something his enforcer was saying.

Blakely, one of the local Lakeview humans, leaned against the bar next to him—a little too close to Stephan for my liking.

I didn’t have anything against Blakely, not really, but she’d been cold to me ever since I met Stephan.

It didn’t help that she was strikingly pretty, thin, with short red hair and keen eyes.

Her lean build was the opposite of my short, curvy figure.

Then, as if he could sense my presence, Stephan turned.

He smiled, and the warmth of it sent a tingle through my whole body.

“Oh my god.” Cassidy laughed. “You’re about to start drooling. Go tell him already.”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

I sidled right up to Stephan’s side, and he held his arm out like he was waiting for me.

Wrapping his arm around my waist, he tugged me close. He was so warm and strong, and smelled so damn good. Being this close to him felt like coming home. I sighed happily and leaned my weight against his solid body.

“Hey,” Stephan murmured in a low voice.

“Hi.” I smiled up at him. This close, I could see the gold flecks in his hazel eyes.

He leaned down and caught my lips in a kiss. The noise around us melted away. I pressed closer and deepened the kiss. He was addictive.

Blakely cleared her throat.

Face flushing, I pulled away. Whoops.

“I’ll talk to you later, Ace,” Blakely said. She tugged at the hem of her shirt. It was a little weird that she was wearing a turtleneck in the summer, but it did get pretty chilly at night.

“Uh-huh,” Stephan said, still gazing at me.

Blakely huffed and stormed away. Stephan leaned against the bar and pulled me into his arms properly, then tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “How’s the party been? Having fun?”

“Yep. But I think it might be time to get out of here.”

“Oh yeah?” He slid his hands from my waist to my hips. “Upstairs?”

“I want to go to our spot,” I whispered into his ear. “Out by the lake. I want to be with you under the moonlight.”

His grip on my hips, and he made a sound in his throat like a low growl. I loved it when I could make him start to lose control. “Lead the way, gorgeous.”

A wailing siren cut through the noise.

“Ace! We got company!” Stephan’s brother shouted.

The cheerful mood vanished like a bonfire doused with a bucket of water. The music cut off, and the clan members and visitors all looked around nervously as flashing lights approached the clubhouse.

Stephan’s grip around me tightened as he looked across the bar.

His brother, Hawk, was fighting with his girlfriend, Mia.

She shoved him in the chest and raced upstairs.

They’d been fighting a lot over the summer, but their big arguments always seemed to simmer down over time.

I didn’t know them well enough to ask what was going on, but sometimes I wondered.

“It’s Officer Forest,” Stephan’s enforcer called from the front of the clubhouse. “This is about to be a shitshow.”

Stephan sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “It’ll be fine. I’ll handle him.” He gave me an easy smile. “I went to high school with Forest, and he’s still got a chip on his shoulder. He’s probably just here to tell us to turn down the music.”

“That sounds like a lot of cop cars for a noise complaint,” I said.

“Don’t worry. Wait for me out back. This’ll just take a few minutes.” He kissed me, then strode toward the front door. I watched the strong line of his shoulders as the crowd parted around him.

Stephan’s kisses usually soothed my nerves, but something about this whole situation felt off. I wrapped my arms around myself and hurried back out to the back porch.

“What’s going on?” Cassidy asked. She darted away from the group of shifters she was talking to and pulled me into the backyard. “Are the cops here? Should we be making a run for it?”

“We’re not in high school anymore, Cass,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, but I’m still not supposed to be drinking this!” She dumped the rest of her drink off the porch.

“Steph said it’s probably a noise complaint. I’m sure he’ll send the cops on his way, then we can get out of here.”

“I don’t know,” Cassidy said. “This feels kind of serious.”

It did to me, too… I just didn’t want to admit it.

“Maybe we should go back to your mom’s,” Cassidy said.

The back door slid open, and Blakely stepped out onto the porch. “Hey, Harley? Can I talk to you? Privately?”

“Huh?” Blakely had never spoken so nicely to me—hell, I don’t think she’d talked to me at all over the summer. But now, her eyes were soft, and her brows were pulled together with concern. I glanced at Cassidy, and she shrugged.

“It’s important,” Blakely said. “It’s about Ace.”

I took a step back. “What?”

“Harley… Ace has been lying to you.”