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With some reluctance, I pulled away from her touch. I exhaled and began to draw my dragon back. Shifting back into my human form felt different, like I was compressing instead of expanding. My wings pulled back in, then my scales retreated, and my muscles tightened and pulled in.

When I opened my eyes, I was in front of Harley, shirtless and in my jeans. Thank God, dragon shifter magic didn’t shred clothes like those unlucky wolf shifters.

“Ah.” Harley sucked her lower lip between her teeth as she stared at my naked chest.

I hooked my thumbs into my belt loops. I loved the sensation of her gaze on me. I’d let her stare as long as she wanted. “See something you like?”

Her eyes snapped up to me, widened, then she took a step back. “What? No! There’s… Lunch is being made. We should go back inside.”

“Right.” I took a step forward to close the distance between us, drawn toward her like a magnet, always. “We should.”

This time, she didn’t step away.

After a shift, my dragon was closer to the surface.

He was still lively and excited from the flight, from the rush of the wind, from being so close to our son and our mate.

She tilted her face up and met my gaze, her lips parting slightly.

I reached out without thinking and tucked her auburn hair behind her ear.

The touch made her tremble slightly, like she couldn’t help it.

My dragon purred. I had the same effect on her as she had on me.

It’d be so easy to lean forward, to grasp that familiar-unfamiliar curve of her waist. My fingers touched her neck.

She inhaled. She smelled so good, so sweet…

“Ace!”

Harley stumbled backward like a spell had been broken—and in a way, it had been.

Her face turned bright pink. She whipped around toward the deck.

Hawk was standing by the railing. He was probably out here to give me a hard time after disrupting our moment on purpose.

I was about to shout something at him, but his expression made the words die on my tongue.

His brow was deeply furrowed, and he’d gone pale despite the bright sun. “Striker called. It’s about work.”

Harley swallowed hard. “I’ll go help with lunch.”

“Harley—”

She waved half-heartedly at me, then hurried back into the house. The door slammed behind her. I climbed the stairs to the deck at a slower pace. Every time I got close to Harley, got close to reigniting that old flame between us, my work—no, my life— got in the way.

It was a sobering reminder. No wonder Harley had run inside.

“What’s going on?”

“Sean contacted Striker,” Hawk said. “He wants to meet with you. Today. Striker got him to agree to the usual meeting place.”

I scrubbed one hand over my face. “Fuck.”

“Yeah. I know. You gonna take care of things?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. Michel wanted Sean out of the picture, but before I took care of Sean, I had to make sure his gang didn’t have anyone else waiting in the wings to take over.

And despite all the pain and the violence… Sean was still my brother. My dragon huffed in agreement. If he wanted to meet, I’d hear him out. The more I understood, the easier it would be to handle this issue.

But I couldn’t save him. That much I already knew.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said. “Get your things.”

Hawk nodded and walked around the side of the house to the car.

I stepped back inside, where Harley, Mia, and Dylan were in the kitchen digging into sausages and homemade fries.

Mia and Harley both fell silent when I walked in, and Dylan was thankfully distracted by devouring what looked like a meal fit for three grown men.

“Everything okay?” Harley asked.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Can I show you a few things around the house?”

“Uh, sure.” She stood and followed me from the kitchen to the front door.

I opened the panel on the security system and showed her how to put it on and told her the code. “The big red button here will call the clan enforcers. You can reach the authorities, too, but it’s best to go first to the enforcers.”

Harley blinked at the security panel. “Why would I need it?”

“There are cameras outside and more buttons to quick-call the clan enforcers around the house.” I avoided using the phrase “panic button.” “I’ll have Mia walk you through and show you where they are.”

“What the hell is going on?” Harley folded her hands over her chest and scowled at me. “Where are you going?”

I sighed. “On a work call. Nothing’s going to happen. But since we’re leaving, I want you to know these things about the house. Just in case.”

“Just in case,” she repeated. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“There’s one more thing. This way.” I led her to the small, narrow door off the kitchen. It looked like a pantry, but it was much more than that. I pushed it open, revealing a long, narrow set of darkened stairs.

Harley sighed. “Great. There’s a murder basement, too?”

“It’s the anti-murder basement.” I hit the lights in the stairwell, then led her downstairs. The basement was a safe room, equipped with a television, radio, comfortable futons, and a phone. It locked from the inside and was practically impenetrable.

“Why the hell do you have a bunker?” Harley demanded. “Why are you showing me this? Should I be worried about Dylan being here?”

I turned to face her and put my hand on her shoulder. The tension that had crackled between us outside was now gone—now, all I cared about was making sure she felt safe. That she trusted me. My dragon’s protectiveness surged. These precautions were to keep her safe, but they were scaring her, too.

“There’s no active fighting,” I said. “And no one’s being targeted.

I’m meeting with a member of a nearby clan, and we’ve had some issues in the past. I’m showing you these security features because I want you to feel in control.

This home is yours this summer. If I’m not here, you should know how to use the security. ”

Her shoulders slumped, then she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes like she was suddenly exhausted. “I’d forgotten about this part of your life. I guess it didn’t matter so much when I was young.”

“You’re still young,” I said with a small smile.

That made her huff a small, surprised laugh. “If Dylan sees this place, he’ll want to turn it into his private gaming cave.”

“Isn’t that his bedroom?”

“Why have one when you could have two?”

We were laughing as we went back upstairs. She seemed more relaxed now, but not as comfortable as she’d been this morning. My dragon whined. We hated seeing her antsy in our home. This was the place where she should be most at ease.

But I couldn’t do anything about that now. I had to tackle this problem with Sean for good if I wanted to build a life that included Harley. Each time work interrupted us, I felt her pulling away.

“Don’t have too much fun while I’m gone,” I called to Dylan.

“I won’t,” Dylan promised. He waved at me, his grin as bright as ever.

Hawk and Striker were already waiting for me outside.

We drove in a three-car caravan nearly an hour south to a small roadside diner called Lola’s.

It was attached to a rundown gas station and was little more than a rest stop, which made it the perfect place for a meeting like this.

There were a few trucks parked in the back lot, but no other cars.

There was only the asphalt of the highway, the surrounding trees, and the faded brick with the blinking HOT COFFEE sign.

Hawk strode toward the door, his eyes blazing with anger. I grabbed his shoulder before he could burst inside.

“Cool it. You’re staying out here.”

Hawk’s eyes flashed gold with rage. “What the hell do you mean? Sean?—”

“I’m handling Sean,” I said. “I need you outside to make sure there’s no one else from his clan trying to get the jump on us. Okay?”

“You’re just trying to keep me out of the conversation.”

“You’re right. I need the protection, but I also know you’ll break Sean’s nose the second you see him. You’re smoking, dude.’

Hawk rubbed his nose, and the thin streams of smoke drifting from his nostrils dissipated. “Fine. Don’t go easy on him. And take Striker with you.”

I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. He was still my big brother. “I’m still the alpha, Hawk—I know what I’m doing.”

I strode through the front door with Striker right behind me. The diner was empty, save for the exhausted-looking waitress behind the counter and the cooks clattering around in the narrow kitchen. In the corner booth, with his back to the wall, Sean sat with a cup of coffee in front of him.

He kept his narrow hazel eyes on me as I approached. We were identical twins, and the resemblance was striking—which was why the waitress shot us a confused look. I slid into the booth across from Sean, and Striker settled in the booth behind us.

The waitress came over cautiously and offered me a mug of coffee. I accepted it, and she was more than happy to scurry away back behind the counter. I’d taken a lot of meetings at Lola’s, and sometimes they didn’t go quite as planned. We’d paid for more than a few repairs here.

“I’m surprised you came alone,” I said.

My twin brother shrugged. “Show of good faith.”

Sean grinned. Looking at him was like looking in a funhouse mirror. He looked exactly like me—same eyes, same face, same height—but Sean was a little narrower, with a crooked tooth on the left side of his mouth, and a long, nasty scar running across his right eye.

My fingers tingled at the sight of the scar. My claws remembered dragging through his flesh. That was the first time he’d tried to challenge me to be the leader of the Lakeview clan.

“Your shipment is on its way to Michel’s warehouse,” Sean said.

I blinked. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. We hadn’t even threatened them. Yet

“I don’t operate like that,” Sean continued. “I don’t need to steal from you behind your back like a coward. When I come for my seat as clan alpha, you’ll see me coming.”

“Then why the fuck did my shipment get stolen in the first place?” I snarled.

“My dog went a little wild.”

“Levi.”

Sean nodded, but a small smirk played on his lips. “Not his best decision. But it’s good he hates you as much as I do.”

I kept my expression carefully neutral. Levi was a wolf shifter, and he’d fallen in with Lakeview as a young teenager when he’d lost his own pack. He’d been a friend of mine, too. But he’d chosen sides, and he’d chosen Sean. “Then you’d better keep your dog on a tighter leash.”

“That’s not your concern,” Sean said. “I’m here to make sure you know your goods have been returned. I’m righting the situation, but it’s not a peace offering.”

“I never thought it was.”

“I’ll be coming to claim the role of Lakeview alpha,” Sean said again. “When I do, the dragons will fall in line behind me as they always should’ve.”

“They never will.” We’d had this argument thousands of times. “Let it go. Focus your energy on your own territory. You’re wasting my time, and your own time, too.”

His eyes flashed gold, and smacked his fist on the table. It rattled on its feet, and coffee sloshed out of both our mugs. “It’s my birthright! You stole it from me!”

I sat back in my chair, unfazed. If I were a younger man, I’d remind Sean that this exact behavior was why he wasn’t alpha. “It was never your right. Dad chose me to lead the clan. If you really cared about Lakeview, you would’ve accepted that from the beginning.”

“Our father chose wrong. If he had chosen me, Lakeview would have control over the entire East Coast, instead of being stuck hiding away from the world.”

I exhaled through my nose. That kind of conquering wasn’t what our father, me, or any of the other dragons wanted. Sean was power-hungry, blood-thirsty, and getting worse. “Sean?—”

“Enjoy your peace, because it won’t last.” Sean slid out of the booth, eyes still burnished gold with rage. But then that small smirk returned. “I almost forgot. I heard you’re a daddy now. Make sure you tell your son I said hello.”

I was on my feet before I realized I’d moved. My dragon burned with anger. The room went still—even the activity in the kitchen ceased as I glared at Sean.

A tiny amount of fear flickered across his face. I wouldn’t have recognized it were he anyone but my twin.

“Don’t fucking talk about my son,” I snarled. “This mess with the shipment is one thing. But if you come even close to my family—if you come close to Lakeview, I’ll kill you. No questions asked.’

Sean lowered his chin and met my gaze steadily. My dragon felt the hatred radiating off my brother’s dragon. The tension in the room ticked up a few degrees.

“Ace,” Striker said.

Sean straightened and took a step back. He scoffed, like this was all below him. “You don’t need to worry about that. I don’t have any concerns about your heir. He won’t matter once I’m alpha and you’re dead.”

“Fucking try it,” I growled.

“Guys.” Striker stood up and grabbed my shoulder. “That’s enough.”

Sean glared at the both of us. He bared his teeth, then strode out of the diner without a backward glance.

“Sorry about them,” Striker said to the waitress with a winning smile. “How about a slice of that coconut cream pie?”