Page 28

ACE

“ S mells good in here,” I said as I closed the front door behind me.

I’d had a long, irritating day at work. Now that our shipment was finally at the auto shop, we had a lot of overdue orders to fill.

Managing those orders while still keeping on pace with actual car repairs was a balancing act, and I’d had to rearrange most of our schedule.

And all of that was on top of keeping the clan informed about Sean and his lackeys—as well as making sure we had the paperwork in place for the upcoming distillery opening.

I was stretched thin. It was doubly frustrating since every moment away from Harley turned my dragon into a whiny, little bitch.

If he couldn’t claim her, he wanted to be with her every second of the day.

I had the same feeling. But it simply wasn’t possible.

“I’m making Dylan’s favorite, honey-glazed brussels sprouts,” Harley said.

I itched to press her up against the counter again. That kiss had given me a Pavlovian reaction to seeing her cook.

“Dang, that’s a pretty grown-up food,” I said. I ruffled Dylan’s hair. He was slumped on the couch, watching some cartoon on the TV and frowning slightly at the screen. “You all right, bud?”

“He’s grumpy,” Harley said from the kitchen.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” Harley said.

Dylan sat up. “My dragon’s annoyed.”

I sat down next to him. “Annoyed? With what?”

“There was this lady at the grocery store who was mean to Mom, and my dragon didn’t like her at all. It’s bothering me.”

“Some lady?” I glanced at Harley, one eyebrow raised in question.

She sighed. “We ran into Blakely.”

My dragon growled. I could ban Blakely from clan properties, but I couldn’t keep her away from public places like the grocery store. Admittedly, I’d hoped she might skip town, but apparently she’d only dug her heels in deeper.

“I got really bad vibes,” Dylan said. “Who was she?”

“She used to be connected to the clan, but she’s not anymore,” I said. “She got kicked out for being a bad person.”

Dylan’s eyes widened. “What’d she do?”

“We’ll talk about it when you’re older,” I said. “But your dragon could sense that. You’ve both got a good sense of character.”

Dylan frowned. He didn’t appreciate my non-answer, but I could tell the compliment pleased his dragon.

“You want to go play some video games in your room until dinner?” Harley asked.

Dylan nodded.

I squeezed his shoulder. “You didn’t want to leave your Mom alone, did you?”

He shook his head.

My dragon hummed, pleased that our son was already so courageous and defensive.

Even a slight threat to Harley, like Blakely’s rudeness, was enough to make him rear up.

Once Dylan went through his first shift, he’d learn to get control over those instincts, but I was thrilled to see they were present.

“That’s all right, but she’s safe now. You can go relax. ”

His shoulders sagged slightly, then he leaned forward and hugged me. “Thanks, Dad.”

Dylan ran upstairs. His mood was visibly lighter from when I’d walked in the door. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. “Poor kid. He must’ve been on edge all day.”

Harley nodded. “I think seeing Blakely really shook up his dragon. I wasn’t sure what to do. He stuck to my side most of the day.”

“It’ll get easier. He’s still young and learning how to manage his instincts.”

“And you’ll help him, right?” Harley cuts off the stove and sets the steaks aside to rest.

“Of course.” I leaned against the counter. “What about you? Are you okay?”

Harley grimaced. “I’m fine. She was just rude.”

“Rude how?”

“Going on and on about how I ruined her life.” Harley glanced up toward the stairs. Even though Dylan was in his room with the door closed, she still lowered her voice. “Honestly, I wanted to sock her in the face.”

I huffed out a laugh. “She would’ve deserved it. She fucked up our lives and ruined her own along the way.”

“That’s what I said,” Harley said, exasperated. “She seems a little unhinged. I was afraid she might do something besides run her mouth.”

My dragon growled again, and I tasted smoke on the back of my tongue. “Did she threaten you?”

“No, not really—she seemed a little out of control.” Harley rubbed her temple and closed her eyes. “I’m okay, really. I know she’s not really a threat, it… I don’t know, it’s a lot to take in.”

I put my thumb under her chin and tilted her head up. Harley’s blue eyes flickered open and met mine.

“No one will come between us again,” I promised her. “Not Blakely. Not anyone else. If anyone speaks to you the way Blakely did—hell, if anyone even makes you uncomfortable—you come to me. Promise me.”

She swallowed. “Stephan…”

“You don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

She blinked hard, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “Okay. I’ll come to you. I promise.”

Her skin was warm and soft beneath my fingers.

Again my dragon rumbled his insistence, his desire.

He urged me to pull her close and kiss her until the worries melted away.

But not now when Dylan was so keyed up and attuned to everything.

One sound from his mom and he’d come storming down the stairs.

I ran my fingers down the side of her neck, then squeezed her nape in gentle reassurance. “What can I help with for dinner? You’ve been doing all the cooking.”

“It’s the least I can do,” she said. “But you can chop up the peppers for a salad if you want.”

I pulled out the bell peppers from the fridge and began to dice them. “How’s my kitchen compare to yours in Atlanta?”

She laughed. “It’s bigger, that’s for sure. But I got used to cooking in small spaces over the years. My dad’s kitchen was tiny.”

“You stayed with your dad?”

“Mm-hmm.” She turned her attention to the mashed potatoes on the stove.

“He helped me raise Dylan while I was finishing up college. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him.

But even then, I liked to do a lot of the cooking for the three of us.

Dad always did the cleanup, so I could get a jump on my studying. ”

It didn’t surprise me to hear that Liz Founty hadn’t played much of a role in Dylan’s life. Harley had probably wanted to get as far away from Lakeview and her mom as she possibly could.

“Staying with Dad helped me save up the money I needed to get my own place in Atlanta. I didn’t want to have to move Dylan around, bouncing from apartment to apartment…

We have a little house. Dad helped with that, too.

He left us some money. So, the kitchen is really small, but it’s all the space we need. ”

“Your father passed away?”

Her smile faltered a little. “Yeah, a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad that Dylan got to spend a lot of time with him as he was growing up.”

“I know what it’s like to lose a parent,” I said. “I lost my dad a few years ago, too. It’s never easy.”

She looked up. “I’m sorry for you, too.”

“I was lucky enough to have him for a long time,” I said. “And it wasn’t a surprise, which made it easier. We were prepared. He lived a good, long life, and his heart flame went out when it was ready.”

“He was a good man,” she said. “I never really knew him, but I remember how much everyone respected him.”

Dad had been at the end of his life when Harley first came to Lakeview.

He’d spent his time seeing clan members in private.

I was preparing to step into the role of alpha.

I sometimes wondered if he had lived a little longer, if he’d been around to keep me from getting cocky about the money in the drug trade…

I couldn’t allow myself to walk that looping path of regret.

I scooped the diced bell peppers into the salad bowl.

“He was. I wish Dylan could’ve met him.”

She reached over and touched my forearm. “He has you, now. You’ll have to tell him the stories.”

I stared into the bowl at the scattered bits of bell pepper and swallowed down a sudden surge of anger and grief. If Blakely hadn’t interfered, maybe Dylan could’ve had a chance to meet my father, even though I’d been in prison. It was yet another thing she’d taken from my son and from me.

“Your dad was the alpha before you, wasn’t he?” Harley asked. “The same way Dylan could one day be clan alpha?”

I cleared my throat. “Yes. An alpha child traditionally takes over the role. Usually, the firstborn is an alpha, so it should have been Hawk, but the alpha gene skipped over him. Sean and I are somewhat of a unique circumstance. Twins, both alphas.”

Her eyebrows knit together slightly. “I seem to remember you telling me that Sean was older than you, right?”

“Right. By a few minutes.”

“But you’re the alpha.” I saw the pieces click together in her mind. “Oh, I bet he doesn’t like that.”

“That’s an understatement,” I said. “It’s the reason he abandoned the clan. My father chose me as the next alpha, because he saw I was stronger and more responsible than Sean. At the end of my father’s life, he entrusted me with the clan, because he didn’t trust Sean to lead us well.

“Sean felt like he had been denied his birthright. Before we even had time to bury my father, he challenged me for the role. He nearly lost his eye for his trouble.”

“Jesus,” Harley murmured.

“The clan has flourished under my leadership, and that’s only pissing Sean off more.

He hates me. He hates this clan. He wants to be the alpha, but only to take it away from me.

He doesn’t actually care about any of the Lakeview dragons.

” I started chopping the carrots for the salad, using maybe a little too much force as I drove the blade into the cutting board.

“His interference has made it complicated for me to legitimize our businesses. That’s why I was at the clubhouse this morning—dealing with some rumors before I went to the garage. ”

“And that’s what all those meetings have been about?” Harley asked.