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He rushed downstairs and stood in the living room, looking between Stephan and me. “This isn’t fair! You promised it’d be the whole summer!”

“I’m sorry, Dylan, but I’m not budging on this,” I said.

“But I thought you were getting back together!” Dylan shouted. He balled his hands into fists at his sides. “We were gonna be a real family!”

My heart broke all over again. How was I supposed to tell my son that I’d thought the same thing? I’d thought we might have a real chance at being a family. I’d thought maybe Stephan could be more than a father to Dylan. I’d wanted him to be my partner.

Now that hope was extinguished.

“It’s not that simple, Dylan,” I said, my voice wavering.

“This is all your fault, Mom!” Dylan’s eyes flashed gold with anger, just like his father’s. “You ruined everything!”

“Dylan,” Stephan said firmly. He knelt to Dylan’s eye level and placed a hand on Dylan’s shoulder firmly. “You’re a Lakeview shifter now, son. You’re responsible for your dragon. And that means never, ever flashing your eyes at your mom.”

“But Dad?—”

“But nothing,” Stephan said. “I know you’re angry and sad, but that doesn’t mean you can lash out like that, okay?”

Dylan sniffed hard. Tears welled in his eyes. “We really have to leave?”

“You do,” Stephan said. “You need to go back to Atlanta. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still your dad. You can call me whenever you want to, okay? And I’ll come see you as much as I can.”

Dylan flung his arms around Stephan’s neck. “I don’t want to leave.”

“I know.” Stephan’s gaze met mine over the top of Dylan’s head. “I know, kiddo.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the large glass windows.

The sun glittered on the still surface of the water, and the mountains rose tall in the distance.

I’d gotten used to this view. It wouldn’t be easy to go back to the endless asphalt of Atlanta.

“Let’s start packing up, Dylan. We’ve got to get to Syracuse tonight. ”

Dylan trudged up the stairs. I followed behind him, one hand on his upper back. I didn’t want to look down at Stephan behind me. I was already hurting enough.

We spent the day packing. I booked a hotel in Syracuse for the night.

Throughout the day, I half-expected the clan to show up at the house to try to convince us to stay, but it was quiet.

Stephan hadn’t told anyone we were leaving.

For that, I was oddly grateful. It’d be easier to put this whole place behind me if I didn’t have to struggle with goodbyes.

I wanted to pretend this summer never happened.

I didn’t want to think about Mia, Hawk, or Striker.

I didn’t want to think about Bella and Zoey and Dylan all playing in the backyard together.

I didn’t want to think about riding astride Stephan’s dragon’s back with Dylan asleep against me, completely at peace.

I didn’t want to think about falling asleep in Stephan’s strong arms.

I wanted to forget it all. I had to go back to the woman I was before this. A successful career woman, a good friend, a strong single mother. Dylan had gotten through his first shift. That was all that mattered.

Everything else had been a fantasy.

The sun was low in the sky once we were packed up. I slid the last bag into the trunk of the black sedan. The white rental SUV had already been returned, so I’d leave the sedan at airport parking for some other clan member to pick up.

It’d be like we were never here.

I closed the trunk, then turned and leaned against the back of the car. Stephan stood within arm’s reach, his eyes flecked with gold and the corners of his lips turned down. Part of me wanted to reach out and smooth the furrow from his brow.

“That’s everything,” I said.

Stephan nodded. “That’s everything.”

This would be the last time I laid eyes on him for…

I didn’t know how long. I didn’t want to look.

I didn’t want to stop looking. I drank in the curve of his shoulders, the tattoos on his forearms, the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes.

I didn’t want to remember, but at the same time, I didn’t want to forget, either.

“Harley…” he said softly.

“Dad!” Dylan rushed out to the car with his VR headset dangling around his neck. He collided with Stephan and hugged him around the middle as hard as he could.

Stephan made a oof sound and caught Dylan. He tugged at the headset so it wasn’t pushing into his middle. “Don’t wear this in the car, it’ll make you nauseous.”

“I won’t,” Dylan mumbled.

“Take care of your mom, okay? Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Good. I’ll call you tomorrow after you land.”

Dylan nodded, then reluctantly allowed Stephan to corral him into the passenger’s seat.

Stephan closed the door.

My heart climbed into my throat.

I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want whatever had been blossoming between us to die like this. I wanted everything to be different. I wanted this summer to have never happened at all.

Stephan stepped close to me and brushed an errant lock of hair behind my ear like he usually did. The way he touched me when he wanted an excuse to look at me. To be close.

“You can change your mind,” he said. “You don’t have to leave.”

“I’ll let you know when Dylan has a break from school again,” I said. “We’ll figure out custody.”

Stephan flinched at that word, but didn’t push back. “Okay.”

“Okay,” I repeated.

There was nothing left to say. There was nothing left for me in Lakeview. Being here only ever ended in pain and heartbreak—first with my mother, and now with Stephan.

There was no reason for me to ever come here again. It was time for me to leave Lakeview behind for good.

I opened the driver’s side door. “Goodbye, Stephan.”

Stephan took a step away from the car. He couldn’t say goodbye back to me—the same way I hadn’t been able to tell him I loved him, once upon a time. The moment I had, everything fell apart.

In the passenger seat, Dylan had his headphones on and his forehead pressed to the window. I turned the car on and backed out of the driveway.

Dylan stared out the window at the big house as we drove away. I kept my eyes on the road. I didn’t want to see Stephan in the mirror. My heart was breaking because I knew I was hurting him and hurting my son.

But I had to keep Dylan safe. I had to keep my heart safe.

We drove. The sun set as we headed south on the quiet two-lane highway. My eyes burned with unshed tears, but I didn’t cry. I wouldn’t. Not until I was home in Atlanta. I’d keep it together for my son until then.

After an hour, the last of the buildings had melted away, and we drove through thick woods on a curving, narrow highway. There were no streetlights, and no other cars around. In another hour or two, we’d be in Syracuse.

“Mom?” Dylan asked. “Who’s that?”

“Who?” I glanced in the rearview mirror.

A truck pulled out of a narrow dirt road and onto the highway behind us. It was big, with tinted windows and a front grill splattered in mud… Mud, or something else.

My stomach dropped. I squinted in the mirror, but I couldn’t see through the truck’s dark windshield.

“Are they trying to pass us?” Dylan asked.

“Is your seatbelt on?” I asked.

“Duh,” Dylan said. “Why? What’s happening?”

The truck’s engine roared as it lurched forward and flashed its headlights, burning my eyes through the mirror. Dylan yelped in surprise. I gunned it and sped up. The narrow highway had sharp curves, and I struggled to keep up speed with the truck on our ass the entire time.

“Mom, make it stop!”

“Shit,” I muttered. This was giving me flashbacks—was Blakely after me again? But that wasn’t her truck.

The engine roared again. The truck bumped the back of my sedan and the whole car rattled.

Dylan shouted, and I flung my arm out to hold him in place.

The truck honked loud enough to rattle my eardrums. It revved its engine, then gunned up and around my car so it was racing up the wrong side of the road.

For a moment, I thought we might get lucky.

I thought this might be a psycho in a hurry, looking to get around us and be on his way.

But no.

The truck veered to the left and slammed into the sedan.

Dylan and I screamed as the car skidded off the road and the shoulder, over the grass, and then slammed into a tree.

The airbags exploded, and for a moment I sat back in a daze, head pounding, as the airbag slowly deflated. Smoke poured from the engine.

“Dylan! Dylan, honey, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Dylan mumbled. He rubbed his forehead. “I lost my headphones…”

“Okay, that’s okay!” I was right on the edge of hysterics. I grabbed my phone, still mercifully in the cupholder between us, and fumbled with the screen. Had to call the cops. Had to get out of here.

Then the door was flung open. A strong arm grabbed me and a knife sliced through my seatbelt. At the same time, the passenger door was ripped open as well, and Dylan screamed as someone dragged him out of the car. “Mom! Mom!”

“Dylan!”

My arms were wrenched behind my back as I was dragged backward, away from the car, and back toward the big black truck.

I didn’t recognize the man who was dragging me, nor the man who was pulling Dylan.

Both were tall and barrel-chested, with scarred faces and arms. “Let me go!” I howled, twisting furiously in the man’s grasp. “Don’t you dare hurt my son!”

The truck door swung open. “I’d never do something like that.”

A man stepped out. Heavy boots. Stained jeans. Broad shoulders. A scar across his eye.

A familiar face. A face that made my heart swoop with grief and terror.

Sean.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I screamed. I thrashed in my captor’s grip again, but it was like trying to bend iron.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sean asked. “I’m claiming my heir.”

“Mom!” Dylan cried out. “Mom—mmph!” His words were silenced by the man’s hand slapping over his mouth.

Sean strolled over to Dylan and toyed with his blond hair.

The sight made me nauseous. “Sometimes,” Sean said, “in this life, you have to simply take what’s yours.

The Lakeview clan is mine. It was meant to be mine from the moment I was born.

And I will no longer wait for it to be given back to me.

You’ve given me the perfect opportunity, and I won’t let it pass me by. ”

“My son is Stephan’s heir, not yours,” I snarled.

“That’s right,” Sean said with a smile. “When my dear brother Ace dies, your kid here becomes the alpha. But a nine-year-old can’t lead a clan, can he?”

The pieces clicked together in my head. “You’re crazy if you think that will work. You’re going to, what, brainwash him?”

“I think it’ll work beautifully,” Sean said. “It’ll be easy, in fact. I’ll make Dylan hate Ace the way he should. The way I do. Then, when I kill Ace and make all this right, Dylan will simply hand over the pack to me. Ta-da.”

“Even if that worked,” I hissed, “which it won’t, Hawk would never let you get away with it.”

“You think a beta’s opinion matters in clan business? Don’t make me laugh. He can’t question the alpha. With Dylan under my control, and you out of the picture, Lakeview will finally be mine for the taking.”

He looked so fucking smug. It disgusted me, and it pissed me the hell off. He thought he could take my son away from me? And from his dad?

I was done being scared. This idiot had another thing coming.

I slammed my heel down hard on my captor’s foot. He shouted, and his hold loosened enough for me to jerk forward. I kicked my foot up and nailed him right in the balls, and that made him drop me with a howl of pain. Good.

Sean whirled toward me, eyes glowing with that dark, burnished gold. Rage pinched his features. I knew I couldn’t beat him.

But I could distract him.

I charged at Sean like a wild animal. My shoulder collided with his gut and he stumbled back in shock, then hit the ground hard.

“Bite him, Dylan!” I shouted.

Dylan’s eyes widened. Then his eyes glowed gold like his father’s, and he pulled his brows together. The man holding him screamed, and blood began to pour from his hand. He tried to pull his hand away, but Dylan’s sharp dragon fangs were embedded in the palm of his hand.

“Go, Dylan!” I lunged at Sean and slashed at his face with my nails.

Dylan shoved his captor away. The man moaned in pain, grimacing at his mauled hand.

“Mom!” Dylan shouted.

“Shift!” I cried out. I struggled forward and managed to pin Sean to the ground, but I wouldn’t be able to keep him there long. “Shift, now! Get out of here! Find Steph!”

“You’re going to pay for this,” Sean hissed. He caught my wrist in his hand and wrenched me to the ground.

“Now!” I screamed. “Go!”

Dylan stumbled backward. He eyes darted from me, to Sean, to the two men who were recovering from their wounds and turning toward him. “I’ll get help,” he said. “I promise!”

Then, with an exhale, he shifted. It wasn’t as smooth as Stephan’s shifts, but it wasn’t as rocky as his first. Green scales rippled over his skin, wings burst from his back, and he reared up onto his back legs, teeth bared and claws extended.

The two men lurched backward, surprised.

Dylan beat his wings and took off into the sky, lingering for a moment overhead before flying higher.

Sean’s claws extended and dug into my wrist. Pinpricks of pain shot through me as he dragged me to the side and tossed me like a sack of potatoes onto the grass.

“Get him!” he shouted as his lackeys.

The guy I’d kicked in the balls bared his teeth at me, then shifted.

His shift wasn’t elegant. It was slow and stuttering.

When Stephan shifted, it was like watching a Ferrari turn on and start speeding off.

This guy’s shift was more like watching a beat-up old Jeep rattle to life.

With some creaking and cracking, he finally transformed into a bulky gray dragon. With a roar, he took off into the sky.

All I could was pray that Dylan was faster than him.

Suddenly the pain was with me all at once. I clung to my arm and pressed down on the shallow gashes from Sean’s claws. Then Sean was on his feet, looming over me, rage burning in his eyes.

“He won’t get far,” Sean snarled. “We’ll catch him. But until then, you’ll serve my purposes just fine.”

He grabbed the front of my shirt and hauled me to my feet. I struggled, but I couldn’t break his grip. He raised his hand, and pain burst through my skull. The world turned black around me.