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HARLEY

T wo bikes pulled up to the house, but no Cadillac, and my heart leaped into my throat.

Cassidy and I had been sitting on the couch for what felt like hours.

We each had a glass of wine, but we weren’t really drinking it.

I’d seen what looked like an explosion across the lake—right where Steph had said he’d be meeting his brother.

Since seeing that bright orange light, my nerves had been chewing at me.

I trusted Steph. I trusted that he’d be okay.

What other choice did I have?

The explosion had woken Dylan, but I’d gotten him back to sleep with a little white lie that it wasn’t anything important and that it was far away. He’d looked at me with sleepy confusion, like he knew I was lying. Luckily, he hadn’t been awake enough to push, and he soon settled into sleep again.

Dylan had his father’s draconic senses. There’d be no lying to Dylan, not anymore.

As soon as the bikes approached, I rushed to the front door and yanked it open.

Relief washed over me as I saw the bikes carried three people: Striker on one, and Hawk and Steph on the other.

Hawk threw me a salute and pulled out of the driveway as soon as Steph hopped off.

That didn’t surprise me. I was sure he wanted to get back to Mia just as badly as I had wanted Steph back with me.

Steph stepped onto the front porch, and I immediately wrapped him into a hard hug. I exhaled hard, and it felt like the first breath I’d taken in hours. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel how scared I was, and now all that terror crashed over me and dissipated. Suddenly, I was bone-tired.

“Are you okay?” I ran my hands up and down his arms, his back, his chest, checking for any injuries or pains.

“I’m fine, Harley,” he said warmly. “Cadillac’s not, but the fire department is handling that.”

“Jesus. I’m sorry. I know you loved that car.”

“Eh, gives me an excuse to start another project car.”

I laughed, a little disbelieving, a lot worn out, and patted his chest. “How can you sound so relaxed? Didn’t Sean just try to blow you up? What the hell happened out there?”

“Let’s go inside. I’ll tell you everything.”

Inside, Striker had poured himself a finger of Night Shift whiskey, and was talking to Cassidy in the kitchen. They smiled at us when we walked in, then Striker gestured for Cassidy to join him out on the back porch. I was grateful for the privacy as I pulled Steph toward the couch.

“What did Sean want?” I asked. “Besides you getting blown to bits.”

Steph sighed. He raked a hand through his hair, then walked me through everything that had happened: how Sean had demanded the clan, again, threatened Steph with jail time, then blew up his car.

God, what if someone had been in that car? “He’s sick. Why do you keep trying to meet up with him? He’s just trying to lure you somewhere where he can kill you.”

“He won’t do that,” Steph said. “If he kills me without issuing a challenge, the clan will go to Dylan. He can’t issue a challenge, because he knows he’ll lose in an honorable fight.”

“That’s why he wanted to kidnap Dylan,” I said. “He wanted the next alpha in line out of the picture.”

“Yeah. It’s a baseless idea—the clan would never allow him to step in if something like that happened.”

He couldn’t even say it, but I knew what he meant. If Sean killed Dylan.

I tugged my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Using me as a bargaining chip was one thing, but Dylan was just a kid. He didn’t deserve any of this. Part of me wanted to wake him up right now and get out of Lakeview, but…

“He’d follow you,” Steph said quietly, like he could read my thoughts. “It’s not safe for you to leave. I’m sorry, Harley.”

“How do you do that? How do you always seem to know what I’m thinking before I say it?”

“You have a very expressive face.” He tapped my forehead, right between my furrowed eyebrows.

I hummed and pulled away. “No, seriously. I know it’s more than that, Steph.”

“Comes with being fated to a dragon, unfortunately,” Steph said. “Don’t worry, I can’t read your thoughts.”

I slumped down, relieved to hear that. Dragon magic was full of surprises—who could blame me for wondering if telepathy was part of it?

“My dragon can sense you,” Steph explained. “Feel your emotions, in a way. It’s like empathy on steroids.”

“Why can’t I sense you? Is it because I’m not a dragon? Seems unfair that it only goes one way.”

“You would, if I claimed you. It solidifies the connection between us.”

His gaze flashed gold with sudden desire.

Heat swirled through me, and even without a completed bond, I knew we were imagining the same thing.

Me, spread out on his dark sheets with him above me, his lips on mine, his hands on my waist, my hips…

Except this time, I’d have his bite on my neck.

I’d feel the heat of his arousal swirling with my own.

He took my hands and smoothed his thumb over the back of my hand. “There are risks, too. The bond… It’s like a living thing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Our souls are connected,” Steph said. “Our lives. If something happened to you, injury or…” He closed his eyes briefly, as if just saying these words hurt him. “Or death. The bond would die, too.”

“What do you mean, die?”

“It’s like breaking your legs,” Steph said. “It’s incapacitating. It changes your life, and even if you recover, you’re different forever. Weaker. You’ll never be the person—or dragon—you were before.”

The thought that something happening to me could hurt Steph like that made my heart break. “That’s only if the bond is completed, though, right?”

“It’d happen to me even without me claiming you.”

“You mean, if something happened to me now, you’d feel that pain? The bond would die like that?”

He nodded, then he looked at me with golden, blazing ferocity in his eyes. “And I treasure this bond. I love this bond, the same way I love you. But Sean knows how these bonds work.”

My eyes widened in realization. “He wanted to hurt me to weaken you.”

“I think so, but I’m not sure. He’s unpredictable now. I don’t know if he has any real plans left—or any goals beyond destroying the clan.”

“So, he doesn’t even want to be the alpha anymore? He just wants to ruin us all?”

“Honestly,” Steph said with a small shake of his head, “I have no idea what he wants. All I know is that I need to keep you and Dylan safe while I handle it. Even more so than we have been. Unless I’m with you, you’ll have at least two enforcers with you whenever you leave the clan premises.

Ideally, it’ll be me, Hawk, or Striker.”

“Okay.” In the past I would’ve pushed back and said I could handle it myself, but now that I’d seen what Sean could do, how far he would go, I felt better knowing I’d have protection.

“You’re okay with that?” Steph said.

I laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “At this point, yeah. I’ll stay locked up in this house until he’s dealt with if that’s what it takes to keep Dylan safe. And you, too.”

“It won’t come to that,” Steph said. “I’ll keep you safe, Harley, not trapped.”

His serious reassurance soothed the anxiety deep inside me.

Steph cupped my face. He looked into my eyes with such intensity that I could feel his dragon’s protective energy burning right under his skin.

“I trust you,” I whispered.

He leaned in and kissed me gently, like it was a promise.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled back with some reluctance.

Steph sighed as he looked at his screen. “I’ve got to take this. You should get some sleep.”

I nodded. He stood and kissed the top of my head, then stepped onto the front porch to take his call. I went upstairs to my bedroom—Steph’s bedroom—and changed into one of his T-shirts before crawling into bed.

I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but I’d meant it when I said I trusted him. If there was anyone who could keep us safe, it was Steph.

I just wanted this to be over soon.

The next day, I woke up to a brief kiss from Steph before he left for work—either at the garage or the clubhouse, I wasn’t sure.

It was a slow, lazy morning for me. Hawk took Dylan out to fly while Cassidy and I made brunch.

Striker was on the back porch, reading. I was glad to have him nearby and also glad he gave me and Cassidy enough space to speak in private. He was a hell of a good enforcer.

Over coffee, I filled Cassidy in.

“Jesus,” she said, once I had relayed the whole story of what had happened at the mine. “Should we seriously be staying in Lakeview with a psycho like that running around?”

I wrinkled my nose in displeasure.

“I know you don’t want to take Dylan away from his dad,” Cassidy continued. “And it wouldn’t be forever, just until this mess dies down?—”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I already told you, we’re safer here in Lakeview. The last time I tried to leave without the clan with me, I got kidnapped.”

“But we can get escorted to the airport, and?—”

“And Sean will follow us to Atlanta,” I interjected. “Steph is right. The best thing for us to do is lie low and make sure we always have the enforcers with us. Just until Steph solves this mess.”

“When will that be?” Cassidy asked. “It seems like every time they’ve almost got Sean, he’s got some new crazy plan to make your lives hell.”

I sighed. “I know. But what else are we supposed to do?”

Cassidy sucked on her teeth, then she rifled through the cabinets until she found a small pot to start making the grits. “Fine, fine. If Ace really thinks Sean would go all the way to Atlanta for this feud, I guess having a bunch of dragons around is probably the safest bet.”

“Just any old dragons?” I asked with a little half-smile. “Or is there one who’s caught your eye?”