Page 9

HARLEY

S tephan was even more gorgeous than I remembered.

Tall, with short, dirty blond hair. Ten years ago, he’d had a five-o-clock shadow, but now he sported a full beard.

His white T-shirt was pulled taut over broad shoulders, strong forearms, and large biceps.

He had more tattoos now. I remembered lying in bed next to him, tracing my fingertip around the leaves of the tree tattooed on his left shoulder.

Now, both his arms were covered with tattoos, nearly down to his wrists.

It suited him. He looked tough. The sight of him still sent desire swirling through me—had it felt this strong when I was twenty?

Had I forgotten how badly I always wanted to touch me?

His hazel eyes still seemed to pierce directly into my heart.

“Hey, how about we take Zoey back outside and play some more catch with Mia and Bella?” Hawk said.

Dylan glanced at me for permission. He’d fallen in love with his two-year-old cousin the instant he’d seen her.

The little girl could’ve been Dylan’s sister—or Dylan himself stuck in a time machine.

She had the same round cheeks Dylan had had at that age, the same pale blonde hair.

But where Dylan’s eyes were hazel, Bella’s were bright green, like Hawk’s.

I nodded. Dylan looked back at Stephan, and for a moment I thought he would resist and start asking questions—but whatever Dylan was feeling made him a little more unsure.

He nodded at Hawk, and the two of them went back outside with Zoey trotting at their heels.

A thick, loaded silence settled between us.

Stephan crossed his arms over his chest and watched me, those hazel eyes burning.

It was a serious look, an angry look, but it didn’t scare me.

He’d never scared me. On the contrary, whenever I was with him, I felt safe.

He wasn’t the big, tough guy Ace to me. He was always just Stephan.

“Harley, what the hell is going on here?”

I glanced around the house. “Is she here?”

“Who?” Stephan asked.

“Your mate.”

He frowned. “Mate? I don’t have a mate.”

“You don’t have to lie about her,” I said. “Let’s try to be civil about this, okay?”

“Civil? You want me to be civil when you’ve been keeping my son a secret from me?”

“Don’t turn this around on me.” I stood, so he wasn’t towering over me. I wanted to be civil about this. I wanted to make sure I was doing right by my son. But if that… that bitch was lurking around here somewhere, I needed to know. “Blakely told me everything that summer.”

Stephan dropped his arms. He took a slow, steadying breath, then pinned me with those hazel eyes. “What, exactly, did Blakely tell you?”

“You want me to relive it?” I rubbed my palm over my forehead. “It wasn’t exactly a great night for me.”

“Just tell me what she said.”

“Fine,” I snapped. “She told me everything. That she’d been sleeping with you before we even met, and that you were going to mate with her.

She said I was nothing but a shifter chaser.

” The phrase felt gross in my mouth. I still remembered the disgust in Blakely’s eyes when she’d called me that.

She’d made me feel so stupid—like a stupid little tourist girl who was in way over her head.

I swallowed hard. Stephan said nothing, just waited for me to continue. I didn’t have to be a shifter to sense the rage radiating off him. What the hell did he have to be mad about? He’d chosen to mate with that woman.

“She made it clear that I was nothing more than a summer fling. Tourists come to Lakeview all the time, don’t they?

It’s easy to meet a girl, have some fun over the summer, and send her on her way.

Blakely said I was too soft for your life—the clan life.

Maybe she was right.” Horrifyingly, I felt tears pricking my eyes, but now that I’d started, I couldn’t stop the words from pouring out of me.

“I was just a dumb girl. She knew you’d get sick of me.

Maybe she was doing me a favor. She even showed me the bite. ”

Stephan exhaled, and I thought I saw a wisp of smoke. “Bite?”

I tipped my head to the side and touched my neck, right where it met my shoulder. “Right here. The mating bite. She had proof you claimed her. Of course I left—I wasn’t going to let you embarrass me anymore.”

“Harley.” His words came out in a low, gravelly tone. “I need you to know this. I never said a word of that.”

“Maybe she twisted your words, but you still mated her, Stephan. What else was I supposed to do?”

“I didn’t.”

My argument tripped over my tongue and melted away. “You… didn’t? Didn’t what?”

“Didn’t mate her.”

My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through a rib. I sagged onto the couch. “But she had a bite.”

Stephan exhaled hard and leaned back against the front door. He was still radiating fury, but now I thought that anger might not be directed at me. “Blakely… She likes it rough. And she’s known to have a variety of partners at the clubhouse. She gets bitten often. It wasn’t a mating bite you saw.”

My stomach roiled. I hated that Stephan even knew that about Blakely. And beyond that, my heart hurt. Blakely had lied to me? All those years I’d wondered how I could’ve been so stupid, how I could’ve been played like that, how Stephan could’ve lied to me so easily… And it was all Blakely?

“Not that I could’ve claimed her or anyone else, anyway,” Stephan said, almost to himself.

“Why not? Don’t all dragons claim?”

“Yes, but it’s not that simple. We can’t claim just anyone whenever we want to. Especially not me, because…” He trailed off and raked one hand through his hair.

“Because?” I pressed.

“Because once a dragon has found his fated mate, he can’t claim another.” Stephan’s voice was low and steady, like he was forcing the words out. Like it hurt. “Not until he rejects his mate. The call of the fated mate remains until then.”

I swallowed around a sudden tightness in my throat. So, he’d be tied to me for life? Forever? Yeah, that was something I couldn’t think about too hard. Not yet. Not now. “If that’s true, why didn’t you look for me?”

“Blakely told you all this bullshit the night before you left?”

I nodded.

“I was tied up that night.”

“Bad excuse, Stephan.”

He raised his eyebrows, then sighed. “That was the night I got arrested. I would’ve chased you to the ends of the earth if I could, but I was in custody.

Got to my lawyer, who got to Hawk, and I told him to find you and tell you not to wait for me.

But you’d already left town. I figured you’d heard about the arrest. And honestly, I’d thought it was the right choice.

I already knew I was going away for a long time. ”

My heart sank. For a moment, just a moment, I’d had a brief flicker of hope. That if what Blakely had said was a lie, then maybe, maybe, there was a chance for us to start over. Fix things between us.

But prison?

“What were you arrested for?” I asked.

“Intent to distribute. Drugs. I did seven years.”

I swallowed hard. So, even though Blakely had lied, it had still been for the best that I’d left town to raise my son alone.

What would’ve been worse? All those years thinking he had chosen her instead of me, or knowing that the man I’d loved had been locked up for most of Dylan’s childhood?

I wondered if my mother knew about Stephan’s time in prison.

Good thing I never told her who Dylan’s father was.

“Seven years,” I repeated, stunned.

He nodded.

We stared at each other.

Was this a dream? A long, detailed, bad dream?

Somehow, this felt even worse than thinking Stephan had chosen Blakely over me.

Instead, the reality was that he still considered me his fated mate—something I admittedly didn’t completely understand—but he could’ve never been a good father to Dylan because he’d spent seven years in prison.

For drugs. How could I expect a convicted drug dealer to help Dylan with his shift?

But what other option did I have?

Stephan turned away from me and paced into the kitchen.

He muttered to himself as he rummaged through the fridge, then pulled out a bottle, cracked it open, and took a long swig.

Then he went back to muttering. The sound was oddly familiar, awakening memories from that summer a lifetime ago.

I’d forgotten this habit of his. I propped one arm on the back of the couch and turned to peer back at him.

“Are you talking to your dragon?” I asked.

He glanced over at me in surprise. “Yeah. This hasn’t been easy for either of us.”

I pressed my lips together. I was about to ask him to help with Dylan’s shift, but Stephan spoke before I could find the words.

“What’s his name?” he asked. “Your son.”

Our son , I thought, but didn’t say. “Dylan.”

“Dylan.” He nodded. “Good name. Strong name. Is he about to have his first shift?”

“I think so. A shifter friend of mine has been helping, but it’s not enough. It’s been really tough for him.”

“And his dragon’s being a dick?”

I snorted a surprised laugh. “Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. How did you know?”

Stephan patted his chest. It was the same gesture Dylan made when his dragon was communicating with him. Seeing it made my heart clench painfully. “We can sense it. We know our own blood. His dragon is losing its shit because he needs… us.” He didn’t meet my eyes as he said it. “Both of us.”

“That’s why we’re here,” I said. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You made the right decision. I know things between us are”—he grimaced—“complicated. But this is the right thing for Dylan. I’ll help him with his shift.”

I exhaled in relief. “Thank you, Stephan. I mean that.”

Stephan nodded. His gaze went to middle distance as he took another swig of his drink. Then he shook his head and barked out a disbelieving laugh. “Jesus, Harley. I’m a fuckin’ dad.”

“Steph—”

“Not now, Harley.” He raked both hands through his hair, then looked at me.