Page 21 of Cole's Command

“Yeah.” Cole nodded. “I’m leaving my brother to it.”

“Fair enough.” Pushing the door open, Sammy let Cole stride past him. “Have a good night.”

“Thanks, Sammy.” Cole offered him a brief smile as he strode out into the night, pulling the refreshing air into his nostrils.

Thank the gods.

The smile on his lips grew as he realized he meant the gesture. He loved all of his brothers, but sometimes it was good to just be alone. As the youngest he’d scarcely known the experience when he’d been growing up, their homes always crowded with siblings and their friends. Even after their father had passed, Cole sometimes found the presence of his brothers rather suffocating. They meant well, and yet one of the three always ‘knew better’ than he did or was there to offer ‘words of wisdom.’ That was part of why Cole had wanted therapy. He needed to be his own man; to shed the skin of his Vaughn legacy and not live in the shadow of his brothers anymore.

Wandering out into the dark street, Cole was pleased to see he was finally on his own. It was too early in the night for other patrons to be leaving, and as such, the region wasn’t littered with dozens of loitering cabs waiting for potential customers. Grateful for the solitude, Cole decided to stretch his legs and walk rather than waiting for a ride. The exercise might help to clear his fogged head.

Club Indigo was a resident in one of the most upscale areas of the city, the small parade of upmarket businesses it was located in sitting on the outskirts of the urban jungle he and his brothers worked and played in. After a few hundred feet those buildings came to an abrupt halt to reveal the mountainous landscape that truly called to Cole’s heart. Glancing toward the horizon, he could just make out the peaks he and his kin called home. Even shrouded with the cloak of night, the terrain looked inviting, tempting him to ditch his attire and shift.

I could fly home?

His emotions buoyed at the enticing thought. He could fly. After all, there was no one around, and if he abandoned his clothes in a suitably deserted place, they wouldn’t rouse suspicion before he collected them the next day. Balthazar would never approve of course, but with Cherie under Balthazar’s wing, Cole’s big brother was no longer around frequently to judge his youngest sibling’s actions. A sense of freedom tingled through his veins, stirring the beast inside him.

Like all of his brothers, Cole was a dragon-shifter, and as he’d grown, his dragon had become one of the largest of all his siblings. A shade of ocean blue that he was told seemed to change color depending on the weather, Cole was strong, and enjoyed the largest wingspan of all the remaining Vaughn dragons—a fact he never got bored of jibing the others about—but Cole had been conditioned to believe that shifting into his other self was dangerous.

As a man he understood that his father and elder brothers had presented the change that way in order to protect him—to keep their family safe and their secret private—but as a boy their cautious words had echoed endlessly in his ears.

No one can ever know, Cole.

His back straightened as the memory of Michael’s voice bounced around his head.

If you shift and people discover us, we’ll be in trouble.

Their shifter status had to be kept confidential to preserve their liberty and way of life—Cole understood that—but the fear those warnings had instilled stayed with him for a long time, and even as he strode out onto the isolated road, it was that fear that held Cole back.

“I shouldn’t.” He whispered the words onto the breeze as he walked, although he wasn’t sure why he lowered his voice. There was no one near to hear him, and only the noise of the local crickets in the deserted scrub for company. “I can walk.”

Yet deep down, he loathed his conclusion and yearned to throw off the shackles of his childhood, strip out of his damn clothes and soar. Gazing up to the starry night, he imagined how it would feel to do so as his feet plodded on. Aside from the joy of laughing with his family and the incredible sensations intimacy with sexual partners brought him, flying was the sensation he adored the most in all of the world. There was nothing like it, wheeling through the atmosphere and feeling the wind on his back—Cole had come to associate flying with the one thing he craved above all else—freedom.

“Fuck it.”

Blowing out a breath, he ensured his phone was shoved deep into his pocket before his hands rose to the top button of his shirt. He’d do it. He’d hide his clothes and be in the air before he could change his mind. Even if he only ascended for a few minutes and landed in the same spot, it would be worth it. He was far enough away from the outskirts in a suitably isolated area not to worry about anyone seeing him. Unfastening the button, he set to work on the others, discarding his shirt and clutching it in his hand as he assessed where best to conceal it. The problem was, it was exceptionally dark and even with Cole’s heightened senses, it wasn’t easy to discern a preferable hiding spot.

Pausing on the side of the road, he double checked how far he’d already come from town, the twinkling lights of the club now far in the distance as he mused on the problem.

That was when Cole noticed the headlights coming behind him, driving the same empty path he had trodden, their stark illumination cutting through the gloom even from a distance.

A car? His gaze narrowed. Who’s driving out here at this time of the evening?

The club was exclusive enough to be reserved for members only, and it closed to patrons after eleven o’clock. He’d already established it was too soon for taxis to be prowling, and there were no other businesses open at this time. Why would anyone be out on the road that led to the mountains?

Cole strained to see the driver, but the vehicle was still too far away and in the dark of night, it was impossible to distinguish who was behind the wheel. He considered donning his shirt before he moved out of the vehicle’s way, but watching the car approach, he was struck by how fast it was moving. If he didn’t alert the driver to his presence or get the hell out of the way, he would soon be cut down by the vehicle.

Grabbing his phone, he switched on the flashlight and swept the beam of light toward the side of the road, finding a safe place to stand while the car passed. As the glare of the lights neared, he was forced to turn away, certain the car would speed past him in no time, leaving him to his quiet contemplation. It was surprising, then, when the vehicle came to a rapid stop, the driver pushing the car into reverse as they wound down the window.

“Are you lost?”

A woman’s voice echoed from the open window, and even though it was ridiculous to assume so, Cole thought he recognized its owner.

“No,” he answered. “Just out walking.”

“Cole?” she gasped, and a moment later the interior of her car was lit against the dark backdrop of the sky. “Cole Vaughn, is that you?”

“Yes?”

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