Page 70 of Secret Shifters Next Door

His voice was like that of a little boy asking if his mom was mad at him for breaking some rule. He sounded small and broken-hearted. It would have been sad and heart wrenching, if the answer wasn’t so difficult for me to summon.

Skirting the actual answer, I said, “Well, you’re being super intense. And I have to admit, shit’s a little weird. What did Emily do to the car? How did the four of you take out like a dozen armed guards without getting hurt? And why in the fuck were your eyes glowing? That’s the big one.”

“I love you, and I would never hurt you,” Tate whispered.

He loved me? It was the first time he’d said those words to me. It was the first time a man had professed love for me since Sam died. My breath caught in my throat, unable to form words. So many emotions surged within me then. Fear, excitement, terror… maybe my own love for him. It was too much. Too much for one day.

He went on. “Remember, I promised to keep you safe. I will not fail. I stand by my word.” He glanced at me, and his eyes were glowing again. I sucked in a gasp. “Don’t be afraid. Not of me. And not of anyone else. They’ll protect you with their life.”

“They? Who’sthey?” I asked.

Tate was silent for several seconds before he shrugged and said, “You’ll know soon enough.”

The rest of the ride was quiet. We were both wrapped up in our thoughts. There was no way to know what Tate was thinking. My own mind spun through so many possibilities that it was almost an endless parade of nightmares. By the time we finally pulled into the driveway, I was mentally, emotionally,andphysically exhausted.

“The girls have no idea you were taken. I’ll leave that up to you if you want them to know,” Tate said. “Once you get in and have the girls settled and into bed, come over to my place. I’ve got a lot I need to tell you. No more secrets.”

I glanced at the dark outlines of his house, then at mine with the bright windows. One looked depressing, the other looked warm and inviting.

“Aren’t you coming to my house? Why would you stay over there?”

A miserable, heartbroken look slid across Tate’s features. He looked awful when he whispered, “You may not want me around the girls once I tell you everything.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, I nodded. His answer scared me, but there was nothing to do now. I’d have to wait to find out what the hell was going on in an hour or two when the girls were asleep. Without another word, I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the truck. As I walked up the path to the door, I heard Tate back his truck across the street and into his driveway. Before I opened the front door, I made the decision not to tell the girls what had happened. There was too much to deal with, without me needing to explain the whole story and calm them down. It was for the best, and it would only exhaust me further. I wasn’t sure if it was the right call, but it was what I was going to do. Before I stepped inside, I glanced back at Tate’s house. It was still dark, but now somehow ominous. A chill went up my spine, and I closed and locked the door as soon as I was inside.

TWENTY-NINE

TATE

The early fall night was pleasant. There was a cool breeze coming down from the mountains, and it helped cool me off. Sitting on my back patio, I thought about all the time I’d spent with Harley and the girls. In some ways, it had been the best months of my life. Having people to come home to. People who wanted me around, and were, maybe, beginning to love me. There had never been anything like it. Now, all that might be over.

The guys and I had discussed things earlier. There might be a loophole to the spell Emily had cast. If I rejected my bond with Harley, I was as good as dead. Not just dead, but a painful, agonizing death. I didn’t want to do that. Not only because, obviously, I didn’t want to die screaming. That was a given. The main reason was that I loved her. Because I loved her, I didn’t want her to turn into a shifter. Our loophole was that if Harley rejected me, maybe the spell would be broken. If she rejected me, and the spell was broken, then perhaps later on, we could get back together.

I would never walk away from her and my boy. That was non-negotiable. I would be there to help raise him. I would teach Harley about raising whelps—what we called child dragon shifters. She would need me. I, and my dragon, were sure thebaby was going to be born a shifter. For the most part, raising a shifter child was the same as a human child. The issue came about when dragon shifters hit puberty. Our version of puberty, anyway. Sexual maturity still came at the usual time. Twelve or thirteen. Dragons hit shifter puberty at five years old. There was no way a human mother could handle that type of challenge. The eyes began to glow when their emotions got too high. They produced excessive amounts of heat from their bodies if they couldn’t control it. I would have to teach him how to control all the things that would happen to him. Only I could show him how to ignore the base instincts that would be like a raging storm inside his mind.

That alone, even if I wasn’t in love with her, would require that I stay in her life. She could reject me, and stay safe, but I would always be there for them. It really might be the best option. Life as a shifter was hard enough being born one. There was no way I could imagine living your whole life as a human, and then suddenly, without warning, becoming one. Would Harley go crazy? Accept it? Kill herself? Any scenario, and a hundred others, were possible. It was too hard to even think about.

I heard the front door of Harley’s house open and close. My hearing wasn’t as good as a wolf shifter like Miles, but it was still incredibly well attuned. My keys were already in my hand, so I stood and walked around my house to the front yard. My heart was hammering away in my chest, and it only got heavier when I saw Harley. She was walking toward me, her hands twisting the hem of her shirt.

“I’d like you to go somewhere with me,” I said.

She glanced back at the house, then said, “I’m a little worried about leaving the girls. Especially with what happened today.”

“I totally understand that. I took precautions. All the guys are nearby watching the house. Miles is upstairs in my room, Blayneis down at the end of the cul-de-sac in a sedan, and Steff is hiking the woods behind your house. They’ll be even safer than if you were there. They will die for them if need be.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Tate, how can you know that? Men don’t usually die for people they barely know.”

I looked her in the eyes. “They’re more than just men.” Without letting her respond to that, I said, “Will you come with me?”

Her face was a window to the war going on in her mind. I watched her weigh the benefits and consider the arguments. Thankfully, after a few seconds, she said, “Okay.”

The drive was nearly silent, which was good. I wasn’t sure I could have had a long conversation with the struggle going on inside me. My dragon was not happy with my plan. For the first time in my life, I could feel that it was angry with me. It was afraid that if I went through with what I planned, Harley would for sure reject us. Even the thought of that made my dragon almost jibber with panic. I had to remind it that all this was for Harley’s safety––that doing this may be the only way to keep her safe. Sadness washed over me, all of it emanating from the dragon. I apologized to him mentally.I’m sorry. It’s the only way.

We arrived at my usual shifting location. High up in the mountains. There was great deer hunting up here. It was a special place for me, and I couldn’t think of a better place to bring Harley. We got out of the truck and walked side-by-side, not speaking. Once we got a little way into the woods, we found the clearing I knew well. Harley looked at me in a way I couldn’t even describe. It was like she was trying to seethroughme, as if she was trying to see something deep inside me.

“Emily kept calling you a shifter. Is that… true?”

I nodded, too afraid to speak.

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