Page 3 of The Dragon's Mate

“Your grandmother?” He stumbled to a stopin his surprise.

She kept going and after a moment hehurried after her. “Well, thank you for helping us. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.” She glanced at Corey andher pace quickened further. Tyler was nearly jogging to keep up with her.

“Where are we going?”

“To my home. Hold these.” She handed himCorey’s clothes. Balancing the fox carefully in one arm, she reached into thepocket of her cloak and pulled out a cell phone. Tyler breathed a sigh ofrelief. The woman looked like she had stepped out of a time capsule with herlong cloak and odd accent, and to see her holding a cell phone comforted him alittle.

The woman held the phone to her ear. “Hey,it’s me. Can you meet me at my house? I have an injured fox shifter thatneeds your help.”

She listened silently for a moment beforesmiling a little. “I know. Thanks. I’ll see you in ten.”

She hung up the phone and made it disappearin the pocket of her cloak before glancing at Tyler. “What were you two doingout here, anyway?”

Tyler cleared his throat. “We were justuh, hanging out.”

“Why did those boys attack you?”

“I – no reason. They’re assholes.”

She eyed him carefully. “Is that so? Ithas nothing to do with the fact that they caught you two kissing?”

He blushed and stared at the ground. “They’reassholes and homophobes.”

She grinned a little, her straight whiteteeth flashing in the gloom. “That they are. Why do you hide that you’regay?”

“My family doesn’t know,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Well, my brother knows but my mom and daddon’t. I’m not close to my mom. My parents divorced when I was a kid and she leftus with our dad. I haven’t even spoken to her in two years. My dad, well, it’scomplicated.”

“It usually is,” she replied.

“Corey and I have been dating for nearlysix months and I had no idea he was a paranormal,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “That’sstrange.”

“Yeah.” He touched his knuckles lightly andwinced. He knew damn well why Corey hadn’t told him he was a paranormal and hefelt a combination of guilt and anger. He was nothing like his father, Coreyknew that, and the fact that he hadn’t trusted him enough to share that he wasa paranormal was like a knife in his heart.

The trees were starting to thin and herealized with a start that he knew where they were. For as long as he couldremember, a small community of shifters lived in the woods. They kept tothemselves, and most of the city people had forgotten about them. The rumourwas that they were bear shifters who had grown tired of the underlying tensionbetween the humans and the paranormals and had retreated into the woods toescape it.

The trees opened up into an obviouslyman-made clearing. Cabins were scattered throughout, he counted nearly twentynestled among the trees, and he could see a dirt road winding past the cabinsand into the woods.

“Where does that road go?” he asked.

“Back to the highway.” She strode pastthree cabins before stopping at one of the smaller ones. Flowers were plantedin large pots on the tiny front porch, their blossoms starting to fade, and sheclimbed the steps and opened the front door.

Tyler hesitated at the bottom of the stairsand she gave him a slightly impatient look. “Hurry up.”

He took one last glance at the other cabinsbefore hurrying after her.

* * *

The cabin may have been rustic on theoutside, but the inside boasted a sleek and modern décor. The modernfurnishings and stainless-steel appliances should have looked odd against thelog walls, but strangely didn’t. The living room and the kitchen were combinedinto one big room. The kitchen was on the smaller side with a fridge andstove, one mid-sized length counter with cupboards above and below it, and a smallround table with four chairs crowded around it. A narrow marble topped islandhelped divide the kitchen from the living room. There was a small couch and anarmchair in the living room with a metal and glass coffee table and a televisionmounted to the wall.

He stared at the old woman bent over a poton the top of the stove. She was bigger than Kaida, standing well over sixfeet with wide hips and shoulders, and she was dressed in faded green pants anda bright pink t-shirt that had ‘sugar mama’ written across it in large yellowfont. Her hair was pure white and hung to her waist in a neatly made braid.Like Kaida, there was streaks of colour in it, although her colour was a rich,emerald green rather than the blue that Kaida sported.

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