The dragon cocked his head, thinking. But then, he seemed to relax a little, a small smile playing over his mouth.
“Okay, that seems reasonable enough,” he said after a moment. “Sorry for coming at you all heavy-handed like that. I just sensed your presence while I was out with my mate, and as you can imagine, suddenly sensing an unfamiliar hellhound was… a bit of a surprise.”
Henry nodded. He could imagine. Hellhounds didn’t exactly have the best reputation for friendliness. But then, the rest of what the dragon had said caught up with him.
“Your mate?” he asked, blinking. “You mean… your mate lives here with you?Twodragons?”
The dragon shook his head. “No – she’s human. She’s a park ranger here, which is why we were so deep in the forest, just checking that some trails are safe and in good condition before things with the festival really get going.” The dragon frowned a little. “Did you pass through town on your way here? You knowabout the festival, right? If you’re looking for some space to shift, things may be a little more crowded around here than usual.”
Henry nodded again, grimacing. “Yeah – I knownow. I guess I’ll just have to be extra careful.” He swallowed, hoping what he was about to say wouldn’t offend the dragon – he knew dragons could get a little touchy on the subject of their mates, due to their protective natures. “But… you said that your mate is a human. Does that mean the people here in Girdwood Springs know about shifters?”
“No, not in general,” the dragon said. “Just my mate… and a few others. I’m not really sure how ready people are to find out there’s a dragon living next door to them.” He smiled again – a real smile this time. “But I’ve been a bit rude. My name’s Caleb – Caleb Tanner. I run the outdoor cinema we have here in the warm months.”
An outdoor cinema…?Henry blinked in surprise. It seemed Girdwood Springs was a lot trendier and more happening than he’d assumed.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Caleb,” Henry said. “I promise I’ll try not to get in your hair too much – to be honest, I wasn’t really even planning on spending any time at all in the town. I just got… waylaid. A little.”
Henry wondered how much more he ought to say. Even though he sensed that Caleb was probably trustworthy – certainly, his hellhound hadn’t raised any objections yet, and it was usually pretty sensitive to ill-intent – trying to explain that he was here because animals seemed irresistibly attracted to him suddenly seemed a little… well, a little unbelievable.
There were things that sounded odd even to shifters, after all, and this was definitely one of them.
And as far as everything else went, he hadn’t even gotten the chance to tellLunathat she was his mate yet. Somehow, it feltright to Henry that she should be the first to know. Certainly, she should probably know before he told dragons he’d only just met.
On the other hand,Henry thought,if Caleb sayshismate is human, maybe he has some experience in how to go about breaking that news… which makes it sound like a bad thing. But then again, I haven’t exactly made the best first impression, I suppose…
“There are worse places to get waylaid,” Caleb said, drawing Henry back to the conversation, and Henry had to agree with him. “Girdwood Springs really is a great place – I would have been tempted to stay here even if my mate didn’t live here.”
“So you’re not a local?” Henry mused.
Caleb shook his head. “Nah, I’ve only been here a few years. There are several of us who’ve moved in relatively recently, but there’s none of that cliché small-town stuff where the locals look down on outsiders – everyone’s been really welcoming.” He laughed. “I mean, I wandered in and opened an arthouse cinema that caters to my own obscure tastes, and the people here just rolled with it! There aren’t too many small towns around where you can just do that kind of thing.”
“Sounds nice,” said Henry, hoping he didn’t sound too wistful.
Itdidsound nice. Not opening an arthouse cinema specifically – he could barely tell an action film from a thriller – but finding a place as nice as Girdwood Springs and feeling like you were welcome there, instead of having everyone be on edge whenever they were in your presence. Being able to pursue your dreams, whatever they were, and being supported in that.
He didn’t even know what his dreamswere– being a hellhound, he really hadn’t had a lot of options, career-wise – but he found that, for the first time in his life, he was starting to think that he wanted to find out.
Of course, Luna wasn’t from around here. He didn’t even know where she actuallylived, and obviously she was on the move a lot.
Henry bit back a sigh.One problem at a time! Just concentrate on getting your clothes back in the first instance, so you don’t end up spending the night at the county jail. Everything else can wait.
“It is nice,” Caleb agreed. “I never in a million years imagined that this would be where I’d end up, but I wouldn’t want things any other way.” He shook his head. “Anyway, you don’t need to hear my life story. I shouldn’t keep you from what you were planning on doing.”
“No, no, it’s all good,” Henry said. “I wasn’t up to much. Just… letting my hellhound off the lead for a bit, I guess. I was going to wait until I got to the next mountain where there weren’t so many people, but, well, you know what these things are like. When your shifter wants you to shift…”
Leave me out of this, imbecile!Youwere the one who shifted, not me!
“You don’t have to explain – I know exactly what you mean,” Caleb laughed. Henry thought he could just about hear Caleb’s dragon yelling at him indignantly. “You’re right in that the next mountain is the better place to go if you’re looking for isolation, but there are some pretty quiet areas around here as well, and obviously you wouldn’t let humans stumble across you. You should be fine to stay around here for a while, if that’s what you want to do.”
“No, I should be getting back,” Henry said. “Thanks, though. Maybe I’ll go down to the festival and get something else to eat. Ididget some cake earlier, but it kind of got… destroyed.”
Caleb’s eyes widened in genuine sympathy. “Oh, no way. Did you get it from Sylvie’s?”
Henry nodded sadly. He hadn’t thought about it much, given everything that happened, but he reallydidwant to have more than just a taste of icing scraped off his shirt! Even that had been amazing. And maybe he would run into Luna again, and he could try to explain his hasty exit.
“That sucks,” Caleb muttered with feeling. “Well, you should really go get yourself something else to eat – I can honestly recommend everything that’s being sold at the festival. I should know: I made a point of taste-testing something from every business that was going to be selling there.”
“Purely out of a sense of duty, I’m sure,” Henry said solemnly.
