15
Maya
“I refuse to put you in any danger.” His voice was a danger of its own. Cool, dark waters she wanted to sink into.
“Such as?” she prompted him.
“When you ran, I chased you. I brought all the force of the clan to bear on you—a lone woman, fleeing with her child in the night.” Regret clouded his eyes. “I meant to offer you protection.”
“You had a hell of a way of showing it.”
“I had rejected the bond between us for over half a year. I thought you were satisfied with the life you kept so carefully separate from your work. That all I could offer you was the destruction of your happiness, your relationship, and the safety of a world without my magic in it.” He raised a hand as she started to speak. “The moment I knew how mistaken I’d been, it was as though…”
“A dam burst?”
He gave a crooked smile. “You were not happy. Whoever Tomás’s father was, he’d left you unacceptably unprepared fordealing with a baby dragon. And he’d let you walk into another dragon’s lair with your child.”
Her chest hurt with the truth she still hadn’t told him.
“He abandoned you. Everything I thought you had, everything I thought was already provided to you—I was wrong. You were alone.”
He was wrong. Tomás’s father hadn’t abandoned them.
He hadn’t even known Tomás existed.
She wet her lips. “Tomás stole your watch. You saw him.”
“I saw the tip of a tail lashing with excitement under that blanket you threw over him, and I heard a telepathic cackle of victory as he made off with his new treasure.” His lips quirked, his smile more fond than crooked but his eyes still deep in regret. “I told you to stay where you were, because I was an over-important ass who never questioned that you would obey me. I intended to clear the floor of anyone who didn’t already know about shifters and might see Tomás. And when I came back, you were gone.”
“You didn’t let that stop you.”
“No. I followed you until I knew you were safe here.”
“You didn’t seem too concerned with my safety when you were facing off against Apollo.”
“I let my anger turn me into someone I did not want to be. Someone I have spent my life learning Imustbe. The head of the Blackburn clan. Powerful, imperious, and possessive. Because of course, I was wrong. You weren’t in need of protection. You’d fled straight to the arms of another dragon; possibly the same dragon who had sent you as a lure into my territory in the first place.”
“Apollo? You thought we—”
“I was half mad from loving you and not having you. And that is no excuse.”
Her world had crumbled around her that night. And now it was falling apart again.
Or rebuilding itself into something new.
She swallowed. “And when you figured out that Apollo wasn’t involved with me?”
“I let you go.”
“You knew his magic would keep me protected.” She nodded. It all made sense.
Miserable, horrible sense.
“If I had only spoken sooner—” he said at the same time as she forced out, “We could both have been so much happier if we’d justtalkedto one another.”
“Is it too late?” His voice was nothing like she’d ever heard it. Tentative. Hoping. “I only want you to be happy, Maya.”
Happy.She was happy in Hideaway Cove, wasn’t she? With her friends. Her life.
