By unspoken agreement, we began to stride through the field in the direction of the town proper. I adjusted the bag on my shoulder. “Is that what brings you back, then? More research…stuff?”
Craning my head to face him, I caught the wistful expression on his face before he masked it with his usual stoicism. This shaman was such a mystery to me, even after the months Sage and I had spent tracking him down and then convincing him to visit Shifters Sanctuary. Springing a surprise biological son on him hadn’t even ruffled his winged feathers, though Sage, Brandt, Eric, and Beckett, our pack Alpha, had all read me the riot act on the way I had introduced Micah and Sergio to one another.
I didn’t care. It had been worth it. At any rate, it had shown Sergio to be calm, reasonable, rational, and well-intentioned, which I thought was important. If we had given him warning, he might have been able to mask his reaction, and we might never have known if we could truly trust him.
I did everyone here a favor, damn it.
“Actually,” he sighed, bringing me back to the present, “The Magic insisted I return. As its humble servant, I obeyed.”
“Hmm,” I mused, “Brandt is about ready to burst with the twins. Could that be what The Magic is invested in?”
He and Micah were having boys this time, so everyone was cautiously optimistic that the pack might be about to welcome the first dragons born in hundreds of years. Of course, nobody was saying it out loud, especially when Brandt and Micah were staunchly maintaining that they would love their children regardless of gender or species. The fact that they already hadthree unicorn daughters, though, made me suspicious of that sentiment. I knew that Brandt wanted to save the dragon species just as badly as we all did.
Well, I said ‘we’, but I wasn’t as broody as Brandt and Sage were. Babies had never really been my thing. So, I wanted to save dragonkind in theory, but I would leave the childbearing to other omegas. Like Brandt and Sage.
Of course, thinking of Sage being with another man —with an alpha— made me want to growl and gnash my teeth, not that I had the right to feel that way.
And in addition to that, I had to open my big mouth earlier today (yesterday?) and finagle us an invitation to the next Unlocking event, essentially tempting fate. Literally. I didn’t actually want to attend, but I really just spoke up because I was seeking attention. Like a child.
Yes, I was aware that I was four hundred-odd years old, but Ididsay that this situation with Sage was eating at me, didn’t I? And now we had to attend an Unlocking party for ‘research purposes’, and it would be just my luck that Sage would find an alpha and live happily ever after without me, and—
“I’m not sure,” Sergio’s voice cut into my spiraling thoughts, relieving me from the unpleasant introspection.
“Hmm?”
He turned his face towards mine, once again arching a questioning eyebrow. Was he aware of how attractive the expression was on his face?
“You asked if The Magic is interested in Brandt and Micah’s soon-to-be children,” he reminded me gently, his gaze scanning mine in such a way that I felt uncomfortable and exposed. Just when I was about to squirm, he looked forward again. “I said Iwasn’t sure about that. I just felt a need to return, and I have been following The Magic for too long to ignore its guidance.”
Where was The Magic when I was making some particularly poor life choices?I thought bitterly before shaking the thought away.
“Well, it is a nice surprise to have you back,” I told him, once again aware of his searching gaze lighting on me. “The others will be excited to discuss their latest findings with you, too. Especially if you’ve come bearing more books for their nerdy little hearts to pore over.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched his lips quirk, but he didn’t take the bait. Instead, as we continued the unhurried walk back into town, I once again wondered what it might take to ruffle this man.
Perhaps it’s time to shift my focus from Sage after all.
Chapter Three
What are you up to, Magic?I mused, knowing that I wouldn’t get an answer. The urge to return to Shifters Sanctuary had been damn near suffocating for weeks on end, and it had only been upon my approach —seeing the unexpected, but not unwelcome shape of Dexter Burnside come into focus under the light of the waxing moon— that I found I could breathe again.
And that was absurd, wasn’t it? The dragon shifter in question was nearly half my age, and I was a beta past my prime. Why would The Magic be encouraging me to connect with him? Not to mention, why was the man standing out in a far-off field in the early hours of the morning, anyway?
Fully clothed, the tall, prim young man hadn’t even had a hair out of place, so I doubted that he had recently shifted or gone flying. He’d also sidestepped my mild questions, which also made me curious.
From the moment we’d met, Dexter and Sage had sparked my interest. At first, I believed it was because they were dragons —a species whose fate seemed so similar to my own— but after spending time with them, I realized my interest wasnot entirely altruistic. They were attractive young men, after all. Attractive and buzzing with life and energy and…some kind of tension between them. They were both omegas, but in a world with very few alphas, companionship was companionship. And, take it from a man without any companions at all: there was nothing worse than being lonely.
It had taken very little for them and The Magic to convince me to travel with them to the town their younger brother had founded, especially when they mentioned the cluster of alphas who lived there. We’d had to travel through Europe before making our way to Shifters Sanctuary, with Dexter and Sage on a mission to find as many old-world texts as possible along the way. The Magic had agreed it was the right thing to do, so I had followed along without complaint.
Those first few weeks with them had been entertaining. Watching them banter and rile each other up like a pair of teething pups had made me feel younger by association. I could never quite discern whether their relationship was beyond anything platonic, and I’d never felt as though I had the right to ask. But lonely nights spent in sterile-scented hotel rooms had been spent imagining them asmore.
If I am being honest, I imagined them both with me, too.
I might have prided myself on my calm, mild-mannered façade by day, but I was far from a saint in the confines of my mind, or in the privacy of my own sleeping quarters.
“Have I been forgiven for the whole…Micah thing?” Dexter asked as we continued our walk from the field into town. I assumed he had taken my momentary lapse into introspection poorly.
That wasn’t a surprise, either. Dexter, for all his bluster, was quite a sensitive soul.
