I grabbed my sweater and purse and followed Reese to her truck parked by the office. “Where are we headed exactly?”
“Into the mountains, a little ways from Wings End.” Reese opened the driver’s door and climbed in, waiting for me before continuing. “The guys have multiple spots where they shift.”
I froze at the casualness in her voice, fumbling with the seatbelt latch. “How many are there? Dragons?” I couldn’t believe I was actually entertaining the idea that this might be reality.
Or had my car stalling actually been a crash, and now I was in a coma?
“Four. At least here in this area. They are territorial.” Reese started the engine, giving me a sympathetic look. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”
I clicked my seatbelt into place, my brain struggling to catch up. We headed toward the back section of the property I’d never explored since it was marked as private.
We drove past Kade’s house and what must have been one of the other guys’ cabins. The road narrowed, becoming little more than a dirt track winding through dense forest.
“How did you find out?” I asked finally. “About Kade.”
Reese sighed. “He shifted in front of me. It was pretty dramatic.”
“Dramatic how?”
“I thought I’d developed some new perimenopause hallucination symptom no one had bothered to warn me about.” She shot me a wry smile. “Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a hallucination.”
I wanted to laugh at that, but the sound died in my throat. My own perimenopausal symptoms had been wreaking havoc on my life for months, if not years. What if I was hallucinating all of this?
“This is real, right?” The question barely made it past my lips. “I’m not losing my mind?”
“You’re not losing your mind. I promise.” Reese navigated a sharp turn, branches scraping against the truck’s sides. “Although I suppose if you were, that would be something your mind would tell you.”
The road climbed steeper, the trees closing in until sunlight barely penetrated the canopy above. My stomach twisted with each switchback, though whether from the winding road or anticipation, I couldn’t say.
Ten minutes of increasingly narrow roads later, Reese slowed the truck. The trees opened up ahead, revealing a clearing. Two ATVs were parked at the edge, and my breath caught.
Lucan stood talking to Kade. He wore only shorts, no shirt or shoes, and the sunshine played across his bare chest and shoulders. My body responded, heat flooding through me that had nothing to do with hot flashes.
I stared, confused by my reaction. My libido had been nonexistent for months, another casualty of hormonal chaos. Yet looking at Lucan now, I felt my body waking up. There was also a strange pull in my chest, like it wanted me to go to him. I’d experienced it before, but it was much stronger this time.
“Are you okay?” Reese had parked and was watching me with concern.
“Fine.” I unbuckled my seatbelt, my hands surprisingly steady. “Let’s get this over with.”
I climbed out of the truck but turned back to grab the bear spray out of my purse. I might not have been able to find it the night before, but I’d since moved it to a pocket that wasn’t a black hole.
Lucan’s gaze locked with mine as I shut the door. The pull in my chest intensified, and I pressed my hand to my chest. His eyes dropped to my other hand, and a smile broke out across his face.
It was the first time I’d seen him smile like that. There was something disarming about it that made the surrounding forest seem brighter. I hadn’t even realized his other smiles had been guarded and tamped down.
This was happening, and whatever the hell this was, I was going to face it.
I was ready.
Chapter 15
Liz
My eyes swept the clearing’s perimeter as I walked toward Lucan and Kade. Tall grass bordered the tree line, but there were no camera crews or signs that the area had been altered to trap a woman who’d had a lapse in judgment.
Where was the trick? And, more importantly, where was the ask? Every setup led to one. Maybe this was some elaborate mountain-man hazing ritual they pulled on every new tenant at Wings End. Get the lonely woman to drive into the middle of nowhere, convince her dragons were real, and then what? Laugh about it over beers?
Lucan watched me approach, his posture relaxed, hands at his sides. His gaze dropped to the bear spray again.
