She cocked her head to the side as she studied it and then shook her head and tried to dismiss it, but she just couldn’t.

  She held onto the frame and decided to take it with her. There was no way she could ignore something like this, even if it might have been just a crazy coincidence.

  “Hey, Mom,” she said when she got back downstairs and held out the picture to show her. “Look at this, who is that dad is with?”

  Her mom took hold of the frame and squinted as she looked at the faded, old photograph.

  “Hmm,” she said as if she were trying to wrack her brains. “Well, I’m not totally sure… But if it was someone your father went hunting with, they are probably one of the were folk…”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, her mother clamped her lips closed and cleared her throat.

  “One of the what?” Aubrey asked.

  Her mom shifted uncomfortably on the spot and looked as if she were trying to figure out a way to change the subject or think up a lie quickly, but it was clear she wasn’t able to think of anything fast enough.

  “Aubrey,” she said slowly. “You must have heard some of the strange tales of this town…”

  Aubrey shook her head, shrugged and scrunched her mouth. “I don’t think so,” she said, not even considering the kind she had just been thinking about her father telling her when she was just a kid. “What kind of tales?”

  Her mom sighed, sat down and looked defeated as if she couldn’t believe she had made this kind of oversight.

  “Your father never did want you to know properly…,” she said with a smile. “He loved telling you those stories, but he never let on that they were anything but the writer and creator in him, he vowed to never tell you they were real. He always thought your imagination would run away with you and you would end up going and getting yourself into some kind of danger…”

  Aubrey was confused, and she stared at her mom until she continued.

  “Aubrey, this place isn’t like other towns,” her mom said sternly. “Lone Reach is full of something else… something mystical.”

  She could barely believe what she was hearing, but her mom was being so deadly serious, she knew she couldn’t be playing with her.

  “Your dad was close with a group of men… They were some of the oldest families of this town and they were very well respected, still are in fact.”

  “And?” Aubrey was starting to lose her patience.

  “And Aubrey, there are certain things in this world that are sometimes too great to comprehend… but your father had a wild imagination and he loved all people and creatures. He was a very understanding man and he worked up on the mountains and saw all kinds of things.”

  “Like what?” Aubrey asked, a strange feeling settling in her stomach.

  “Have you ever heard of the bears and wolves that are supposed to roam the mountains around here?” her mom asked.

  Aubrey shook her head. But inside of her something more recent stirred. In an instant she was taken back to hiding in the closet of the office at Carter’s mansion on the night they met.

  Bears and wolves…

  She gasped and then tried to hide her worry.

  “No…” she said. “Nothing apart from the stories Dad used to make up.”

  “He didn’t make them up…,” her mother continued. “It was real.”

  Aubrey closed her eyes and had to take a deep breath. All of this sounded crazy. And now was beginning to connect it all to the man she was falling in love with. What had been a fond childhood memory of her father telling her wild tales that she thought he had created to write down in a book someday, was now looking as if it could be something solid and true.

  “Well,” her mom continued. “These animals aren’t normal… they’re big and they’re powerful… and some say, they are also human.”

  Aubrey scrunched up her face in confusion.

  “I know it sounds crazy,” her mom said, “but I know, even at school, there were rumors you heard told them. The bears and wolves in these woods around here… they’re shifters. Men who can turn into beasts… and your father, well, he was friends with them.”

  Aubrey felt her mouth sag open. Had she just heard that correct?

  “It’s been a good secret around here, either that or most people in town don’t like to acknowledge it… but yes, your dad was good friends with the wolves and the bears… hell, he even told me one time that a group of powerful dragons lived at the top of the mountain.”

  Aubrey’s mouth closed and she had to swallow down the hard feeling in her throat. Her dad had told her stories about dragons too.

  And suddenly all she could think about was Carter.

  It wasn’t just the tattoo on his chest, or the statues along the hallways and opulence of his home. She knew there was something different about him. She knew that he had a fire inside of him, something animalistic that both frightened her and turned her on. She had seen fire in his eyes when she had looked into them, she had felt something in his skin.

  A dragon…

  She stared at her mother and blinked.

  “Your dad was full of imagination, just like you,” her mom continued. “And he told me these stories with such passion. They were our secret, and he loved those friends of his that he met on the mountain dearly… but one day, he came home and said something had happened up there. That the wolves were in some kind of trouble and he thought maybe he should stay away. He seemed worried… even troubled… and the next thing, there was that awful accident and he was dead.”

  Aubrey’s heart was racing in her chest.

  The dragons at the top of the mountain.

  Her dad could have known Carter’s father…

  The fire…

  Dragons…

  It was all too much for her to take in.

  She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead before she turned and reached for the photograph.

  “I need to go, Mom,” she said. “But I loved hearing that story about Dad… and about the animals in town… I just…”

  “It’s not a story,” her mother told her. “Ask anyone… There’s magic around here.”

  She looked at her mom and wanted to speak, to ask more questions, but she already had too many things working around in her head and it was overwhelming.

  Aubrey hugged her mother and left, and as she made her way home, her mind was completely scrambled. Her dad had been friends with shifters from up on the mountain and her mother said something bad had happened and he had wanted to stay away… and then the fire had occurred, and her dad had died.

  Shifters?

  How could she even begin to comprehend that this could be true? That men could turn into animals or mythical creatures… and even more crazy, that she could be dating one!

  She thought of her father, of the way he had such a passion for the stories he had told. He had completely captivated her as a child, and she had loved those stories the best of all, but it had never entered her head that it could be true.

  The fact that Carter lived on top of the mountain… that when she looked at him, she saw fire… that she sensed some kind of danger in him, something animalistic and powerful… and now, the dawning realization that his family business was called The Dragon Pit.

  A fire had killed her father. Her mother had just told her the legends or stories around their town about wolves and bears and dragons were true. And she had even heard Carter and his “gang” speaking in private about the fact wolves and bears would blame them all potentially about Martin Hall disappearing.

  Carter had been strange about discussing it with her lately… as if he was worried about it.

  What if Carter and the dragons had had something to do with the fire that killed her dad?

  Her stomach was churning, and she blinked back tears and raced home, she had to speak with Carter, and fast.

  14.

  Carter pressed the buzzer on the main door of Aubrey’s apartment building and willed for her to answer. She had called him crying only moments ago and he had come straight over, hoping she was okay and that she would let him in.

  “Hello?” her voice came from the other end of the intercom.

  “Aubrey, it’s me,” he said, his voice a rapid pant.

  She pressed the unlock button and the buzzer went again to let him know the door was open. He pushed it wide and stepped inside, looking around and racing up the first flight of stairs, two at a time.

  When he got to the top, he saw her standing in the doorway to one of the apartments and could see her face was puffy and red. He just wanted to go to her, he wanted to know that she was okay.

  “Aubrey…,” he said. “What happened?”

  She stepped back and let him come inside with her. If he hadn’t been so worried and caught up in the moment, he knew he would be taking in her personal space, that he would love to see how she had set out her apartment and got a true sense of who she really was, but it was all too frantic.

  She sat down on the couch and passed him a photograph in a frame.

  Carter reached out to take it and looked at the image. At first, all he saw was a group of men, but it didn’t take long for him to see that most of them were pack elders, from the dragon, wolf, and bear clans. His father was among them, and he could tell from that alone that the photograph had to be at least fifteen years old. And in the middle, there was a man he had never seen.

  “Where did you find this?” he asked her.

  “At my mom’s house,” she said. “The man in the middle is my father.”

  Carter looked at the image of the man and it was strange, but he could see some of his features and how they matched with Aubrey’s.

  “My father is there too,” he said warmly.

  His nerves were fading, but he could still see that she was upset.

  “They knew each other…,” she said as she wiped away a tear.

  Carter nodded.

  “Looks that way,” he smiled. “This is up on the mountain; I recognize the clearing.”

  “My mother told me something…,” she said, and he could tell by the falter in her voice that it wasn’t going to be good. “She said that my dad was friends with men who could turn into animals… shifters…”

  Hearing her say the word was both a comfort and somewhat alarming.

  She knew.

  He could see it in her eyes.

  He nodded and looked at her deeply, keeping as calm as he could.

  “Are you a dragon?” she asked him.

  Carter couldn’t fault her intelligence. He had known all along that she would figure him out if he hadn’t already told her.

  “Yes,” he said.

  It felt like a weight had been lifted, but he still wasn’t certain she was happy with him.

  “Was my dad?” she asked.

  Carter smiled and shook his head.

  “I don’t recognize your father,” he said. “But I know there was a local man who used to spend a lot of time up on the mountain and he kept our kinds secret safe.”

  She exhaled and her eyes went wide as if it was all finally dawning on her.

  “I thought it would turn out to be a joke,” she said, staring down at the floor. “But this is real, isn’t it? I could feel it in you from the moment we met.”

  Carter nodded again and reached for her hand.

  When he touched her this time, something between them seemed electric and more powerful than it had been before and made her gasp.

  She jumped back slightly and looked up at him as if, when he had touched her, he had burned her skin. The sensation was tingling and hot… it shot through his fingertips and up his arm and directly into his heart. He felt it settle warm inside of him, and when he looked at her again, it was as if she was radiating light.

  “Did you feel that?” she asked him in a whisper.

  Carter nodded.

  “What was it?” she asked, breathless.

  “I think it was me imprinting on you,” he said as his own heart raced away within his chest.

  “Imprinting?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “It’s happened because you’ve seen all of me now…” he smiled and rubbed a hand down his face. “I knew the second I saw you that there was something strong between us. I knew you were the one… but I was holding back, and I hadn’t told you the truth about me… Now that I have… we can be together as we are fated to be.”

  Her eyes were glistening, her pupils wide, and she smiled at him, even though he could sense her fear.

  “Fated?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he told her as he reached for her hand again and he felt warmth radiate between them. He had to hold her close, to bring her body next to his and to look into her eyes properly. “I’ve been waiting for you my whole life…”

  He could see that she was getting emotional and her eyes seemed to be filling with tears.

  “I’ve been feeling that too,” she admitted. “But I didn’t know if it was all in my head.”

  Carter reached up and cupped his hand to her face.

  “No,” he smiled. “Something this good has to be real… It could never just be in your head.”

  She leaned into his touch and blinked, a lone tear rolling down her face and down to her chin.

  “I’ve never wanted to protect someone as much as I have you,” he said. “When I saw you for the first time, I tried to deny it… but the more time I spent with you, the more I knew it was going to be impossible to stay away.”

  “I’ve never wanted a man in my life,” she said. “I’ve never needed one… I never thought I would need one. But when I met you, all that changed. I’ve never felt vulnerable before, but I do when I’m with you… It’s strange but I don’t even mind. It’s like it’s meant to be this way. Now that I’ve found you, I can let my walls down and just be me.”

  Carter pulled her close to him and kissed her deeply. In his brain, he could feel the electricity thumping through him, he felt the power of their connection forging and becoming stronger. He could taste the endless nature of their love; of the way it was aching to be explored. He had wanted this woman since the moment he had first laid eyes on her… And now, she was there in his arms and he had been able to tell her his secret… She knew he was half man and half dragon, and she hadn’t run away. And not only that but he had found that her father had some connection to his clan. He wasn’t just a random man from town… Was it possible that Aubrey’s father was the man that had been such good friends with the packs before they had all fallen out around the time of the fire?

  The fire… it had killed him… he swallowed and tried to push it out of his mind. He knew she would be able to see it all over his face.

  Her lips were soft and welcoming, and as they pulled themselves even closer together, Carter knew he was never going to let this woman go.

  He sat back and looked in her eyes, and she smiled at him. He was barely able to believe his luck. But here he was, a dragon alpha of the Lone Reach pack and he had finally found his fated mate.

  From here on in, his life was about to change.

  15.

  A dragon.

  She was in the arms of a dragon.

  It should have terrified her, but instead, she had never felt so safe, secure and protected.

  Carter’s father and her father had known each other. But now she had other questions… ones that wouldn’t be quiet… ones that were becoming muddled in her mind and making her want to ask more… but she was afraid that she wouldn’t like the answer.

  Carter kissed her and she fell into his arms, her passion and desire for him overcame everything and all she could focus on in that moment was him and the way they clicked so perfectly together.

  He had spoken about them being fated mates, but now, it was as if there was no doubt in either of their minds. They had been meant to be together since they had both been born. Who knows how long their dads had been friends, maybe they had been their whole lives. Knowing what she did know about the magic and secrets in her little town, it was likely her father had kept his friendship with the shifters a secret to protect them, his wife and Aubrey.

  What a man her father was. He really was a saint. One of a kind. And now that she had met Carter, she saw so many of the same qualities in them both and knowing that they had a deeper connection through their families made her love him even more.

  Having him there with her in her apartment was taking away all of her fear and doubt. He had come to her and was helping her through this. She wanted to know all of him, and she wasn’t afraid that he had magic running through his veins. She would give him all she had, and she wanted to be with him forever…

  She felt as if they were deeply bonded at their soul.

  He was the other half of her…

  Carter held onto her and she looked up into his incredibly dark eyes. The light caught them in the right way; she saw the fire within them, and it made her heart race. The danger attached to a man like him was massive, but she was ready for it and she wanted to experience it all. Now she knew he was a dragon; she was sure their love making would be even more powerful.

  She rose to her feet slowly and took hold of his hand.

  “Take me to bed,” she whispered.

  Carter picked her up at the waist and she wrapped her legs around him. They kissed each other hungrily and as he kicked open the door to her bedroom and walked with her to the side of the room, she could barely wait to rip his clothes from him.

  He gently took hold of her throat and pushed her up against the wall. He kissed her neck and his rough stubble grazed against her so deliciously that it made her weak at the knees. He looked at her deep in the eyes as he breathed heavily, the fire within him getting stronger and more dominant. As he pushed against her, she could feel the rock-hard power that was between his legs and she moaned with want for it. She had to have him inside of her. She wanted him so badly her whole body was in a tangle of desire.