As Alena watched in stunned disbelief and perhaps a little awe, the mighty beast began to fly over her head. It seemed as if it were about to set the girl down when Alena locked eyes with it. With him.

  It was the man. She felt it in every cell of her body as a surge of electric heat suddenly pulsed through her. It was like she was suddenly awake for the first time in her life. Looking into the beast’s eyes, she knew he felt it, too. Her mysterious stranger was behind those eyes.

  Perhaps he also knew it. Rather than set the child down immediately, he flew just over a stand of trees instead. Though Abi was now out of sight, with her keen bear senses, Alena could hear that the dragon had set her down. She heard Abi’s voice as she spoke to him. Did she sound cheerful?

  “Thank you very much, Mr. Dragon!” There was a brief pause before she continued. “Of course I’ll be fine. I understand. Oh, well, then you should go say ‘hi’!”

  What in the…

  Before she could complete her thought, Alena looked up to see the red and gold beast flying back toward her from over the trees.

  In an instant, he was landing right in front of her. She felt the wind from every beat of his wings blow against her face. The dragon landed with a tremendous thud, his powerful wings kicking up a swirl of dirt and debris. Alena’s bear roared in response, fur standing on end as the massive beast towered before her. He was so powerful, part of her wanted to flee, but a deeper, more primal side was rooted to the spot, drawn to him like to nothing and no one before.

  Their gazes locked, and it was as if the world froze for a suspended moment. Alena felt an electric spark arc between them, scorching through her veins with the same jolting intensity as their initial encounter on the street. The shock almost forced her to shift, but she held out in bear form. She knew without a doubt that this was the man—the virile, captivating stranger whose existence had been occupying her thoughts in a maddening loop, but part of her was still afraid. He could destroy her in an instant.

  My charismatic stranger is a dragon.

  Her bear rumbled with disbelief but also with an undercurrent of excitement and longing that she couldn’t fully process. In that instant, the dragon began to shift, scales melting away to reveal sinewy muscle and tanned skin.

  Oh, god.

  In a blink, Alena followed suit, shifting back to her human form in a crackle of energy. Tufts of fur receded, bones compressed and reshaped to curves and soft skin as she let out a harsh exhale. She blushed furiously, knowing that she now stood as naked as him, completely exposed to his gaze. But she wanted to be.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she shamelessly drank in every detail. His tousled dark hair, those enthralling azure eyes, the chiseled contours of his face and body. This was her stranger in all his naked glory. She couldn’t help but let her eyes sink below his waist, and she drew a breath at the sight of his impressive manhood. A pulse of pleasure erupted in her core. She drank in every detail until their gazes met again.

  He’s a dragon!

  The thought repeated in her mind.

  How is this even happening?

  For a long moment, they simply stared at each other, twin expressions of amazement and uncertainty writ across their features.

  Alena felt her own heat rise again as he looked down, first at her bared breasts, and then even lower, to the patch between her legs.

  Thank god he had set Abi down so far away. And no wonder.

  Still, Alena made a move to grab her clothing, but for the moment, she just held it up to cover herself. He seemed to have no such fear. But she knew he would shift back in any moment and be gone.

  The air itself seemed charged, electric, somehow amplifying the roar of Alena’s pulse in her ears.

  It was the stranger—the dragon—who finally found his voice.

  “It’s you…” he rasped, his eyes roving over her again appreciatively. “But how? Why?” He shook his head, his own feelings apparently mirroring her own. He finally let out a breathless laugh, and he looked in the direction of the copse of trees over which he had set Abi no more than a minute ago.

  Alena swallowed hard, fighting to keep her composure under the weight of his molten stare. “And you’re… a dragon.” The words felt absurd leaving her lips.

  He inclined his head slightly. “Guilty, I’m afraid. And you, a bear.” His lip quirked in a roguish smile. “A rather lovely bear, I might add. But still a bear.”

  Heat blazed across Alena’s cheeks, a strange fluttering blossoming in her belly. “I could say the same about you. A dragon who—”

  “Saved your young one?” he supplied with a wink. “A youngling is still a youngling, be they bear or dragon.”

  “She’s not my—” Alena began.

  “Auntie Lena! Wasn’t that cool!” Abi’s voice cut through their charged interaction like a bucket of ice water on a fire. Alena could hear her coming through the trees just over a rise.

  Both Alena and the dragon started, eyes going wide as they seemed to come fully back to the reality of the situation.

  She quickly put her legs into her pants as she frantically began to dress. “I’ll be right there, honey!” she called to the little girl who was still out of sight.

  “Look,” the dragon murmured urgently, his previous bravado seeming to slip ever so slightly. “My kind and yours… we’re not exactly friends…”

  “I know,” Alena breathed, heart sinking as she took in his meaning. Dragons and bears, lifelong sworn enemies.

  “This cannot be,” he said, stating what she also knew to be true. But despite his words, she could see pain etched upon his face at having to speak them.

  “Can I at least know your name?” she asked, even as she could tell he was about to shift.

  “Is he still here?” came Abi’s voice, even closer now.

  “I think you know my name. My family’s name, at least. To tell you more would just torture us both.”

  “Livingstone,” Alena exhaled flatly.

  “Yes. I must go… It’s better this way.” He glanced in the direction from which the little girl’s voice had come.

  “Yes, you’re right,” Alena managed to say, even as her bear raged within her.

  “Yes. It’s better if we just… forget we ever met.”

  With a final smoldering look, his body began to shift back into his dragon form. Scales erupted from his flesh even as bones cracked, and his body transformed once more into the awesome beast that had saved Abi. He beat his great wings and began to rise.

  Just then, Abi came through the scrub.

  “Bye, mister dragon!” She waved. “Bye!”

  Alena just stood slacked jaw, as equally floored by Abi’s apparent resilience or nonchalance as by the weight of all that had just been revealed to her.

  “Did you see how the dragon saved me? Wasn’t that amazing!”

  “Oh, I saw him, all right. And he is amazing,” Alena admitted, feeling her senses alight once again. She managed to muster a tremulous smile as she pulled her niece in for a fierce hug. “Are you okay, munchkin? God, that scared me half to death. I’m sorry. I don’t think I could have ever forgiven myself if something had happened to you.”

  “I’m okay, I’m okay, Auntie. Don’t worry!” Abi assured her breezily. She patted Alena’s arm comfortingly.”

  “Hey, what about Rainbow? Did you drop her?”

  “It’s okay, Rainbow will be all right. Unicorns are magical, you know. She’ll find a way to get home. Don’t you worry,” Abi added.

  This kid…

  “If you say so. But if you want, we can get you a new one on the way home.”

  “Nope. There’s only one Rainbow, and she’ll come back.”

  “Okay.” Alena wasn’t about to argue if Abi was all right with it.

  Blinking back sudden tears, Alena buried her face in Abi’s blonde hair. She felt her bear whimper plaintively within her, frustrated and mourning the loss of the tantalizing connection with her dragon.

  My dragon? And what connection? You don’t even know him. You haven’t lost a thing.

  But deep inside, not even that deep, she knew that wasn’t exactly true. Her bear certainly knew it.

  Still, Abi was alive and unharmed. That was all that mattered. Alena had to be grateful for that.

  As they prepared to head back down the mountain, she turned to Abi.

  “Hey, um… I don’t want to tell you what to say or anything, but maybe it’s best if we keep this between us. Especially the part about the dragon.”

  “I may be seven, but I’m not stupid, Auntie. My dad hates dragons.”

  Don’t I know it.

  “But I sure think that dragon likes you.”

  Great.

  CHAPTER 4

  Zane couldn’t shake the bear woman from his thoughts. It had been days since their fateful encounter at Widow’s Peak, but her hazel eyes still haunted him. The sight of her. The two of them bared to one another like that. It was almost more than he could take. Again, he felt the pleasured rise of his cock at the thought of her. His spirit and his heart soared as he replayed their brief encounters over and over in his mind. His dragon rumbled restlessly within him, yearning for another glimpse of the captivating stranger who had so thoroughly upended his world.

  I want more than a glimpse.

  His dragon wanted more than that still.

  Mate, his beast insisted. Claim her.

  “Shut up,” Zane muttered under his breath, bringing his hands to either side of his head in a gesture of frustration.

  She’s a bear, for god’s sake. It’s impossible. Now more than ever.

  But no matter how many times he repeated the mantra, his traitorous heart refused to listen. He needed a distraction, something to take his mind off the maddening pull he felt toward a woman whose name he didn’t even know. While he had mixed feelings about his upcoming responsibilities to his family business, at this point he realized it was actually a blessing. He would dive into his role and hopefully lose himself in it. This compulsive thinking, or whatever it was, had to stop.

  Zane knocked hard on his brother Dash’s door.

  Hopefully things were ready to move on the Forsaken Riders front. If not, a visit to his family would surely take his mind off… other matters.

  His dragon hissed inside him.

  Dash’s mate Amelia greeted him at the door with a warm smile, their young daughter Nora peeking out from behind her skirts.

  “Zane, what a pleasant surprise!” Amelia said, ushering him inside. “Come on in. I’ll put on some tea.”

  Zane followed her into the cozy living room, where Dash lounged in an armchair by the fireplace. He looked up from the book he was reading, quirking a brow at Zane’s presence.

  “Little brother! To what do we owe the pleasure?” Dash grinned, setting his book aside.

  Zane shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “Just thought I’d drop by, see how things are going. Maybe you have an update on the Forsaken Riders deal?”

  Dash’s expression sobered slightly. “Hey, I gotta say, I am impressed with your drive in wanting to get on this ASAP, but it’s not fully worked out yet. Striker’s still hammering out the details with the Forsaken Riders’ point man on this. Some guy named Dice.”

  “Fucking bikers.” Zane laughed at the name.

  “That’s nothing. Apparently, his right-hand man is called ‘Ghost,’” Dash quickly added.

  “Of course he is.”

  “Anyway, it should be finalized soon.”

  “Well, the sooner the better. With things on a knife’s edge in town, we need to cut down on variables.”

  “No kidding, man, I think this is the worst I’ve ever seen things. You know, those bears are lucky Sampson didn’t just shift on the spot and fry the whole lot.”

  Zane shook his head. “As if that were really on the table.”

  “Look, man, we’ve all managed to mind all the laws and stay hidden for centuries by respecting the old ways, never revealing ourselves to humans, but I am telling you: had a few others not broken that up, I think we could have had an all-out war start then and there, consequences be damned. That’s how bad it is. Those bears just have zero respect for what us dragons have done for this town. They’re just a bunch of victims, if you ask me…”

  “I didn’t realize it was that bad…”

  Amelia returned with a tray of steaming mugs, interrupting their discussion as she set it down on the coffee table. She settled onto the sofa beside Zane, Nora climbing into her lap.

  As Nora giggled and squirmed, Amelia shot Zane a knowing look. “You seem distracted, Zane. Everything all right?”

  “Oh, we were just talking business,” he stammered.

  “And that’s it?” she asked. He felt like she was looking right through him.

  Easy, buddy, that’s your paranoia talking.

  “Things just seem to be getting worse and worse around here. I guess I am still just a little apprehensive that this deal could upset the Bears even more.”

  “I don’t know if that’s possible, but one thing’s for sure,” Dash snarled. “The day we start making business decisions based on the Bears’ feelings is the day I quit. There’s only so much bending over backwards we can do. I mean, seriously, those fleabags are never gonna be happy, no matter what we do.”

  “How do you know? I mean, what do we really know about them?”

  Dash seemed to do a double take at that.

  “What the… What’s gotten into you, little brother?” he asked, sitting up straighter. Since when do you care how they feel?”

  “I’m just tired of the constant tit for tat, is all. I just think we should be looking for common ground instead.”

  Dash scoffed. “Common ground? With the bears? And especially after what those hairballs pulled with Sampson? Not likely. In Misty Vale, bears and dragons just don’t seem to get along. And us calling off a deal is not gonna change that.”

  “But that’s not always true, Daddy!” Nora suddenly protested.

  “What do you mean, honey?” Dash said, suddenly changing his tune as he lifted her up onto his lap.

  “There are nice bears. Some of the girls from the dragon pack are mean to them. And some of the ones from bears are mean to dragons. But not all of them. Some of them are really nice! And their parents are nice, too!”

  “Oh, yeah? Is that so, Nora?” Zane interjected, his interest more than piqued. He made an effort to appear that he was just feigning interest for Nora’s sake. “Like who? You mean there are nice bears? That’s impossible!” he teased.

  “But there are! Like James! He’s nice!”

  “Any little girls that are nice?”

  Zane couldn’t help but notice that Amelia had begun to study him a little too intently, but he decided to press his luck, anyway. Suddenly, his dragon was on the scent. Maybe he could find out who this woman was.

  “Abi!” the little girl said. “She’s super nice!”

  “That’s Archer’s daughter,” Amelia said, giving him a sideways look.

  “Oh, yeah?” he asked, trying his best to act innocent.

  Don’t press your luck.

  “What in the world is going on with you, Zane? I have never seen you care about any bear cubs before. And the way you’ve been carrying on about the bikers. Your job hasn’t even started yet, and you’re already cracking!” Dash laughed.

  Amelia laughed, too, but Zane could tell she was still studying him suspiciously.

  Could Abi be the little girl? He had no idea. But his gut told him she was. Finally, he responded to Dash. “I am Nora’s uncle, after all; it’s about time I took more interest in her. Why is that so bad?”

  “That’s not bad at all! Maybe you could even pick me up from school sometimes! Like Abi’s auntie does! She’s really nice.”

  For a second, Zane almost froze from the shock of this new information. Abi’s aunt. But he played it off cool. At least he hoped he did…

  “Absolutely,” he managed to say. “If it’s okay with your mom and dad, that is!”

  “Of course it is. We’ll talk,” Amelia said, giving him a pointed look.

  “Great! Okay, well, I should get going then!”

  Dash waved him off, already reaching for the TV remote. “Yeah, you do that. And Zane? Keep your head on straight. You worry too much. And hey. Remember where your loyalties lie, little brother.”

  Zane nodded tightly, his jaw clenched. “Always.”

  Amelia saw him to the door, and just as he was making his exit, she said, not quite in a whisper but not exactly loudly, either, “Her name is Alena.”

  This time, all attempts at playing it cool escaped him, and he simply repeated the word, a wave of joy reverberating within him as he did so, “Alena.”

  “That’s right. Have a good day, Zane,” Amelia told him as he stepped off the front porch.

  What the hell are you even doing? he chided himself as he walked the short path to his own house down the street.

  Alena.

  Her name rang in his ears now. He knew that was her. He didn’t know how, but now, he was certain. Still, it could never be.

  Back in his own home, he made his way to his big oaken desk and tried once more to distract himself.

  Work. Yes, focus on your passion.

  But even in the sanctuary of his own house, he couldn’t shake thoughts of her.

  Alena.

  He tried to lose himself in sketching out some ideas for his adventure tourism business—a series of treehouses connected by ziplines, maybe a cliff-jumping spot by White Lake. But every line he drew somehow morphed into the silhouette of a bear, Alena’s form haunting him even on paper.

  “Argh!” Zane crumpled up yet another failed sketch and hurled it across the room. His dragon was practically clawing at his insides now, desperate to break free.

  This was ridiculous. He could usually keep his dragon at bay for long stretches, weeks, if he had to. But since he had seen her, Alena, it seemed hardly hours would pass after a flight, and his dragon was already practically tearing at him to break free.