Morgan found herself feeling the same way. Maybe it was the hot, sensual nights they shared together, filled with passionate, heated lovemaking. Or maybe it was the afternoons they spent together in the store, sharing warm, affectionate glances. Either way, Morgan felt like she was finally living.

  Mostly.

  Ever since Halloween, since she had seen Diesel scraped up after taking Grace trick-or-treating, she couldn’t shake the recurring nightmares of Adam’s death.

  Sometimes she relived that day, hearing the terrible news she’d heard long ago as familiar, overwhelming fear and guilt consumed her, pulling her back into a dark place all over again. Then she would wake up in a cold sweat, only to feel Diesel’s body next to her, strong and warm and reassuring.

  On top of that, those Children of the Crater cultists had been stepping up their antics with even more ads and protests. They had gone so far as to break one of the windows in a clothing store downtown when the owner refused to join them.

  They spent most of their time occupying the town park and holding gatherings, and as such, Morgan made sure that Grace stayed far away.

  She wished they would all just leave.

  Also, it had been several days since Clark had come into the store, which was odd since he’d been coming in consistently for many years. Why had he stopped now? Had he finally given up? Felt intimidated by Diesel?

  Morgan was fine with him being gone. But still, it was a little strange.

  Right at that moment, Diesel and Grace stepped into the store.

  “So how tall exactly is your basilisk?” Grace was asking, eyes wide.

  Diesel chuckled. “Very. Maybe sometime I’ll give you a ride.”

  The scene was too adorable, and Morgan felt something warm and wonderful surge through her, something that felt a lot like love.

  Love?

  The thought was accompanied by another wave of extreme fear. What if something happened to Grace… or Diesel? He had said nothing would happen to him, but if there was anything that life had taught her, it was that you couldn’t control everything.

  Morgan and Grace’s life had been busy and a little lonely up until now, but they had also been safe, in a way. Safe because she had made it that way, safe because she had locked away any possibility of letting another person into their world again.

  But what would their lives look like if it wasn’t just the two of them? What if they didn’t have to scrimp and save and keep trying to survive as a family of two? What if they could live as a family of three?

  She imagined it would look a lot like this.

  Suddenly, the bell above the door tinkled, and in walked Gunnar and Ajax, faces stoic.

  “Diesel, need to talk to you,” Gunnar said seriously.

  Diesel nodded, then shot a smile to Morgan as he stepped out the door.

  Gosh, maybe she really did love that man.

  She checked her watch, then frowned. “Grace, isn’t it time for school?”

  “Yeah, but the bus on our route broke down, so the Nelsons are picking me up.” Grace cocked her head to the side, readjusting her glasses. “Don’t you remember, Mom?”

  Crap. I totally forgot.

  The district had called the day before, and Morgan had had to scramble to find her a ride.

  Right at that moment, a car pulled up in front of the store and honked.

  Grace grabbed her backpack and hopped down from the counter. “Bye.”

  “Bye, sweetheart, have a nice day,” Morgan said.

  “I will.” With that, Grace was gone, leaving Morgan alone in the store.

  16

  Diesel blinked against the overcast sunlight as he followed Ajax and Gunnar outside into the cool fall morning air.

  Something is up.

  He knew it and they knew it, but they hadn’t talked about it yet. Diesel had been feeling vibrations from deep within the earth. They had been getting stronger over the last few days, but he had primarily tried to ignore them, hoping it was just coincidence.

  More trouble was not what Diesel needed right now.

  “You’ve felt it too, right?” Gunnar said, cocking an eyebrow.

  Diesel nodded. “I ignored it for the first few days, but something is definitely down there.”

  “Ajax was tracking it until this morning, but we still don’t know what it is.”

  Diesel let out a low sigh and focused down deep into the earth, listening for every minute quake and vibration. He was, after all, the most adept at tracking.

  “Feels like a rock wyvern. Wait, no…” He trailed off, frowning as the realization hit him.

  Not wyvern. Wyverns.

  Shit.

  “Not just one.”

  Gunnar swore darkly. “How many?”

  “Definitely more than one. Can’t say how many exactly.”

  “That explains why we couldn’t track them,” Ajax said coolly, folding his arms. “I thought they were extinct, though.”

  “They were. Something must be waking up the ones we missed,” Diesel said, dread piling up in the pit of his stomach.

  “Something?” Ajax asked.

  Diesel frowned. When he’d heard about the humans forming a cult for the Crater dragon in this place, he’d hoped that it was just leftover mysticism from a long-held legend.

  “Any chance it could be the dragon those misfits in town all believe in?” Diesel said, more to himself than his friends.

  “There’s no way. That’s just a legend. I didn’t think it was real,” Ajax replied.

  “He’s real. I fought him,” Diesel said, watching as they both turned their wide eyes on him.

  “When?”

  “A thousand or so years ago, before all of this.”

  The memory of the battle was hazy after so long. But he’d been here before.

  He just never expected to be back like this.

  Or to find his mate right here of all places.

  Ajax laughed and cracked his knuckles. “Oh, that’s easy, then. Just tell me what he looked like so I can take him out for you.”

  “It’s not that simple. He’s a dragon, not a basilisk. We’ve been underground for a long time, but there’s a good possibility that he hasn’t.” He shrugged. “Hell, he probably has a few tricks up his sleeve. Maybe even in his human form.”

  Gunnar folded his arms. “What do you remember from the fight?”

  “Not much. It was a thousand years ago. All I remember is that he was a colossal monster dragon and I barely won. I thought I killed him, but you know shifters. They’re nothing if not—”

  “Durable,” Ajax and Gunnar said in unison, finishing the sentence.

  He nodded.

  Ajax’s voice was quieter than usual when he spoke. “Have you considered moving your mate and her daughter?”

  Diesel shook his head. “No, that’s out of the question.”

  This was their home, and he would defend it even if he had to fight a thousand rock wyverns.

  Gunnar considered him for a second. “Things are only going to get dicier here, and both Ajax and I are going to be going after them, but they could go for the town at any time…” He trailed off, and Diesel didn’t miss the graveness of the situation.

  One rock wyvern was one thing. But several possibly healthy ones? That was something else entirely.

  Thinking about it that way, it all didn’t seem like a coincidence now, what with the cult in town getting more and more extreme and it being almost exactly a thousand years since their battle.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m staying here to protect them even if it gets me killed. I would die for them,” he said resolutely, holding a fist to his chest.

  The sides of Ajax’s mouth turned up in a small smile. “With thoughts like that, Morgan is definitely your mate.”

  “Of course she is, but we already knew that.” Gunnar stepped forward, holding out his hand, and Diesel clasped it. “Stubborn basilisk. Maybe you’ll be the apex yet.”

  “Of course I will. Just wait for the next beatdown night,” Diesel replied, grinning.

  Hopefully, his mate would be attending the next one, safe and sound. He probably wouldn’t let Grace watch, though, as it was too violent.

  Gunnar chuckled, then stepped back. “Well, keep us updated. We’ll let you know if anything happens.” He turned to go, and Ajax nodded solemnly, then shoved his hands in his pockets and followed.

  Once they were gone, Diesel placed his hands on his hips and cursed underneath his breath. Why did this need to be happening now? Things were going so well with Morgan. He’d been wanting to tell her that he loved her, that he loved Grace and wanted them to be a family.

  Now he had to deal with rock wyverns and the possibility of an ancient, powerful dragon returning?

  For the first time in his life, Diesel wished he wasn’t a basilisk. All he did was attract trouble and violence, and when he had been on his own, that was fine. But now he had a mate and her daughter to think about. They deserved better.

  In that moment, he would have given nearly anything to be a normal human if it meant he could live in peace with them, keep them away from all of this.

  Morgan cared more about the safety of her family than anything else in this world, and he would make sure they stayed that way. Safe.

  As he stepped back inside, he promised himself that nothing would ever come near his family. Ever.

  Let the rock wyverns and the Crater dragon do their worst.

  17

  Up in her room, Morgan tugged a worn leatherback photo album from a bookcase and sat back on her bed, staring down at the cover as tears began to obscure the edges of her vision.

  She really hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on Diesel’s conversation, but she’d wanted to make sure Grace got to the car safe, so she had walked to the front door and ended up listening in on the basilisks’ conversation.

  Her heart had warmed with affection when the others had teased him about her being his “mate.” She wasn’t sure what exactly that was, but it sounded serious.

  But then he had said that he would go so far as to die for them, and it had all come crumbling down. Especially because she had just barely come to the realization that she loved him.

  Morgan opened the photo album and flipped the pages slowly, stopping to peer at a few pictures here or there.

  Pictures of her and Adam right after they eloped and came to Heller’s Rest. Pictures of remodeling the old store and working together.

  Then she flipped a page, and just like that, he was gone. Gone from every picture, and all that followed were images of Grace. Her first birthday, the moment she had learned how to walk.

  She smiled as she came across a picture of Grace in a highchair, looking over the moon as she tore voraciously—and quite messily—into a piece of chocolate cake on her third birthday.

  Adam wasn’t in that one either.

  Losing him had left a gaping hole in her heart, one that, if Morgan was honest with herself, hadn’t ever really healed. It might have closed up a bit, but over the years, she had closed up too, promising never to open her heart to anyone again, except for Grace.

  But Diesel had changed that. He’d been the kickstart her heart had needed to begin feeling warm and normal again.

  When she reached the end of the photo album, she paused, staring down at the most recent photo, one of Grace starting school this year, taken only a couple months ago.

  She hadn’t printed any photos with Diesel yet, but she had them on her phone. Ones she was already planning on putting here in the album, like a photo she’d taken of them carving pumpkins together the other night.

  A pang of fear and nausea went through her. Would there be a “last picture” for Diesel too, though? Would he be torn away from her? Morgan wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle it if that happened.

  He certainly didn’t seem very scared by the idea. Didn’t he know how much it would hurt her to lose him now that he was becoming her and Grace’s everything?

  If so, how could he say such words so casually? How was she supposed to handle the reminder that he could be taken away from her at any moment when he was fighting some crazy shifter monster?

  Even if he did protect them, it didn’t mean anything if he died in the process. Not when he would take her heart with him.

  There was a knock on the door, and a deep voice echoed from the other side.

  It was Diesel. “Morgan, are you in there? I’ve been looking for you.”

  She gulped. “Come in.”

  The door opened slowly, and his eyes widened, taking in her tear-stained expression. He walked over and sat down on the bed next to her.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his lips turning down in a frown.

  Morgan opened her mouth, then closed it again, unsure of what to say. What could she say? Tell him to go away and never come back? That would be unfair to him and Grace—and even more unfair to her heart. Her stupid, stupid heart that couldn’t help wanting him more by the day.

  “I overheard part of your conversation with the other basilisks,” she said finally.

  He took that in for a second, then nodded. “So you agree, then?”

  She stood up, folding her arms across her chest. “Agree? How could I agree with a plan that could end with you dying?”

  “I promised to protect you.”

  “I know, but…” She trailed off, holding a hand to her forehead.

  None of that matters if he loses his life in the process.

  Diesel stood up and took her hands in his. “The Crater dragon is real. Or it was, at least.”

  “It is?” The rumors were real? Those crazy cultists were actually right? It couldn’t be, but Diesel would never joke about this kind of thing.

  “Yes, and I can’t say for sure if it’s coming or not, but I’m going to keep you and Grace safe. This town too.”

  She looked up at him, searching for reassurance, for safety. “Be honest. How hazardous is it?”

  “I’ll be careful, but I won’t lie. There are dangers.”

  “Could you be killed?”

  He looked away, then shrugged slowly. “I haven’t found a creature I couldn’t best yet, but there’s always a risk. Nothing in life is safe.”

  Nothing in life is safe?

  Morgan knew that better than anyone, and it wasn’t at all what she wanted to hear. She wanted him to reassure her that there was some way to prevent this. One that didn’t involve risking his life.

  And her heart in the process.

  She put her hands up to his chest and pushed him away. “I’m sorry, I think this is moving too fast.”

  “Wait, I need to tell you something.” He took her hands in his again and stared down at her, his eyes deadly serious. “I love you, Morgan, more than anything. You’re my mate, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

  Her eyes widened. Deep down, a small part of her was incredibly happy, but the other, more vocal part wanted to turn around and run in the other direction.

  The last person who had said that he loved her had died and left her alone to care for a child she hadn’t even planned for.

  Noting her discomfort, Diesel stepped forward and placed his hand under her chin, tilting it up so she would look at him. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me about your past? About Adam?”

  He deserved to know.

  She took a deep breath. “My parents owned a clothing store franchise out east. I was born the last of three kids, but it always felt like they only ever wanted two.” She shrugged. “My siblings could never do anything wrong. Neglected, left behind, I could never do anything right by them.” She looked to the side, the memory seeming so far away now. “One day, a man came to work at one of our stores. We were both young, and he had big hopes and dreams.”

  “Adam.”

  She nodded. “He helped me see that there was more to life than the cold, unloving family that had raised me. He was handsome and exciting and fun, and after a while, we fell in love. He told me about this place out west called Heller’s Rest. We would often joke about moving together and starting our own little business, a store at the entrance to the Crater.”

  Diesel just listened, watching her attentively.

  “When we had saved up enough, we left everything behind, including my family, and bought this place.” She looked around at the room. “We were happy together, and after a few months, we found out that I was pregnant. Complete surprise.”

  “That must have been wonderful news,” Diesel said.

  “It was. And it wasn’t. We fought often about what we should do. I wanted to keep the baby, and he wanted to give it up for adoption. He thought it would interfere with our lives, but… I just couldn’t do it.”

  She gulped, feeling emotion pooling at the back of her throat. “One night before he was going on a dirt-biking trip with his new friends from town, we had an especially bad fight. I had a bad feeling. Told him I didn’t want him to go. He said he’d be safe, but… He died, and there was nothing I could do.”

  Diesel reached out, taking her in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Morgan.”

  “Can you just not go? Send Gunnar or Ajax to take care of it?” she asked, pulling away.

  “I can’t. People might get hurt if I don’t. I won’t have their blood on my hands, not when I could have saved them.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself. “Then where do we go from here?”

  “I’ll see you safe because you’re my mate.”

  “I know. You said that already, but what does that mean, mate?”

  He paused. “It means forever. Shifters mate for life.”

  Morgan’s heart leaped at the possibility of forever but then sank. It wasn’t forever, not when it wasn’t assured. He could be gone tomorrow, and she wasn’t sure she could hope again just to have it ripped away from her.

  “I… I can’t, Diesel. I love you too, but I can’t.”

  Diesel frowned. “Why can’t—”

  She placed a finger to his lips. “Because love isn’t safe. Not for me at least. It stopped being safe the moment I lost Adam, and forever isn’t forever if I have to worry every day that I might lose you.” She turned away. “So just go. Do what you need to do. Leave this single mom alone so she won’t keep dreaming of a safe future she can never have.”