The Bronze Dragon's Baby (Shifter Dads, #5) Read online

  Olivia was fascinated by the diner, staring around at the room, the big windows, the people—especially Santos. Her eyes kept returning to him, and when Athena looked up, she saw that he was making faces.

  Wide eyes, mouth open, like he was surprised to see her. A big smile. An exaggerated quizzical look, like he was suspicious that she was trying to fool him somehow.

  Olivia laughed her little chortling laugh, and Athena stared down at her, shocked. So far, Olivia had only laughed like that with her—and only when they were alone. She looked at most other people with suspicion, even Alaric sometimes.

  Santos laughed right back, his face open and happy.

  Athena found herself weirdly angry at him. How dare he be so happy when her whole clan was so miserable? How dare he act like he had the right to make Olivia laugh, when he’d never met her before this morning, had no connection to her at all?

  Stop it. That was all silly. Santos was probably just a normal human anyway, and there was no reason he should know or care about her problems.

  Lachlan reappeared with a tray, handing out water and coffee and a basket full of golden biscuits, and a little plate with a couple of small pots on it. “Butter, honey butter, and raspberry jam,” he said with a smile, pointing at each one. “Ready to order?”

  Santos looked at her. “Go ahead,” she told him.

  “Country breakfast two with scrambled eggs,” Santos told Lachlan, handing back the menu.

  “I’ll have the same,” Athena said, handing hers over as well, without having looked at it once.

  She thought she’d done an admirable job of sounding confident, there. Hopefully no one would guess that she’d never actually eaten at a restaurant like this before. Once or twice, she’d ordered at a counter or a drive-thru, but never sitting down with menus.

  Olivia chose that moment to discover that she could bang her hands on the table and make a lot of noise. Gleefully, she set about doing her best to announce her presence to the whole diner.

  “She’s got a career as a drummer ahead of her,” Santos observed, still smiling. “Maybe a hair metal band, you think?”

  Athena stared at him. After a second, the smile faded from his face, and he said, “Are you sure you’re not in trouble, Athena?”

  That just made her stare more, because she had no idea what had prompted that question.

  Fortunately for all of them, at that moment, the door to the diner opened and her cousin Ronan came inside.

  She hadn’t seen him in almost three years, and her breath caught in her throat as she took him in. He had a scruffy beard, which he hadn’t before, but otherwise he seemed pretty much the same, uninjured, not too much older-looking...

  ...except for the baby he was holding in one arm.

  Athena—had not been expecting that.

  She stood up as he approached, hiking Olivia up onto her hip, and they stared at each other.

  “Athena,” he said after a long minute. “I wasn’t sure it would really be you.” The rumble of his voice was the same, too, but now that he was closer, Athena was clocking other small changes. Tiny lines at the corners of his eyes, a tiredness to his face that she recognized from the mirror. Parental tiredness.

  “Of course it’s me,” she said finally. “Who’s going to show up and say they’re me? Alaric? Jeremiah? Shiloh?”

  “Shiloh might try it.”

  “Shiloh would know that if he did try it, I’d murder him,” she shot back, and he acknowledged that with a nod.

  “You haven’t changed at all,” he said finally. “Whose baby?”

  “You have. And she’s my baby. Whose baby is that?”

  “This is Noah,” Ronan said. “My son.”

  Athena—well, it wasn’t like she couldn’t have seen that coming, but it still hit her like a brick to the face. Fortunately, at that moment Lachlan appeared as if by magic with a little high chair, setting it next to the table, and Ronan busied himself getting Noah buckled in.

  She’d even heard him say it to Santos over the phone—I have Noah—but she hadn’t understood what it meant.

  Well. Well. It was fine. Having a baby didn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to hear what she had to say.

  Santos was watching this whole interchange with fascination, and when Ronan turned to sit down, he scooted in without comment, so that Athena could have the whole other side of the booth with Olivia. Probably for the best; she really didn’t want to be crowded right now.

  And this way, she could study both of them at once. Ronan’s expression was muted, the calm mask that she remembered from his last days with the clan. Bad sign, probably.

  Santos, though, was watching her with—concern? Concern. She was tempted to scowl back at him—she didn’t need anyone’s concern—but controlled herself. She was here to accomplish her goals.

  “Why are you here, Athena?” Ronan asked her, finally.

  She took a deep breath. “I want you to come back.”

  “No.”

  Ronan’s answer was swift and final. Athena could feel that No like a heavy weight in her chest.

  She pressed on anyway. “I know why you left. I—I agree with why you left, now. I didn’t at the time, but now I get it. Jeremiah is like a tinpot dictator, and Shiloh’s going to follow right in his footsteps. I know you didn’t want to be caught up in all of it.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t. I still don’t.”

  She leaned forward, catching that lifeline, ignoring the growing weight of his firm resolve. “But you are, aren’t you? Jeremiah’s set his sights on Oak Ridge. You’re going to have him and Shiloh showing up to mow down any challengers. Alaric’s going to be here demanding that someone come do honorable battle with him and may the best man win, or whatever.”

  His mouth twitched just a little bit at that, which she chose to interpret as a good sign.

  “You’re going to fight them anyway, so why not come home and challenge Jeremiah the old-fashioned way? You could take over. You could be the clan alpha, and then you could run things the right way. Make it into the clan you always wanted it to be.”

  She finished in a rush, full of conviction that this was the right thing to do. When they’d heard that Ronan was here in Oak Ridge, the idea had come to her like a bolt of lightning, and she’d known immediately that she had to go find him and convince him to come back.

  Santos was watching her still, and this time his expression wasn’t concerned. He looked—impressed?

  Well, great. She hoped he was impressed. Not that it mattered at all, because the only person she really needed to impress here was her stupid cousin.

  Who had closed his eyes, looking pained. He opened them again and said, “Athena...I left years ago. Why me? Why not you, or Alaric?”

  “Alaric’s too loyal. He won’t challenge the leader because it’s not the right way to do things or something dumb like that. And I can’t do it, are you kidding? They’d never follow a woman. They’d all gang up on me and Olivia would be in danger.”

  Ronan’s eyes softened as he looked down at Olivia. “I hope you’re keeping her safe.”

  “Why do you think I’m here?” she asked, frustrated. She shrugged off her coat entirely; she felt hot all over.

  “Oh.” It was almost soundless, on a let-out breath. “Athena...no.”

  It took a second to sink in. “What? Why not? You could come home. You could fix everything you hated about it!”

  “This is my home now. I live in Oak Ridge. I have a mate and a baby. A clan, a new one. I’m not abandoning them to go back to the old ways, violence and challenges and constant conflict.”

  “That’s what you’d be fixing—” she started, but he interrupted her.

  “It wouldn’t just be one challenge, Athena, you know that. If I fight my father and win, he’s never going to give it up, unless I killed him, and I don’t want to do that. Even if he did back down, I’d have Shiloh after me. And probably three or four of the others who think I’m a coward for runnin
g away in the first place. It would never be over.”

  She opened her mouth to argue...and closed it. Then opened it again. “If you made a real example of Jeremiah at the start—”

  “Athena, you’re not listening to me,” he said. “I don’t want to be like that. I’m not going to make an example of my own father, okay? I’m not going to go live somewhere where that’s necessary, and I’m certainly not going to bring Katie and Noah into that world. I’m staying here.”

  He turned to the high chair, and started unbuckling Noah.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, half-standing. She could feel a pressure behind her eyes, a sharpness in her throat that made her voice catch.

  “I don’t want to argue with you about this. If you want to sit down and catch up, or if you want to talk about how to broker peace between you and us, or convince Jeremiah to lay off of Oak Ridge, I’m happy to do that. But if you’re going to keep trying to convince me to come back, my answer is no.”

  Athena sat back down, stunned, as you and us echoed through her head. And Ronan got Noah out of the high chair—over his protests—and stood up, and walked out of the diner with his son, leaving Athena staring after him.

  He’d said no.

  She’d been so sure that he’d listen to her. That even if he didn’t want to come, he’d still understand her arguments, at least. Realize how important it was.

  After a long minute, she felt eyes on her, and looked back to see Santos, still watching her. “What?” she snapped. Her throat still felt scratchy, and she swallowed hard, furious at it. And Ronan. And everything.

  “I’m sorry,” he said simply.

  “About what? Why do you even care?” She knew she was being a jerk, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  “It sounds like you really needed Ronan’s help,” he said. “Like you really wanted him to come back home with you. I’m sorry he wouldn’t help you.”

  “Sure you are,” she muttered. “You probably don’t even know what all this is about.” Although Ronan hadn’t hesitated to talk about it in front of him.

  His eyebrows flew up. “You mean, the conflict between Oak Ridge and the red dragons? Why wouldn’t I know about that? I live here.”

  “Sure, but—”

  Olivia chose that moment to grab for Athena’s water glass, and there was a moment where she and Santos both reached to save it at the same time, and it almost all ended up in her lap. But disaster was averted, and Athena moved it out of reach.

  And decided that she was tired of playing who-knows-what. “Are you a dragon?” she asked bluntly. “Or human?”

  “Oh,” Santos said, as if he was just realizing something. “I’m a dragon. No need to keep secrets.”

  Oh.

  “What kind of dragon keeps a furniture store?” she burst out.

  He started to laugh.

  She glared at him while he laughed and laughed, and kept glaring as Lachlan showed up with two enormous plates of food, eyes alight with laughter, too, even though he couldn’t have any idea what the joke was.

  Athena hoped he didn’t, at least, because she didn’t even know, and she was half of this conversation.

  “Enjoy,” Lachlan murmured as he set the plates down, and disappeared again.

  Santos finally got control of himself, catching his breath, and said, “This dragon does.”

  That did not tell her anything, but she didn’t want to deal with any more obtuse men right now, so she picked up her fork and dug in.

  And blinked.

  She’d taken a bite of the eggs, and they were—what were they? She’d never had eggs this rich and soft, and the flavor was like—well, not like any eggs she knew, that was for sure.

  “Lachlan’s eggs are legendary,” Santos said, probably responding to the idiotic expression she had to have on her face. “He gets them from a local farmer, and he cooks them with some kind of magical technique he won’t share with anyone, and he puts a little of some kind of cheese in there, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted.”

  She took another bite. It was just as good as the first one had been.

  “I hate this place,” she muttered, and kept eating.

  It was all goddamn delicious. The eggs were perfect. The sausage was spiced in some crazy way she’d never tasted before either, but was somehow overwhelmingly good. The biscuits were light and fluffy and hot and amazing. Olivia wanted it all very badly, and when Athena gave her a tiny fingerful of egg, she wanted it all even more.

  So fine. Oak Ridge had the best food in the world, and Ronan had found a mate and had a beautiful baby here, and there were all these nice houses, and dragons kept furniture stores—and were calm and helpful and tall and handsome—and it was all full of rainbows and unicorns and whatever.

  She still wasn’t going to give up.

  And she was finishing her breakfast, because as irritating as it all was, she’d never been one to cut her nose off to spite her face.

  When she finally set her fork down, she looked up at Santos, and asked, “So where can I stay for a little while?”

  Chapter 6: Santos

  Santos hadn’t been expecting anything about Athena’s speech to Ronan.

  He’d been guessing, honestly, that she was fleeing the red dragons and had come to ask Ronan if he would take her and her baby in. Well—he’d been hoping that, if he was honest, because that would mean that Athena was no longer allied with them, and he’d have the opportunity to get to know her a little better.

  And baby Olivia, who he already wanted to keep around, if only for that adorable full-body chortle. And those springy red curls.

  But no. Athena was—well. She wasn’t abandoning the dragons to come to Oak Ridge, but she had her own agenda, and it didn’t match up with the clan leader Jeremiah’s.

  And maybe—

  No. Stop it. He wasn’t about to start building castles in the air, because if nothing else, it was clear that Athena was a woman who had both feet firmly on the ground.

  But there was one thing he was sure about.

  “You can stay at my place,” he told her.

  She immediately looked suspicious.

  He held up his hands. “I have a spare room. And I have a crib in the workshop, actually—I was working on it for Elizabeth, who’s expecting soon, but it’s all done except for the finish, so I can move it upstairs and Olivia can sleep there. I promise you, all I’m offering is a spare bed.”

  The suspicion didn’t fade entirely. Santos wasn’t surprised—from what he’d heard about the red dragon clan, being suspicious was a requirement for living there.

  “The door locks,” he added.

  She thought about it. She got a tiny wrinkle in her forehead when she was thinking hard about something. He’d already seen it quite a few times in just the hour or so that they’d known each other, and it was hard not to find it endearing.

  “All right,” she said finally, and he let out his breath, silently.

  Great. Good. Now all he had to do was figure out how to get her to switch sides.

  He looked at her, scowling down at the remains of her breakfast—which she’d devoured with a hunger that made him wonder when she’d eaten last, exactly—and thought that he had a lot of work ahead of him, in that case.

  ***

  On the way out of the diner, Athena excused herself to the restroom, and Lachlan caught Santos by the door.

  “Who is that?” he asked, eyes lit up with curiosity. “I didn’t eavesdrop, even though I was extremely tempted.”

  “Her name is Athena, and she’s a red dragon,” Santos said, figuring that subterfuge wasn’t going to help anyone. “She’s here to convince Ronan to come back and take over the clan.”

  Lachlan’s eyebrows crept up towards his hairline. “Well,” he said.

  “Yeah. Ronan’s not going for it, but she hasn’t given up.”

  Lachlan seemed to be thinking this through. “I suppose that would be good for us, if Ronan were the leader
. But he’d be miserable.”

  Santos nodded. “Basically what he said.”

  “Are there going to be other red dragons coming to find her?” Lachlan asked, a line of worry appearing on his forehead.

  Santos had to admit he hadn’t thought of that. But—“I think she’s too smart for that,” he said. “I’ll ask her, but I’m willing to bet she made sure no one would follow her.”

  Lachlan nodded. “Should I be telling Flynn and Malachi about this?”

  Malachi was the sheriff of Oak Ridge, and Flynn was his deputy—and Lachlan’s brother. Santos let out a sigh. “No, I’ll do it. Maybe I’ll take her to talk with them. If she can let go of the idea of dragging Ronan back home, I bet she could come up with some good strategies for us.”

  “Good luck,” Lachlan said sympathetically, as Athena reappeared.

  “Hey,” Santos said to her. “Ready to go?”

  She nodded, eyeing Lachlan suspiciously. Lachlan smiled at her and disappeared back into the kitchen.

  As they came out into the cold winter air, Athena looked back over her shoulder and asked, “Is he really that cheerful? Or does he just pretend to be, for the customers?”

  “He really is,” Santos said, a little ruefully. “He loves his job, he loves this town, and he’s overall a pretty happy guy. Always has been, but he’s even happier since he met his mate a couple months ago. Wish I could figure out how he does it, sometimes.”

  “Doesn’t seem natural,” Athena muttered, and Santos stifled a laugh.

  They walked back together, and Santos watched her with a covert eye. Even with Olivia strapped to her front and a heavy-looking backpack on her back—Santos had thought about offering to carry it, but decided that she’d probably laugh in his face—she had a powerful, rangy stride, long legs eating up the ground. Santos was tall enough that he usually found himself deliberately ambling along so as not to outpace whoever he was with, but Athena kept up with him easily.

  She was also looking curiously around her at all the buildings lining Oak Ridge’s Main Street. Reconnaissance, probably, Santos thought. The only other red dragon to get within Oak Ridge’s city limits—to his knowledge, at least—was the young hotshot who’d shown up, challenged Malachi, and been quickly and summarily defeated. Apart from Ronan, none of them would have any idea what the place even looked like.