The Wolf Who Owns My Heart

5.

“How have you been?” he asked. His eyebrows were furrowed in concern and his eyes wide and worried.

I glared at him. How could I answer that without opening the biggest can of worms canned worms had ever seen?

There was no way to answer him.

He signed and his shoulders slumped. A few choice sentences sprang to mind, full of words of insult about him, but then I heard my son’s voice.

No. Not yet. I wanted to introduce them in the right way. I’d imagined it for so many years, and this wasn’t in any way how I wanted it to go, out of the blue at a grocery store.

“Mom?” Maddox walked out from an aisle of dry goods, several feet behind Maverick. I froze with my eyes on my son over his father’s shoulder, and I knew that the instant Maverick turned around, it would all be over. They looked so much alike, I felt like I was watching a TV show that had found a doppelganger younger actor to play the scenes of the main character’s past.

Please don’t turn around.

Of course, Maverick didn’t listen to my internal pleas. He turned, coming face to face with my son—Our son.

Maddox didn’t notice at first and continued toward me, close enough that Maverick turned. I could see both of their faces now.

Hailey bounded forward, stopping her cart right beside me. “Mom, I’m up to twenty, but I want these granola bars. Granola bars are healthy, right? So, can that go in your cart?”

I didn’t hear her words. I just took the box of bars from her and dropped them into my cart as I watched my son notice Maverick.

“Mom?”

“Hush, baby. In a second,” I whispered.

Maverick’s face had paled, and he’d put one hand on the potato display.

Maddox’s face mirrored Maverick’s. He paled as well, and I blinked several times. I knew they looked alike—almost identical. Maddox’s sweet face had haunted me for nearly eighteen years. I didn’t love him any less, just buried the pain of him looking so much like the lost love of my life.

I pretty much forgot how to breathe as neither of them said a word. Maverick looked up and down, scrutinizing Maddox. Maddox just stared at Maverick’s face.

“Whoa,” Hailey whispered.

I tore my gaze from Maddox and Maverick to look down at my daughter. She’d figured it out.

I put my arm around her and pulled her close. “Yeah, sweetie. Whoa is right.”

4

Maverick

B

lood pounded in my ears, and my dragon lost his s**t.

He was already freaked out by being so close to Ava without any warning. Seeing our son made him rage. And I was sure he was my son. He looked like my younger self had hopped in a time machine. It took everything I had not to snatch the boy into my arms and roar my frustration at not knowing he existed before now.

He is ours. Take him.

As usual, I ignored my beast.

The boy turned to Ava and said something with wide eyes and a pale face. Ava responded, but I couldn’t hear them over the roaring in my ears and the sound of my dragon losing his s**t.

Grab him. Son. Clan. He is ours. My skin tingled and burned, the urge to shift stronger than I’d had to fight off since the first time.

I sensed my son’s dragon, but he hadn’t shifted yet. The dragon was suppressed and couldn’t get out to let out his frustration. That would build up in the boy.

Dragging in a deep breath, I took in his scent and let my dragon analyze it.

He is ours. There is no doubt.

I agreed. But how?

The boy turned to me again with rage in his eyes. I recognized the pain in them. He didn’t know what was happening to him. How could he? If Ava hadn’t come back to Black Claw, the boy would’ve gone through his first shift alone. That could’ve been catastrophic.

This was why we were so careful to keep tabs on our young.

How could this have happened?

My knees wobbled, making me feel weak for the first time in my life. If I could’ve sat down right then, I would’ve.

The alpha in me wouldn’t allow weaknesses. I snapped myself out of it, shaking my head and fully registering the scent of my son. Family.

Our son needs us. Calm him, I told Zephyr, my dragon.

Many thousands of years ago, dragons had freely roamed the earth. They were familial beasts and always lived in large pods, usually deep in the mountains. They preferred to live away from other large beasts or humans.

Eventually, humans had hunted them to the point that they had to take drastic action. One dragon clan had befriended their local tribe of humans and worked out a great magic with the shaman—The dragon shifters were born. Every new dragon pregnancy was magically imbibed with a human one. When the last dragon died, he died knowing his species would evolve and survive. Now, they were a part of us. Every shifter was able to speak to his dragon, but Zephyr was me and I was him. I knew his inherent memories. They were born knowing certain facts and remembering certain events about their history and ancestors.

Equally, he was with me during every moment of my human life, even though before I had my first shift, we were truly one conscience.

I always liked to think of it like shifters were very adept at talking to themselves.

You are right. He did his beastly thing, that I understood only instinctually, and he embraced our son’s dragon. The boy wouldn’t feel a thing, except a sense of belonging and rationality blanketing him.

The boy’s face calmed. The pounding in my ears lessened as well and sounds filtered back into my brain.

Once Zephyr resolved himself to the fact that that we had a son, Ava’s scent hit us again.

Mate. He had a one-track mind.

Ignoring him once again, I turned to Ava and let myself process her scent. Damn. He was right, though. She was our mate, my mate, no doubt about it.

Fuck.

Of course, I had a fated mate. And of course, it was Ava. I’d always known it, but I’d pushed it away and ignored it. I knew I couldn’t have her, so there had been no point in imagining we’d been fated to be together.

Fated mates were rare, but they existed. And they tended to be more common for alpha dragons. Like me and Zephyr.

Ava narrowed her eyes at me. “I know this is a lot.” She returned her attention to her son. Our son. My son. s**t. “But we will discuss it all. For now, can you two go find a few more things we might need this coming week? Milk and bread and stuff?”

The boy’s eyes stayed on me as he nodded. He looked back and forth between me and his mom, his chest puffed out. “Shouldn’t I stay with you, Mom?”

I sensed the protectiveness for his mother rolling off of him. My chest swelled with pride to know he’d protected his mother so well.

“You have nothing to fear from me, son. I would never harm your mother.” I laced my words with a hint of alpha power. It would help him listen to them and know them to be true.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m pretty sure you harmed her eighteen years ago, but sure. I believe you won’t cause her any physical harm. Come on, Hailey.”

Damn. I wasn’t sure if I deserved that or not. She was the one that had given me a son without telling me.

The girl, Hailey, left her cart beside her mom and walked to her brother. They turned and walked the way they’d come. “Are you okay, Maddox?” she asked in a soft, sweet voice.

Maddox. My son’s name was Maddox.

A strong name.

Ava sighed once they were out of sight. “Well. Now you know.”

Emotions crowded for attention in my chest. My dragon was ready to lose it again, but he was focused on one thing.

Mate