Chapter 2

Grady

I liked magic.

I liked magic.

I liked magic.

Telling myself that if I said it enough I'd stopped feeling so conflicted, I almost jumped when a slightly whiny voice came from the doorway.

"Are you sure you should be…" Erin winced as she stepped into the bedroom and grasped for a good description of what she saw as my insanity. "Moving on such short notice?"

My shrug had her crossing her arms and glaring at me. I hadn't been planning on her realizing I was moving until I was on the road, but she was fucking nosy…and entirely too awake for as early as it was. "You packed your hoard, asshole. I saw you. Your room is empty. This isn't a vacation and you fucking know it."

Slipping out at dawn had been a bad idea…I should've left while they were still asleep.

"You've got such a potty mouth." Glaring at her, I decided she needed a distraction.

And I knew a really good one, so I called out to her husband and Daddy. "Dickhead, your wife is cursing again."

If Erin was awake, so was my brother.

I barely held back a laugh when she made an angry sound and brained me with one of the pillows from the bed as I turned around to grab my phone cord. "I can't believe you did that."

Charging out of the guest room I'd been borrowing as soon as she'd gotten in one good wallop, she managed a sweet, manipulative tone. "Daddy, he's so mean. He's leaving us. He packed his hoard. His room is empty."

Ugh.

She was a tattletale.

Sending out a prayer to the universe that my future mate would not be a dickhead or a tattletale, I finished grabbing the last few random objects I'd left in their guest room. Picking up the pile that was bigger than I'd expected, I made my way through their small house and headed out front to the trailer that was now attached to my truck.

I'd impulse purchased the trailer a month before, and at the time, I'd had no idea why I'd bought it. I didn't particularly like camping or road trips. Hell, I'd been staying with them for a few months to save up money while I decided where I wanted to buy a house.

But that hadn't turned out like I'd expected.

Instead of ending up with a small house in the middle of nowhere, I was now the proud owner of a little house on wheels with a stupidly small bathroom and a bed that was thankfully almost dragon-sized and was currently piled with the last of the random shit from the guest room I'd called home.

I still wasn't sure why I'd bought the trailer or what I was expecting to find by randomly driving down to the States, but I knew it was the right move even if it was making everyone else insane.

"Hey, fart face, you really think this is a good idea?"

God, one random awkward phase as a teenager and it would haunt me forever.

"Yep." Ignoring the terrible nickname as he stepped into the trailer, I started finding places for everything where they hopefully wouldn't get tossed around too badly. The road from Whitehorse down to the rest of the world wasn't as bad as it used to be, but it wasn't always a smooth ride.

There were some drawbacks to living at what was basically the top of the world…but the benefits usually won out.

That it was beautiful and there were hundreds of miles we could fly in every direction without worrying about being seen were just the top two on the list.

"Can I talk you out of it?" Jeff leaned against the tiny sink in the small galley area, frowning as I bumped into him and just kept putting shit away. It wasn't easy, but the small trailer held all the important parts of my life. Hoard. Work stuff. Personal shit.

Yep, I was definitely moving.

"Nope." Hoping we'd eventually get to the end of the conversation, I wasn't surprised when he sighed.

Of the two of them, Erin was more likely to brain me and Jeff would get dramatic. It worked for them and I usually found it funny…until they were aiming all their crazy at me.

"You could always just go on another vacation if you've got itchy feet." He glared at me when I just shrugged. "This isn't rational."

At what point had anyone claimed it was?

Since he seemed to need a reminder of that, I glared at him. "I didn't say it was rational. No one has."

At no point had I said driving down to the States and following whatever impulse was pushing through me was logical in any way. "But I'm going."

Because whatever the hell was going on was making me fucking nuts.

For days, there'd been a constant feeling of someone or something pushing me, urging me to leave and almost dragging me out of town. It would've made me feel insane but the way everything else in my life had fallen into place made it easier to accept.

Fuck. It'd even made it impossible to feel bad about leaving my family and everything I'd always known.

Magic was fucking ridiculous…but sometimes there were benefits.

In the last month, the fully furnished house I'd been renting for years had unexpectedly sold, the store I worked at part-time for human contact had hired a new full-time employee and didn't need my help anymore, and I'd finished up the last few big projects I'd been working on.

Yep, nothing suspicious about the timing of it at all.

"But why not just book a vacation somewhere?" Going from glaring to looking confused, Jeff shook his head like I was an idiot. "You liked the beach last time you went there."

I still couldn't say why I'd gone down to the North Carolina coast, but he wouldn't want to hear that. Jeff liked logical, so he also wouldn't want to hear that I had no idea why I'd gone on five different vacations to the States in the last year. Sure, we might've grown up going back and forth because of our dual citizenship and all the relatives we still had down in Montana, but there was nothing reasonable about any of it.

The rest of our friends and family thought I'd gotten a bit of wanderlust but that wasn't the right word for what I was feeling. I just couldn't explain that without them wanting a better answer…and there wasn't one. I just had to go and I knew I'd eventually figure out where I was going.

"It was beautiful but I'm not sure where I'm going to visit yet." Yep, it was just a visit where I took everything I owned. "Airfare is nuts and takes too long to get anywhere lately. I thought I'd take my time and see where I end up."

Following whatever the fuck had me looking at maps and planning the road trip from hell.

Looking around the trailer, Jeff went back to shaking his head like the confused little brother he was. "Did you forget you really dislike driving more than a few hours at a time?"

I was not that dumb.

There was nothing but CBC Radio and trees for days.

"Nope." I was not an endless road trip kind of guy. "But the plan is to take my time and work as I go. It's not like I'm going to be behind the wheel all day."

Well, endless driving wasn't the plan, but something had been making me crazy, like an itch between my shoulder blades I couldn't scratch, and I had no plan to ignore it. So I wasn't going to promise to take things slow.

He didn't need to know that, though.

"You'll stop when you're tired, right?" He wasn't stupid either, but he looked more relaxed when I nodded. "You really packed your hoard?"

His wife was a pain in the ass.

"It's not that big." Antique watches weren't a common hoard, but I was glad they were portable. "I've got them in a lockbox under the bed. There's a ton of storage under it and you basically have to take the damned thing apart to get to anything down there."

Jeff sighed again, obviously not happy with the answer. "That's good, but I still don't know what's going on. Just a week or so ago you said you were going to start planning your new studio. That was why you started packing up all your art stuff in the trailer."

That'd been right before the weird push had started.

"I think this is going to be good for me." It wasn't a lie even if it wasn't an answer and didn't make sense. "It feels right and my art is fairly portable. Who knows, I might even find some beautiful places to stop and explore for a while."

Every part of me said leaving was the right thing to do, so I was going to follow the push.

I'd never questioned my instincts before, and I wasn't about to start now. I was a dragon. This was something important and I wasn't going to question that. We weren't humans living a life where they planned everything and hoped for the best.

We were fucking magic…and I was going to follow where it led.

"Is this about what Erin's mom told you?" As he straightened, Jeff finally looked less pouty and more like he was ready to accept that I was leaving. "She wasn't sure about it."

Erin's mother was one of the best mages in Canada and I wasn't going to argue with her.

"She said to follow the push." She'd also given me a few hints that I wasn't sure I believed, but they'd wait. "Even if it drove Erin crazy."

That got a laugh from Jeff. "My wife is just a little upset that you're leaving."

"Because I'm the best brother-in-law ever." I put up with their ridiculousness and she didn't have to hide being a little from me. "But don't worry, I can still be a long-distance bad influence."

And he laughed again…that time actually looking relaxed and happy as he did it.

Perfect.

"I still think you were the one to give her that fucking glitter." He glared, but I could see the laughter in his eyes. "One day I'll prove it."

Ha.

Bullshit.

"You've got a screw loose. I told you it was probably her mother. You pissed her off the week before that glitter magically appeared." If he thought I'd confess to that after having gotten away with it for over a year, he was dumber than he looked.

Even Erin hadn't figured out that I'd been the one to do it.

Fuck. She hadn't even figured out I'd been her work Secret Santa that'd gotten her Play-Doh. Clearly, there were too many bad influences at the art shop she managed and the list of who could've done it had been entirely too long.

I was a badass brother-in-law and I'd be a badass Daddy when I finally found my mate. Of course, at that point, Jeff could be the troublemaker who bought my boy messy gifts, but I'd take care of the rest. I just had to find him.

Jeff finding his mate first hadn't surprised me. Erin had moved into town when they were teenagers and sparks had gone off like fireworks the first time they'd met. The fact that she'd ended up being a little and he'd turned out to be a Daddy only made me more confident that my boy was waiting for me…somewhere.

Obviously not in Whitehorse or even Canada considering I was headed to the States, but I'd find him.

"Fine." His smile dimmed slightly, but he wasn't as upset as he'd been before. "But all hell will break loose if you don't call us at least weekly. We'll fly down and find your ass."

Barking out a laugh, I nodded. "Deal."

Realizing that was all he would get from me, he jerked his head toward the house. "Erin's making you coffee and a breakfast sandwich to take with you since I know you won't stick around here any longer."

I couldn't.

The drive just to get to the next major town was too fucking long.

Sure, the trailer was equipped with solar panels on the roof and I'd packed enough food and water to be good for days, but I had no plans to rough it the whole way down. I was going to find stops to sketch and paint. I was going to have fun, and I was going to follow the magic that someone had sent to find me.

How had my life gotten insane so quickly?

"Thanks." But no matter how far I had to drive, I could spend five more minutes since I was pretty sure I'd never be moving back.

My mate was waiting for me somewhere, and I just had to find him.

And figure out how he'd put me under a fucking compulsion.

Someone definitely needed a spanking.