Chapter 2

Eli

"I love you. I've been in love with you. It didn't happen all at once. I think it kind of happened slowly as we grew up together. I've always thought of your scent as the utmost comfort. And I didn't realize what it was at first. I thought maybe we were just best friends. And we are. But I want more than that… I dream of you at night and never stop thinking of you during the day. You are never far from my mind. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And it's okay if you don't feel the same way. I think maybe... Do you think that you could try? Like, could we go on a date or something?"

I stopped speaking. This was going terribly. I was rambling. This was why I needed to write this down. This was why I needed to practice. I let out a long breath. The air whooshing out of my lungs, causing my flopped-over hair to fly up over my forehead.

I glared at myself in the mirror. I was the only one present in the room, because there was no way in hell I was giving this speech in public, let alone in front of the person it was intended for. Over the years, I had practiced variations of the speech out loud, in my head, on paper. One time I'd even tried to convey the message in a dance. That had resulted in a twisted ankle.

I think the first time had been when I was almost sixteen. I hadn't realized it was love then. I just thought maybe my best friend and I could practice jerking each other off. We were teenagers and shifters, so hormones were running rampant.

My speech hadn't included any declarations of love, just unabashed teenage lust.

My speech had also never reached its intended target's ears.

I had chickened out again and again over the years. There was no way I was admitting my feelings to my best friend. Because even though Aldryn was the nicest of people and his family accepted me, liked me, put up with me, we were worlds apart. He was so far out of my league I don't even think we were in the same universe.

He was…. perfection. An alpha with a capital A. The hottest, most sought-after alpha in our age group, not that he paid any mind to the numerous omegas that panted after him. It was like he never even noticed them when they flocked to him.

"Eli, you better get up here and get these dishes done. And get your ass to work. I won't have you being late again!"

I shifted my glare to the stairway where my aunt had yelled down. I lived in the basement of our home. Their home. I was barely welcome on the first floor and only for times when I could do something for them, like dishes. I wasn't allowed to partake in the family breakfast. No, that wasn't allowed. But I could clean their dishes, do their laundry, and mop up their filth. It was how I paid them back for taking me in.

As far as being late for work, that had only happened once three years ago when I had gotten food poisoning and spent two days sick in the basement by myself. Why had I gotten food poisoning? Well, I hadn't been allowed to eat for three days and I caved and went dumpster diving. Next time I would just eat in my shifted form, which I should have thought of in the first place, but I hadn't been thinking clearly. Not that I would ever admit any of those things to anyone but myself. Aldryn didn't even know about that incident. He thought I'd had the regular flu.

"Coming," I shouted back. I grabbed my sweatshirt and pulled it over my head. I would be working with Aldryn today. It was his birthday. I had saved and hidden money away from my aunt so that I could buy him something. I couldn't wait to give it to him. It was a pair of bird-watching binoculars which sounded lame for a twenty-five-year-old, but when you worked outside as much as we did, you learned to enjoy the sights of nature.

A few years ago, Aldryn and I started learning more about the birds we saw in the territory. Now the two of us were well and truly obsessed with bird watching.

I ran upstairs. I kept my head down as I entered the kitchen. The whole family was getting ready to leave the house to do whatever it was they had to do that day. I got the dishes done while they all milled about, and my skin prickled with unease. How much longer could I stand living like this?

Was Aldryn truly the only thing keeping me here? I had my degree. I was a teacher. Or I could be, if I got a job at an actual school. The school at this pack would not hire me because I was not of one of the better families and my aunt threw a fit about me working there. That had not stopped me from putting out an application to a different pack. I'd had one interview so far, and it had gone well. The friend that I had there told me I was a shoo-in, which I supposed was fantastic. Except then I would have to leave Aldryn, and I hated that idea.

Once the dishes were done, I grabbed my bag and left the house. The present I had purchased for Aldryn was already tucked inside my bag, hidden in an inconspicuous pocket because I did not trust anyone in my family not to search through my belongings.

"Don't forget to take the trash out," my aunt called.

"Of course," I said. How could I forget? This was my lot in life for as long as I stayed here. My aunt and her children would never stop reminding me that I owed them, and their version of me paying off that debt was to do all the chores. I could leave tomorrow and not one of them would notice until the dishes began piling up, probably on day three or four of me being gone.

I drove to Aldryn's house in a truck provided by the pack. Though our pack was not overly large, there was a distinct difference between how the lowers lived and how families like Aldryn's lived. They were part of the in-crowd. His adopted dad had been a Beta when he was alive. My parents were poor before they died. I was taken in by my aunt.

Aldryn was waiting at the curb when I pulled up. He got into my truck before I even had it in park. I grinned at him. All of the unease and trepidation that had pickled under my skin alleviated, but that other foreign feeling of unease that I had started to associate with Aldryn settled in. The feeling felt as close to your mind as it could be while still being formed. Was that because we were such close friends or something more?

"Hey, Eli."

"Good morning," I said. "Happy birthday."

He smiled back at me. It didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Scared of being another year older?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No. Just been feeling off."

I put a hand up and touched his forehead. "You're kind of warm. You sure you feel up to working?"

"It's fine," he said.

"You sure?" He nodded. "All right."

He flipped the radio on, a sure sign that he didn't want to talk. I would have to save the birthday gift for a different time. I so wished that he would open up to me and explain what he was feeling. The past few weeks he'd become distant, and there was a sadness that seemed to hover around him like a cloud. I would give him space. Best I could do was be there for him.

We drove to the cabins that we would be working at today. They were the ones farthest from the main lodge. Once we got out of the truck, he just stood there. "Everything all right?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I feel funny."

"What do you mean? Do you want me to take you back home?"

"No, I just feel like..." He let out a breath, and despite the warm air, it was as if I could see it, like it was smoke tendrils coming out of his nose and mouth.

"Aldryn, you're scaring me." My wolf sprang to the surface, whimpering and wanting me to get closer to Aldryn. We weren't scared of him, we were scared for him.

"I'm scaring me," he said, and he doubled over, his hands going to his knees.

I put my hand on his back, and he threw his arm up, pushing me out of the way. The force of it knocked me to the ground, sucking the air from my lungs. "Stay back. I don't know what's happening."

Then, before I even knew what was happening, a dragon stood where my best friend and maybe mate had once stood.