Bloodrunner Dragon (Harper's Mountains Book 1) (8 page)

BOOK: Bloodrunner Dragon (Harper's Mountains Book 1)
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Chapter Ten

 

Aaron was angling his face down instead of looking out the window. He’d ridden like that for the twenty-minute drive into the Smokey Mountains. With a suspicious frown, Harper shoved his face to the side and gasped. His neck had been injured last night in the fight, but she hadn’t even thought to check him this morning. Bear shifters had some of the fastest healing capabilities out of all the shifters, but Aaron’s neck was only half-healed and angry looking.

Aaron lifted icy blue eyes to hers. A few strands of his gelled hair fell stiffly over his face. “It’s not how I thought it would be with the vamps.”

She studied the worry that pooled in his eyes. Aaron had always been the tough one. The quiet one. They’d spent summers and holidays together because their father’s, Bruiser and Cody Keller, were half-brothers. She’d watched him grow up strong, and she’d watched him transition from a happy boy to a tattoo-covered, pierced, scruffy, motorcycle-riding badass. The changes started happening when he went through the Fire Academy to become a firefighter like his father and uncles. Something about his occupation had made him harder, more withdrawn.

She ran her finger over the injury on his throat. Hers looked much better than this, and the queen had her teeth on her longer. “Wyatt?”

Wyatt turned in the front seat, and his eyes dimmed. “Sorry, man. That shit’ll scar. You went head-to-head with Aric, Arabella’s Second. He wasn’t trying to suck you dry. He was trying to rip your throat out.”

Aaron twitched his neck out from under Harper’s probing fingers. “Good. Chicks dig scars.”

She hadn’t missed the bitter edge to his voice. He didn’t want comfort, though, and she’d learned from spending a lifetime around rough-and-tumble dominant shifters not to press him.

“Turn here,” Wyatt said, pointing to a washed-out dirt road.

“Whoa,” Harper murmured, leaning forward to look out the front window better.

The road was rough, sure, but there was no denying the beauty of these woods. It was early autumn, and the leaves were turning vibrant oranges, yellows, and bright reds. Sugar maple, sweetgum, scarlet oaks, and hickory trees lined the road in a myriad of sizes, and the ground was covered in the colorful leaves that had fallen early.

Up front, Weston tossed Wyatt a confused look she didn’t understand, and Wyatt leaned out the open window and inhaled deeply. His shoulders relaxed on the exhale. Huh.

As they came to a rusty old gate with a lock on it, Wyatt murmured, “I got it.” There were
No Trespassing
signs posted on either side that looked new, but the fence was old, and some of the posts had fallen over. Wyatt got out of the truck and jogged up to the gate, entered in a combination to the lock, then swung it open. He waited for Weston to pull through before he closed it and locked it up again.

“Uuuuh, I don’t feel comfortable trespassing,” Weston said, his dark brows jacked up high as Weston got back in the cab of his truck. “I’d like to not get shot by a landowner today.”

Wyatt gestured out the window to a blue sedan that was parked on the side of the road up ahead. “The landowner knows we’re coming. He was the one who called earlier.”

Weston shook his head and bounced and bumped the truck up the road, spinning out in the muddy spots. An older man with glasses and thin hair on top of his shiny dome waved as they came to a stop. His smile was there, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He looked…worried.

“Martin,” Wyatt greeted him heartily, shaking his hand the second he was out of the truck.

“Hey, Wyatt. Thanks for coming on short notice. I thought for sure you’d be busy on your day off.”

Wyatt introduced them to Martin one at a time as they piled out of Weston’s ride. And when he got to Harper, Wyatt rested his hand on her lower back and said, “This is my…this is Harper.”

Martin’s bushy gray brows arched up immediately. “Oh, wow.” He gave two owl blinks and then shook Harper’s hand vigorously. “I’m sure pleased to meet you.”

“You, too,” she murmured, baffled.

“Uuuh.” Martin released her hand and gestured up the road. “I’ll show you around.”

Wyatt’s eyes were boring into her, but she didn’t understand the attention. Even as they walked up the muddy road and into a clearing, he kept casting her strange looks. It wasn’t until she saw the cabin that she realized what was wrong with him.

He was watching her to see her reaction to the place.

The boys were dead-silent now, awed perhaps, or confused. She didn’t know, but right now, she couldn’t drag her gaze away from the old, dilapidated cabin to save her life.

The Smokey Mountain range painted the background like a picture, all oranges and yellows, and the woods were absolutely breathtaking. So different from the evergreen woods she’d grown up in.

Harper’s breath came shallow as she made her way to the old cabin—a two-bedroom perhaps that had gone to disrepair. The porch sagged, and the railing was rotted. The roof was bad, and the picture window on the side was cracked in a couple of places. There was no paint on the log planks that made up the walls, and somehow, it felt like it was a part of these woods. Like it belonged, instead of sticking out like a manmade thumbprint.

There was a thin trail around craggy, tar-colored rocks that shone in the sun, and farther up the mountainside was another cabin. A double it looked like, from the twin doors and the breezeway that went right through the center.

Such an odd feeling came over her. A warm, prickling sensation that spread from her chest to her arms.

“What is this place?” she asked on a breath, so she wouldn’t ruin the magic of this moment.

“Is it some kind of commune?” Ryder asked.

Martin chuckled. “No. My late wife’s family has owned this land for generations. I run the gem mine, and when my wife was alive, this was where she dug in her heels. There are four cabins on the property. For twenty years, we rented them out to tourists for extra income, and my Betty managed the properties, but we got muscled out by a big fancy chain with new cabins, personal chefs, river views, hot tubs on every porch, the works. And when Betty passed, I couldn’t keep up with the mine and manage the property, so…” He shrugged and shook his head. Resting his boot on one of the black rocks that jutted out from beside the path, he said, “I’m going to have to sell it. It’s been draining my savings, and I’m wanting to retire soon. I’ve kept it for Betty, but we didn’t have any children to give it to. I was hoping to find a buyer I know will take care of it.

Weston moved past her, eyes trained on something beside the door as he stepped carefully up the old porch stairs. With trembling fingers, he pulled up the last number of four that hung upside down from a single rusty nail.

Chills blasted across Harper’s arms when she read the number.
1010
.

Wide-eyed, Weston looked back at Wyatt.

“I know,” Wyatt murmured. “It’s the same number as the old trailer up in Damon’s mountains. I was never one for signs, but damn if that didn’t draw me up when I saw it.”

A shudder trembled up Harper’s spine and landed in her shoulders as she moved past Weston and pushed the door to the main cabin open. Inside, the place was dusty and made entirely of wood, from the floors to the walls to the kitchen cabinets and counters. There was a chair toppled over on its side and covered in cobwebs, and gingerly, she righted it and dusted off the seat. She could see the potential here. She could imagine polished floors and a small table in the corner with a vase and yellow flowers. Phantom laughter echoed through the house as she spun slowly, transforming it into a homey cabin in her imagination. Couches and pictures, and a TV stand over there.

The boys had filed in. “It’s a shithole,” Ryder said. “Needs a lot of work.”

Wyatt’s arms flexed as he crossed them over his chest. “Yep.”

“It would cost you a lot of money to make the repairs,” Aaron murmured.

“Yep.” Wyatt’s eyes were on Harper now, his gaze lightened, the scent of fur wafting from him. Why was he worked up?

“It’s a drive from town,” Ryder said as he ran his finger over the dusty window sill.

“Yep.”

“It’s right in the heart of vamp land,” Weston murmured quietly from where he stood leaned against the front wall.

“That it is.”

“It gets worse,” Martin said from the open doorway.

“What do you mean?” Wyatt asked.

“I’ve been saving this place for you to come up with the money, you know that. But money is getting tight, and I still have bills at the mine to pay…”

“Okay,” Wyatt said, a frown marring his face.

“Yesterday, I got a new offer.”

Intensity sparked in Wyatt’s blazing eyes as he stood up straighter. “Who?”

“The Valdoro Pack.”

“Wolves?” Aaron asked. He shook his head and made a long
chhhh
sound.

“Shhit,” Wyatt muttered. “Martin, trust me when I say you don’t want wolves up here. You don’t want them anywhere near here.”

“I know that, Wyatt. But I’ve been holding onto this place for two years, and I’m getting to where I can’t float it anymore.”

“How much?”

“If you could just come up with what we talked about—”

“How much?”

Martin ducked his gaze to the dusty floor. “The alpha offered two hundred thousand.”

Wyatt ran his hands through his hair and backed up a couple steps as though he’d been socked in the stomach.

“Can we talk in private?” Weston gritted out to Wyatt.

Martin offered them a sad smile and clapped his hand once on the open door frame. “I’ll give you some time to absorb this. They gave me two weeks to decide. I just wanted you to know in case there’s any way you can swing it.” He made to leave but turned on the porch. “I’m sorry, Wyatt.”

“What the hell is going on?” Weston asked, his gaze lingering on the old man who was sauntering to his car with a slight limp. “What is this place to you?”

“It’s mine. My bear’s. It feels like home and has since the moment I opened that gate for the first time.” He pulled his phone from his back pocket. “Look.” He showed them an image of a map of the country. There were red dots, yellow circles, and notes underneath. “I don’t know if you’re aware of the shortage of territory, but it’s hard as hell for shifter to buy land now. The land has to be government approved to register a crew to it. But there is a grant program that will match a cash offer on approved land if it means a territory is settled by a good crew, pack, or coven. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have territory problems because Vampires were still in hiding, and the wolves were, too. There were no rules, no laws about shifters owning big land, no financial assistance. Now, with the vamps and wolves out in the open, packs, covens, and crews are fighting for new territory.”

“Yeah, I’m still stuck on the fact that we’re in vamp territory,” Ryder muttered.

“Everywhere is vamp territory!” Wyatt pointed to the yellow circles. There had to be a hundred of them, covering most of the country. “Damon’s mountains were safe because of the dragon himself. But outside of them? It’s hard finding a place to claim. I know because I’ve been searching for years.”

“Then why didn’t you just stay home?” Weston barked.

“Because Beaston said I was going to kill her!” Wyatt made like he was going to chuck his phone against the wall, but changed his mind at the last instant and snarled his lip. “I left because I thought I was saving Harper. Beaston told me I was going to be the death of her, and damn it all, I wanted her to live. She
had
to live. I wouldn’t be okay if Harper didn’t exist somewhere on this planet.”

Harper backed away from the boys as the air thickened with the heaviness of dominance and riled up shifters. He’d left because he thought he was saving her? So it wasn’t about him being a coward, or as aftermath of losing Janey.

“You think it was easy for me to tear myself away from her?” Wyatt yelled. His eyes roiled with blue fire, and his nostrils flared with fury. “Leaving felt like ripping my own guts out of my body and then going on with my life, pretending I wasn’t some empty shell. And then I hear she has The Unrest. I heard it from Damon after her first seizure. He said it was my fault, and here I was suffering and hurting the woman I’d bonded to because I thought I was bartering my happiness for her life. So I went to work. I searched the entire damned country, every territory, desperate to stake a claim somewhere so that I would have something to offer her. To offer a crew because I knew it was too late for me to stop The Unrest alone. It’s done. She’s got it, and she already has the nosebleeds. This—” Wyatt jammed his finger out the front door to the autumn woods. “This was me trying to give Harper something so she’ll be okay.”

“Fuck,” Aaron muttered, hooking his hands on his hips. He looked as gutted as Wyatt did right now.

Harper couldn’t breathe. Wyatt had been working to claim territory, but not for his alpha-destined bear. For her.

Aaron flicked two fingers at Wyatt’s scarred-up neck. “For money to buy this place?”

Wyatt huffed a humorless breath and nodded. “From that, saving every penny I’ve made at the mine, and working odd jobs, I’ve got fifty grand saved. I’m a hundred thousand shy still on the minimum Martin told me he would take for this place. The bigger the offer he gets from a crew, the more the government will match to have the territory settled, and this place is worth a lot.”

BOOK: Bloodrunner Dragon (Harper's Mountains Book 1)
11.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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