“Well, that is not his place. He is only a boy.”
His eyes bore into her, but all she could see were the same eyes as in the handles of the large door. They were mesmerizing, making him something her fingers itched to touch; to trace every line and hard edge.
“Funny,” Nora began, her voice small and swallowed by the growing intimidation emitting from Mr. Hollis. “I was going to tell you the same thing.”
Chapter 2 – Cain
Cain remembered the phone call from yesterday as a pesky nuisance. She was the one who had called him and who had insisted on talking about his son. He had agreed to a tutor, but hadn’t expected her to choose herself. Now, she was in his house.
He eyed her petite frame and scanned down the black skirt that rippled around her calves. Anxiously waiting for him to say something, she grabbed her red sweater and wrapped it around her. Cain was suddenly aware of the temperature in the house.
Perhaps she was standing anxiously, but perhaps she was simply cold. An instinct to protect her raced through his veins like fire. He clamped his jaw to keep himself steady, but the beast within still managed to nod a head toward Ashton.
Cain found himself saying, “Ashton, check the thermostat.”
He watched as Ashton was quick to get out of his chair and adjust the temperature, and he saw Nora jump at the brusqueness of his voice.
She will not be staying. We should not care. The dragon, usually silently resigned to letting Cain handle matters on his own, slowly unfurled its tail and bit out that Cain should care.
Divided within, and with Ashton watching, Cain held a hand out to the table. “At least finish eating before you leave,” he said. Under the assumption that Ashton would shift and awaken his own dragon in a few years, he did not want the boy to learn bad manners towards the fire inside him.
“There are a few pieces left. Let me get them for you and you can join us.” Nora ran toward the kitchen.
“I can get my own food,” Cain said.
“Sure, but you don’t need to. You just got out of a meeting. Sit with Ashton, and I’ll be out in a few.” She walked out of view of him, silencing Cain with her persistence.
He bristled at her command, but soon understanding rang clear in his head. This had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Ashton. This was all about the phone call.
He could play along.
“Ashton, did you do your homework?” Cain began.
“Yes. Is Uncle Marshall okay?”
“No. Did you get around to your chores?”
“No.” Ashton looked down at his pizza and tried to hide his face.
“Well, do them in the morning then.” Cain was willing to move chores to the mornings, but he didn’t want Ashton’s routine to change too much. He needed the stability that he wasn’t receiving anywhere else.
When Nora walked back in, Cain stared at her as she came around to give him his plate and a juice box. “I don’t know where any other drinks are,” she explained.
“This is fine.”
They ate in silence, and anytime Ashton looked up to say something Cain would look at him with a knowing glance. Then he told him to finish eating and go and get ready for bed. Ashton scarfed down his food, and thanked Nora for dinner and for helping with schoolwork.
“No problem,” Nora said. “We’ll do it again tomorrow and maybe I can bring some groceries to cook a healthier dinner than pizza.”
Before Ashton could say anything, Cain growled deep in his throat. “Better not. Ashton, upstairs.”
Ashton nodded his head like a shaken bobble head and left the room as quickly as he could.
Nora folded her hands on the table and opened her mouth to speak, but Cain said, “I think it is time you leave.”
“I think now is the perfect time to have that parent-teacher conference I mentioned yesterday,” Nora pushed.
Her knuckles were turning white. It was taking a lot for her to breach the subject with him, and he had to admit, that he was surprised by her boldness. Most women scurried away from his presence the moment he started talking, but she sat there and took the curtness he forced into every word.
Brown wisps of hair were kissing her flushed cheeks. At the end of the day it was a wonder that this was the only part of her coming undone. Cain wondered what else he could undo about her.
He shook his head. “It’s late.”
“Yes,” she rushed ahead, grabbing this chance he had opened for her. “It is late because you were in meetings all day.”
“I have a very complex job.” She had no idea what she was talking about.
“I understand that, but parenting is also a complex job. If you don’t take the time to understand the intricacies of it, I fear that Ashton will bear the consequences of your neglect.” Not only did she not understand what she was talking about, but she was making assumptions about Ashton’s upbringing.
Cain wanted her out of the house. He didn’t need her trying to help where help wasn’t wanted. But Ashton’s hopeful face when she had mentioned the home-cooked dinner tomorrow night crossed his mind. A home-cooked meal didn’t sound too bad. Unfortunately, Marshall’s situation was more important.
When did another’s family take priority over our own? The dragon was awake now, and fully focused on Nora.
Cain had had enough of this. She had disrupted his life with his son and now she had upset his dragon.
Pushing his chair back, Cain walked over to Nora and grabbed her arm, forcing her out of her chair and toward the door. As soon as he touched her arm, a shocking warmth began to spread through his hand and to intensify. If it weren’t for the awake dragon within him, trying to take charge, he would have let go right away.
The warmth began to spread out from his hand and up his arm. Cain shoved Nora toward the door. As soon as he let go of her he shivered.
“You understand nothing,” he said. Even though shifters had learned to integrate themselves into human society, there were still large differences between them.
“Then help me understand, so I can help you,” she pleaded. Maybe he would have, but it wasn’t his place to tell a regular human off for butting into his affairs, and it wasn’t her place to know.
He could see this was important to her. Maybe it would be good for her to help.
He shook his head again, hardly believing that he was willing to take a chance with her. “Leave. Go home.”
She did. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and left.
Cain rubbed his hands over his face relieved to be done with the woman. With all of Ashton’s other concerned teachers, Cain had had to deal with a two minute conversation, at most. They were off his back after a few terse words.
There was nothing unusual about Ashton’s behavior. He was a growing dragon, and on his thirteenth birthday he would shift. Cain remembered being Ashton’s age and struggling in school, but it had ended after he had turned thirteen.
The girl is not only for Ashton, Cain’s dragon said. The dragon was breathing just beneath the surface of reality, wanting to be let loose to handle the situation.
I don’t even know what you see in her, Cain said. But, that was a lie. He saw much more than he wanted to, felt more than he wanted to.
It is not what we see or even what we feel. It is what resonates between the distance, the nearness, and the absence. The dragon heated under what it was implying.