Finding Faith (Return of the Dragons)

Olivia gasped, her hand tightening around his. “Oh my God, Cody. I’m so sorry.”

Glancing over, he met her sad eyes and tried to force a smile. “Believe me, I am too. She was sweet and loving, even though she was hurting more than I could ever understand. Everyone loved her. Even my dad’s other women. They looked up to her and respected her. To know her was to love her, and they were no exception.

“My dad went crazy after she died. There’s no other word for it. He was inconsolable. His moods were wide and varied, from furious, to upset, to manic—basically every single emotion, besides happiness. He was hurting, grieving, and no one could help him. I can’t say that he meant to kill himself, but I know he had no interest in living. He took ridiculously crazy risks. He had zero fucks to give about living. And that was how he died—taking a curve on a mountain road with no guardrail at eighty miles per hour when I was seventeen.”

Hugging his arm to her chest, she shook her head, and he could feel the sadness and compassion rolling off of her. “Cody… saying I’m sorry seems so inadequate.”

He leaned his head onto hers, inhaling the wildflower scent of her hair. It calmed him a bit, enough to loosen his throat so he could speak. “I understand. Anyway, that was when my gorilla lost his voice. I loved my mom and we were close, but my dad… he was my best friend. He changed when Mom killed herself, but he was still everything to me. And life has never been the same.”

“I’m sure it hasn’t,” she replied softly, still hugging his arm and clutching his hand. “You’ve endured so much tragedy. It’s amazing to me that you’ve turned out the way you have. Experiences like that would have broken most people.”

Inhaling deeply as he gazed into the distance, he nodded. “It did break me. For a long time, it was hard to function. But I had to be strong, for Lindsey and Axel, even though he left shortly after our dad died. But for Linds especially. After my dad died, her mom lost all interest in her. It was like she had no reason to be a parent anymore, like the only reason she’d been trying was to look good for the Silverback and win his approval. With him gone, she didn’t care. Pops started trying to raise her and, well… you’ve met Pops. I couldn’t let that happen, so I toughened up and did what I had to do.”

Olivia shuddered. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted that either. Poor Lindsey. Your family has suffered through so much.”

“We have. But I think it’s just made us that much stronger.” He shook his head, anger rising up inside him. “And do you know, even after witnessing all that, Pops is still trying to force me into the same thing. I’m like my dad. I don’t want a harem of women. I never have. One woman I love is all I need, but he’s still trying to make me do as he and our ancestors did, even after all the tragedy. He didn’t learn from it, but I did. I loved my dad, but he made mistakes that cost him, and me, so much. I won’t do the same. I won’t give in.”

He wasn’t sure, but it felt like she sagged against him in relief for a moment. The thought made his anger recede as he smiled. If his determination to spend his life with one woman and one woman only gave her relief, that was a good thing.

More than good. It was great. Because it meant she was thinking of him in terms of a possible future, even after everything she learned about him.

And that was priceless.

“Now that you know my family’s sordid history, can you tell me about you? About what you went through that put all that pain in those pretty green eyes?”

She stiffened against him, and when their eyes met, the shadows always lurking were darker and more prominent.

“I was kidnapped. All of the women at my house were. That’s why you haven’t met my sister or Sierra yet. They’re still too skittish, and don’t like meeting strangers.”

Chapter 14

Olivia

Olivia felt Cody stiffen against her, his brown eyes shocked and incredulous at first, and then a slow burning anger crept into the dark depths. Her emotions were ping ponging inside her, and she wasn’t sure exactly what was causing them.

Was it because she was about to tell him a story she’d never told anyone? A story that changed her life and turned her—and the other dragons—into different women? A past so dark, she sometimes wondered if it tainted her for good?

Or was it because of Cody’s past? God, her heart hurt for him. What he’d gone through, losing both parents the way he had. She knew what it was like to lose her parents, and that had been a tragedy.

But the way he lost his… she couldn’t fathom that kind of pain.

And all because of archaic rules, and one old man who tried to force everyone to adhere to them.

Even when it made them miserable.

“You were kidnapped?” he asked gently, a thousand questions swirling in his dark gaze.

She knew he wouldn’t ask them, knew he’d let her tell him on her own if and when she was ready. And that just made her fall a little more for him.

The night before, she’d been terrified of him. Of what he might be. And the truth, as crazy as it was, was just as nightmare inducing as she’d feared. But oddly—or maybe not so oddly, since it seemed to fit the pattern with him—she wasn’t at all scared now that she knew just what he was.

He was still Cody—just as she was still Olivia. They just happened to have beasts that lived inside of them, but their animals didn’t define who they were.

She thought she’d probably been more scared of the unknown, of not having answers about what he was, than she’d been scared of him.

The moment he explained what he was, most of those fears evaporated. And she was back to feeling about him how she’d felt when he held her hand at the movies, gazing into her eyes and telling her what was between them felt real and right.

Mostly. There was still a bit of unease about his vampire side. It was an unknown to her, and after what she’d been through, she didn’t do well with unknowns. And while she’d never met a vampire, she knew they were rumored to be unstable and unpredictable.