Tangled Innocence (4 page)

Not the best first impression on a night of shitty first
impressions.

She gave him an odd look then sat on one of the bar stools.
Her legs dangled, but his reached the ground perfectly.

Seriously, she was just too cute.

“Are you really that mad at Dante for what he did?” he
asked, unable to hold that question back. He might be there for her to get to
know him, but Dante was part of this no matter what.

“He lied to me.” She scrunched up her face. “No, that’s not
exactly right. He kept something from me. He kept all these secrets—secrets
about you and what I could be—and didn’t even hint at it. How am I supposed to
trust him and follow that tug on my heart when he did that?”

Jace reached over and covered her free hand. “I don’t know
if I’d have done it differently.” He held back a curse at her wince. “I was
trapped in that other realm dealing with another people’s upcoming war, and he
couldn’t reach out to me. What use would it have been to tell you what you
meant to him? No matter what he’d done, he’d still have had to hold back
because, without me, the bond wouldn’t be complete.”

“That still didn’t give him the right. It might have hurt to
hold back, but I don’t like being kept in the dark because he didn’t think I
was strong enough to deal with it.”

Jace was up in an instant. He stood between her legs and
slid his hand through her silky, smooth hair. His bear closed his eyes and
growled, loving the way they were so close to Nadie. “Never think for a moment
that he thought you weren’t strong enough. Never. You wouldn’t be connected to
a dragon and a bear if you weren’t strong enough. You might be small, but you
are mighty.”

Nadie snorted a laugh—the exact reaction he’d intended.
“Mighty? Cute, Jace.”

He gave her his best grin. “I try.”

“I don’t know if I believe you, but thanks anyway.”

“Hey, everything Dante does is for others. He might be a
dragon, a kind known for keeping to themselves and never helping another unless
it’s for their own good, but that’s not him. He likes humans and other
supernaturals.”

Her eyes brightened a bit. “I don’t know much about Dante
beyond what he’s shown us. Meaning his human half. I don’t know anything about
dragons, and the others like Shade and Hunter don’t know much either.”

“Then you can ask him. I only know because I’ve done the
same. I can even tell you about bears if you’d like.”

“I’d like that,” she whispered. “It’s all so surreal, you
know? One minute I’m ready to leave the bar forever, the next I have a dragon
and a freaking bear laying claim.”

“It’s just the way of the supernaturals. We find a mate and
we want to get started. Or at least want to when all the players are in place.
We have time to find who we are and how we’ll mesh. I’m not saying we should
bond right this minute and call it a day.”

She blushed hard and ducked her head. If what Dante thought
was true, then their Nadie had never been with a man, period, let alone two at
once. That would be an experience.

For all of them.

Time to change the subject. “How are you feeling? Still
weak?”

She shook her head. “It comes and goes. I’d rather it go
away forever but as we’ve learned from the others, there’s only one way to do
that.”

His bear nudged at him, knowing
exactly
what that way was.

Clearly he hadn’t changed the subject far enough.

“If you feel something coming, let me know and I can get
Dante over here to help.”

She narrowed her eyes, even as her cheeks went flame red. “I
thought we said we weren’t ready for that.”

He chuckled then. “No, not the bond, but how he siphons off
your pain. I know he takes it into himself and that just about kills me, but he
can help alleviate some of yours so you can function.”

“What the heck are you talking about?” Flecks of anger
scattered over her eyes and Jace cursed.

“I take it Dante held back that piece of information as
well?” Dear gods that dragon was in for a world of hurt when Nadie got back to
him.

“I’m going to kill him! Who does he think he is to take my
pain?” Tears filled her eyes and she wiped them in angry strokes. “Is he
hurting? Why would he do that? I don’t want him to hurt because of me.”

He cupped her face and wiped away another tear. “He does
that because he cares for you. Because Dante and I aren’t lightning-struck we
don’t feel the same pain and weakness you do when we find our mates. Yes, our
beasts are a little more aggressive since we haven’t completed the bond, but
it’s not the same. He does it because he cares.”

“He had no right,” she whispered. “I’m going to beat him up
for that. Or something that I can actually do since I’m the size of your leg.”

“Hey, I like your size.”

She rolled her eyes. “No wonder Dante calls me a sprite. I
can’t even reach you on my tip toes.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re on this stool. You’re at
perfect height.”

She tilted her head, her cheek on his palm. “For what?”

“For this.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips along
hers. She let out a little gasp then pressed closer. He took that as an
invitation and licked the seam of her lips. She opened for him, and he groaned.
Their tongues touched briefly, but he kept himself back, not wanting to take it
too far.

His bear growled, wanting more, wanting it all, but Jace was
in control.

He pulled away, the sweet taste of honey mixed with the
tartness of lemons from her drink on his tongue.

“Wow,” she whispered, and he laughed softly.

“Wow indeed.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and
studied her face. Her cheeks were flushed, and he loved the glint in her eyes.
“I’m going to go now. I’d like to come back tomorrow and pick you up to take
you to Dante’s home. I think the three of us should spend some time together.”

She took a deep breath then nodded. “I agree. If I’m going
to find out how to move on, how to be who I have the possibility of becoming, I
need to get over my anger, but it won’t be easy.”

He had a feeling she was more than halfway there, but he
wasn’t going to point that out. From what he’d heard from Dante, Nadie was a
forgiving person. He and the dragon would have to grovel though.

“I’ll take a look at your car and see if I can help. If not,
I’ll call my brother. Good night, Nadie.”

“Thank you for helping. Good night, Jace.” She touched her
fingertips to her lips then smiled. “It…it was nice to meet you.”

He snorted then shook his head. “Hell yeah, Nadie. But it
won’t be the last. Not by far.”

He wanted this woman, no matter what she turned into when
the bond was set and the time came.
 
His
bear had laid claim, and the dragon, in his heart, had as well.

Nadie would be theirs.

Soon.

“He’s found his mates. We’ll have to act fast so he
understands his responsibilities.”

Rock seethed at Alexander’s words but did as he’d always
done and didn’t say anything. He merely nodded like the good little dragon they
thought he was. He was the man’s man or, in essence, the dragon’s dragon. He
never stepped out of place and never let the others know his true thoughts.

He was the perfect candidate, yet he wasn’t the one they
wanted.

Fucking Dante.

“What’s your plan then?” he asked, knowing Alexander would
have a plan. The older dragon
always
had a plan. Rock had done well to learn from him or, at least, had tried to
listen when the other man went on his insanely tedious tangents.

“He has the summons. He will come. If he doesn’t…” The man
shrugged, the action slow, uncaring. “He knows the consequences of not
answering a summons from us. He, like you, is one of the few who have been
allowed such knowledge to pass his ears. If he decides to ignore us for the
more…carnal pursuits with that bear and the abomination, he will be taken care
of. There is no other way. If the dragon ignores us, we take away his
distractions. That’s how it’s been done. How it will ever be. No one refuses
us. We are gods.”

Rock nodded, making sure his face showed the right level of
respect for the man in front of him and contempt for a dragon not following the
guidelines and practices of such ancient matters. He made sure the older dragon
had no clue that, while Alexander might want Dante to answer his summons, Rock
wanted the black and blue dragon to fail.

Failure would mean Dante’s death and Rock’s eventual
exaltedness.

That was what Rock desired, what he’d
earned
.

There would be no other outcome.

****

Dante’s house sure didn’t look like a dragon’s cave. The
thought brought a reluctant smile to Nadie’s face. For some reason, when she
found out what Dante actually was, she’d always had the little thought in the
back of her mind that he’d hoard his jewels and gold in a vast cave with stones
and jagged cliffs to protect it from marauders. In Dante’s case, the dragon had
a large two-story home off a residential area, but it was tucked deep within
the trees. The effect was that it looked as tough he was all alone out there
but close enough to the city that he could be near his bar and other people so
he wasn’t so isolated.

She liked it.

“Ready to go in?” Jace asked her from her side, and she
nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure that was the truth. Oh, she knew she
should
go in, but she wasn’t sure she
was exactly ready. She’d ridden there on the back of his bike, wrapped around
him like she had been the night before. Was it wrong she really loved that?
Jace said her car might have more issues than just a battery, so he was having
his brother tow it to their den to fix.

Their den.

Her car was going to a bear den that she hadn’t yet seen.

Talk about crazy.

The blond Viking of a man towered over her, but though he
looked as if he’d smash anyone that came near them, she felt safe. For some
reason, she knew he’d never hurt her.

She’d gone to sleep soon after Jace had left the night
before, dreaming of dragons and bears and frolicking down a yellow brick road.
Apparently her subconscious was a little illogical. Today they were going to
sit down with Dante and just…be. She’d never really been alone with Dante for
longer than twenty minutes before considering she was usually at the bar with
her friends. She did her best to ignore the fact she’d only been alone with him
because she’d purposely come early or stayed late in order to do so.

For the past year, though, she’d been snippy and rude to
him. She knew it had to do with her own unresolved feelings and the pain riding
her, and she was ashamed of how she’d acted. He’d kept his feelings and his own
pain from her, believing he was protecting her. She’d tell him just what she
thought of that today though. He couldn’t go around treating her like she was
less than him. He also wouldn’t be allowed to hurt himself for her. He might
have held key things from her, but that didn’t mean she had to act as though
she hated him.

Maybe if she hadn’t been so mean, lashing out when she could,
he’d have confided in her. Not that she thought that was a real possibility
considering he and Jace were way too alpha for that. She’d just have to show
them that she was strong enough to take it.

During her dreams and after she’d woken up, she’d come to
the conclusion she would take this one step at a time and not look back. She
had to. She couldn’t force herself to run away from something that could be
amazing because of fear or hurt feelings.

Fate was giving her a gift, and she was going to take it.

Well, she’d take it after she got a few things off her
chest.

Namely, making sure the dragon knew he couldn’t keep
sacrificing his health for her and keeping secrets.

No, that wouldn’t work in the future.

In their future.

Jace walked right in without knocking, though that didn’t
surprise Nadie for some reason. The men had a history—one she would want to
know about. For some reason, she felt a little thread of jealousy at that, but
then it went away quickly. These two were
together
in a sense and weren’t just bookends. She wouldn’t be one either. Nadie had
already decided to talk to Jamie about how she dealt with two men on a daily
basis, though she hadn’t talked to any of her friends about what had happened
in the past twelve hours.

For some reason, she wanted it to be just between the three
of them. She’d tell her friends about everything later—the same way the other
three women who had been in this situation had done.

Dante came out from one of the back rooms and stopped in the
hall, putting his hands in his pockets. It might have been wrong of her, but
she was glad she wasn’t the only one nervous. Jace stood with a smile, but she
could also feel the tension radiating off him. They were there for something
far different than anything she’d ever done or even thought about doing.

The man they’d come to see wore tattered jeans and a rock
tee, his normal attire. She liked that he wore casual clothes and really seemed
to fit in with the world around him rather than standing out like a sore thumb.
After all, he’d said he was way over a few hundred years old, so he would have
learned to blend in with the rest of them.

Well, as blended as Dante could get. His brow ring and
tribal tattoos, which she’d studied over the years, formed an ancient dragon
that didn’t let him blend as easily as others. Then, of course, his long black
and blue hair just screamed rebel.

She loved it.

He’d left his hair out of the band today, so a long piece
hung over his shoulder while the rest went down his back. It might have looked
feminine on anyone else, but not on Dante. She looked to her left at Jace and
couldn’t help the grin. He had that Thor blond hair going on. It helped that
she totally had a crush on Chris Hemsworth, and Jace looked as though he could
match him punch for punch—and swoony glare for swoony glare.

Nadie held back a groan and closed her eyes.

Okay, she really needed to get her mind on what she was
supposed to be thinking about, not going off on random tangents because she was
too nervous to do anything else.

“You two made it here okay, then,” Dante said unnecessarily.

“We did,” Jace rumbled beside her. “We gonna sit down,
actually hash this out, and get comfortable or stand here like strangers? Since
Nadie and I are the only two here who could possibly qualify as strangers, I
don’t think the latter works well.”

She sank into the couch without another word, nervous, but
oddly ready to just…be. Curious, she looked around the place and felt at ease.
Everything might have been made for a man much larger than her, but she didn’t
feel uncomfortable. Even the colors and fabrics were soothing, as if it was for
a man who had lived long enough to know what he liked. In Dante’s case that was
true many times over. “I’ve never seen your house before, you know. I like it.
At least what I’ve seen.”

Dante grinned, and her heart fluttered. Damn heart. “Only
Jace and a few others from my past have seen my house. I can give you a tour
later if you want.”

“So not even Balin has seen it?” Balin was not only one of
Jamie’s mates, but a friend of Dante’s that he’d known in hell before the
dragon had been banished. She’d have to get the banished story out of him at
some point too. It seemed her dragon held more secrets than any other man she’d
known. It only made sense, though, with how he lived.

Alone.

Dante shook his head. “Before the lightning strike, when I
hid who I was from you girls, I didn’t want to show the girls the place only to
have to use magic to wipe your memories of it when you started to notice I
didn’t really age. I do think Becca would have caught on eventually.” She
grinned and agreed with him. Becca was tenacious when it came to things she
didn’t know and wanted to figure out. “I didn’t show you because I was waiting
for Jace. And I didn’t show Balin or any of you when things were brought out in
the open because…” He shifted uncomfortably, and she would have sworn a blush
darkened his cheeks. “Because I wanted you to see if first.”

She swallowed hard. “Oh. Well…I’m glad you did.” She ducked
her head. Darn it, she hated acting like the innocent virgin who didn’t know
what she was doing. So what if that label happened to be true? That didn’t mean
she had to
act
like it.

“How long have you lived here again?” Jace asked, and soon
they were talking about trivial things that didn’t matter but at least made
them relax. The man seemed to always know when they needed words that didn’t
mean much or time to breathe before they worked on other issues. It must have
been because he was a Mediator.

Nadie pulled her feet up to tuck under her body and leaned
against one of the large pillows on the couch. This was nice, sitting in a room
with these two men and just talking about random things. She liked the way they
were already friends but, because they’d spent so much time apart, were still
learning about each other—the same as she was.

She didn’t feel as though she was on unequal ground—just an
uneven one since they still hadn’t discussed the giant elephant in the room.
She held back a grin. With the dragon, bear, and now the elephant in the room,
it was getting a bit crowded.

Dante sat on the ottoman in front of the L-shaped couch
where Jace sat and turned to her. “What’s funny?” he asked.

She looked into those blue eyes of his and knew the time for
casual conversation was over. “I was just thinking we’re dancing quite nicely
around the giant elephant in the room.” She paused as the guys looked at each
other before looking back at her. “Then I thought about how we already have a
bear and a dragon, why not add the giant elephant?”

Dante’s brows rose, and Jace snorted. “I’m quite a bit
larger than an elephant in my dragon form.”

She leaned closer, interested. “Really? Will you show me
what you look like as a dragon?”

He gave a slow nod. “Yes, I can do that. I have a field a
little off from the house that’s protected by wards where I shift and fly
undetected in the human realm. I don’t go to the dragon realm often to rejoin
my people, so I’ve learned to make do with what I have.”

Nadie reached out and traced her finger along his hand, the
pull within her needing to touch him. He turned it so it faced palm up, and she
followed the lines there. “Why is that?”

“That’s a long story for another time. I will tell it all, I
promise. There are things even Jace doesn’t know. I’d rather talk about that
elephant you mentioned first, and then we can talk of the dragons and their
fire.”

Jace scooted a bit closer on the couch and put his hand on
her knee. The warmth seeped through her jeans, and she relaxed. Odd that a man
she’d just met would do that to her, but right then, normal didn’t make sense.

Normal wasn’t part of her life anymore.

Hadn’t been since the lightning.

“I was so angry with you, Dante. So freaking angry,” she
started, her voice oddly calm. She’d tried to think of what she’d say to him,
what she’d say to Jace, yet it had all come out in rambles. “I don’t like that
you thought you could control me by keeping secrets.”

His eyes widened, and he grasped the hand she’d placed on
his harder. “What? I wasn’t trying to control you.”

She tilted her head. “Weren’t you?”

Jace squeezed her knee then reached out and slid his hand
over Dante’s knee as well. She liked the connection that made; the three of
them entwined as they might be if they could get past the oddness.

“That was not my intention,” he said slowly, his blue eyes
pained.

“But it happened nonetheless. By taking away my choices, by
not letting me know what
could
be,
you controlled that aspect of my life. Of
our
lives. I don’t like that, Dante. Hell, I hate that.”

He grinned at her cursing, but that slid off his face
quickly. “Nadie…you have to believe that I didn’t mean to do that. I only meant
to keep you safe, or at least in less pain than you would have been if you’d
have known.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, about that pain. We will
discuss your intentions there in a minute.”

Dante glanced at Jace, who grimaced.

“Don’t blame him for telling me something you should have.”

“Nadie—”

“No, let me get this off my chest first. Please.” He nodded,
and she took a deep breath. “Don’t ever take away my choices again. If this is
going to work, then you’ll have to be honest with me.” She looked at Jace, not
knowing if Dante had held secrets from him as well. “No,
us
. I know you have your secrets, and I don’t want them all at
once. I know you have things that are close to your heart, and I hope one day
that you’ll trust me enough to share them, but when it comes to things that are
important to us,”—she motioned between the three of them—“you need to tell me.
Tell us. You can’t hold them back because you’re afraid I’ll be hurt.”