Link (Keepers Of The Lake Book 5) Read online

  Link

  Keepers of the Lake

  Emilia Hartley

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.

  Emilia Hartley © Copyright 2021

  Contents

  Emilia’s Heartlies

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Coming Soon!

  More By Emilia Hartley

  Thank you!

  Emilia’s Heartlies

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  1

  Someone told Kiera Langston that Michigan wasn’t much different than Washington, but she wasn’t convinced. It was refreshing in a weird way. Kiera guessed she needed new scenery. With everything that happened back in Washington, her mind was constantly buzzing. The clan was in upheaval after Charlie sent a gold dragon after their old clan leader.

  Charlie looked better, Kiera realized when she sat down across from her at the diner. This was the first time Kiera got a good look at her old clanmate since getting picked up from the airport. Charlie’s face was fuller, her smile wider. Kiera couldn’t stare for long, her gaze automatically dropping to the tabletop after a while.

  “You don’t have to avert your gaze,” Charlie whispered.

  Kiera’s breath trembled. Charlie was stronger now, which meant Kiera had to be submissive. She had to be careful around her old friend.

  But Charlie reached out and took her hand. The squeeze she gave was affectionate. Kiera didn’t know about reassuring. Her life had been turned upside down. There should be gratitude and relief in her heart, but Kiera was figuring out that she didn’t know any other way to live. Norman had taken so many years from her. Life with him was all she could remember.

  “The lake air will help,” Charlie promised. “There’s something about the open skies and the way the breeze can push through the trees here. Every female in our clan has found what they’ve been looking for here.”

  “But I’m not looking for anything,” Kiera whispered.

  Kiera dared a glance up to find Charlie’s lips twisted in displeasure. Kiera wasn’t sure what she did wrong. Perhaps she spoke out of order. She would have to be more careful and wait for cues. Maybe Charlie would address her directly when she wanted Kiera to talk.

  “Hey!” Charlie snapped her fingers in Kiera’s field of view. “We don’t have to act like submissive waifs here. No one gives a shit if you look them in the eye. We don’t have anything to prove like that old fart.”

  “Old fart? You mean Norman?”

  Charlie’s lips twisted again, like she bit into something sour. “Yeah, him. I still don’t like saying his name. And he never even touched me. Not like…”

  The conversation died. Sensation came, unbidden. Kiera could still feel Norman’s rough hands on her. She could feel the way he wrapped his fingers around her throat while he was on top of her. Panic made her heart thump wildly, but she was no longer there. He couldn’t reach her anymore. She was free.

  The waitress swung by and set down a bowl of chips. “On the house today, ladies.”

  The potatoes had been sliced and fried in house, leaving them crisp and brown. Salt and grease melted across Kiera’s tongue. It bolstered her a little. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was. Before she knew it, the heap of chips had diminished by more than half. She stopped, shame turning her stomach.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to eat your food.”

  “You don’t have anything to worry about. I’m going to order the biggest plate of berries and cream pancakes you’ve ever seen. I’ve been craving it since I got up this morning.”

  Kiera knew her friend had recently gotten mated. It was what allowed Charlie to escape Norman before the gold dragon arrived.

  “You aren’t…pregnant, are you?”

  Charlie’s head snapped up. “What? No! Now is not the time for that.”

  Kiera wanted to ask why, but she kept her mouth shut and nodded. Maybe Charlie’s new clan wasn’t all that much better than Norman’s. Kiera didn’t want to believe it. She had hoped that this would be where she, too, fell in love. There were visions in her head of a dashing romance backlit by the sun setting over the lake.

  It was pure romanticism, but Kiera only ever had dreams. In her dreams, she could be as fanciful as she wanted. No one could tell her something was impossible if she kept her dreams to herself.

  When the waitress returned and Charlie knew exactly what she wanted, Kiera had to make a rushed decision to keep both from waiting. She barely read the menu, just pointed at random. The waitress gave Kiera the side-eye but nodded and went on her way. Kiera didn’t read the description until the waitress had put the order in.

  The LumberJill Special: a breakfast fit for a wild woman, complete with maple turkey sausage, pan fried potatoes, rye toast, and a garden vegetable omelet.

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound bad at all.” She was relieved because there had been a moment where she feared she’d ordered something like pickled sausages and eggs. People liked that kind of thing in places like this.

  Charlie raised a brow. “Did you not read the description?”

  Kiera didn’t know how to answer. Her silence only made Charlie sigh.

  “Eventually you will learn that you don’t have to act like this here, Kiera. No one here will touch you. My family won’t hurt you. The only one with any real bite is Jude, but don’t tell the guys I said that.”

  Kiera scowled. “Isn’t Asher Knuden part of your clan? I’ve seen his fights on television. He’s…terrifying.”

  Charlie laughed. “You should see him with his new mate! He mated an itty-bitty fox shifter. She’s the most darling thing I’ve ever seen. He treats her like a princess even if she dresses like a witch.”

  Trying to imagine the brutal MMA fighter doting on a woman was hard. All Kiera could remember was the way he snarled when there was blood dripping down his face. He didn’t seem much better than Norman’s thugs. At least he was mated. Asher wouldn’t bother her. All the mated males in their old clan stayed away.

  Kiera pursed her lips. Those days were over. Like Charlie kept saying, this was a new clan. Kiera didn’t know how these dragons worked. They were a mystery. One that she feared, if she was going to be honest. Charlie might seem strong, but Kiera wasn’t the same. Charlie had always been rebellious. It was a spark in her that not even Norman could squash.

  Kiera, on the other hand, wasn’t cut from the same cloth. She was easily broken. Norman hadn’t taken much pleasure from her. Kiera knew it was because she didn’t fight like the others. She wasn’t really that much of a dragon. Her beast was more like a scared house cat. It was soft and weak, waiting for others to come by and do the right thing.

 
; It’d been Charlie who did the right thing. She was the one who called in help and had the gold dragon bring Norman’s reign down. Kiera never would have had the balls to do something like that. Charlie assured Kiera many times that it was only because of this clan that she could do what she did.

  That wasn’t completely true, and Kiera knew it.

  They sat in silence for a long while. Kiera fidgeted with the paper wrapper for her straw. Charlie left hers unused, claiming that she wanted to help keep the ocean clean. Kiera didn’t know how to look beyond her own problems. The sea seemed so distant, a problem out of her hands. She wondered how Charlie could care about it. Was her life so carefree that she had to care about things so far away?

  The bell rang over the front door. Kiera didn’t know what possessed her, but she turned to look. The man who stalked inside had shadows over his eyes. Dark hair flopped over his flat brow. His jaw was tight and covered in a gold-flecked scruff, like the sun decided to kiss his cheeks.

  He claimed a table in the corner. The waitresses behind the counter argued amongst themselves, probably to decide who would serve him. Kiera couldn’t tell if they were afraid or turned on by this mystery man. Kiera didn’t even know what she felt. Her heart rate sped up, pulse thumping in her throat.

  He lifted his head and scanned the dining room. Kiera spun around before he could catch her staring. Her breath had quickened. She gripped the edge of her table, jumping when the waitress came to deliver their plates.

  Charlie scowled at the man in the corner. The look was deadly, a glower if Kiera had ever seen one.

  She leaned in and whispered. “Do you know him?”

  Charlie swallowed and shook her head, turning back to her plate. “He just…reminds me of someone. That’s all.”

  Kiera dared another glance back. She expected to find him reading the menu, but he was leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes on the dining room. It was like he wanted to see everything. His hazel eyes met hers across the room and her breath hitched.

  It was dangerous to look a stray dragon shifter in the eye. She knew what he was, could feel his power from where she sat, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to look away. It felt like she was falling into him. If she could only fall a little further, she could curl up inside him and never have to deal with the world again.

  “Are you alright?” Charlie asked around a mouthful of berries, her words muffled.

  It was enough to draw Kiera back to the present and remind her that she was staring. Keira swung around. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment. She cringed. Her food was growing cold.

  “Maybe you should stay away from men until you’re sure you can handle being touched again,” Charlie offered.

  Kiera paused. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Charlie shrugged. “I’m just saying that you might need time to recover from living with Norman. Maybe rushing into something with a guy you don’t know isn’t a very good idea.”

  Kiera hung her head. The back of her neck tingled, like the mystery man was staring at her. She wanted to look again, to see if he was interested or if he wanted to kill her for being too brazen. Instead, Kiera listened to Charlie.

  Link scarfed down his food. He couldn’t stand being in the diner for too long. Not with the two other dragons. He wasn’t used to being near so many, certainly not one who looked like she wanted to murder him and another who might want to fuck him. The mixed signals were making his head spin.

  He tossed down a handful of bills, enough to cover the special plus a hefty tip, and stood. When he dared another glance at the table of female dragons, they were gone. This allowed him to heave a sigh of relief. He shook the crumbs from his denim jacket and made for the exit.

  His father had lived here, once upon a time. Link only had vague memories of a very domineering dragon shifter. He remembered his father being huge, his presence so powerful that he could fill an empty room. The man disappeared when Link was fifteen, but recently Link felt the need to find him.

  His mother had passed, and there was nothing left to keep Link there. She barely ever spoke of his father. It was like the man had been erased from her memory altogether. Alistair Webster simply never existed. Sometimes, Link felt like he was the only one who remembered him. Maybe it was the way he saw his father every time he looked in a mirror.

  The only thing Link gained from his mother were her eyes. She had the prettiest, most piercing eyes he’d ever seen on a human. Link’s were just was bright and rimmed with thick lashes. When Link looked in the mirror, he tried to look himself in the eye because he was never ready to acknowledge his father.

  Until now. When Link had nothing else. No ties bound him to anything. His beast felt unhinged. It was as if he’d lived his life on a leash and now that it was gone, his beast didn’t know what to do with itself. With a creature this strong lurking inside him, Link needed help leashing it again.

  He couldn’t form relationships until he could control it again. That was why, when the pretty waitress left her phone number on his receipt, he left it on the table inside and shoved through the swinging glass doors without another look back.

  He wasn’t looking up, either. If he had been looking up, he wouldn’t have run straight into the woman before him. She let out a small cry. His head shot up, and he reached for her before she could fall. Once his hands were on her, he didn’t want to let go. The beast growled in his head. The sound rattled every bone in his body.

  She had short cropped hair and dusky skin that smelled of fresh growing things. Link lost himself in her wide, honey eyes. Until he heard a soft plop plop. The woman in his arms gasped and leapt back, her hands over her mouth.

  Link looked down at himself to find food smeared across the front of his shirt and jacket. It slipped down his chest and to the ground. Pieces of the takeout container were still stuck in it, the rest of the container on the ground. The scent of strawberries and whipped cream filled his nose, chasing away the woman’s soft scent.

  He blew out a breath through his nose, but it bore none of the usual heat it held. In fact, he wasn’t as angry as he thought he’d be. The woman apologized profusely, her voice soft and nearly inaudible. He wouldn’t have heard a thing she said if his beast wasn’t so tuned into her. It was like the world had shrunk down to just the two of them.

  Link didn’t see the other dragon woman, fuming on the side. The pink-haired shifter grabbed her friend’s arm and dragged her away. Link hadn’t even had the chance to speak to her. The dark-haired shifter mouthed another apology before spinning to half-jog alongside her friend.

  With someone’s leftover breakfast smeared into his clothes, he trudged over to his car and popped the trunk. A crowd gathered at the diner’s door, but he didn’t hesitate to pull the shirt over his head. He could feel eyes on him now. Shirtless, he shook food from his clothes before chucking them into the trunk.

  If he was lucky, those other dragons were just passing through. He wouldn’t have to see them ever again. He could continue his search for his father in peace. The beast in him growled at the thought of never coming across the dark-haired woman again. The growl deepened when Link considered the idea that both women could be part of his father’s clan, a harem.

  The beast in him gnashed its teeth, making Link snarl. Link had no illusions that his father was a good man. There’d been something about him that Link had seen even as a child. It was the power of dominance and the smugness that came with over-confidence. Alistair Webster was a powerful dragon.

  Link caught himself searching for the female shifters again. The hatred the other woman had shown him sat heavy in his gut. It was a portent for things to come, but he wasn’t sure how. All he knew was that he had a man to find and answers to get.

  Like, why Alistair disappeared after Link turned fifteen. Link wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or not. For years, he’d wished to have a father again. His yearning for a complete family had shattered his youthful heart.
Only now that Link was older did he recognize the fact that it might have been good that his father left.

  What did Alistair expect from his son? If he’d stayed, who would Link be now?

  Link blew another breath out his nose. This one was hot and promised fire, like always. He slammed the trunk of the old mustang closed and got into the driver’s seat. There was only one way to find out.

  That was to ask the old man in person.

  2

  Kiera watched the guy take his shirt off. She couldn’t take her eyes away from him. The skin stretched over his abs was kissed by the sun, too. He was a white guy, but the sun seemed to worship him. It left a light tan over nearly every inch of his body. She wondered if that tan reached below his waistline and made herself blush.

  “I’m so sorry about your leftovers,” Kiera told her friend. “I’ll pay you back for them so there’s no loss. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. It was totally my fault.”

  “You don’t have to pay me anything,” Charlie assured her.

  The way Charlie had dragged Kiera away from the mystery man bothered her. It was like all the hate Charlie had been saving for Norman was suddenly directed at this nameless man. Kiera couldn’t figure out what he could have done to hurt Charlie. All this talk about how Michigan was better than Washington, and now they were running from a stranger.

  Kiera didn’t think her walls would ever come down. When they reached the cabins along the lake, Kiera knew for sure that she would never relax. There were too many shifters everywhere. Six cabins lined the lake, all of varying sizes.