A Song of Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 2) Read online

  A Song of Destiny

  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.

  Copyright 2021 © Emilia Hartley

  Emilia’s Heartlies

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  Contents

  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

  What’s Next In the Great Plains Dragon Feud Series?

  More Emilia Hartley Series

  Heartlies Box Sets

  Thank you!

  1

  Cash Montoya had grown sick of people.

  People in his house. People in his space. People in his way.

  His fingers danced along the guitar strings, but the chord was drowned out by Baylee’s wail. Cash stiffened and waited for her to be quiet. It wasn’t a sound of pain or fright, so he didn’t care.

  Scratch that.

  He very much cared. Watching Gale turn the world upside down for that insufferable woman had been more than Cash could stomach. He stood by Gale’s side because that’s what they promised each other long ago, but Cash’s ability to bear Gale’s new mate was quickly waning.

  Cash yearned for the sweet bliss of music, the baleful rumble of a song in his chest, and the emptiness he felt after he was through. As it was, the beast shifted impatiently inside him. Cash could always feel it, too close to the surface. Its tempestuous rage made Cash’s blood boil. It made him quick to anger and hard to console.

  He hid in music. Classic country and blues were the only things that quieted his beast.

  That and the letters hidden in his desk. Tired of trying to ignore Baylee’s laughter down the hall, Cash set his guitar aside and reached for the letters. The drawer squeaked as he pushed it back in.

  He fell back and ran his thumb across the oldest envelope, yellowed from age and how many times he’d handled it over the past couple of years. The first letter was dated the same night of his first performance. Whoever had written it must have rushed home to write it. He couldn’t believe he had inspired such adoration in anyone.

  The first letter praised the emotion in Cash’s voice when he sang, but it also called him out for using the wrong chord. Cash remembered the flash of anger he’d felt when he first read it. Now, he laughed every time he reopened the letter. He could see the author’s love for music in every word. He wanted the author to love him as much as they loved music.

  The stack of letters had grown large over the past years. He’d tried, more than once, to trace the scent back to the author. He’d failed each time because the letters were suspiciously unscented. He’d memorized the author’s handwriting and compared it to every note or signature he’d come across around town, all to no avail.

  Reading the letters calmed him for a while.

  Gale had found love in the least likely of places. Cash didn’t approve, but he couldn’t tell his cousin no to anything. Cash, however, had found love more gradually. He held the letters tight because he knew he might never be able to meet this person. They remained anonymous, despite his best efforts.

  The bedroom door creaked open and Gale poked his head in. “We’re taking Logan into town to show him the wonders of fast-food drive-thrus. Do you want to go with us?”

  Cash snorted. “Do I look like a masochist?”

  “Damn, you don’t have to be so rude.” Gale disappeared, but not before adding a teasing wink.

  Despite Gale’s attempt to joke, Cash felt bad. He’d been momentarily relieved that the three of them were going out, but now he just felt like a monster.

  Because you are.

  They cannot imagine the pain you’ve endured.

  Gale could never understand.

  Rage comes as easy as breathing to one who has seen as much as we have.

  Cash pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. He couldn’t escape the sensation of the beast just beneath his skin. The creature whispered to him. It turned his veins hot, his blood searing his insides like the promise of dragon fire. Cash did his best to keep the beast under lock and key, but he couldn’t do it on his own.

  He'd relied on Gale for too long. Baylee had taken Gale away from him. Now Cash had to figure out how to keep his beast from burning the whole town down.

  Some days, he feared that it was impossible.

  He would snap, eventually.

  Ember Barnes didn’t know what she needed to do to get through to Gale Montoya.

  “We had an agreement, Montoya boy.” She pressed her finger into his chest.

  When he’d called her up in a panic a month ago to ask what size clothing Baylee wore and where he could find some, she’d happily helped him despite knowing that her father would kill her for talking to the enemy.

  Hell, Callum Barnes wouldn’t be too happy with what she was trying to do now. But Ember needed to get the ball rolling.

  Baylee threw a French fry at Ember. She flinched when the fry smacked her in the eye.

  “Calm down,” Baylee said, a note of warning in her voice.

  Ember rolled her eyes. “I’m not after your man, nor am I going to harm him. So, you can stuff it, Baby Barnes.”

  Despite teasing the two lovers, Ember watched them defy everything they’d been told and fall in love. She desperately wanted that for herself. It hadn’t been love at first sight for her. She couldn’t tempt him into the woods for a quick make-out session like Baylee had. No, Ember was stuck, listening to him from afar. She had to deal with the pain and yearning in his voice and know that she could never touch him like she wanted to.

  At least, not until now. Baylee and Gale gave her hope. Ember might be able to have what she wanted at long last.

  “Just cover the bar for me,” Ember suggested. “Five minutes is all I’ll need. I won’t be gone long.”

  Baylee nibbled the end of a chicken nugget while eyeing Ember, as if she suspected a lie. It wasn’t. Ember already knew what she wanted to tell Cash.

  Ember had been sending him letters since she first saw him perform. She hadn’t been an employee at the bar back then. She’d been out, trying to cheer her sister up. When Cash Montoya came onto the stage, she’d almost left. Montoya and Barnes dragons couldn’t be in the same room. Yet, Teagan had been unbothered, so they’d stayed for the show.

  From that first note, Ember knew that she was in love.

  If she couldn’t make Cash fall for her, too, then she didn’t know what she was going to do. She curled her hand at the base of her throat. Fear crackled inside her, but no fire came.

  Despite her fiery name, Ember couldn’t conjure a flame at all. She’d worked tirelessly with her father to figure out what the problem was, but neither
of them could come to a conclusion. She’d ended too many days exhausted and feeling like a failure after her father yelled at her for not trying hard enough.

  There was a reason she and Teagan didn’t talk to Callum Barnes too often. Hell, she didn’t even talk to Teagan all that often, either. The night Baylee had come over had been the first time Ember had seen her sister in months.

  Ember just wanted...she just wanted to be loved.

  Her loneliness had become tiresome. The fact that she knew only one person could ease her ache made it even worse. She’d watched Cash over the years. He didn’t talk to anyone, not even the local fangirls who fawned over him after every show. The man could have had his pick of the hottest girls in town, but he ignored them all. Cold and distant, he seemed nothing like his music.

  Ember knew that she had a secret way around the barriers he kept up. At least, she hoped she did. If Cash read any of the letters she’d sent, then maybe they could skip the awkward phase of getting to know one another. He would already know everything he needed to.

  She sighed and covered her face with her hands.

  “Eat your food,” Baylee suggested. “A hungry dragon is a mean dragon, and if your words have told me anything tonight, it’s that you haven’t eaten.”

  Ember didn’t have an appetite. She skirted around Baylee’s advice by pointing at Logan.

  “What is he doing?”

  Baylee and Gale twisted in their seats. Gale cursed under his breath before leaping to his feet to intercept Logan, who had waded into the children’s ball pit. There weren’t any children in the play area because the hour was well into the evening, but the man was still strange.

  That was what happened to dragon shifters who burrowed into the earth and slept for over fifty years.

  “I dropped my phone in here!” Logan howled.

  Gale threw his hands in the air. “What were you doing over here with your phone?”

  Logan gestured to the window beyond the ball pit, but his lips flapped like he couldn’t find the words. Both Ember and Baylee looked out the window, but the street was empty, lit only by the unnatural glow of the fast-food joint.

  The two men argued, a fight that turned into a tussle in the ball pit. Logan threw Gale down into the balls and commanded him to find the lost phone. Not to be ridiculed, Gale dragged Logan down with him. Finally, once both realized the entire restaurant staff were watching, they started looking for the phone in earnest.

  “Don’t worry,” Baylee said to Ember.

  Ember turned her attention back to her cousin. Baylee wore a soft smile, ominously darkened by her deep violet lipstick.

  “I’ve got your back. I can run the bar while you go talk to Cash tomorrow. Gale won’t interfere. He’ll be with me, trying to keep all the men from flirting with me.” She wiggled her brows.

  Ember missed the way she and her cousins had worked together like this. Baylee had always been the first to do something stupid, but the rest of them had followed hot on her heels. It was happening all over again, but this time the something stupid had become Montoya men.

  “It’s a deal,” Ember said, knocking her chicken nugget against Ember’s in a weird kind of cheers.

  2

  Ember smoothed the front of her faux-leather skirt down and wiggled to get the bodysuit out of her butt crack. She knew it looked amazing, which was kind of the point, but it had been riding into unimaginable places all night.

  Maybe it was just nerves, making every small nuisance an impossible annoyance. In her mind, this meeting ended with Cash kissing her passionately and telling her that he’d thought about doing that every night for the past three years. She imagined that he’d known she had been sending him letters, but he’d been afraid to pull her into an affair fraught with misery.

  But now that the time was closing in, Embers stomach churned with anxiety and very unattractive gas. She looked back one last time. Baylee gave her a thumbs up and motioned for her to go on.

  Ember really hoped Gale wouldn’t start any fist fights over flirtatious customers while she was gone.

  The soft thrum of Cash’s guitar drifted into the narrow hall as Ember approached the door. She paused and tried to quiet her hammering heart. It refused to listen to reason, forcing her to forge ahead anyway.

  She should have knocked. She should have announced her presence. Instead, she walked right in and began blabbering immediately.

  “Cash, we need to talk.”

  He paused and raised a brow but didn’t say anything. Now that his attention was on her, the room became too hot. Her skin sizzled under his gaze. His nostrils flared, but he didn’t leap to his feet and call her what she was.

  “I just…I thought…I wanted you to know—”

  “If it’s about payment, you’ll have to contact Alice Montoya.” He reached for his guitar case.

  “What? No. That’s not what I came here to talk about. I don’t deal with the finances or anything.” Ember licked her lips. Her courage had faltered now that she faced Cash.

  The room seemed impossibly small. That, or Cash seemed larger than life. The air between them warmed as if he was looming over her, as if they were sharing the same breath. She inhaled through her nose and fought the urge to take a step back.

  “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. His voice vibrated with the power of his beast, a low hum that danced over her skin. “Then what is this about?”

  She had to rip off the bandage, so to say. Swallowing, Ember raised her chin and tried to look Cash in the eye. His dark orbs sucked her in and stole what was left of her breath.

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re one of the Barnes dragons. Look, I don’t care what Baylee asked you to do, but don’t drag me into it. I have plenty of other cousins for you to torment. Leave me out of it.”

  A growl rumbled in her throat. “I came to tell you I’ve been writing letters to you for the past three years. I never signed them with my own name for obvious reasons.”

  Cash stood. Had he always been this tall? Ember craned her neck to look up at him. His curls fluttered in the heat now swirling around him. Her own beast rolled over and exposed her belly like a submissive wolf.

  “Do not lie to me like that,” he snarled.

  She blinked, giving him a chance to take back what he’d just said. When he didn’t, she doubled down.

  “How dare you accuse me of lying!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “How else would I know that you’ve been receiving anonymous letters? It’s not like you’ve broadcasted it anywhere. Wouldn’t it make sense that the person who wrote them would know about them?”

  He sneered. “Like your cousin wouldn’t go through my bedroom to find something to use against me. Look, I get that Baylee thinks she has the best of intentions, but she needs to mind her own business.”

  Cash pushed past her. Ember fought the urge to reach out and stop him. Instead, she said:

  “Oh, what I wouldn’t do to lay at your feet and feel your music move through me like a lover’s gentle touch.”

  Cash hesitated but didn’t turn to face her. Ember thought she’d won, that she’d convinced him of the truth. But Cash shoved his way through the door and disappeared into the hall, leaving her empty and unfulfilled.

  She covered her burning face with both hands. She couldn’t believe she’d said that line out loud. When she’d written it, she’d been lost in the throes of unrequited passion and thought it would forever remain between her and that damned piece of paper. What had possessed her to say it out loud?

  Ember waited a moment, unsure if she could face Cash in the hall if he was still there. Her embarrassment haunted her. She’d bared her soul before him, and he’d walked away without another thought.

  Moments like this should have been filled with dragon fire, but her throat remained empty and cold. She couldn’t conjure even a spark though her anger had spilled over. Hand at her throat, Ember exhaled. Her anger left her, and, in its wake, loneliness took over.

  She d
idn’t run into Cash on her way back to the bar. The chaos that Baylee had incited quickly captured Ember’s attention. Baylee seemed frantic, like she was barely holding it together. A bottle sat at her feet, on its side like a fallen soldier. Ember sighed, retrieved it, and put it back in its place.

  “How did it go?” Baylee whispered as she poured a bottle of beer into a fresh glass.

  “Bottles don’t need to be poured,” Ember replied.

  Baylee was unbothered by the correction. Ember turned away from her cousin, but she could still feel Baylee studying her profile. Heart sinking into her stomach, she passed the first drink off to a customer. Then, the first chord of Cash’s music lifted through the air and her heart hit the floor.

  She couldn’t handle this. Not now. His notes found their way into her lungs and danced there. The first rumbling word he sang wrapped around her and held her tight. Normally, she would have leaned against the bar and savored this moment. Right now, it reminded her of what she could never have.

  But Cash’s note faltered.

  Ember glanced up to find him watching her. She froze, rather pathetically. Her breath trembled. Had he realized she’d spoken the truth? Would he cross the room and pull her over the bar for their first kiss?

  The answer to both seemed to be no. Cash adjusted his strings and began strumming again. His music drowned out her tired sigh.

  No other man could make her feel half as much as Cash’s music did. She’d tried. Marjorie Barnes had introduced Ember to a few good dragon men, but they’d left Ember deeply dissatisfied. Her dragon had rebelled every time a male shifter tried to touch her. The damned beast nearly tore her apart from the inside out because no man would ever be Cash Montoya.