Dragon Proposing (Torch Lake Shifters Book 2) Read online

  Jake nodded and disappeared in the direction of the bar, while Clint turned to Russ and asked. “Where is Mandy, anyway?”

  “Work,” Russ said. “They’ve been slammed since that old Hawkins bastard got booted out. Mandy’s been helping to hold shit together there while they figure out whom to replace him with.”

  Rachel suddenly put the pieces together and realized that Russ was dating Mandy Evans, the girl who had been in the news constantly over the last few weeks for her part in exposing an underground movement to bring back dark magic. Rachel swallowed hard, and felt more out of place than ever. Her degree was in music education, and her biggest talent was playing the violin. She had a feeling that she would never in her lifetime do anything as amazing as Mandy Evans, and she was secretly glad that Mandy wasn’t here today. The pressure to measure up would have been too much for Rachel to take.

  Before Russ could say too much more about how Mandy’s job had changed recently, Jake was back with their beers. He was somehow managing to hold all five mugs in his two hands, which drew Rachel’s attention to how large his hands were. Rachel wondered how big he was in dragon form. Probably enormous. She’d never seen a dragon up close. There had been a lot of dragons fighting during the Dark War, but Rachel had stayed away from most of the fighting. She wasn’t a coward. She just had no fighting skills, and knew she would have gotten in the way more than anything. Instead of making a fiasco of things on the battlefield, she’d stayed in the safety of the wizard town of Falcon Cross, where she’d used her violin to play comforting music for the many children who had lost their parents in the war. Rachel smiled at the memory. Those had been hard times, but she would never forget the way that music brought healing to those poor, traumatized children.

  “Alright,” Jake said, starting to set down the mugs. “Four Dragon’s Breath Lagers, and a Charmed Star Ale for the lady.”

  Rachel stared in surprise at the mug he set in front of her. “This is beer?”

  “Indeed it is,” Jake said, sounding amused.

  “It’s purple. And it’s smoking.”

  Jake laughed. “Yeah, it’s a girly beer. Mandy swears it’s delicious, but I wouldn’t be caught dead drinking a pint of it.”

  The rest of the men at the table laughed, too, and then Jake raised his mug for a toast. “To a successful protest,” he said.

  The others echoed his toast, and clinked their mugs together. Rachel took a tentative sip of her Charmed Star Ale, and was both surprised and relieved to find that it had a distinctly fruity taste to it. She stared down at the purple liquid, which swirled of its own accord, and was surprised yet again when she noticed that the beer actually shimmered a bit. With a smile, she took another sip. It tasted even better this time. There was no mistaking that it was a beer, but it was a lighter beer, and Rachel liked the hints of raspberry that burst on her tongue with every sip. Maybe this whole beer-drinking thing wasn’t so bad, after all.

  Rachel turned her attention back to the conversation, which had already moved on without her. Jake was ranting about how long it took for wizards to change their laws, and how if this were solely up to the shifters, things would have been changed a long time ago. Ordinarily, Rachel would have taken offense at the obvious diss to wizards, but in this instance she had to agree. Wizard laws did take forever to change. Shifters weren’t exactly speedy either, but their processes were at least faster than the wizards’ processes. And trying to combine wizard law and shifter law into one system had only made everything worse. Yes, there were many benefits to wizards and shifters living together as members of the same clan. But there were drawbacks, too. Nothing was perfect.

  Rachel wasn’t sure if it was just the time passing, or the two additional beers she had, but as the afternoon wore on she began to feel more at ease in the Winking Wizard. A lot of people came and went from Jake’s table, and he introduced her to all of them as “my partner in crime in organizing this protest.” Rachel wasn’t sure she deserved so much credit. She’d worked hard, and done everything Jake asked her to do to get the word out about the protest. But he had been the brains behind it all. He’d been the one to actually do all the organizing. Rachel merely smiled and shook all the hands that were extended to her, though. She was surprised by how at ease everyone seemed with the dragon shifters. She’d always had the impression that people were too afraid to approach the dragons, but in here, everyone seemed to be family. For a tiny moment, Rachel thought that perhaps there was something to these loud, beer-based bars. She’d never seen such a friendly crowd at the downtown cocktail spots.

  As afternoon turned into evening, Rachel realized that her exhaustion was quickly catching up with her. She waved away Jake’s offer of another Charmed Star Ale, and rose unsteadily to her feet.

  “I think I should get going,” she said. “I haven’t slept much in the last few days, and I need to work tomorrow.”

  For a moment, Jake looked as though he might protest, but then he nodded. “I’ll walk you out,” he said, then turned to his friends. “Be right back, guys.”

  They waved him off, too engrossed in a conversation about clan politics with a bunch of bear shifters to care that Jake was walking off, or to notice that Rachel was leaving. That was alright with Rachel. The world was spinning faster than she liked, now that she was on her feet, and she didn’t feel like having to deal with a bunch of showy goodbyes. Jake offered her his arm, and she took it gratefully.

  The fresh, outdoor air felt good on her skin. Even though it was early evening, the summer sun was still high in the sky. The warm air soothed her nerves, which she hadn’t realized were quite so frazzled until she got outside.

  “Are you okay to drive?” Jake asked, in a tone of voice that said he clearly thought she wasn’t.

  Rachel giggled. “No, I think I’ll catch a cab. Those purple beers are pretty strong.”

  “Are they now?” This time, Jake’s tone told Rachel that he definitely didn’t think the purple beers were strong. Rachel only giggled again. She looked up at Jake and tried to focus. Her vision was a tad blurry now, but she could still see how good his tan skin looked in the warm glow of the slowly setting sun. He looked at her long and hard, as though he had something he wanted to say to her. Finally, though, he just sighed and shook his head. Then he pulled out his cell phone.

  “I’ll call you a cab.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll just flag one down.”

  He gave her another funny look. “Rachel, if you wait to flag down a cab, you’ll probably be waiting several hours. Cabs don’t come by here very often. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not in the city center anymore.”

  Rachel hiccupped, and looked around, which was a little silly since she did, of course, know that they were not in the city center. It had never occurred to her, though, that taxis would not be frequently driving by here. She realized that she must sound very foolish to Jake, and she tried to shrug off her naïve statement. “I just don’t want to bother you.”

  “It’s not a bother.”

  He quickly called a cab company, and then sat down on an old wooden bench that sat outside the front door of the Winking Wizard.

  “Here. Sit with me.”

  “You really don’t have to wait with me.”

  He sighed. “What kind of gentleman would I be if I left you out here half-drunk to wait on a cab by yourself?”

  “I’m not half-drunk,” she insisted. And then hiccupped.

  “I rest my case.”

  “Okay, maybe a little. But you really don’t have to wait with me. Even half-drunk, I can handle sitting on a bench by myself.”

  In response, Jake patted the bench next to him again. With a grunt, Rachel sat down. For a few minutes they sat in silence. Jake hummed a tune from a song Rachel didn’t recognize, and she sat swinging her feet back and forth and thinking about how different he was from her, and how funny it was that they had somehow ended up planning a protest together. His taste in music and drinks was
so different, and Rachel was willing to bet that that was only scratching the surface of their differences. His need to always be honorable and a gentleman was a little over the top and annoying. She’d heard that dragons were relentlessly bound to their precious honor, so she shouldn’t have been surprised. But somehow, she was. She loved a gentleman as much as the next girl. What she didn’t like was a gentleman who took things to extremes and was overly proud of himself for being a gentleman. Or was overly proud of himself for working harder than everyone else, which Jake definitely was. He proudly displayed several “Trainer of the Year” awards in his office at the Dragon Utilization Department. He must have won the award every freaking time it was offered since the founding of Torch Lake.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Jake said, suddenly breaking into her mental bashing of him.

  Rachel gave him a sideways glance. There was no way she was going to tell him what she’d actually been thinking. Instead, she decided to ask about the protest and its outcome.

  “Do you really think that the High Council will change the law in time?”

  To her surprise, Jake’s facial expression changed into a worried frown. He’d seemed so confident inside the bar earlier, but out here he looked doubtful. “I hope so, but the timing is quite tight for us. By my calculation we have twenty-two days left now until you lose your fortune and I lose my shot at the People’s Governor position. Given all the hoops that must be jumped through to change the law, that’s cutting it pretty close.”

  “But after the protest you sounded like you thought it was a done deal.”

  Jake leaned back against the back of the bench and closed his eyes, rubbing his palms over his face. When he sat back up with a sigh, he gave her a sorrowful look. “The High Council has definitely realized that these laws are ridiculous and outdated. They will change them. But when that will take effect is anyone’s guess. I don’t want to dash anyone’s hopes, though. Those protestors worked really hard for our cause. I have to act positive for their sake.”

  Rachel sat up straighter, suddenly feeling a little less drunk and quite surprised. “I mean that’s nice of you, but what if you’re just helping them keep their hopes up only to have them dashed anyway? And besides, weren’t you planning your campaign for People’s Governor in the bar a few minutes ago? That seems a bit extreme if you really think nothing is going to come of this.”

  Jake stared off into the distance, chewing his lower lip. After another long silence, he finally shrugged. “Yeah. I guess I’m trying to keep my own hopes up, too. It’s the only way I can keep from being really angry. These laws suck. I can’t believe they even still exist. But I have to follow the law as it is. I agreed to that when I swore my allegiance to the city of Torch Lake. I’m honor bound to this city.”

  Rachel resisted the urge to roll her eyes. There he went again, with his talk of honor. Rachel herself didn’t care much about honor right now. All she cared about was that she was about to lose her family’s fortune, no matter how honorable—or not—she acted. That’s just the way things were, and it sucked. But if spouting off about honor made Jake feel better about his plight, then he could keep right on ranting about it. Rachel was going home, though. She didn’t want to listen to this crap anymore. She was exhausted, and she wanted to fall into bed and dream about better days—days when her family was still alive and she didn’t have to worry that she was going to lose everything because she hadn’t decided to rope herself to a man for life.

  Thankfully, she saw a taxi pulling into the parking lot at that moment. She hopped up and turned to shake Jake’s hand. “Thanks for everything. The beers, and calling the cab, and setting up the protest. You’ve done a lot.”

  She was trying to be gracious and polite, but he hardly seemed to notice her words. He had a strange, faraway look in his eyes again, and he only grunted as he shook her hand. He did open the cab door for her, and gave her a little wave as she sped off, but he didn’t say anything else before she left. She watched his tall muscular silhouette out of the rearview window of the cab until she couldn’t see him anymore. For as long as he was in view, he never turned to go back inside. He was lost inside his own turmoil, and Rachel could hardly fault him for that. The two of them were very different, true. But in many ways, Rachel knew exactly how he felt right now.

  And she didn’t like the feeling one little bit.

  Chapter Five

  Jake loved his work as head trainer at the Dragon Utilization Department, but he still hated Mondays. It was never easy to get out of bed and act like a responsible adult after the weekend, and this Monday was more difficult than most. Spending the majority of his weekend at the protest had left him exhausted and jittery. He didn’t understand how Rachel acted so calm. She’d sat at the Winking Wizard after the protest, slowly sipping her Charmed Star Ale and looking around as though she didn’t have a care in the world. Was it all a front she was putting up to avoid dealing with reality? His only indication that she might be worried came when he was waiting for a taxi with her outside the bar. She’d asked him for assurances that the High Council would really change the law, but how could he give her assurances when he wasn’t sure himself? He wanted to believe that the High Council would fast track the issue, but he was also afraid to get his hopes up. He had spent the last twenty-four hours in a state of inner turmoil, constantly swinging back and forth between emotions of elation and despair.

  Coming to his office should have been a relief. After all, there was no better way to get his mind off of the crisis at hand than to dive into his work. But he didn’t have a lot of work to bury himself in right now, and, besides, everyone he ran into insisted on reminding him of the protest.

  “Great protest this weekend, Jake.”

  “Way to make the High Council listen. Mr. Palmer.”

  “Everyone says you’re a hero for bravely challenging the old laws.”

  But Jake didn’t feel like a hero. He felt like a man who might explode at any moment from the pressure of an uncertain future. He so badly wanted to make a difference in this town. He loved Torch Lake and its people, and he knew he would be the best People’s Governor they’d ever seen. He had plans on how to truly unite the wizard and shifter factions of the town, and on how to shore up their defenses against the threat of dark magic—a threat that unfortunately still loomed large in the shadows of the wizard and shifter worlds. But none of Jake’s big plans would ever see the light of day if he couldn’t run for People’s Governor. The only other person in town who had showed an interest in the position was William Graves, a wizard from one of the old, rich wizard lines. All Graves was interested in was the glory and recognition that came with the title of People’s Governor. The man didn’t give a rat’s ass about actually helping the people of Torch Lake. And yet, because Graves was married, he could run for People’s Governor, and Jake could not.

  Jake managed to sneak into his office and shut the door behind him. He was beginning to hate the old wizard families. They could trace their lineage back until time began, and they seemed to think this made them better than everyone else.

  An image of Rachel’s face flashed across his mind’s eye and he grimaced guiltily. He shouldn’t be making fun of the old wizard families when she came from one of them. After all, she had helped him immensely in organizing the protest. She’d worked hard, and never complained about it. But still, she had a certain air about her. She had a bit of that “better than thou” attitude he couldn’t stand. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was about her that rubbed him the wrong way, but he knew it had something to do with the way she flaunted her wealth. Oh, she never said anything, but she didn’t have to. She wore expensive designer clothes, and every time he saw her she was wearing a new set of expensive jewels. The day he’d run into her in the hallway—the first day he’d met her—the rubies adorning her neck and wrists had been impossible to miss. The night before the protest, she’d been covered in emeralds. And during the protest itself, she’d spar
kled with diamond earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Given who Rachel was, Jake had no doubts that the jewelry was real. It was hard to feel sorry for her when she complained about the possibility of losing her whole family’s fortune. She could probably sell her jewelry for more money than some people made in a lifetime.

  Jake forced his thoughts away from Rachel. He shouldn’t be so hard on her. After all, she was his ally in this fight. Even though her reasons for wanting the marriage laws abolished were different from his, they both wanted the same thing at the end of the day. They both wanted to see those awful, outdated regulations stricken from the books.

  A loud knock on the door startled Jake back into the present. He stifled a groan as he sat up straight and smoothed down his shirt. He should know better than to hope for a few minutes of peace at work. As head trainer, someone always seemed to have a question for him. There weren’t even any dragons here being trained right now. Things should have been relatively quiet around the office, and yet, someone always seemed to have a question for him that just couldn’t wait.

  “Come in,” Jake said, doing his best to keep the annoyance out of his voice. His staff didn’t deserve to be treated poorly just because he himself was having a bad day.

  The door creaked open, and to his surprise, it was Leif outside the door.

  “Leif! What are you doing here? Don’t you have your own work to be doing over at the Advocacy Bureau?”

  Leif shook his head as he shut the door behind him. “I don’t have time for work right now. Not when the High Council is about to make a big announcement.”

  Jake sat up straighter. “What are you talking about?”

  “Haven’t you heard? Turn on your TV. Now! The High Council announced fifteen minutes ago that they would be holding a special press conference at ten a.m. That’s only about a minute or two away from now.”

  Jake’s eyes widened, and he reached for the remote on his desk. He pointed it at the flat screen television mounted on the wall above one of his bookshelves, and the television flickered to life. The television was already set to the local news channel, since Jake pretty much only used this television to keep up with the local news. The High Council’s Head Wizard, Blaise Morgan, was just walking up to the podium. Jake felt his heart start to beat faster as Councilor Morgan cleared his throat.