Dragon Star (A Shifter Football League Novel) (2 page)

A
lone with Cass
, his dragon wanted to soar. She was gold. Rare and beautiful, something to keep and never let go of, to cherish and wonder at. His senses were more alive than he could remember.

Then Jae had walked into the room. That smug ass had stood there with a pissy look on his face. And that made his dragon want to roar. Made his dragon want to tear and bite and bellow his awesome fire onto that smug face until it melted before him.

Something wasn’t right with them. Something wasn’t right with the emotions that had surged inside of him because of Cass as well.

How many years since he felt emotion like that? Felt so vulnerable, felt such a need? Not even last year, after that Hail Mary pass which took the Outlaws to the playoffs, did Nico feel such overwhelming emotion.

He winced and flexed his ankle. The tendon responded by shooting pain up his spine. Gritting his teeth, Nico swung his legs onto the ground and then stood to hobble over to his crutches.

The girl's words had been worrying. Mostly because he had believed her. She knew something was wrong with him; everyone had been guessing at it but not saying it. Nico wasn’t healing fast enough, which pointed to a separate issue. Either he had some sort of disease or it was his mind blocking his progress.

He hobbled out of the room. At first, the crutches had made him want to shelter himself even more, keep himself in his home, in the cold.

But he needed to show up for his team to support them. As their quarterback, he was their de facto leader.

Hobbling about more, he became less self-conscious until he could swing himself around expertly on the crutches.

That girl had been intoxicating, and as he left the room, moving down the hallways to meet with the rest of the team, he felt drunk on her still. A tugging in his gut directed him, his temples pounding as he heard her name being muttered by Jae.

Cassandra. Was that her full name? And what of her last? Nico hadn't asked her.

If Jae hadn't arrived, he probably wouldn't have been so frustrated over his injury. Their conversation would've went smoother.

Even now, he wanted to apologize. Still, he’d never agree to the tests.

He'd be fine.

But her?

He was worried about her. Her name was said again harshly. Nico turned the corner. It was Jae, speaking to her in a way that got his blood boiling. No girl should be spoken to that way, and to hear that sweet girl talked to like that…

The other dragon might be his teammate, but Nico had never trusted him.

Well, I've not trusted many people, if I'm being honest with myself...but him especially. A dragon knows a dragon.

“Are you crazy, coming here? I thought I told you. I guess you haven't learned your lesson yet. I don't want you here. I don't want you to leave the house. Not without me.”

“I came here to surprise you.”

Their voices were coming in quick. Nico pressed his back against the wall.

“I don't give a fuck why you're here. I thought I could leave your door unlocked when I was gone. This gives me doubts. Now get back to your fucking room before I really get angry.”

A pause. He expected Cass to say something in return.

“Go home. Now,” he said, this time loud enough where Nico didn't have to be listening in to hear it.

Footsteps traveled away from him. Then a pair were heading toward him. Instead of waiting for Jae to meet him, he sped off on his crutches, at first, going back to the locker room. Yet there came a flash of brilliance in his mind and instead of going back to think more, he went straight to Coach's office.

Coach sat at his desk, typing away at his new computer. He'd just gotten the latest Mac and the guys had helped him set it up. Before he had done everything stubbornly with pen and paper and a landline.

“Hi, Nico, what'd she come up with?” Coach steepled his fingers like a mad genius. “She's brilliant, you know?”

“That's exactly why I'm asking for this.” Nico stood tall. This would be tough for him. Tough for the team. But Nico thought it would be right.

Coach looked worried. “Asking for what?”

“Asking to go home for my rehabilitation.”

Coach took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt. It always struck Nico funny that an eagle shifter would need to wear glasses. He figured that it was a habit from before he had been Turned.

“And why would you want to do that? You've got everything here.”

“Too many distractions.”

He put his glasses on, only to look at the carpet. “I guess you have a point. Do you think...it's in your head? After what happened, don't be worried about that. The fans are fickle. But they'll come around and love you again.”

The fans had turned on him the night he had been injured, still a fresher wound than his Achilles tear. They had booed their hearts out as he had stumbled around and then thrown the game losing interception. At the time, they hadn't known he was injured, but their betrayal had jaded him.

Nico took a step closer. “I want Cass to come with me. I'm going to need an at home physical therapist. I have the tools there, the equipment already. I'll need someone to guide me, and like you said, she seems like she knows what she's doing.”

“I said she was brilliant,” Coach reminded him. “And if you question her, look out. She won’t be as easy on you as I am.”

“Brilliant,” he said aloud. He did think she was brilliant, despite just meeting her.

“I'm not sure if she's going to go for this.” Coach sighed. He flipped his cap on and off again, rustling his grey hairs. “Not sure if Jae will go for this actually.”

“It's not up to him, is it?”

Coach's eyes sparked with that young energy that Nico had come to love. He was wise, yes. He also had a mischievousness to him, and this played in with that.

“It's not.” Coach swung his chair back. “She's technically on the team's payroll. Jae has had her on as a private assistant for his training, only because he’s a spoiled brat, but seeing as we could use her for our star quarterback now, I'm willing to send her with you.”

He leaned over the desk. Not many could discipline a dragon shifter. Coach could. Everyone respected him. “Under one condition. You actually get out of your head and onto the field.”

“You got it, Coach.”

Nico went up to him and gave him a one-handed squeeze. “Thanks for understanding.”

“Yeah, well, I might not understand if you take all of next season to heal. Just make sure to keep in touch, will you? I know how you dragons are. You keep yourself locked away from the world, thinking that the whole world is out to get you.”

Wasn't it?

Coach wagged his finger. “Don’t even try to argue with me…”

“I'm going to be out there the first day of football.”

“Good, with Cassandra's help, I bet you will. I'll let her know the plans, and for your sake, I hope she accepts.”

When Nico left his office, Coach still stood with his white knuckles pressed to his desk.

He didn't know if she would accept. But something deep within him told Nico that she needed to.

J
ae shoved
her into his golden room. There were golden chandeliers, a golden bed frame, and even the wallpaper was lined in gold. He had left her with a lot of jewelry that shimmered as the sunlight poured in from the barred windows.

But even the most beautiful of jewelry wasn't as golden as standing on the fresh earth and watching the sunset. Not as worthwhile as the relationships one could create while outside of four walls, with other people. Memories that belonged to these treasures were nonexistent to Cass. They had merely been there when he had given her the room.

Whoever's memories were linked to these artifacts, they were long dead or forgotten. They were not really hers; she was only living beside them.

Dragons hoard. And dragons will do anything to keep their possessions. But maybe not all were alike...

Nico.

He had seemed different. He had not even seemed like a dragon shifter, besides the molten pools of gold in his eyes. He was nothing like Jae. It was like all of his bad sides— the insecurities—had been reversed in his dragon brethren.

Could Jae change?

Not likely. Cass fell onto her bed before Jae stormed into the room and yanked her up.

“I'm not through with you.”

Cass had hoped he would be. She knew she had angered him by leaving.

“I know what you're trying to do, and I don't appreciate it. After all that I did for you. Getting you this job, keeping you here, and this is how you repay me? Do you know where you'd be without me?”

His fingernails cut into her flesh. Pain welled in tight circles around her wrists, but she wouldn't try to escape. If this was all she would get, good.

He let go of her wrists, took her by the waist, and then spun her around until she faced the tall standing mirror.

Dizzy, she stared ahead at her terrified reflection. Cass always thought herself a strong girl, but not even most shifters could stand up to a dragon. It would take a small country's military to take one out.

“Lift your arms,” he hissed. When she didn't do it fast enough, he flung them up. A yelp escaped her as he lifted her shirt and tossed it.

Cass didn't need to turn around to see what he wanted to show her, the scars from her failed escape. He had turned into his dragon and she had not gotten far. One swing of his claws tore her flesh practically in two, and she had the marks to prove it. Forever they would be there, three long gashes curling from her left shoulder down to her right side.

If she turned around, she would see those terrible scars, a reminder that Jae controlled her, and always would.

“Look,” he said.

She flinched, her lower lip trembling.

How terrible that she couldn't control how scared she was...

Cass had dealt with many nasty shifters in her line of work. She always knew when they would be angry or full of hate. Jae had snuck in, pretending to be good. He had tried to play the nice guy in the beginning, which was far more dangerous.

“Look,” he said again.

She turned and saw the horrible scars. Tears formed in her eyes, and for a second, she thought they would disappear without him knowing. There was nowhere to go but out. Cass blinked as the hot tears streamed down her cheek.

“Every night, I want you to look in this mirror, just like this, and remind yourself what it's like to anger a dragon.”

He paused. He tilted her chin up and then kissed her, something rare for him to do. He tasted acidic. She wanted desperately to spit and cough.

“The only dragon,” he said.

What about the other eleven? She wanted to ask that, but she knew she would probably have a new set of scars.

What about Nico?

In Jae's mind, he was the only dragon that mattered.

And the only person who should matter to Cass too.

* * *

C
ass lay
on her bed and peered out the window, the view tormenting her, showing her what she couldn't have.

She wouldn't anger him again. There would be no one who could save her. She was sure that if Jae was pushed far enough, he would kill her. Cass would stay here.

Where she would always be from now on. Locked in this beautiful golden room, her golden cage.

She didn't know how long she'd be immobile on top of the sheets if it weren't for her mother's call.

Cass rolled onto her knees and then sank back, the phone pressed to her ear, her skin still cold and sweaty from the fear Jae had put in her.

“Hi, Mom.” Her tone betrayed her true feelings. It was upbeat, without strain.

“Hey, how are you doing, Cass? I haven't heard from you in a while, and I know that the team has an extra week off, so I thought it'd be fine to call you.”

“I'm good, Mom. You know you can call me anytime. I'm not that busy.”

“Oh, nonsense. Wait...hold on, someone wants to speak to you.”

Cass' Mom put her younger sister on the phone. From behind her, she could hear her older brother trying to push in for a turn.

“Now wait your turn...”

“Aww fine,” she heard, then the sweet tone of her baby sister.

“Hi, Cass. You meet any Outlaws?”

Always she would ask this. The silly girl.

“Yes, I did meet some outlaws today. The good kind. I'm helping them win the championship.”

“Any tigers?”

“Yes.” She knew how much Kristen liked to hear about the shifters.

They went down the list of animals, every single one that Kristen knew until her mother had to yank the phone out of her hands.

“Oh, wait, Dylan wants to talk to you too,” she said with a great sigh.

Cass listened to what he had to say. He talked about the newest video game he had and about his sports at school. When it came time to ask her how she was, Cass tried to play it off.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

Her younger brother had made her crack. Lying to him didn't feel right at all.

But she couldn't tell him the truth. There was nothing her family could do for her.

It was best to lie, at least for now, until she could come up with a way to escape, or...maybe...Jae would eventually become kinder.

“Nothing. I've got to go now. Will you tell Mom that I love her?”

Mom forced her way back on the phone.

“You be good now, Cass. Keep in touch. You call me, because I don't want to bother you there. I know you're doing important stuff. Once the season ends, we'll have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Bye, Mom.”

Cass hung up the phone.

What options did she have now? She could sit in her room and cry or she could do something worthwhile with her time. As soon as her eyes caught sight of her bookshelf with all of her medical books, she knew what she wanted to do.

She picked up the top book, her biggest shifter medical book from college, The Shifter Medical Reference Volume Eleven. She began to flip through it, looking for a possible cause to Nico's injury.

Exhaustion came over her too quickly. It had been a long day. As the sun set, so did her eyes fall. She went in and out of consciousness while trying to follow the words.

She woke up in the middle of the night.

“Hello?” Someone had called her again. It was quite unusual for her to get calls this late. All of her friends were back home in her small town in Idaho.

“Sorry for the late call. I had a long meeting, and it almost slipped my mind, but Nico seemed pretty adamant—”

It was Coach Howard. Why on Earth was he calling? And it was about Nico? Cass sprung up and clutched the book to her chest.

“Is something wrong? Has something happened?”

“Oh, no. Were you sleeping?”

She brushed her hair away from her eyes. “Uh...no, I mean...a little nap.”

“I'm sorry for waking you up. I've got an opportunity for you. It's good or bad, depending how you look at it. Not sure how you'll take it.”

“Okay.”

“Nico is leaving, going back home for his rehabilitation. He's got all the equipment there that he needs, and to be honest, I'm thinking the time away could do him well. But I need someone to be there, someone who can get him to a hundred percent before the start of the season. And that person is you.”

Adrenaline surged in her as she jumped up to her window. Cass paced as she thought it over.

“Are you there?”

“You want me to go with him? For how long?”

“For however long it takes for him to get better.”

“What about Jae?” The name could crush all her hopes like a vice.

“He's fine. He doesn't need your help. Nico does. And you're on our payroll. I'll remind him of that.”

“Okay,” she said. “I'll do it. But you've got to talk to Jae about it.”

“I will,” he said flatly.

Cass was so excited that she almost forgot to ask where she would be going.

“You might want to bring a heavy coat. You're going to Maine.”

She sighed, said thank you, and then tossed the phone on her bed.

It would do. She started to pack, then remembered that Jae would need to be notified by Coach Howard first. She didn't want to enrage him if he saw her packing her things, so she dropped back to her bed.

It wasn't a tropical vacation, but anytime she would be out of her golden cage was cause for celebration.