Free Origin Exposed: Descended of Dragons, Book 2 by Jen Crane Page B

away.

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    M ari’s shift at Sabre Bar was over, and after a few minutes she and Layla left us in favor of some time alone.
    “Stella, we all know something serious is going on with you,” Boone said abruptly after the two had gone.
    “Yes, what was all that about with Gresham today?” asked Timbra. “You didn’t just have a fight; you were afraid to be near him. And you were unconscious when I found you in your room.”
    Ewan went deathly still beside me. “Did he hurt you, Stella?” he breathed.
    I tried to formulate an explanation of the situation in my head, but none came. Silence went on longer than intended, and Ewan’s body—no, his aura—began to fracture. He had taken my silence to mean that Gresham had harmed me, and he was so angry he was at risk of changing to his animal form right there in the bar.
    “Oh, shit. Ewan. No! He didn’t touch me.”
    But he was so far gone he didn’t hear my words. A snarl escaped lips that had retracted to reveal elongating teeth. Sharp teeth. He needed to calm down. Fast.
    I didn’t think. I closed in on him, my nose a breath away from his as I held his face in my hands.
    “Get back, Stella!” Boone bellowed and reached across the table for me.
    I didn’t move. Timbra held Boone back and took a gentler approach to our enraged friend. “Stella, back away from the wolf,” she said. “He doesn’t have control of himself right now. He could hurt you without intending to. Just back away and let’s all cool down,” she soothed.
    “He’s not going to hurt me.” I was confident of the fact like I was confident I’d meet the stars each night I looked up to find them.
    Ewan Bristol could never harm me. I sat up taller to meet his eyes. He was so on edge that their chocolate depths darted continuously to each corner of the room. Growled sentence fragments escaped with each exhale.
    “Ewan.” I called his name with confidence, but when it was clear he hadn’t heard me I began to plead. “Ewan? Can you look at me?”
    He snarled again, his fingers clenching into tight fists, his body vibrating with repressed rage.
    “Ewan? Ewan, please?” I whispered.
    He finally swung his eyes down to me. They softened ever so slightly, and pent-up breaths around the room released at the likelihood Ewan would recover.
    “He didn’t hurt me, Ewan,” I said. “He’s been keeping some pretty big secrets from me is all, and I found out. Secrets about my family.”
    Ewan’s chest expanded with his efforts to reclaim control of his body. He closed his eyes, released the breath, and when he opened them again they were back to the intelligent, impassioned ones I knew so well.
    “Stella, we’re your friends,” Timbra said and lay a gentle hand on my arm. “We care for you deeply, and we know you feel the same. If there’s a way we can help you, I wish you’d let us in. You know you can trust us. Deep down, you know you can.”
    My conscious mind screamed, “ Don’t do it !”
    “All right,” I breathed. “But not here.” I raised away from Ewan, and my legs shook from the aftereffects of the tense little moment.
    “We can” Ewan cleared his throat of wolf and tried again. “We can use my room. I’ve warded it for sound.”

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    I n Ewan’s room we all found a comfortable place to sit or a door jamb on which to lean. At first Boone and Timbra made small talk so that it wasn’t so obvious everyone in the room was waiting for me. Ewan made no such pretense. He stared openly at my mouth, as if he could will it to start moving.
    I had no idea how I was going to say the very difficult things I needed to say. Best to get it over with, like ripping off a Band-Aid. I jumped right in and hoped I wasn’t screwing it up.
    “So, remember how I turned into a wolf at Solstice Fest and ran from those dragons?”
    Three heads nodded.
    “And you know last week I escaped Brandubh by turning into my wolf.”
    “Mm-hmm’s” all around.
    “Well, what you don’t know