Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(28)

After pulling up my banks website, I logged on. My sharp intake of breath hung in the air. “Holy shit!” I screeched. My account read $100,009.64.

I did nothing, thought nothing. I just stared. My mother worked her entire life as a teacher dedicated to nurturing young minds, and when she died the insurance payout was barely a quarter of this. I had just made this in one night. Oh my God! All of a sudden I was giddy and squealed, bopping up and down on the bed.

I heard someone scramble in the hallway. “Sloane? You okay?” Logan’s voice came from the other side of my door.

Crap. “Yes. Sorry.”

The knob turned. “Are you sure? It sounded like you screamed?” He didn’t sound convinced that I wasn’t being held hostage by a druid.

“Come in,” I said. The door burst open as Logan took in every corner of the room with his gaze.

I felt stupid. “I just checked my bank account,” I told him.

His entire posture relaxed and he chuckled, giving me that glimpse of his sexy straight teeth. “What are you gonna buy with it?”

I didn’t know. I wanted to hold on to it for a rainy day. Being poor my whole life made me want to save the entire thing. “Probably pay off my student loans and save the rest.”

He nodded, impressed. “Smart girl. The first time I sold a scale, I paid for the entire town of Glastonbury to drink at the pub. Was a fun night.”

Glastonbury? “You’re from England?” He didn’t have an accent.

He nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Yeah, but I’ve been in the US long enough to lose the accent.”

Something occurred to me then. “Do you need the money? I mean, should I be sharing this with you guys?”

I remembered he had said he paid the pack’s salary on the sale of his scales and other dragonly things. He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I can take care of you.”

I can take care of you. How long I had wanted someone to say that to me … since my mother got sick and I had become the adult. Normally I was independent and didn’t like the idea of depending on a guy, but hearing Logan say he could take care of me did funny things to my insides.

“I’ll share next time. I like to pay my own way,” I told him.

He smiled and nodded. “As you wish.” He turned to leave and I nearly melted at the fact that he’d probably unknowingly made a Princess Bride reference.

As he closed the door, I collapsed back in bed and kicked off my boots. This crazy day was catching up with me and I felt the pull of sleep weigh down my limbs.

I was a dragon and there was no getting out of it. Might as well embrace reality.





7





AT SOME POINT in the night the upstairs got too hot, so I opened my door and cracked my window to allow for a cross breeze. This permitted a certain tiny kitten to jump up on my bed and sleep atop my head. As the early morning light peeked into the room, I cracked open my eyes to see a small paw on my forehead.

I groaned. “Mittens, get off.” I shook my head a little to dislodge her, and she must have thought it was my invitation to play, because she began attacking my hair, causing me to yelp and sit up.

“Ow!” I shouted at her, and her mood changed lightning-quick as she leapt onto my lap, purring and kneading my thigh like a well-trained masseuse.

A shadow at the open doorway caught my attention. Logan was standing shirtless in low slung sweats. He looked perfect, and here I was with a cat-hair rat’s nest on my head and yesterday’s make up.

“She’s a horrible bed mate,” Logan warned me.

I scratched Mitten’s head and her purr ramped up a notch. “Yeah, I gathered that when I woke up at 2AM with her tail in my mouth.”

Logan smiled sheepishly. “Ready to train? Nadine is suiting up.”

I groaned. I hated working out. Like, my workout hate was so strong I didn’t even own workout clothes. I was the only chick in America not to own a pair of yoga pants.

Logan’s brows knitted. “If you’re not a fan of lifting weights, we can start with a run.”

A run! I groaned louder and Mitten’s hair stood up on end as she hissed at me. Crazy cat.

“Look, there’s something you should know about me. My favorite activity is sitting on the couch and drawing while devouring a bag of potato chips. Unless I’m running for my life from some hunters, I don’t run.”

Logan’s eyes danced with amusement but his face didn’t crack a smile. “Have you ever played sports?”

I nodded. “I played competitive soccer for ten years.”

He looked shocked. “Perfect.”

I cocked my head to the side. “I was the goalie.”

“Oh.” His face fell.

I was damn good at stopping that ball; my reflexes were insanely fast. Almost not human now that I thought of it. But running? Lifting weights. Never.

“Do you like living?” Logan finally asked me as Nadine slipped into the open doorway beside him.

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously.”

Logan shrugged. “Then this is going to be the hardest week of your life, because there will be running. There will be lifting weights. And there will be no potato chips. If you want to survive attacks from hunters and druids, you need to train.”

Dammit. My twenty-one years of laziness were gone. Rest in peace.