Page 126 of Saving the Last Heir
His voice. It had been so long, I’d nearly forgotten what it sounded like. With one single word, I was transported away from my life now. I was no longer the lone alpha of the winged dragons with all the responsibility and weight on my shoulders.I was now a small boy, looking up at the man I desperately dreamed I’d one day be like.
Shyanne stepped back, and Dad helped me to my feet. He yanked me close, pulling me into a bear hug that nearly cracked my ribs. For a single moment, I stood limp, not fully comprehending what was happening, but then I put my arms around him and squeezed him back just as tightly. The floodgates opened, and I sobbed like a child. I had no shame. I didn’t care who saw or heard. I had my father back. He was here, in my arms, holding me like he had when I was a kid.
I buried my face in his shoulder, my sobs echoing through the room as everyone stood silently, allowing me this moment. Shyanne stepped forward and rubbed my back while I cried.
I didn’t know how this was possible. Part of me believed I was still asleep. Was this a dream? If it was, I was determined not to wake up. If this was a dream, I’d be happy to stay here forever.
30
JACKSON
“Okay, son,” Dad said, clapping his hand on my back. “Let me have a look at you.”
We broke our embrace, and he held me at arm’s length. Again, I felt like a child. Standing there as my father checked me over.
“You look good,” he said, a sad smile playing on his lips.
“How are you here? How areanyof you here?”
Now that my shock had dissipated, my other senses took over, and I could scent the others in the room. They were all winged dragons. Upon second inspection, several were familiar. Most others I’d never seen before. Where had they all come from? Dad had succumbed to The Vanishing years before. Where hadhecome from? I’d mourned him as if he was dead, yet now he was here, as real and solid as anything.
“We have a lot to talk about,” Dad said.
“No shit,” I said, and the entire room erupted in laughter. All save one man.
The man sitting on the couch, draped with a blanket, looked ancient. His dark skin was craggy with age, and his bushy white beard was somewhat unkempt. He looked a little familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Instead of joining in the revelry, he stared out into space.
Tiana and Carson returned, still crying but happy. Tiana’s daughters rushed to her, wrapping their arms around her.
“It’s been a long day,” Dad said, clapping my shoulder. He put an arm around my mother, and she sank into him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Maybe we should?—”
A dragon screeched outside. Even from inside, I could tell it was above us. In the sky.
Christian bolted to the window and craned his neck to peer up at the night sky. “More! There are more dragons. They’re flying down toward the house!”
We all rushed out into the front yard. I kept a tight grip on Shyanne’s hand, not wanting her to get too far away. I also stayed beside my father, terrified that he might vanish in a wisp of smoke at any second.
Three more dragons swooped low and landed a dozen yards from our group. Before they’d even shifted into their human form, Tiana let out a heartrending scream of surprise.
At the center of the new arrivals, a handsome man stood, looking harried and confused, but happy. He scanned the crowd until his gaze fell on Tiana. He looked exactly like his daughters.
“Tiana?”
“Leo?”Tiana cried.
“Daddy!” Silvia and Savannah screamed in unison and rushed forward.
Leo Rosen fell to his knees, arms wide, sobbing as his daughters crashed into him, knocking him to the grass. He hugged them tightly as Tiana stumbled forward on shaking legs. When she reached them, she sank to her knees and ran her hands over Leo’s face as if to make sure he was real.
“Those bastard drakes.”
Pulling my eyes from the scene of reunion and love before me, I found the old man standing beside me, fury twisting his face.
“What?” I said. “What are you talking about?”
He turned his rheumy gaze on me. “Which one of you did it?”
“Did what?” Shyanne asked, though there was something in her voice that told me she might know what he meant.
