Chapter 3
His biggest concern with the human girl was that she would accidentally fall out of the basket. He should have warned her to sit still. He should have told her that they were going to be flying pretty quickly over the water, and that she needed to sit perfectly in place. The basket might sway a little bit, and she wasn't very big. She might go flying out of it, and then where would he be?
He'd be without a human.
That much was for sure.
She had kissed him, and that was surprising to him. Oh, he loved it. Declan wasn't the type of person to ever turn down a kiss, especially from such a sweet and lovely female. He hated that she had been captured by such a total prick, but he was relieved he had found her when he had.
He cringed as he thought about what could have happened to her. It had been a close call, but Declan knew he'd made the right choice by getting her the hell out of dodge. If he'd waited, or if he hadn't been sneaky enough, he knew that Kellen would have captured him, too.
Kellen Brotella was a man with many resources: more resources than a normal person should be privy to. Declan knew that Kellen would also go to any lengths necessary to protect what he viewed as his. That might include shooting Declan with a dart or tranquilizing him or worse.
He didn't want to wait around to find out.
But he had to go back.
Once the girl was safe on Sapphire Island, Declan would be able to go back to Kellen's place to kill the asshole who had hurt her. He didn't know what Kellen's beef was against the woman, but he wasn't about to let this slide. Kellen wasn't going to be allowed to hurt anyone else.
Not ever.
That would come later, though. Right now, Declan had to get her home. He had to make sure she was safe, and so he flew.
He flew and flew until he started to see the large, wild trees that filled most of Sapphire Island. Like the other islands in the Chrysolite Isles, this one was remarkably beautiful and extrinsically lovely. The trees lined the beach so tightly that if you didn't know better, you might suspect the entire island was uninhabited.
That couldn't be further from the truth, though.
This time, Declan didn't land on the beach. He flew over the trees, moving lower and lower, and then he kept on going. He saw mountains up ahead and he soared up and over them. He wondered what the human girl was thinking, and he regretted, just a little, that he couldn't speak to her in his dragon form.
He wanted to so very badly, but there were limitations as to what a dragon could do and verbalizing his thoughts while in shifter form was impossible. There had been many times throughout his life when he’d wished he could speak as a dragon. It would make life much easier. Now, as he flew, he imagined what he might say to her when they landed.
Would she think Sapphire Island was a lovely place?
He did.
It wasn't because he'd never been anywhere else, either. He had. He'd been to plenty of places, and he'd seen plenty of things, but Sapphire Island was always the place he wanted to return to. It was the place he felt most comfortable, and the place he always believed was the most calming to him in his dragon form.
Being a shifter wasn't easy, but somehow, being a shifter on an island seemed a lot better than anything else he could have imagined.
Somehow, when he was flying around the island, he felt like everything was going to be okay. Even when it really, really wasn't going to be okay, this place filled him with a sense of wonder. A shifter needed a place they could feel safe. He’d found that in this island.
He flew over the mountain, and then he passed the biggest city on the island. It was the one wher
e Christopher and Brian lived, and the one where their huge building was. Monster Brothers Security was located there, and Declan spent more of his time there than he probably should have. He needed a life outside of work, he knew. His brothers told him that frequently.
He kept flying. The city wasn't where he lived, though he worked there every day. The city was the life for someone like Christopher, sure, but Declan was different. He needed peace, and he needed quiet, so he kept flying until he reached a forest, and then he flew a little bit more.
Finally, he arrived at his home, and he stopped outside of it, set the basket down gently, and shifted back. He waited for a moment. What was she going to say?
"A treehouse?" The shriek the woman emitted was more of a squeal, and Declan chuckled at the happy noise. She scurried out of the basket hastily, tripping a little as she did. She seemed wildly happy to be out of the basket.
This time, she barely seemed to notice Declan’s nudity. Instead, she squirreled toward the treehouse. She walked awkwardly and hastily. He’d healed her external wounds with his tongue, but her body was probably still sore.
“A treehouse,” he managed to say, nodding
She stopped just next to the steps that led up to the treehouse. It was a two-story house he’d built himself. To access the first floor, visitors climbed a spiral staircase that wove around the trunk of the tree. At the top, there was a hatch that opened into the living room of his home. It was a design he’d spent years working on, and it was nice to see that it hadn’t been in vain.
The realization that someone else liked his creation and wanted to explore it was a satisfying feeling. Declan was used to his brothers who, while wonderful people, were often busy with their own problems and their own issues. Both Christopher and Brian were often wrapped up in themselves. Neither one of them particularly cared that Declan had made himself a treehouse to live in