He was watching everything with a cool, intense curiosity. His eyes met hers for a second, and she looked away, focusing on the scene in front of her.
When she looked back to see if he was still there, she gasped. The unsettling man was gone.
Bizarre.
What was going on in this town?
Just at that moment, however, Dallas walked back over and gave her a curious look, and she exhaled, releasing the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding in.
It was a shame that there hadn’t been more evidence for them to find. Mel had really thought that they were onto something.
But there was definitely something going on. Today confirmed it. One large patch of ruined ground could be coincidental, but two? There was just no way that something supernatural wasn’t at play here.
And both witnesses had claimed to see colossal monsters rising from the ground.
The progress was much slower than she would have liked, but they were getting somewhere, and thankfully, she had a few more days left to investigate.
Still, Mel couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow everything that had happened in the past week was connected. Dragonclaw, Dallas, rumors of shapeshifting people and gigantic figures rising from the ground—there was no way that all of these were isolated events.
They had to be connected. She just couldn’t figure out how. Mel had never been one to believe in fate, but she couldn’t help but think that she had been put here at this moment to try and figure out what was going on and to meet Dallas.
“I’m fine,” she said, looking up at him. “Did you find anything interesting?”
He shook his head.
Mel sighed. “Me neither. All the witness said was that she saw something big and scaly rise from the ground, then disappear.”
Dallas frowned, his eyebrows turning downward.
“I know, right?” she added. “It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.”
The only thing that had made any sense today had been waking up next to Dallas. It had felt so right.
She eyed the crowd for a second. Still, there were quite a few people here. Maybe one of them had gotten a glimpse of whatever it was that the woman had seen.
Dallas followed her quietly as she made her way over to the small group and to a small, elderly couple who was chatting and pointing down at the upturned earth.
“It’s God’s reckonin’. I’m telling you, Sheila!” the older gentleman exclaimed.
“Oh, hush, George,” the old woman said, waving her hand. “This is just someone playin’ pranks on all of us. That’s all.”
“Did either of you see it?” Mel asked.
Sheila shook her head. “Nah, we ain’t seen nothin’. We came outside when we heard Sally screaming and yelling bloody murder.” She frowned. “Did hear a loud sound a few minutes before, didn’t we, George?”
“Yup.” George nodded emphatically. “Felt like the ground was shaking!”
Mel shared a curious look with Dallas, who just shrugged. “Are you sure? There was no way you could have imagined it?”
“Could have,” Sheila said, laughing. “We’re getting up there in years, and our senses ain’t what they used to be.”
“Do you think Sally was telling the truth about a giant monster?”
Sheila cocked her head to the side. “Hard to say. Could have been the summer heat tricking her eyes, but she’s always been a level-headed gal, that Sally. I can’t really see why she would lie or make it all up.”
“I’m tellin’ ya, God’s reckonin’!” George crowed again as Mel and Dallas turned away.
“Well,” Mel said with a laugh, “looks like that woman really saw something. What she saw, I still have no idea.”
Dallas shrugged.
Dang it, how she wished she could have been there to see whatever had made the huge hole in the ground.
Almost as much as she wished she could just take the whole day off and spend it in Dallas’s big, strong, sexy arms.
Almost.
14
Another wood shaving floated to the ground below as Dallas sat atop the roof of his trailer, hands busy whittling away while his mind worked.
His eyes darted across the parking lot, searching for anything out of the ordinary, for what felt like the thousandth time. He couldn’t help it, not since the strange occurrence that had been him and Mel checking out the large hole in the ground that a basilisk had risen out of.
In all of his years, he’d never heard of one rising so close to the town, and relief had coursed through him to see that no damage had been done to any of the nearby structures.
That was until he had noticed the big, tattooed man watching them from the shadows.
At least that had been what Dallas thought until he’d caught a whiff of the mysterious figure’s scent on the wind.
Shifter.
The man had definitely smelled like a shifter. The troubling thing was that he hadn’t smelled like any other shifter Dallas had ever seen before.
Even worse, during their time in town, Dallas had been picking up another scent. Unlike the tattooed man’s smell, this one was faint and almost… familiar.
It had been there ever since the first night that Mel had come into town, but he hadn’t noticed it until today. Someone was clearly trying to cover it, conceal it. The question was why. And why was it familiar? Where had he smelled it before?
He shook his head, whittling away another chunk of wood, hating that he couldn’t quite piece it all together.
On top of all of that, there was the fact that, after last night, Dallas was positive that Mel was his mate.
It had been one of the most difficult things he’d ever done, holding back his tiger when it had roared to mate her, to claim her, to hold her close and never, ever let her go.
Suddenly, his pocket dinged, heralding a text from someone. He pulled it out, eyes narrowing at the screen as he tried to decipher the words in
