Page 16 of Midlife Animal Rescuer Dragon

Cal and his fiancée seemed to notice Nora for the first time. His eyes widened. “Oh, hey, there. Who’s this, Henry? Didn’t know you were coming with company.”

“This is Nora. She’s a witch.”A hybrid, actually.“Long story.”

“A witch?” Melissa’s green eyes focused on Nora for a few seconds, fascination flickering across her face. “I’ve never met one before. I have so many questions.”

“Well, you two will have to wait until some other time to ask them,” Henry said, seeing Nora recoil a little. The hybrid was clearly uncomfortable with the unfamiliar presence. “Get out of here, unless you’re buying something.”

“What are you talking about?” Cal lifted an eyebrow. “We’re animal rescuers, too.”

“Out.” Henry placed his hands on their shoulders, leading the couple out of the tent.

Once they were out of earshot, Cal stopped and turned to face him, a deep frown on his face.

“What the hell’s going on, Henry?” his friend wanted to know. “Who’s that woman? Something tells me she’s not just some woman you’re hitting on.”

Henry shook his head slowly. Where was he even to begin from? “She’s not. She appeared just after you went back in the house this morning.”

“What do you mean,appeared?” Melissa asked, looking most intrigued. “Is teleportation part of magic?”

“She’s been trying to learn whatever she can about the supernatural ever since we got engaged,” Cal said, giving his fiancée’s hand an affectionate squeeze. “But whatdoyou mean, Henry?”

They walked a little further, even past Angelica’s booze stall, and Henry began narrating everything that had happened, right from the moment Nora had tumbled out of a portal and almost ended up as a stain near the front porch. Both Cal and Melissa were stunned out of their wits by the time he was finished talking.

“That...that’s something,” Melissa remarked, brushing her wispy bangs out of her face. She glanced back toward the animal rescue tent, where a couple of customers had appeared and were, to Henry’s relief, being attended to by Nora. “I didn’t even know hybrids were possible.”

Melissa didn’t know a lot of things about the supernatural. In fact, she’d been terrified of it up until last month. It had driven a wedge between her and Cal for ten years before that. Henry was glad to see she was changing her stance on things.

It certainly made him wonder abouthisstance. What was it Nora had said earlier?You hate us because you don’t understand us. It’s the same way humans feel about us in general.Yeah, she’d definitely had a point there. Sure, it was in part due to his own past experiences, but the fact that she was a hybrid had left a not-so-pleasant taste in his mouth from the moment he’d learned it.

“And where’s this hunter now?” Cal wanted to know.

Henry gave a shrug, looking around in case the eyeless man had reappeared. Still no sign of him. “I don’t know. One second, he was here, and the next...poof. Gone. Good for Nora, I guess. Although now I’m a bit confused about whether to keep helping her, and I’m in too deep to simply withdraw my help.”

A thin smile tugged at Cal’s lips. “Looks to me like the animal rescuers are always getting neck-deep in some problem or the other.”

Henry couldn’t argue with that. Just last month, they’d had to deal with a hunter killing animals in the woods for sport. Things had gotten dark and bloody really quickly, and if Cal and Melissa hadn’t stopped the trophy-keeping bastard, there would’ve been no animals for the sanctuary to rescue. Cal and his fiancée had bonded pretty nicely in the process and gotten reengaged.

Henry was happy for them, really, though he couldn’t help but wonder if that would be the case with Nora. It couldn’t be, especially after what he’d learned about the hybrid since he saved her life this morning. His thoughts strayed to the kiss they’d shared just outside the tent earlier. He’d conveniently left that detail out of his narration to Cal and Melissa.

“Damn,” Cal said, shaking his head. “This is rough. Just this morning, all you had to worry about was making five grand. And now...this.”

Henry couldn’t help feeling a spike of irritation at those words.This would all have been a lot easier if I’d had more help,he wanted to retort.

But Theon hadn’t asked Cal or Melissa to help out at the fair, had he? He’d asked Henry. This was his job for today. Not to mention Henry hadchosento help Nora. That was entirely on him, not on Cal or anyone else.

“Don’t worry, man.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder, putting on the calmest smile he could muster. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll get through all of this. You two should go ahead, enjoy the fair. Grab a hot dog or two for me, will you?”

Cal shot him a look, as though he was trying to figure out what was going on inside his head. After what felt like a full minute, he nodded. “Alright, Henry. If you need anything, just let me know. It’s been a while since I last shifted, anyway.”

With that, he and Melissa said goodbye and left his side. Henry watched them go until they’d disappeared through the crowd, and expelled a breath through his nostrils. They looked so peaceful, so relatively unconcerned with anything—just like almost everyone else at the town fair, if he was being honest. He ran his fingers through his hair.God,what he would give to have a regular day like theirs. Just hours ago, his biggest problem had been having to spend time at the fair and potentially dying of boredom. Now, due to his association with a hybrid woman, it wasn’t just boredom that threatened his life.

With another sigh, he turned and headed back to the animal rescuer tent. The customers he’d spotted earlier were still there. But something was wrong. Nora stood outside the tent, a look of distress on her face. And one of the customers was gesturing wildly, saying something Henry couldn’t hear over the crowd.

Dammit.Just when he’d thought his day couldn’t get any worse.

Chapter Seven

The Fourth of July