Daddy Dragon (Black Claw Dragons Book 1)

"She didn't know she was pregnant when we left, did she?" I shook my head. "And you guys did such a good job covering our trail, she wasn't able to find us."

"But we've been back for four years," Jury said. "She could've found us once we moved here."

I shrugged. "After that many years, I'm sure she stopped looking." I couldn't blame her. We'd abandoned her.

Mom sobbed harder. "We abandoned a pregnant child."

I knew she'd take it hard. "Well, she's back now. And so is my son."

"Where has she been? What about her mom?" Dad stood and walked over to Mom. We all adjusted so he could hold her. Axel stood and paced, a big wet spot on his t-shirt from mom's tears.

"I don't know. I have no details other than she told Maddox—" Mom interrupted me with a wail. "I almost named you Maddox," she cried. "I told Ava that once. She knew."

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, my voice hard. He chuckled. "Just some shopping. Picking up a few things for Mom."

My heart clenched at his casual mention of his mother. Losing her and the rest of his family had hurt almost as much as losing him. I sucked in a deep breath and set my jaw. Cuss words filled my mind and threatened to spill out of my mouth. The hurt I'd felt when he abandoned me had never gone away, even through my falling in and out of love with Cade. After birthing two children and eighteen years apart, the pain ripped through me like it had happened two weeks before instead of two decades. I forced myself to speak. "I mean, what are you doing in Black Claw?"

"My family and I moved back about four years ago," he said. He moved to the left as if to come around the potatoes, but I didn't want him to come any closer. I couldn't take it, so I shifted to the right. "How have you been?" he asked. His eyebrows were furrowed in concern and his eyes wide and worried. I glared at him. How could I answer that without opening the biggest can of worms canned worms had ever seen?

There was no way to answer him. He sighed and his shoulders slumped. A few choice sentences sprang to mind, full of words of insult about him, but then I heard my son's voice.

No. Not yet. I wanted to introduce them in the right way. I'd imagined it for so many years, and this wasn't in any way how I wanted it to go, out of the blue at a grocery store. "Mom?" Maddox walked out from an aisle of dry goods, several feet behind Maverick. I froze with my eyes on my son over his father's shoulder, and I knew that the instant Maverick turned around, it would all be over. They looked so much alike, I felt like I was watching a TV show that had found a doppelganger younger actor to play the scenes of the main character's past.

Please don't turn around. Of course, Maverick didn't listen to my internal pleas. He turned, coming face to face with my son—Our son.

Maddox didn't notice at first and continued toward me, close enough that Maverick turned. I could see both of their faces now.

Hailey bounded forward, stopping her cart right beside me. "Mom, I'm up to twenty, but I want these granola bars. Granola bars are healthy, right? So, can that go in your cart?" I didn't hear her words. I just took the box of bars from her and dropped them into my cart as I watched my son notice Maverick.

"Mom?" "Hush, baby. In a second," I whispered.

Maverick's face had paled, and he'd put one hand on the potato display. Maddox's face mirrored Maverick's. He paled as well, and I blinked several times. I knew they looked alike—almost identical. Maddox's sweet face had haunted me for nearly eighteen years. I didn't love him any less, just buried the pain of him looking so much like the lost love of my life.

I pretty much forgot how to breathe as neither of them said a word. Maverick looked up and down, scrutinizing Maddox. Maddox just stared at Maverick's face. "Whoa," Hailey whispered.

I tore my gaze from Maddox and Maverick to look down at my daughter. She'd figured it out.

I put my arm around her and pulled her close. "Yeah, sweetie. Whoa is right."

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