The Dragon's Mate (Book Seven)

by Elizabeth Kelly

  A mixture of satisfaction and shame washed over her when Bianca said to Bren, “It was good to meet you, Bren.”

  She walked away and Kaida’s dragon shrank a little at the look Bren gave her. “What the hell was that about?”

  Before Kaida could reply, Bishop joined them. She hugged him briefly and kissed his cheek. “Happy Birthday, my bear.”

  “Thanks. Do me a favour? Stop scaring my party guests?” Bishop glanced at Bianca who had joined a group of humans and shifters standing near the patio.

  The smug satisfaction drained away completely, leaving only shame in its place. “I’m sorry,” Kaida said. “I will apologize to the female.”

  “It’s fine,” Bishop said. “Just – chill out, okay?” He held his hands out for Lila. “Bren, do you want another beer?”

  Bren handed the sleeping baby to Bishop. Lila raised her head, blinking blearily at Bishop and growling. Bishop growled in return, kissing her soft cheek before the baby burrowed her face into his thick neck and made a few sleepy snores.

  “I’m good, thanks,” Bren said.

  Bishop glanced at Kaida again. “Stop being… weird.”

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

  “Bishop?” Mal called from near the barbeque. “Come over here for a sec.”

  Bishop hesitated, glancing first at Bren and then at Kaida.

  “Go, my bear. Enjoy your party,” Kaida said. “I will behave.”

  With a final look at them, Bishop walked away. Kaida waited a beat before looking at Bren. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for scaring off a potential date or sorry for leaving so abruptly this morning?” he said.

  “You’re going to date the human?” Her voice was a low growl.

  Bren shrugged and her dragon pouted like a yearling banned from flying.

  “Are you dating her or not?” she demanded.

  “Well, considering you just scared the bejeezus out of her and made it seem like we had sex last night, probably not,” Bren said.

  She glanced around the yard. “Keep your voice down.”

  He grinned at her. “Don’t want anyone knowing that the big bad bear was taken down by a love potion, huh?”

  She didn’t smile at his teasing and his tone turned somber. “Hey, I’m kidding. What happened was no big deal, all right?”

  She shook her head, her embarrassment at the things she had said and done to him returning with a vengeance. Her need to apologize again was overwhelming. She glanced around the yard a second time. Most of the guests were shifters and, no doubt, could hear everything she and Bren said if they chose to listen.

  “Can we talk in private for a second?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  Bren followed her into the house. She’d been at Bishop and Ava’s new house a handful of times and she navigated her way to the spare room that Bishop used as an office. Bren shut the door behind them. She moved to the desk and traced her fingers across the framed picture of Bishop and Ava and Lila that was sitting next to Bishop’s laptop.

  Bren joined her. He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms, pulling the material of his shirt taut across his chest.

  Kaida looked away, her heart thudding and her dragon purring like crazy. Fuck, why did she have to be so attracted to him? Why did she have to remember exactly how he tasted, how he sounded when he moaned?

  She took a deep breath and made herself look him in the eye. “I wanted to apologize again for last night.”

  Irritation flickered across his face. “I wish you wouldn’t. It’s not your fault you ate a love potion laced muffin. In fact, it isn’t either of our faults. It’s the fault of a crazy but well-meaning witch who lives across the hall from me.”

  “I guess,” she said, “but I still need to say sorry for the unwanted advances.”

  “You know damn well they weren’t unwanted.”

  She flushed and her gaze dropped to his mouth. God, his lips were so… inviting.

  Those inviting lips curled up into a smile. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that maybe you were lying when you said you weren’t interested in me.”

  “It was the love potion that made me do and say those things,” she said.

  “Oh yeah? So that’s not sexual tension radiating between us right now?”

  She lifted her gaze to his. His blue eyes were dancing with humour and a smile crossed her face.

  “You know what I think?” he said.

  She shook her head as he leaned a little closer. God, he smelled so fucking good.

  “I think you liked kissing me.”

  “Of course, I did… love potion, remember?”

  “Was it all love potion?” he said as he bent his head. She could feel his warm breath on her lips and when she parted them, he made a low sound of need that sent shivers down her spine.

  “All love potion,” she lied.

  “That’s a shame.” He straightened, and disappointment covered every inch of her body. “Was there anything else or are we good now?”

  “We’re good,” she said.

  He lingered at the desk next to her. “All right. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to finish my conversation with Bianca, maybe ask her if she wants to – did you just hiss at me?”

  She glared at him, her dragon growling and hissing and acting like a goddamn fool. “Stay away from the human female.”

  “Why?” His infuriating grin made her want to throw him down on the desk and fuck him until he was begging her to let him cum.

  Instead, she said, “Fine. Maybe some of my enjoyment from kissing you wasn’t entirely because of the love potion.”

  “How much?”

  “What?”

  “How much was love potion and how much was you being wowed by my stellar kissing abilities?” Bren asked with another grin. “We talking eighty/twenty? Sixty/forty? Fifty/fifty?”

  “Seventy/thirty,” she said.

  “Seventy percent, not bad,” he said.

  “The seventy was the love potion.”

  “Ouch,” he said.

  She laughed and he uncrossed his arms and rested his hands on the desk. “Honestly, I’ll happily take the thirty percent. Although, if you want to kiss again and see if I can move that number up a little, I’m game.”

  “We can’t,” she said.

  “Sure, we can,” he said. “Wait, is that your way of saying I need a mint? Because I have that covered.”

  “No, it isn’t…” she watched as he produced a package of mints from his jeans pocket and popped one into his mouth.

  He sucked on it and then crunched it down before grinning at her. “Minty fresh.”

  Fuck it. One kiss wouldn’t hurt.

  She stepped toward him and pressed her mouth against his, swallowing his startled sound. He recovered quickly, she had to give him that. His arms slid around her waist, he spread his feet, and he pulled her in between his thighs, angling his mouth over hers and licking at the seam of her mouth.

  She opened her lips and he skimmed his tongue along the edge of her teeth before taking the kiss deeper. She returned his kiss, cupping his face in her hands and battling for control. He teased her tongue with his before retreating. She followed, sliding her tongue between his lips and tasting the cool mint that coated his mouth.

  When his big hand cupped her ass and squeezed, she broke the kiss. He stared at her mouth, their breaths mingling. “That was nice.”

  She laughed. “Nice?”

  He grimaced. “Sorry. I’m not exactly thinking straight. All the blood in my brain has drained south.”

  She could feel his erection hard and heavy against her belly. She rubbed against it and he groaned, his hand tightening on her ass before he dipped his head and kissed her collarbone. “You wanna get out of here?”

  “I can’t,” she said.

  “Are you sure?” He tasted the soft skin of her neck.

  She let her head fall back, moaning when he kissed his way up her throat to her jawline. �
��I’m mostly sure.”

  “What kind of percentage are we talking?”

  She laughed and ran her hands across his shoulders. “You’re obsessed with numbers.”

  “I like to know what my chances of seeing you naked might be,” he said.

  She sighed. “I – we can’t. Look, it’s obvious that we’re attracted to each other, but I can’t sleep with you. You’re fragile and I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Could you knock it off with the fragile thing? I can take whatever you hand out, I promise,” he said.

  She skimmed her hands over the bulging muscles in his upper arms. “It’s not just that. I like… control and you’re a cop which means you like control too. We wouldn’t be compatible in bed.”

  “You don’t know what I want,” he said. “Maybe I’m perfectly fine with being handcuffed to the bed. How do you know if you don’t ask?”

  “Do you like being handcuffed to the bed?”

  Fuck, she was not envisioning a naked Bren handcuffed to her bed.

  Hell, yes, we are.

  He grinned at her before pressing a light and much too quick kiss against her lips. “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”

  Her brain on fire with images of Bren in her bed, she mashed her mouth onto his again. He let her kiss him hard, let her explore every inch of his mouth until they were both panting and breathless.

  He didn’t say a single word of dissent when she pulled him away from the desk

  He didn’t make one protest when she pushed him into the leather chair in the corner.

  He didn’t utter a solitary rebuttal when she straddled him.

  She rubbed her pussy against his cock and he finally made a noise. A low groan that dampened her pussy and hardened her nipples.

  She leaned over him and kissed him again, thrusting her tongue into his mouth as she rocked her pussy against his deliciously hard dick. His hands slid up under her dress, cupping her bare ass cheeks, his fingers playing with the silk strip between her cheeks.

  “I want you, human,” she said against his mouth.

  “I want you too.” He sucked on her bottom lip before sliding one hand out from under her dress. He cupped her breast, his thumb running across her beaded nipple. She moaned into his mouth. Her skin was heating up, a delicious fire of need and want rippling beneath her flesh.

  He pinched her nipple and she cried out into his mouth before kissing him hard. Their tongues dueled for control and when he relented, her desire for him increased until she couldn’t think straight.

  “Can we go back to your place?” She reached between them and palmed his cock.

  “Fuck,” he moaned before nodding. “Yeah, let’s definitely go back to my place.”

  She grinned at him and he kissed her again as the door to the office opened. They both froze, staring at Willow as she walked into the office with a large grey tabby in her arms.

  “Don’t give me that dirty look, Princess,” she said before kissing the cat’s head. “You’re being locked in the office because you keep trying to escape into the back yard every time the door opens. This exile is your own doing and I don’t… whoa…whoa.”

  Willow stared wide-eyed at Kaida and Bren, her gaze dropping to Bren’s hand that cupped Kaida’s breast. She backed up, still holding Princess in her arms. “I am so sorry to interrupt. You two keep doing what you’re… uh… doing and I’ll -”

  Kaida pushed away from Bren, backing away as Bren stood up from the chair. “Shit. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” Willow said before giving them a bright smile. “NBD, right? I’m sorry for interrupting. I’ll leave and -”

  “No!” Her face burning… fuck, what had she been thinking? She couldn’t sleep with a human… Kaida practically sprinted for the door. “I have to go, actually. Um, I’m sorry, can you let Bishop know I had to go?”

  Without looking at Bren, she slipped out of the office.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kaida stood at the edge of the training circle. She stretched her arms above her head before reaching behind her, grabbing her ankle and lifting her leg until her shoe-covered heel touched her ass. Her muscles groaned a little in protest, but she ignored the slight burning before doing the same with her left leg.

  Her dragon paced restlessly inside of her, pouting and whining and hissing at her until Kaida finally snapped, “Enough!”

  It retreated. Its feelings were hurt, and she hated that she was upsetting it, but its restlessness and discontent was driving her crazy.

  She stretched some more, warming up her muscles for the training that was about to happen. It was Sunday afternoon. Tyler had texted her this morning asking if he and Corey could come by for another training lesson. Her stomach in knots, her dragon itching to see Bren again, she had texted yes.

  Ten minutes before they were supposed to arrive, she’d asked Gram to meet the boys at Kaida’s cabin and send them her way, and then fled like a scale-covered chicken to the training circle. She was half-hoping that Bren would just drop the boys off. He had to, right?

  He had to be pissed at her after what she did yesterday at Bishop’s party. He hadn’t texted her once and that was a good thing, right?

  What guy liked a woman who ran hot and cold? It didn’t matter if they were human or shifter, a guy didn’t want a woman who couldn’t make up her damn mind about whether she wanted to fuck him or not.

  We want to fuck him, her dragon said with a sullen scowl. You’re just being difficult.

  “We can’t,” she muttered.

  Allowing her lust to get the best of her on Saturday had been a mistake. One she couldn’t make again. She would have to be firm and clear with Bren that while she wanted him, it wasn’t a good idea and they could only be friends.

  What happens the next time you see him with another female?

  Her stomach dipped and the yogurt she’d eaten for lunch suddenly felt like it was curdling. The way her dragon had reacted to seeing Bren with another female had been very bad, catastrophically bad in fact, but she had to hope that once she stopped seeing Bren, her dragon’s weird obsession with him would end.

  Nope. Not gonna happen.

  She ignored her dragon. It needed to get used to the idea of never seeing Bren again. He wouldn’t want anything to do with her after last night and that was a good thing. That was a very good thing because if she kept seeing him –

  “Hello, Kaida.”

  She spun around, her dragon purring with delight, and the yogurt going full on sour cream in her guts. She stared blankly at Bren as he joined her in the soft sand of the training circle.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He frowned. “Tyler said you were available for a training session this afternoon. Did that change?”

  “No, I … where are the boys?”

  He glanced behind him at the path that wound its way through the woods. “With your grandmother in your cabin. I asked them to give me some time to talk with you before they came to the training circle.”

  She swallowed hard, ignoring her urge to back away from the delicious smelling human. “Why?”

  He arched one eyebrow at her, his eyes filled with amusement and maybe the smallest amount of lust. “Why do you think?”

  “What happened yesterday at the party was a mistake. I’m sorry, but it can’t happen again. I think it’s best if we stay away from each other. All right?”

  “Because you’ll hurt me,” he said.

  “Yes.” She could hear the impatience in her voice. “I’m strong, Bren. Stronger than you think.”

  He cocked his head at her. “Bishop warned me to stay away from you yesterday. He said you were a powerful shifter.”

  She didn’t reply, and he studied her with a directness that made her nervous. “You know what I think?”

  She remained silent and he said, “I think you’re lying to me, Kaida.”

  “I told you I wanted you,” she said, “but I can’t -”

  “
Not that,” he said. “I think you’re lying to me about what you are.”

  Her body stiffened and her dragon squealed with excitement.

  Tell him! Tell him what we really are!

  “I’m a bear shifter,” she said.

  “Are you, though?” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “What kind?”

  “Grizzly.”

  “Like Bishop,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  He continued to study her, and she looked away. “I’m a grizzly shifter, Bren.”

  “Fine. You’re a grizzly shifter.” His tone of voice said he knew it was complete bullshit. “A grizzly shifter who is too strong for me and would hurt me if we had sex.”

  She flushed. “That’s right.”

  “You think I’m a fragile human,” he slipped out of his jacket and left it in the grass outside of the training circle, “so, let’s fight. If you win, I’ll stop asking you to explore whatever this is that’s happening between us. But if I win – you go on a date with me.”

  “You’re joking,” she said.

  “I never joke about dating. Dating is a serious business.”

  She sighed. “I’m not going to fight you, Bren.”

  “What’s the matter – afraid the puny little human will kick your – incredible, by the way – ass?”

  She couldn’t stop the grin from crossing her face. “Buddy, I would sweep the training circle floor with you.”

  He laughed before moving to the middle and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Is that right? Why don’t you show me what you’ve got then?”

  Her dragon purred as her need to win, her need to conquer, started to rear its head. “You really will accept that we can’t be anything but friends when I win?”

  “If you win,” he said, “and yes. I will accept that we can only ever be friends.”

  “Fine.” She walked toward him, letting her fangs drop and her eyes glow as she grinned at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you, puny human.”

  He gave her his own wide grin. “Ditto, pretty lady.”

  * * *

  “Admit it,” Panting lightly, Bren circled around Kaida, “I’m better at fighting than you thought.”