“I know.”
Taylor held Jackie’s hand with her left while holding Megan in her right. Police officers nodded their respects as she and her family walked among them to the curb, and the waiting car. The sedan was crowded, but Jackie sat in the middle between the safety seats and the still sleeping girls.
Only when they had driven clear of the emergency vehicles and the watching neighbors did Jackie speak.
“What was it you meant by burning Craig, Kane?”
Jackie’s voice sounded wild and high, full of fear. Taylor exchanged a rueful glance with Kane, then told her mother, “Kane isn’t truly human, Mom. He’s a dragon.”
“A dragon.”
Kane turned to look over the seat. “I’m a dragon, and Craig didn’t escape. The cops will search and look forever, but they won’t find a trace of him. They may see a black spot in the field, but there’s nothing left of Craig. At all.”
Jackie stayed silent so long, Taylor started to worry. “Mom?”
“I’m glad you got that son of a bitch.”
Laughing, Taylor held the steering wheel with her left hand and took Kane’s with her right. “So glad you approve of him, Mom. We’re all safe now, and I’m in love with a dragon.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jude
Holding Natalie’s hand, Jude strode across the bustling restaurant, pausing to permit a waiter laden with large platters to pass. They wended their way among the tables, the talking diners busily eating their burritos or enchiladas. Jude breathed in the spicy scents, his excitement at seeing his friends again giving a light bounce to his feet as he walked.
“I can’t wait until they meet you,” he said, grinning at Natalie. “They will love you to pieces.”
“Are you sure we came to the right place?” she asked. “I don’t think this restaurant has a private conference room.”
Spotting the small marquee on a stand toward the back of the Mexican restaurant, Jude gestured toward it. “We’re in the right place.”
“‘Welcome, One Year Reunion,’” Natalie read. “They aren’t very specific, are they?”
Jude chuckled as he led her up the narrow stairs the marquee pointed toward. “We can’t exactly reserve the place under the ‘Exiled Dragon Friends Reunion.’”
The second floor broadened out at the top of the stairs; laughter, voices, and the scents of Mexican food wafted from the opened double doors at one end. Jude hadn’t learned much about what his friends had been doing or had endured during their first year in exile. He had just received the letter stating where and when the reunion was to take place.
Jude wasn’t even sure who had sent it.
“Hey, hey, Jude,” yelled a familiar voice as Jude and Natalie entered through the opened double doors.
His grin bloomed even before he turned his head to see the massive form of Kane bearing down on him like a freight train. Jude released Natalie’s hand a fraction of a second before Kane seized him in a hug that squeezed the breath from him. Laughing as Kane smacked a noisy kiss to his cheek, Jude thumped Kane’s back with his fists.
“Damn, it’s good to see you, brother,” Jude told him, grinning, holding Kane at arm's length, looking up into Kane’s familiar face. Kane had always been the biggest of the five yet was also the most soft-spoken.
“Whoa, what’s this?” Kane traced the deep scars on Jude’s face with his finger. “These are new.”
“Yeah, I reckon I have some stories to tell. Kane, this is my lady, Natalie Hardstone.”
Natalie, her red hair in its usual tidy braid, smiled and lifted her hand to shake his. Kane had other ideas. Seizing her around her narrow waist, he picked her up and planted a kiss to her cheek. “Natalie, it’s a real pleasure.”
Had it been any male dragon outside his circle of friends who manhandled his woman like that, Jude would make certain he quickly learned not to do it again.
As he set Natalie down, Kane turned and extended his arm to a stunningly beautiful woman. “Meet my lady.”
Like Natalie, she owned striking green eyes, but her reddish hair had more gold to it. She slipped her arm around Kane’s broad waist, smiling.
“Hi, I’m Taylor,” she said, shaking Natalie’s hand. “I hope Kane didn’t offend you with his extravagant affections.”
“I’m surprised Jude didn’t get pissed,” Natalie said with a chuckle and a sly glance at Jude. “Dragons are so possessive.”
Jude slung his arm over her shoulders. “And don’t you forget it. Taylor, I’m Jude.”
He gave her a brotherly hug and a gentlemanly kiss to her cheek. “Kane, do we have great taste in the ladies, or what?”
“Somehow, I suspect we are not the only ones, my brother.”
Jude gazed at Neil and Ronan, their faces split with wide grins, as they walked toward him with gorgeous ladies at their sides. We all found love here in the south, all of us, with the exception of maybe Drake. He laughed, throwing his arms around each of them in turn.
“You lizards have done well for yourselves,” Jude told them.
Jordan, Neil’s woman, had deep, smiling brown eyes that almost seemed to look through him while the blonde bombshell, Daryl, hugged him nearly as hard as Ronan did. Like Kane, Neil touched the scars on his cheek.
“I hope the guy who did that to you is no longer, shall we say, with us.”
“He isn’t.”
Holding Natalie’s hand again, Jude smiled at her. “A bit of trouble Natalie was going through when we met. Where’s Drake?”
“Right behind you, bonehead.”
Jude spun, already laughing, to greet the dark and brooding Drake. He and the non-smiling, non-humorous, silent Drake had always seemed closer to one another than the other three. Neil’s ready good humor matched Drake’s gloom in an odd way, like opposites that attracted. He, too, held the hand of a beautiful blonde, and he was smiling.
“Brother!” Jude exclaimed, his arms around Drake’s broad shoulders. “Damn, dragon, you look happy. I swear it’s the first time in your life.”
Drake chuckled, glancing at the woman beside him. “I am. This is Emily, and she’s changed me for the better.”
Jude hugged the smiling woman. “I am so happy you made him happy.”
“Well, it does go both ways,” Emily answered, grinning. “Drake came into my life at just the right time.”
“Yeah,” Drake added. “She saved my ass. This girl can wield a Glock like nobody’s business.”
Jude laughed. “You never could stay out of trouble.”
Standing aside to let Kane, Neil, and Ronan greet him, embracing him with rude comments, Jude brushed his fingers down Natalie’s hair while wondering at the fates that had brought them all the love of a female. How did that happen? Not to just one or two, but to all of us?
“I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
“What isn’t a coincidence?” Natalie asked.
“That we all found true love down here.”
A pair of waiters entered the conference room. One circled among them taking drink orders while the other set bowls of chips and salsa on the table. The long mahogany table had already been set for ten people; small lamps with green shades gave off a mellow glow. From what the letter had said, they had the room until ten that evening.
Jude escorted Natalie to the table, hungry. Drake and Emily followed while Kane, Neil, and Ronan laughed over something Daryl had told them. “Where’d you end up, bro?” Jude asked, sitting down.
“Outside Chicago,” he answered, lifting Emily’s hand to kiss it. “You?”
“A small town in Maine,” Jude replied, gazing into Natalie’s eyes. “Natalie owns a guest lodge called the Buck’s Head, and she sort of gave me a job.”
Natalie laughed. “Not that either of us works anymore.” She leaned toward Drake and Emily. “We found several million dollars my great grandfather accrued illegally. The feds let us keep it.”
“Damn.” Drake stared. “Now I know who to hit up
for a loan.”
Kane and his lady, Taylor, drifted to the table to also sit. “Taylor has two beautiful twin girls,” he said, his bulk overflowing the chair. “She says I’m their daddy.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Natalie gushed. “I want kids so bad.”
“Me, too,” Daryl added, all but dragging Ronan to the table. “I’m also starved. It was a long flight from Oregon.”
Taylor eyed her in surprise. “Where in Oregon? Kane and I live in Portland.”
“No way! I met Ronan in New York City,” Daryl told her eagerly. “I was sort of running from my drug dealer after stealing a load of his cash when Ronan flew in to sweep me off my feet.” She made goo-goo eyes at him, making Ronan blush, then went on. “But we got out of there and went to Medford.”
Neil and Jordan sat at the table also. “Jordan hit me with her truck,” Neil said with a smirk. “Dragged me home with her; she was that lonely.”
Jordan smacked his arm. “You were dumb enough to stumble into my truck in the middle of the night, you toad. Scared me to death. And I wasn’t lonely. You were desperate.”
The waiters dispersed menus as Jude listened to the good-natured banter, observing the love these women had for his friends. Naturally, no one spoke the word “dragon” while the waiters were present, not even the ladies. They were forbidden to let humankind know of what they truly were, yet every last one of them had broken that commandment.
Wine and beer flowed freely, and the waiters left to bring them their meals. The friendship they had shared while within the clan’s bounds had not changed a bit, and Jude could not help but notice the women had bonded incredibly fast. Natalie talked easily with Emily and Taylor about the man who had given Jude his scars while Jordan and Daryl spoke without hesitation regarding Daryl’s former drug addiction.
Their food soon arrived, and even as they ate, they spoke of their meetings with their mates, and the need to protect them from the males in their lives. Jude listened in awe as, one by one, Kane, Ronan, Drake, and Neil each told their stories of defending their ladies even as they fell in love with them.
“That’s exactly what happened with Natalie and me,” Jude said. “I stayed at her lodge when Peterson tried to take it from her. He planned to kill her.”
Kane gazed around the table; his pale blue eyes perplexed. “Is it just me, or have we all been set up? How can we all have similar stories to tell, and have fallen in love, all within a year’s time?”
The chatter slowly subsided.
“I hired Neil to help protect me from my ex,” Jordan said without any hesitation. “He did. Knox is dead, and I have the best dragon to love.”
“I don’t know about that,” Daryl protested. “Ronan saved me from both addiction and a gang banger. I think he’s the best dragon around.”
Taylor laughed. “I daresay we all can claim our dragons are the best of the best. But Kane is right. Doesn’t it seem odd that we all fell in love with our protectors?”
“And that we all stepped up to protect these females before we loved them,” Kane added. “I want to say it’s a coincidence, but it seems a little weird.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Jude commented. “Whether it’s the work of fate, or something else. Kane is right. I am beginning to feel set up.”
“Come on,” Natalie protested. “All you guys landed in different parts of the States, met different women, all who were in trouble. Half the women in the world are in some sort of trouble.”
“It does seem odd,” Taylor agreed. “But it all has to be a coincidence. You weren’t exactly pointed at us, and ordered, ‘Save that damsel in distress.’”
“Even if we were,” Ronan replied, “we didn’t have to fall in love with the ladies we rescued. We could have accepted your thanks and moved on. But we didn’t. Now we are all mated for life, right?”
“I know I am,” Drake replied with a smile toward Emily.
“Dude,” Jude snapped. “Quit smiling so much. You don’t look like you when you smile.”
Drake merely shrugged. “Can’t help it. Maybe I’ve just not been this happy before.”
The waiters cleared away the empty plates, delivered more booze, and waved away Jude’s attempt to pay. “It’s all been taken care of, sir. We’re good.”
Jude stared around. “Which of you guys paid for this?”
Kane, Ronan, and Neil glanced at one another in confusion, shrugging. Drake shook his head. “I didn’t.”
“Then who the hell did?” Jude demanded. “And who sent that letter asking us to meet here in Denver at this restaurant?”
“I suppose you might say we had a hand in it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Neil
Swiveling his head around at the new voice that came from the direction of the doors, Neil gaped in shock. “Holy shit,” he muttered.
Jordan put her hand on his arm, staring at the three men who stood in the doorway. “Who are those guys?”
No one answered her. Neil didn’t take his eyes off the newcomers and didn’t hear a sound from any of his friends. The women stirred, whispering questions to one another, but that ended when the three strolled inside the conference room and closed the double doors behind them.
“Seeing us must come as a shock to you.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Drake snarled, rising from his chair. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“You have become rather disrespectful down here in the south, young Drake,” said the foremost with a small smile. “Since when do you speak to an elder in such a fashion?”
“Since you exiled us, Matthias,” Drake snapped. “We no longer owe you our allegiance or respect.”
“Oh, come now. Don’t tell me you five haven’t prospered down here among the humans.”
“That may be so,” Neil stated, his own anger rapidly gaining the upper hand, “but that doesn’t halt our resentment.”
“Neil?” Jordan asked, her voice a loud whisper. “Who are these guys?”
Neil snorted. “The one with the silver hair and the smug expression is Elder Matthias, the leader of our clan. The one next to him is Elder Stavros. The third guy, I have no idea.”
“He is General Nathaniel P. Smithfield, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a trusted advisor to the President of the United States of America.” Matthias’s brow rose. “If you watched the news broadcasts, you should have recognized him immediately.”
“Why?” Ronan demanded. “What do you want with us? And how did you find us?”
“If you will permit us to join you,” Matthias went on, “we will explain everything to your satisfaction.”
Neil eyed Jude sidelong, then glanced at Kane. “This is getting weirder by the moment,” he said, his tone low. “I say we let them talk.”
“And I say they can go fuck themselves,” Drake growled. “They exiled us for no damn good reason.”
“I assure you, Drake,” Matthias replied genially, “the reasons were very good, indeed. May we sit?”
Kane gestured toward the unused chairs. “Be our guest. Or are we your guests?”
“You are quite astute, Kane,” Stavros said as he, Matthias, and the general sat down. “We have been keeping tabs on you this past year. Yes, Jude, we sent the letter asking you here under the guise of your reunion. We knew about it, but directed you here, to Denver, rather than one of your home cities. But General Smithfield picked up the tab.”
“Why?” Ronan asked, his brows lowered. “You exiled us because we enjoyed flying too much. Isn’t that right?”
“We exiled you to test your mettle,” Matthias answered. “You were the best young dragons to come along in a generation. We, Stavros and I, needed you toughened up. Blooded as it were. For you, and your skills, are needed now.”
“Blooded?” Neil demanded. “Toughened up? Did you somehow arrange for us to be needed by the women we met? Each of them in dire straits, and each of us killing the humans that preyed on them?”
<
br /> Matthias laughed. “While I wish we could say yes, Neil, I fear that is almost impossible. However, each of you passed the test. You stepped up and did what had to be done.”
“I think it best if you come right out and say what you have come to say,” Kane rumbled, flexing his huge arms. “I’m a patient dragon, but right now, that patience is very thin.”
Smithfield spoke for the first time. “I am not a dragon, gentlemen,” he said, his dark eyes sweeping the table with a keen intelligence, “but I am well acquainted with your kind. I’ve known about you for many years. If you are angry regarding your exile, then blame me.”
“What are you talking about?” Drake’s hot eyes glared at the man.
“In order to answer that question, I need to offer some background.” General Smithfield folded his hand atop the table. “Our intelligence gathering has revealed some very distressing information. More than a year ago, the CIA learned that Russia and North Korea made an unholy alliance.”
Kane snorted. “They have always been in love with one another.”
“Not like this. Our spies in the Kremlin and Pyongyang have learned that they, together, are massing a nuclear attack on America and Europe. Our satellites have also confirmed the troop movements over the last year. They are sparing China for obvious reasons. Now, we need to stop them.”
“What are we to do?” Ronan asked. “We are as likely to be killed by a nuclear bomb as anyone.”
“We need you lads to stop them in their tracks.”
Neil stared at Matthias, knowing that every eye from around the table was on him as well. “Just how do we do that?”
“General Smithfield came to us just over a year ago,” Stavros explained quietly. “He needed a team of dragons with exceptional courage and flying ability to be willing to defend humans, as well as the world, from complete and utter destruction. But dragons, for the most part, want nothing to do with humans or their troubles.”
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