To some, it might seem boring or completely ordinary. But to him, it was exactly what he wanted. Because it meant Tasha wanted to spend time with him outside of the bedroom. Breakfast had been the first step, but each bit of encouragement only made his resolve stronger.
His dragon spoke up. Good. I may be a little better today after last night, but I’m still impatient. I want to claim our mate. So maybe do more than just sit here and stare at a screen.
We both need to do our work, dragon. Besides, would you want a mate that constantly demanded your attention, no matter what needed to be done? This is just more proof that Tasha is good for us.
His beast grunted. At least now you’re the one trying to convince me of her. Just don’t take too long to convince the person that actually matters—Tasha.
I will, after I finish my duties.
As his dragon curled up to go back to sleep—inner dragons had little patience for trivial human things like email or typing out reports—Brad lost track of time. However, the doorbell rang and he wondered who it could be.
He stood and motioned for Tasha to stay put. “I don’t think anything dangerous could just walk up to my front door but let me make sure.”
She nodded. “Although for the future, we need to get me a baseball bat to grab if needed. Just in case you need some help.”
The fact his human wanted to be by his side to take on an enemy caused approval to flood his body. “We will. Maybe even later today. However, for now, wait here.”
Since Brad didn’t have a fancy security system—something he’d fix soon enough—he went to the door and looked through the peephole. On the other side stood the tall, dark-haired form of Ashley Swift. “What is she doing here?” he muttered as he opened the door.
He didn’t get to ask a word before the ADDA employee smiled at him and said, “Nice to see you, too, Brad. Where’s Tasha?”
He frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Not technically. But I need to have a little private chat with Tasha about some of the finer details of her staying here.”
He studied the human, annoyed that she could be smiling so easily when she clearly had some secrets concerning his mate. “That sounds like something is wrong.”
Ashley raised an eyebrow. “You do remember that I’m mated to a dragon clan leader, right? So trying to be all scary and intimidating isn’t going to really work, Brad.”
He sighed and motioned toward the living room. “She’s in there.”
“Thank you,” Ashley said as she strode right past him.
Apparently, mating a dragon-shifter hadn’t changed Ashley’s methods at all—stubborn and bold, as always.
His dragon said, It’s good she’s acting the same as ever. If she wasn’t, then I’d actually be worried.
After shutting the door, he went to the living room. However, Ashley turned toward him and raised her brows. “I need to talk to her alone. I swear on my unborn child that I’m not going to kidnap her and take her away, Brad. Just let me try to help Tasha.”
Okay, that sounded less encouraging than before.
Tasha met his gaze. “It’s okay. You mentioned you had some things to do at the Protector building anyway. And I’m sure Ashley can promise to stay with me until you get back.”
Ashley nodded. “Of course. I convinced Wes to let me stay all day, so no problem.”
His dragon murmured, She’ll be fine. We need to check in with Jon anyway and see if anything has turned up about League activities.
Brad took one last long look at his mate. “Okay, I’ll go. But promise me you’ll call my cell phone if you need me.”
Tasha smiled. “I will, I promise.”
And even though he wanted to stay and protect his mate, Brad knew this was a sort of test. Tasha would sometimes need her own space, and this was his way to prove it to her.
But he couldn’t resist going over to brush her cheek and murmur, “I’ll see you tonight then.”
She placed her hand over his and gently squeezed it. “I look forward to it.”
Heat flashed in her eyes and Brad barely suppressed a groan. Resisting his mate was one of the toughest things he’d ever done.
However, after one last caress of her skin, he grunted and exited his own house and headed toward the Protector building. Time to find out if there were any more threats to his mate or not so he could plan for every contingency.
Tasha was both relieved and anxious at Ashley’s arrival. Even though a friendly face was welcome, the ADDA employee hadn’t mentioned she was coming to visit, which probably meant something was up.
So as soon as Brad left, Tasha asked, “What’s going on? Just tell me and don’t sugarcoat it.”
Ashley snorted. “Like I would with you. After all, if you piss off the bartender, who knows what will end up in your drink later. Maybe even a side of spit and coffee grounds?”
In normal times, Tasha would tease Ashley back and maybe banter for a few minutes. But right now, there were more important things to focus on, so she frowned and said, “If I still have a bar to run, after all of this.”
Ashley’s face became more serious, as evidenced by the firmer line of her lips. “That’s part of the reason I’m here, Tasha. No matter what I do, ADDA won’t budge on you being able to run your bar from StoneRiver—they’re still at a hard no. However, I think I have a compromise that may just work.”
Pushing aside the sadness at the first part of Ashley’s words—she would deal with the hard truth later—Tasha focused on the latter half. “Which is?”
“First let me stipulate that it requires approval from David Lee first. But provided he agrees to the plan and StoneRiver gives you a tiny piece of their land to build a new place—a bar at the edges of their territory which isn’t too far from the town of Truckee or even determined people coming from Reno—then ADDA would allow you to open it and serve both humans and dragon-shifters. I’m sure there could even be a landing area for dragons from other clans, too. It’ll be like a kind of experiment for them, to see if it indeed helps bring people together or not since it’d be on dragon-shifter land and ADDA will oversee everything and not local human politicians or governments.”
While Tasha would love for nothing more than some of her determined patrons to visit her new bar maybe once in a while or the possibilities for what she could do with a fully integrated bar, Tasha was too rational to jump for joy just yet. “Part of me is excited to try. But what’s to keep the same thing from happening with the League all over again? They could just go after my new place.”
Ashley nodded. “I’ve thought of that, trust me. But if you have both StoneRiver and PineRock on your side, the League may think twice about it. My opinion is that the League idiots grew bolder with their actions over the last few years simply because no new alliances have been formed between the four dragon clans in the greater Tahoe area. But if we get two clans to agree to an alliance, and maybe hint that we want more, it could make the League a bit more cautious. After all, pissing off two clans’ worth of dragon-shifters is a little more of a deterrent.”
With a dragon alliance to strengthen protections, it could—just maybe—all work out.
The lingering sadness of giving up her business in Reno faded, replaced with a small thrill of anticipation. If Tasha could create her own place—from the design upward—and deliberately plan how to run it so it appealed to both humans and dragon-shifters, she might be able to break new ground. At least locally, since Tasha had no idea how things worked in other parts of the country.
But no such place—bar or otherwise—had been created from the ground up in such a way. ADDA usually recruited existing businesses.
Which made the possibilities endless.
However, she was also practical and needed more information before letting her hopes get too high. “While it all sounds great, you said David has to agree to the plan first. What happens if he doesn’t?”
Ashley waved a hand in dismissal. “I suspect he wi
ll. Wes thinks David wants to form an alliance with PineRock, so this will make it all happen faster. And before you say I’m too optimistic, there are other possibilities. David has no mate, for example, and maybe wants one. If so, opening up a whole new clan for him to visit and see if he can find his true mate will probably be appealing.”
She raised her brows. “You’re obviously happy having a mate, but maybe David doesn’t want one or isn’t ready. I know I hadn’t thought of settling down until recently.”
Ashley shrugged. “Sometimes it’s the unknown that keeps you from wanting to put yourself out there. For you, it was fear of losing control of your business. For my own mate—and myself—it was fear of losing the ability to help dragon-shifters. But you know what? It actually worked out better in the end, and once we saw that, the reservations just melted away. I suspect David is the same. Dragons, in general, want families of their own. So if he’s holding back, there’s a reason I don’t know yet.”
Tasha snorted. “And yet, I have a feeling you’re going to make it your mission to find out if there is a certain reason for his singlehood.”
Ashley grinned. “Of course. I’m a liaison officer now and need to make sure my clan gets along with others.”
Tasha nodded. “Then talk with David as soon as you can and let me know his answer. It might make my decision about what to do with Brad a little easier.”
Ashley searched her eyes. “Is everything okay?”
She hesitated a second and then decided what the hell. If anyone was going to understand, it would be Ashley. “His dragon is getting impatient. And while Brad is doing everything he can to calm him, I think I have to make a decision about the frenzy pretty soon.”
The other woman tilted her head. “And if David says yes to the bar idea, how will it help?”
Relieved she could finally voice some of her thoughts, she answered, “Well, if Brad is supportive, then I’ll be more hopeful about a future and probably agree to the frenzy. If Brad tries to forbid me from trying—even though I’ll be smart and safe about everything, I’m not an idiot—then I can’t imagine a happy future with him. While I do want a family someday, I want more than just being a mom. Otherwise, I’ll be miserable.”
Ashley took her hand and squeezed. “Well, then we’d better go talk with David ASAP, huh, and get this all figured out?”
“What about Brad? I’m supposed to stay here. And if there wasn’t a possible threat to my life, I wouldn’t just say yes to being confined. But there is a small chance danger could find me, and I trust his judgment when it comes to my safety.”
Ashley shrugged. “I said I wouldn’t kidnap you and that I’d stay with you, so I’ll be keeping my promise. Besides, we’ll be visiting the clan leader, which is one of the safest spots on StoneRiver. And if some League asshole did manage to sneak onto the clan, I have this.” The other woman held up what looked like a type of Taser. Ashley continued, “It’s for protection, especially since I’m still in the early stages of my self-defense training. All things you’ll have to do, too, I’m sure. Maybe we can even start a weekly human meet up. That way we can socialize and appease the dragon halves of our mates at the same time since we’ll be doing more than talking—we’ll be learning how to defend ourselves.”
The thought of being able to talk with other humans mated to dragon-shifters on a regular basis lifted Tasha’s doubts a little more about staying on StoneRiver. “I’d love that.” Eyeing the Taser, she decided it was good enough for a short walk. So Tasha stood. “Then let’s go talk with David. I don’t like waiting around for the future, and I can’t start planning anything until we have an answer.”
Ashley laughed. “I like you more and more, Tasha. I’ve talked to a lot of humans over the years about dragon-shifters—I helped run the yearly lottery for a while—and most have some fairy-tale type view. But the world needs more practical people. After all, muscles and great sex will only get you so far in life.”
And so the pair of them left the cottage and headed for David’s office. Tasha didn’t complain as she had to almost jog to keep up with the ADDA employee. Her future was so close to changing in a good way, and Tasha was eager to get it all started.
Chapter Ten
Brad had heard about Tasha and Ashley visiting David, but his boss had prevented him from running over and barging into the meeting. Jon had said it was something between David and Tasha, and so Brad had been forced to focus on other things until the end of his workday.
But his day was over, and as he headed home, where he had been assured Tasha had safely returned, it took everything he had not to run toward his house.
Why had she needed to talk with David? Had she made a decision about the frenzy? Or had it been to discuss her business? Something completely unrelated?
Even though he hadn’t been mated very long to Tasha, the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to know about her.
His dragon spoke up. Stop wondering and walk faster. Why you won’t run, I have no idea.
I’m trying to look casual.
His beast snorted. Such a human thing to do.
Brad did pick up his pace a little and, within minutes, was through his front door and calling Tasha’s name.
Her reply came from the kitchen, so he strode inside. Tasha sat with Ashley at the counter overhang, the pair of them sipping tea and eating cookies.
Maybe he should be nonchalant, but fuck that. Brad asked, “What did you need to talk to David about?”
Ashley clicked her tongue. “So demanding.”
He growled, but Tasha answered before he could say anything. “Be nice to Ashley. She had a proposal and we went to see David about it. And before you growl again, calm down and come closer so we don’t have to shout across the kitchen.”
As soon as he stood across from the pair, Tasha continued without being prodded. “If I continue to live here, ADDA won’t allow me to run my bar in Reno.”
A small sense of dread filled his stomach, but Brad managed to keep the feeling hidden deep inside. “So that’s what you went to talk to David about?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “In a way. Ashley had a suggestion, one where if David allowed me to build on a small piece of land, I could make a place for humans and dragon-shifters at the edges of StoneRiver’s lands. And before you ask, he agreed to it. There are some finer details to work out with regards to the alliance with PineRock, but as soon as I can sell my place in Reno, I can start working on my project here.”
He blurted, “So you’re going to stay?”
Tasha smiled, the sight making him relax a little. “That depends. Are you going to say I can’t run a bar, even knowing there could be trouble?”
He stared at his mate, taking in her inquisitive brown eyes and the slight tension in her muscles.
Even if he weren’t trained to read body language, Brad knew his answer would determine everything.
His beast murmured, Then don’t be a dick about it.
He replied to Tasha carefully, needing to be honest without scaring her away. “I can’t say that I won’t ever worry. And I plan to still be a part-time security guard, like before. However, I trust you to be safe about what you do and to listen to what the Protectors and ADDA have to say about safety and precautions. So of course I’m not going to stop you.”
She full-on grinned. “I like that answer.” But then her brows came together a fraction, and she added, “But you better not change your mind down the road, Brad. Because if we have the frenzy and I’m pregnant, I won’t be restricted to the house unless a doctor tells me it’s necessary. I’ll want to keep working on everything. Can you handle that?”
His dragon half didn’t want a pregnant mate anywhere near trouble, even if it was only a small possibility.
And yet, Brad knew he was strong enough to rationalize with his beast and convince him.
His dragon sighed. I’m not that overprotective.
You say that now, but you’ll get worse once she carrie
s our child.
Maybe. But I wouldn’t do anything to drive her away. That much I can promise.
Tasha’s voice prevented him from replying. “So? What does Mr. Dragon have to say about it all?”
Not caring that Ashley was there, he moved to the other side of the counter to Tasha’s free side and gently cupped her cheek. “He’s willing to work on it. But I promise you that I’ll make sure he accepts it.”
She laid a hand on his chest, and he instantly placed his free hand over hers, not wanting her to move away. He asked, “So? What does this all mean for us?”
Tasha smiled. “I think it means we need to get everything in order so you can finally kiss me on the lips, Mr. Harper.”
Relief mixed with anticipation coursed through his body. “So you’ll be my mate in all ways then?”
“Yes, as long as you become mine, too. This is an equal standing situation. So you’d better let your dragon know that now.”
Ashely snorted and it took everything Brad had not to bark for her leave. The other human said, “Good for you, Tasha. And I think this is my cue to leave. Call me later, okay?”
His mate never moved her gaze from his. “I will.”
Ashley left quickly, leaving them alone. Even though he merely cupped Tasha’s cheek as she had her hand on his chest, his entire body was on fire for her.
His true mate would truly be his in all ways soon enough.
She murmured, “So what do we need to do before you can kiss me? Now that I’ve made the decision, I’m sort of impatient to get started.”
Her lips were so close, mere inches away, and it took everything he had not to close the distance to taste her sweet mouth. “I have to let David and Jon know. Then it’s just a few small things—like setting up regular food delivery during the frenzy—and then it will be up to you as to when it finally starts.”
She stood and leaned against his body, her hand lightly stroking his chest. “Then start setting it up now. Once I make a decision, I don’t like to wait. And somehow, I think your dragon is on board with that approach.”
The Dragon's Charge (Tahoe Dragon Mates Book 4) Page 8