Ryker narrowed his eyes at Kennedy. He didn’t like the idea of anyone else in his house. This was his space, even if he felt like a trapped beast. Adding another body to the mix would only end in disaster. Especially if it was a human woman.
He’d seen the magazine article. It’d gotten him too much attention on the road, before he left the band crew to come back to Grove. Surely, half the town had read the same article. Any maid that Kennedy sent in would be looking for more than dust.
“There’s no way in hell Jasper will approve it,” Ryker said with conviction.
Kennedy laughed in his face.
“My mate gets whatever she wants,” Wyatt mumbled. “She has a better relationship with Jasper than half his court.”
Ryker’s brows furrowed. He’d been avoiding his family since he returned, only ever seeing them in the sky or when they came to break down his door. To think that this small human woman was friends with the king of the mountain was almost laughable. Ryker would have laughed if she hadn’t done so first.
The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he sensed defeat on the horizon. “Whatever. Just get out of my house.”
Kennedy shrugged and spun on her heel.
“Wait. Leave the cake.”
He thought, for a moment, that he’d offended her, and she would hold the cake hostage, but she eventually set it down on an overturned box. Through the plastic wrap, he could see layers of white buttercream and toasted coconut. His mouth watered.
Chapter Two
Mina pulled up to the great glass-faced cabin nestled into the side of the mountain and checked the address in her GPS again. After tapping the screen with her finger a few times to no avail, she figured knocking on the door would set her in the right direction.
After getting out of her car, she took in the view around her. The driveway ended in a soft curve near a steep cliff. It showcased the mountains in all their glory. The forest snaked up the sides of the mountain like evergreen fingers, impossibly thin rivers running between them like threads. Mina wished she was a painter so she could capture the sight, but she wasn’t any good at being creative.
A cold winter wind blew through, whistling in the valley and making her clutch her jacket tighter. Finally, she tore her gaze away from the view and turned back to the house, the mountains reflected in the massive windows.
Her skin hummed when she stepped closer. By the time she reached the door, she could hear the muted music blasting from the inside. It had to be deafening. She hesitated, hand hovering over the door. The owner wouldn’t be able to hear her knock through the music.
But before she could turn around, the door flung open. A bulky man stood in the doorway, staring at her with metallic eyes. Her heart leapt into her throat and her voice vanished altogether. She wanted to shrink down to the size of a mouse to escape his intense glare.
His nose flared. She noticed the steel bar in his eyebrow and the narrow black mohawk that ran down the center of his head. There was a streak of silver in it, right in the front, that matched his pale eyes. When his lips parted, she caught a glimpse of sharp, wolfish teeth. Everything about him seemed sharp, like just touching him would slice her hand open.
A metallic dragon, Mina realized.
Mina held up her hands in apology, wanting to tell him that she never meant to stumble onto his territory. She knew she didn’t deserve to be in his presence. She was low in the clan, a chromatic dragon that meant nothing to the metallic dragons of the king’s court.
She was suddenly desperate to run back to her car and pretend this never happened. His eyes dropped to her chest, and her face flamed. But it wasn’t her breasts he was looking at, she realized. It was the logo embroidered on her shirt. His brows fell into a flat, unamused line. Mina would have apologized and asked for him to point her in the right direction, but her lips wouldn’t even move.
“So, Kennedy succeeded. I guess I should invite you inside.” His tone was filled with defeat, almost obscured by the music blaring behind him.
Mina couldn’t believe it. The address was correct. She was in the right place.
She was going to clean the home of a metallic dragon. She hesitated, pressing her eyes closed so she could find some kind of composure. It never came. Her head was a mess of white noise and her heart beat furiously inside her chest. It wasn’t until her beast came forward and slid her foot forward that Mina moved at all.
The beast kept her moving, following the steel dragon inside. The music pressed against her ears, but it was a welcome relief from the static in her head. She looked around and realized why someone from Aurum had called for a regular cleaning service.
All around her was chaos, from boxes half unpacked to records stacked haphazardly on shelves. Mina couldn’t imagine anyone living in this, save for rats. Just the thought of the tiny beasts made her shuffle her feet and kick at the newspapers littering the floor.
Ahead, the steel dragon waved his hand over his shoulder. If he said anything, Mina couldn’t hear it. Which was fine by her. She sucked in a breath and retreated to get her things. She would do her best to keep her head down, and when she returned, she would ask for someone else to be put on the job. Perhaps a human maid.
All Mina knew was that she didn’t belong here. She carefully avoided eye contact with the steel dragon, fearing his wrath. Most of the metallic dragons had left Grove, but it seemed they were returning one by one.
Mina shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She filled plastic bags with forgotten newspapers and plastic wrap. More than a few times, she gave herself paper cuts as she broke down the cardboard boxes. Each time, she sucked in a sharp breath and waited for the wound to close. By the time she looked up, the steel dragon man would be leaving the room, as if her gasp had summoned him and he’d realized she was fine.
She doubted he cared all that much about her. Mina was as low as she could get in the hierarchy. She had no power among her fellow dragons, making her nothing more than a servant. The steel dragon man, on the other hand, was about as high as a dragon could get. He shared blood with the king of the mountain.
Never in her life did she ever think she’d be in the same room as a metallic dragon. So, when he crept away again, she followed. Mina just wanted to see where he was going. She wanted to know what it was like being a metallic dragon. It was similar to reading tabloids while she waited to be run up at the grocery store, a desire to see something she would never be able to experience.
The steel dragon prowled through the house. His shoulders were wide. Broad enough to shield her from the world, she thought.
Mina scowled at herself. She shouldn’t be thinking about the steel dragon like that. If she had a mate waiting for her, he certainly wouldn’t be a metallic dragon. She didn’t deserve anything like that. It just wasn’t her place in life.
The steel dragon passed through the house and out the back door, but not before he picked up an ornate electric guitar. She thought he might play it, but as she crept behind him, she slowly realized he had no such thing in mind. The lawn around him was littered with pieces of metal, plastic, and wood. It was a veritable battlefield, and as she watched, he lifted the electric guitar over his head.
It came down in a flashing arc, catching the setting sun behind them. Bits and pieces sprayed in every direction. She thought she could hear the crunch of metal and wood over the mind-numbing music inside the house.
Oh, Mina thought.
The steel dragon’s lips twisted in a ferocious scowl, his brow grooved with anger. He rolled his shoulders as he walked, dragging the busted guitar behind him. Then, without warning, he spun around and slammed the guitar into the ground once more.
His lips split and a roar filled the air. She could most definitely hear that over the music. It shook through her entire body, waking the mild beast inside her. Mina thought the creature would rear back in fear, a true scaredy-cat, but it only watched the steel dragon with pity. And another emotio
n Mina couldn’t describe.
Was it…compassion?
She didn’t have long to figure it out because his head snapped up and their eyes locked. Fear shot through her like an electrical zap. She let out a small yelp and raced back inside. There was no pretending she’d been working all along. He’d seen her. Mina had invaded his privacy.
The dragon man was surely going to fire her. Then, her manager would want to have a word with her. Mina couldn’t afford to lose her job. She didn’t even know why she’d risked it in the first place.
She began stuffing anything she could reach into plastic garbage bags, furiously trying to make up for her transgression with the hopes that he would see that she was worth it. All the while, Mina berated herself. She’d been foolish. She knew better. Dragons like her didn’t interfere with the affairs of the metallic dragons. She was not welcome in his life.
She was nothing more than a speck of dust to him. Inconsequential.
***
Ryker felt like an ass. He hadn’t meant for the little maid to see his frustrations. The moment she’d arrived on his doorstep, he’d smelled her. His beast dragged him toward her, panting and heaving. When he opened the door and saw her there, a waif of a dragon woman with black hair hanging over her face like a veil, it was like he’d been hit by a truck.
Just the sight of her knocked the sense out of him. When she followed him inside, his beast purred with satisfaction. He’d wanted to lock the door behind her. Home, the beast told him. She was home.
Ryker didn’t understand any of it. He didn’t know why his beast had taken so quickly to the woman. It happened so fast his head was left spinning even as she began picking up his mess. His beloved chaos was being tamed and he didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop, to leave it alone.
Worse even, every time she made even the smallest sound, his beast yanked him toward her. A drop of panic would send him running only to find her patiently waiting for a paper cut to heal. His heart would stop thumping and the sudden drop in blood pressure would make his head spin.
Ryker had never had a more confusing day in his life. He couldn’t deal with it any longer, the built-up tension in his shoulders and hands needing somewhere to go. So, he’d grabbed another useless guitar and took it outside. He found the flying shrapnel and the shuddering impact quieted his beast.
But the look of horror on the woman’s face shattered the illusion of peace. She gasped and dashed inside. Regret coiled in his stomach. He hadn’t meant for her to see that side of him. Now, she would tip-toe around him in fear. He couldn’t bear the idea of it.
Ryker followed her inside, but she was already back to work. The music still filled the house. The screaming lyrics and electric guitar riffs filled any space they might have had for conversation. Besides, he didn’t even know how to apologize. He wasn’t sure he’d ever tried before in his life.
He’d been unapologetic about everything, from the way he liked to dress, to his taste in music, to his desire to escape the cold silence of these mountains. Ryker never once asked for permission, and he certainly didn’t ask for forgiveness. Yet, he craved it from this small woman. The scent of fear filled the air, sour and sharp.
His stomach dropped. He didn’t know what to say. If he approached her and she startled, he would feel even worse. The only thing he could think of doing was retreating. He climbed the stairs and locked himself in his room, even though the beast clawed at him from the inside, demanding he go back to her.
For once, the music did nothing to silence the creature, so he flicked it off. The soft sound of scuffling downstairs helped mitigate the silence. He drew his phone out of his pocket and made a quick call to the maid company.
Chapter Three
Mina was exhausted. Her beast lay down to nap, no longer making her sniff the air for the scent of the metallic dragon. Her shoulders eased away from her ears and she could breathe easy, even if her feet were dragging on the ground. She hauled the last garbage bag out to the bin and fought to fit it alongside the others.
“Let me help with that,” a male voice said. The steel dragon stepped alongside her and drove his fist into the stack of garbage bags. They crunched and compressed beneath his hand.
Mina wanted to say something, to apologize for her intrusion, but her voice was gone again. Her lips flapped, and nothing came out.
She thought he would turn away and retreat, but he didn’t. The steel dragon lingered near her. He was impossibly warm despite the winter chill. She found herself leaning into him, his spicy scent heating her in other ways. Suddenly, Mina caught herself and leapt away from him.
He looked as though he might say something, but closed his mouth, too. The dragon man still looked angry, but Mina was starting to wonder if that was just how he looked. Each expression was slightly different than the last. Angry with a dash of confusion. Angry with a bit of turmoil. Angry and a touch of embarrassment.
She smiled, despite herself.
“You should go home for the day, Mina. You’ve done a lot of work.”
Surprise lit through her. Her brows rose in shock. “You-you know my name?”
He paused in the doorway. “I made a call to the maid company earlier.”
Oh, she thought. He’d let her finish her day, but she was definitely out of a job. Her disappointment weighed down her shoulders and dragged her chin toward the ground.
“I see,” she said.
The steel dragon turned toward her, mouth open. She didn’t wait for him to explain why. She understood. She pushed past him and grabbed her keys off the table near the front door. His scent chased after her. It wrapped around her and tried to pull her back into the house. Even her beast roused to take in the intoxicating smell.
***
Her car shuddered to a stop in the driveway. She didn’t want to go inside. There were lights on, meaning her uncle was most likely home. Sure enough, she saw a familiar shadow pass from one window to the next. Though he was blood, he was not the nicest person she knew.
Mina sucked in a deep breath and prepared herself. Inside, the house smelled like burnt pizza, which meant she hadn’t prepared anything for dinner before she left that morning. Mina cursed under her breath.
“I know you’re busy with work, but family comes first,” her uncle snarled from the kitchen.
She pressed her lips together, eyeing the nearby staircase and wishing she could dash up it to disappear into her room. He would hunt her down, though. She had to apologize first or else she would find no peace.
Mina approached the kitchen. Her uncle slouched in a chair at the table. The burnt pizza sat in front of him, untouched. Her stomach dropped and she realized he would ask her to make dinner now. Her arms ached from cleaning all day, fingertips throbbing from the number of papercuts she’d healed.
“Are you going to let me starve, Mina?”
Tears prickled the back of her eyelids. All she wanted was to go upstairs, to mourn the gig she’d lost and think of ways to keep her job. Instead, she moved toward the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs.
It was too late in the day for breakfast, but it was the easiest thing she could think of. Silently, she set about preparing a pair of fried eggs. She turned on the waffle iron and slapped two hash brown patties into it. While the hash browns made the iron greasy, it was also the quickest way to cook them that she could think of.
Twenty minutes later, she slid the meal onto a plate and set it in front of her uncle. Only then did she notice the big box sitting by the kitchen door. Her uncle snorted.
“That came for you,” he grunted. “Don’t tell me you’re wasting your money on frivolous shopping.”
“I-I-I didn’t order anything,” Mina confessed.
The box indeed had her name on it. The thing came up to her hip, not that she was incredibly tall or anything.
“Do you have a secret admirer that I don’t know about?” There was a hint of warning in her uncle’s voice.
“No, I’m not seeing anyone,” she assured him. I can’t escape you, she wanted to add.
Her stomach growled, but she didn’t have the energy left to make anything for herself, so she snatched a bag of popcorn from the cupboard on her way out of the room. She paused by the box, not daring to look back at her uncle. There was no doubt she’d hate the look on his face. She was surprised he hadn’t opened it and kept whatever it was for himself.
It was his right. Her uncle was higher in rank than her. It meant that no matter what she wanted for herself, he was allowed to dictate her life for her. From what car she was allowed to buy, to what jobs she was allowed to work, all of it was her uncle’s decision to make. No part of her life was truly hers.
In the end, she dragged the box upstairs, careful to keep it from slapping each step up and drawing her uncle’s attention once more. Only when she closed her door behind her did she let her curiosity swell. Excitement filled her. Logic told her someone hacked one of her online shopping accounts but hadn’t had the brain cells to change the shipping address.
There was no other reason she would receive anything.
She drew a fingernail over the tape holding it closed and carefully pulled it open, wary of the number of times she’d already been cut by carboard that day. At first, all she saw were big plastic bubbles, the kind that were in all packages these days. She pulled them out, popping them one by one, until she saw what waited inside.
A smile spread over her lips. She reached inside and grabbed the stuffed creature. It had an elegant neck, like a swan. A pair of glittery bat-like wings sprouted from its back and flapped about. It was a giant blue dragon. She set it on the end of her bed and stared in wonder at it before checking the box for a note.
She found nothing in the box, but her phone rang. An unknown number flashed on the screen. Mina stared at it for a long moment, her mind blank. She’d programmed her co-workers’ numbers into the cell phone, as well as any family who might call upon her for unpaid cleaning services.
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