by Anna Lowe
She stood there for a few minutes, dripping salt water, watching the stars. Feeling silly, because what if she was taking the mermaid thing too far?
She shook the water out of her ears and crinkled her nose, trying to decide. Well, if there really was something to be found out there, she could try at daylight. For now, she’d head back to the cottage and get some shut-eye.
She set off, following a path she’d missed before. It started in open grasslands, but soon, rough bushes and trees closed in from both sides. A leaf dragged along her calf, and a vine scratched her shin. The crickets sang louder, and a bird — or a bat? — fluttered overhead, making her jump.
She froze, looking up. Bats. Vampires. Were they really linked, or was that just another movie myth?
Either way, her serene night had suddenly taken a turn toward creepy, and she turned around. Maybe it was better to stick close to the water, just in case. Her pace quickened, and her eyes started darting about. A twig snapped behind her. Not too near, not too far. A big enough twig to have been broken by a fairly big something, judging by the sound.
And just like that, a solo stroll at midnight really seemed like a bad idea.
She hurried back the way she’d come, telling herself she was just imagining that feeling of being watched. It was probably just a bird guarding its nest, right?
She power-walked onward, trying to judge how far she’d come. The next time she glanced over her shoulder, the bushes behind her were swaying. Was that from her movement or something else? And, shit. Had she just seen a flicker of red — twin flickers, like a pair of menacing eyes — or was that a trick of the light?
She reached down and pulled the knife out of the scabbard strapped to her calf. The blade glinted as she broke into a jog, hurrying back to the beach. A moment later, she pulled up short again. Something was moving in front of her — unless that was the motion of the swell. God, which way should she go — forward or back? What was out there?
She stood perfectly still, growing more anxious with every too-quiet second that ticked by. Then something really did move behind her — not a figment of her imagination this time — and she spun.
Too late, because two hands were reaching toward her, and her feet refused to budge.
“No!” she screamed, slashing out with the knife.
“Whoa,” her attacker said, catching her wrists before the blade met its mark. He squeezed, and she dropped the knife.
Frantically, she combed her mind for a trick from her last self-defense class. What was it again? A vague memory flashed, and she snapped back and jerked her wrists. An instant later, her hands popped free and, smack! She slapped her attacker on both sides of the face.
“Hey,” he muttered, grabbing her before she could flee.
“Leave me alone!” she yelled, trying to wrench away.
But this time, those hands cuffed hers like rings of steel, and all she could do was wiggle in place.
She raised a knee, because even vampires had to have balls to crush, right? But the dark figure just sidestepped and cursed. She opened her mouth to scream — really scream so help might reach her in time.
In time for what? a vague corner of her mind wondered.
In time to do more than find her body sucked dry of all its blood, she hoped.
“Wait a second,” her attacker muttered, loosening his grip a tiny bit.
Her heart hammered as she stared. They’d wrestled into a half turn, and with the moonlight shining from the side—
Green eyes. Brown hair. Wide shoulders. Dragon tattoo.
“Connor?”
“Jenna?” He dropped her hands, and she jumped back.
“Damn it! You scared the crap out of me!”
He rubbed his cheek, looking her up and down as if seeing her in a whole new light. When he knelt for the knife, her heart jumped to her throat in a new wave of panic. But Connor just rotated it smoothly and handed it to her, grip-first.
“So,” he rumbled. “Out for a midnight stroll?”
The anger and surprise that had fueled Jenna suddenly seeped away, and she let out a slightly hysterical chuckle. “Yeah. I do this every day.”
Chapter Ten
Connor did his best not to stare. The first time he’d seen Jenna, he’d sensed she was special. But, wow. When was the last time someone caught him off guard long enough to smack him that hard? And what was up with that knife? The second he’d touched the grip, his hand had tingled with a faint trace of energy that had to indicate some kind of spell.
“Seriously. Are you okay?” he asked.
She took a deep breath. “Now that I survived my heart attack.”
His gut flipped at the thought of how badly he’d scared her. Her pulse was racing, her eyes wide, her scent laced with fear — and now, relief.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”
It had been an hour since he’d escorted Anton back to Draig’s yacht with Kai, and he had just started to wind down. But then he’d picked up on a movement in the darkness and had to investigate. With the wind at his back, he couldn’t catch the scent. At first, he’d worried it might be Joey sleepwalking. Timber used to do that, driving their mom wild with worry that he’d fall into the rushing creek behind the house.
But it wasn’t Joey. It was Jenna, and man, had she turned the tables on him.
She pursed her lips and motioned to his cheek. “Same here. Sorry.”
He laughed, and she did too, breaking the ice. “That was a pretty good move.”
She grinned. “Gotcha, didn’t I? Well, almost.” Then her smile faded, and her eyes darted around. “Shit. Almost isn’t good enough, is it?”
He wanted to touch her. Hug her. Tell her she’d done good.
“Hey, that was a great start. But, well…” His eyes drifted to her six-inch blade. “Do you know how to use that?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Not really.” She waved around weakly. “This is all a little new to me.”
Get her out into the open where she’ll feel better, his dragon hissed. And don’t you dare scare her again.
So he took her elbow — very slowly — and led her back to the beach. Her hair was slicked back, her clothes wet. Had she been swimming or something?
He backed up, trying to stay on topic. “What’s all new to you?”
She stood staring at the moon before answering, hugging herself, her face hidden by the shadows of night.
“This.” She waved around again. “I mean, shifters. Vampires. All that scary shit.”
His eyes narrowed as his dragon went on high alert. Who said anything about vampires?
Shifters and vampires rarely crossed paths, harboring mutual disdain along with a healthy respect for each other’s powers. For the most part, vampires stuck to cities, while shifters preferred open country where they could change to animal form and roam. Just about the only thing they had in common was an interest in keeping humans ignorant of their existence. Connor had met two vampires in his life and hated both on sight. But there weren’t any vampires on Maui, were there?
He sniffed the breeze, not so much to search for a scent but the lack of one — the hallmark of a vampire. But all that reached him was the faint whiff of exotic flowers.
“Sorry,” Jenna murmured. “I hope I didn’t wake you. Or were you already up?”
Connor sighed and muttered under his breath, looking up at the sky he’d been swooping through not too long ago. “Yeah, I’ve been up, all right.”
Jenna tilted her head at him, trying to figure that out. Did she even know about dragons?
“What about you?” He motioned to her wet, clinging clothes.
“I, uh…took a quick dip,” she said, a little sheepishly. Then her eyes narrowed. “Oh!” She touched his elbow then turned his chin into the moonlight. “What happened?”
He followed her eyes to his arm. Oops. The burn still showed, and his black eye probably did too. By morning, both injuries would have healed, but for the moment…
Destiny, his dragon murmured.
A second later, he gave himself a little shake and glanced around. Oops. He’d better get Jenna back to the estate before anyone came across them and got the wrong idea.
He sucked in a low breath. It would be pretty disastrous for Cruz to find him out alone at night with Jenna and assume he was not only slacking off from the job, but messing around with Jody’s kid sister.
“How about I walk you home?” he said, trying to make it sound like an offer instead of an order.
She stared down at the knife in her hands then stuck it back in its scabbard. Then she nodded and stepped close to his side — nice and close, making his dragon preen.
I swear I’ll keep you safe, the beast murmured inside. Forever.
He tried to wipe forever out of his mind, because he wasn’t even allowed one night with this woman. But, damn. Her blue tank top brought out the color of her eyes, even in the moonlight. Her khaki shorts managed to make her look cute and rugged at the same time.
“Jody is your sister, right?” he asked, hoping he’d somehow gotten that part wrong.
She nodded.
He sniffed. “You don’t smell like tiger, though.”
She snorted. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I mean, not like a tiger shifter.”
“What exactly does a tiger shifter smell like?”
He chewed on that one for a while. “Like the jungle. Like fresh rainfall. Like lilies floating on a pond.”
She stared. “They do?”
He shrugged. How much did she know about shifters? Why hadn’t her sister explained?
“Anyway, I wouldn’t know,” she said, kicking the sand as she walked. “I guess Cruz is a tiger, and now my sister is, too.”
Connor sucked in a slow breath. Cruz was one badass soldier — definitely not to be messed around with, even if he’d supposedly mellowed as of late. Tigers were ridiculously protective of their mates — and that would extend to younger sisters, for sure.
He peered around. The problem wasn’t that he was intimidated by Cruz. It was just that he couldn’t afford to mess up this job. Where he went, his brothers and Dell followed, and they needed this chance, bad.
“So you didn’t know about shifters until now,” he murmured as they edged around the promontory that marked the property line between Koa Point estate and the plantation grounds.
Finding out that shifters existed had to be a shock, but that wasn’t what had scared her that night or what had made her so nervous on the plane. It also didn’t explain a spelled knife.
She shook her head emphatically. “No clue, until I found out they’re all around me.” Her voice wavered, and she edged away. “You’re one too?”
That stung even more than all the combined rejection of the dragon establishment ever had, and Connor stiffened. He’d learned not to care about what other dragons thought of him. But to have Jenna reject him…
He took her elbow gently, though his jaw was clenched hard. “Listen, I—”
She turned to face him, and the pure blue of her eyes made him forget what he wanted to say.
Mate, his dragon whispered. I swear, she is mine.
He’d felt a pull toward her all along but resisted the idea. But now, in the moonlight, it was all unmistakably clear — to his human side as well as his dragon.
She is your mate, a deep, distant voice whispered in the depths of his soul.
God, she really was. He’d yearned for a lot of things in his life — opportunity, acceptance — but he’d never, ever felt a need this strong or this sure.
“You what?” she demanded, balling her fists.
His inner beast cooed. She’d make a great dragon.
That, she would. But smart and feisty was the hardest kind of woman to convince of such things.
“I’d never hurt you,” he said, and it came out all rumbly. “We’re not so different from humans, you know.”
She made a face. “Humans can suck, in case you don’t read the papers.”
His cheeks heated, and his voice took on a hard edge. “Oh, I’ve noticed, all right.”
Her eyes dropped to the dog tags hanging around his neck, and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry. Stupid comment.”
She took his hand, and as quickly as he’d taken offense, he calmed down again. Really calmed, as if the tornado that always seemed to be spinning around inside him had whirled off to bother someone else for a change. Without thinking, he took her other hand and rubbed his thumb over her skin.
“There are good people too, you know. And good shifters. The ones who know right from wrong. Who’ll never, ever let you down.” His voice went fierce as he thought of Tim, Chase, and others, like Kai and even ornery Cruz.
I will never, ever let you down, his dragon whispered, even though she couldn’t hear.
His pulse quickened because, shit. What if he did let her down someday? He’d messed up often enough, and half the time, he’d never seen it coming. Like fitting in to the dragon world with all its unwritten laws. Love had to be a hundred times more complicated than that, and neither came with a book of rules.
She looked down, biting her lip. Then she straightened and faked a lighter tone. “And what are you? Bear shifter? Tiger? Armadillo?”
Arma-what? his dragon protested.
“Armadillo?”
She smiled ever so slightly, and the harsh shadows of the moon showed a faint hint of a dimple.
“Sorry,” she murmured. “This shifter stuff is all new to me.”
This falling in love stuff is all new to me, he might as well have replied.
“So which is it?” she demanded.
I think you really are my mate, his dragon whispered.
But she’d only just found out about shifters. He couldn’t exactly hit her with that right now, right? Instead, he bluffed, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind.
“Armadillo.”
She burst out laughing, and a second later, he did too.
Since when are you the class clown? his inner beast demanded. That’s Dell’s job.
He had no idea. Only that this woman could knock him sideways just by looking at him.
“Aha.” Jenna grinned. “You roll up in a ball whenever danger calls?”
He made a face. “No rolling up in a ball.”
“Not an armadillo, then.”
He shook his head, wondering how it could be so much fun to do something as simple as amble alongside a woman and talk.
“A merman?” she tried next.
He laughed outright. That was an easy no. He hated open water, even though he barely remembered the time he’d been swept away by the undertow on the first — and last — beach trip his poor mother had taken him and Tim on.
“Merfolk are extinct, I’m sorry to say.”
She dragged her foot through the shallows and mumbled something like, “Are they?”
“Yeah. Kind of a shame, huh?”
The outline of the guest cottage came into view, and his gut tightened. Soon, it would be time to say goodbye.
“What about vampires?” Jenna asked in a much tighter voice.
It seemed better not to reply, the same way he had the sneaking suspicion this might not be the best moment to tell her he was a dragon shifter. But it seemed like she already knew about vampires, so he nodded toward the porch, only a few steps away. “Unfortunately, they do exist. But there aren’t any around here.”
She hmpfed and strode on with her slim shoulders thrown back, telling the world how tough she was. He studied her perfect silhouette, then frowned at the bump along her leg — the knife.
“Hang on,” he called out.
She stopped on the second stair of the porch, thrusting her hands to her hips.
“What? Hey!” she protested a second later when he kneel
ed at her feet. “What are you doing?”
He worked the strap of the knife loose to switch it to the other side. “Wrong leg. You’re right-handed.”
He could feel her stare on his back. Yes, he’d noticed. When she’d smacked him, that palm had hit first and hit hard.
“It needs to go about an inch higher,” he said, making sure his hands touched nothing but the knife. As much as he’d love to feel the smooth skin of her calf, that was off-limits.
For now, his dragon muttered.
“Do you know how to use this?” he asked, looking up.
Her eyes met his, and his breath caught as his entire body fired up again.
Mate, his dragon murmured dreamily. Mine.
“Might be that I need lessons,” she whispered.
His heart thumped in hope at the same time as his mood sank in despair.
This is our chance, Tim had said when they’d first been offered the job at Koakea. But damn it, we have to focus this time. No messing up.
Connor frowned. If there was a fast track to messing up, getting involved with Jenna was it.
“Maybe you can help me,” Jenna murmured, leaning closer to him. Her flowery scent teased his nostrils and tickled his skin.
She knows it too, his dragon cried. Deep inside, she knows she’s ours.
“Not sure that would be a good idea,” he managed.
Her eyes flashed. “Why not?”
An entire catalog of compelling reasons thumped open in his mind. Bad timing. Big trouble. For you and for me.
He forced himself to lean away. Following his heart had always gotten him in hot water. Maybe he ought to try a new tack and think things through for a change.
“You don’t want to teach me?” Hurt flashed in her eyes.
He let out a bitter chuckle. “I want it too much.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You want—” she started, but something cut her off. Namely, him pinning her against the roof post and covering her mouth with an out-of-nowhere kiss he didn’t see coming either.
So much for trying a new tack.
His dragon hummed, insisting it was all right. She wants this. We need this. Just one kiss. Not leaving without a kiss.
For the first instant, Jenna tensed, but then she melted against him. Her hands fluttered over his back, and her mouth opened to his, letting him taste.