Her Dragon Professor

by Jasmine Wylder

  Sienna was suddenly aware of wearing nothing more than a towel as her wet hair dripped down her back and she met Brody’s hungry velvet-black gaze. His desire was written all over his face as his eyes took in her current outfit. Or lack thereof. Sienna’s eyes trailed down the corded muscles of his arms and up his neck to where a muscle in his sculpted jaw was ticking. She wondered if he looked as good out of his clothes as he did in them.

  “Fuck, Sienna,” he ground out and she watched as his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  She raised an eyebrow at him as he closed his eyes and sharply inhaled.

  “I can smell your desire,” he ground out, his voice painful. “It’s going to drive me insane.”

  Her cheeks flushed immediately and she swore at herself. She knew better than to let her thoughts of Brody get out of hand. Supernaturals had amazing senses.

  Sienna turned around and grabbed a pair of jeans, a matching set of black underwear and a black bra, and a soft V-neck t-shirt, all perfectly in her size. She moved wordlessly back into the bathroom, unable to meet his gaze until she’d had a chance to splash her face with the coldest water this hotel could produce.

  Five minutes later, she came out fully dressed with her hair up in a ponytail and some semblance of dignity back.

  “I need to run,” she said simply. Brody raised his eyebrow at her, so she clarified. “My wolf, she’s anxious and has issues she needs to work out. By running. I know a place. Want to come with me?”

  She hadn’t meant to invite him—that part had just sort of tumbled out of her mouth. She chewed her lip and waited for Brody to reject her with a scowl.

  Instead, to her surprise, he simply nodded and stood, motioning her to follow him.

  ***

  The drive out to the Colorado River reservoir was almost two hours.

  That left 120 minutes of nothing but space for the two of them to talk, something Sienna wasn’t normally the biggest fan of when it came to Brody. But today? Instead of intense and brooding, Brody seemed curious and almost nervous?

  He’d explained the previous night’s events to her initially and why Sage and Dane had been called out of town.

  “Both dead,” he answered when she asked about the bears who attacked her.

  “They had mentioned taking me to someone named Castillo,” she said, remembering the name.

  Brody had gently broken the news to her that both her apartment and her car were likely total losses, too. It wasn’t a complete surprise to Sienna, she’d seen the flames herself, but it still nearly gutted her. It’d taken her almost a decade of rebuilding to earn her own place in the world and in one evening, it was possibly all gone. She took a deep breath and promised herself that she’d deal with things one at a time. Later, possibly tomorrow or the day after, she’d go back to her house and deal with what had happened. She had good insurance. She had money in the bank. Right now, all she was focused on was the fact that she was alive thanks to Brody’s impeccable timing.

  “How did you manage to be there right when I needed you?” The question was out before she could think twice.

  “My wolf was pulling at me like crazy,” he admitted. “He needed to get to you and for once, I let him take over.”

  They let talk of the attack drop and moved on to other topics.

  The chatter started out light. A little about the Boulder Pack members who stayed behind. About the missing pack member Liesel.

  “She’s newer,” Brody had explained. Sienna had initially worried that there might be a thing between Liesel and Brody (why should she even care?), but he’d dispelled that worry without her having to mention it. “Kind of a wild child, but a big heart. She’s important to my wolves and we won’t rest until we find her.”

  Brody, it turns out, was a great Alpha, something Sienna wasn’t used to. Her story came out in pieces, as Brody asked the right questions. He was patient but unyielding about wanting to know more about her and Sienna found herself trusting this dark, sexy wolf more and more as the miles passed by.

  “Why stay as a lone wolf for so long?” Brody asked. For once, there was no judgement in his tone or in the way he said the word lone.

  “It’s easier on me and my wolf. My step-dad was the alpha of our old pack and he was a monster,” Sienna said quietly, her gaze going out the window. “I left the pack when I was 17 and never looked back. I think Sage left a few months after me and probably met you shortly after he did.”

  She held her breath a moment as her thoughts traveled back to those dark days. So much loneliness and pain, and nobody to lean on.

  “Why didn’t you try to find Sage?”

  Sienna frowned, tears pricking at her eyes. She struggled to keep her emotions in check as her voice warbled when she answered.

  “I was scared my step dad would hurt him if he eventually found me.”

  She shut her eyes in shame. The day she’d ran from her old pack, Lance had been drunk again and looking for her. He was a creepy bastard at best when he was sober, but Sienna knew better than to get caught alone with him when he was drinking. His lecherous stares never promised anything other than trouble and while her brothers believed her when she told them, they were younger and not high enough in the pack hierarchy to help her yet. And their mother? She’d simply sneered at Sienna in her jealous rage and blamed Sienna for any unwanted attention.

  Suddenly Sienna felt the rage rolling off Brody in the seat beside her. She chanced a glance up at him and saw that his eyes had gone wolf. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel.

  She inhaled slowly and blew out a long breath.

  “I was okay. I am okay,” she said, mostly to herself. “My brother and I found each other eventually and while we don’t always understand each other, I can always count on him—even when he’s out in Colorado. Being on my own isn’t so bad.”

  It was a lie and it felt awkward in her mouth, but Sienna was good at putting on a brave face. All those countless times Sage had tried to convince her to join the Boulder pack—Sienna had wanted to, but she’d never be able to get over her fear of Alphas. Of the power they held in their hands over the lives of their members. That was too much power for one person to have over her and so Sienna had always declined, declaring that she was happier on her own. It was a flimsy lie—wolves needed packmates to feel secure and alive—and Sage had probably seen through it right away but he never pushed.

  Beside her, Brody flexed his hands and unclenched his fists. She wanted to ask him what was going on in that mind of his, but she was a little scared at what the truth might be. Did he think she was weak for avoiding pack life all these years? Did he still think she was a lost cause as a lone wolf?

  After nearly ten minutes of silence, curiosity got the better of Sienna as it always did.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask you what’s on your mind, but I can’t help it now,” she said in a small voice, not turning her head toward Brody and keeping her eyes on the desert outside. “What are you thinking?”

  She felt his wolf’s agitation and emotion, but she didn’t know what Brody the man was thinking. He took a long minute to speak and when he finally did, the raw emotion in his voice unsettled her.

  “I was thinking that they failed you. That none of it was your fault. That it was nothing more than shit luck that landed you with a predator as an Alpha and a weak-willed, jealous woman as a mother who would stand by and let her daughter be treated like that,” he was practically growling. “Alphas are not meant to dominate their wolves. They’re one and only job is to keep their packs safe and thriving and it’s a lot harder than it seems. That man was obviously unfit for the job and I’m grateful that your older brother challenged him for Alpha and won.”

  Sienna sighed and struggled with the emotions rising up from his kind words.

  Who would have thought brooding Brody could affect her on so many different levels?

  Chapter Twelve

  Brody foun
d talking freely about the past wasn’t as easy when it was his turn to tell his own story. But Sienna was relentless and let him know that fair was fair. Soon enough, he relented.

  “I was born in Idaho to a family of shifters. We lived up north and I had a pretty quiet childhood,” he said, knowing the story was going to change and he wondered how Sienna would take his sad tale. Would she pity him? He hated pity.

  Sienna wasn’t like most people. Most people didn’t know how to listen and they spent most of their lives trying to finish a story for the other person, to jump into forced understanding or conversation. But not Sienna. She listened patiently and waited for Brody to continue.

  “My uncle took in a couple of lone wolves who had hit on hard times. They had sad stories that really played on the sympathies of the elders. As Alpha, when he accepted them, the rest of the pack was expected to accept them, too. They were given his seal of approval. His word was bond,” he let out a sigh. This part of the story was never easy to tell. It was why he rarely told it. “It was a set up. My pack—my entire family was slaughtered when I was too young to help. The men were caught and they were charged and tried in human courts, locked away before my cousins and I could get our hands on them when we were old enough to get our vengeance. It was too late. They were locked behind steel bars we couldn’t penetrate.”

  Brody braced for her reaction—her fake sympathy. But she offered none. He could feel her wolf’s response to his truth and it was nothing more than a form of solidarity. Sienna and her wolf had seen just as much shit in their lives as Brody and his wolf.

  “I’m sorry about what happened to your family, Brody,” she finally said. She sounded genuine and it burned a hole in the middle of his chest. “But I’m glad that circumstances led you down the road so that I could meet you eventually.”

  He bit down a surge of emotion before his wolf amplified it even louder and it potentially drowned Sienna and her inner beast. He couldn’t quite explain what he was feeling—only that it was incredibly pure and incredibly strong.

  Brody knew they needed a break from the heaviness. He went for cheap laughs to divert their emotions.

  “So, enough about tragedies and our pasts,” he said with a shake of his head. “Let’s talk about our future and how there’s bound to be an obvious lack of clothing in it.”

  It was a gamble, throwing out such a bold attempt at flirting and he hoped she was game. He was trying to get a rise out of her. He wasn’t expecting Sienna to turn the tables on him with her response.

  “It’d never be that easy, McAllister,” Sienna said with a half-smile. “You’d have to catch me first.”

  That got a good laugh out of Brody.

  “I’d catch you,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road in front of him. “And you’d love it when I did.”

  Sienna arched her back and rolled her neck, ripping Brody’s eyes to her against his will. She was stretching, sure, but it was obvious she was trying to distract him. And it was working.

  “You think you’d catch me. My wolf is fast. Faster than most.”

  Brody was taking the bait and doing it willingly. He loved this feisty, flirty side Sienna was showing. And his wolf? He was losing his mind at the challenge Sienna and her wolf were posing. Brody shifted in his seat as his pants grew uncomfortably tighter. The movement didn’t miss Sienna’s notice.

  “Problems?” She was grinning and slanted a look down at his crotch.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Brody replied. “You really think you can outrun my wolf? Would you stake a wager on that claim?”

  Sienna gave a snort.

  “I make wagers for a living. I’m a professional,” she said. “Are you sure you’re ready for the big leagues?”

  He laughed out loud at that. A big, huge belly-aching laugh that he hadn’t felt in years. She was saucy, this wolf of his.

  “I’m more than ready, Sienna,” he said, his tone growing more serious. “You say go when we get there and you and your wolf better run like you’ve never before because I’ll catch you. No matter what, I’ll catch you.”

  He watched her swallow hard at the words and the glint returned to her eye.

  “And the stakes?”

  Brody didn’t miss the raw edge to her low voice.

  “A favor,” Brody said, knowing he was pushing the two of them into territory neither had anticipated. But he didn’t care anymore. Whether she liked it or not, whether he liked it or not, Sienna was going to be his and nothing could change that now. “A dirty, sexual favor that the winner can collect as soon as we get back to our suite.”

  Sienna’s eyes shot to Brody’s.

  “Our suite?”

  Brody loved watching her squirm in her seat.

  “Yes, sweet Sienna,” he growled. “Our suite.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  They pulled into the dam parking lot that butted up against the Colorado River and Sienna struggled to keep her breathing as regular as possible while Brody parked his truck. She hadn’t said much since the wager they’d made—her mind was racing in a million, delectable directions since she’d agreed to some dirty, naked favor should Brody’s wolf catch her own.

  That was the thing, though, and the reason she hadn’t minded taking the bet. For one thing, she’d love to see Brody humbled and turned into her sex slave, even for one night. And two, she’d never met a wolf in all her life that could keep up with her own.

  He was toast.

  “It’s been fun, Brody,” Sienna said as she hopped down from the passenger seat and quickly stripped bare in the empty parking lot. Behind her, she heard Brody’s sharp intake of breath as her bra went flying over her shoulder back into the cab. “But this is where I leave you. For what it’s worth, you never had a shot.”

  With that, Sienna felt the familiar pull of her wolf come forward as muscles popped and skin stretched. In half a breath, Sienna was in her wolf form and her wolf was off and running.

  It felt good to move at her normal speed and after the attack from the bears, her wolf had felt powerless when she was unable to shift to defend them. This, being in the open air as herself and running at top speed, made things better. Brought clarity and a sense of safety back into her wolf’s consciousness.

  Just as she had cleared the parking lot and made it into the tree line, she’d heard Brody’s shouted curses and rush to get out of the truck himself. Her wolf didn’t understand the wolf per se, but understood that the male realized he’d just been bested.

  Sienna and her wolf pushed hard, darting and ducking through the underbrush and small, gnarled trees that they knew so well after all these years. This was the very place she came each week to run out the frustrations of losing her family connection all those years ago, to working among the shadiest of society in her security job, to being alone and having to go through life with no one to lean on or draw strength from.

  It hit her then. Despite only knowing Brody a short time, Sienna and her wolf were already leaning on the Alpha for strength through this whole shifter war brewing. The thought both unsettled and excited her and it wasn’t lost on Sienna that she’d brought Brody out to the place that was most sacred to her.

  She fought the pull in her heart that called to Brody as her wolf darted across the shallow water. She knew that by now, Brody was already well on his way and tracking her every move so she had to be smart. Now that she had a little distance between them, she began to circle back and retrace her steps just enough to create tracks that crisscrossed and deceived the average tracker.

  Sienna was good at this game. She could lose anyone or anything, herself included when need be. There were plenty of times that her marks had figured out she was working for the hotel and had come after her once they’d been thrown out. Sienna could blend in a crowd and mix her scent with humans instantly and she’d always been able to play hide and seek like a pro—even when the odds were stacked against her.

  A noise a few hundred yards behind her propelled Sienna and her w
olf to push even harder. She knew Brody would be fast and most likely an expert tracker—but he’d never tracked anything like her, her wolf thought smugly. Then her wolf thought the strangest thing that gave Sienna pause.

  Her wolf wanted Brody to catch them.

  It stunned her momentarily, but Sienna willed her wolf, who was in control, to win this battle. It was important that Brody not get the upper hand in whatever was unfolding between them.

  Again, Sienna and her wolf pushed harder, going past the normal landmarks and scented tree trunks that marked their usual boundary. Now they were in uncharted, wild territory with the river running beside them as they went further. Sienna felt a rush of emotions—she felt wild. She felt strong. She felt free. Even with Brody on her heels and part of her life like he was, Sienna was feeling both protected and free at the same time.

  It was an amazing feeling that she and her wolf reveled in so much that they missed the telltale signs that the game was up.

  She heard a chuff of breath a split second before a large, furry body barreled into her. She saw a flash of gorgeous black fur tangle with her just as her back hit the ground and she tumbled. She knew from the scent that it was Brody and he’d found her.

  Limbs, fur, and snarls tangled as they came to a stop and for a moment, Sienna fought him and attempted to get up from the submissive position she found herself in. She’d barely managed to squirm to the side to get off her back before Brody’s wolf gently stuck his muzzle in the sensitive fur at her neck. Normally, when a wolf refused to submit, the winner would bite the neck of the loser to demand submission. But it was obvious that Brody, despite being able to, didn’t want to chance hurting Sienna’s wolf with a bite to the throat. He let out a low, threatening growl, giving her one last chance to submit and concede defeat.

  With a huff, Sienna’s wolf whined and lay flat, exposing her neck and her vulnerable belly fully to him.