The Dragon's Mate

by Emilia Hartley

  She knew that there were a number of dragons that had been unfairly arrested only to be released years later when circumstances changed. But, the files she found started to change. The next document began with words that when strung together sounded suspiciously like a weapon. Anya’s stomach dropped. She flicked over to the photos that had been scanned into the folder.

  Grainy images in black and white depicted a woman with a stern set to her face. She had dark curls that were carefully pinned back and a set of silver cuffs around her wrists. It was a mugshot. The next photo changed dramatically. The woman from the mugshot was strapped to a table, her face twisted in pain while several men in surgical uniforms plucked feathers from her arm.

  Suddenly, the screen flashed before her face. The files all disappeared. Panic was a knife in her chest. The sixties folder disappeared completely. Even when she searched for it again, the folder was nowhere to be found. Her eyes shot up to the door.

  She had to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her and now it was going to cost her father his job. Why had she been so dumb? Why couldn’t she leave things alone?

  Using her father’s passcode to access the files was going to show as a leak in security that would lead them right to his doorstep. If they found out he’d let anyone else learn his code he was in trouble. There was a reason the codes were changed every few weeks.

  Anya gathered her bag and her travel mug and shot out of her chair. If she could slip out unnoticed, she would go hide in the Embassy basement until she figured out what she could do to fix this for her father. If someone caught her… she could lie. She could say that she slipped up and accidentally opened the folder. It was a stretch.

  Another fear churned deep within her stomach, a truth that would not lie still no matter how hard she tried to look away from it. That woman had been a dragon, one that had been arrested for whatever reason. There was no instance when an arrest meant consent to experiments like the one she’d seen. Why were they removing the feathers that appeared in her semi-dragon form? What did that gain anyone?

  Anya slipped past the door, praying that the receptionist was still away from her desk. If she was lucky, the woman had called out sick this day. But, it seemed Anya’s luck had run out. Not only was the receptionist sitting happily behind her too large desk, but the head of the facility, Andrea Backus, and Agent Beauchamp leaned against the desk in conversation.

  Holding her head high and moving so that her heels didn’t click too loudly, Anya tried her best to slip past the three of them. She should have known she wouldn’t get far. The damned receptionist wouldn’t let Anya get away with anything.

  “Oh, Darling!” the receptionist called out. Anya heard the woman’s voice lower as she whispered conspiratorially at Agent Beauchamp.

  Anya froze. There was no way she could look Andrea Backus in the face, not after illegally using her father’s passcode to open an encrypted file. The truth lingered beneath the surface and Anya feared it would only take a glance before the older woman realized it. She did her best to force herself to turn around, to plaster on a socially acceptable smile.

  Best not to look guilty, she thought.

  Beauchamp broke away from the counter and stepped closer to Anya. His perfectly carved lips, the kind that movie stars wished they had in the thirties, were stretching into a wide smile like he’d already won something.

  Before he could say anything, Andrea Backus sauntered up behind him and held her hand out toward Anya. “I heard you’ve managed to complete three years of Public Relations while also minoring in history. All this while keeping up a 4.0 GPA as well! I must say I’m very impressed.”

  Anya had no other choice but to take her hand and shake it as the woman expected. “What can I say? I’m forty thousand dollars in debt, even with Dad helping out. I have to make it worth it.”

  Andrea Backus laughed as if the astronomical number assigned to Anya’s debt was nothing. It might not be for someone who runs a GOE facility. They were a worldwide organization funded by governments everywhere.

  “When you get that fancy degree behind framed glass, you should apply to work with the organization. We would be more than lucky to have you.” Andrea’s voice made something crawl across Anya’s skin. She pulled her hand away from the woman’s grip and fought the urge to wipe it on her skirt.

  “Well, I’m going to move on to my Masters after this,” Anya informed them. “Then, my goal is to head out to DC and work from there.”

  Andrea’s eyes changed. Anya wasn’t sure how to read the new look the woman gave her. It was almost as if the woman knew something Anya didn’t, as if she expected another outcome.

  “We’ll see about that,” Beauchamp challenged her openly. Bile rose in her throat at the idea of wearing a ring on her finger, placed there by Beauchamp of all people. She had a feeling he wanted to own her and it almost distracted her from Andrea’s gaze.

  Did the woman already know Anya had accessed files illegally? Did she suspect Anya had snooped where she shouldn’t have? How would the woman even know? She’d been standing at the receptionist’s desk only moments after the computer had freaked out.

  Then, Anya’s eyes fell to the cell phone in Andrea’s left hand. Technology was an amazing thing these days. The software could have sent an alert to Andrea’s phone that someone accessed the files. As the person who ran this whole facility, Anya knew it was more than possible. It was probable.

  “Uh,” she fought for the right words to disentangle herself from the situation. “I’m going to be late for my internship over at the Embassy.”

  Her heart thumped oddly in her chest. Even walking the streets outside her apartment alone at night hadn’t been as terrifying as this moment was. She expected Andrea to descend on her with cuffs at any moment. They would drag her away to a cell somewhere so that she could never tell a soul about what she’d seen.

  The truth about the file burned her tongue. Anya truly wanted to tell someone. She wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery and offer the woman in the photo peace, but she knew that it would be too dangerous. It would cost her family too much and that war inside her raged, loyalty versus her own spirit.

  “Do you need Agent Beauchamp to escort you? I’d understand if you felt uncomfortable.”

  Agent Beauchamp stepped a little closer to Anya and she felt her skin start to crawl. She was going to have to find a boyfriend after all of this just to keep the agent at arm’s length. Heck, even a fake boyfriend would serve the purpose. Maybe she’d pay someone.

  Anya shook her head. “It’s not that bad. Besides, I drove myself today.”

  Andrea nodded and Anya took that as her cue to slip out of the building. She could feel Andrea’s eyes on her skin, feel it boring a hole into her to reveal everything she hid beneath the surface. It made Anya wrap her arms tight around her chest.

  Why had she been so dumb?

  Footsteps caught up with her and Anya jumped. But, it was only Agent Beauchamp. He held his hands up in defense, soft laughter on his lips. She wanted to glare at him, to tell him he was a dick for laughing at her fear. Instead, she swallowed it because she knew it would serve no purpose.

  “I’m going to follow you,” Beauchamp informed her. She felt her heart sink into the ground. “You look uncomfortable. I want you to feel safe at the Embassy.”

  Anya sighed. She could tell him that she didn’t need his help all day and her words would still fall on deaf ears. It was when he looked back at the sliding glass doors and nodded that she felt her stomach flip. It was an almost imperceptible motion, the slightest jerk of his chin. Anya fought the urge to glance back and see who he was nodding to.

  She knew Andrea Backus would be standing on the other side of the sliding glass doors.

  ***

  Luc didn’t bring any toys or props with him to the Embassy today. He was going to abide by Dane’s decree the best he could. He was going to prove to his brother that he could be seri
ous. This Embassy would not only help the American dragons in the long run, but the twins hoped it would serve to help them find out more about why dragons had disappeared.

  Then and only then, with all the information they could gather, they would turn to their leader. They would present him with the knowledge they’d gathered and prove that someone was threatening their kind. Maybe, with Dane’s help they would be able to find their parents.

  Marc held out with the hope that their parents would still be alive. He had dreams of reuniting with them after all this time. It was Luc that was more realistic. He knew the chance of finding either parent alive after all this time was slim to none. Instead, Luc chose not to think about things like that. Usually, he let himself fall into his pranks.

  Today, he lost himself in the meager amount of information that the GOE facility had offered them. He knew there wouldn’t be anything important in these boxes. The Guardians would never let anything significant fall into a dragon’s hands.

  Luc had half a box splayed out on the floor around him when he heard the rushed footfalls of someone coming down the stairs. His head shot up and the smell of cinnamon tickled his nose until his beast rose to the surface. The pretty intern appeared at the base of the stairs, face flushed and eyes wide with fear.

  Luc lurched into motion. His body was drawn toward her, hands reaching out as if he had the right to comfort her. At the last moment, he drew his hands back. It was the intern that saw him, sucked in a breath, and reached for his arm. She dragged him deeper into the basement only moments before more footsteps sounded on the stairs.

  The intern pulled him into a shadowed corner of the basement, nothing more than space for a closet that must have been gutted. Why he allowed her to push and pull him, Luc would never know, but he did as she instructed and tucked his body in the small space with hers. The glowing light of the computer screen and the tiny lamp made the shadows around them thick and impenetrable.

  Her rising chest pressed against his, her breathing too fast. His arms rose to encircle her. Shifting slightly, he put his back to whatever it was that made her so afraid. Her hands rose to lay flat against his chest. The urge to press her against the wall and take her mouth until her fears fled was strong. He fought to keep his hands where they were, protecting her shoulders instead of wandering lower.

  Behind them, someone entered the basement. Luc twisted his head to get a peek. A young GOE agent stood in the bubble of light, hands on his hips as he looked around the dim basement. When he didn’t see anything, he threw his hands in the air.

  The intern pressed herself into Luc’s body as if she could melt into him and disappear altogether. The beast inside Luc rose with a hot wrath. It would destroy whatever had frightened this woman. It would make sure she was never threatened again.

  Eventually, the young GOE agent stomped back upstairs, clearly upset that he’d lost track of the intern. Luc should have asked what was going on, but his mind jumbled when he looked down at the woman in his arms. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and her eyes seemed large as they looked up at him.

  His hand moved, cupping her cheek. A thrill passed through him as his thumb swept over a patch of freckles on her skin, almost lost in the shadows they still hid in. Could she feel how much he wanted her? Could he steal a kiss before she screamed and ran from him too?

  It was that thought that made Luc break away from her. She might have been nice to him the day before, making an attempt to keep Forrest from detaining him, but she was still a human girl. If Luc was caught with her, Forrest wouldn’t waste a moment in slapping the silver cuffs on his wrists.

  The intern reached out in the space that now separated them, like she felt bereft without him. She quickly recovered, her spine straightening. Her eyes darted toward the staircase. He could hear her breathing quickening again. Luc did something he probably shouldn’t have. He reached out and took her hand in his own. The sensation of skin on skin brought her back to the present, her eyes darting over to his. He was amazed at how it grounded her.

  She swallowed and he watched her throat bob. Luc imagined placing featherlight kisses along the line of her throat, imagined her bare skin beneath his hands. He had to shake his head to dispel the stray thoughts and return to the present.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. The intern wandered over to the dusty computer chair and sank into it, still glancing over to the staircase every now and then.

  “Care to fill me in on what’s going on?” Luc still wanted to protect her. The urge was there, beneath his skin as it rose his beast. The feathered creature inside of him wanted to wrap around the woman like a wall that would forever keep her safe.

  “I may have done…” She caught him watching her and shook her head. “It’s not important.”

  It clearly was, but he wasn’t about to push the truth out of her. He had to be careful around the human. He couldn’t give any of the GOE agents a reason to detain him.

  The woman looked back over at him, her head tilting to the side. “Do you think… could you stay down here with me for a little while?” She paused, then seemed to remember herself. “I’m being silly. I’m sure you’re busy, I shouldn’t be asking you to do things for me.”

  Luc shook his head. He would stay beside her however long she needed him, but he didn’t know how to tell her that. “I was browsing the files down here anyway. I’ll be here for a bit longer.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief, the smile that slipped over her face taking away Luc’s breath. She lit up like sunshine, he thought. He wanted to see a beam of sunlight cast over her face, watch her eyes close as she basked in its warmth.

  Luc realized he was going to have to have a talk with Dane later. Something was going on with him and he wasn’t sure how to sort it out. He suspected there might be something to it as he took a seat on the floor with the files he’d disassembled earlier. Yet, he snuck a glance at the intern and knew there was no way he was right.

  He was just horny. That’s all it was. The females on the Territory were alright, but more often than not he left their beds feeling a hollow ache in his chest. He knew they could feel it, too, from the emptiness in their eyes as they lay together. Those nights might serve to keep raging hormones at bay, but they both knew that the near mythological bond they yearned for wasn’t between them.

  “I’m Anya, by the way. Anya Forrest.”

  Luc swallowed hard. His stomach turned into an aerial acrobat. Not only had he held a human woman in the corner of the basement, he’d held Agent Forrest’s daughter. That was why the man had dragged her out of the room the day before. It was why she had the power to ask the agent not to arrest him.

  “Luc Avila,” he grumbled.

  The intern seemed to freeze. There was something going on behind her eyes, connections being made that Luc didn’t understand. His name shouldn’t have triggered anything. He was a nobody. The only thing he was known for was his aptitude to prank people and cause trouble.

  She snapped back to the present. “What are you looking for?”

  Luc glanced back down at the mess he’d made. There had been nothing about any of the missing dragons in these files. They’d detailed some of the laws surrounding his kind that arose in the fifties and a few of the first eyewitness views of dragons in the United States. They did not tell him where his parents had gone or what happened to the families of the other dragons on the Territory.

  He reached for the small, hardcover notebook he’d brought with him and shoved it into his pocket. The human woman didn’t need to know what he was looking for.

  “I’m just brushing up on my history,” he replied.

  She tilted her head, not fully convinced. Her eyes dropped to graze over the files on the concrete floor before spinning in her chair. The computer screen illuminated her face and Luc’s attention was caught on her in that moment.

  It would be nothing to reach over, grab the rolling chair, and pull her over to him. He would think nothing of the ruined paper fi
les as his mouth devoured hers, as his hand slipped beneath the long skirt that hid her legs.

  “Um…” The intern cleared her throat while she struggled with words. “Thank you.”

  Luc’s head perked up. “For what?”

  “For helping me hide. I, uh, have a problem with that guy. He’s always asking me on dates and treating me like I’m already his wife. I can’t stand it anymore.”

  Luc heard the hesitation in her voice. It was like she’d made a quick grab for an explanation to keep the truth from coming out. Still, the idea of the man hounding her heels made Luc’s beast growl. It was sound that escaped his human form and made the intern’s head turn. While he fought down the beast, he expected the intern to show fear similar to what she’d worn earlier.

  Instead, her face was taken by a soft smile that made her cheeks rounder. She reached up and tucked a curl behind her ear and Luc’s brain jumbled again.

  Mate? The beast’s voice howled through his head.

  Great, Luc thought. She couldn’t be. Fate wouldn’t drop the daughter of a GOE agent into his lap as a mate. It was as cruel as cruel could be. She probably hated his kind. Or, worse, feared them. Her father probably taught her to fear the dragons on the Territory since she was a child. They’d all seen how Agent Forrest had reacted to Luc’s mannequin in the closet gag.

  Then again, Luc thought. Anya had stopped her father from detaining him for the prank. He looked up and studied her profile. She nervously chewed her thumbnail while she downloaded a number of files to the bulky server in the basement.

  “Why did you choose to intern here?” Luc asked through the silence.

  Anya jumped in her seat. She slapped her hand over her heart and laughed at her own shock. Luc’s brows clashed together. He wanted to hurt whoever had made her scare so easily. What threat lingered other than the slimy GOE agent? He had a feeling there was something bigger going on.