Dragon Craving

by Amelia Jade

  So he may as well just tell her the damn truth about it all. Hopefully she believed him.

  “Let’s go inside. I’ll answer whatever I can to the best of my abilities. But we should head inside.” He pointed at the door behind them.

  Cheryl’s head lifted, looking out beyond him to where the wolf had disappeared into the darkness. She shivered and went into the house without another word.

  Rowe climbed the steps, casting one last glance behind him to the north. In the darkness a pair of wolf eyes gleamed. They belonged to the one who’d run away, he knew it. The bastard was out there still, taunting him that he’d let his quarry get away. He almost sent a ball of power at the creature, but the appearance of another set of eyes off to the right gave him pause.

  More eyes blinked into existence, and as Rowe counted them he swiftly realized that there were more than just the three wolf shifters out there.

  A lot more.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cheryl

  She wheeled on him the second the door clicked shut.

  “What the fuck just happened?”

  His nudity didn’t bother her. She’d seen it all earlier while he was with her. It had looked much more glorious then. Now…well, now she understood what guys meant by shrinkage.

  Tearing her eyes away from his junk, which still managed to be distracting, she stared him right in the face. “Why are you not freaking out like I am?” she asked quietly.

  Rowe stood his ground. “You seem to be taking it remarkably well, actually.”

  “I’m not.” Her voice was small, on the edge of sanity. “I just saw a man shift from a wolf, to a human, and then back again. I saw you take him down and wrestle him to the ground like it was nothing. That was a big wolf. I know you’re strong, but there’s a lot you’re not telling me, Rowe. Including why this isn’t a big deal for you.”

  “You did see that,” he confirmed.

  “What else haven’t you told me? What else have you lied about?”

  Now Rowe reacted, his anger visible in the tightening of his body from head to toe. Without clothes on she could read him like a book.

  “I haven’t lied to you,” he said, voice like hard gravel. Commanding. Powerful. Honest. “I didn’t tell you. That is not the same as lying, because the subject never came up, or even close.”

  “You know what they are, and why they’re here,” she snapped.

  “Yes to the first, no to the second. My guess is just that, a guess, and it’s exactly what yours is.”

  “Right. Well, how the hell would I ever be ready for something like that? Shapeshifters. That wasn’t a hallucination. That man is a werewolf.”

  Rowe shrugged. “A wolf shifter. Werewolf has so many negative implications. They can change at will, and they’re born into it, not bitten by one. Plus not all of them are assholes like the ones we’re dealing with.” He paused. “Though wolf shifters have a tendency to lean evil. So maybe there is some accuracy in the werewolf title. I don’t know.”

  “Right.” She tapped her chin. “Are you a wolf?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Why were you chasing it then?”

  “To get it to leave. To get answers.” He shrugged, as if that explained everything. It did, in a way, and in others it didn’t explain a damn thing.

  “Why this farm?” She bit her lip, worrying at the skin there. “Why me?”

  Rowe laughed. “Nothing at all to do with you. That’s just an unfortunate coincidence.”

  “Explain.”

  “Can we sit down?”

  “Not with your legs covered in mud like that,” she said absently, unwilling to let him make a mess of the place.

  “Fine.” He was getting irritated, but she didn’t particularly care. It was his own damn fault anyway. She was just glad there were no other women on the farm to see him like that.

  “So you have no idea why they’re here?”

  “I have a guess, but it’s the same as yours.”

  She frowned, thinking back to what he meant by that. What had she said about… “Wait, these are the same people that graffitied the place?”

  “Yeah. And cut the rope in the barn, if I had to hazard a guess, and definitely the ones who kidnapped your worker.”

  “There’s more of them?”

  Rowe just nodded.

  “What do they want with us?”

  “I think they knew the previous owner.”

  Cheryl connected the dots. “The previous owner was a shifter. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. A particularly nasty one. He had all this land so he and his pack could live here, hold parties, that sort of thing, without being seen. Did the bare minimum of farming to keep up appearances.”

  That made a lot of sense, if any of this was to be believed. “That’s why all the farming stuff is in such shit shape, and the house isn’t.”

  “Exactly,” Rowe said. “I don’t know why it took so long for them to show up, but that’s my guess.”

  “Either way, they aren’t going away, are they?”

  “Not anytime soon,” he confirmed unhappily.

  “Translation, things are only going to get worse.” She ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the knots. It was not looking good for her future job prospects if a pack of werewolves overran the farm and killed everyone on it. “Great. I suppose I should start looking for work. Back to office administration for me. I don’t see the werewolves coming to harass a bunch of secretaries.”

  “Cheryl.”

  “They can stick to the farms. I’ll stay in the city. Concrete, metal, and glass. They don’t like that, they’ll stay away. It’ll be nice. My parents will be happy. Maybe I’ll meet a nice manager who I can settle down with and have two kids with and then get divorced when he gets fat and lazy, expecting me to do everything.

  “Cheryl.”

  “The werewolves won’t be an issue then and I—”

  “CHERYL!” he thundered.

  She stumbled backward, the sheer force of his voice hitting her like a physical impact.

  “Listen to me,” he said, stepping forward, putting his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not over yet.”

  She laughed, noting the strained hysterics barely contained within.

  “I need you to trust me.”

  “What? Trust you how?”

  Rowe calmed, but he kept his hands on her shoulders. Maintaining contact with her. Right at the point of contact heat bloomed, slowly working its way through her skin. With it came a feeling of calm. Of peace. Her heart slowed and she began to breathe more regularly. When had she started to gasp for air? What was going on?

  Cheryl blinked, feeling like she’d just woken up from a really bad dream.

  “What are you doing to me?” she asked cautiously.

  “You were going in to shock. Your mind was shutting down, too overwhelmed with everything that’s going on. I used our connection to help you relax, to not panic.”

  She stared, uncomprehending. “You can do that? How?”

  “I told you once. We’re connected, you and me. I meant that.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Rowe came closer and pulled her into a hug. “I know. I’ll explain it soon. Once you’ve relaxed a bit, come to accept the whole wolf shifter thing. I just need you to keep trusting me. I haven’t led you astray yet, and I don’t plan on it.”

  “It’s—”

  “This is not all your fault, Cheryl. It’s not my fault either. Neither of us are to blame for this, okay? That’s what you should be focusing on. Accept that truth. You didn’t do a thing to provoke them, and there was nothing you could do to stop them, unfortunately.”

  She shuddered, and he held her tighter. Despite his nudity and having been outside in the freezing cold, his body was still incredibly warm. Pressed against him like this brought back memories of earlier in the night. Pleasant memories.

  “What do we do now?” she asked, basking in the
warming sensation.

  “Right now? I make a phone call.” Rowe’s voice was firm, but anger lurked just below the surface.

  “And then?”

  “Then we put everything on hold on the farm.”

  Cheryl buried her face in his chest at that. She could just see the disaster about to unfold in front of them, no matter what Rowe told her.

  This was the end of her career as she knew it, that much was for certain.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Rowe

  His eyes hurt come the morning.

  Not because of any injuries he’d sustained, but from his lack of sleep. Too many nights over the past week he’d stayed up late, or simply been unable to sleep while he pondered how to make things better between him and Cheryl.

  Then, just as he’d finally taken that next step with her, disaster struck. It was one endless thing after another. Part of him longed for the peaceful life back in the dragon enclave. Maybe Rowe had been wrong; maybe he didn’t belong out here amongst humans and the other shifters. Could it be that he was destined for a life of slow-moving deliberation?

  The enclave ran one of the biggest and most secure banking systems in the world, and there would always be a place for him among them if he so chose. Every dragon born to the enclave had that right. Still, Rowe wasn’t sure a suit-and-tie desk job was what he wanted.

  There had to be a balance point somewhere, right?

  “They were busy.”

  He blinked. “What?”

  Cheryl was staring outside the kitchen window as the dull gray-filtered light of a winter morning lit the room around them. “The wolf shifters. They tagged the barn again, and smashed the ATV to bits. I can see it now.”

  He frowned. How the hell had they done that without him hearing? True, he’d been tired by the time he made a call, took a shower, and held Cheryl until she fell asleep. Still, smashing it should have caused enough noise to wake him.

  “I see.”

  “There’s probably more. That’s just what I can see from this window,” she said crossly.

  Cheryl had taken the revelation of the shifters better than he’d ever expected. Having seen evidence of it firsthand certainly helped in the belief department, even if everything she knew told her it wasn’t actually possible.

  “It’ll be okay,” he assured her. “We have the money to fix it.”

  “It’s not the money,” she snapped. “What if word gets back to my boss about everything going on? I’m going to lose my job.”

  “Then I’ll get it back for you.”

  “That’s not the point, Rowe! The point is that I got the job. I got the promotion. I did that. Not you, not my parents, not anyone else. I earned it. I don’t want to lose it after all the work I put in, and I certainly don’t want someone else to intimidate my boss into giving me my job back.”

  Rowe hadn’t thought of it that way. He’d never meant to insult her or her ability to work for what she wanted. To him he saw it as his kind screwing things up for her, so it should be him who righted the wrongs. Cheryl would never see it that way though, he knew that, and should have known that before he spoke.

  “Um, sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”

  She sighed. “I didn’t mean to unload on you like that, either. I’m just on edge. I’m sorry.”

  He crossed over to her and kissed her on the cheek, wrapping his arms around her small frame, feeling the littleness of her in his grasp. Despite the softness of her body, her wonderful curves still felt perfectly tiny to him. It was a match made by fate.

  “It’ll be okay.”

  She shook her head. “No, it won’t. The farmhands are going to have a fit when they see that, if they haven’t already. Who knows, maybe they were awakened by the events.” Her shoulders straightened.

  Rowe knew she’d come to a decision about something.

  “I need to send them home, don’t I?”

  He ran his thumbs down the sides of her neck, actions answering her more than words could. Rowe was well aware she wasn’t going to like doing that, but for not only the safety of the farmhands, but also to help maintain the secrecy of shifter kind, they needed to go. It would only be temporary; once everything was settled they would all be free to return if they wished. Right now though, someone had to send them home, and that someone unfortunately was Cheryl.

  After all, by her own words, she was the one in authority. Not him.

  “I guess it’s best to do it before they get started for the day.”

  Rowe didn’t answer. There was no need. Instead he leant his support the only way he could for the moment, and kept working at the knots in her muscles. Even as he would relax them out she would tense up again.

  Finally Cheryl sighed and that was that. He followed her outside. The day was warming swiftly, the chill of the prior night evaporating, and melting the little layer of frost that had formed. His boots clung to the muck though he didn’t notice. His attention was elsewhere.

  The workers reacted predictably. Most of them had already noticed the damage and a group were gathered outside their residence, talking anxiously among themselves. When Cheryl ordered everyone out and told them the place was shutting down temporarily, there were no protests.

  Some looked upset, some relieved, but all of them seemed to understand that something was going on, and they were glad not to be involved with it, even if it threatened their livelihood. The promise that they would all have first chance to return after the issue was settled helped though. It meant they could go find work in the meantime, and not worry about losing out on the opportunity for better pay when things were settled.

  Many asked questions as they left, but Rowe was there to head most of them off. Cheryl simply didn’t have the experience in fending off questions about shifters yet, and he didn’t want to risk her letting something slip by accident. Nobody argued with his answers, and the trucks and cars on the property slowly dwindled as the laborers packed up their things and headed out.

  Finally the last pickup was gone. They stood watching for a moment, recognizing the finality of what they’d done. Rowe found himself wishing he could explain to Cheryl that this was for the best. That he could handle things much better now that he only had to worry about protecting her, and that he didn’t have to guard the secret anymore.

  All that was left was to tell her about himself, and to track the shifters down to their den. Simple. He could have it fixed in a day. Add on a few more for Cheryl to cope with the knowledge he was a dragon, a few after that for them to simply be alone. A week, max, and the workers could return. He even suspected that Palin could be talked into paying them for the time off, especially if they hadn’t found other work in the meantime.

  “It had to be done.”

  “I know,” she said, sad and dejected. “That doesn’t make it any easier of a pill to swallow.”

  Rowe hated seeing her like that. Beating herself up inside, thinking it was all on her. This project was going to succeed. Rowe wasn’t going to let it fail, no matter what it meant he had to do behind the scenes. With or without her knowledge.

  “Now there’s just one last thing to do,” he said, bracing himself.

  Cheryl turned, eyes wary and suspicious. A thick lock of curly hair fell across her face, hiding her perfectly arched eyebrow. With a casual flick she pushed it away. Her eyes never moved the entire time. “You flinched as you said that.”

  He held back his grimace. Rowe had tried to keep his emotions contained, but she was better at reading him than he thought.

  “What is it you haven’t told me, Rowe? Again.”

  Ignoring the barb, he forged ahead. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner they could get back to being mates.

  “You need to go as well. I’ll handle this.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stepped away from him. “No way in hell,” she snapped. “I’m not leaving you alone, Rowe. You’re not going to stay here alone. That’s suicide. Against a bunch of wolf shifters
? What on earth possessed you to say that?”

  Rowe bore up stoically under the tongue-lashing, not letting the pain in her expression affect him. He couldn’t, not now. He needed to stay strong. To stay aloof. Getting into an argument was not the way he’d wanted it to go, but if it served to piss her off enough to get her to leave, then his mission would still be accomplished. She would forgive him in time.

  That was a pain he was willing to endure if it meant the assured safety of his mate. No price was too large to pay when it came to her.

  “What would you staying accomplish besides playing to your pride?” he said once she was finished. “The best way to help me is to be somewhere that I can be confident you’re safe. Without you at risk, I can deal with this as needed.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this. What are you going to do, hunt them all down and shoot them?”

  “I don’t own a gun.”

  He didn’t need one. The rest of her sentence was fairly accurate though. With Cheryl gone to safety, Rowe would show these upstarts just why it was such a terrible idea to mess with a dragon. It would be far too intense of a battle for a human to be around. And if they knew his connection to her…

  Rowe shuddered at the thought. No, he couldn’t allow that to pass.

  “I’m not leaving. End of story, Rowe.”

  He started to say more but she pushed past him, tears sparkling at the corners of her eyes. She made it halfway back to the ranch house before spinning on him.

  “I can’t believe you.” Her voice cracked, but she pushed on, wiping tears away as they fell. “This is exactly why I should never have opened up to you in the first place. Mixing business with pleasure was a terrible idea. I should never have done it. You don’t believe in me, just like everyone else. You look at me and all you see is an obstacle in the way. I’m not stupid; I know I couldn’t tangle with a werewolf. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help in other ways, Rowe.” She looked down, shaking her head. “You’re just too blind to see it.”