But no adventure would make up for losing her clan a second time. She had spent hours picturing her baby growing up in a close-knit, loving clan. Now, he or she would have none of that. A sob tore from her throat, but she quickly willed herself to not break down. She had to hold it together.
She could still feel Liam, even if it wasn’t as pronounced. He was her mate, and she knew that he was out there. It gave her comfort to know that he was alive. She’d had no choice but to try and sever the connection. She had to listen to the witch and cut him off if she wanted him to live. She’d never forgive herself if something happened to him.
When she reached Santa Fe, she was too exhausted to keep driving, and she needed to eat again. She considered sleeping in her car, but she had money with her. If she ran out, she’d have to contact the vampires somehow. Nicolae would send money, no matter what. She was at least certain of that.
On the western outskirts of Santa Fe, she found a small hotel. She rented a room with a double bed and quickly fell asleep.
At two in the morning, she woke up to use the bathroom. The air around her felt heavy.
Liam. He was here. A soft tapping sounded on the door. She couldn’t leave her mate and the father of her hatchling outside. Hesitantly, she cracked open the door.
“Brynne! Thank God! I could feel that you were alive, but seeing you feels so much better.” He leaned his head against the door, but he didn’t try to push his way in. His nostrils flared, and his eyes glowed yellow. “Can I come in?”
Outside, a street lamp glowed over his SUV, bathing it in amber light. He’d driven himself, and he wouldn’t be hard to track at all, even without the magic the witches might use to hunt them down. She’d done her best to cut off her connection to him, but now that she could see his handsome face, the thread that connected them together as mates came roaring back to life.
She felt that spark ignite inside her chest, and once it had sparked, it burst and flared even harder. It swirled inside of her, circling from her feet, all the way up to her chest, and then on to her head. It was as if she was aware of every molecule in Liam’s body.
Now it was so powerful that she couldn’t imagine cutting it off, but that didn’t mean she wanted to let her mate die. Not if she could help it. “No. You can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Brynne. I need to see you.”
“Liam. She threatened to kill you.”
“I don’t fucking care.”
“Well, I do. I very much care if they kill you. I want you around to raise this baby.”
“I can’t very well do that from hundreds of miles away.”
“Maybe it won’t be forever. Between you, your brothers, me, and the vampires, we’ll figure this out eventually.”
“Fuck eventually. You’re carrying my baby, and you’re holed up in a hotel room alone. There is no eventually. There’s only right now.”
“Liam! Listen to yourself. I’m pregnant. She threatened to kill you, and she threatened to kill the baby, too. Don’t blow off my fear.”
Liam deflated. His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “She threatened our baby?”
“She absolutely did. I saw the look in her eyes. She wasn’t bluffing.”
“Why? Why now?” he asked.
“She thinks we’re building another clan of dragon shifters.”
His eyes went hard. “Maybe we should.”
“It didn’t work out so well last time.”
“No, but we’d be able to plan. Make plans for an uprising.” He sighed. “Can I please come in?”
She reluctantly opened the door. Once he was in, he locked the door, not that it would do a damn bit of good against a deranged witch.
Liam took both of her hands in his. “Brynne. I missed you every second that I was gone. It was awful. I know we have a contract, and I know you’re supposed to be my surrogate, but I love you. I want to be with you.”
Her head was spinning. She had not been expecting that kind of admission or declaration. Although she’d known they were mates, so maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised. “You do?”
“Yes. I want us to raise this baby together. You feel it, don’t you? Our bond?”
“Yes, I feel it. There’s no way to deny what we are to each other. We’re mates,” she said.
“Yes,” he said. “We’re mates.”
“I didn’t know it would be like this.”
His eyes searched hers. “What did you think it was going to be like?” he asked.
“I didn’t expect this level of intensity. Nobody ever mentioned how clearly they could feel the emotions of their mate.”
“Maybe it was taboo to talk about.” Liam shrugged. “Maybe some couples had more of a connection than others, so it was not always a welcome topic of conversation.”
“Were there ever couples that weren’t mates?”
“Yes. Brennan’s parents were not mates.”
“How did that work out for them?” Brynne asked.
“They were very practical, but there was some resentment there. I remember Brennan asking them what would happen if they met their mate later on. They said nothing would change, which makes me wonder if maybe one of them had already met someone, but they had to deny their connection.”
“It seems very likely,” she said. “Maybe they decided too soon to partner up and raise Brennan, and then one of them met their mate, and everything fell apart.
“You’re right.” Liam nodded, squeezing her hands in his. “I can’t imagine feeling the way I do about you and being partnered with someone else.”
“I can’t imagine having to deny myself the opportunity to be with my one true mate.”
“Me either. Please don’t bring this up to Brennon. It’s not an easy topic for him. Whenever we discuss mates, he’s always happy for Liam and for Quinn, but it was definitely a challenge in his life when we all lived with the clan.”
“I won’t ever bring it up,” Brynne promised. “I’ll respect his privacy.”
Brynne hated that for him and for his parents. Although, it was a good reminder for her that the female partner in the clan wasn’t perfect. Because she lost her clan so suddenly and so young, it was easy for her to romanticize every aspect of it, to only look back and see the happy things and none of the scary or the sad.
“I was seventeen,” Liam said. “So, I had a young adult perspective. I didn’t have any idea how fragile our way of life really was. I knew that witches existed, just like I knew humans existed, but in my teenage mind, they didn’t factor into my life at all.”
“It was the same for me, too, at ten. I’m not sure I even had a concept of if there was a world behind our cliffs. Of course, I’d seen humans, but I’m not sure I had ever interacted with one. I certainly had never interacted with the vampire before.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I am so sorry that we missed you when we fled.”
“No one could have known to look for me,” she said. “I would have slowed you all down anyway.”
“We would never have left you behind.”
She kept looking over her shoulder, although when she turned her head, there was nothing there.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked.
“I feel like the witch is still lurking.”
“I don’t feel her.”
“I don’t, either, and that scares me.”
Liam pulled the blanket back on her bed and gestured toward it. “We should probably get some sleep. I’ll stay up, and you and the baby rest.”
“Okay. Be careful.”
“I always am.”
He walked her back to the bed and actually tucked her in, pulling the covers up around her shoulders.
She drifted off easily but was startled awake by a shout. She knew instantly that the witch was back. Niamh had followed her and tracked her to Santa Fe. She jumped from the bed. The door to the room stood wide open. She raced outside, with one hand circled protectively over her stomach.
In the parking lot, Niamh had Li
am pinned against his SUV with a glowing staff. “You’ll regret the day you ever tried to spawn, Liam Murphy. I am so tired of you dragons. You are a plague upon my kind, and we are done trying to get you to see reason. We just want to rid the world of your evil.”
Brynne wasn’t going to listen to this bullshit anymore. She didn’t care if any of the hotel guests saw her. She didn’t care if they called the police. She didn’t care if they got it on surveillance. She was a fucking dragon shifter, and she was going to use the power that she’d been born with to fight this monster.
Brynne threw her head back and roared. She let the fire shoot from her mouth. When she roared, she opened her mind to Liam. She had no idea if dragon shifters could share strength with one another, but it was worth a shot. It certainly couldn’t make things worse at this point.
The roar distracted Niamh, and she looked in Brynne’s direction. While her head was turned, Liam lunged forward. Liam seemed to receive Brynne’s power, and he grabbed for the staff with his bare hands. The staff was imbued with magical powers, Brynne was sure of it. She’d been warned by the vampires about the unpredictable magic employed by the witches. They relied on spells instead of brute strength, and the magic wasn’t always stable.
But they had no defenses against fire. Brynne breathed fire again.
Niamh wailed as the flames singed her skin. She screamed louder, and Liam, who could not be burned, took the opportunity to grab for the staff again. This time, he caught it. He yanked it from her. It was obviously enchanted because it took all of his strength, but he pulled it away from her. He held it in the air and then brought it down over his knee. The staff snapped in half over his leg, and when it clattered to the ground, it was no longer glowing.
Niamh had put out the flame, but her robes were smoldering. She pointed at Brynne. “You! Say goodbye to your baby now! You have crossed me for the last time.”
Despite the threat of more flames, she raced toward Brynne, but Liam was ready for that. He pulled a sharp knife from his pocket and threw it. The knife lodged in Niamh’s back, on the other side of her heart. She hit the ground with a thud. Liam wasted no time. He yanked the knife from her back and quickly slit her throat.
Brynne backed up and leaned against the hotel wall. Suddenly, all of her strength was gone. Liam rushed toward her and steadied her. “Hey, let’s get you back in bed.”
“I’m not exactly going to be able to sleep after that,” she said, glancing at Niamh’s body on the parking lot asphalt.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said. “But it had to be done. We’ve been tiptoeing around them for fifteen years now, and I’m done.”
“That may be true, and while I’m sorry I had to see it, I’m also sorry that you had to do it. I’m sorry that she forced your hand.” Brynne brought her hands up to rest on his cheeks. She rubbed her palms over the stubble on his cheek. “Thank you for saving us. You saved your baby and me.”
Liam lifted her into his arms and carried her into the hotel room. He laid her on the bed and fixed her a glass of water.
She took a long sip of the water. “Why are there no sirens or alarms, or even any other guests coming out to see what was going on?”
“My guess is that Niamh put a spell on the whole area so that no one would interfere with whatever she had planned.” He kissed Brynne on the cheek. “You stay put. I’ll go out and get everything taken care of.”
“It’s too bad that her body won’t just disappear like the villains do in some human movies.”
“Yeah, that would be very nice.” He yanked the sheet off the other bed and draped it over his shoulder before he left.
Liam locked the door behind him, even though it wouldn’t do any good. A lock wouldn’t stop anything that could harm her.
She did get out of bed and peek out the window as Liam walked a lap around the parking lot. Apparently satisfied that no humans had seen anything amiss, he went back to Niamh’s body and wrapped her in the sheet. He picked her body up and then walked away from the parking lot into the barren land beyond the hotel.
He came back about thirty minutes later, smelling like the night air. “Where did you go?” she asked.
Liam went to the sink and started scrubbing his hands. “I shifted, flew her out to a canyon, dug a hole, and incinerated her body. Then I covered her with sand.”
“Wow. Thank you for taking care of that.”
She knew Liam was first and foremost a dragon, but she’d grown used to seeing him in his human role of town lawyer. Under that pristine suit was an efficient dragon shifter who still knew how to take care of problems, but it didn’t mean he liked doing it.
He gathered up all of Brynne’s belongings. “We’re leaving now. Come on.”
“What about my car?” She was exhausted, and there was no way she could drive back to Cedar Lake anytime soon. Hell, she couldn’t drive down the street right now.
“I’ll hire someone to drive your car back. We’re not staying here another minute.”
She started to push herself up, but he got there first. Liam lifted her up and carried her to the car. She felt kind of ridiculous, but at the same time, it was nice to be spoiled.
She wrapped her arms around him tight. “Thank you, mate,” she said as he helped her into the car.
He leaned down to give her a firm kiss on the mouth. “You’re welcome, mate.”
She wanted to sleep for the entire nine-hour drive home, but first, she had to see if she could get their loop back. If it was damaged for good, she’d never forgive herself. She’d managed to send him something during his fight with Niamh, but then it had faded away.
She closed her eyes and pictured that same braided rope looped through her body. Then she imagined rebraiding it, letting it connect her with Liam. Then, it was back. The loop surged, connecting her and her mate, and the awareness shot through her body like a bolt of lightning.
Liam nearly ran the car off the road. “Brynne! You’re back.” He yanked the car over on the side of the road and lifted her into his arms. He pressed his mouth against hers.
She opened her mouth, letting him kiss her, and she tightened her arms around him. “I didn’t know if it would work.”
“Damn. I’m so glad it did. I had no idea a loop could be that strong, and then when you severed it, I thought I’d never feel happy again.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I thought I had to.”
“You did the right thing. You were trying to protect our baby from the witches.”
She didn’t want to bring it up as they drove, but she wondered, what would it be like to sleep with her mate? Especially now that they had a looped connection. She was ready to find out.
23
Liam
Liam drove back to Cedar Lake. He wished he’d been able to enjoy the changing scenery a little bit more, but recent events had him on edge. The last day had been brutal.
First, he felt his mate’s distress halfway around the world. Then, he returned home to find her gone. Then, he had a brief moment of an intense connection with his mate, only to have it abruptly shattered. Once he’d found her, he discovered just how mercenary the witches really were and how far they were willing to go to claim victory over the dragon shifters.
The icing on the cake was that he’d murdered Niamh. Sure, she had attacked him first, and she had been planning to kill him. There was no sugarcoating the fact that negotiating with her would have been impossible, so he had no choice but to kill her, but he wasn’t a violent shifter. That had never been his role, even though he was glad he killed her. It was self-defense.
There wasn’t a jury in the world that would convict him if dragon shifters cared about events like criminal trials, which they did not. They did not usually follow a complicated system of law and for good reasons. The one pact they’d entered into with the witches had not been a success, and he was in no hurry to try it again. Her death ate at him, and her demise haunted his dreams.
When they got back t
o Cedar Lake, his brothers were already back home from Ireland.
He called an emergency meeting, and they met at Kellan’s house. He didn’t even bother saying hello to his brothers. Liam figured he better get the unpleasant part of the conversation out of the way. “I killed Niamh,” he said. “Did you all kill the others left in Ireland?”
“No, they’re not dead. We gave them some new parameters about leaving Ireland.”
Liam slammed his fist down on Kellan’s coffee table. “Parameters aren’t good enough. When the fuck are we going to grow up and start handling this problem?”
Quinn frowned. “Liam, are you feeling okay?”
“No, I’m not fucking feeling okay. My mate was stalked and followed by one of those parasites. When is enough going to be enough?” He pointed at Kellan. “Your child was kidnapped. Don’t you want them to stop?”
Kellan stood up. “You need to settle down.”
“I am not going to settle. Settling down is what got us here.” Liam glared at Kellan. “Settling is what got us all into this mess because your parents wanted to be diplomats instead of warriors.”
Kellan lunged across the table, but Brennan caught him around the waist and held him off while Quinn grabbed Liam by the shoulders and shook him.
“You need to get a grip,” Brennan said. “Insulting our greatest leaders is not the answer to this problem.”
After they calmed down, Brennan pulled Liam away from the group. He dragged him into the kitchen and poured him a small glass of whiskey. It wouldn’t do much to affect Liam with his metabolism, but having something to sip in his hand might help him calm down a little bit. Instead, Liam threw the whole thing back in one and swallowed, draining the glass.
“I get that you’re pissed off, but taking out on Kellan is not the way to go.” Brennan tapped Liam’s chest. “Next time you lose your mind on one of us, I’m going to stick your head in the freezer.”
“And I’m going to punch you in the face,” Kellan said from behind them.
Lawyer Dragon's Surrogate (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 3) Page 11