by Jill Haven
“I can’t do that,” I called back.
“Get your ass down here, Poole. Don’t make me come up there.”
Laughing, I glanced longingly toward the kitchenette. I hadn’t taken my pill, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe Jade was just the distraction that would settle me down. My heart warmed. She was such a good friend.
“In a minute.”
Jade waved at me again, and I rushed to the bathroom to drag a clean washcloth over my face. Deciding things were as good as they would get without a shower, I splashed on some spicy cologne to cover up a shift of working with greasy food. After that, I locked up and hurried outside. It took everything inside me to push through my anxiety and not stumble down the steps. It would be so much easier to take one of my pills and go to sleep. I dragged in deep breaths and counted down from one hundred, doing everything I could think of to make myself okay. I still wasn’t what I would call good when I stepped foot outside, but I was doing a little bit better.
Jade sat in her car, parked unapologetically in the narrow street next to the apartment building, with her visor down and smoothing red lipstick on her pouted lips. Fondness swamped me even though I was still jittery, and I chuckled as I got close to the car. I ran around to the passenger side and she smiled at me and put the visor back up as I dropped into the seat.
“What are you laughing about, Mr. Poole?”
“Why do you always put that stuff on before we eat?”
She sighed and rolled her eyes, slipping her sunglasses onto her face.
“Well?”
She started the car. “Because,” she said as she pulled into the right lane with a cursory check, “of the Stud Rule.”
Frowning, I studied her. “What’s that?”
“The second you look like a hot mess, the studliest man you’ve ever seen will walk his ass by you.”
“Oh, well… I can’t argue with that.”
Already feeling better, I smiled at her and relaxed back against my seat. She was so short that she had her seat slid the whole way forward and still scared me sometimes because I wasn’t certain she could actually see all of her mirrors. Instead of turning toward Main Street when she reached the end of my road, Jade piloted us left. Lots of pretty, well-kept houses with flowers along the sidewalks and porch swings flashed by outside my window. The only place she liked to go was Turf on the edge of town, and it was a good thing she liked it because it was also the only real restaurant in a fifty-mile radius, other than Go Wild.
“I forgot to eat at work. You saved me from ramen,” I whispered to her. The car bumped over an uneven pave job into the parking lot for the steakhouse. The building resembled a wood barn on the outside, and the only nod to the business it housed was a regular door smack dab in the middle of the wall facing the parking lot. There was no roadside sign, just a lit-up letter board with Turf—Daily Specials next to the entrance.
“I’m a hero.” She took off her sunglasses to hook them in the collar of her long-sleeved shirt and winked at me. “Let’s eat. I’m starved.”
“I don’t know how you eat so much.”
“Pure talent.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
We got out and went inside together. The interior was lit up with overhead chandeliers that were never bright enough. I didn’t mind today, though, because I had a headache starting up. There were wooden tables that looked like they belonged in someone’s kitchen scattered around the room, and a lonely ‘Seat yourself’ sign stood directly inside the front door. So we did. There were two men at another table on the far side of the room, but I ignored them. I was about done with people today. I let Jade choose our seats and sat down across from her in relief.
She picked up the menu that was already waiting there at her place, a single piece of laminated paper, but didn’t glance at it. Instead, she stared at me, her brown eyes intense. “Eric said you fucked up six ways from Sunday at work.” She cocked an eyebrow.
“He didn’t.”
“No, he didn’t say that, but he was worried. He called me to check on you.”
Shrugging, I looked down at my own menu, not really seeing the words. I always got the same thing anyway.
“Yeah.”
“So, why?”
I shrugged again.
“You can’t keep doing this. He’ll fire you eventually.”
“I know.” My stomach seemed to shrink down to nothing.
She let out a hum that seemed like she didn’t quite believe me. Irritated, I nudged her foot with mine until she looked up.
“This is going to sound crazy.”
“Tell me.” Jade laid down her menu and focused on my face, quiet and nonconfrontational. That’s what I loved about her, she might be a brat sometimes, but she knew when I needed a friend. Grateful, I reached across and gripped her hand for a second before pulling mine back and hiding them both under the table.
“I think someone’s following me.” I checked around to make sure we were alone and hunched in on myself as I told her all about my foray into the woods in the early morning last week, and how I’d sworn someone was trailing me ever since. “And for some funky reason my apartment smelled like gross smoke when I got back from work today. Not that those two things are connected, but it’s another weird thing, and I sort of feel like I want to have a Xanax candy bar for dessert.”
Her eyebrows flew up, and I realized what that might sound like.
“Not to kill myself, just… I want to chill the heck out, you know?”
“Ugh, yeah.” She frowned and tapped her red fingernails against the table, staring over my shoulder.
“You think I’m nuts, right?” I almost needed her to tell me I was, and my stomach twisted when she only frowned harder, her pretty face pinching.
“Well… just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.” She shrugged. “Have you actually seen anyone?”
“No.”
She stiffened and swung her attention to my right, and I froze in place.
“See, the Stud Rule,” she grumbled dourly, but she didn’t smile at the man who approached the table. “I didn’t wear a dress, of course.”
The stranger was older than me, maybe by about ten years, I couldn’t tell beyond that. He stole my breath worse than my anxiety did. His eyes were the kind of blue the sky gets on a fall day when the air is cool and the clouds are all hiding. His smile blazed electric, with plush pink lips turned up at the corners that sizzled heat into my stomach and had my gut melting in a good way. I sat up straighter. The closer he got to us, winding his way through the maze created by the other tables, it became clear how much taller he was than me. I might be lucky if the top of my head reached his shoulder. Damn, they didn’t make men like that around here.
He stopped beside us and stood there staring at me. I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. Where had a guy like this come from? Sexy and old enough that maybe he wouldn’t act like a self-centered jerk—the way my ex-boyfriend had—I was interested in the stranger in a way I probably shouldn’t let on about. Muscogee was a small town, after all, and not known for kindness toward gay men.
“Uh…” I cleared my throat.
The man seemed to shake out of his trance and extended his hand toward me. “I’m new in town, and I saw you sitting over here. My name is Carlisle James.”
An irritated grunt from Jade couldn’t get me to look away from him. She was right. I hadn’t showered, and a stud had materialized. I hoped like hell I didn’t smell terrible.
“Haiden Poole.” My words came out as barely a whisper, but he didn’t frown and lean toward me the way people usually did when my voice let me down.
“Good solid name.”
I took his hand to shake and an electric jolt flowed from my hand directly to my heart and squeezed around it. My head swam, and for a terrifying second, it seemed like the chair fell away beneath me. The next moment everything was the way it should be, except for the crazy attractive stranger still holding
my hand. He glanced around, wide-eyed, and cleared his throat. When he focused on me again, his grin was smaller, but somehow burned brighter and more intimate.
“I think I’m going to like Muscogee,” he said, the low scrape of his sultry voice short-circuiting my brain.
Tugging my hand away, I ducked my head but couldn’t stop the heat that flooded my cheeks. Oh my god, who is this guy?
5
Carlisle
Warmth still shivered over my skin in subtle waves. They didn’t seem to dissipate with the removal of Haiden’s touch, only settle further into my flesh as a memory that begged to be repeated. I couldn’t get over how beautiful Haiden was with the dark sweep of his eyelashes touching his cheeks while he closed his eyes briefly—or unfortunately how young he must be. He seemed barely into his twenties, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
The charming pink that flushed across his cheeks and nose while I studied him obviously belonged to a young man who hadn’t known much of the world, and that made me want to protect him without knowing anything more about his situation. He looked up again, his dark hair falling across his face. He swiped the hair away nearly dislodging the glasses that framed and drew attention to his mint green eyes—a pop of color I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen on a human before—and made them seem even larger. He smelled more amazing than Mason had managed to convey with his ranting, and he was a thousand times more stunning.
Haiden’s compact, muscled body called to me in ways that begged me to take up a guard over him. That flurry of warmth that had passed between us grew in my chest and thrummed its approval at the thought of having him to myself. I breathed deep and caught the faintest hint of a potent, sweet baby powder scent—maybe with a greater hint of vanilla to it than usual with the omegas in my clan—but then my nose was clogged with the heavier smoky brimstone stench of furious dragon. Not entirely unpleasant because it was familiar, the swelling odor was strong, especially when put up against the allure of Haiden, who still stared very enticingly up at me. He licked the corner of his lips, and it was a near miss for me going to my knees beside him.
My stomach dropped when I noticed a pink, vicious scar that curled around his jaw and up behind his ear, as if someone had taken their time tracing that hurt into that exact spot. Anger blazed to life in me for a brief moment, even though the scar had to be years old.
“Excuse me, but we’re having dinner. Go away.”
I stood up straighter and met the eyes of the girl across the table whom I hadn’t been introduced to, and it took no time at all to realize she was the pissed-off dragon that I could smell. I’d caught a softer, much homier version of her scent at Haiden’s apartment this afternoon when Mason and I had been in there looking for any clues—medical records mostly—that may have hinted about Haiden’s true nature. We didn’t find so much as a blood donation card, and we’d ended up going out the window in a rush as Haiden clambered up the stairs. The incident had been a near miss, and that sort of introduction would have doomed my cause from the beginning. My mind spun with the possibilities of what a dragon, and a human omega of dragon descent, dining together might mean.
I was still having trouble believing he might be a Divine Omega, even with the way his personal perfume was colored and shot through with the earthy human smell that the others in the building carried. I inhaled deeper.
“Hello? You’re blocking our waiter.” The girl’s abrasive voice snapped me out of my daydream.
With a start, I stood aside for a tall, sheepish human teen who carried two glasses. He flashed me a nervous smile and went about arranging them in front of the girl I could barely pay attention to, and Haiden.
“Apologies, as I said, I just stopped by to say hello.”
Haiden studied me carefully, not glancing away, and my stomach lurched as our gazes clashed and held again.
“So you said. You’ve done it. So…” she waved her hand at me as if shooing off a dog. Her muscles were tense. Obviously, she wouldn’t hesitate to stand and get between Haiden and myself, and all at once the situation rearranged itself in my mind to become something I understood.
This she-dragon was his guardian.
What did that mean, though?
Curious now, on top of being entranced with Haiden and his dizzying omega scent, I nodded her way and sent one last lingering smile at him. He let out a small sound, somewhere between a squeak and a sigh, and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“Well, don’t allow me to interrupt your evening further. I do hope we meet again,” I said directly to Haiden.
He nodded nearly imperceptibly and that lovely blush on his cheeks flared brighter. “I’d like that,” he murmured.
Walk away before you embarrass yourself. I generally gave myself good advice, but it was more difficult than I would have liked to execute. With one final smile, I headed toward a hallway that housed the restroom in the corner of the dining area. Mason raised his eyebrows as I walked past our table at a fast clip, but I shook my head and gestured toward my goal. Thankfully, he didn’t follow me.
Heading into the men’s room, I went directly to the sink and hunkered down, turning the knob for cold water. I captured some in my cupped hands and splashed it directly onto my face. Even that wasn’t enough to jolt me out of my reverie, the slight stupor caused by only staring at Haiden. What might happen if I caressed more than his hand? That gentle pulse of warmth that had flared into existence when we touched still trembled beneath my breastbone as if it had a life of its own.
Rocked to the core, I splashed my face a few more times even though it wasn’t helping, and then stood there for a moment with water dripping down my face, staring at my own reflection. Haiden, omega or not, was very young compared to me. I’d seen over 325 years on American soil, and had a little over twenty-five years before that in Wales. I was probably older than he is now when I boarded a ship for the Americas with my clan to start a new life unhindered by humans.
It would be a struggle to keep him an equal in any relationship with me. Then again, he might surprise me as well, and to be fair I’d taken a lover by the time I was his age. We’d been a flash in the pan and had burned out quickly. I already knew I didn’t want to be his experiment, if I was able to convince him to have me. Was I really already considering him for a relationship?
Chuckling, I snagged a paper towel out of the dispenser by the trash can and gave my face a cursory swipe. And now here dragons were again, trapped on all sides by people, wasting away. Sighing, I threw the paper into the bin and opened the restroom door only to walk straight into a knife point aimed at my heart.
The silver blade was all I could focus on at first. Curved, like a fully transformed dragon claw, the knife was of the sort that could be folded up and hidden away if necessary. Dumbstruck, I followed the gleaming metal to a damnably discordant view of a delicate wrist and then onward to the dragon who had been sitting with Haiden. Of Asian descent, or perhaps she’d simply transformed into the visage of someone of that heritage, I couldn’t tell, she pressed her mouth into a thin, red line and her eyes snapped murder.
“I know who you are,” she snarled.
“Who am I?”
“I would have thought the Princeps Draco of the Blood Clan would have better things to do than go sniffing around after omegas who aren’t his to claim. I don’t care if we’re in the Northeast and you’re the elder of the region, that’s not good enough reason to force dragons to submit.” She lifted an eyebrow.
“We don’t operate that way in my clan.” I cleared my throat as she leaned the knife point into my shirt harder. “At least, we haven’t for a very long time. I would never claim someone against their will.”
Eyes narrowed, she pressed the knife more sharply against my chest until a small prick of pain trembled through me, and I knew I’d have a hole in my shirt.
“Go away. Now.”
“I really need to speak with Haiden.”
Her eyebrows furrowed, but that was the only
indication she might be considering my words. “How did you learn about him?”
“Who are you to him?” I fired back. “Surely you’re not together? He’s an omega. They never take female lovers.”
She did a fine job of rolling her eyes while keeping me in check with her blade. “My name is Jade Turner.” She said the words like a soldier giving serial and rank, like I’d have to pry anything more important out of her with torture.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I protect him. He doesn’t know. Not about me. Or dragons. He’s innocent.”
Those words hung in the air, and her strength was an indication that she was likely old enough for there to be a double meaning in there—innocent in knowledge and perhaps in body? Another warning to back off. Nodding, I tried to ease away from her knife, but she paced me, and I settled myself. She hadn’t stabbed me yet, so hopefully she wouldn’t. “And?”
Such a distinctly human expression of contempt crossed her face that I laughed, but she twisted her knife and I covered my mouth to cough instead.
“Haiden’s grandmother was my clan leader. She was my mentor and we were friends. She begged me to protect him when he was born. That’s all you need to know about his past. She wanted him to be protected from alphas like you who would use him for their own gain, as a baby maker to further the numbers of their own clan. He doesn’t deserve to be used that way. He deserves to be treated well.”
“I would never—”
“I don’t care how you fucking found him.” She stomped her foot and grimaced. “And I don’t care who you have under your control. If you don’t leave, I will make you regret it. He’s not from your clan, and he won’t be a possession to be hoarded. He’s not treasure.” She flashed her teeth at me and her canines only were fiercely pointed, displaying a shocking amount of control over her ability to shift.
“I thought only powerful elders could do that,” I mumbled.