no were to run

by Robyn Peterman

  “Is that a challenge?” I asked as I ground my backside against him.

  “It is,” he agreed readily. “I hear a Dragon can’t resist a challenge.”

  “You heard right,” I purred as I began to rock my hips in earnest.

  “God, I love being a Dragon,” Nicolai shouted.

  I did too.

  And I accepted his challenge again and again and again because far be it from me to run from a dare.

  Chapter 19

  “Do you want to tell us anything?” Maria asked with a wide smile she couldn’t hide and didn’t even try to.

  My suite was filled with Dragons and a Wolf. I’d slipped away when Nicolai fell asleep. I realized he’d lied a little about the snoring thing. I just hoped he hadn’t exaggerated his prowess with putting the toilet seat down.

  “Um…no?” I said as I popped open a bottle of water and downed it.

  Sex made me thirsty. A marathon of sex made me feel like the Sahara Dessert.

  I was not about to give a blow by blow to my niece, my mate’s brother and mother, the nutty Warlock Dragon and an Alpha Wolf—pun kind of intended. It was very clear they knew what happened by the embarrassingly enormous grins on their faces. I didn’t need to add to their fun.

  “I’m so happy,” Maria screamed and tackle hugged me. “Can I call Nicolai Uncle Nicolai now?”

  “You’ll have to take that up with him,” I grunted as I crawled out from underneath her with the tiny bit of dignity I had left.

  “Welcome to our family,” Elaina said with outstretched arms and tears in her eyes.

  This was so wildly uncomfortable for me. It was bad enough that Elaina knew I’d boffed her son for a few hours, but it was even harder for me to accept that I had a family who didn’t want to kill me.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled as I hugged her back.

  “I saw all of this, my sister,” Seth said as he took my hands in his and squeezed them tight.

  “A heads up might have been nice,” I said with a laugh and a wince.

  “That’s not how it works. Fate has to play out on its own terms,” he said as he kissed my forehead and smoothed back the hair that I was sure was far more out of control that usual.

  “Essie is downright beside herself with joy, little Dragon. And I am too,” Junior crowed as he picked me up and swung me around the room like a rag doll. “We’re gonna have a big dadgum party when all this shee-ot is over. And by the way, I think that call you made to Sandy is helpin’. She talked on the phone for a full seven minutes before she got pissed and hung up on me. I should probably quit comparing her ass to the moon and stars. I figured that crap was poetic, but she thought I was sayin’ she had a big butt.”

  As usual, Junior left me speechless, but I’d come to expect that and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Lenny was the most sedate of the group. He touched my face and then turned his back on me and lifted his shoulder length hair. I was confused by his bizarre action until I saw what he wanted me to see. Thankfully I was near a chair because my knees buckled and I gasped so loud the entire room quieted.

  Lenny’s mark matched mine. It matched Daniel’s and it matched Maria’s. Who in the hell was he?

  He let his hair fall back into place and turned back to face me. He tilted his head to the side and was silent as he watched the plethora of emotions cross my face.

  “Who are you?” I whispered.

  “My name is Leonardo and I’m of your line.”

  “No. I mean who are you to me?” I asked a bit louder.

  Maria slowly walked over and stood next to me. She’d seen the same thing I had and was just as confused.

  “I suppose you would call me your grandfather,” he said with a small shrug. “I’m your mother’s father.”

  “Wait,” Junior said trying to piece the puzzle together that had so many missing pieces it was ridiculous. “Why in tarnation aren’t you the King?”

  “We’re a matriarchal society,” Lenny answered quietly. “My mother ruled for thousands of years and then my daughter should have ruled next. However, this did not happen.”

  “Because my father killed her,” I finished the horrid tale. “And you’re the Dragon Warlock that he imprisoned.”

  Lenny nodded.

  “Is your voodoo handed down?” Junior asked a question I hadn’t even thought of. “Is that why Dima can poof places?”

  Again Lenny nodded and watched me carefully.

  “Wait,” Maria said as she sat down beside me with a thud. “Can I poof too?”

  “You can and so can Daniel,” Lenny said.

  “Well, this certainly explains why you knew Maria was my brother’s child.”

  Lenny shrugged and smiled.

  “So are you just going to answer the questions we come up with or are you going to shed some real light here?” I asked getting frustrated. I was still digesting that Lenny was my grandfather and his cryptic ways were driving me nuts.

  “For now I’ll answer questions. You’re very much like children at the moment. You’ll ask the questions when you’re ready for the answers,” Lenny explained.

  “Oh my God,” Maria gushed. “Can I call you Great-Grandpa?”

  “If that is what you wish,” Lenny said with a chuckle.

  “This is fucking unbelievable,” Maria shouted, clearly forgetting we were all right next to her. “In just over a week, I got an aunt, a cousin, an uncle and a great-grandfather. I mean who in the hell would have guessed that?”

  The door to my suite flew open and a half dressed, wildly upset Nicolai burst into the room. “Where is she? Did she leave?” he roared as his eyes scanned the room in desperation.

  As soon as they landed on me, he calmed. He ran his hands through his hair and audibly sighed with relief. My company slipped quietly from my suite and closed the door behind them as Nicolai and I stared at each other.

  “You thought I would run?”

  “Yes…no. I didn’t know,” he answered honestly.

  I’d never seen him so vulnerable and it made my heart hurt.

  “I’m still here,” I said and grabbed two bottles of water. I tossed him one and he downed it in one sip.

  “God, I was thirsty,” he muttered and he stood in the middle of the room, still unsure what to do with himself. “I just thought…”

  “Thought what?”

  “I thought I might have scared you with the renegotiation of terms thing. I swear to you I’ll honor the deal we made. You’ll be free to go when your father is dead. I was just kidding about making you come until I got what I wanted—well, kind of. I mean I did make you come…” His grin was all kinds of sexy, but his eyes belied his bravado.

  “What if I don’t want to go?” I asked as I popped open my water and chugged it. I knew the mature adult thing to do was to maintain eye contact, but I was putting it all on the line and I chickened out. It was so much easier to kill stuff than it was to talk.

  “You want me to go?” he asked, now completely confused.

  I rolled my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Did I have to spell it all out for him?

  “Noooo,” I said slowly as if I were talking to Daniel. “What if I wanted to stay and I wanted you to stay too?”

  “Would we have separate living quarters?” he asked still not following.

  Clearly, I had to spell it out.

  “Um, no. I was thinking maybe we could live together.”

  “Like together-together?”

  “Is that a problem for you?”

  Oh my God, had I misinterpreted all this? Did he want me to leave?

  “Hell no, that’s not a problem,” he said in a voice better suited for the outdoors. “Are you sure?”

  I looked at the half clothed Dragon standing in my room taking up most of the air and space and I sighed. He was beautiful when he was in control and just as stunning when he was unsure of himself. I knew he didn’t he loved me the way I loved him, but that didn’t matter. I’d been so deprive
d of love my entire life I had enough for both of us.

  Fate had handed me several gifts—Daniel and now Nicolai. I was certain she expected me to cherish what she’d bestowed and I accepted her challenge. I was a Dragon after all.

  “I’m sure.”

  Before I could utter another word, his lips crushed mine. I wrapped my arms around his huge frame and moaned happily into his mouth.

  “I promise to make you happy,” he whispered as he planted little kisses all over my face. “And I will love Daniel, too.”

  “Too? You mean you love me?” I asked, startled as I pulled back and searched his face for a sign he was lying.

  “Um…yes. Is that okay?” he asked cautiously, trying to gauge if he’d said the wrong thing to the crazy woman.

  Tears filled my eyes and I dropped my head into my hands.

  “I swear to God I’ll never say it again. I’ll only think it,” he bargained, totally at a loss on how to handle the sobbing Dragon who was now on the floor. “Oh shit,” he muttered as he sat down on the carpet next to me and took me in his arms. “I’m in new territory here. My mom—whose ass I’ll kick later—said I was supposed to be honest with my emotions. I didn’t even know I had any emotions until you came along.

  He waited for a response, but I was still choking on my tears.

  “Would it help if I let you zap my ass with that pink fire you have? How about I keep letting you call me names with ass in it. I’ve grown partial to Asscanoe. However, I’ll fry the living hell out of anyone that dares to call me that but you. Dima, please stop crying. I didn’t mean it.”

  “You didn’t?” I asked as I peeked at him through splayed fingers.

  “Fuck.” He let his head fall back on his shoulders and he groaned at the ceiling. “Yes, I did mean it, but if it upsets you this much we can pretend that I don’t like you at all. Will that work?”

  “No, Asscanoe. That won’t work,” I said as a little grin pulled at my still trembling lips.

  “Help me out,” he said, removing my hands from my face. “Not real sure how to proceed here.”

  “I love you,” I said.

  Nicolai looked terrified and I laughed.

  “Call me crazy, but I’m just going to ask you exactly what I’m supposed to do,” he said warily.

  “You say you love me too.”

  “Will that result in a sob-fest again?”

  “Those were happy tears,” I told him with a giggle as I wiped away a few stray droplets.

  “Sweet Jesus, this is far more complicated than I’d anticipated.”

  “Do you want out?” I asked as I scooted closer and smoothed my hand over his wrinkled brow.

  “No. I do not want out,” he informed me in the same tone he used to talk to his lieutenants. “However, a comprehensive list of what you mean as opposed to what your words and actions imply would be extremely helpful.”

  “I don’t come with an instruction manual.”

  He stared at me with a bemused expression for a long moment. “Well, this certainly won’t be boring.”

  He was right. Our life together would be anything but boring.

  Chapter 20

  “The shit has hit the fan. I repeat. The shee-ot has hit the fan,” Junior shouted with glee as he typed on his computer like he was hopped up on a vat of caffeine.

  “It’s working?” Nicolai asked as he looked over Junior’s shoulder with a wicked grin on his handsome face.

  “Like a goddang dream,” Junior said. “Going faster than I thought. The press is all over it and the King has made a statement that it’s sabotage. Says he knows who did it and he’s going after them. The world thinks he’s right off his rocker.”

  “The world is right,” I muttered. “How is it being explained in the press?”

  “Basically they’re telling a version of the truth and leaving off the fact that the bastard is over a thousand years old. It’s being reported that every cent he had was gained through blackmail and extortion and then invested through questionably legal means,” Junior explained as he texted on his phone and answered emails on his laptop, while watching several other computer screens at the same time. “We might have doctored the proof just a bit, but no one was gonna buy nine hundred year old cases.”

  “You’re multi-tasking skills exceed mine,” Nicolai commented as he gestured for all the lieutenants to be seated.

  It was Friday evening and our mission was a Go in a little over twenty-four hours. I was antsy to get started. I wanted it over with and I wanted to have my happy ever after—the very one I never thought I would have.

  “The Cows and Vamps will be here tomorrow morning,” Junior said, not looking up from the computer.

  Looks were exchanged between the Dragons, but they stayed silent. However, I did not.

  “What do you mean the Cows and the Vamps are coming?” I growled. “They’re watching over Daniel. They can’t come here.”

  “I asked them to come,” Nicolai said calmly. “Now that everything is about to go down, they’ll be safer here. We have a bunker that goes several stories underground and we’ll be leaving a contingency of Dragons behind for protection.”

  “Don’t you think I should have been consulted about this?” I asked in a tone that made everyone in the room duck for cover.

  “I did this for you,” Nicolai said not backing down. “I want our child to be safe.”

  The our child thing secretly thrilled me, but he wasn’t our child. He was mine and I made the decisions for him.

  “You will tell them to turn around now,” I said. “You had no right to do this without my permission.”

  “It was a group decision,” Seth cut in before I could shoot a fireball at Nicolai and singe the eyebrows off his face. “I had a vision and I’m the one who put the plan into action, not Nicolai.”

  “What did you see?” I demanded. “Did you see Daniel being harmed where he is now?”

  The thought made me ill.

  “No, my visions are mostly positive. I saw you holding Daniel in your arms and kissing him before you went into battle. I took it as a sign that he should be here.”

  I took three deep breaths and got a handle on my need to blow up the Command Room. I needed to speak and I needed to be understood.

  “Look here’s the deal guys, I’m not used to people making decisions for me or even giving a shit about my welfare, for that matter. While it’s alarmingly nice, you can never make a decision about my son without my knowledge again. Are we clear?” My tone was terse and I was holding onto my temper with difficulty, but I was okay with it this time. Next time…

  “I told you we should have checked with her,” Lenny said giving Nicolai a look.

  “Fine,” Nicolai shouted. “When I knew what was happening, I ordered everyone to stay quiet. I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Manual item number one,” I said as I got right up in my Dragon’s face. “Do. Not. Surprise. Me. When. My. Son’s. Life. Is. Involved.”

  “Cade, write that down and put it in a file called Understanding Dima,” Nicolai snapped in frustration. “I will never get women,” he muttered.

  “Alrightyroo,” Junior said with a relieved whistle. “Now that we got that solved with no bloodshed, you should know that the Cows plan to fight along side you.”

  “Why?” Elaina asked. “This is not their battle.”

  “With all due respect, I beg to differ,” Junior said as he stopped typing and glanced up at the shocked faces in the room. “The sumbitch who’s soon to be dead is the same peckerhead who ordered the mass destruction of their species. Over ninety-nine percent of their population was taken out because of the Dragon King. They want revenge and trust me, you want them on your side in this battle. However, I’d just like to put it out there that everyone should get a nose plug.”

  “Why?” Seth asked as he paled a bit.

  “Dima, you wanna clue them in or should I?” Junior asked, snickering like a middle school boy.

  “Wel
l,” I hedged trying to figure out a way to explain the Cow’s methods without using the word fart in a sentence. “They, um…emit lethal explosions that are, um… pungent.”

  “Oh for God’s sake,” Junior laughed and shook his head. “She means they blow deadly butt farts.”

  “I’m sorry. What?” Elaina asked with a scrunched nose and an appalled expression.