by Zoe Chant
“I went down pretty hard,” she said, hugging herself a little, despite the pain. She could picture them, grabbing at her, holding her down—
“Hey,” he said, and touched her arm. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m not going to let that happen to you again.”
She looked up at him. His face was serious. Determined.
“I promise,” he said.
It was enough to bring her mind back to the present. Back to the fact that Brad was looking straight at her, looking at her like she was something precious. Something he’d want to protect.
Despite the pain and the fear, warmth spread through her.
He seemed to have realized his intensity, and he stepped back from her a little. “I—did you want me to do anything? Help with the pain? We can go down and hit the medicine cabinet too. I won’t be offended, I promise.”
“If you can—it’d be faster than the pills, right? And it would…fix some of the damage?”
“It would,” he said. “I could do it right here and now. Won’t take more than a minute or two.”
“That easy?”
“It’s not a cure-all,” he said, “but it would take the edge off. And you won’t have to worry about re-injuring yourself. I don’t like the thought of you in pain.”
That was…well. It was nice. “Do I need to—do anything?”
“Just hold still,” he said. “It won’t take very long.”
“Move my arms, or—”
But he was already doing—whatever it was he was doing. His eyes were focused on her torso. She felt her face heating up again. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had looked at her so intensely. She couldn’t even remember when she’d wanted a man to.
He had his hands held out, just above her skin. Even though her ribs ached, part of her still wanted him to pull her close.
She wanted it even more as the magic took effect. The pain started slowly fading from her body, not completely gone, but muted. She could feel how close he was. He smelled clean, like soap. This close she could see the soft hints of waviness in his dark hair, the small, subtle variations from dark brown to near black. She could see how long and thick his eyelashes were.
She could feel how her heart was starting to pound.
Was dragon magic supposed to be a turn-on? Or was it just that she was so close to Brad now?
“My uncle,” he said, his eyes still glued to her, “could heal you completely, but I’m not skilled enough. Or old enough. Usually you only get that much power when you pass thirty.”
“You get better with experience?”
“That’s part of it,” he said. “Hold on—” He frowned a little in thought, and then put his hands down. The pain had faded pretty dramatically. “Better?”
“Much better,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Good,” he said, smiling at her. “Anyway, some of it’s experience, some of it is that our power really does grow, mostly, as we age. As we near the end of our lives, it fades again, but I’ve got a way to go before that.”
“Do you live—long?”
“We’re about the same as humans,” he said. “Generally a little more long-lived, and we’re less likely to die in, say, an accident. A little tougher.”
“Not as…thin-skinned?”
He laughed. “You could say that. I’m going to try to radio my uncle now, and you’re welcome to listen in.”
“Sure,” she said. “It’s pretty up here.” It made her wonder what it would be like to be a dragon shifter, to soar up this high in the sky. They must be pretty good at handling high elevations, too. She looked out in the sky, up above the clouds, and tried to picture Brad out there. It seemed hard to believe, even though she’d seen him in his dragon form. How long could he fly for? Was it strange to be here on the ground as a human? She had so many questions, and they all felt intrusive and rude.
He’d been pretty generous to explain things so far, though. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if she just asked a few more things. He’d been kind enough to save her, to tell her the truth—even to help her with the pain from her injuries. That meant he trusted her, right? At least a little. She liked that thought. Tomorrow, she’d probably be back at work, pretending none of this had ever happened to her.
Oh, she probably would have to talk about getting hurt. She might even be able to say a little about her rescue. But this strange, fascinating lair, and the dragon shifter who called it home? Not a chance.
Maybe she could tell them about the man she’d met. But they probably wouldn’t believe how handsome he was. Rachel could hardly believe it herself.
She could just put her hand down and touch his hair. In her fantasy, he would lean back against the touch, maybe moan a little, and she could put her face down to kiss him—
Brad shook his head, startling her out of her reverie. “Just figures,” he said. “Doug’s nowhere to be found. Half the time when I’m up here, he’s calling for me, and now that I actually want to talk with him—” He sighed. “I’ll try again after we eat. But there’s no sense in sitting around here all night. Do you want to see the rest of the lair? It’s more interesting without the illusion.”
“It was interesting already,” she said. “But I’d love to.”
“Good, because there’s some things I want to show you,” he said, eagerly. “I hope you’ll like this place.”
6
She blushed a little at his words, clearly flattered. He felt his cock react to her. He wanted to sit her on his lap right here, and—
Shit, that was just the start.
“I don’t see why it matters if I like it,” she objected.
“You’re special,” he said. “I want you to feel like this is…this is a place where you can belong.”
“I won’t pretend I’m not flattered,” she said, and he felt his whole body warming more at her pleased smile. “Though I’m still not sure why I’m so—special.”
“Well, there really aren’t that many dragons, honestly,” he said. “And even if there were a lot of us, we have to be a part of the world. Having humans as our friends, our allies—it’s incredibly important. It’s been important all our lives.”
“So you need, what? Men, women on the outside?”
“That’s…well, that’s a mercenary way of putting it. I guess my uncle would probably put it that way. Dad’s a little more—romantic, maybe? He says it’s about interdependence. Just like everything else in the world. We rely on each other. We’re not that different from humans who aren’t shifters, anyway.”
Rachel looked skeptical. “Except you have lairs carved out of stone.”
“Well, yeah,” he said. “There is that.” Probably not the best time to talk about what was in the hoards. Not yet. She was still getting used to a lot of things about his world. “Not just carved, if it’s any consolation. This isn’t all one big piece of marble. It’s joined, mostly. And if you look up in the ceilings there are a lot of small openings for ventilation, that sort of thing. It’s not as perfect as it looks.”
“Is that a dragon shifter thing, making things look perfect?”
“It’s…it’s not uncommon. But it’s not really my style, if you want to know the truth.” He wanted to slip his arm around her waist, but he wasn’t sure if it was the right time. “I guess I like things to feel a little less planned. Little more real.”
“I’m all for real,” she said. “Though I can’t deny that this is pretty.”
“It’s even more beautiful when the sun’s out. I can’t wait to show you.”
She walked ahead of him down the stairs, so he got to watch the gentle sway of her hips as she moved. She might have been wearing just a straightforward pair of jeans and a sweater, but the way she filled them out was still something to see.
With her walking ahead of him, he didn’t have to worry so much about his…interest showing. And he sure was interested. Dad had told him that he’d know, beyond all doubt, when it happened, when he saw his mate. Dad had been 100% r
ight.
All he wanted to do was pull Rachel in his arms, kiss her passionately, and take her into his hoard.
“Brad?”
Oh. He hadn’t been paying enough attention. “Sorry,” he said. “Just thinking.”
“I’m just going to grab another drink before the rest of the tour,” she said. “I’m just—I guess I got dehydrated, with everything that happened. And the sardines were salty.”
“Of course,” he said. “And—”
His thoughts were interrupted by the rumbling, like an earthquake that appeared to start at the center of the mountain. He caught Rachel’s arm. “Hold on,” he said. “This place is solidly built, but—”
“This is why I came out here,” she said. “And it’s not—you’re sure it’s none of the work you’ve done here in the mountain?”
“More than sure,” he said. “This place has been here for decades, and we’re well aware of the potential impact our actions have. The patterns don’t match up to any of our activity. I think—I fear—that it’s those other dragons. Anyone reckless enough to attack you might not care about what damage they would do to the mountain around them.” It certainly didn’t make much of a long-term plan. “I took a look when I went to find your stuff, but—well, they didn’t leave any calling card. I guess that’s not a surprise.”
He wished he’d seen what had happened. He wanted to know what his family was facing.
He wanted to throttle whoever it was personally, too, but that was another story. He couldn’t risk a war without having a better idea of what was going on, no matter how much he wanted to.
The rumbles faded, but he kept his hand on her arm, steadying her. The urge to pull her into his arms was almost too much to bear. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “We need to know what they’re doing, though. As soon as we can.”
“Agreed.”
“Your uncle—well, is there anyone in your family with geological knowledge?”
“My younger brother’s studying mineralogy,” he said, “and Doug’s an engineer. Grandpa was a stonecutter. He learned it from my great-grandfather, who was from the old country. Slovakia So—some? A lot of hands-on experience.”
“I’m worried,” she said. “If these people don’t have a good understanding of what they’re doing, they could do some real damage. Bring down the lair, and everything around it.” They both started walking down the stairs again. “Including us.”
That wasn’t an encouraging thought.
“So…what do you do?” Rachel asked. “When something like this happens?”
“It’s not common, which is good, but also why I have to check in with my uncle. There’s protocol. Complicated protocol.” The kind of thing he was glad that his uncle handled and not him. “He’ll have to ask the other clan leaders if they’ve seen this sort of thing, try to figure out who might be wanting to overstep their boundaries. A lot of careful discussion and negotiation. I don’t really have the patience for it. One of my younger brothers will probably take over as clan leader, when Doug passes it on. Or a grandkid.”
“Not your sister?”
“She’s not a shifter,” he said. “Most women aren’t, and not all men are, it can skip a generation. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to honor our relationship with humans who aren’t shifters. Without them, we wouldn’t have many little dragons around.”
She smiled at the thought. “Little dragons, huh? Can you shift when you’re babies?”
“Not babies, but toddlers,” he said. “A lot of shifter families end up home schooling, because they don’t want any embarrassments. We went to public school, though. Doug and my dad were pretty adamant about that, actually. They thought it was worth the tradeoff. It’s not like people don’t know shifters exist.”
“Did you ever—blow your cover?”
He grinned. “We did not, which just made them feel more vindicated that if a dragon shifter was just raised right they’d never screw up and shift as little kids. I’m…a little skeptical about that, myself.” Accidents could happen to anyone. “One of my best friends ended up shifting on a playground in first grade, just before he fell off the jungle gym. Didn’t want to break anything, so he went soaring. Flew all the way home. His mom came back from work, found him crying in his bed.”
“No one from the school called?”
“She’d just gotten a job, and the school didn’t have her number yet. From how Jace tells it, there was a lot of yelling.”
“I bet,” she said. “I’d freak out if a kid of mine had been home alone all day, for sure.”
But not about the dragon part. Brad felt his heart warming, along with everything else. I told you, his dragon said.
They’d reached the bottom of the stairs, and he resisted the urge to take her hand in hers. “So,” he said, settling for standing at her side, close enough to feel her warmth. “I promised you a tour.”
“You did. I confess, I’m looking forward to it.”
He offered his arm. It felt old-fashioned, but he wanted to touch her, and it seemed like an offer that would be easier to say no to.
She smiled, a gentle, sweet smile that made his insides tighten and his dick twitch, and took it. Her arm felt warm in hers.
“So, let’s start where you started, the room you woke up in, at the end of the hall. You’ll find it a little it different than it was. The…special features were pretty well hidden.”
“Special features,” she said, and he could hear pleasure and curiosity in her voice. “That sounds very interesting.”
“I’m not sure it’s that exciting,” he said. “But everything here is custom-made for shifters in both forms, dragon and human. Which means that they have to be big, to accommodate wings, and the lighting is pretty soft.” He opened the door to the chamber. “Dragons have excellent eyesight, which can make harsh lighting—well. Harsh. Also…we like gold.”
The recessed lights had golden fixtures, and there was a line of deep gold trim about a foot down from the ceiling.
The real treasure was the floor, though. It was a patterned marble inlay, with gilt covering the mortar. Totally impractical, of course, which is why it was only in the guest room.
“What the heck?” she said. “How did I not notice that?”
“You didn’t notice it because our magic told you not to,” he said.
“Wow,” she said. “What else didn’t I notice?”
“Not much, honestly. Using your fingers meant you saw how to get out of the room early. And I didn’t show you more than here and the kitchen and bathroom.”
“I still haven’t seen the bathroom,” she said. “You just showed me where it was, and I—I guess I was too busy being hungry.”
“You needed to eat, for sure,” he said. “I wouldn’t apologize for that. You’ve been through a lot today.”
“I guess you’re right. It still doesn’t really feel real yet, and I still don’t know why. I mean, all I had was a few instruments. I can’t believe I posed any kind of threat to them, you know?”
“The kind of people who would do what they did to you—” A shadow passed over his face. “They’re not the kind of people who make smart decisions. Clan law is pretty clear about getting close to another clan’s lair, and we don’t have much patience for hurting innocent people. Whoever it is, they’re either desperate or dumb. Maybe both. With a side of just plain evil. If they show up again—” Anger flashed over his face for a second. “Well,” he said. “After dinner, I should be able to talk to Doug…even he’ll be getting worried that he hasn’t heard from me. We’ll start getting things straightened out, and get you safe.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I honestly don’t know how I’ll explain it all, when I get back.”
“We’ll have to figure out a cover story,” he said. “You’ve probably got some pretty good bruising, so we can probably do something with that.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Come o
n,” he said. “I want to show you the rest of the lair. The individual hoards are off-limits, but you can see mine.”
“You…you really have a hoard?”
“I’m a dragon,” he said. “There are expectations to live up to.” He pointed at the doors in the hallway, showing his well-muscled arm in the process. They were big, too, though they didn’t seem as spacious as the main doors were. “So all of these are family hoards, and they’re locked. Mine’s next to the kitchen.”
Of course. The hoard next to the kitchen. He said it as matter-of-factly as saying he had the top bunk when he was a kid.
“I have a window, so that’s nice,” he said. “Little bit of a different view than you get from the radio room, if it hasn’t gotten too dark.”
“That sounds nice,” she said. “Is it getting too dark?”
“Maybe,” he said. “But at least you can see the room.”
Without the magic obscuring the real lair, she could see the claw marks that sometimes scraped the marble floor. She could see the brass hooks hanging from the walls next to the lighting; something for young dragons to hang from, perhaps? “You came here when you were a kid?”
“We used to visit pretty often,” he said. “If you’re wondering if I hung off those rings when I was a little dragon, the answer is yes. I went to college in Florida, but then I didn’t have much luck finding the job I wanted, and Doug asked me if I could take a little time working in the family business. He’s right that I can build up my resume that way, even if I did want to break out on my own to start.” He shrugged. “You know how it is. You don’t want things handed to you.”
“I get that,” she said. “My mom still wants to know why I didn’t just take over the family business. She says out here’s no place for a lady.”
“That’s…old-fashioned,” he said. “What do you say back to her?”
“Not much any more,” she confessed. “She—I love her. I’m proud of her. She’s worked really hard to run her business, and to help her community. She—I feel like she doesn’t believe me when I say that, but I do. But I can’t—”