by Milly Taiden
She felt overwhelmed with all these new names and women dashing in all directions in the feeding frenzy. Not to mention the initial impact of seeing the castle where Ker and his family lived.
Ker had introduced her to everyone, but only Morgan’s name stuck with a face since she was the first. Tiana’s brain cells were falling behind momentarily. A mug of coffee was in order.
One of the mothers asked Morgan, “Was Noah sick last night?”
Morgan wiped up yellow mush from the floor next to a highchair. She replied, “Not sick, exactly. I think he was missing his daddy. Tor is rarely gone at nights anymore. Noah saw him leave and probably wanted him back. I finally got him to sleep around three a.m.”
Tiana glanced at the clock. It was barely past ten. How long did babies sleep? She had a lot to learn.
“He’s been awfully quiet,” Morgan said. “I imagine he was exhausted. I should get him up so his naptime isn’t messed up. Don’t want him to be grouchy all day.” She left the room.
* * *
A screech loud enough to make a dog’s ears ring rolled through the castle. They picked up loose toddlers, gathering them at the table, then a couple ran from the room. Tiana followed the ones on the run.
“Morgan!” one of the women called out. They skittered around a corner and down a long hall. This place was massive. How could anyone find anyone else?
Around another corner, Morgan came running. Her face was void of color except for her cheeks, red from anxiety.
“Noah is missing,” she stammered out.
Who Tiana thought was Lexi grabbed Morgan’s shoulders. “Slow down, Morg. What do you mean he’s missing?”
“He’s not in his bed. It’s cold. Oh my god! Could the black dragons have him?” Morgan was in complete panic. Lexi held onto her tighter, calming her.
“Who are the black dragons?” Tiana asked. One of the biggest men she’d ever seen, next to Ker, stood behind her. How someone so big could sneak up behind her, she had no idea.
“The black dragons are our enemies. They been trying to kill our mates for years,” he said. “They’ve been quiet too long. We’ve been worried.” The man passed the woman, heading down the hall Morgan had come down. Tiana trailed him.
“So an enemy dragon broke into the castle and kidnapped a baby?” Tiana almost screamed. “How could that happen?”
“It couldn’t,” he said. “My name’s Clacher, by the way.”
“I’m Tiana. Ker’s friend.”
Clacher looked over his shoulder at her. “Welcome to the family.”
What? she thought. Before she could quiz him on that, he stepped into a room decorated in Puff the Magic Dragon décor. She wondered what that cartoon that was. She had more than a lot to learn. The big man in front of her took a deep breath then frowned.
Morgan and Lexi rushed into the room. “What do you smell, Clacher?” Morgan asked, tears flowing down her face. He took another big inhale.
“I smell Noah, but it’s not him,” he said.
“What?” Morgan said. “You’re not making sense.”
Clacher circled the room. “I realize that,” he said. “I don’t understand what I’m smelling either.” He stepped out of the room and turned, everyone following.
Clacher led them down the hall to another door. He peeked inside and looked around the bedroom and sniffed deeply. He stepped back and continued down the hall. He stopped at the next door and repeated the action in another bedroom.
“So,” Tiana said as they jogged down another aisle, “besides enemies, who are these black dragons? Do they look like you?”
Behind her, Morgan answered. “No. The blacks are nasty little pains in the ass dragons. It takes a lot of them to begin to hurt one of our dragons. What they don’t have in size, they have in quantity.”
Tiana asked over her shoulder. “Were you attacked by them?” An angry spark twinkled in Morgan’s eye.
“You bet I was,” she said. “They almost got to me if not for Tor.”
“What’s their purpose for trying to hurt you?” Tiana asked.
Clacher said, “Sayeh has some bone to pick with the royal family.”
“Hold on a sec,” Tiana said, almost stumbling as they hurried along, “Who is Sayeh and what about royalty?” The group went down a set of steps to a lower level.
“Sayeh is the leader of the blacks. And he’s a prime A asshole. I and all my brothers are the rulers of the whites,” he explained.
Lexi said from the rear of the group. “Whites? No one has said anything about whites.”
“The whites,” Clacher started, “are our clans, our people.”
“And the blacks aren’t?” Tiana asked.
“They are, but not right now,” Clacher replied.
Tiana snorted. “That made a lot of sense. Please explain.” Checher opened a door into a massive room filled with toys and beanbags and anything a child would ever want. The women spread out, Morgan calling for Noah. The male dragon sniffed at a ball, a fallen set of blocks, and more that led to another door.
“Morgan,” Clacher called, “he left through this door.” Tiana rushed to follow the man. They were into another hallway, the walls made of stone laid like brick. Just like pictures they showed on Travel Advisor.
“Clacher,” Morgan huffed, “Tor and Nana left to research a UFO. Is it more of your family?”
He shrugged. “Not anymore of us left. But it could be anybody, even clan.”
“Great,” Lexi partially whispered, “more discrimination between black and white.”
Clacher skidded to a stop and turned to them. “No. You are wrong. All our people are one group. No one is better than another. We care about them all.”
Lexi said with a blush, “But you have blacks and whites. One group isn’t above the other?”
Clacher let out a heavy breath and put his fist on his hips. “The color names we use are a misnomer.”
Morgan pushed Clacher forward. “Talk as you sniff. Find my son.”
He took off jogging down the aisle. “Clans are different from royalty by more than just size. My brothers and I can change colors based on what offense we choose when fighting. The smaller dragons turn color based on how they are feeling, simply put.” His hand came up, signaling no questions. “That means if a dragon has peace in their hearts, they are a light green color. If they are happy or tranquil, they’re mostly light green to white. White can also mean being frightened or unsure.”
“What emotion is black?” Tiana asked.
“Black is all negative, hate, fear—sometimes. The opposite of peace.”
Lexi said, “So, you’re telling us the blacks are black because they have hate in their hearts?”
“Yes, their leader encourages those destructive emotions,” he said. The group came to another stairwell and they climbed. Tiana was so ready for this to be over with. She’d never jogged so long in her life. How could a three-year-old travel this far? His legs would have to be tired.
“Why do they hate you? Or us, I guess,” Lexi asked, puffing up the steps. Tiana didn’t feel as bad now.
“I’m not really sure. You’d have to ask Nana. She’d know. Something having to do with the rightful leader of the clans. After Nana wiped out a shit load of them at the cabin, we haven’t heard a thing from them. That’s got us worried.”
Clacher opened the door at the top of the steps and they emerged into the kitchen, a dark corner not being used. A high-pitched scream rang out.
“Dang it, Clacher!” one of the women at the kitchen table hollered. “You scared the sh—crap out of us.”
“Sorry, following Noah’s trail.”
“What?” Avery asked. “I didn’t even know there was a door there.”
He shrugged again. “We don’t use it much. Just when coming from the playroom. Have you seen Ker?”
Oh yeah, Tiana thought. Where was he? He’d introduced her to the women then disappeared. She figured he didn’t want to be around a lot of women a
nd babies.
“Last I knew,” Avery began, “he was outside.”
Morgan dashed through the kitchen to the door leading out. Clacher sniffed toward the pantry and opened it. A box of Saltines lay in the middle of the floor. Missing from the shelf was the container housing the animal crackers. He grinned.
“Why are you smiling?” Tiana asked.
“Tell ya in a minute,” he said, hurrying out the door behind Morgan.
Outside, they heard the mother shouting for Noah and then Ker. Clacher looked down and Tiana followed his line of sight. On the ground just outside the door was a spilled container of…animal crackers. She wondered how those got there.
“Here we are, little guy,” Ker said, coming out of the trees. In his arms, he held the most adorable miniature dragon she’d ever seen.
Behind her in the doorway, the other two women sighed a “How cute.” They squealed on their way toward Ker and the little thing.
“Bet Mommy’s missing you,” Ker said, winking at Tiana. Her heart bounced in her chest. She stayed back to keep an eye on the children still inside. When she peeked in, the remaining kids where in a playpen.
“Noah!” Morgan yelled. Tiana watched as the mom grabbed her son…or dragon…from her hot guy and squeezed him in a hug. Ker made his way toward her, gorgeous smile on his lips.
“You saved the baby, Ker,” Tiana said. “You’re a hero.”
His cheeks blushed. “Nah, just found myself a hiding dragon.” The women passed by them, heading through the kitchen to a sitting room. Ker took her hand and led her in before his brother closed and locked the door.
Tiana had to know: “How did the little guy get all the way to the forest?”
“He was scared. I think he thought a snake was chasing him,” Ker replied, trying not to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Let’s just say I introduced Noah to his new dragon tail.”
“Awwww,” Tiana said. “How adorable.” The rest of the woman were gathered around the recently found dragon. “His first change.”
Clacher and Ker put their stories together to come up with the solution to the crime. In Noah’s dragon form, he was strong enough to get out of his toddler bed, then he went to the bedrooms and peeked in to see if they were awake. Finding no one to play with, he went down to the playroom, made his way out the door going to the hidden kitchen entrance where he took the animal crackers. Outside, he saw the snake again and ran for the woods to get away. He showed Ker the “snake,” and everything was finally settled.
Ker’s phone rattled in his pocket. He pulled it out and thumbed the screen. His instant frown worried her. He slid the phone back into his pocket, still agitated.
“What?” Tiana asked. “Who was it?”
“Nothing,” he said. “The sheriff sent over the pictures he mentioned this morning.”
“Let me see them,” she said, picking at his pocket. “I’ll see if I know them and that will all be over.”
“I don’t know, love,” Ker mumbled. “Maybe we should—”
She dragged Ker to the side while the mothers ogled the baby reptile. “Ker, I just want to get this over with and out of my life. Please.”
Ker sighed and dug his phone back out. “Okay, but for the record, I don’t like this.”
“It’s just a couple faces,” she said. “How bad could it be?”
How very wrong she was. The coroner didn’t do a great job of cleaning them up, not that there was much remaining to clean. Her stomach churned not only over the grisly sight of the images.
“That’s Oliver. I’m sure of it. The other is one of his guys.” With a hand over her mouth, she hurried through the room and out the kitchen door. She held in her breakfast, but barely.
“You okay?” Ker asked.
She straightened from leaning against the stone wall. “You’d better write this down,” Tiana said. “You were right.”
NINETEEN
When he and his mate arrived at the cabin, Tiana lay on the sofa, cuddled under a blanket. She still didn’t look too healthy to him and wasn’t talking much. Listening to his brothers’ mates gripe to him the last three years, he knew exactly how to handle this situation. Shit. From all the crap he learned, he could write a book for men on how to not properly take care of every female situation.
He sat on the floor in front of the sofa and pushed a strand of hair from her face. “You want to talk about it?” he asked. One of two things could happen: She could start talking or say she doesn’t want to. No matter the reply, the real answer is yes, I want to talk.
“I’m just trying to put it all together in my head,” she said.
The perfect response: “I agree. Doesn’t make a lot since.” After a moment of silence from her, he pushed on with the talk. “What do you think?”
Her brows scrunched down. “I get that Oliver followed me here. But what happened to him? It looked like he was attacked by a wild animal. They went to the barn…” He waited for her to finish her thought. “Can I see inside your setup in the shed?”
“Yeah, that’s a great idea,” he said, getting to his feet. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in there.” Holding his hand out, she took it, leaving the blanket and her dour mood behind.
He punched in the code to unlock the thick, metal doors then switched on the light as he walked in.
“Good god, Ker,” his little mate said. “This is incredible.” She stared around the room at the stations setup throughout, each with a different type of game, but same monitors attached to the wall and ergonomic gaming chairs. When he was programming, he’d carry his laptop to each location to plug in and enter code. His latest game was a virtual reality spaceship flying through asteroids. The objective was to make it through without getting creamed by a rock.
What he liked most about the game was it reminded him of true flying. When focused with the headset on, it’s like you were there with nothing else around but these boulders charging straight at you. Like diving head first through space. He was almost done with the programming. He needed to finish up the last touches to the live-feed screen that allowed others to watch the progress of the player, seeing what the headset revealed to the participant.
And that was the station Tiana stopped at. “Oh, cool, VR. Is this one ready to play?”
His brow raised. “This is a really hard game to play. It requires excellent agility and reflexes only superheros have.”
She looked at him. “So, is that a yes or a no?”
He couldn’t help but smile at this woman he loved. He pushed the button to power up. “You bet you can play.” He chose the easiest setting and showed her how to maneuver through the obstacle course.
He sat her on a beanbag and put the device over her head. “Okay, this is just practice to get used to moving through the screen,” Ker said. “To go up, tilt your head up.” Her head tipped back and the screen showed the angle to rise. “Same with down.” Her chin lowered, moving the image lower. “And same for left and right.”
“Got it.”
“You ready?” he asked.
“Push the button, already,” she griped. Man, did he love her spunk. He watched as she glided past rock after rock, her head and body swaying side to side as she dodged objects set to take her out. Suddenly, the screen flashed a congratulations frame. She’d finished that run fairly quickly.
“Great job, Tiana. You ready for a step up?” he queried.
“Yes, please. This moves really easily. It’s amazing. I feel like I’m flying.”
“Yup, that’s my whole idea behind it.” He skipped to the intermediate level and started her. Again, he watched as she flew through a simulated asteroid field. Either he’d made this game too easy or she was damn good for a beginner.
“Are you sure you haven’t taken spaceship flying lessons or anything?” Ker asked, partially joking.
“Nope,” she replied. “I think I’m a natural.”
“I’d say you’re a natu
ral, but a natural what I don’t know,” he mumbled to himself.
Tiana reached back and swatted his leg. “I heard that, dragon boy. I got good ears.” When the congrats screen popped up, she cheered and flipped her headset off. “That was awesome, but you might want to make it harder.”
“That was still the easy setting. You wanna try the hard version,” Ker taunted. “Bet you’ll crash and burn within five seconds.”
“Ha,” she turned around and slid the device over her head, “lay it on me, wimpy.”
Ker delved into the last levels he’d created, anticipating few achieving that status. It took him a bit to get through, half the time he died trying. “Here we go.”
Tiana sat forward in the beanbag, balancing on her knees. As soon as the first boulder came screaming for her face, she leaned to the right, zipping past it. Then a quick adjustment to the left nearly took off her right side.
Now Ker was much more interested in his little mate’s body gyrating and jerking up and down, left to right. If hip-hop music were blaring, a passerby would think she was dancing with the way she popped in different directions. Just like he planned to have her doing tonight in his bed.
His cock hardened with those thoughts. Fortunately, no one was around to see him adjust himself in his pants. When she screamed and threw her arms into the air, he was jolted from his little fantasy of her. The congrats screen flashed again.
“I’ll be damned,” he said.
She jumped up and slid the head piece off. “I did it! Not one hit. Woo-hoo.” She did a happy dance and spiked an imaginary football. “I win! I win.”
“Yeah,” Ker said, “more like beginner’s luck.” He said those words, but still he was amazed by his talented partner.
Her stomach growled. “When are we eating? I’m starving.”
A mischievous grin filled his face. He had plans for his little mate tonight. Let the party begin.
TWENTY
After Ker set the helicopter down at a private airport, Tiana was whisked away in a black Lincoln town car into town. It wasn’t New York City, but still had shopping malls and restaurants galore.