BROGAN_A Steamy WereDragon Romance

by Bonnie Burrows

  But suddenly, the Skinner minion let go of the cable attached to Gabrielle’s manacles and clutched at his neck, his body lurching into a spasm before he crumpled and splayed himself across the chairs behind him. Gabrielle kept her head low, but looked over at him, incredulous and bewildered, until from the corner of her eye she noticed Samantha Harkins clambering over beside her. Looking at the doctor, she saw that Samantha held an injector similar to the one with which she had given the accelerator drug to Skinner—but different. If Gabrielle had to guess, she would say it was…

  “A miniature dart gun,” said Samantha. “Now stay down, Agent Long, and let me get you out of those shackles.”

  Totally confused now, Gabrielle let the doctor reach around behind her and insert another device from her kit into the lock on Gabrielle’s bonds. At once the manacles fell away, cable lead and all, releasing the Agent. Shaking her arms, which had been immobilized for so long, Gabrielle almost stammered to the doctor, “You’re…with us?”

  Another voice called, “She’s with us.”

  Now Gabrielle looked up and saw a female dragon Squire come in for a landing by her and Samantha. She suddenly knew that she recognized this dragon’s voice, even altered by the reptilian body that she now held. “Elaina?”

  “It’s me,” said Squire Elaina Hood, clutching the hilt of her powerblade. “Dr. Harkins is one of our contacts. She couldn’t tell you because she was being watched—until now. There’s no time to explain any more than that.” The sounds of battle all around them told Gabrielle that Elaina was right. The Squires and Knights and Skinner’s forces were setting upon each other. Reaching to a holster strapped to one thigh, Elaina produced a second powerblade and handed it to Gabrielle. “I thought you could use this.”

  Taking the weapon, Gabrielle turned up the corner of her mouth into a burning, wicked smile. She was not as practiced as a Squire or a Knight with the blade end of the device, but she was an expert with beam weapons—and casting her eyes out onto the tournament floor where two male dragons were still locked in combat, she knew exactly the use to which she would put it. “Oh yes,” said Gabrielle. “I definitely have a use for this.”

  Gabrielle leaped from her seat and over the seats in front of her, while Elaina put a hand on Samantha’s shoulder and said, “Let’s get you out of the crossfire.”

  Releasing a barrage of shots from his device, Skinner had continued advancing on Brogan, closing the distance between them one shot and one step at a time. Brogan hissed at the sheer relentlessness of his foe, who had not given him an instant to change tactics. All that Brogan could do at the moment was to continue swinging his blade to meet every strike of the gangster’s beams, sending them flying away at every angle in vicious bursts of sparks.

  The slightest hesitation from Brogan would give Skinner the opening he needed to blast him down again and get the upper hand, and there was no element of surprise to save Brogan with a tail across Skinner’s face this time. Quickly, the criminal drew close enough to switch to the blade end of his weapon, and now the gangster and the Squire once again faced off with energy swords, thrusting and parrying as they did at the beginning. The first of them to tire would surely fall—and Brogan felt the hot pain of fatigue start to creep into his arms.

  That was when the flash of another energy bolt over their heads startled both opponents. Whipping his dragon neck around, Skinner spun to see where the bolt had come from. Brogan looked beyond his opponent—and they both saw Gabrielle, her weapon aimed and ready, striding across the tournament floor.

  “One side, Mr. Skinner,” said Gabrielle, as grim as a woman could get.

  “Stupid human fool!” Skinner bellowed. “You dare…?” And he raised his glowing sword and prepared to charge.

  Skinner took only one step before Gabrielle opened fire. The blast caught him right in the wrist, the upheaval of sparks shooting pain into Skinner’s transformed arm. His dragon hand splayed open and he dropped his blade to the floor.

  “That,” said Gabrielle, “was for putting Brogan and me on leashes, you sick son of a bitch.” She kept the weapon trained on him.

  Hissing and roaring, Skinner dove for the floor to retrieve his blade. Gabrielle caught him in mid-motion with a bolt that hit him squarely on the shoulder and sent him spinning away off to one side. He rolled onto the floor in a knot of limbs, tail, and wings.

  “And that,” said Gabrielle, “was for trying to kill Brogan.”

  Skinner scrambled on the floor, uttering sounds unheard of from human or dragon. “You can’t defeat me! I am a dragon! I am Drakkar Skinner and I am a dragon!” His wings flapping, he rolled over and just managed to get himself up to a crouch when he halted at two energy blades that whooshed in on either side of his snout.

  He looked up the glowing lengths into Brogan’s hissing dragon visage and Gabrielle’s seething human face. They both had him at blade-point. He was weaponless and outnumbered, and from the room around them came the sounds of last shots being fired, weapons being dropped, and rights being stated.

  “Drakkar Skinner, in the name of the planet Lacerta and the Commonwealth,” said Brogan, “you are under arrest.”

  “You have the right to remain silent…” Gabrielle began.

  Skinner cut her off, rearing back his dragon head and bellowing a bone-rattling, ear-splitting roar of primal but impotent fury up to the ceiling three stories above them. The sound of his rage made everything in the room seem to stand still. Gabrielle and Brogan kept their weapons poised at his snout.

  When at last Skinner’s thunderous roar had spent itself and he lowered his head to glare with total malevolence, snorting and puffing, at the Squire and the Agent once again, Gabrielle resumed: “You have the right to remain SILENT…”

  EPILOGUE

  Drakkar Skinner, back in human form; Burl Holman; and Enzo Goss, perhaps fittingly, were the last of the criminals to be led out of the Lernaean asteroid tournament room in manacles just like those in which Gabrielle and Brogan had been bound. As a final indignity, Skinner was arrested naked; the Knights leading him away assured the would-be criminal overlord of the quadrant that he would be given something to wear as soon as he was on board the Spires transport ship back to Lacerta to be processed and held for trial. Gabrielle and Brogan took a particular pleasure in seeing Skinner’s ignominious downfall. It was their reward for everything they had been through to see this moment.

  The two of them, Elaina, and Samantha Harkins were the last ones left in the cavernous tournament space when it was all over. Brogan shifted back to human as well, standing in nothing but the thong that he was still wearing from when Skinner’s people brought him into the room. Gabrielle stood by him, just to be near the stunningly hot, nearly-naked Squire now that their ordeal was finally done.

  “I wouldn’t be much of a doctor living up to my oath to ‘first do no harm’ if I really meant to let that man be a dragon and stay that way, and wreak all the havoc that he meant to cause,” said Samantha. “I didn’t give him only the accelerator drug to speed up his transformation. There was something else in that injection with it: a special amino acid that will help us reverse the process now he’s in custody. His ability to become a weredragon isn’t as fixed as he thinks it is.

  We can’t completely undo the mutation because of the genetic damage it would cause; it would be like cruel and unusual punishment. But with that compound in his system we can switch his new weredragon genes into introns—genes that aren’t expressed, non-working codes. He’ll have his dragon state locked up inside his genome in such a way that he’ll never be able to morph again.”

  “So he finally got his life’s greatest desire—for not even a day,” said Brogan. “The minute it’s in his grasp, it’s all snatched back again.” He glanced in the direction of the exit where the Knights took Skinner and his lieutenants out. “Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving chap.”

  “Well, that explains you, Doctor,” said Gabrielle. “But what about you, Elaina
? We left you back on Lacerta to infiltrate that…that…dragon harem.” She glanced over at Brogan and saw him turn serious again at the mention of Elaina’s special assignment, for which he’d had so little appreciation. Then, to Elaina, she went on, “So what brings you from that mission, all the way out here?”

  Elaina replied, “When you’ve raided a place and arrested everyone in it, read them the charges, and then you start throwing around the words ‘immunity from prosecution,’ you suddenly hear all kinds of interesting things—like where your boss is, where he’s going, and what he’s going to do once he gets there. We found out pretty quickly where Skinner was having the stolen water transported to and what he was going to do with it, generally. Of course, his little celebration in here came as a surprise once we arrived.” She grinned mischievously at Brogan. “He really put you through your paces, didn’t he?”

  “I managed,” said Brogan. “My friends got me through it.” And while he smiled back at Elaina, he reached over and put an arm around Gabrielle’s waist, sending a little thrilling tingle into her.

  Elaina offered no reaction to that gesture on Brogan’s part. She only looked him up and down with an expression that said, Just as I thought.

  Aloud, Elaina said, “It’ll be a little while getting all of our new guests and passengers settled in for the trip back to Lacerta. You and Gabrielle might like to have a moment alone after everything you’ve been through. I’ll be on the Corps transport Beowulf when we’re ready to go. We’ll have a fresh armor ready for you when you come aboard, Brogan.” She motioned for Samantha to follow her, and the two of them saw themselves out.

  The Lernaean tournament room seemed all the more vast with only Gabrielle and Brogan standing inside it. The quiet seemed just as huge and not exactly comfortable after all the commotion and din of the battle between Brogan and Skinner.

  Once they were alone, Brogan said to Gabrielle, “Well, that brings this one to a close, doesn’t it?”

  “And not a moment too soon for me,” replied Gabrielle. Brogan still had her by the waist, and thus was still so close to her while still so close to being naked. It was all she could do to look at his face and wander with her eyes down his exquisite body to the pouch of his thong and the dragon’s treasure that it enclosed. I swear, she purred at him in her mind, you just look so delicious.

  “I said it before and I’ll say it again,” Brogan told her. “I still think you would have made one inferno of a dragon.”

  Almost laughing, Gabrielle took herself from his grasp and gave him a mock slap on his painfully gorgeous, hair-dusted chest. “No, thank you,” she said. “After what I’ve seen today of humans becoming dragons, I’m more than happy to be just a human.”

  Eyes twinkling with desire, Brogan said, “And human looks damn good on you.”

  Now Gabrielle did allow herself to look Brogan up and down, but not in the same way that Elaina did a moment ago. “It looks pretty good on you too.”

  Brogan did not give her a chance to protest or to draw back any further. He reached for her and pulled her all the way to him, capturing her with his arms and taking her lips in a kiss of deep intention. Gabrielle tingled both at the kiss and what she felt happening in Brogan’s thong.

  After the kiss, she blinked at him, almost trembling. “Brogan…here? Now? There won’t be any time; we have to go soon.”

  He frowned, mildly frustrated. “You’re right, damnit. I don’t do quickies. When I get my dick in you again, I want to take my sweet time. We’ve both earned it.”

  Gabrielle let Brogan pull her into another kiss, and gave herself completely into it, more than satisfied with what she could get of his body for now.

  _______________

  “Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh…OOOHHH…!” Gabrielle cried under Brogan as her orgasm made a hurricane of fire inside her from Brogan grinding his crotch against her love nub.

  “Aaahhh…! AAAHHH! Oh, FUCK, yeah!” Brogan shouted, his own climax taking him at the same time, his seed spilling thick and hot into Gabrielle’s depths.

  As always, they stayed locked together while his erection slowly subsided. He took his time pulling out of her, as he had taken his time being in her. Their breathing slowed, their bodies relaxed, and Brogan rolled off to one side of Gabrielle’s bed in her guest quarters. They lay side by side, their fingers reaching for each other and interlacing. Holding hands, they rolled their heads to look each other in the eye through their post-coital fog, and softly laughed.

  It was night when they returned to Brogan’s Corps Headquarters on Lacerta, and still later by the time he and Gabrielle gave their statements. When they returned to her quarters, they had fully intended to strip naked, leap right into bed, and pick up where they’d left off. But by then they were both so exhausted from the whole mission and everything they’d endured in the course of it that they fell onto the bed without even undressing and were asleep almost at once. They slept through the rest of the night, and upon awakening they tossed off everything they were wearing and went right to what they had meant to do several hours before. That left them both satisfied—at least for the moment.

  “Damn, we’re good.” Brogan sighed.

  “Very good,” Gabrielle agreed.

  “I mean, really,” Brogan said, meaningfully. “We are really good in bed together. All the times in my life I’ve been laid—and it’s been an inferno of a lot—I’ve never had it like this.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “We are just…really, really good.”

  Gabrielle had no answer to that, at least not in words. Warmed by what he’d said, and with a lingering arousal from the stickiness between her legs from what he’d just done to her so passionately, she slid over to him and let him take her in his arms and kiss her again. He was right. They really were that good. He really was the best she’d ever had. And she wanted more of him.

  After the kiss, as they cuddled together, Brogan continued. “You know, I’ve never done the whole ‘relationship’ thing before…”

  She blinked, surprised. “Really? Never? With anyone?”

  “Well, I’ve had things that went on for maybe a few weeks, but no—not the ‘relationship’ thing. I’ve always had too much fun screwing around. But now…with you…I don’t know. You think maybe there might be a possibility here?”

  She caressed his bristling chest with her fingertips and sighed. “I’d like there to be something. But how could we get your life and my life to work together, Brogan? If you’ve never done a relationship at all, can you really make an interplanetary relationship work?”

  “I want to,” he replied, earnestly. “I want us together. Your bed, my bed, wherever. I want you, Gabrielle.” He kissed her and sucked hungrily at her lips. “I want to be in you so bad, all the time. Shit, you get me so hard…”

  They melted into a long, deep kiss, tossing and rolling back and forth on the bedspread, their hands going everywhere on each other’s body. Gabrielle felt his erection returning already—just like a dragon. In a moment he’d be on top of her again and that wonderful thing would slip back through her entrance and deep into her quivering channel…

  But it would have to wait, as the sound of an incoming comm link met their ears.

  Brogan bolted upright on the bed, scowling as only a male weredragon can when interrupted in the pursuit of his favorite thing. “Bane and damn!” he growled. “What now?”

  Climbing off the bed, Brogan managed to find the bottom of his armor skin and his badge amid the clothing strewn across the floor, and Gabrielle retrieved the top of her own outfit. Feeling more than a little deja vu, they hurriedly dressed in the garments that they’d grabbed, and Brogan tapped his badge to answer the inbound link. While Gabrielle sat up on the bed, he stood by it and watched the comm hologram of Templar Vartan blossom into the air.

  “Good morning, sir,” said Brogan. “What can I do for you?”

  “Squire Brogan,” said Vartan, “I have new orders for you. And I have Inspector Vincent of the IBI standing by with n
ew orders for Agent Long when we’re finished.”

  Brogan glanced over his shoulder to meet Gabrielle’s anxious look before responding to the Templar. “Yes, sir, I’m listening.”

  “Squire Brogan,” said Vartan, “your orders are as follows. Effective immediately, you are to stand down as a Squire of the Corps. This is your official notice of discharge.”

  The breath practically froze in Brogan’s lungs. He turned pale and almost staggered back and fell across the bed on top of Gabrielle, and not in the way he would have liked. He almost could not find his voice. Almost stuttering through the pure and utter shock of what the Templar just said, he blurted, “S-Sir…I…I’m afraid I don’t understand. I’m being discharged? Dismissed from the Corps? Sir, why? What…what did I do wrong?”