by Eliza Gayle
“I am not going to—“
“He’s right, Jami,” Mac said. “You look pretty green. Are you still not sleeping?”
She sighed, but her objections stopped, while he gritted his teeth against the knowledge of how well this wolfen knew his mate.
Drago reached into his pocket for his cellphone and texted the driver who would still be nearby waiting for him. Followed by his directions to the driver on what his plans were, he pinged the car’s GPS with his current location.
Immediately after he received a confirmation text he pocketed his phone and moved to the entrance of the park closest to the road.
“I don’t know how far your hotel is from here, but I’m guessing from your fancy suit it won’t be in this neighborhood. So if you want to wait here I can retrieve my car and be back here in ten minutes.”
As much as Drago wanted to ignore the other man in this equation, he forced himself to face him and shake his head. “That won’t be necessary. My driver will be arriving any second. He will take us to the hotel and arrange for the extra security we will need.”
Jami’s head popped up from where it had momentarily rested on his shoulder. “Security for what?”
Drago measured his thoughts before he spoke them aloud. He didn’t want to frighten Jami and he had no plans to divulge any more details about his life to the shiften than he had to.
“Until we find out what really happened to Sondra, we don’t know if there are any additional risks.” He chose to ignore Mac rolling his eyes. “I prefer to be overly cautious, especially under the circumstances.”
She smiled up at him. “Is that your way of saying you are overly protective?”
A rumble of laughter rolled through him. “Something like that.”
“As cute as this exchange is, I need to call Rogue. I’ll be right back.” Mac didn’t wait for a response as he walked across the street and pulled out his phone.
“Who the heck is Rogue?” Drago strained to hear Mac’s conversation, but the bastard had chosen well by crossing the street. The noise of car engines and pedestrians separating them caused interference with his ability to make out their words.
“His wife I think. I mean, he’s never actually said he’s married, but they act like a married couple so I just assumed.”
Drago narrowed his eyes. That certainly made no sense considering his protectiveness towards Jami. Dude had some explaining to do. If he already had a mate, he had no business spending time with anyone else.
“You know this Rogue?”
Jami yawned. “A little. I’ve met her. We’re about the same age I think so I guess Mac introduced us because he thought I needed friends when I came here.”
Before he could question her further, his car pulled to the curb. Drago whistled to Mac, who nodded in his direction. Satisfied that Mac would either join them or not, he climbed into the backseat of the car with Jami still in his arms.
“You can put me down now. I don’t think I’m going to collapse inside your car,” Jami said as another yawn hit her.
“I think you need sleep more than you need to worry about my holding you for a while longer.” He hated that his response came out more gruff than he’d intended, but the more they talked the more he worried about her.
Plus, he enjoyed having her in his arms and that was something he wasn’t in the mood to discuss. Attraction was one thing. This need to care for and protect her went into an area that made him uncomfortable to say the least.
“I’m fine,” she insisted. "A little cat nap and I’ll be golden.”
Before he could argue with her, the front passenger side door opened and Mac slid inside. “What hotel are we going to? Rogue is going to meet up with us later.”
The driver rattled off the address and Mac relayed the information to the woman on the phone. Moments later he hung up and the driver pulled away from the curb.
By the time Drago looked back down at Jami cuddled in his arms, she’d already fallen asleep.
“Why doesn’t she sleep?” he asked Mac.
The infuriating man shrugged. “Probably a by-product of the job. Some of the people she tries to counsel are what I’d call challenging to say the least.”
He pondered that deciding it wasn’t enough. There had to be more. “She had to know getting into this job what it would be like. She does not strike me as that naïve.”
“I didn’t say she was. She’s actually very intelligent.”
For some reason Mac’s compliments toward Jami rubbed him the wrong way. Like seriously the wrong way. Heat rose inside him and he had to fight to keep from doing something extremely dangerous like shift into a ginormous dragen and rip this little wolfen limb from limb.
“If you are mated, what the fuck are you doing sniffing around—her.”
“Don’t you mean your potential mate?” Mac said with a grin spreading across his face.
Drago gritted his teeth and held his words. If he didn’t get his temper under control they’d all be in trouble.
“I am mated. To an incredible woman that I’d kill any man who wasn’t careful around her. But I’m still a cop, charged with protecting humans. I can’t pinpoint what drew me to Jami, other than my gut told me she needed someone to watch over her. Guess I was right, huh? If she’s an OTM then she's in far more danger than she realizes. Hell, I don’t even know if you understand the gravity of this situation. Where the hell did you come from anyway?”
“New York City,” Drago said, unwilling to get into more detail than that in front of his human driver who’d undergone minimal vetting.
“Oh, of course. Like that explains everything. With that accent you’re sporting I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re not a native New Yorker. So what gives?”
Drago pulled out his cell phone and opened his email, basically shutting down the discussion. If he decided to share anything personal with a shiften it would be on his timeline, not theirs.
Mac apparently got the message as he turned back to the front and stared out the front windshield without saying anything more.
The rest of the drive continued in silence until they pulled up to the hotel valet and his door was opened by one of the uniformed hotel employees.
“Welcome back, Mr. Drago.”
He nodded at the man, pleased that the employees of his newest hotel chain had taken the time to learn who he was by sight. He looked forward to the prosperity of the hotel industry as his latest endeavor.
Both men emerged from the vehicle and headed for the entrance. Drago lead with Jami still cuddled in his arms with Mac bringing up the rear. Probably making sure they were not followed judging by the tension he sensed coming from the other man.
He’d put Jami in his bed and then he and Mac could have a conversation about Khain, the demon who was supposedly hell bent on wiping out the shiften race. Because he’d planned to never get involved with his kind, he’d only skimmed the reports given to him about the goings on in this town.
Now he’d have to dig deeper and find out how much danger his mate would face. His stomach twisted at the reminder of her fragile human vulnerability.
They entered the elevator in silence, riding up to the top floor with no sound beyond the whir of the electric motor and Jami’s heavy sleep breathing. He bit back a smile. It pleased him that she appeared to trust him enough to let her guard down.
They entered his suite and he carried Jami directly to the bedroom, while Mac went out on the balcony, probably a safety check, that’s what he would do and he wasn’t a paranoid cop.
Drago placed her gently on the soft bedding, trying not to jostle her awake. Her eyes fluttered, but eventually settled closed again. He whisked some of her hair from her eyes and fought the urge to lean forward and press his lips to hers. He suddenly wanted to know what she would taste like.
Damn, there was so much he wanted to know about her. Like what it would take to get her to say his first name again. Soon. Once he dealt with whatever BS the shi
ften were going to hand his way, he’d take his mate away from here. It would be much easier to keep her safe and protected in his penthouse fortress of New York. Everything he cared for remained there at all times so he never had to worry.
Satisfied she would continue to sleep, he covered her with a thin blanket and went out to deal with the wolfen he could hear pacing just outside his door.
He stepped into the main room and sure enough the damned shiften looked as agitated as he felt. “Stop that,” he said. “These carpets would be too expensive to replace just because you are restless.”
Mac looked down at the thick, beige carpet before returning his gaze to Drago with a look of clear disbelief stamped across his face.
“You’re kidding right?”
“No, I do not kid. I like to take care of my things.”
Mac shook his head. “Let me guess. You own this hotel.”
“Of course, I do. I care not for strange places.”
“Maxim Drago. I knew I’d heard that name before. You’re that fancy rich dude from New York who collects Fortune 500 companies like people collect stamps.”
Drago crossed to the bar and began to pour himself a drink. “I am not so sure people still collect stamps anymore.”
Mac snorted. “But you get the gist, don’t you? Some people hunt and collect items, like stamps, as a hobby, and some people hunt and collect treasure because they can’t help themselves. Companies are your treasure.”
Drago turned around, taking a swallow of his drink first. “Is that why you are here? Because you want to grill me? I thought this was about Jami.”
“It is about Jami, but it’s also about you. Or more precisely what you are… Dragen.”
“And you are wolfen. Big deal. All you need to know is that I will not be here long.”
“And why's that?” Mac asked, a scowl pinching his face.
He shrugged. “Like you said. I’m that dude from New York, which means I have a company to get back to. I’m only here temporarily and preferably for as short a time as possible.”
Mac tilted his head toward the bedroom. “What about her? I thought she was ‘yours’?”
“She is. Once we figure this out, she will return to New York with me so that I may take care of her.”
Mac barked with laughter. A rough sound that scraped down his spine worse than nails on a chalkboard.
“I am not sure what is so damned funny to you right now.” Drago frowned at the wolfen. “This is a serious situation. I need you to tell me the details of the danger surrounding her.”
Mac held up his hands in mock surrender. “Dude, I literally just found out she’s a potential One True Mate. I’ve yet to process what that means for her.”
Drago exploded. “You can’t do the bullshit to me. If you are mated, then you know exactly what that means and every damned thing associated. Now stop playing the games and tell me what I need to know.”
For a moment Mac stood there his eyes wider than before. Then he bent at the waist and burst with loud, raucous laughter.
Drago shook his head, crossing the room and away from the idiot wolfen. Maybe he’d become a cop because it was all he could do. What with him being so stupid and all.
Except Drago knew all about the wolven and their jobs as police officers in Serenity. The benefit of having money and power meant that any information he sought could be found for the right price. He’d simply hunted until he found the right man for the job. Or in this case, the right foxen.
There were also bearen here who served as firefighters and felen too, although their jobs were a little unclear. Troublemakers maybe?
“I’m sorry for laughing, but when you get upset, your accent gets heavier and it’s hilarious. How long did you say you’ve been in the US?”
“I did not say,” Drago said, without elaborating further.
Silence grew between them until Drago half believed the wolfen might be done talking. Maybe it was time to cut his losses on this town and take Jami out of here right now.
If half the information the foxen had given him about OTMs and their situations, it wouldn’t take long for the demon, Khain, to track her down. The good guys weren’t the only ones well connected in the trading of information and favors.
“Jami isn’t going to just up and leave with you. I don’t care how much you might think that. She may be human, but she’s smart and determined. Two traits most OTMs seem to share. And they really don’t like being told what to do. Even if it’s for their own good.”
Drago considered Mac's words. He wasn't sure what to think. The woman sleeping in his bed at the moment needed his help. There were too many shadows in her eyes, matched by the ones underneath, marring her beautiful skin. He'd also bet by the ill fit of her clothing that she'd recently lost weight. These things all pointed to something she couldn't manage on her own.
"Tell me more about what you know about her. Why is she so tired?"
Mac pulled his gaze away for a moment and stared out the window. "I'm afraid you are going to have to ask her yourself. As you know, I have my own mate who keeps me on my toes. I may not have been watching Jami as closely as I should have. Having a one true mate in this time of turmoil is a blessing for sure, but it comes with a lot of responsibility."
Drago scoffed. "I have no problem assuming any level of responsibility."
"Spoken like a true business man. Except I'm not talking about some company you are about to acquire. This is emotional and you'd be wise to remember that."
"Maybe I see things differently than you do because I am dragen. We are not like wolven. Not at all."
"Oh, I know. Believe me. My pal Graeme who lives among us is not one to toy with on a good day, let alone a bad. Which brings me back to where the hell did you come from anyway? We were told there were no more dragen, that they'd all been wiped out hundreds of years ago."
Drago lifted his brows while trying to hide his sudden curiosity in this Graeme. "Apparently, your information was incorrect."
"Is that it? That's all you're going to tell me. The fucking obvious? Fine. Let Wade deal with you then. Or Trevor. I'm sure one of them can get your information. That is, if it's worth getting."
Anger flared inside of Drago. He did not like this man's implications. As if he could simply dismiss a dragen and that would be the end of it. No one dismissed Maxim Drago. Ever.
Fortunately, he'd learned long ago how to keep his anger in check in order to toy with his opponents. "What about the prophecy then? Is that information you have or do I need to go to this Wade or Trevor to find out anything?"
Anger flashed in Mac's eyes. Enough that Drago almost smiled. "The One True Mate prophecy isn't exactly widespread knowledge. How did you learn about it?"
Drago swallowed down the last of his scotch, enjoying the mild warmth that filled his belly a moment before he answered. "I'm sure you know that information is a commodity and is easily bought and sold these days. It's not that hard to learn almost anything."
"Then maybe you should find someone to pay for more information," Mac seethed.
Drago was on the verge of kicking this asshole out of his hotel. "Look, if you aren't here to help me get answers about my potential mate's problems or help me solve my sister's murder, then you may vacate the premises now. I don't think there is any question about my motives for being here. And the one thing I can tell you with certainty about myself, is that I do not trust shiften."
"That's ridiculous. You're shiften."
"Only in the technical sense. I have lived my entire life without the influence of any of my kind and from what I have learned over the years, I am the blessed one, not you. I don't want to be here anymore than you want me here. But the fact that that woman in there is mine, negates whatever misgivings you have about me. I simply do not care. All that matters is her safety and accommodation."
"Excuse me," a female voice sounded behind him. "How romantic. Jeez. I don't know where this sudden claim that I am yours is coming from,
but that can end now. When it comes to my safety and my accommodation, I take care of myself."
Chapter Seven
Jami shook off the last vestiges of sleep as she entered the argument going on between Mac and Drago. She knew she hadn't slept all that long because the sun had yet to go down, but it had been enough for her to shake the building headache and the feeling of being dog tired.
"I am sorry. We did not mean to wake you so soon," Drago said, turning to her. "Do you wish to return to your rest?"
She slipped past his outstretched arm and moved to the opposite side of the room from them both. "No, I do not wish to rest any more. I want to know what's going on. Back at the park I was tired and not feeling my best, so I let all these weird comments you and Mac were making slide. Now, I want some answers. You know, like real details. Starting with that acronym you used earlier." She racked her brain for what they'd called it.
"A One True Mate," Mac offered.
"Yes! That's it. What is it and why are you calling me that?" She pointedly looked at Drago at the second question.
"It is a prophecy, apparently more well known than most people realized. It foretells about special women who were born twenty-five years ago. If they are found in time and choose a mate, they will be able to repopulate our kind."
Jami scrunched her face. Obviously, there had to be some kind of language barrier happening here. "Your kind? You mean your family in Russia? I remember you mentioned that you and Sondra were the last of your family."
He nodded. "Yes, it would affect my family. But it is more than that."
"Drago," Mac said with clear warning in his tone. "We need to talk this over with Wade and Travis before we go any further. Rogue should be here any minute and she and her guards will watch over Jami."
Jami took a step back. None of this made any real sense. Well, kind of. But she had a feeling they were leaving out pertinent details.
"Why does Drago need to speak with your bosses?" she asked.
"Because he is bound by our rules. And what we tell hu—outsiders is not up to him."