Protected by the Dragon (Banished Dragons)

by Leela Ash

  “Oh.”

  Rhett shook his head and shoved the man away from the car, stepping between the drunk and Mia.

  “Go home, man. You need to sober up.”

  The man stood there, squinting at Rhett, but ended up slowly nodding at him before turning his back and walking away.

  When Rhett faced her again, Mia’s heart began to pound wildly in her chest. She stared at him, unable to deny the depth of her arousal for this terse and strange but incredibly sexy man.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, looking her up and down, his handsome brow creased in concern.

  “Fine. I’m fine.”

  Rhett gave a small nod and then turned away, heading back to the building without another word.

  Mia opened her mouth, tempted to call out to him, but no words managed to fall from her lips. She simply watched him go, sighing inwardly as she ducked back inside Cindy’s car and leaned back in the seat.

  “Holy shit, that was crazy!” Cindy said with a sharp laugh. “Are you okay?”

  Mia laughed along with her, her body and mind still swirling with the intense emotions.

  “I’m fine. Let’s get the hell out of here before anything else happens.”

  Cindy nodded, and they began to pull out of the parking lot. A sudden loud thud against the car startled them both and Cindy slammed on the brakes.

  “Shit!” Cindy shouted, gripping her chest tightly in panic. Mia looked around for the cause of the commotion, her heart pounding wildly. What the hell was it this time?

  She groaned and then locked eyes upon Rhett. Her heart continued drumming for a whole different reason entirely, and she rolled her window down, her eyes knitting in agitation.

  “What the hell are you doing, dude?” she exclaimed, waving her hand in the air in exasperation. “You scared the crap out of us! What do you want? Did you need me to thank you or something?”

  Rhett opened and closed his mouth, frozen by the aggression she was exhibiting. Finally, he held something out to her, his face impossible to read.

  “You dropped this,” he said, his deep, rumbling voice quiet. “I don’t want you to leave without it.”

  “Oh!” Mia snatched the picture of Jewel out of Rhett’s hand and stuffed it back in her purse. It must have fallen out when the creepy guy had harassed her. “Thanks.”

  “Is that your daughter?” he asked, studying her carefully.

  “Yes. Jewel.”

  She could have kicked herself for saying her daughter’s name to this man. She was usually so much more guarded than that. Why did she feel like it was so easy, almost natural, to open up to this man in such a casual way?

  Rhett nodded, then stuck his hands into his pockets and eyed her steadily. “She looks a lot like you. You are both very beautiful.”

  He turned away without waiting for an answer and Mia gaped after him.

  “Well, that was weird,” Cindy said, rolling the windows up with her automatic window button and continuing on her way out. “He’s super attractive, though.”

  Mia shrugged half-heartedly. “He’s kind of an ass too.”

  Cindy raised her brow. “Oh really? He also kind of saved your ass. You didn’t even thank him. Are you sure he is the bigger ass here?”

  Mia felt her friend’s interest pique and she clamped her mouth shut, gritting her teeth in frustration. “Yes, he is. He implied that I don’t know what I am talking about when it comes to engineering.”

  “You don’t know anything about engineering,” Cindy pointed out, raising her brow in amusement.

  “No, just…” Mia sighed in exasperation. “That I wouldn’t be able to understand. Like I am just dense or something. Or that women can’t get the kinds of things men do. Trust me, he is a jerk. And I want nothing to do with him.”

  “Oh, okay,” Cindy said, though the lilt in her voice suggested she was on to Mia. And, for some reason, that made her feel very irate. Who was Cindy to judge whether or not Mia wanted something to do with a guy? Just because he was stupidly attractive didn’t automatically make him dating material. She had standards, for crying out loud. And she wanted to make sure she was going to try to invest time in worthy men who would make her daughter feel valued and full of great potential. Not men like Rhett, who seemed to think, for some reason, that it was beyond her to get what it was that he dealt with. Just because what? She was a woman? Did he think he was that special or something? What a jerk.

  And yet, she had put him on her list. Why? Just because she hadn’t met any other men at the event that had made her feel interested? She hated herself for it. And yet, Rhett was lingering in her mind. She had even told him her daughter’s name. There was certainly more at work here than just the run of the mill agitation. It felt somehow bigger than that. But she couldn’t quite explain why or how.

  And she didn’t want to. She was just going to go back to her mother’s house to pick Jewel up, then prepare herself for the morning shift at the diner while her daughter was in school the next day. She had no time to worry about men like Rhett. Not when she had a real life to take care of that involved her being a badass who could accomplish anything she put her mind to, even when the men around her tried to imply that she was incompetent.

  Screw Rhett.

  Mia gritted her teeth as involuntary questions about what the man might look like with his clothes off began to flood her mind. Yeah, he was attractive. Ridiculously so. And sure, maybe he would be good in bed. But there was nothing else to him than that. She was sure of it. She had seen it for herself. Hadn’t she?

  With a heavy sigh, Mia leaned back against the passenger’s seat and gazed out the window as Cindy began to talk cheerfully about the evening and all the different types of men they had encountered. Rhett’s name only came up once, and Mia tried quickly to change the subject before falling into an abject silence.

  6.

  “What did you think, Rhett? Were there any potentials? Please tell me there were!”

  Gavin’s enthusiasm put Rhett’s already sour mood into overdrive.

  “Actually, there weren’t any potentials and everyone there was a pain in my ass. Everything about that thing was stupid. And I don’t know why but this stupid device doesn’t want to work again. I am getting so tired of this! I am wasting my time trying to find people when it’s clear my efforts are better used elsewhere.”

  Gavin’s face fell, and he exchanged looks with Carter, who was sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal.

  “Look, man, it isn’t hopeless. The potentials exist. And you will find your fated one when it comes time to, so why are you letting yourself get discouraged? It’s basically the main reason we are even here at this point. Keep your eye on the prize and everything will work out.”

  “Easy for you to say, Carter,” Rhett grumbled, tossing the device onto the couch and leaning against it with a heavy sigh. “You and Max found your fated mates. Why is it that everyone else seems to be having a seriously hard time with it? It doesn’t seem fair or right, and you know it. And we are running out of time. I can feel the magic slipping. If they are fated to be our mates, then why is it taking so damn long?”

  “Man, nothing about this situation is fair or right,” Carter said with a scoff. “I was on my way to be an Elder, but the Elders ended up deciding that the six of us were traitors. Criminals. They didn’t even give us a chance to defend ourselves. But trust me when I say, I have made the most of it. I wouldn’t have been able to find my fated one on Fiora. It wasn’t meant to happen that way. And you will end up being able to see the way that fate has led us to where we are meant to be.”

  Rhett scowled. “Sure, man.”

  Carter shrugged lightly and continued to eat his cereal, knowing better than to think that he was going to make a difference when it came to Rhett’s foul mood. All six of them had their share of ups and downs since they had been banished to Earth, so they had learned by then to leave well enough alone and only intervene if it was going to affect the rest of
the group and their ability to get back to their home planet and be accepted as heroes rather than as criminals.

  “You know it will take a lot for the Elders to allow us back home. Continuing the sacred bloodline and saving the planet is a pretty good way of ensuring that they do so, you know,” Gavin said, still looking intently at Rhett.

  He had been the one trying to keep everybody together and working toward the ultimate goal of finding the potential Loni/Sun Dragon hybrids so that they could spawn the sacred children and continue to provide the world with the magic that allowed the shifter race to exist. Without these special children, Fiora and everyone affected by shifter magic, would lose everything that set them apart in the universe.

  “I know, man. I just don’t see how that has recently become more my issue than anyone else’s. What makes you think that I am just going to waltz out there and use that stupid malfunctioning device to find my fated mate? It isn’t that simple. It never is.”

  “Well, you are right about that much,” Carter said with a low snort.

  Rhett sighed and chose not to pursue the thought that Carter’s comment had inspired within him. They had just learned that if they couldn’t say something nice, it was better to say nothing at all. Sometimes, honesty wasn’t the best policy and just started a bunch of needless conflict.

  “Anyway, I have other things to do,” Rhett mumbled. “I didn’t pick up on anything good about the descendants, but the device did pick up something kind of strange. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but it was something bad. I’m not sure what or why, though. I am going to have to try to figure out what it meant.”

  “Something bad?” Gavin asked, sitting up suddenly and frowning deeply. “Bad how?”

  “I mean, there was a blip and the purple light flashed. But only for a second. I don’t even know who it was flashing on, the stupid thing decided to stop working properly after that.”

  “You serious?” Gavin said, sighing heavily. “You didn’t try to figure it out?”

  “Of course, I tried to figure it out! What do you take me for?” Rhett growled. He could feel the dragon within him raging. He had been eager for a fight. Especially after sensing the shit that was going on behind the scenes. Something bad. Someone bad. But being unable to figure out where or what was going on or why frustrated him.

  But why would he want to fight with Gavin of all people? The guy was their greatest asset when it came to coexisting among the humans. They would have been entirely lost without him.

  “I’m not in a great mood,” Rhett said, casting an agitated look toward the device on the couch. “Maybe someone else can mess with that stupid thing for a while. I am going to try to investigate and figure out what the hell I was dealing with back there.”

  “Okay, I will take a look at it,” Gavin said, defeat present in his voice. He didn’t want to upset Rhett any more than he already was, that much was obvious.

  Rhett grabbed his jacket and went out the door, letting it fall shut heavily behind himself. He needed some air. And really, he was restless. He hadn’t been able to get Mia out of his head since the moment he had laid eyes on her. It was especially disconcerting considering the fact that he had been worrying about whether or not the device had picked up on dangerous energy in the lodge where the speed dating event had been taking place. He was even more concerned after having to rescue Mia from one of the sketchiest looking guys in the place. Rhett had stared him down hard, unsure whether or not he was dealing with someone who was dangerous in a human way, or in another way entirely.

  If it was true that he was dangerous in a way that was connected to the descendants, that meant that it was possible that Mia, or any of the other hapless women that were at the speed dating event, might be in danger. Maybe the device had been malfunctioning and he hadn’t been picking up on potentials at all because it had simply been acting up again?

  But the idea of Mia or any of the others being descendants was laughable. She was quite a negative person, even for a human. She had been really rather disagreeable. So, maybe there really wasn’t anything strange going on at all and she simply attracted agitated drunks to her because her energy was so sour. Maybe there was no negative energy at all. Another thought that popped into his head was that perhaps she was the negativity that he had picked up on. Maybe that would explain his fixation.

  But no, he knew that wasn’t it. His dragon senses hadn’t been tuned enough in the moment to figure out who or what it was that had tripped up the device, but he was fairly certain that, if anybody was the culprit, it was one of the men that had been attending the event. If not the man that had attempted to harass Mia, then someone.

  He wished he had gotten the chance to go after the guy, but he had gotten so distracted when he saw the picture of Mia’s daughter that when the man disappeared, he hadn’t been able to pick up on his trail. The alcohol seemed to mask his scent. Rhett would just have to get his hand on a list of names of the people attending so he could investigate them. Right?

  He climbed into the car Gavin had bought him to use. He was almost sure she had been as drawn to him as he was to her.

  Still, it couldn’t be. There was no way a relationship between them could work. The others would encourage him to date more to hone his skills and continue to bring them ever closer to their goal of preventing the extinction of the sacred bloodline that kept shifter magic alive. And of course, it made sense for him to do so. If he could perfect the art of human courtship, when it came time for him to actually encounter his fated mate, he would be more than prepared enough to cut the process as short as possible so that they could move on to the next goal.

  He wasn’t sure how to get his hands on such a list, unfortunately, and decided, instead, to rely on his dragon senses. He had done his best to get a grasp of everybody at the event, but without the scans available in the device it was somewhat futile. He would go back to the area and investigate. Maybe if it wasn’t a person there, it was something about the place.

  Rhett drove through town, his thoughts, once again, wandering back to the human. She was beautiful, he had to give her that much. And sweet and kind. He hadn’t known what to do when they had told him to choose his favorite female. Of course, he had chosen her. None of the other women there had compared. Even if they were potential descendants he didn’t know about, he still found himself more interested in the damn human than he was in any of the others.

  Ugh, and those eyes of hers. They really got him going. He had a feeling he would find himself dreaming about those eyes of hers if he wasn’t careful. She was ridiculously beautiful for someone who was born on this dingy planet with so little love or magic present in the atmosphere. How had any of the humans managed for so long in this place? He had to try finding something good about it or he was just going to end up driving himself crazy.

  Rhett pulled over and parked a few blocks away from the lodge. It was getting really late now. Dark. It seemed as good a time as any to begin exploring the area and getting himself acclimated. Maybe there was something going on that he should know about. There were always groups of no good heretics out there who wanted nothing more than to destroy the Loni descendants and prevent them from being able to reproduce. After all, a Loni hybrid and a full-blooded Sun Dragon would create the most powerful race in all the universe as far as Rhett was concerned. And those children would grow and love to the fullest, providing light throughout every dimension imaginable.

  “Hey bro, I don’t think you can park there. It’s too close to the fire station. You could get a serious fine.”

  “What?”

  Rhett was startled out of his thoughts by the friendly but strong sounding voice of a human man, standing back on the sidewalk and smoking a cigarette.

  “Over there,” the man said, nodding to the firehouse. “That truck is obstructing the way for the fire engine. If it had to make a sharp turn left, you, my friend, would be in the way of us being able to save lives. You know what I mean? Now, I’m off d
uty so I’m not going to do anything about it, and you look like a nice enough guy. Maybe a little oblivious, but not meaning any harm. So maybe just park up the road a bit so nobody bothers you and costs you a bunch of money. Nobody needs that, you know.”

  “Oh…right,” Rhett said. “Thanks. And sorry about that. I didn’t realize.”

  “Nah, it’s cool,” the man said, taking a deep puff off his cigarette. “I just don’t want you to get into any trouble. You look concerned enough. I know what it’s like to have a bad day, and even if you weren’t having one, this could easily tip it over the edge and create a negative situation.”

  Rhett grinned, climbing back into his truck. He looked at the man from outside his rolled down window. “I suppose that’s true,” he said. “But at the same time, I try very hard not to let outside events disrupt my inner peace. What I am struggling with is something that can’t be helped. It is a problem I will have until it is solved. And so, it will bother me until then. Getting reprimanded over something like this, though? Well, it would be a silly learning experience, but it wouldn’t affect my mood. Much. I think.”

  The man on the sidewalk scoffed, but in a friendly way, and gave a nod. “Good philosophy. Hope you can live up to it.”

  “Gonna try,” Rhett said, turning the engine and heading up the road a short way. When he was sure he had found a safe parking space, he headed back in the direction he had come from. The man was still there, finishing up his cigarette and glancing at his watch.

  “Oh, hey,” he said absently, looking from his watch face to the road. “I’m just waiting on my ex-wife. She wanted to pick me up today, so we could go to our daughter’s recital together.”

  “What kind of recital?” Rhett asked. He had learned that it was always wise to ask questions, especially when encountering a friendly human who was willing to talk. There was no better way to learn about the world than from someone who lived in it and was willing to teach you whatever they could possibly have to offer.