Protected by the Dragon (Banished Dragons)

by Leela Ash

  “Anyway,” Mia said, clearing her throat and changing the subject. “It really is quite a lovely restaurant. Are you sure all you want is bread? There are so many other options.”

  Rhett smiled. “I know what I like,” he said, holding her eyes a little longer than he had meant to.

  A slight flush crept to her cheeks and the dragon within him was quickly alerted to the subtle, sweet energy of her arousal. It made it nearly impossible for him to hold himself back, and Mia glanced away, apparently trying to hide whatever indication of her interest showing that might be present on her face.

  “That’s a good quality,” Mia said, laughing quietly, her eyes studying her napkin intently. “Especially to a new-aged mess like me.”

  “You’re not a mess,” Rhett said, smiling kindly. “You’re exploring. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It’s a big world and you have every right to explore it and see what there is out there that might be appealing to you. Never apologize for having a curious spirit.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Mia said, finally daring to meet his gaze again.

  Why was there something so wonderfully familiar about her face? Her smile? It was almost as if they had met before, the sense of familiarity and attraction was just so strong in that way. But that didn’t make any sense. He was probably just projecting his strong attraction to her. He shouldn’t feel this way about anybody but his fated mate. The fact was that he was simply lonely and hoping to end his search once and for all so that he could begin to move on with his life. There was really no other explanation for it.

  Finally, their food arrived and the conversation lulled. The human grew quiet and distant, consumed by her own thoughts as she ate. Rhett studied her closely, considering what she might possibly be thinking. Was she upset? Angry? Was she trying to process a similar attraction, or was she completely put off by him? He had thought that the conversation had been going well, but there was something that changed; a shift in her demeanor that had brought her features to a dark and sad seeming place. What was it that had caused her to feel that way? Was she going to continue feeling this way throughout the course of the meal? Should he talk to her? Leave her alone?

  Women on Earth seemed always to want a man who was perceptive to their feelings, and yet also required space in order to process and understand those very feelings. All of this was way too complicated, and Rhett began to brood over the complexities, angsting over whether or not he should reach out to this beautiful woman or let her remain alone in the unsure but deep waters of her thoughts.

  Suddenly, a sharp burst of anger consumed Rhett. Why was he trying so hard to care about and understand a human who, for all intents and purposes, would never care about him or understand what he had been through? He would never be able to be himself with her. She was not a descendant. She wasn’t someone he could spend his life with.

  Why the sudden investment? He wasn’t the kind of guy to just walk up to any random woman, human or dragon shifter, and want to be intimate with them. He was reserved in his sexuality, for the most part, and hadn’t even considered putting himself in a romantic position with a woman. He had always assumed the time would come when these feelings would surface for his fated one. Not for an earthling. A human female. Someone who was probably never going to be able to open her mind to his reality, no matter how out of the ordinary she liked to believe she was.

  He quickly stuffed the rest of his bread in his mouth and stood abruptly. Mia gazed at him in surprise, setting her fork down on her plate.

  “Thank you for a lovely evening,” he said, swallowing the lump of food hard. “I hope to see you again sometime.”

  “I’m free next weekend,” Mia said, eyeing him curiously.

  Rhett was stumped. He had been instructed to lie on such dates, because it was in poor taste according to human custom to leave a woman feeling undesirable. Truth be told, he would have loved to see Mia every night that week. Which was exactly why he had to put a stop to all of this. He had real issues to consider here. And some major negativity to investigate. Mia was a human. She wasn’t involved. In fact, she would only just get in the way of figuring out what was really going on when it came to the Sun Dragon/Loni hybrids. He couldn’t put her before his search. If he did, he might just find that all the descendants were in danger, that he could have prevented it if he had been thinking more clearly with the head on his shoulders and not the one below his belt.

  “Oh. Sure. Fine. Next week.”

  The words stumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he stared at Mia, slightly dumbfounded by his own response. Hadn’t he just sworn against going out with her again? Weren’t there a million and one ways that this was a bad idea and that many reasons to run the other way?

  “I like the waterfront,” she said, standing up and facing him. Apparently, she was done with her meal too. “We can meet there Saturday at 5 o’clock if that’s all right with you.”

  Rhett nodded. “Fine. Saturday at 5.”

  He cursed at Gavin inwardly for telling him to be a yes man. Telling him he needed experience courting human females, and the ones who didn’t try to sleep with him were worth the experience in learning about the dating world and its expectations. But more than that, he was cursing at himself for agreeing. Gavin didn’t have to know she had been willing to go on a follow-up date. Gavin hadn’t known anything else about her, why should any of this matter now?

  “Great,” Mia said. “See you then.”

  She turned and walked away, leaving a plate of half-eaten food on the table. Rhett stared at her as she disappeared out of the restaurant and then turned his gaze on the rest of the room. Everybody was still eating and enjoying light, casual conversation. The atmosphere was still cordial and inviting, despite the swirl of complicated emotions that were suddenly plaguing him. How the hell did this woman affect him so badly?

  “Will you be needing the check?”

  Rhett turned a fierce glare onto the waiter that had been staring at Mia, and the man cowered visibly now that Rhett was standing upright and towered over him by a good two feet. He was puny compared to the well-built dragon shifter and found himself feeling very intimidated.

  “It’s taken care of,” Rhett said, staring menacingly at the waiter.

  “Right. Have a good night.”

  The man scampered away, not even bothering to check the table for a tip. Rhett wouldn’t have left one if the guy had done acrobatics away from the table. Disrespectful little shit.

  With a heavy sigh, Rhett made his way out of the building. He would have to go out and patrol some more tonight. He felt like he was close to touching on something huge, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. Getting to the bottom of it was far more important than going home to look at more human technology. And if nothing else, he needed a way to get Mia off his mind. Big time.

  9.

  “Jewel!”

  Mia’s heart raced when she saw the strange man approaching her daughter in the school parking lot. She wasn’t sure what it was about him, but she really didn’t trust the look in his eyes. She had learned long ago to trust her intuition, especially when it came to her daughter, and Jewel could sense the urgency in her mother’s voice and ran toward her, looking only at Mia.

  “Hi, mommy!”

  “Hey, sweetie,” Mia said, gathering her daughter into a tight embrace and ushering her quickly to the car, all the while keeping a keen eye on the man that had been coming near her daughter. The man didn’t seem to notice her, or if he did, he acted as if he hadn’t been up to anything at all. But Mia knew better. She was going to have to talk to the school about him. Maybe she should get a picture…

  But by the time her daughter was safely in the back of the car and she had managed to dig her phone out of her purse, the man had disappeared almost as eerily as he had shown up.

  “He was a weird man, wasn’t he, mommy?” Jewel asked when Mia settled behind the wheel and took a deep breath, glancing all around
to see if she could find him. But he had left no trace, and goosebumps began to rise on her flesh.

  “He was definitely weird. Have you ever seen him before?”

  “Once.”

  Mia prickled.

  “When?”

  “Yesterday. He was standing outside the playground looking at me when I went down the slide. But he went away.”

  “That’s it. I am definitely reporting him.”

  Mia considered going into the school, but she was overwhelmed by an urgent desire to get her child as far away from this place and that man as possible, as quickly as she could do so. Her protective instincts were kicking in full force.

  “Are we going to see grandma today?”

  Mia sighed. She had been thinking about dropping Jewel off at her mother’s house, so she could run some errands, but she didn’t want to leave her daughter out of her sight. Maybe she would just hang out with her at her mom’s house. There was safety in numbers, after all. And her mom had a tendency to know exactly what to do during these types of situations. It was a sort of sixth sense that Mia had always hoped she would adopt. In a way, she had, but she still felt better being around her mother.

  “Yeah, let’s go see grandma for a little while.”

  “Yay! Slumber party?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Mia said. If Jewel slept over, she was going to sleep over too. “We’ll see. But we might end up going home.”

  “Aw. Okay.”

  Mia was relatively unphased by her daughter’s disappointment on certain matters at this point, and they headed to her mother’s house. When they arrived, Jewel leapt out of the car and ran inside, her backpack flying wildly in her hand as she went. Mia smiled gently at her daughter, deep love surging through her body. She was the best thing that had ever happened to Mia. The child’s father on the other hand…

  Well, it couldn’t be helped. They had both been pretty young and stupid when Jewel was conceived, and he had done his best to support them despite no longer being romantically interested in Mia. They had parted amicably, and her daughter still saw her father every once in a while, but he had moved out of state long ago and hadn’t seemed very interested in going out of his way for either of them.

  “Hey, honey,” Mia’s mother said, welcoming them inside with open arms. “How are you doing?”

  “Good,” Mia said, though her chest had tightened with the force of the lie. She wasn’t doing well. She was nervous and concerned for the safety of her daughter. And both Jewel and her mother were able to tell that she was not telling the whole truth.

  “There was a weird guy at my school today!” Jewel said, her tone so innocent that it was almost cheerful. “I didn’t like him. He was there yesterday too when I was on the slide and I think my mom is going to talk to the principal to get him into trouble.”

  “A weird guy?”

  Mia’s mother’s face contorted in concern and she turned a steady gaze to Mia. “Well, that doesn’t sound like a very fun situation. Good thing your mama was there, right?”

  “Right!” Jewel said. “Can I go have a snack and watch tv?”

  “Of course, honey,” Mia’s mother said. “Make it a healthy snack, we are going to have something really sweet for dessert if you guys stay for dinner. I made a pie.”

  “Pie!” Jewel exclaimed, running into the kitchen. “I’m going to have an apple then.”

  “That’s my girl,” Mia said with false enthusiasm. But Jewel was too busy to notice it and Mia turned to her mother, sighing heavily.

  “I don’t know what’s been going on lately. It’s like my kid and I are creep magnets or something.”

  “You too?” her mother asked, frowning even more deeply now. Mia sighed, realizing suddenly that she hadn’t made any mention at all of the creepy man from the speed dating event. Rhett had taken care of it so quickly it had nearly slipped her mind.

  “Yeah, some guy was acting weird when I went to the speed dating thing. But the guy I went out with last week put a stop to it.”

  “Oh,” her mother said, eyes twinkling. “Did he now?”

  Mia scoffed, unable to keep herself from laughing at her mother’s interest. “Yes. Really, he did. And it was fantastic. And he gave me a picture of Jewel that I had dropped. But I don’t think he is all that into me. He is really aloof. And kind of a jerk. I don’t know, I can’t tell if I even really like him or not.”

  “Well, you will be able to tell soon enough, I’m sure,” her mother said. “In the meantime, tell me more about this creepy guy. What happened?”

  Mia sighed and flopped down onto the living room couch and her mother busied herself readying some tea. “Apparently, some weird man has been creeping on Jewel. Who knows how long it has been going on. She said she only saw him once, yesterday, while she was playing, but he could have been watching her for who knows how long. I’m so upset about it!”

  “Did you tell the school and ask them to keep an eye out?”

  “I should tell the police first and foremost. My main concern was in getting her somewhere safe and asking you what I should be doing right now. I am really overwhelmed by all of this. I was hoping you would know what to do.”

  “Well, bringing her here is a good start. Maybe you should work on that police report right now, though. I don’t like the idea of some scary man lingering around the school looking at kids. Do you think he’s like a pedophile?”

  Mia cringed. “No, it was nothing like that. It was different. Weird, somehow, but not like that. I don’t know what he wanted but he was really creeping me out. I don’t know how to explain it. He almost didn’t even seem human.”

  Mia’s mother shot her eyebrow up and gave a small nod. “All right. Then you should go on and get that report filed. It is all going to be okay. I will take care of Jewel while you are dealing with that. The police will make sure the school is informed and taking the proper precautions with the children. If that guy shows up again, they will know about it and he is going to live to regret it.”

  Mia nodded. “I hope so.”

  “She is under a blanket of safety and security, though, don’t you worry. Just like you always have been. I can feel it.”

  Mia smiled and gave her mom a small nod, then a big hug, before heading back to the door.

  “I’m going to be back in a little while, honey. Be good for your grandmother.”

  “I will,” Jewel said absently, her attention fully focused on the tv screen as she gnawed at an apple. “I love you, mom.”

  “I love you too, sweet pea. I’ll be back soon.”

  Jewel nodded, and Mia sighed, heading out the door to see what she could accomplish at the police station. Hopefully, if nothing else, she would be able to get that guy to stay away from the school once and for all.

  10.

  “Hey, I recognize you!”

  Rhett paused in confusion as he walked out of the fast food restaurant, holding a takeout bag of buns slathered with random condiments, and turned around. He had been snooping around the area where the speed dating event had happened and smiled in recognition when he saw the fireman he had encountered not long ago.

  “Oh, hi,” Rhett said. “Jackson, right?”

  “The one and only,” he said, flashing a charming smile at Rhett. “How has it been going, man?”

  “Oh, you know…not bad.”

  Rhett’s mind turned suddenly and unintentionally back to Mia and he let out a small sigh.

  “Oh no. Don’t tell me. There’s a girl, isn’t there?” Jackson grinned and stretched his arms behind his head. “Only a woman can make a guy sigh like that.”

  Rhett smiled despite himself. “Yeah, there’s a woman. I don’t really know what to do about it, but that really isn’t what I should be focusing on right now.”

  “Well, what is it that you should be focusing on right now?”

  Rhett considered this thoughtfully and then shook his head. He couldn’t confide in this human about the dangers that were present
in the universe seeking to destroy the sacred Loni/Shifter hybrid energies that kept shifter magic alive. There was no way he would ever be able to understand. Especially a man like Jackson who was involved in things like police investigations and government work. The man would probably have Rhett committed if he tried to tell him the truth about what he was working on.

  But Rhett still couldn’t help but like the guy. It had been a while since he had spoken to anybody outside the small circle of dragon shifters he had been banished with. And Jackson seemed friendly enough. Why not open up to him? At least a little bit…

  “Work. I have a lot of projects for work that need my attention, and I don’t see how I will ever be able to focus on all of them if I am not able to get my mind off this girl…”

  Jackson laughed and shook his head. “Bitten by the love bug, huh?”

  Rhett blinked. “Love bug?”

  “You know…you like her. Don’t you?”

  Jackson led Rhett to an outdoor patio table outside the restaurant and sat down, offering him a seat. “I’m on lunch so we can talk about it a bit if you’d like. Getting things off your chest might help you to get some work done. You never know.”

  Rhett considered this. He hadn’t been able to talk to any of the other dragon shifters about his feelings. He knew they would all overreact to his interest in a human, especially knowing that time was running out for his kind and if he wasn’t able to contribute to the procreation of the sacred species, all shifter magic, as they knew it, could cease to exist.

  No, they would never be understanding of his temptation to turn his back on his destiny and settle down with a mere human. But maybe he would be able to talk about it with someone who didn’t have the same perspective as his comrades had. Someone who understood how confusing it was in the human dating world, trying to navigate Earth’s tempestuous emotional waters in search of a fated mate you might never even find.

  “Okay,” Rhett said, sitting down across from Jackson. “I guess we can talk for a few minutes.”