“I think it needs sheets.” She smiled wryly.
“Let me tell you, lass. I don’t think the beast has any patience for things like fitted sheets or duvet covers. That is your problem.”
She laughed. Tonight, she would sleep in that bed, sheets or not. It might not become a permanent thing, her staying in the tower, at least not yet. She could see herself waking here each morning. But, she had dreams to attend to, as well.
That could be figured out, she reminded herself as she stepped forward and grabbed the front of Wesley’s shirt. In the meantime, she wanted to see this man smile. She wanted to feel his hands on her skin. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed his touch until his skin was against hers once more. It set her at ease and lifted the heavy weight of her determined lifestyle. With Wesley, the future was wide open and she was, for the first time, unafraid of what that meant.
Bea Brennan was surely going to flip her lid when she figured out that her daughter was the mate of a Welsh dragon shifter. That was one conversation with her mother that she was willing to put off for a while.
They toppled into the new bed together, a mess of limbs and happy laughter mixed with short kisses. She gripped the sides of his head, raising his gaze to her own so that she could search his face. Her neck was bare beneath his gaze, open to his meandering lips and teeth.
His hand moved beneath her shirt to cup her breast. Warm lips touched the cool skin of her neck and sent small jolts of pleasure to her core. She cried out when his teeth sank into her skin, just hard enough to mix pain with pleasure.
Dakota moved her hands through his hair, tugging hard, and she could feel him losing all control. His pants became a stubborn nuisance that she didn’t hesitate to tear away. His hands travelled down her bare legs and with each touch her arousal grew more. He pushed her legs apart, and directed his cock to her warm opening. She was hot and wet already. He thrusted forward in one smooth motion. Wes hit home and felt a shudder ripple through his mate.
Dakota cried out beneath him, but it wasn’t a sound of pain. It turned into a moan and she arched beneath him. He growled, smothering the sound against her neck as his hips slammed home again and again.
She rocked her hips, elongating his strokes until he threw his head back. Her own pleasure washed over her in waves each time he slammed inside of her. She rode the border between pleasure and pain, an experience she’d never shared before. Dakota found that she liked it more than she ever would have thought.
Pleasure exploded through her, drowning her in the rush of it when Wesley slammed home for the final time. He arched over her, roaring his pleasure to all of Snowdonia. The sound filled her, touching places inside of her so that another series of waves of pleasure rocketed through her.
Wesley collapsed on top of her, careful not to crush her small body beneath his. He rested his head on her shoulder. When he spoke, his voice was strained.
“I knew that you were my mate before our very first kiss,” he said into her skin. “I knew that I could love you as we drove to lunch. Now, I know that to ask you to stay here with me would hurt you. You are your own woman. I cannot hold you like a prisoner no matter how much my beast wants to lock you in our bedroom.”
“I came back because I wanted to, Wesley,” She turned his face in her hands to look him in the eye. “I came back because you deserve a chance at happiness and I think that you could make me very happy, too.”
She watched the corner of his lips curl into a smile, as his grip around her tightened. She stroked his auburn hair and he hid his face between her breasts. Above them, the black branches of the bed seemed to protect them from the outside world.
She knew better. She knew that Raph was still out there and that he wanted Snowdonia for himself. The threat loomed over them all. No one knew how many other white dragons were left. They didn’t know if they vied for the territory the way that Raph did. She wanted to speak with Wesley’s father, tell him about her experience with GOE and warn him about what was coming. This was her home, too, now. If she wanted.
But, there was time to think about everything later. For now, Dakota could close her eyes and know that in that moment she was safe and sound.
Freed by the Dragon
Emilia Hartley
Chapter One
Rhiannon sucked in a haggard breath and tried to let it out through her nose. It was going to be a long day. She signed on for field work for a reason. These bureaucratic crowds made her anxious with the hefty judgement they placed on all others around them.
She hung back in the crowd, anxiously eyeing the spectacle that she had helped to create. Her former boss, Gregor Wilson was being walked through the Guardians of Existence Judiciary building like a cow on display. His hands were casually stuffed in his pockets and he looked up with a straight spine despite the uniformed Guardians that gripped his arms on either side. The crowd around her, politicians, GOE officers, and protesters, whispered about Wilson. It set her teeth on edge. Her former boss’s dark eyes met Rhiannon’s and she saw the nearly imperceptible nod he gave her.
She pulled in another breath, the air hissing through her teeth. This was the man that had taken her in and raised her after her own parents were killed by a pair of dragon shifters. Now, he was being tried for attempted murder because of a pair of stupid dragon shifters and a human girl. Her eyes scanned the crowd and she felt heat boil through her when she caught sight of Raphael in the crowd. The smug smile on his face made her want to march through the sea of onlookers and punch him in the face.
That would give away everything they fought to keep under wraps, though. Because the secret she held like a slimy lump in her throat was that Gregor Wilson really did try to kill the human girl in order to start a war that would wipe out the red dragons on the Snowdonia Territory. All because another dragon told them to. The worst part was Rhiannon had helped him. She was the one who had pulled her weapon and shot the girl when she ran for her life. GOE brushed off her participation due to her outstanding record, claiming that she was only following the orders of her senior officer.
She hated herself for blindly following. She hated herself for letting Wilson, a loving man and an upstanding commander, trust the white dragon menace that slipped into their branch. None of this would have happened had Raphael not whispered in Wilson’s ear.
Turning toward the hearing, her body froze. Behind Wilson came a procession of the red dragon shifters. Their muscle-bound bodies and heads topped with various shades of red hair gave them away. At least, for Rhiannon they did. The girl that Wilson had kidnapped walked with her head high, despite the tremble in her limbs. The dragon closest to her glowered at anyone that dare glance in her direction.
That must be her mate, Rhiannon decided. Her eyes moved on until she came across a familiar face. She felt her lips form a scowl against her better judgement. A haze of red and gold stubble graced his jaw and a lock of reddish gold hair fell over his eyes until he reached up and pushed it back with thick fingers. He had been the one to disarm her the day everything went to shit.
Rhiannon was one of their best agents when it came to hand to hand with the dragon species. She was quick and, more often than not, she was stronger than some of her male counterparts. How the copper haired dragon had swept in and so easily rendered her useless was beyond her. In fact, it made her angry. It burned inside of her like a palpable heat.
She wanted to move, to put one foot in front of the other and go where she was supposed to go. The hearing was waiting on her. Instead, Rhiannon found herself glued to the spot. She watched the dragon man make a bee line toward her.
***
Gareth hadn’t expected to ever see the woman again. Maybe, he should have known better when Drystan asked him to act as security for his cousin, Wesley, and Wes’s new human mate as they answered GOE’s questions about the incident. This woman had been part of the team that kidnapped Dakota. It should have been obvious that she would be here.
Gareth liked to thi
nk himself a lady’s man. There was not a rutting night that he had ended empty handed. Most mornings after began with a sated and smiling woman. Yet, this woman glowered at him like he was the scum of the earth. Even worse, she confused him and his beast. Her smell drove him wild in a way that he’d never felt before. She smelled like open air and smoldering fire ashes.
It screamed dragon.
Yet, she was the enemy. She was an operative of the Guardians of Existence, an elite task force that had once been an order of knights that thought to wipe the earth of dragons for humanity’s so called protection. The Occurrence that happened almost a hundred years ago brought GOE forward and gave them government badges instead of coats of arms and high tech weapons instead of swords. Humans often did a better job of killing themselves than dragons ever had.
Gareth found himself walking directly toward the woman with dark red hair. It was so dark that it could have been called mahogany brown if he hadn’t seen the sunlight release the crimson in it. She wore it pinned into a bun at the back of her head, as tightly wrapped up as the rest of her from the way she stood. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her feet were spread apart like she might launch into a fight at any moment.
He was nearly to her when he realized his mistake. What was he doing? Her hot glare of hatred seared across his skin as he came closer. There was no going back. He closed the distance between them. His huge frame had made lesser men cower. This red-haired woman simply tilted her head back to look up at him with her hot glare, unaffected by his size.
No matter what she thought of herself, Gareth knew two things. One, he knew that he had rendered her defenseless once before and, two, she was willing to kill a human woman.
“Are you here to lie for your commanding officer?” Gareth growled. He knew that he was invading her space, but he couldn’t help himself. She had threatened his family.
“Back. Up. Dragon.” She growled the words at him.
He laughed, a small huff of air that said he would not be intimidated by her. He watched her lips press together into a firm line.
Gareth breathed her in, so close that he was unable to avoid her confusing scent. It roused things inside of him that he did not understand. He was caught between the anger that burned inside of him and the desire to reach out and pull her close to his body. He could not argue that she wasn’t attractive. She was athletically toned, yet her breasts were still heavy and perky. Had he met her in a bar or on the street, he might have let her take him home. In fact, he would have insisted.
Instead, the two of them stood in the center of a GOE Judiciary building because she hurt one of his.
“Why don’t you go find a farmer’s daughter to harass,” the woman growled at him as she pushed into his space.
“A farmer’s daughter would be a much better alternative. At least she would know the difference between cattle and human when it came time to slaughter.”
He could see the tick in her jaw, but it was the flash of another emotion in her eyes that made him pull back. Regret. It was bitter and sharp in her scent, lasting in the air between them where the look in her eyes had not. Still, it meant nothing. She was still here to defend her boss. She had still shot Dakota.
“Your kind can only make the distinction when you stick your cock in it.”
“Oh, now that isn’t fair. My cock isn’t going anywhere near you, yet here you still stand.” He didn’t add after her own attempted murder. There were too many people already watching them.
Inside of him, his beast’s tail thumped. His beast begged to differ. It wanted to make the harsh woman scream their name. Gareth promptly told his beast to shut up. The monster that lived in his mind laid its head on its claws and gave him a level glare before turning its attention back to her. The beast’s tail thumped with impatience and made his head hurt. It was a loud message that Gareth didn’t want to hear.
“Rhiannon Kendrick,” a monotonous voice said over an intercom. “Please report to the hearing or face insubordination charges.”
The woman’s face fell. Her arms fell away from her body.
Rhiannon.
Can you not want any other woman, Gareth asked his impetuous beast? The thing growled at him without looking away from her. She was off limits. Forever.
“You need to leave,” Rhiannon commanded him.
“Do not think that this is over between us,” he warned her.
Chapter Two
She watched the dragon man walk away. Air filled her lungs for the first time. A hand reached out and patted her arm. Rhiannon looked down to an elderly woman wearing a name badge around her neck.
“Whatever you did,” the elderly woman said, “he will forgive you. I’ve known my fair share of hot headed men in my life. He loves you, no matter what his actions say. You just have to give them space to vent their fire.”
Rhiannon laughed, at once seeing the irony in the woman’s choice of words and appalled that anyone would ever think the two of them a couple. She didn’t try to correct her. The hearing was calling for her and she didn’t need insubordination charges on top of what she was already going through.
The hearing flew by, but Rhiannon heard little of it. There was a dull roar in her ears that made her head ache and her eyes heavy. The stress of the month’s events were getting to her, she thought. Her supervisor would insist that she see an in-house therapist, one equipped to deal with the trauma that GOE agents often go through. She declined several times already. All she needed was to go home and open a beer.
The silence of being home alone would reinvigorate her and allow her to clear her mind, even if she could not clear her conscience. If not, a good night’s sleep would do the trick. Yet, when she pulled into her drive-way she knew that wasn’t in the cards for her tonight. The hunter green truck parked outside her house might have been familiar, but it did not mean that it was welcome.
Her former partner was inside already, having known where she hid her extra key because they worked together for almost ten years already. He set up camp on her couch while he waited for her to return. Tomorrow, it would be his turn to sit on the hearing. He would tell his side of the story, one that they both practiced.
She ignored him and went straight for her fridge. The dull roar filled her ears again. She paused in the chill that seeped from her open fridge and closed her eyes. It eased her aching head only a little. With a sigh, she grabbed the last beer in the fridge and popped the metal cap.
“To what do I owe the visit? You and I both know that we aren’t supposed to be seen together while the hearing is going on. They’re going to think we are corroborating our story.”
She heard her old couch creak and groan as Everett stood to follow her into the kitchen. He paused in the doorway, blocking any exit, yet not quite filling the frame. Not like the dragon man from the Judiciary building would have.
Rhiannon shook her head. She couldn’t be thinking about him right now. He shouldn’t even be a blip on her radar. He was a dragon shifter. It was his kind that rendered her parentless before the age of three. It was because of his kind that she couldn’t even remember her parents.
She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, willing control to herself. Her life was sideways right now. That was why she was having such a difficult time. It was why her mind wandered in wayward directions. Anything to keep from thinking about what will happen to her boss.
“We did corroborate a story,” Everett reminded her.
Rhiannon shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “Then you have no reason to be here. I wanted a night alone to drink myself into oblivion and fall asleep on the couch. You’re putting a serious wrench in those plans.”
“Don’t blame me,” Everett said. “I’m here because Wilson asked.”
Her world seemed to pause for a moment. “He went to you and not me?”
“After your showdown with the dragon in the lobby of the Judiciary building, he thought it would be more prudent to ask me. All eyes were on you after that.�
��
He was right. It didn’t keep her fist from tightening until her knuckles were white. Wilson should have trusted her to be discreet. The run in with the dragon man was an annoyance in her day. Nothing more.
“Fine. What does he want? Aren’t we supposed to be laying low until this blows over?”
“It’s not going to blow over, Rhiannon. Not with the woman’s testimony pitted against our own. We shot her. She might have healed quickly, but there’s still a scar.”
Rhiannon closed her eyes and tried to draw in a slow, steady breath.
“We have to turn the story against the dragons. It has to look like they’re lying to save their own skin. If our actions were truly self-defense and the woman turned on us, then Wilson has a chance to get through this without seeing the inside of a prison cell. Wilson has a plan that should help us be able to do just that.”
She had a bad feeling and it made her chest tighten. Her breathing exercises were going to get her nowhere. Instead, she threw back the beer in her hand. It might help her relax, she thought. If not, it would at least drop her into a feeling of nothingness.
Brushing past Everett, she sank onto the couch before looking up to meet his eyes. He didn’t move from where he stood in the kitchen doorway. Again, she was reminded of the dragon man from the Judiciary building. He would have towered over her partner. Whereas Everett has sandy blonde hair that he kept neatly cut, the dragon man had been more gruff and rough.
What was wrong with her? Why did he keep interrupting her thoughts? Anger rolled through her. He was invading her personal space without even being near her. It was unbearable.
“Tell me what Wilson wants,” she said to distract her mind from it’s dangerous path.
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