“If I promise not to drop you over the ocean or land?”
“Do you promise that?”
Garrett gave a nod of his huge and stately head. “I do.” He held out his front legs. “Now climb aboard.”
Billie’s brows shot up to her hairline. “That sounded almost…suggestive, and at the same time so very wrong.”
Garrett gave a chuff of laughter. “Can’t blame a dragon for trying.”
“Want to bet?” she muttered as she stepped up and then into the grasp of his front legs.
“Your squirming isn’t helping,” he warned seconds later.
“I’m only trying to get comfortable,” she complained.
Garrett had no indication from Billie’s present mood what they were going to do about their mating. But for the moment, he didn’t particularly care either. He had Billie with him, held securely in his arms, and for now, that was all that mattered.
Despite the fact that Garrett hadn’t allowed himself to come, last night with Billie had been pure ecstasy. Beyond anything and anyone he had ever experienced before or ever would again. Even three weeks with Billie, if she ultimately refused to mate with him, would be more pleasure and satisfaction than he could experience in several dragon lifetimes.
“Where are we flying to?” Billie prompted once she was settled to her satisfaction.
“Wales, initially.” Reluctant as Garrett was to involve his brothers, he now accepted he needed to talk to all the ones that were at Pendragon Castle. For several reasons.
One, he had a feeling he was going to need help extracting Billie from the complicated situation she’d embroiled herself in with the Romanians and the Russians, either of whom would kill her without a second thought. And Grigor’s need to kill anyone who threatened his mate wasn’t far behind that knowledge.
Two, Garrett needed advice from his brothers regarding how to proceed with his reluctant mate.
Once his brothers got over the shock of who his mate was, they would find all this hilarious. Garrett had found enough amusement in their complicated matings for them to enjoy seeing his loss as to how to deal with his own strong-willed mate.
No doubt they would all see Garrett’s current situation as poetic justice, karma for all the shit he’d given them this past year.
Chapter 7
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Grigor glowered across the room at Garrett.
“You should know better than any of us that the fates decide, not us,” Garrett snapped back, his mood not improved by the fact that, for the moment, his mate was currently in another room with Chloe, Nathaniel’s mate. “Because until you got to know her, you sure as hell wouldn’t have chosen the rebellious and mouthy Gayle as your mate.” He might not have initially chosen Billie either, but no other woman existed for him now, and he wanted her close to him every minute of the day.
This was a necessary and brief separation after Grigor, partially shifted, had lunged for Billie’s throat, talons extended, the moment she entered the castle at Garrett’s side.
Garrett’s response had been to also partially shift, and the two brothers had snapped and snarled as they fought for dominance. If Nathaniel hadn’t stepped in to separate them, one of them could have been seriously hurt.
Garrett had no desire to hurt his eldest brother, but neither would he tolerate Grigor threatening or trying to harm his mate.
“Billie is my mate,” he announced to all his brothers, except Rhys, who had apparently disappeared on yet another mission. “Accept that, and there will be no need for further violence.”
“Billie?” Dylan prompted curiously.
Garrett nodded. “She hates the name Sybil.”
“You realized yesterday she was your mate, and yet you said nothing to us?” Nathaniel frowned.
Garrett barely glanced at him. “I was too busy rescuing her from Volkov’s clutches to have time for explanations.” His chin rose. “Do you all accept her as my mate?”
Bryn sniffed the air. “The claiming has not yet been completed.”
“Completed or not, she is my mate,” Garrett thundered. “Accept that, or we will all find ourselves on opposite sides of a battle none of us will truly win.” There had been the usual disagreements between the brothers during the sixteen centuries of their existence, but the rift caused by his brothers refusing to accept his mate would be irreversible. Garrett would defend Billie to his last breath.
“Everyone calm down,” Deryk interceded quietly, waiting for his brothers to do so before turning to look at Garrett. “This is the woman you choose as mate?”
His jaw tightened. “Yes.”
Deryk nodded. “Then I accept her as being so.”
Garrett glanced around the room. “And the rest of you?” Dylan, Bryn, Aeran, and Nathaniel all slowly nodded. “Grigor?”
“She is a thief. Worse, she came here to kill my mate on instruction from the head of the Romanian Mafia.”
“I seem to recall Gayle was also involved in the former, and you’ve forgiven her. You have no actual proof of the latter.”
Grigor’s eyes widened. “Can there be any doubt she was here to kill Gayle under instructions from Cezar Fescaru?”
“Billie denies it, yes.”
“You believe her?”
Garrett felt his eyes change to the feral glitter of his dragon. “When you come to know Billie better, you’ll realize that she isn’t a woman who lies. Avoidance of an answer, prevarication, yes, but never an outright lie. She told me yesterday that she had no intention of harming Gayle.”
“Then why was she here?”
“I have yet to discover that, but she said she had no intention of killing Gayle, and I believe her.”
A nerve pulsed in Grigor’s clenched jaw. “I will need to hear this from her own lips before I can accept her into our family.”
It was a fair enough comment. Garrett would have wanted the same reassurance from someone he thought intended to harm his own mate. “Then we’ll bring Billie in here and ask her. But know this,” he added in warning, “whatever Billie has to say on the subject she’s my mate, and my future, however long that might be, now lies with her.”
Grigor’s eyes narrowed. “You would break up our family for her?”
“Without hesitation.” Which wasn’t to say that Garrett didn’t eventually intend to administer his own punishment for Billie’s actions.
Billie had no idea what was taking place in the room next to this one, where the Pendragon brothers had all disappeared to after Garrett and Grigor had physically attacked each other in the front hallway of the castle.
It had been terrifying to behold.
Both men had seemed to grow larger in height and body mass, their faces taking on the sharper features of their dragon, and those lethal talons had ripped into flesh as their sharp teeth snapped at each other’s throat and the air was filled with their growls.
Billie was still shaking from the memory of that unbridled violence.
“Here.”
She looked up to find Chloe holding out a glass of brandy. “Thanks.” Billie held the glass in both her shaking hands as she took a reviving sip. “That was…scary. Does it happen often?”
The other woman smiled. “Thankfully, no.”
“Talking of scary, is Nikolai Volkov still here?” Billie hadn’t seen the Russian when they arrived, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still here.
Chloe shook her head. “When you were nowhere to be found after the accident, he decided to drive back to London yesterday with his men.”
“Oh thank God,” Billie breathed in relief.
Chloe sat down on the couch beside her. “He’s a big part of all this, isn’t he?”
“Do you think Garrett is okay?” Billie asked instead of answering the other woman.
“Nathaniel would never have allowed Garrett and Grigor to actually hurt each other.” She leaned back. “So, you’re Garrett’s mate?”
She frowned. “He says I am, yes.
”
Chloe chuckled. “And once a Pendragon brother has spoken… At least you’re lucky in being mated to Garrett. He’s the least aggressive of the brothers,” she added affectionately.
Proving these people really didn’t know the Garrett that Billie had seen in Iceland.
Oh, he was affable enough on the surface, and he also had a sense of humor that seemed to be lacking in Nathaniel and Grigor. But as a lover, Garrett became demanding and dominant to a degree Billie had never encountered in any man before. Garrett had threatened to spank her ass, for God’s sake.
She eyed the other woman curiously. “How is it you’ve accepted all this so calmly? You were an independent woman, a successful reporter. You’re also as human as I am.”
“I’m still independent, and now I’m a successful author—”
“You’re that Chloe Evans?” Billie gasped.
“Author of hot dragon shifter books?” Chloe mused self-derisively. “Have you read any of them?”
“I haven’t had a lot of time for reading recently, but… Oh my God, I read Nathaniel when it came out last year,” she realized with a pained wince. “A lot has gone on in my life since then but… Centuries-old dragon shifters. Welsh Underworld. Goddess mother. Brothers to King Arthur.”
Chloe nodded. “Semibiographical.”
Which meant every word Garrett told Billie had been the truth!
Had she really doubted it?
Not since Garrett had shifted into his dragon for a second time.
“Becoming Nathaniel’s mate just involved a slight career change,” Chloe dismissed. “And you have to admit, the sex is phenomenal.”
Billie felt her cheeks flush as the memories of last night came flooding back. “We haven’t completed the mating.”
Mated or not, her desire for Garrett had returned with a vengeance since Garrett disappeared with his brothers. To a degree Billie now felt as if there were ants crawling under her skin. Her restrictive clothing was more uncomfortable than ever; her lacy bra felt abrasive against her engorged nipples, and her panties were so wet with her arousal, it was probably soaking noticeably through her jeans.
She needed Garrett again.
She needed him now.
Chloe eyed her mockingly, as if she knew exactly how Billie was suffering from this separation from Garrett. “I’m betting you’ve done enough so that you know how amazing it is.”
Billie lowered her lashes. “Perhaps.”
The other woman gave a knowing chuckle. “And I was human,” she lightly corrected Billie’s earlier statement. “Once the mating is complete, we begin to…change. Our senses grow sharper. We’re stronger too. We age more slowly. Much more slowly,” she added appreciatively. “We can also sense our mate’s emotions. For instance, right now, Nathaniel is puzzled but also accepting of you as Garrett’s mate.”
“And the other brothers?”
“I’m not attuned to them, but I can only sense one tense and one angry emotion in the other room, and I’m guessing that’s going to be Garrett and Grigor,” she mused, “I would say the other brothers have accepted you too.”
Billie leaned back wearily on the couch. “Grigor hates me.”
Chloe shook her head. “He fears you and your intention to harm Gayle.”
“I would never—” She broke off, closing her eyes. “None of you have any idea how complicated my life has become. Or why,” she added bitterly.
“Then share it with us.” Chloe placed a hand on one of Billie’s and gave it a squeeze. “No matter what Grigor might feel, you’re under the protection of the Pendragon family now. Grigor’s too, if he believes what you have to say.”
Could she tell Garrett and his family of the Romanian’s threat to her father after all?
Billie had listened in horror to Cezar Fescaru’s instruction for her to kill Gayle Harris, knowing there was no way, no matter what the Romanian threatened to do to her father, that she could ever kill anyone.
Oh, she had come to Wales and given the impression she intended to carry out Fescaru’s instruction once she was here. But in reality, Billie had known she couldn’t go through with it. She’d come to Wales to warn Gayle, not harm her. She’d even toyed with the idea of confiding everything to the Pendragon brothers and hoping they could help her save her father from Fescaru’s retribution.
Unfortunately, the arrival of Nikolai Volkov told her the Pendragons were involved with the Russian bratva in some way, and Gregori Markovic was just as anxious to get his hands on her as the Romanians.
Unable to return to London for fear of Fescaru, the Pendragons now seeming just as inaccessible when Volkov had arrived, a forest in North Wales and sleeping in her car at night had become the only place Billie had left to hide.
Then two days ago, she’d been captured by Rhys Pendragon, a tall, dark warrior of a man who had barely spoken to her before he delivered her to Nikolai Volkov. Billie had believed it was all over then, for her and her father.
Until Garrett had swooped in, shifted into a dragon, and carried her off to a cave in Iceland.
Totally scrambling her brain in the process.
“We would like you to join us in the other room.”
Billie looked up to see one of the Pendragon brothers, a blond like Garrett—Deryk?—standing in the doorway. “Where’s Garrett?” she prompted nervously.
Deryk gave a derisive grimace. “Your mate is in there waiting for you.”
Why hadn’t Garrett come for her himself?
Had he changed his mind about mating her?
Or had he and Grigor argued again and Garrett had been hurt? She hadn’t heard any snarls and growls from the other room, but that didn’t mean the brothers hadn’t had another fight. Over her. Because she was Garrett’s fated mate, whatever that meant.
He claimed it meant Billie was now the only woman that existed for him.
The thought of becoming Garrett’s mate was still a daunting one.
More so than the fact he was a dragon shifter?
Well…no. The flight home had more than acclimatized her to that fact. Besides, he was magnificent as a dragon.
But the way Garrett described the mating, mounting her, fucking her, biting her and sucking her blood, while a barb on his cock latched on inside her, was just too unbelievable to contemplate right now.
“Billie?”
She blinked as Deryk’s use of that name proved Garrett had talked about her to his brothers. Had he defended her? How could he when he didn’t know the truth either?
She sighed as she stood up. “Fine.”
“It will be okay.” Chloe gave Billie’s arm a reassuring squeeze before releasing her.
Being confronted by seven huge dragon shifters in the same room all at once, one of them still obviously looking at her with distrust and animosity, was not okay.
Billie instinctively moved closer to Garrett. Something he obviously took satisfaction in as he placed a possessive arm about her waist and drew her even closer against his side, a wolfish—dragonish?—smile curving his sculpted lips as he eyed his brothers challengingly.
“Welcome, Billie Rider, Garrett’s mate,” Nathaniel spoke formally.
“Er… Thank you?” she answered after a warning tightening of the arm about her waist.
Deryk chuckled. “You don’t sound too sure about the sincerity of our welcome.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, if it’s a precursor to one of you ripping my head off, then yes, you could say I’m feeling slightly skeptical.” She gave the brooding and silent eldest Pendragon brother a pointed glance.
Grigor’s eyes narrowed. “Garrett seems to think there’s a valid explanation as to why you were stalking my mate on Fescaru’s instructions.”
Billie glanced at Garrett. She hadn’t said that exactly, only that there were extenuating circumstances. Ones she still wasn’t sure she could share with the Pendragon family.
What if telling them everything resulted in Fescaru killing her father?
She would never be able to live with herself if that happened.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “How much did Nikolai Volkov tell you about my…situation?”
Grigor’s nostrils flared. “We want you to tell us, not a third party, and I would appreciate if you could get on with it so that I can rejoin my mate.”
“I’ve assured you I don’t mean to harm Gayle, and I meant it. Now I need to go back to London.” She hadn’t even had access to her mobile these past few days. As far as Cezar Fescaru was concerned, she had disappeared off the face of the earth for the past forty-eight hours. “I need to go back to London now,” she repeated urgently.
“Why?”
“I don’t have time for your intrusive questions— Ouch.” She gave Garrett an indignant glare for having squeezed her waist so painfully. “What is your problem?” she demanded.
Garrett’s eyes narrowed until they were a glittering silver slither. “You were about to refuse Grigor’s request for you to tell us the truth.”
“So?” Billie remained defiant, on the basis there was safety in numbers. Garrett wouldn’t smack her ass in front of his brothers, would he?
“So it’s unacceptable.” Garrett turned to her before bending slightly and throwing her over one of his shoulders, the steel band of one of his arms placed across the back of her thighs holding her firmly in place. “If you will excuse us for a few minutes,” he spoke to his brothers. “I believe my mate and I need to have a little chat about her compliance before we continue with this conversation.”
“Put me down, you—you overgrown dragon!” Billie pummeled her fists against his back as, completely undeterred, Garrett strode toward the door. She had a brief glimpse of his brothers’ surprised expressions before she and Garrett were out of the room. “Where are you taking me?” she demanded as he took the stairs two at a time.
“My suite of rooms,” he supplied grimly.
“I… But… Why?” She was starting to feel dizzy from being upside down and the constant swaying movement.
Her answer was a painful smack on her backside that sent a hot jolt of desire straight to her core.
Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6) Page 6