by Alice Brown
'What do you mean she can walk away at any given time? She is our mate. You and your brother are supposed to be mating her, not sending her in the opposite direction!' Fadri huffed in annoyance.
'We have to give her time to get to know us. She is human. We can’t just come out and say, hey, we are dragon shifter royalty, and you are our mate. We want to make mad, passionate love to you, fill your belly with child, and take you home to a faraway land you’ve never heard of,' Adrian tried soothing the beast raging within him.
'Well, I’d leave out the royalty part if I were you.'
“Refills for the ladies and two beers over at the corner table, please.” Adrian turned his pale blue eyes back to the women. “They will bring the drinks over, or we can wait right here and take a chance at missing the empty booth.”
The girls nodded to each other. Angel knew of Evangelina’s past and the problems she’d had with Gerald, her ex. She knew her friend had been hounded, bullied, and threatened by her ex. She had been there when her friend had been forced to get a restraining order on him. He just didn’t seem to understand what the word “no” meant.
They both climbed down from their bar stools and headed toward the empty corner booth. Angel grabbed ahold of Evangelina’s elbow before sitting beside her. “I am not going anywhere until we get you safely out of here.”
Her friend turned her head and flashed her a smile. “Thanks, Angel. However, something tells me I can trust these guys. I hope my gut isn’t wrong.”
The guys held back, giving the women plenty of space. They were both able to hear the girls' conversation loud and clear, thanks to their enhanced senses. Trailing slightly behind, they had their own telepathic conversation.
'Man, I can’t believe it! Fadri has been correct all along. She is even more beautiful up close!' Aiden exclaimed.
'Yes, now more than ever, I want to get to the bottom of this case and clear our schedule, so we can claim her properly. You know father will be upset if we don’t take her home, at least for a visit,' Adrian replied.
'One step at a time, bro. We have to convince her to mate with the two of us first. Remember, she’s human. We may have our work cut out for us.'
Fadri raised his head and decided to join in the conversation, 'If you boys would just step aside, I would gladly take care of everything.” The dragon purred. 'Mmm, just look at that backside and those hips. Oh yes, let go, boys, and watch the master at work!'
'We are in the middle of a crowded bar on Earth. No, you are not coming out now. Settle back down and behave,' Aiden reprimanded.
'Fine, have it your way. But when you two bumbling idiots send her running, just remember, I’ll be the one chasing her.'
The two brothers shared a glance and shook their heads. 'Been a while since Fadri was this irritated at us,' they communicated silently. When they had been younger, the two of them loved to play tricks on Fadri, irritating the beast to the point of exasperation. But when their dragon had become so annoyed at them one day that he accidentally set the castle on fire, their father and king was quick to put an end to their misdeeds. Since then, dragon and humans have shared both body and soul. Not always in total harmony, mind you, but at least respectfully.
They sat down on the other side of the booth from the women just as their drinks were delivered to the table. The brothers held off until the waitress had left to begin any conversation.
Aiden was just getting ready to start his explanation when Evangelina spoke, “So, I do believe you two owe me an explanation as to why you are following me.”
Aiden nodded and reached into his inside jacket pocket, pulling out a photo of the man who they had seen following her since they started following him.
“As we stated, we own Fadri Security. We were contacted about a week ago about this man and some suspicious activity. We were told his name was Michael Stills, but we now know that is not his name at all. Since we have been watching him, we also discovered he is stalking you. Here is a picture of him. Do you recognize him?”
It was Angel who spoke up first, “This is Evangelina’s ex-boyfriend. They broke up about eight months ago, and he has been a nuisance ever since. He just won’t seem to go away. Things got so bad about six months ago that she was forced to take a restraining order out on him, but we know he plays games to get near her.” She stopped and shook her head with a frown, then glanced over to her friend. “Has he been bothering you again, and you haven’t told me?”
Evangelina shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen or heard from him in about two months now. I was kind of hoping that was going to be the end of it, that he was finally finished.” She sat back in her chair with a resigned look on her face. “I am so tired of looking over my shoulder. I’ll admit, I’ve let down my guard a bit over the past month.”
As the girls were talking, both brothers were attempting to calm the beast raging within.
'Hey, stop ramming your head into my ribs! Now just calm down and listen. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this situation if we are going to keep her safe,' Adrian reprimanded, knowing his brother would be right on his heels in bringing Fadri under control. The dragon’s reply came in the form of bellowing icicles, leaving Adrian with the feeling of cut glass along his insides.
Aiden was quick to take over once he saw their dragon’s action toward his brother. He wrestled with the beast for a moment, until he had the beast’s collar back on, and a chain hooked to it. 'You can stop misbehaving while we are in public immediately,' he growled.
The dragon spewed out a line of fire from the opposite head, but Aiden held tight and gave the leash a firm jerk. 'Enough! We are out in public, and this is going to cause a scene if you don’t calm down! I understand you are upset that someone is stalking our mate. Let us get to the bottom of things and make sure she is protected!'
The men gave each other a meaningful look as their dragon finally decided to calm down, and they could sit back in their seats.
“Then, can you tell us his real name?” Adrian requested.
“Yes, his name is Gerald Sutton.”
“So, he is stalking you because of the breakup?”
“Yes, he started acting really weird about a year ago. He lost his job, and came home ranting about vampires. Then, it just seemed to escalate to not only vampires, but witches and werewolves also.” She stopped for a second, wringing her hands in front of her. “It was like his mind just snapped. Most days he wasn’t even looking for a job, he was so caught up in all of this paranormal stuff. He ranted they were here to destroy humanity and take over the world. I know he went to the local newspaper with his story, even though I begged him not to. I was surprised they didn’t call the police on him.”
Adrian sat directly across from Evangelina and reached out to enclose her trembling hands in his much larger ones.
Angel waited just a moment, before continuing with Evangelina's story. “The night Gerald came home from trying to sell his story, he flew into a fit of rage. He destroyed Evangelina’s apartment and tried going after her. Thankfully, she was able to hide in the bathroom and had her cell phone on her. She called me, and I called the police. They were willing to file charges against him, but Evangelina just wanted a clean break. We were pretty sure he had some serious mental problems by this time, and felt sitting in jail probably wouldn’t help him at all. She just asked him to leave, and she would forget the entire thing.” Angel stopped for a moment and gave Evangelina a sympathetic look. “We probably should have gone a different route in dealing with him, but you know what they say, hindsight is 20-20. We had no idea that he would stalk her and continue to harass her. We just assumed he would go away, and she’d never hear from him again.”
Evangelina glanced down at her watch. “Listen, I truly appreciate you bringing this to my attention, but I must be going. I do some freelance work for the newspaper, and have an article due tonight.”
“Are you sure it is safe to be out by yourself? Your ex is up to something, and until we can
figure out what, we do not feel it is safe for you to be by yourself,” Adrian warned her. He did not want her leaving his sight. What he wanted to do was take her home and inform her that she was their mate, and as such, she never had to worry about working another day in her life, as they had more than enough money to buy her anything she needed. He was already planning to purchase some jewelry for her.
He and his brother would strip her down, bathe her as they explored and learned her body, and then take her to bed for a night of ravishing. She would be so tired from all the loving that she would not be able to get out of bed in the morning, which was just fine with him. But he knew this lovely dream was not meant to be. She didn’t know them well enough and wasn’t the type of woman who would just go home with not one, but two men for the night. It just was not their Evangelina.
Evangelina smiled at the gorgeous man she had seen earlier that day at the parade. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. He knows if he gets close to me, he’s toast!”
Aiden took out another business card and thrust it into Angel's hand. “Now you both have our information. Please, if something happens or something just feels off, please call us. We will be happy to be of service to you.”
The men stood and accompanied the women into the crisp cold air. They waited, watching to ensure both made it to their cars safely, and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Well, I guess it would have been asking too much for her to give in to our mercy and allow us to take her back home with us, so we could protect her,” Aiden grumbled as he waited for their truck to warm up before pulling out.
Adrian chuckled. “Yes, you know as well as I do women on this planet take independence to a whole new level.” He stopped and shook his head. “And I always thought Dragonose women were independent. They don’t hold a candle to the women of this planet.”
“Yeah, and it looks like destiny is laughing her ass off giving us such an independent beauty. But that’s okay, because I have been doing some research.” Aiden stopped and glanced over at his brother to make sure he had his attention. “I have heard the term ‘high-spirited filly’ as a description of a woman, so I decided to do some digging into horse training. Imagine my surprise when I found videos of horse trainers referring to these female horses as fillies. Curious, I watched these videos, where it showed how they gently broke these horses, slowly, and with a gentle but firm stance. And before you know it, they had those horses completely at their command.”
Adrian roared with laughter. “Okay, brother, but let me give you a bit of advice. Do not ever refer to a woman as a horse unless you want to lose your balls. Besides, we do not want a woman who is a simpleton. I love Evangelina’s fire and spunk. Times have changed, and you need to get with the program. At least everywhere we have seen on this planet, women are fiercely independent. But, as you have said yourself, today’s men are not what we are accustomed to either. Most will not take the responsibility of protecting and taking care of their women. How often do you see even a small act of chivalry? Not very often. Today’s man does not open doors for women, hell, half do not even care if they have the means to support their woman and children, or could care less their woman is forced to work outside the home just to make ends meet while still responsible for the children and taking care of the home.”
Aiden frowned as he thought about what his brother had just said. “Yes, but I have also heard many males complaining about how fiercely independent women are. Do you think it all started with men shirking on their responsibilities? Or was it that women just decided they could do anything men do?”
“See, that is what I am talking about! Get with the program! Women have more than proved they are capable of doing anything men can do, with very few exceptions. The only part of that I would argue over is strength. But when it comes to intelligence, they are every bit of our equal. You can’t go acting all nineteenth century here, bro. Especially with our woman, because something tells me she will cut your balls off and force feed them to you!”
Across town, Angel parked her car right behind Evangelina’s and turned off the ignition. As she opened the car door and got out, her friend turned toward her and gave her a questioning look. “Angel, I have an article…”
Angel held her hand up in front of her to silence her friend. “I know, and I am not planning to stay. I just want to make sure you make it inside safely, and then I’ll be on my way. I don’t know if it’s because of what those men said, but I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Evangelina stopped and stared at her friend for a moment. “Okay, come on.”
When they reached Evangelina’s front door, Angel immediately realized the lock had been compromised, and the door was cracked open. She reached out and pulled her friend back. “Look,” she whispered, pointing to the broken lock.
Evangelina’s shoulders sagged. “Not again.” She so did not need this kind of hassle tonight. She had assumed when she broke things off with Gerald that they would each go their own way. Something about him had always put her off, like he was hiding something from her. When he had started ranting like a lunatic about vampires, witches, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures, she figured he had just hidden the fact he had severe mental problems. She didn’t even tell the men half of it tonight. Gerald left notes taped to her front door, trashed her car, and even tried to get her removed from ever doing work at the newspaper. He had called her at all times of the day and night, and more than once she had come home to find a dead animal on her doorstep.
Finally, she had had enough and filed for a restraining order. Her nerves simply couldn’t take much more. She had tried to be nice and do a simple, clean breakup, but it turned into anything but!
She immediately reached for her cell phone to call the police. There was no chance she was going to walk into her apartment by herself after it was broken into. She walked backwards to the apartment three doors down and lightly tapped on the door, all the while talking to police dispatch about the break in. She was sure her neighbor would let her and Angel stay there until the police arrived. Then she would go find out how much damage he did this time.
While Evangelina dealt with the police, Angel stayed back and made what she hoped was the right decision.
“Fadri Security,” the gruff voice answered.
“Um, hi, this is Angel. I am a friend of Evangelina Blackmon.”
“Hi Angel, this is Aiden Barrymire. What’s up? Did you two run into problems on the way home?” Unbeknownst to her, Adrian had also heard and both men were already on their way back out the door, headed to their mate.
“Well, yes, when we got to Evangelina’s building, we realized someone had broken into her apartment. The police are on their way now, but…well, I’m not even sure why I called. It’s not like there is anything you can do. I just thought you should know. Evangelina has had a very hard time since Gerald entered her life.”
“Thank you for calling us, Angel. My brother and I are on the way to her apartment now. Just hang tight for about twenty minutes and we will be there, okay?”
“Okay, you know, I am the only person who has been there for her through everything. My gut is telling me I can trust you, moreover, that she can trust you. Please,” she whispered over the phone line, “just don’t hurt her. She deserves the best, and has had nothing but the worst thrown at her.”
And just like that the big, bad, take-no prisoner’s royal dragon shifter, Aiden Barrymire, melted. He was thankful his mate had such a good friend looking after her.
“Angel, I give you my solemn vow. My brother’s and mine. We will not hurt her. We want to help her. Just hang on, we are only a few minutes away.” He wasn’t going to tell her that his brother was breaking every speed limit set by mankind in order to reach their mate.
Chapter Two
Adrian screeched the truck to a halt in front of Evangelina’s apartment building, and both men jumped out practically before the engine was turned off. Running up the stairs two at a time,
they met Angel at the top of the stairs.
“Where is she?” Aiden inquired.
“She’s in her apartment with the police. They just finished dusting for fingerprints, and are taking her statement now. So, I think they are almost finished.”
A door to their left opened, and a police officer walked out with Evangelina trailing behind him. “Here is my card. If you discover anything missing, be sure to call.”
“Thank you for your time, officer.” She smiled, causing both men to scowl at the young police officer.
“Evangelina, are you all right?” Adrian inquired as soon as the officer left.
“Hey, guys, what are you doing here?” she asked, surprised to find she had company waiting for her.
“I called them. Please don’t be mad, Evangelina. But we both know who is responsible for this.” Angel scowled.
“Ladies, can we take this conversation inside?” Aiden asked as he noticed more than one apartment door was ajar, and he would bet his considerable fortune that they had an audience.
“Sure, come on in.”
The men followed the women into the small apartment, but it was Angel who gasped out loud. “Oh my God, girl, he totally trashed this place!”
And while it was nice to know their mate didn’t make a habit of leaving her living quarters trashed, the men felt sorry for the mess that had to be cleaned up.
“Are you aware of anything that was taken?” Aiden asked, in full security mode at this point.
“No, nothing that I can spot, anyways.” She laughed a tired, sad little laugh. “But who knows with all of this mess.” She shook her head as she glanced around at the disaster that surrounded her. Her furniture was ruined; there were deep cuts and gouges in her couch and rocking chair. That didn’t really bother her as they were second hand pieces anyway. But the small dinette set in her kitchen that looked like it was now covered in spray paint was a different story. It had belonged to her parents, and was one of the few things she had of theirs. And her bedroom…