by Tami Lund
DRAGON HIS HEELS
by Tami Lund
Another book in the Bad Alpha Dads series
Bestselling and Award Winning Paranormal Romance authors are bringing you the baddest of the bad ALPHA dads. Keyword: bad. So sexy, you’ll want to teach them to be good. These shifter dads need all the help they can get, and we want to give it to them.
Check out our website www.BadAlphaDads.com for the release schedule and more about our fabulous authors.
Cover Design: CT Cover Creations
Editor: Julie Sturgeon
Copyright: 2018 by Tami Lund
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DRAGON HIS HEELS
Gabriel Wilde is a reluctant dragon leader and now, a reluctant dad. Since he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, he enlists the aid of his trustworthy (and admittedly hot) PR manager, Talia Tatsuya. Which is all fine and dandy until his dragon decides she’s their fated mate.
Damn it, Gabe doesn’t want one of those, either.
Chapter 1
His kid?
Gabriel Wilde stared at the child clutching his PR manager’s hand. The little girl gazed right back, unblinking, green eyes wide in a heart-shaped face. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail sitting high on her head, ringlets framing her cheeks.
The kid looked nothing like him. Not the shape of her face, not her green eyes, not her tiny lips or high cheekbones or any damn feature. The only thing they had in common was dark hair, but hell, two-thirds of the dragon population had brown locks.
“How old is she?”
“Five,” Talia responded.
Five plus nine months … where the hell had he been almost six years ago? And with whom? The child didn’t strike a chord, didn’t remind him of any of the dozens of flings he’d had with nameless, faceless women who served a singular purpose. Not exactly the way a reeve was supposed to act, but then again, he hadn’t asked to be reeve for a bunch of unruly dragons, either.
“Are you sure she’s mine?”
Talia pursed her lips and crossed her arms. His PR manager was one of a precious few in this colony who wasn’t at least somewhat intimidated by him. Hell, half the time, he was afraid of her. If she had been shoved into the role of reeve with no warning and no training and no desire to play the part, she wouldn’t have needed a PR manager. She would have flourished all on her own.
She probably deserved a raise. And speaking of, how the fuck was she going to smooth this one over?
“Are you questioning my ability to do my job?”
He wasn’t sure what finding his illegitimate child had to do with her responsibilities as his PR manager, but even so, Talia Tatsuya wouldn’t lie to him. She’d also check every available source. Hell, Gabe wouldn’t be surprised if she’d run a paternity test.
Yeah, the kid was definitely his.
Fuck.
The little girl shuffled her feet and adjusted the pack on her back. “Does she have a name?” he asked Talia. His kid. The words didn’t even sound right. First, an unwanted position as reeve. Now, an unwanted kid. Next, he was going to find himself stuck with an unwanted mate.
Exactly where he planned for his life to never, ever go. He’d never been one for long-term goals, and yet he was stuck with these for… how long did it take to raise a dragon offspring?
Too damn long.
“Ruby,” the kid said, speaking for the first time since she and Talia showed up on his front porch this morning. Too freaking early in the morning, frankly. It was entirely possible he was still drunk from last night. Probably shouldn’t mention that to Talia, who would scold him like a schoolteacher.
Wouldn’t be the first time, unfortunately.
“My name is Ruby. My mommy told me you promised to buy her a ruby, but you gave her me instead, so that’s what she named me.”
“Your mom sounds like a piece of work,” Gabe muttered. Even with that little clue, he couldn’t place the kid’s mother. If he’d offered to buy a woman a ruby, he’d been hella drunk at the time. “What’s her name? Your mom, I mean.”
“Jasmine.”
Talia arched her brows, and he was willing to bet they were thinking the same thing. Sounded like a stripper name.
Shaking her head, Talia said, “You never fail to disappoint me, Gabriel Wilde.”
“And you never fail to act like my goddamn mother,” he snapped back, even though he usually accepted her jibes for the truths they were.
In that cool way she had, Talia replied, “Don’t you mean a mother?”
Damn it, she was right. Gabe didn’t have a mother, or at least not one he remembered.
“So you’re five, your mom is a strip—”
“Gabe.”
He clamped his mouth shut. Gritting his teeth, he blew out a breath and tried again.
“And you’re mine—apparently. How come I’m just now finding out about you?”
Ruby shrugged.
“Her mother left the colony before she knew she was pregnant,” Talia jumped in to explain. “It was right in the middle of Blake dying and you becoming reeve.”
Fucking lucky break that’d been. Otherwise the old geezers in the colony probably would’ve found some loophole to force him to mate with Ruby’s mom, a woman he couldn’t recollect no matter how hard he tried. But gods, there’d been so many, and especially at that point in his life, he’d been pretty damn fucked up more often than not.
“So where’s she been these past five years?”
He arched one brow when she opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again. Talia never hesitated to speak her mind. Ever.
“There’s this colony, down in New Orleans…”
“Rojo dragons.” Gabe swore, ignoring Talia’s sour look when he did so. But damn it, no child, his or otherwise, should get caught up in that colony’s lifestyle. Those guys took human processed drugs and laced them with dragon blood, making that shit ten times more potent—and deadly. Especially to humans—their biggest clients.
Talia nodded and now he felt like a heel, even though he hadn’t a clue his kid had been shoved into a lifestyle like that.
“So where’s her mom now?”
“She’s pretty messed up right now. She needs to get herself straightened out, and she can’t do that if she’s worried about Ruby.”
“If the kid’s been hanging out with the Rojo dragons, it doesn’t sound like her mom’s been much concerned for her welfare.”
Again with the disapproving look. Sometimes it felt like Talia didn’t like a damn thing he ever did or said.
“Which is why I stepped in and brought her here. The reeve of this colony will certainly be able to provide her with the tools she needs to succeed in this world. Keep her from following in her mom’s footsteps.”
Gabe eyed the little girl with the dark curls. Actually, if he claimed her, she could follow in her dad’s footsteps. Who happened to be a reeve, whether he wanted the position or not. And if he had an heir, maybe the biddies in his colony would finally get off his back about taking a mate. Not to mention, if he trained Ruby—rather, con
vinced Talia to train her—she could take over as reeve sooner rather than later. Sure, he might have to wait fifteen years or so, but that was better than fifty, or however long it took some other wannabe to topple him off a throne he didn’t even want in the first place.
This idea had serious merit.
“Why are alarm bells suddenly going off in my head?” Talia asked, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms.
Gabe chuckled and flung his arm around her shoulders. “No idea. I’m actually really happy you brought her to me. Glad to see my prodigy is so cute, too. And you’re right; she will be better off here instead of wherever the hell her mom’s at now. But listen. I’m gonna need a favor from you.”
“What’s that?” Green eyes swirled with trepidation.
“I need you to help raise her. Which means you’re gonna have to move in with me.”
“Uh-uh,” Talia responded immediately, shaking her head so hard her hair whipped her in the face.
One more reason he knew he could trust her to take on this job: any other woman in his acquaintance would have leapt at the opportunity, thinking it was a chance to audition to be the reeve’s mate or something.
“You’re my PR manager,” he reminded her.
“There is nothing in my job description that states I have to help you take care of your illegitimate child.”
“You’re the one who brought her to me in the first place.”
“That wasn’t because I’m your PR manager. That’s because I care about her welfare.”
Well, hell. He raked a hand through his overlong dark hair. “Talia, come on. I…”
She arched her brow, a damn near perfect imitation of him. It was on the tip of his tongue to say, “I need you,” which was, well, totally out of character for him. Another one of Gabe’s missions in life: rely only on himself. Every other choice only got a person screwed in the end. And not the good, sweaty kind, either.
On the other hand, he really, kind of, sort of did need Talia. He didn’t have a clue what to do with a five-year-old child.
“I…shit, Talia, are you really going to make me say it?”
She blinked owlishly, like she really didn’t know what the hell he was thinking at the moment.
Son of a bitch.
“I need your help.”
Chapter 2
This was not going according to plan.
Talia stared at the fat white pillars lining the front of the brick mansion overlooking a thirty-acre, sandy bottom lake. The house, located in a quiet suburb of Detroit—and the lake—was owned by the Zilarra dragon colony. Which meant the current reeve called it home.
In other words, Gabe’s place.
Talia had been enjoying a girls’ night out with her bestie, Petra, when Jasmine called, begging for her help. She hadn’t hesitated to rush out of the restaurant and head straight to New Orleans. She hadn’t even stopped at home to change from her flirty sundress and high-heeled sandals, which hadn’t exactly made traveling easy. But the desperation in Jasmine’s voice had spurred her on, and once she arrived, she was glad she hadn’t wasted a single minute. That minute might have been the difference between life and death.
And now it was the next morning and she was back, with Ruby in tow, and despite her lack of sleep—or maybe because of it—she’d figured introducing him to the child was the perfect plan. Ruby needed a father, and he needed some responsibility he couldn’t ignore.
Moving in with him, though, was not part of the plan she’d concocted on the fly.
‘Took you long enough.” Gabe flung open the door and pulled her into the two-story, pristine white foyer.
“It hasn’t even been an hour,” she said. And that even included taking a much needed shower.
“Come on.”
She released the handle on her wheeled luggage, and it wobbled for a few moments before falling on its side. He didn’t even notice; he was too busy leading her across the tile floor toward the home theatre room he’d had installed shortly after taking over as reeve. He opened the door, and the teapot song from Beauty and the Beast assaulted her ears. Ruby glanced up at them from her perch on the wrap-around couch. A TV tray piled with cookies and potato chips and a can of Coke was parked in front of her.
“Is this appropriate for a kid her age?” Gabe demanded, glaring at Talia like she’d done something wrong by going to her own home to pack a bag before moving in so she could help take care of his daughter.
“The movie? Yes. The cookies and chips and caffeinated beverage? Most definitely not.” Talia strode to the little girl, lifting the tray and moving it across the room.
Gabe shrugged and stabbed his thumb over his shoulder in Talia’s direction. “Don’t look at me,” he said to Ruby. “Blame her.”
Talia glared at him and pointed at the doorway. “We need to talk.”
He sauntered out of the room like he wasn’t the least bit worried about what she would say. Damn it, she should tell him to forget this, she wasn’t cut out for this crap.
Except she was.
He strode to the wet bar set up in the foyer—because what mansion didn’t need a wet bar in the entry?—and dropped a handful of ice cubes into a lowball glass before pouring whiskey over them, filling it almost to the rim.
She doubted it was his first drink of the day, either. In fact, she was pretty certain he’d still been drunk from the night before when she showed up with Ruby this morning.
“Is there anything I need to know about last night? Any messes I need to clean up?”
He shrugged and took a slug from his drink. “Nah. We went to a hotel, so housekeeping had to deal with the cleanup.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
His gray eyes sparkled over the rim of his glass, which didn’t conceal his grin. “She wanted me to cover her in marshmallow fluff before fucking her.”
Talia stared at him. “Are you serious?”
He laughed. “One hundred percent. Not my thing, to tell you the truth. Too damn sticky. But hey, now I can say I did it.”
She shook her head. The man was a hopeless case. And she was a fool to think she could help him grow up and accept his responsibility like the reeve he was supposed to be. “Okay, let’s focus on Ruby. If we’re going to make this work, you cannot paint me as the bad guy every time you screw up with her.”
Gabe took a long swallow of his drink and then offered it to her. “Want some?”
Damnation, she was tempted. Gabe’s antics drove her to drink on a regular basis. “Did you hear me?”
“You’re practically shouting and you’re two feet away and dragons have exceptional hearing, Talia.”
She pursed her lips.
“Don’t do that. It’s not a good look.” He took another swig. The glass was half empty already.
“Look, aside from the fact that you’ve discovered your illegitimate child, you need this.”
He arched that sexy brow again. Which was not sexy. If olive-skinned, dark-haired, muscular, cocky dragons weren’t sexy.
“Is the kid gonna turn me into a chick magnet? Because that’s really all I care about.”
“Luckily, you and I both know that’s a lie. The rest of the colony unfortunately doesn’t, which is where I come in. And Ruby. She’s going to help clean up your image. It would be even better if you’d take a mate as well.”
“You offering?”
She stared at him. Was he serious? Gabe has never expressed any remote desire to—
He laughed. “I’m just kidding. Oh man, the look on your face.”
Talia glared at him. Maybe she should shift into dragon form and rip his head from his shoulders before he realized what was going on and shifted as well, thus balancing out the odds.
“I would never,” she sputtered.
“No? Huh. I might have considered it if you had said yes.”
Talia gritted her teeth. “You’re such a—”
“Reeve,” he cut her off. Yep, a reeve. And she was a member of the Zilarra co
lony, which meant he was her ruler. Oh, and her boss. “I have no interest in taking a mate, you or anyone else. Although I will admit to this: If I had to, like if there was a gun to my head and I had literally no other choice, I’d pick you.”
Why did this infuriating dragon have to say things like that?
“You’re the only female I know who I could tolerate for longer than a night or two. And besides, you know what my sexual appetite is like, so I know you wouldn’t give me shit about seeking out a piece of ass on the side every now and then.”
She wouldn’t? This conversation was ridiculous and would never, ever become true, yet Talia could actually see red in her vision as she imagined Gabe cheating on her. He was an idiot if he thought she would be okay with such a lifestyle. She didn’t even like him, but the fact was, dragons were, by nature, jealous creatures. They protected what was theirs with a fierceness that couldn’t be rivaled.
She shook her head. “This conversation is stupid. Can we get back to reality, please?”
He refilled his glass and handed it to her. She didn’t even hesitate to accept it this time. Her nerves were shot already and Ruby had been in his custody for all of an hour. Gods above, this was going to be her most difficult project to date.
“Sure,” he said, taking his drink back after she’d consumed a fair share. “And the reality is, as soon as the unmated females in this colony find out I have a kid and there’s no mom in the picture, it’s game on. I’m not gonna lose this game. My game.” He stabbed at his chest. “Which is why you’re moving in here.”
Talia canted her head and studied her boss. “Since I know considering me is bullshit, why are you so afraid of the idea of taking a mate?”
Ice clinked against the side as he lifted the glass and drained the rest of the drink.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“Look, I just don’t want to lose control over my own life, okay?”