Dragon Prince

by Charlene Hartnady

  “Why are you here then?” Tide questioned, his mouth even closer to her ear than it had been before. His grip had eased somewhat. Not enough for her to escape.

  “I don’t know.” Frustration was etched into every word. “You tell me. It must be a coincidence.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences.” He shoved his hand between her breasts and then over the tops of them before cupping the undersides. Still looking for a mystery weapon. It was all business though, he wasn’t trying to cop a feel.

  Her blood boiled nonetheless. “You asshole,” she growled. Unable to believe that this was happening.

  Both men were yelling behind them with George still shouting her name somewhere in the background. Tide finally let her go. He stepped back. Instant silence befell the room.

  Meghan turned. Her face felt hot. Blood pumped through her veins. Her hands were clenched at her sides. “Did you enjoy that?” she spat. “Maybe you should start by telling me who the hell you are?”

  “What has gotten into you, Tide? There had better be a damned good explanation for this,” Blaze demanded. “Get yourself under control.”

  “How is it that you know this female?” the other guy asked, directing his question at Tide.

  George, face pale, jogged up to her. He flung his arms around her. “You poor baby.” His eyes were glistening. Poor thing looked like he had been crying. “You animal!” he shouted in Tide’s direction.

  “We met at my last stag run,” Tide answered, his eyes still on her.

  “Oh,” Blaze said.

  “I see.” The other guy nodded his head.

  “What does that mean?” George pulled back, eyes wide.

  “No, you don’t see,” Tide insisted. “Her car had conveniently broken down on the side of the road that I just happened to be driving on.”

  “I was doing perfectly fine on my own. You didn’t even need to stop,” she blurted.

  “Bullshit! You would never have unfastened those lugs on your own. A damsel in distress, covered in grease, you knew I would stop. It was staged.”

  “Staged!” she yelled. “Are you even hearing yourself?”

  “You must have known, somehow, that I was going to drive that way. Why don’t you just admit it.”

  What was wrong with this guy? “Paranoid much! I staged the whole thing on a quiet side road? Really? On a route not many people take. A route that just happens to be on the way to my house. That was clever of me, especially considering I had no idea who you were or where you even came from.”

  Tide sighed, his jaw tightened. “Okay, I will admit, there was no way you could’ve known I was going to be on that road.” He shook his head. “I only decided to go that route at the last minute. I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Hah!” She pointed at him. “See. What did I tell you?”

  Blaze raised his eyes to the high ceiling for a few moments as if he was trying to compose himself. He finally turned to Tide. “This is our new healer. Doctor Roberts is a highly qualified geneticist, she specializes in hereditary allergies. This is her laboratory assistant, George Norton.” Blaze was frowning heavily. “This has to be some kind of misunderstanding, Tide.”

  “I am Torrent.” The other guy stepped forward. “Tide’s my brother. He is normally level-headed and rational, that’s why we didn’t intervene but we should have. I am deeply ashamed and must apologize on—”

  “Hold up just a second, before you apologize.” Tide’s eyes were still intense and still focused solely on her. “I’ll buy that our initial meeting wasn’t a set-up, but I’m not buying that your being here is a coincidence. Forget that! How did you discover my identity? How did you know where and how to find me? Especially considering I wore a concealer to cover my chest marking.” He said the last to himself.

  “Wait a minute!” Meghan’s eyes felt huge in her head, which she shook in utter disbelief. “Are you accusing me of stalking you?”

  George snorted. “As if.”

  “My phone.” Tide lifted his eyes in thought. “Did you look through it? Did you obtain my personal information by snooping?”

  “I told you to put a password on that device,” Tide’s brother muttered through clenched teeth.

  “I didn’t go through his damned phone.” There was frustration laced in every word.

  “Meghan would never.” George clutched his chest. “Never in a million years. How do you even know this … person?”

  Tide cocked his head. “Admit that you’re here because of me. This has nothing to do with finding a cure for our silver affliction. You planned this in the hopes that we could pick up where we left off. That’s why you insisted on the non-fraternization policy being removed.”

  “Oh my gosh!” Meghan pushed out a hard breath, trying to keep calm. “You’re too much, do you know that? Get off of your high horse. Go and find a safe place to deflate that head of yours.” She massaged her temples for a few seconds. “I can’t actually believe what I’m hearing.” What a dick! What a jerk! Her blood boiled at the audacity of his accusations.

  “There is no other explanation.” Tide kept his eyes on her, searching for a sign that she was lying. A change in her voice. A flicker in her eyes. A quickening of her heartbeat. Something. This was not some big coincidence. No damned way!

  “How about I accepted a position to work here. I had no idea you would be here. How’s that for a reason. It was you guys who contacted me. Not the other way around.” The little human glared at him. “How do I know that you didn’t orchestrate this whole thing? Maybe you’re the stalker.” She pointed at him.

  Absurd! He didn’t speak out loud though. Blaze scratched his chin. “It’s true, we did reach out to Doctor Roberts. It wasn’t the other way around and you’ll remember all the rounds of negotiations. Getting Doctor Roberts on board was no easy task. The only reason she objected to the non-fraternization policy was because it wasn’t in the male’s contract. Only hers.”

  “It was the principle of the matter and not for any other reason.” Meghan nodded her head. “I told you it was a coincidence, didn’t I?”

  “How convenient. You used it as an excuse so that you didn’t have to sign.” It had to be. Lonely human females could be desperate. He hadn’t seen Meghan in that light but maybe he was wrong.

  “No, I didn’t. I was very upset that you have different criteria for men and women. Last time I checked, this wasn’t the dark ages.” She scowled at him.

  His brother stepped forward, putting himself almost between them. “You had a copy of all of the files of the candidates. Including Doctor Robert’s file.” Torrent frowned. “There is a picture of her tacked in the front, first page. Her name is in bold on the front cover.”

  “What do you have to say to that?” Meghan asked, her eyes on him.

  Fuck! He didn’t buy that this was a coincidence. He didn’t. What then?

  “Exactly,” Meghan said when he didn’t say anything back. She folded her arms as well and there was a smug grin on her face. “Don’t try to turn this around on me, bucko.”

  “I didn’t even open that file,” Tide retorted. “I didn’t open any of them. No reason to. As far as I was concerned, I was going to be sinking …” And now he’d almost blurted out confidential information. He needed to get a damn grip. He sucked in a deep breath. “I was on another assignment. I didn’t think it was necessary to go through the files. You,” he looked at his brother, “and Blaze had it fully under control.”

  She snorted. “Yeah right! Tell us another one. My name was in bold on the front cover. You didn’t have to open that file to know I was one of the candidates.”

  “I only knew your first name.” He had to work not to shout. “You didn’t tell me your surname. I had no idea that Doctor Meghan Roberts was the same person I spent the night with.”

  “You could easily have seen a piece of mail while you were at my place … something with my full name on it.” Her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. “How do I know you
didn’t search my house that night, rifle through my drawers while I was sleeping?”

  “Why was he at your house while you were sleeping?” The human male piped up, but they all ignored him.

  “I would never,” Tide denied in a low growl that had the tiny human male flinching. Good!

  “How do I know you didn’t go through my phone?” Her eyes twinkled. “My phone, my personal belongings. You could have found out everything about me. Even where I worked. I think you stalked me and now you’re trying to cover your tracks by putting the blame on me. You may as well admit it.” She gave him a self-satisfied smile.

  She was jerking him around. Tide rolled his eyes. “You know I didn’t … I wouldn’t …”

  “Oh, but I think you did.” Meghan was grinning. Loving every minute of this.

  “Okay fine!” he sighed. “You got me. This must be a coincidence.” He worked hard at relaxing his stance, at keeping his voice even.

  “What was that?” She cupped a hand around her ear.

  Tide rolled his eyes. “You heard me.”

  “Yes, I did. It’s a coincidence. Plain and simple. I’ll take my apology now.” She widened her eyes at him.

  “A big part of my job is security. I won’t apologize for my actions. They were in the best interest of my people. I won’t apologize for doing my job. Ever!”

  The male elbowed Meghan, his eyes bright. “He spent the night with you?”

  “Not now, George,” Meghan whispered in the direction of her staff member.

  “You were quite heavy-handed with the healer just then,” Torrent said.

  “You manhandled her,” the human, George, said. It was strange because he seemed oddly excited by the fact. “Put your hands all over Doctor Roberts and you seemed to enjoy it too.”

  “Bullshit!” he snarled and the human shrank back. Not Meghan however, she put her hands on her hips and stepped in between them. “I won’t hurt the tiny male,” he quickly assured her, frowning. “It would be an unfair fight,” he added. The female finally stepped out of the way. “I don’t rut human females twice. I was merely checking for weapons.”

  "Rut?" The male frowned. Then his eyes widened. "Oh … rut." The human laughed and clapped his hands with glee. It was bizarre to see. Humans could be funny creatures. Tide had never spent much time in the company of the males of the species. He had never paid them much attention to them in the past. No wonder human females preferred non-humans.

  “Stop. It.” Meghan spoke through clenched teeth, her gaze firmly on George. “We will talk about this later.”

  “Yes, we most certainly will,” the male said, eyes still shining with … excitement. His reaction didn’t make any sense to Tide.

  “This changes things,” Torrent muttered, frowning heavily.

  “Yes, you are right.” Blaze nodded.

  “I’m not sure that it would be wise to give you this assignment in light of the new development.” His brother looked deep in thought.

  Yes!

  This was great. He could head to the mine and oversee the sinking of the new shaft just as he planned all along. Shale had been completely serious during their meeting and had even surprised him by asking relevant questions. One or two had been angles he hadn’t considered himself. The male had seemed competent to do the job, and yet, all those months of prep. All those months of work. His work. This was his project, dammit.

  “Maybe we should stick to our original plan,” Blaze spoke to Torrent.

  “Keep them on their original assignments?” Torrent nodded.

  “What plan? What assignments?” Shale sauntered into Torrent’s office. “My lords.” He nodded to Blaze and then Torrent in turn.

  “To send Tide on his original assignment and to give you this one. It turns out that Doctor Roberts and Tide have had previous dealings.”

  “Oh, is that right?” The male raised his brows, a stupid grin on his face. His eyes had this glint that Tide didn’t like. Now this was the Shale he knew well. The male who was full of shit. “How is it that the two of you know one another?” Shale asked, looking from the healer to him and back again.

  “It’s not important,” Meghan blurted.

  “They met at a stag run,” Blaze said, at the same time.

  “Oh, I see. How interesting.” Shale’s gaze moved to the female, whose face was flaming red. His eyes dipped down to her chest for a second, two before moving back to her face. He was checking her out. What the fuck! The male was checking her out. Even worse, he seemed interested. “I would be happy to keep an eye on the lovely Doctor Roberts.”

  “I told you, I don’t need a babysitter.” Meghan shook her head.

  “It’s not something that’s up for discussion, Doctor,” Torrent paused. “All humans on dragon territory are guarded. It’s just as much … it’s for your own safety,” he blurted.

  "In that case, I'd rather that he," she gestured to Shale, "was my guard then. I don't want Tide anywhere near me." She glanced at him, her eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened.

  “Then it’s settled.” Shale’s grin turned into a big-ass smirk.

  “No, it’s not.” Tide shook his head. “I will guard the female,” he announced. What the hell had he just said? Fuck! Then again, he knew why. Shale was a dick. The male planned on taking advantage of the female. For whatever reason, the male had been serious about the tasks at the mine, but he wasn't serious about this. There was so much at stake. The healer was very important. Finding a proper cure for their affliction was essential for the species' continuation. Shale could screw this up. Put a sexy female in front of a male like Shale and watch him lose his sense of reason. Good thing Tide didn't suffer from the same problem.

  Blaze shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  Torrent stepped forward. “I agree with Blaze. You and Doctor Roberts have a history. It wouldn’t be wise to—”

  “I’m the perfect male for the job. Even more so than before. I never rut a human female twice. You know that, Torrent.”

  The female put a hand over her mouth as she gasped. “What happened that night is private. How dare you.”

  Tide ignored her. “I’m the best male for the job because there will be no temptation. I’ve already had her.”

  “Oh my … Tell everyone everything, why don’t you?” Meghan was breathing heavily. He wasn’t sure what the problem was. He was simply stating facts. “You are a horrible person.” She bit down on her lip and shook her head. Looking both sad and angry. Tide wasn’t sure why.

  “Tide is right,” Torrent acknowledged. “I’ve never known him to bed the same human female twice.”

  Meghan made a squeaking noise and started counting. Weird!

  “You’re sure?” Blaze asked, eyes on Torrent. His brother nodded.

  “I don’t want him as my guard. I refuse.” The human folded her arms. “I’ll take anyone else.”

  “You’ve had your way throughout this entire negation,” Tide hesitated. He needed to tread carefully. “I’m sorry I accused you of wrongdoings. I’m sorry I patted you down in that manner and for accusing you of stalking me, but this is non-negotiable. I will be your guard for the foreseeable future.” He glanced Blaze’s way. The male inclined his head to show his approval.

  “No, I …” Meghan stopped talking when the human male grabbed her hand and squeezed. “You don’t expect me to agree to this?” she turned to the male, talking to him.

  “We’ll talk about it later.” George widened his eyes to tell her to keep quiet.

  “I’m not happy with this.” Meghan pulled her hand free and folded her arms.

  “Tide is the best male for the job,” Torrent addressed the female, talking carefully and softly.

  “I disagree. Like you said,” she addressed Blaze, “there is a history there.” Her cheeks were still red.

  “In this instance, it does not matter,” Blaze said.

  “Of course it matters. I don’t like him at all and yet he’s going to tra
il me twenty-four-seven.”

  “Not quite twenty-four-seven. Dragons sleep too,” Tide interjected, “but I will choose my reliever very carefully.”

  The female glanced his way but didn’t respond. “Fine, not twenty-four-seven then,” she addressed Torrent. “Fact is, I will be expected to spend a ton of time with him. I don’t like him at all.”

  “Meghan,” the male, George, interrupted in a sing-song voice. He was trying to get her to cooperate.

  “You don’t have to like me,” Tide said. “It’s probably better that you don’t like me. I’m not going to be your companion, I’m going to be your guard.”

  “The point is that I’ll have to see you every damn day. I don’t like the idea of that.”

  “Meghan,” the human male said, more forcefully this time. “Let it go,” he said, under his breath.

  “Tough luck, female. Ignore me then. Forget I’m even there.” His voice took on a ragged edge.

  “Fat chance of ignoring your ugly mug.”

  His brother laughed. He fucking laughed. The prick.

  “Have you seen how big you are?” the female went on. “Hard to ignore a big lump like you.”

  Torrent laughed some more. His brother was loving this. Fucker!

  “I’m your shadow for the foreseeable future. Get used to the idea.” Tide narrowed his eyes on her.

  “You had better stay out of my way.” Her eyes blazed. “Don’t speak to me. I want nothing to do with you.” She pointed her finger at him. “I hope that’s clear.”

  “Best you behave then,” Tide said.

  Her mouth fell open. It didn’t take her long to regain her composure. “I’m not some damn child. You can’t talk to me like that.” She glanced at Torrent. “He can’t talk to me like that.”

  “Things will settle quickly. You will see, Doctor. Ignore my brother. I know that he will be nothing but polite going forward.” Torrent gave him a hard stare. “Won’t you brother?”

  Tide clenched his teeth to keep from responding. Shale chuckled. The jerk.

  “Won’t you, brother?” Torrent asked again. Even more forcefully this time. “Nothing but polite?”