The Snow Leopard's Christmas Surprise

by Emilia Hartley

  “Leave,” she commanded.

  “Absolutely not.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not moving from this spot until you tell me that you won’t participate in this man’s plans. Tell me you see the wrong in what he asked you to do and I will leave you in peace.”

  Her eyes burned with fire. “It may be wrong, but if it gets us closer to our end goal it is a sacrifice that I’m ready to make.”

  “Oh, yeah? What is this wonderful end goal that has you wanting to destroy your own? How noble is it?”

  “We seek to remove you from Wales once and for all. It was your family that attacked us. It is your presence that threatens humanity day in and day out. Once GOE gives us the go ahead we will see that you are wiped out of Snowdonia so that humanity can sleep better at night. So, they can live without the worry that a dragon will burn down their home or kill their parents.”

  “That’s awfully specific of you,” Gareth said, brows slanting together as he studied her face. “For the last hundred years we have lived peacefully in silence, bound to a small piece of land. Before that, we lived an unassuming life so that no one would know we even existed.”

  “Lies. I know your kind for what they really are. The Guardians of Existence have always known you for the monsters that you are. It’s why they’ve existed for as long as they have.”

  “Then why are you trying to blow up one of your own buildings? And, don’t forget that I know one of your dirty little secrets. There was a white dragon fighting on your side the day that you kidnapped Dakota. I highly doubt the fella appeared out of nowhere and attacked a red dragon for the fun of it at that precise moment.”

  Rhiannon’s mouth snapped shut and he knew that he’d hit the nail on the head. He had never before seen the white dragon until its maw was wrapped around his cousin’s neck. It was beyond him why a dragon wanted to help GOE do anything, but it clearly had.

  “You really seem to hate us. I would almost believe a dragon personally stabbed you in the back if I didn’t know better. We’ve been kept on quite a short leash during our life and when we can leave the Territory, we’re more concerned with putting a woman on her back than putting a knife in her back.”

  “Dragons killed my parents,” she hissed.

  Gareth took a step back. His mind rolled through the many years that he’d been alive, much longer than this human woman. “Not here in Wales, they didn’t. I would remember such a thing in your lifetime.”

  She closed the space between them to shove a finger into his chest while she looked up at him. She was imposing for such a small figure. He didn’t back up, but he felt a spike of thrill shoot through him. It would be nothing to lean forward and capture her mouth with his own. She would fight him, but he would have already stolen a kiss from her.

  “Don’t lie to me. I know that you’re going to try to talk me out of my mission, but the words of a dragon are going to do nothing for me. Get off my porch.”

  Gareth shook his head. “Not going to happen. I can’t let you hurt my family because you’re confused. I think I’m going to stay right where I am until I know that I’ve foiled your precious mission.”

  He watched her face turn pale in the dark.

  “No. I cannot have a dragon camping out on my back porch! It is out of the question.”

  “I believe, if I heard correctly, you were stripped of your weapon as an agent of GOE. What are you going to do to get rid of me? Call animal control? Hit me with your broom?”

  Rhiannon let out a sound of frustration, hands clenching in the air between them. She spun on her heel.

  “Sleep well tonight, lass. Know that I will not hurt you, no matter what you think of me and my kind. Know that you have hurt one of my family and still I promise no harm upon you. In fact, I think my beast kind of likes you. Maybe he just likes a challenge.”

  She paused at her door, regarding him with somber eyes. Gareth stood still, trying to look as peaceful as possible. It wasn’t something that he was very good at. Brooding and fighting, now those were two things he was great at. This was a new playing field for him and he was more than a bit out of his element.

  When she disappeared inside, Gareth let out the breath that he was holding. He was an idiot. Had he really just promised to camp on this woman’s back porch. He looked around, forlorn, for a place to settle down. Thankfully, there was a folding lawn chair crammed into a corner. He pulled it out and unfolded it into its long form. It wasn’t as nice as waking up beside a woman, but it also wasn’t the worst thing that he’d ever slept on.

  ***

  Rhiannon lay in her bed, acutely aware that there was a dragon sleeping outside her house. The worst part of it was that she could barely get him from her mind. Her mind brought her back to his square jaw and how she thought of dragging her teeth along it while she looked up at him. Worse, during their argument, she wondered what it would be like to feel the press of his bare skin on hers as they lay together.

  She blamed Everett for not staying the night. It had been a long time since she’d laid with another man and it must have left her a bit crazy. That was the only explanation for the way she thought about the dragon man on her porch.

  The night was filled with tossing and turning. Not even the beer could help her slip into a comfortable sleep. When she rose in the morning, she grumbled toward the kitchen for a cup of black coffee. The strong, bitter drink would snap her awake. At the sink, she saw the dragon man sprawled out on her chaise. She could hear his snoring through the wall and even spared a laugh.

  What was she going to do? Everett and Wilson were going to call on her at any moment. She couldn’t do her job if there was a dragon watching her every movement. She had to find a way to lose him. Their sense of smell was incredibly strong, so she knew that if she tried to duck him he would just track her down again.

  She had to lie to him, Rhiannon realized. If she convinced him that she believed him and agreed that her mission was wrong, he would gladly leave and skulk back to his territory.

  Yes, that was it.

  With her warm mug in hand, she slid open the glass door and stepped out into the cool morning air. The dragon man was already awake, his eyes trained on her. She startled, coffee sloshing over her hand.

  “I heard you in the kitchen,” he confessed. “Sorry to scare you like that. I live alone so any sounds of other life tend to wake me. Even the footsteps of small women.”

  She cocked her head. Had he just given her a sincere apology? She watched him stretch like a lithe cat and her eyes were drawn to the expanse of skin revealed between the waist of his jeans and the hem of his shirt.

  “Small women, my ass,” Rhiannon grumbled before remembering that she was supposed to trick him into believing her sincerity.

  The dragon man, whose name she hadn’t even bothered to learn yet, sat up and planted a foot onto either side of the lawn chair before his eyes found her. She was surprisingly aware of her hair as it fell the length of her back, as though she could feel his phantom fingers moving through it. She desperately wanted to turn inside and wrap it into a bun before coming back outside.

  Instead, she held her place. “Look. I thought a lot about what you said last night.”

  “Is that so?” He rubbed a hand over his face. His stubble had grown long over the night.

  She nodded. “You’re right. We… we aren’t thinking about what we’re doing, about how many others it could hurt. What my boss wants me to do is too dangerous.”

  It helped that she was sprinkling her words with the truth as she knew it. This mission was far too dangerous, but she knew that it would serve their end goal. She just hoped that it worked as Everett promised.

  The dragon man narrowed his eyes at her. For a moment, she was worried that he wouldn’t believe her. Finally, he nodded. His head fell into his hands. He dragged them across his stubble as he looked back up at her. She could feel something stirring inside of her that she didn’t understand. It was an unfamiliar feeling, much lik
e having another entity moving inside of her own body. It stretched and reached for the dragon man sitting on her porch.

  She frowned as her center of gravity leaned toward him. He saw the expression on her face and slowly stood up. Gentle hands touched her shoulders before she fell over. The dragon man helped her regain balance, an easy task since the entity stopped moving once he was near.

  “Are you alright, Rhiannon?”

  She jerked herself from his touch. The entity inside of her swirled and lurched again, but she held her ground. She held a hand to her forehead.

  “Rhiannon?”

  His voice made her head spin faster, but when she opened her eyes and saw him, the whole world seemed to shrink until it contained only him. It made her angry. What was wrong with her? Yet, despite the ire that she aimed at him he remained concerned for her. Worry softened the darkness in his eyes and his hands hovered near her in case she needed him.

  Why did a dragon have to be so… nice? She’d been taught that they were brutes. They were senseless killers that hated humanity. Why couldn’t this be true of him, too?

  “I think you need to lay down,” the dragon man decided. He scooped her up into his arms before she could protest.

  “Don’t you dare,” she growled. “Put me down!”

  The feeling inside of her settled down even though she was furious. Perhaps it was her anger that burned it away. Hoisting her coffee high, she rolled out of his arms once they were inside. The drink sloshed on the floor, but her feet landed flat.

  The dragon man sighed. “There’s clearly something wrong with you. Can’t you just accept help when it’s offered?”

  “I told you to put me down. You didn’t listen.”

  He threw his hands in the air.

  “I’m not someone you need to take care of. I’ve been fine on my own for this long.” She straightened herself and swayed slightly. “I need to eat something. That’s my problem. I’m just lightheaded because there’s nothing but caffeine in my system.”

  “I make a mean waffle,” the dragon man said before turning on a dime and heading toward her kitchen cupboards.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she shouted after him.

  “Making you breakfast since you seem incompetent to take care of yourself. I’m rather famished myself.” He glanced over his shoulder at her as he crouched near the open cupboard. “You wouldn’t want me getting hungry with just the two of us in this small house, would you?”

  Rhiannon expected a spike of fear to shoot through her. Instead, warmth filled her core, heavy and expectant. It threw her for a loop. This was the oddest morning she’d had since Raphael walked into the college’s GOE office. Weirder, even.

  The dragon man pulled a mixing bowl from the cupboard and hunted through her pantry for ingredients. She was self-conscious for a moment, knowing that it was sparse. Still, he came up with what he seemed to need. Not that she would know. Most of what she ate came from a box or takeaway. Wilson hadn’t been the best role model in that regard.

  Resigning herself to her fate, she fell into a kitchen chair and watched the dragon man move around the kitchen. He was graceful, for such a giant brute.

  “Is there anything I can call you besides asshat or squatter since you slept on my back porch?”

  “What is asshat for?” He laughed as the whisk in his hand moved with alarming speeds.

  “For being you,” Rhiannon said.

  He glanced over his shoulder and the spark in his eye made her breath catch. “It’s almost like you’re getting to know me better. I’ll have to tell my family that one. I’m sure they’d love to use the name, too. You, on the other hand, can call me Gareth.”

  Gareth. It suited him, she thought. Before she knew it, Gareth set a plate full of raspberry waffles and breakfast sausage before her. Butter and jam followed it. She could barely believe that there was a dragon making waffles in her kitchen.

  He was even serving her. And she let him.

  Chapter Four

  Gareth pulled out a chair beside the cranky woman and sank into it before reaching to claim a waffle for himself. He’d been pleasantly surprised to find a waffle iron in her possession after seeing the state of her pantry. But, as he snuck a glance at her, he was truly confused by her.

  The scent that touched his nose on the porch told him that the female dragon he’d found the night before was nearby. It wasn’t until Rhiannon lost her balance and lurched toward him that he realized that the scent was coming from her. It confused him. This anger filled creature was no dragon. Of that, he was sure.

  She worked for GOE. Despite their connection with the white dragon, she seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for his kind that clearly stated she was not a dragon. He should have picked her up, put her on the soft surface of her couch and left when he could. Instead, his first instinct had been to feed this waif of a monster beside him.

  When she emerged from her house earlier in the morning, her words had held a touch of sincerity. He wanted to believe that she saw the truth in his words and that she would put an end to her boss’s madness, but it was hard to believe. Rhiannon was a good soldier and a good soldier followed orders until oblivion.

  It made him sad more than anything. He expected to feel anger and frustration, but when he looked at the woman in her pajamas with her hair loose and free around her shoulders, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the fate she was marching toward.

  “What are you staring at?” Rhiannon asked between mouthfuls of waffle.

  He let a small smile touch his lips for a moment. “Did you mean what you said this morning? That you will try to stop your boss’s plans to fake a terror attack?”

  He hoped that his words held weight, that she could feel it as much as he did. What her boss wanted to do was a horrible, desperate thing. It would cost them the lives of not only dragons, but humans if they weren’t careful. Gareth didn’t want anyone to die.

  She regarded him as she chewed. He thought he could see a soul behind her dark eyes, but he very well could have been wrong. All he wanted was the chance at happiness. But, that rug had already been pulled out from under him. The best he could do now was keep his family safe.

  “I will try,” she said, her voice small.

  Gareth nodded. He stood and brushed loose flour from his shirt and jeans. The best he could do now was return to the territory and tell his leader what he’d learned. Perhaps, if they tried they could put a stop to it if she didn’t.

  “You’re leaving?” Rhiannon asked. Her eyes widened as if her words surprised her own self.

  He nodded. “You and I aren’t meant to be under the same roof for very long. We’re more likely to kill one another than to get along. It’s time I should be going before we burn your house down.”

  He didn’t say that he’d like to burn the house down with their passionate love making. He didn’t say that he wanted to know what kind of fire burned inside of her to make her so dark. Instead, he told himself that he was being a self-destructive idiot. Laying with a GOE agent was surely suicide, no matter how much she intrigued him.

  ***

  Gareth parked his truck outside of his leader’s cottage home. It looked human and normal, even in the wilderness that was Snowdonia. Maggie was nowhere to be found, her life too busy for a woman her age. Drystan, on the other hand, moved a bit slower and more precise.

  The dragon in question was working in a tool shed behind the cottage. The smell of fresh cut wood filled the air.

  “I must say that I am okay with some of these inventions of technology that my mate has brought to me,” Drystan said without turning around. He was holding a nail gun in his hand, nailing together pieces of wood that Gareth couldn’t decide would end up making.

  “She does spoil you,” Gareth agreed.

  “And, it seems, that the new exception regarding Territory restriction has spoiled you. I know that you spent the night off the Territory while the humans are in an uproar over what happened. You als
o smell of woman, but not sex. Do I have to warn you of the trouble you could not only bring upon yourself, but upon your family if you are not more careful?”

  Gareth let out a breath. He’d been expecting this. Drystan was a level headed, honorable man, but he was also their leader for a reason. The older dragon slowly turned to pin Gareth with burning eyes. The nail gun was clenched in his hand, the plastic groaning beneath his strength.

  “I followed the female GOE agent last night,” Gareth confessed. He wouldn’t tell him of the female dragon scent he found. Not when the scent came from the GOE agent. It had to be wrong. It was a fluke that didn’t need Drystan’s attention.

  “I see that she didn’t succeed in killing you,” Drystan said. “You certainly didn’t charm her. I doubt the woman would fall for charm even if you had any. What made you spend the night with her? Do not lie, I can smell her all over you.”

  “I overheard her partner pass on orders from her boss, the man that kidnapped your son’s mate. They want to destroy one of their own buildings and try to blame it on us.”

  Drystan’s eyebrows rose. “You didn’t return with this information immediately?”

  Gareth felt the fire inside him reach higher. He knew that he was moments from smoke leaking from his nostrils. Why couldn’t his leader trust him? Why couldn’t he be proud of him for trying to protect them?

  “My hope was to convince the woman to try to stop it from happening. I thought… I thought that maybe she would have a conscience, but I fear that I might have been wrong.”

  Drystan sighed heavily before closing the space between them. With his head bowed forward, he let a heavy hand fall onto Gareth’s shoulder. His fingers pressed into Gareth’s shoulder almost painfully.

  “Perhaps you have the right intentions for once in your life, but you do not have what it takes to act upon them.” Drystan’s hand moved to the back of Gareth’s neck in a tight brace. His head rose to meet Gareth’s eyes and the younger dragon could see the flames of anger in them. “You have wasted your life sleeping and drinking your way through your years. Do not think to act in this dire time without consulting me ever again. You are mine to command and mine to keep safe. If you are out and about while the Guardians are looking for any reason to hurt our own, I cannot protect you. If that woman turns on you and hurts you it makes me look bad. Do you hear me?”