by Julia Mills
For the fifth, or maybe it was the sixth time since he’d arrived, Gerri laughed out loud. “I tell you, my boy, this may end up going on my list of top ten best interviews.” She sat back and laid her hands in her lap. “You really are something special. The girl that gets you is gonna be a lucky woman.”
Still smiling, the matchmaker sat back up, grabbed her pen from the table and continued, “Alright, let’s try this again since you’re a shifter and one of those hot-blooded dragons, I have no doubt that you like sex, but do you like to be in charge? Or are you just as happy letting your mate take the reins?”
“Like I said, I want us to be true partners, and that includes in the bedroom…or wherever we may be.” Hayes winked, finally feeling comfortable to be his usual cheeky self. “I know the second I meet her that I won’t be able to keep my hands off of her and I’m praying to the Heavens that she’ll feel the same about me.”
Slamming her hand on the table, Gerri whooped and hollered, “Hell yeah, now that’s the kind of answers I’m looking for.” She jumped up to her full height of four feet, eleven inches and practically skipped to the bar, coming back with a fifth of his favorite Irish whiskey and two glasses.
Pouring a healthy two fingers of the amber liquid into each glass, Gerri slid Hayes’ to him, sat down and in one gulp finished her drink before getting a refill and grinning, “Now, let’s get down to the good stuff?”
“The good stuff?” Hayes asked, feeling his eyes go wide.
“Yes, siree Bob, the really good stuff,” she chuckled devilishly.
“Oh crap, pour me another.”
Chapter Three
“With all due respect, Your Excellency, sending our trackers to gather intel on the Jaguars may be perceived as an act of aggression,” Jacques, Savannah’s most-trusted advisor, not to mention godfather, advised.
“Drop the ‘Your Excellency’ crap, Uncle Jack. It’s just us,” the Queen sighed. “You know I can’t stand all the pomp and circumstance.” Rising from her seat at the head of the long, thin conference table, Savannah walked to the window, wishing she could call forth her lioness and run free for a week or two. “And I know you’re right,” she tried to control her temper. “But those bastards struck first.”
Turning and holding up her hand, as she continued talking, her words grew heavy with fury. “And please do not try to tell me that we have no concrete proof they were the ones who set the fire on the south side of the Pride Lands.” She stepped forward. “I saw the tracks with my own eyes and caught the scent.” Savannah’s fist clenched at her sides. “It wasn’t enough to destroy a large section of the grazing land for the cattle, but the bastards actually marked their territory.”
Narrowing her gaze, she growled through gritted teeth, “And you think it right that I dine with their Prince?” Unable to control her anger, Savannah took a menacing step forward, feeling her canines lengthening as she snarled, “I cannot and I will not.”
“But Savannah, please see reason,” Jack implored, finally dropping the formal façade he presented to everyone outside the royal family. “Tensions have been high with the jags since before you were born. Your fath…”
Refusing to listen to another story of how her father would’ve handled the situation, Savannah stalked out the door, down the hall and straight out into the hot, dry air, heading straight for her sister, Makayla’s house. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be the great leader that her father, Rex, was, hadn’t been striving to lead their people since the day he’d died, it was that she couldn’t bear to relive the pain of losing them again. It didn’t matter that they had died all those years before, it was still like a knife to her heart every time they crossed her mind.
Guilt, pure and simple, there was no other explanation. Sure, all her sisters, uncles, aunties, cousins, even Jacques, had told her it wasn’t her fault, but Savannah would never forget fighting with her mother over having to be the only one of her sisters to attend a formal dinner and ignoring her father’s calls as she ran out of the house. At that moment, the young lioness hadn’t cared about formal dinners or meeting the delegation from Africa or anything to do with being the oldest daughter of the Lion King. No, all she cared about was running with her friends and breaking all the rules.
“What an idiot I was,” she scoffed to herself. “If only…”
Memories, like an old home movie, ran through her mind. Visions of Savannah and her friends, young shifters at the time, hiding out in the dense cover on the jungle side of the Pride Lands, without a care in the world, wiling away as the days, whizzed by like leaves in the wind.
“What do you want to do tonight?” Millie, Savannah’s best friend and a wolf in her animal form, asked. “We could watch movies at my house. Mom and Dad will be at the fancy dinner at your house.” Winking, she added, “Guess you’re not going, huh?”
“No way,” Savannah snorted, remembering the horrible fight she’d just had with her mother. “You’re not gonna catch me wearing some itchy, frilly dress and playing nice with the lions from only the Goddess knows where, parading around as the Heir to the Throne, pfft. No more of that crap for me. Angelica can take my place. She’s only two years younger.”
“Must be rough being a Princess,” Jamie, the coolest boy in her class and a real asshole to boot, mocked. “Living in a damned mansion, getting everything you want.” Tossing a grape above his head and catching it between his teeth, he snickered, “Real tough there, Vannah.”
Savannah hated that nickname, almost as much as she despised Jamie and his friends. They were boneheaded jocks, all different species and breeds of shifters with more muscles than brains, living in their own world where ignorance was bliss.
Refusing to jump at the bait, Savannah ignored the boys, turning towards Millie, Jane and Annie. “Let’s just make it a girls’ night. Going to your house sounds great.” Plastering on a smile, she went on, “Then I won’t even be in this Goddess-forsaken place, and my parents will have no say over what I do.”
All the girls agreed and standing in unison, got up, leaving the boys yelling after them. Giggling as they ran through the trees, free as birds, planning their evening, the girls raced straight into Millie’s empty house, grabbed all the junk food they could carry and headed to the living room.
Sometime just before sunrise, Savannah awoke from a sound sleep, her lioness growling and her heart pounding like a bass drum. Realizing it was a knock at the door that woke her, the lioness got up from where she’d fallen asleep on the floor and padded to the foyer.
Opening the door, she yawned, “What are you doing here, Uncle Jack? Has mom sent you to talk some sense into me?”
The scent of sadness and anguish swamped her as his voice cracked, “You need to come home, Princess.” He cleared his throat. “There’s been an… an…”
Refusing to relive any more maudlin memories, Savannah knocked on the door before going in and calling out, “It’s just me, Mack.”
“Hey, You,” her youngest sister chuckled. “I’m in the kitchen making cookies. Get on back here and taste my newest creation.”
Feeling better just being away from Royal Hall, the Queen followed the scrumptious aroma of homemade baked goods and grinned, “I would love to.”
Looking up as Savannah walked into the kitchen, Makayla shook her head, “Damn Sis, you look like something the cat dragged in.” Wiping her hands, she added with a wink, “Uncle Jack making you do your job again?”
“Yeah,” Savannah snorted. “Something like that.” Grabbing the biggest peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cranberry cookie on the plate, she moaned as the best flavor she ever tasted burst onto her tongue, nodding as her sister beamed, “You like?”
“Hell yeah, I like. I admit I was worried about the cranberries, but now that I taste it, these babies are fabulous,” the Queen answered, still chewing while grabbing for another cookie. “You got any milk? I really need some with these babies.”
Taking a gallon from the fridge and getting a
glass from the cupboard, Mack filled it with the cold white liquid before handing it to Savannah and leaving the carton on the bar. Standing with her hand on her hip as the other leaned against the kitchen counter, the youngest of the Royal family ordered, “Now, spill. What’s got you so down?”
“Nothing.” Savannah shook her head. Setting her empty glass on the counter, refusing to look up at her sister, she reluctantly sighed, “Jack doesn’t want me to send the Scouts out to gather information on the jaguars. He says that if they get caught, it will be seen as an act of aggression.”
Leaning her elbows on the counter, Makayla drew figure eights in some leftover flour as she quietly asked, “Are you doing it because you think they’re up to something or because you’re still trying to prove that they…”
“Don’t say it,” Savannah growled.
“I am gonna say it because you need to hear it.” Mack stood up, slammed her fists on her hips and spat, “Are you still trying to prove that they are the ones who put the poison in Mom and Dad’s food?”
Glaring at her little sister, Savannah asserted, “I know they did it, Mack. Deep down to the bottom of my soul, I am sure beyond all doubt that those mangy, flea-ridden balls of useless fur killed our parents, and they would have killed me too if I’d been there.”
“Savannah, you have to let this go. It was so long ago. There was no proof the jags had been anywhere near our lands. They couldn’t have done it.” Mack came around the counter and put her arm around the Queen. “Even Uncle Jack went out looking for tracks, traces, anything to bring the killers to justice, and he found nothing.”
“I know. I was there,” Savannah grumbled. “And I’ve tried to let it go, but I can’t. Not when I would stake my crown that they are to blame.”
Dropping her hand and taking a seat next to Savannah, Mack tapped her fingernails on the granite countertop as she said, “Okay, you do what you have to do. You’re the Queen and Goddess knows I trust you with my life, just like every other lion in this Pride.” She took a cookie and after biting into it quickly changed the subject. “Onto other news, how did the meeting with the matchmaker go?”
Turning in her seat so quickly she almost hit the floor, Savannah gasped, “How did you know about that?”
Chuckling with a mouth full of cookie, Mack smiled and winked, “Oh, I happen to have bribed Tessa with two dozen oatmeal-raisin-chocolate-chip-orange cookies and a dozen blueberry muffins.”
“What a little brat. Just wait until I see her again.”
Savannah shook her head then burst out laughing as Mack added, “She says she’s praying to all the gods that you end up with a dragon.”
Now, wouldn’t that just be my luck…
Chapter Four
“What are you doing in here looking all sad and lonely?” Asked Janice, the leader of the Honey Badger Clan and owner of the shifter bar, The Sundowner.
“Nothing.” Hayes picked at the label on his beer bottle.
“You dragons don’t usually travel alone.” She wiped the water off the bar between them. “Must be something serious for you to be out on your own.”
Shaking his head, he once again sighed, “Nothing.”
“Leave him be, Mom,” Shauna, Janice’s oldest daughter teased. “Looks like woman trouble to me.” She winked, “Need a tattoo. It seemed to help Lennox.”
“How about the lack-of-a-woman trouble?” The Guardsman groaned. “I even…Oh, never mind.” He took a sip of his beer then quickly added, “And...ummmm, no tattoo for me. The one the Universe gave me is quite enough.”
Tossing a lime at him as she made a drink for another customer, Shauna raised an eyebrow as she asked, “Okay, just asking. But you can’t leave us hanging. What did you do? Come on, give it up.”
Ignoring the younger honey badgers pleas, Hayes took another swig of beer, then nearly choked to death when Janice piped up with, “Please Lord, tell me you didn’t go see Gerri.”
“How did you…” the Guardsman sputtered, wiping the beer from his chin.
“Because I know men,” the bar owner sighed. Both women leaned their elbows on the bar as Janice went on, “What is it with you guys? You know you’ve got a mate out there somewhere, why can’t you lot be patient? Sooner or later your paths will cross.”
Shaking his head, Hayes stared at the beer in his bottle, unable to come up with an answer and finally grumbled, “Hell, I don’t know. I guess I’m just tired of waiting. I’m impatient. I want a mate, someone to share my life with.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door to the bar opened wide, ushering in the tantalizing scent of fresh flowers and gorgeous woman. Turning on his stool, Hayes was mesmerized by the tall, curvy brunette, with hazel eyes and a smile that lit up the room.
Sliding off his stool, totally deaf to Janice and Shauna’s chuckles, the Guardsman met the lioness before she could take her seat. Holding out his hand, he asked, “Would you like to dance?”
Looking at her companion, who was smiling knowingly and nodding, the woman lifted her eyes to his and breathed, “Sure.”
Not waiting for her to have any second thoughts, Hayes swept the lovely lioness onto the dance floor, wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close as the old jukebox crooned a slow, romantic ballad. Electricity danced up his arms and down his spine as his heart stuttered in his chest, before finding a steady rhythm, in sync with hers.
Inhaling deeply, both man and dragon bathed in the scent of the only woman who had ever touched them in such a life-altering, reaffirming way. Giving in to temptation, he laid a tender kiss to the soft skin just behind her ear, trailing down her neck, smiling as she sighed, and laid her head to the side, allowing him to further explore.
Dancing her back to the darkest corner beside the backdoor, Hayes continued to taunt and torment them both, kissing and tasting, needing to make absolutely sure she was covered in his scent. Finally, reaching her lips, he paused, looked at her lovely face flushed with excitement, her heavily-lidded eyes and lips opened just slightly as she panted with anticipation and smiled proudly, knowing he was the reason.
Needing to kiss her perfectly pink lips more than he needed his next breath, Hayes gently laid his lips on hers. From one heartbeat to the next the Guardsman was swept away on a cloud of lust and desire. Teasing the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue, he was a goner when she readily opened, moaning low in her throat as his tongue slid alongside hers.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he deepened their kiss. His hands traveled her body like his Harley rumbling over a familiar back road, memorizing every seductive curve and erotic dip. Hayes and the lioness fit together like two pieces of the same puzzle, once lost, now found.
His fingers massaged the full globes of her ass, pulling her closer, working his hard cock against her soft, warm center. Needing more, Hayes lifted her feet from the floor, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist as she met him thrust for thrust. Holding her against the wall with his body, the dragon slid his hands under her cream silk blouse, shivering at the sensation of his fingertips touching her flesh.
Tearing his lips from hers, he grinned as she moaned at the loss but needed to ask, “What’s your name, dom leómhan beag?”
Her answer was drowned out by the sound of growls and snarls as the huge, wooden double doors slammed off the walls where they were thrown open. Letting the lioness’ feet slide to the floor, Hayes spun around, covering her body with his as he took in the dire situation unfolding before him.
Counting five partially-transformed male jaguars, the scent of aggression and malice burnt the Guardsman’s nose. Claws elongated and fangs bared, the lead cat stepped forward, demanding, “Where is she? Where is that little bitch? I’ll gut her where she stands.”
“Stay where you are,” Hayes whispered to the woman who’d stolen his heart with just one glance. “Let me take care of this.”
Not waiting for her answer, he stepped forward, challenging, “You have no right to be
here. Leave before there’s trouble.”
Taking an aggressive step forward, the tall lean jaguar growled, “Shut the fuck up, lizard and tell me where she is.” He inhaled deeply. “Her stench is everywhere.”
Meeting the cat’s gaze, Hayes leveled his stare and in a low, threatening tone, more dragon than man, ordered, “Stand down. The Sundowner is neutral territory.”
Grabbing the closest chair and throwing it against the far wall, splintered woods flying through the air, the jaguar snarled, “Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?”
“He is dragon and we sit at the top of the food chain, Furball,” Kayne grumbled menacingly as he, Wiley, Declan and Noah appeared behind the jaguars.
Whirling around, the lead cat looked to his compatriots before snarling, “This is not over by a longshot, lizards.” He spat the word like it offended his palette. “We will find that bitch. She will pay for what she’s done.”
Not moving until the back of the jaguars disappeared into the darkness, Hayes turned to make sure his lioness was alright, only to find the space behind him empty. Spinning one way and then the other, he realized that not only was the object of his affection alarmingly absent but also was the woman who’d been with her.
Stalking to the bar, he demanded, “Did you see where she went?” Slamming his hands on the hard, wooden surface and growling at the bar owner, Hayes spat, “Where is she?” Feeling his rage at the loss of the lioness to the depths of his soul.
“Whoa, there young’un,” Kayne advised, his hand on Hayes’ shoulder. “Janice didn’t do anything. Who are you looking for?”
“The woman I was dancing with,” the blue and gold dragon grumbled, taking another look around the bar, before leaning back and wiping his hand down his face. “She was here and then those fucking jaguars burst in and now…”
Where the hell did she go? Did she really think I would let those fucking bastards lay a finger on her?