by Anna Lowe
Luckily, his bag came out next, which let him keep her in sight all the way out to the sidewalk. Jenna waved and rushed toward a woman — her sister, judging by the way they squeaked and hugged. His eyes got stuck on Jenna’s legs — long, sculpted legs, like she spent half the day doing leg lifts — before he managed to drag his gaze away.
He gave himself a little shake. Mission accomplished. Sleeping Beauty was safe and sound. It was time to get started with his new life.
Funny, though, how it felt like a bitter end, especially when Jenna drove off into the night.
Chapter Three
Hey, Connor, a low grunt sounded in Connor’s mind.
He spun around and broke into a grin despite his grim mood, setting a new course for the far end of the sidewalk.
“Hey, Timber,” he rumbled, giving his brother a one-armed man-hug.
They smacked each other on the back a few times then stood grinning like a couple of fools. A guy didn’t spend most of his life with a big lug of a bear shifter and not learn to love the guy, even if Tim had been a pain in the ass younger brother at times.
But man, they had come a long way since then. They’d grown up fast and learned a lot — mostly the hard way. And yes, they’d done their fair share of messing up too. The important thing was that they had both sworn to follow a new path, and that path started here. Now.
It starts with her, his dragon cried, pulling him back toward Jenna. Destiny.
He snorted. Destiny? Was any of that even true?
“Right over here,” Tim murmured, motioning toward a dusty white pickup at the curb.
Right over there, his dragon insisted, glancing in the direction Jenna had driven off. But all he caught was a glimpse of the Land Rover she’d gotten into, and then that, too, was gone.
Connor threw his bag in the back and slid into the passenger side of the pickup. Then he tipped his head and looked up at the stars, wondering what adventures — or misadventures — they would lead him to next.
“Some vehicle,” he murmured, eyeing the torn upholstery.
“Hey, man, it’s a start.”
Connor looked around. All of this was a start — a new start on a new life. His last chance.
“Oh, and by the way, it’s a quarter yours,” Tim announced. “We all agreed to split it evenly.”
Connor sighed. That was exactly how he’d ended up in trouble a couple of times — one of the guys coming up with a great idea and dragging the others along for the ride. Though, to be fair, he’d been the one to initiate a few misguided missions in his time.
He fingered a tear in the dashboard. Maybe it was time to shake that habit for good.
“What time is it here?”
“Twenty-two thirty,” Tim said as he pulled onto the road.
Connor blinked a few times, trying to stay alert. His trip had started several time zones away, making this one of those stretched-out days that spanned more hours than he wanted to count.
“I got this, man,” Tim murmured, reading his mind.
Connor let his eyes shut for just a little bit, not seeking sleep so much as visions of Jenna. But sleep found him, and he drifted off into dreams before too long. Dreams of him and Sleeping Beauty back on the plane. Replaying it in a way he liked better, with her putting her head on his shoulder before falling asleep.
This okay with you? she asked in that sweet siren-call voice of hers. At least, she did in the dream.
It was plenty okay with him, and apparently, putting his arm around her was okay too, because they ended up snuggled together like two halves of a happy clam. No more alarms in his mind, no state of alert.
It was a great dream until the mood slowly shifted to something more sinister. He dreamed the plane hit turbulence. Passengers started to scream, snapping him and Sleeping Beauty wide awake. The plane spun out of control, and all he could do was clutch Jenna as the plane barreled toward the ground. Down and down it went, whistling through the sky like the piece of hulking metal it was, doomed from the start.
Help, Jenna screamed, clutching his hand. Help.
Then the dream skipped a beat, and he and Jenna were hurtling through the air on their own — no plane, no other passengers, just hurricane force winds that whipped them around, trying to yank her out of his determined grip.
Hang on, he yelled, ready to shift.
For all the terror of the dream, it still felt good to sense her nervous nod, her trust.
The wind tore at his hair and screamed in his ears as he shifted into dragon form, but something was wrong. He couldn’t get his wings open, and a deep voice laughed at him from some unidentified place over on the far side of his dream.
She’s mine, the voice taunted, while the wind tried to pry her from his arms.
She’s mine, he roared back, desperate to keep her safe.
“Uh…Connor?”
He jerked his head up, startled and sweaty. Wondering why his brother was looking at him that way. Then he ruffled a hand through his hair. Jesus, what a dream.
Tim handed him a bottle of lukewarm water, and he took a long swig.
“How far to go?”
“Not long now. Ten minutes, maybe.”
Connor nodded, trying to anchor himself in time and place. Maui. Coming up on eleven p.m. New job.
“How’s the place?”
Tim grinned and motioned to the ocean on the left. “Those guys from Silas’s unit really lucked out.”
Connor had heard about that. Silas Llewellyn, the dragon alpha of another shifter unit, had inherited an oceanfront estate and settled down there with his entire unit. They were all there — Kai, Hunter, Boone, and Cruz — and each had found a mate.
“It will be good to see them all again,” Connor murmured. They’d worked closely with Silas’s unit on several missions, and he’d grown close to his fellow shifters in that time. Of course, now that those men were all mated, maybe things had changed.
Tim laughed, reading his mind. “They’re still the same at heart. Really easy to talk to.” His voice grew hushed. “They understand, you know?”
Oh, Connor knew, all right. It was hard enough to relate to someone who hadn’t lived the military life, and even harder to find someone who understood shifter issues too.
He snorted at the word. Issues? Yeah, maybe he had a few. But, hell. Who didn’t?
“Their mates are great too,” Tim added. “And the estate we’re protecting — Koa Point — is out of this world. They’ve got everything you can imagine. Helicopter, fancy cars, private beach.” Then he laughed. “Just don’t get your hopes up. We get the run-down plantation next door. But we’ve survived worse, and there’s plenty of space for everyone to spread out once we settle in.”
Connor looked around, wondering if he had it in him to settle in anywhere. But maybe someday—
His dragon sighed, filling his mind with visions of a nice little seaside home, high on a cliff. A place where he could spend his days with steady work, open views. Dark nights in which to spread his wings. Maybe even someone to share it all with—
Like Jenna, his dragon said, fantasizing about the way the light had glinted off her hair. Imagine how shiny it would be in daylight.
Dazzling came to mind, but Connor frowned, remembering the dream. He cracked his neck from side to side. God, was he stiff.
“Is everyone here?” he asked.
Tim nodded. “Yep. You, me, Chase…”
Chase — their younger half brother, a wolf shifter. A guy who took reserved and quiet to a whole new level, unlike any wolf shifter Connor had ever met.
“How’s he doing?”
Tim tilted his head left and right. “Not bad, considering.”
Connor made a face. Wolves like Chase didn’t take well to change, and he’d had change forced on to him too many times in his life. Which only served to remind Connor how important it was not to mess up this new assignment.
“Dell got in earlier today,” Tim continued.
Connor rel
axed a little bit more. Dell was a lion shifter they’d served with, a good guy to have around — and a near-brother to them all by now. Gregarious and funny, Dell was an expert in all kinds of skills that seemed pretty dubious until they saved a man’s ass.
How the hell can you three be brothers? he remembered Dell cackling the first time they’d met. A dragon, a bear, and a wolf?
Connor made a face, thinking of his deadbeat dad — a rare myriad shifter who could shift into a variety of forms. Each of his father’s offspring had taken a single animal form — at least, of the kids Connor had met. Who knew how many other Hoving half-siblings there were out in the world and what shifter forms they took? For him, Timber and Chase were enough.
“And then there’s that widow we have to share the place with,” Tim finished.
He said that widow in a carefully even voice Connor couldn’t decipher.
“So what’s the plan?” Connor asked, trying to focus on the big picture.
“We’re all meeting tonight, as soon as we get there.”
Good. A meeting would help get his mind off Jenna. He checked his watch and jerked his thumb up. “Why not drive a little faster?”
Tim shook his head firmly, and Connor stared. “Since when do you obey the speed limit?”
“Since this,” Tim grumbled, reaching over to pop open the glove compartment.
The pickup zipped under a streetlight, and Connor saw a sheaf of papers. “Speeding tickets?”
Tim sighed. “There’s this cop who’s always patrolling and never cuts anyone any slack. Not even for a fellow bear.”
Connor stared at the tickets. “A bear shifter cop? Who is he?”
“Who is she, you mean. A cop not to be messed with, I can tell you that. Officer Meli. Hunter’s new mate. Believe me, you don’t want to get on her bad side. Her and some other women around here.”
Connor tilted his head at his brother. What was that supposed to mean?
Tim waved a hand. “When we took the job, we knew we would have to share the place with someone else, right? Someone the owners put in charge.”
Connor scowled. Every instinct screamed for him to be in charge. But it didn’t work that way, not until he made a name for himself. He had to count himself lucky that Silas Llewellyn had hired him and his buddies as security for the sprawling estate. They would earn solid salaries along with free housing on the neighboring property. All in all, a pretty sweet deal, except it came with two stipulations.
First, the Hoving brothers had to clean up their act — no unassigned missions, no shenanigans, and no pranks, in Silas’s words.
Which was pretty unjust, since Connor and his brothers had never really meant to cause trouble. It was just that trouble found them.
Second, they had to accept whatever authority Silas — or Kai, his cousin and second-in-command — saw fit to put in charge.
That clause had made Connor rankle at first, but he’d signed on anyway, figuring they’d work out their own hierarchy as time went by. Silas could call anyone he wanted the boss, but the man truly in charge would be the one who earned that right.
He frowned at the sugar cane stalks that spiked up along the road. “Whoever Silas puts in charge will be keeping an eye on us, you know.”
Tim flashed a wicked grin. “Seriously, wouldn’t you keep an eye on us? Anyway, it’s not a guy. It’s a girl. A woman, I mean.”
Connor frowned. Silas had put a woman in charge of the place? Not that he had a problem with women in command — it just didn’t fit Silas’s brief description of the woman they would share the plantation with.
It will be you, your brothers, Dell, and a woman I know. A dragon shifter widow who’s been through some hard times. I expect you to treat her well.
Connor scratched his head. Silas hadn’t said anything about the widow being in charge. “Didn’t he say something about her being fragile?
Tim snorted. “Either he meant someone else, or he hadn’t met her when he said that. I swear that woman is tougher than half the guys we know. You’ve got your job cut out for you, bro.”
Connor bit back a sigh and stared at the moonlit sky. He’d had his work cut out for him from the day he was born. That was just the way it was. At least he got to live in a nice place like this, with a fresh breeze whipping his hair and the scent of the ocean tickling his nose. The hulking form of another island slumbered on the horizon in an additional reminder of where he was. Maui. No one out there aiming their cross hairs at him, no scheming enemies on the prowl.
Just a mate to track down, his dragon murmured.
He shoved the thought aside and went back to the business at hand. It wouldn’t take long for him and his brothers to sort out a new hierarchy, the shifter way.
Just don’t mess up, a familiar voice of warning whispered from the back of his mind.
“Anyway, you’ll meet her soon enough,” Tim said.
Connor made a face, trying to focus instead of making that her into Jenna.
Tim drove on until a long line of hotels and condos gave way to a quieter stretch of coastline with fewer homes. He made a left onto an unmarked road and continued at a slow pace.
“Over there’s Koa Point.” Tim pointed at a carved wooden gate that hinted at the understated wealth of the place. Then his finger swung forward and drooped a little bit. “This is us. Koakea Plantation.”
“Koakea?”
Tim shrugged. “It means white tree. Something like that anyway.”
They rattled past a plain metal gate that had been pushed aside and left open, hanging askew on rusty hinges.
“Used to be a coffee plantation,” Tim murmured. “But it went bust, and nobody has lived here for years.”
Connor sniffed, catching a dry, flowery scent that didn’t relate to coffee — not the brewed kind, at least. A tangle of low, scrubby bushes lined both sides of the driveway, and they drove past several sheds and barns.
“This is the best part.” Tim grinned as they turned a corner.
The bushes had been cut back there, opening up an incredible view. The property occupied a long incline that sloped downward toward the Pacific. The whole ocean lay glittering under the moonlight, as far as he could see. It was as if he’d shifted to dragon form, spread his stiff wings, and taken to the air to enjoy the view.
“That’s the main house.” Tim pointed to a long, low building set at a slight angle to the hillside.
The only sources of light came from there, though those only lit two or three rooms, giving it a haunted look. The porch had to have an incredible vista, though Connor doubted he’d have much time to enjoy it.
A faint network of trails crisscrossed the huge property, and a little stream bisected the hillside. The whole sweeping landscape ended abruptly at a cliff on the south end of the property, while the north side sloped gradually to what looked like a small beach.
“Not bad,” Connor said.
Spectacular might have been the word a few decades ago, but he couldn’t overlook the creeping weeds or the crooked slant of most of the structures in view. One section of the western slope had burned out not too long ago, and several tractors lay rusting to one side.
But, okay. The main thing was, the property had space. Lots of it. The perfect place for a group of shifters to protect their privacy from the human world.
“It needs some fixing up,” Tim deadpanned as they cruised down a bumpy dirt road and stopped in front of the main house. Even in the moonlight, Connor could see the sagging porch and peeling paint of the once-grand place.
“So, we’ll fix it up,” he said, gearing himself up for a challenge as he slid out of the pickup. That’s what life was — a series of challenges. Tests. Life was one endless proving ground, and this was his big chance.
“Anyway, here we go,” Tim grinned. “Ready to meet the gang?”
Chapter Four
Connor steeled his shoulders and ascended the porch stairs. The first one creaked under his right foot. The second step gave a sh
arp groan, and the third he skipped entirely, just in case.
“Connor!” a cheery voice called from among the figures waiting to greet him. “The man is back!”
Connor grinned. Leave it to Dell, the lion shifter, to give him a grand entrance.
“Hey,” he said, shaking hands with Dell. In the few weeks they’d spent apart, Dell had grown a thick mane of a beard — golden blond, like his hair.
Chase greeted him next, wearing his version of a smile. The guy had grown up with a wolf mother — an all-wolf mother, not a shifter. Their dad had met her when he’d tried out wolf form for a while — just long enough to knock up the she-wolf and disappear again, in other words. Chase had only come in from the wild in his late teens. Even after a decade of practice, Chase was still pretty clunky when it came to human behavior. But, hell. Family was family, and Chase was a great man to have on a team.
He drew his hands out of his pockets to shake, but Connor pulled him in for a brief hug. “Good to see you, man.”
Chase nodded by way of reply. Then a tall, willowy figure emerged from the shadows of the house, and Connor straightened quickly. That had to be her. The widow. Or was it?
The other guys watched closely as Connor and the woman approached each other. He sniffed covertly, as did she. She took a half step to the left, and he did the same to the right, circling the way two wild animals might. Finally, the mystery woman stepped into the arc of light cast by the open bulb on the porch and gave a curt nod.
It was the nod of royalty to a commoner, and the woman’s regal bearing reinforced the impression of privilege and wealth.
She was tall and athletic, with long black hair that fell over her shoulders in loose waves, contrasting with the pure white of her pearl necklace. All of which made the gears of his mind reverse back to widow and fragile then grind awkwardly over them a few times. Weren’t widows supposed to be old and gray and fragile? This woman had warrior princess stamped all over her.
“Connor Hoving,” he said, extending his hand, telling himself not to grip as hard as his alpha instincts told him to.
Her grip was steely, her nod curt. “Cynthia.”