by Cecilia Lane
“An old acquaintance,” he said instead. “Someone I’m eager to catch up with.”
Sticking by Izzy just might give him the cover he needed to track his bounty after all.
Chapter 5
What the fluffing fluff had she been thinking?
Oh, she knew the thoughts that had flown through her head and the offer that promptly exited her mouth. She even understood the reasoning behind them. But the reality of a six foot and however many inches fire breathing hottie sleeping not even ten feet from her wasn’t something she’d properly thought through or had time to prepare for. Every inhale was a reminder that he was there. Every exhale drove her cougar’s claws a little deeper.
Mate.
The whisper had started in the night, between one sleepless toss and another turn. The light of day had burned away whatever her cougar saw in the man; the chill of the wind had blown away the rest. Locked together in the darkness with his scent building and building until there was nothing but decadent wood smoke and hazelnuts to breathe in made her cougar want to prowl across the room and lick him from head to toe.
Her dreams—when she finally found sleep—carried her straight into the dirtiest imaginings she could muster. Slick skin, hands stroking, being taken right to the edge again and again, only to be denied. When that final release crashed over her, she dang near jerked awake and marched over to where his soft breaths rose and fell, just to see if he matched up to his dream twin.
Mate.
Absolutely not. She wasn’t setting herself up to be hurt again. The dumb, idiot beast was simply looking for a way out of the pain and latched onto the first delicious piece of manmeat that came along.
Mates were a bunch of garbage, anyway. Everyone wanted to believe they’d found their fated connection, but that’s all it was. A connection. Someone to spend the years with, and who might decide one day that they just aren’t feeling it anymore. Preordained, written in the threads of fate? She lived in the real world, not a fairytale.
The worst, the absolute worst thing about her unplanned sleepover? She really had to pee. And what further proof of her non-fairytale life did she need? The princesses were never plagued with full bladders.
Which brought a whole slew of questions. Was Sleeping Beauty over there a grumpy morning person who’d snarl at the click of the bathroom door closing? A deep sleeper who wouldn’t even notice if she tripped into the back of the couch? Or was he one of those possessive sleep-cuddlers, who’d cage her in with an arm holding her tightly to his solid chest and tangle their legs together into the ultimate couple pretzel?
Her inner cat twisted around and around, purring for the chance to figure it out.
Izzy yanked a pillow over her face and bit back her groan.
“I know you’re awake.”
The voice cut through the darkness and Izzy pulled the pillow away from her face. “How did you know that?” she asked the ceiling.
“Your breathing changed.”
Not weird or creepy in the slightest. But the way her cougar was mewling, one would think the beast hadn’t received an ounce of attention in her entire life.
At least she had an excuse to throw the blankets off her body and flee into the bathroom before giving it any more thought. “Do you want to shower first?” she asked.
“It’s all yours,” came the muffled response.
Izzy edged out from under the blankets and danced from foot to foot in the subsequent chill and internal pressure. She cast a wistful look at the fireplace but decided against the request and the implications that they’d be cozying up in the warmth until the fire died down.
She dug through her bag instead. Jeans were easy to find. Her shirt, too. One sock followed her bra, both of which were stuffed between her outerwear to keep them hidden from any potentially prying eyes. Another sock surfaced, unmatching but she didn’t particularly care at the moment. Which left one final, necessary item...
“Where are you?” she muttered under her breath, pawing through the bag.
Still too loud, because Zane sat up and ran a hand through his already mussed hair. “Is that it?” he asked in a low voice, pointing to a bit of color dangling from the corner of the nightstand.
Izzy’s cheeks flushed and she dashed around the bed to ball up the chemise poking out from under a shirt. Great. Just fluffing great. They barely even knew each other, and he’d seen her sexy things. Mortified didn’t even begin to describe the churning in her gut.
She stuffed the chemise deep, deep into her bag, yanked out the panties that bubbled up to the surface, clutched her fresh clothes to her chest, and scurried into the bathroom.
The water barely even warmed before she ducked under the stream. Which, surprisingly, did wonders to chill her inner cat. The creature hissed and sputtered, but the indignation was enough to cut through her muddied thoughts all circling around the dragon on the other side of the door.
Hot, hot man. Far too attractive for his own good. And bossy, too.
Mate.
Izzy closed her eyes and turned the water ice cold.
She had a say, too. Despite all the tingling that man did to her bits, connections needed more than lust to last. And after such a recent hurt, she didn’t want to dive headfirst into another. The sooner she cleared out of the room and left that enticing scent behind, the better.
She rushed through the rest of her shower and dressed in the bathroom, not wanting a repeat of her almost striptease the day before. Bright blue eyes locked on her as soon as she swung open the door, but she twisted away and called over her shoulder, “See you later!”
The relief she expected to feel as soon as she stepped into the hall didn’t arrive. Nor did it appear when she stomped down the stairs and into the middle of the breakfast hour. Claws sliced at her middle as she waved a greeting to her aunt and did a spin around the buffet to get an idea of where she wanted to begin eating her feelings.
Waffles. Waffles with chocolate chips and tons of syrup. That was the place to start.
“Fancy meeting you here,” a voice rumbled behind her.
Izzy nearly yelped. Skies above, that had to have been the world’s quickest shower. She’d have accused him of simply changing and following her downstairs, but water slicked back his hair and the clean scent of soap clung to his usual smoky chocolate.
“What can I say?” she huffed a laugh through her cougar’s insistence of pressing her cheek to the arm that reached to snag the bacon tongs. “I’m a sucker for a free breakfast.”
“So that’s the trick to keep you from running in the morning,” he murmured. “Good to know.”
Heat flooding her cheeks again, Izzy clutched her plate tightly and slipped out of line. Nope. No way. She was not going to imagine what breakfast in bed with that dragon looked like. Not even if her cougar shoved one sending after another at her. Her bruised heart needed to keep away to prevent a full-on shattering.
Mate, her cougar insisted.
She dipped into the cold food line and gave the fresh fruit and yogurt a very solid consideration until she saw the dragon she wanted to avoid slip out of sight. As soon as he was gone, she raced to the drink station to pour a mug of coffee, then turned and almost spilled it down the front of her sweater.
“Careful,” Zane said softly, hand catching her elbow to steady her. His eyes roamed from her arm to her face. “Don’t want to burn yourself.”
Warmth flared under his touch, and Izzy took a quick step back. Too quick, because she bumped into the table and jostled everything. His hand tightened on her elbow again, but she wiggled out of his grasp and darted away.
The main dining room bustled with people, and she didn’t even pause to search for a seat. The tiny alcove near the kitchen was her destination, and she sighed with relief to find one of the two-person tables empty. The others were occupied by couples staring deeply into the eyes of their loves, but she’d take slightly hidden and wanting to flick eggs at them over easily stalked any day.
&nbs
p; She’d barely even settled into her tiny table when a buzz of awareness lit up her nerves. She slowly lifted her eyes from her plate and once again confronted the trim waist and strong shoulders of her dragon roommate.
“Anyone sitting here?” he asked smoothly.
Oh, what the heck.
Her inner cat alternated between a pleased purr and seemingly laughing at her.
Even wanting to prove the dumb beast wrong, she couldn’t do it. Zane had given up his spot at the bar. The least she could do was let him join her for breakfast. Besides, the smell of bacon and waffles and every other person enjoying the spread masked most of his mouthwatering scent.
Her cougar rewarded her lie with a lazy swipe of her claws through her middle even as she waved him into the opposite seat.
“What are your plans for the day?” he asked after a moment.
Izzy blinked at him, then narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Why do you care?”
Zane rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. His lips pressed together in a wry line. “It wasn’t exactly my idea to come here. You were right about what you said yesterday. I don’t have a clue about this place. And since you seem to know all the hidden spots…” he trailed off with a shrug and a flashed smile.
She should really tell him to pound sand. He’d taken up space in her room, driven her cougar to insanity, spied some sexy clothes that most assuredly were not for his eyes, and now sat at her breakfast table.
The words stuck in the back of her throat. She kept circling back to the reason why she’d agreed to let him stay with her in the first place. He was alone. During the most magical, splendid, perfect time of the year, he was alone.
Just like her.
So maybe he was tapping into her love for underdogs and flipping all the switches to activate her pity. Didn’t change the fact that they were both alone, over Christmas, in a town that got off on celebrating the holiday. They needed more than spiked eggnog to survive.
“Today is mostly a street fair. Lots of stalls and food and local art, so I planned on using the relative quiet to get some pictures. That’s probably not the most thrilling thing for you, so—”
“That sounds great,” he cut in.
She sat back. “Really?”
Ryan never wanted to traipse through nature with her. The few times he’d met up with her on location, he’d been unwilling to comprehend she wasn’t on vacation and couldn’t spend the day at the spa or drinking her way through the closest city. Those always turned into their biggest fights, so much that she’d banned him from entire countries while she worked.
“Really,” Zane answered with a curt nod. No hint of a lie rolled off him. “I don’t have the patience for people, either.”
Oh-ho-ho, someone had been listening at the bar. Her cougar gave a satisfied lick of her paws.
“Later tonight,” Izzy continued, watching him from under her lashes, “there’s a bonfire in the square across the street. All those food stalls magically convert into hot cocoa right before the sleighs come through.”
“Sleighs?” His eyebrows tried to climb into his hairline. “Really?”
“With bells on the horse harnesses and all. It’s kind of a big deal.” Super cozy, warm blankets to cuddle under, hot cocoa to stem the chill of the air… She’d looked forward to showing off the traditions to Ryan.
The pang in her heart was less than the day before. Something close to irritation had taken hold there instead. He’d claimed to want more commitment, but when she tried, he rejected her.
Zane was not Ryan.
He also wasn’t her mate.
But he noticed when she woke up. He gave her first dibs on the shower. Heck, he chased her from buffet station to buffet station, then tracked her to her hidden table. Maybe he felt just as lost as she did.
Or maybe there was something more under his grumpy exterior.
Her cougar nudged her, then ran her entire body down her mental shape. Urging her on. To believe what the animal believed. To give in to the draw she felt for the dragon across the table.
Izzy inclined her head. Spending the day with him didn’t mean she agreed to mate him for life and give him a whole bunch of cubs. She hardly even knew the guy. He might only want one or two.
Not the time for jokes, Izzy.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at herself. To Zane, she said, “Well, if you promise not to complain the whole time, I guess you can follow me around like a stray puppy.”
Zane snorted. “I am not a stray dog.”
“You say that,” Izzy took a big bite of a bacon strip and chewed thoughtfully, “but you’re sharing my room, my breakfast table, and my hike. Seems a little strayish to me.”
He glowered across the table, but she smiled brightly. “Chin up, dragon boy. I have your promise that you won’t hurt me, and thus, am immune to your death glares. You’re welcome to come with me if…”
“If what?” he grumped.
“If you go get me some more bacon, please and thanks?”
Zane stared at her long enough that she almost raised her hands to check for a second head. He snapped out of it with a shake, then pushed to his feet.
“Done.”
Now, if only she could get her cougar to stop purring.
Chapter 6
Zane pushed into the cold after Izzy. He raised his hands to his face and blew hot air into his palms, swinging his attention from side to side.
The sidewalk in front of the inn was busy. Tents had sprung up in place of cars on the streets. A persistent buzz of jolly conversation permeated the air.
Finding Erik in all that activity would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but there was no other option. The bear shifter was dangerous, and an influx of outsiders who could go missing without notice until long after they should have returned home was the perfect hunting ground.
“Where first?” he asked his guide.
Izzy wrapped her scarf around her neck and stuffed her hands into her coat pockets. “Well, we could always hike up to the waterfall. Not sure how busy it’ll be this time of the year. If we’re lucky, it’ll have frozen completely. Doesn’t happen every year, but it makes for a fantastic sight when it does.”
Her excitement was palpable. Contagious, even. He had to curb the sudden urge to go along with whatever she had planned purely for her plan’s sake.
Reality chilled him more than the air. Despite the rosy red of Izzy’s cheeks or the happy shine in her eyes, he’d attached himself to her for a reason. He had to find Erik. Izzy was simply his way of blending in while he searched.
Zane bit back his dragon’s objections even before the beast lifted his head.
He’d given Hollis an update, but the deafening silence worried him. He didn’t know what the clan leader expected. To ignore a solid lead on a high-profile target like Erik Halvorsen was impossible, even with the order to take the time to clear his head.
So, he hunted. His eyes bounced over the crowd, then went to the ground once Izzy led him past the town square and down a path toward the river. Benches lined the water’s edge, though no one occupied them at the moment. No traces of footprints leaving the water were to be found, either, though that’d be the sort of luck that only existed in movies.
And maybe just a tad in his life. He’d spotted Erik on some random woman’s camera, hadn’t he?
“You used to live here?” he asked as they crossed a small footbridge and continued down a frozen path. At her nod, he tacked on another question. “Are there lots of these paths in the enclave?”
“Tons,” Izzy answered. “This is one of the more popular ones since it leads straight off Main Street, but they’re all over.”
Which meant lots of ground to cover if he had any hope of finding Erik. There was only so much he could do from the air. Tree cover, caves, even abandoned homes or drainage tunnels could hide the bear shifter from view.
“How does someone like you end up here alone for Christmas?” She swung a curiou
s look over her shoulder after they’d been walking for some time. “Surely you have a thousand potential Mrs. Dragons that’d kill to drag you home for the holidays.”
“No,” he said with a grunt. “No one is dragging me home.”
“What’s that?” she asked, scent swirling with amusement. She cupped a hand to her ear. “No one is dragon you home?”
Zane gave her a flat look. “You can do better than that.”
“What can I say? The words just fly right out of my mouth.”
He pulled to a stop, trying to keep his face still. “You know, maybe I’ll head back to the inn. I don’t know if I can survive terrible puns.”
“Your choice,” she taunted over her shoulder. “But I should warn you, Aunt Muriel puts the ‘cougar’ in cougar shifter. Pick your poison.”
“Arsenic, cyanide, hemlock…” he mused. “All top contenders.”
Izzy cracked with a chuckle, and something warmed in his chest at the sound. She’d poked and teased, but he’d yet to hear a genuine laugh out of her.
Not that they were there to show off their comedy skills. She wanted to tramp around through the snow and avoid the crowd in the middle of town. He wanted to track his bounty. The rest was simply making it through their time together.
Smoke clouded his mind as his dragon growled low and deep.
Izzy waved her hand through the air to shush him and threw in a warning look for good measure. He stopped in his tracks and raised his hands, then turned an imaginary key on his lips.
That was the reassurance she needed, he guessed. She paused to take her camera out of her bag, then crept forward. Careful steps took her off the path. Slow footfalls minimized the crunch of the snow, and she kept a close eye on the ground to avoid snapping any twigs.
She hunted, he realized. Not so different than him, though her end likely wasn’t as deadly.