Day of the Dragon

by Katie MacAlister

  Cole snorted, rolled his eyes, and decided to channel Grant. “Yo, Birch. I know we say he’s got a stick up his ass, but maybe it’s a dictionary. ‘Absconded.’ What kind of bullshit word is that?”

  Quade glared. Birch kinda glared while he fought the urge to smile. Abby released the breath she’d been holding but remained tense.

  “Agent Birch, I will not stand here…”

  “So leave?” Cole lifted his eyebrows, and hope sparked in his heart.

  Unfortunately, Quade just went back to glaring at him and stayed put.

  “As far as Team One is concerned, Declan Reed secured the cougar shifter, Abby Marie Carter, in a secondary location and awaited the team’s arrival. At no time did he violate SHOC directives.” Birch tipped his head toward Cole. “Agent Turner as well as Agents Grant Shaw and Ethan Cross will testify to that fact.”

  “Bullshit,” Quade snapped. “You expect me to trust a bunch of heartless, mercenary killers?”

  “You should.” Cole’s tiger padded forward. Even if he was lying, the cat didn’t like being called a liar. His vision changed, altered by the presence of his inner beast. “You should believe us because we are a bunch of heartless, mercenary killers. It’d be better for your health.”

  “Are you—”

  “Director Quade.” Birch cut the other man off. “I think Declan needs his rest. Grant has compiled the team’s field report, including Abby’s statement.” The team alpha’s tone softened slightly while he worked to placate the director. “While her intel is minimal, he’s also piecing together the tablet recovered at the scene.”

  Quade gestured toward Cole. “This one said the tablet was destroyed.”

  This one. Cole swallowed the growl that threatened to break free. This was one time he needed to step back and let Birch do the talking. He had more experience with these games.

  “We don’t know the extent of the damages, but you will be the first call I make once Grant has finished his analysis,” Birch assured the director. “Miss Carter, unfortunately, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Quade’s stare held a speculative gleam, as if he didn’t quite believe Birch. Considering the grizzly was lying out of his ass—that the tablet was toast—he had a reason to be suspicious.

  “Fine.” Director Quade stomped from the room, bypassing Birch without another word.

  Then Cole had the grizzly’s attention. “Stay put. I’ll send Ethan in to relieve you in a few hours.”

  Cole jerked his head in a brisk nod, and then he was alone with Abby once more, the curvy cougar shifter slumping against him.

  “Abby? You okay?”

  She snorted.

  “Yeah, dumb question.” He chuckled. He was so fucked up. Even Abby’s snort was cute. He sighed and shook his head, stepping away from the curvy cougar. She didn’t belong to him. She belonged to Declan. He had to remember that.

  Cole padded to the other side of the bed, taking up the space the director had left. He snagged a nearby chair and tugged it close before flopping into the seat. He leaned back in the chair with a sigh and turned his attention to his friend’s profile.

  The lucky fucker. He got his ass kicked—almost died—and he still got the girl. Not that Cole wanted Abby, per se, but…He glanced at her, gaze touching on her blond hair, pink lips, upturned nose, and sparkling eyes. He wanted what she represented. Or at least, what she could represent someday.

  “Abby?” He kept his voice low, just loud enough to draw her attention.

  “Yeah?”

  “Declan is your mate.” She shook her head as if to deny him, and he snorted. “He’s going to wake up territorial as hell. Don’t let anyone else put their scent on you, okay?”

  “Like you?”

  He hadn’t exactly touched her with the intent of pissing off his friend, but he wasn’t exactly upset about it either.

  “Yeah.” He gave her a small smile. “As soon as he gets some protein in him, he’ll want to leave. Birch is sending you two to his lake cabin. It’s private and secluded—no other shifters there. He can finish recovering, and he’ll have some time to figure this mate shit out.”

  She shook her head. “But we’re not—”

  “Suck it up and quit lying to yourself. He’s yours just as much as you’re his.” And didn’t that hurt like a bitch.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Declan had been “healing” for two days at Birch’s lakeside cabin and he was about to lose his mind. Shifter healing didn’t take that long, dammit, and now he was bored as hell.

  He needed someone to kill. Someone he was allowed to kill. He had plenty of guys he wanted to take out—every UH human he could find—but Birch told him he couldn’t step off the property. The team had shit to do at the North Carolina SHOC base, and Papa Bear didn’t want him stirring up anything new.

  Birch also told Declan that if he was so fucking bored, he should quit being a pussy and claim Abby already. Declan hated to admit Birch was right, which made him hate the grizzly even more. As if it were that easy, but it fucking wasn’t. Asshole.

  Declan stared out the window of Birch’s cabin and eyed the mountains in the distance. Normally the forest and mountain areas were for runs—alone or in groups—but maybe he could find a natural grizzly bear and take his frustrations out on one of them.

  It’d get him out of the home and free of Abby’s tormenting scent. They hadn’t shared a bed since their time at Pike’s place. It was enough to drive a wolf mad.

  Which brought him back to needing to work off some of his pent-up desire.

  He let himself imagine hunting a big-assed bear—just for a minute—and then sighed. It’d probably make Abby angry, and for some reason that mattered to him and the wolf.

  He shook his head and sighed. She’d tossed his nuts in a jar and didn’t even realize it.

  “Declan?” Her soft voice drifted down the hallway, stroked his chest, and moved lower, giving his dick a nice squeeze.

  “Yeah, I’m coming.” Not really, but he’d like to—deep inside her over and over. Except that wasn’t happening. Yet.

  The short hallway led to the central living room, a great room that also housed an open kitchen and a space tucked in a corner with a dining room table and a couple of chairs. Solid wood floors with layer upon layer of sealant filled the area. Pretty and easy to clean. At least that’s what he’d been told.

  Abby had her back to him, that curved ass swaying from side to side while she danced at the kitchen stove, some random oldies song playing on the radio. The scent of frying bacon and eggs reached out for him, and his stomach growled, the wolf hungry. In truth, he was hungry for Abby, but the beast would take breakfast as a consolation prize.

  “Hey,” he murmured, drawing her attention, and she glanced over her shoulder. A soft smile curved her lips, blue eyes intent on his. Then they focused elsewhere, traveling down his body in a sweeping caress. “You need help with breakfast?” he asked.

  She gave him another heavy-lidded look, pink tongue darting out to lick her lips. Then she had to go and nibble that plump lower lip, and all he could think about was tugging it free and giving her something else to put in her mouth.

  A soft breeze drifted through the room, sliding through the kitchen window and swirling around the space. Sure, it brought in the crisp scents of the country air, but it gave him something else, too. The musky sweetness of her desire. The delicious scent of the sweet cream between her thighs, and he wondered when she’d let him get a taste.

  His cock throbbed in his jeans, length hardening within the confines of the thin fabric, and that was where her eyes went next. Right to his dick, staring at him as if she was starving and the bacon in that pan wasn’t going to do shit to sate her hunger.

  She needed him? As much as he needed her? She’d had a great big no-trespassing sign stamped across her forehead from the moment he’d woken in the hospital. She’d kept her distance.

  She’d pulled away every time he’d gotten c
lose. It made him realize he’d obviously been good enough for some fun when they were being chased, but now that things were calm, she’d changed her mind.

  The wolf kept telling him he was a dumbass and that he needed to nut up already.

  “Sweetheart.” He moved forward, stalking her as if he were the cat. Wolves knew how to hunt, though. How to watch and wait for the perfect moment to pounce. Fuck, he hoped it’d be time to pounce on Abby soon. “You keep looking at me like that, I’m going to take what you’re offering.”

  Abby’s face flushed pink and she dropped her gaze to the ground before she spun and refocused on breakfast.

  Another gust of wind, another tempting wave of her desire. His threat hadn’t diminished her need. Nah, it’d intensified the scent of her yearning. She wanted him—bad.

  Declan kept up with his slow and steady tempo until his body was less than an inch from hers. He placed one hand on either side of her, palms resting on the front edge of the stove—away from the flames, but close enough to hold her captive.

  He bent down, not touching her, but he was damned close, and murmured next to her ear, “Abby.”

  She shuddered, a full-body shake that he couldn’t miss. “Declan. How do you want…?”

  His cock throbbed, and he groaned before nuzzling the side of her neck. He breathed deep, took in the delicious scent of her skin. “Any way I can get you. Beneath me. On top of me. Clinging to me.” He kissed a spot of bare skin just beneath her ear and smiled when a tremor racked her body. “While you come on my cock and scream my name.”

  Abby whimpered and swayed, as if her knees were no longer willing to support her. “Declan, you can’t…”

  “Can’t what?” He could do anything he set his mind to, dammit. Right now his mind was filled with fucking Abby hard and deep.

  For-fucking-ever.

  “You…we…” She stuttered every other word, and he nibbled her earlobe, making her shudder once again.

  “We? We can use this counter? We can use the couch? We can find a bed?” He eased forward the tiniest bit, his body brushing her sensuous curves. Curves he wanted to worship with his hands—his mouth. He wanted to drop to his knees and explore every inch of her lush body. “There are several down the hall to choose from.”

  Abby shook her head, her hair caressing his skin, and he was the one who trembled. His balls drew up tight and he rushed toward the edge of release, his body ready to find that ultimate pleasure from a simple tease from her hair.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  Abby. Abby was wrong with him. Those few moments they’d shared hadn’t been enough. He’d never get enough.

  “You know we can’t.”

  “I know we can,” he countered.

  Abby sighed, and he nearly groaned aloud. He knew that sound. That was the “we need to talk” sigh.

  She placed the greasy tongs on the spoon rest and turned to face him, forcing him to back up a little and give her space. He didn’t want to give her space, dammit. He wanted them to occupy the same space at the same time—specifically, with his dick inside her.

  “Declan.” Another one of those sighs.

  Fuck.

  “Abby?” He quirked a brow. Maybe if he teased her, he’d get out of some emotional “express his feelings” talk. He’d done enough of that with SHOC-appointed therapists over the last two years.

  Same answer, different doctor. The subject is a sociopath who cares for nothing.

  They didn’t get that he cared about something in his life. Things he refused to talk about. Like his brother. Well, before Pike facilitated Abby’s kidnapping. Now he only cared about her.

  “This…” Now she was on to head shaking. Not a good sign.

  “This is something we should take to the bedroom. Great idea,” he murmured, and curled his left arm around her back, palm flat just above the curve of her ass, tugging her closer. He’d forgotten the feeling of her lushness, the softness of her skin, and how he reacted to the points of her nipples against his chest. Another signal that she was aroused.

  “No.”

  He hated that word. Normally he simply ignored it because it generally came with “please don’t kill me.”

  With Abby, it was “no, we can’t get horizontal.”

  Dammit.

  He sighed and dropped his head forward, resting his forehead on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and tried to block out her scent, the sound of her heartbeat, and the way her breath fanned his shoulder and then drifted down his back. He basically ignored everything about her that made his dick hard.

  She squirmed and wiggled, trying to do…something.

  “Abby? Just…just sit still for a minute.” Maybe a century. Or ten.

  She didn’t stop, though. Nah, she had to torture him further. Had to wriggle until she had her arms free and wrapped around his shoulders. One hand rested between his shoulders while the other toyed with the hair at the base of his neck. He shuddered and gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to come from a hand in his hair. He wasn’t some adolescent pup who’d never gotten his dick wet.

  “Abby.” He added a growl to his voice, dropping it low in a clear threat. Not that he’d ever hurt her, but she didn’t know that.

  She snorted.

  Okay, maybe she did know. Dammit.

  “We really, really can’t. Not while things are so…” She shook her head, dark strands caressing his heated skin, painting him in her scent. It soothed the wolf—a little—to have that hint of her on his skin. “So in the air.”

  “Birds are in the air. I’m not a bird,” he grumbled.

  She chuckled. Here he was, hard as a rock and desperate for her and she chuckled.

  “No,” she whispered. “No, you’re not. You’re a wolf. A big, bad SHOC agent and…” More sighing, more head shaking. He hated that shit. “And I’m a cougar who has a life somewhere else.”

  “You seriously think I’m going to let you go back to that number-crunching hellhole? So they can assign you to another company that’s in bed with UH?” He pulled away from her, his rising anger doing a lot to tamp down his lust. “Or that I’ll let you walk around as if UH doesn’t have a target on your back?”

  Her lower lip trembled, and he hated himself a little bit. Not a lot, because she needed to understand, but a little.

  “Aw, shit,” he grumbled, and hugged her tight. Not because he wanted to get in her pants but because she was on the verge of tears. He couldn’t have that. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. I swear it. We’ll figure something out.”

  “I had a life, Declan. I had a place,” she whispered, pain in every syllable and the sting of her emotional agony in his nose. “I only ever wanted somewhere to just be me.” He rubbed her back, not real sure how to respond, so he kept his mouth shut. “I had it with my parents, and then I was a lone cougar in Alaska, but…” Moisture dropped onto his shoulder, and he wondered who else he could kill for her. Maybe those asshole seals in Alaska. He’d never eaten one. Probably pretty fatty, but he could— “I made a life for me. I was respected. I had a place in the world. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was mine.”

  “You don’t think you have a place now? Aw, sweetheart…” He hated this heart-to-heart crap, but he’d deal with it if it meant stopping her tears. He pulled away and cupped her cheeks, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I don’t know what happened to your parents and I’m sorry for it. As for Alaska, you say the word and that entire herd is gone. The world doesn’t need their shit stinking up the air. As for your job, that was just a paycheck.”

  One tear escaped the corner of each eye, trailed down her cheek, and rested on his thumbs. “But your place? It’s right fucking here. With me. Do you understand?”

  Abby’s chin wobbled, and she shook her head. She was breaking his damn heart.

  “You’re gonna make me get all emotional and in touch with my feelings.” He groaned and sighed. Declan bent his neck and rested his forehead on hers, their stares locked on ea
ch other. “From the moment I saw you, you were mine. Not because I wanted in your bed—because we both know I want to haul your ass into the other room and fuck you so hard you can’t walk straight for a week—but because you just were. Wolf didn’t care what had to be done. I didn’t know it then, but you were it.”

  “It?”

  “You’re everything, sweetheart. You want a job, we’ll find you one that keeps you away from UH assholes. You want a family, we’ll work on making one. Start on this counter if that’s what you want. I’m gonna make you so fucking happy, and I don’t care who I have to kill to do it. But no matter what, at the end of the day, you’re my mate and I’m fucking keeping you.”

  “Cougars don’t mate.”

  Declan snorted. “Apparently cougars do. Your parents did.”

  Abby shook her head. “My mom was a cougar and my dad was a wolf. They only mated because Dad was old-fashioned and wasn’t…”

  “Call it old-fashioned if you want, but he wasn’t gonna let her go. Wolves find a mate; wolves keep a mate. And then they mark their territory. Make sure every male who even gets a hint of our mate’s scent knows she’s taken.” She was quiet for a second, just staring at him, and he needed her to understand. “Abby?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re taken.”

  Her breath hitched “I…”

  A new scent teased his nose, one that had his wolf wanting to sneeze. “Abby?”

  “Yeah?”

  “The bacon’s burning.”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Bacon’s burning?” As cliché as it sounded, Abby could get lost in Declan’s eyes for years—forever. She swayed in place, mind clouded by her fiery arousal and the pulses of need that attacked with every beat of her heart. She took a deep breath, seeking out his scent, and got…a lungful of smoke. Her cat sneezed and she coughed. She pulled away from Declan while she alternated between choking on the clouds of smoke and waving the worst of it off while she transferred the hot pan to another burner to cool.

  She shoved Declan aside and raced to the kitchen window. She flicked the latch and shoved the thing open further to let in more fresh air and push the dark clouds out.