Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  “Lily!” Stephanie’s call snapped her out of her bitter memories. “How’s it going?” she asked once she reached Lily and sat down, taking gulping breaths.

  Poor Stephanie fanned herself as if the office AC wasn’t going full blast. Lily guessed that being pregnant with twins changed a woman. She could sense the higher body temperature in Stephanie. She also scented the two babies inside her.

  The tigress in Lily meowed in need. She wanted her own kits so badly. At thirty-nine, she was still considered young for a tigress, but her family members were mostly mated with their own families and babies. She’d hit the big four-oh in several weeks. Something she wasn’t looking forward to.

  With her birthday came winter. She loved the cooler climate and snow. It was coming just like her birthday. But she would love winter more if she had a family to spend it with. All her cousins were traveling with their husbands and children. Oh, she’d been invited along, but she hated feeling like the third wheel.

  “Lily?” Stephanie frowned. “You okay?”

  “Yes! I’m sorry, Stephanie.” She sighed and sat next to her pregnant new friend. “It is hard to get these contracts under control when Thane Dreki thinks I’m at his beck and call.”

  Stephanie’s eyes widened and she grinned. “Oooh, Thane. He’s so dark and broody. So dreamy.”

  “Aren’t you married?” She grinned.

  “Hell yeah, but I’m not dead. And while my men are gorgeous and hotter than a Texas summer, I have to say there is just something about Mr. Dreki that makes women’s panties do a disappearing act.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “When the hell could he do that when I have yet to see him come into the office?”

  Stephanie shrugged and propped her legs up on the trash bin in front of her. “He has come in a few times. That was enough to create quite a frenzy.”

  She glanced at the email that just came in with a request from the man himself, asking her to do another mundane task his secretary should be doing. She clenched her teeth and growled. “Does he have an assistant?”

  Stephanie nodded. “Susan has been working for Thane for weeks now, but she’s out on family leave. Sick parent. So I guess he’s just transferring work to you.”

  “How am I expected to buy a new location for this business if Dreki keeps sending me on the dumbest tasks in the world?”

  Stephanie sighed and blinked. “I’m sorry, Lily. I will get a temp to handle his assistant’s duties so you’re not on the spot any longer.”

  Guilt tripped inside her at the paleness on Stephanie’s features. “I’m so sorry. The last thing you need to hear are my issues with Thane Dreki when you’re probably exhausted and need a nap.”

  Stephanie perked up at the sound of the word. “Ooooh, a nap sounds lovely. But the minute I lay down, one of the babies thinks it’s time to play kick mommy’s bladder.”

  “You still don’t want to know what you’re having?”

  “Nope. It’s a good thing Bryan and Brent are not shifters or they wouldn’t be able to keep a secret. As it is, I’m staying away from all the Night men in case they have loose lips.”

  “Are you hoping for one or the other?”

  Stephanie pursed her lips and brought her legs down from the trash bin. “No, I mean, I’d love to get one of each, but with the guys being twins, it’s probably not going to matter if we have both boys or both girls.”

  Lily grinned but kept the knowledge of the babies’ sex to herself. Stephanie would flip once she found out she was having a boy and a girl.

  Lily’s own tigress groaned and made her unhappiness known. She wanted her own kits. Being near Stephanie, scenting babies, was pulling her into her heat like nothing had ever done.

  She needed to get away from the other woman before she did something stupid, like mate some random guy on the street, just to get herself pregnant. Nope. That wasn’t her. She was strong. She could handle the heat and her hormones. She controlled her body and her cat.

  “Go take your nap. I’m going to see about these contracts.”

  Stephanie stood and yawned. “Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the winter ball.”

  Crap! She’d been trying hard to ignore the multiple E-vites and RSVP requests. Guess there was no way to put it off any longer. “I will do that.”

  2

  Thane Dreki stared out the back window of his cabin. When his brother visited, he knew something was definitely wrong. They barely spoke; their kind had been raised to be independent and alone. And dragons lived a very long time, which meant a lot of time living alone.

  “What are you doing here, Saxon?” he asked, finally looking away from the perfect forest view to meet his brother’s green gaze.

  This was his home. He could only handle the human race for short periods of time. Thankfully his business partners understood and didn’t ask for him to take part in office visits unless it was an emergency.

  “I came to warn you.” Saxon said the words in a low grumble. His dragon was fighting to get out. Probably agitated over the fact Thane’s own was the bigger, angrier, and more demanding of the two.

  They hadn’t seen each other in so long. Almost five hundred years. That’s when their sister mated a human and the bastard starved her and put her on show. He used her to make money by having her shift repeatedly in front of large groups of people. Her love for him weakened her.

  When Thane and Saxon showed up to save her, she had lost her will to live. She didn’t last more than a month before she left them. That was the last time they’d spoken. Thane had seen how his sister’s love for a human had destroyed her, and he would never be that stupid. He didn’t need to mate. He’d die alone.

  He already knew what Saxon was there to tell him. To remind him that his days were counted. If he didn’t have an offspring soon, he’d die on the sunset of his thousandth birthday. Only six months to go. How could he fucking forget when his dragon reminded him daily?

  “He’s passed.” Saxon’s words were emotionless. Thane and his brother had never had a close relationship with their father. Their mother had been a bit less distant but had at least tried to show them some semblance of caring.

  “I know. I knew the moment it happened.” He felt the change in his dragon. The weight of the importance to have a son. Thane’s father had lived a long life, but he was gone now.

  “We all go through this, Thane. Once you have an offspring, it will be my turn to do the same.”

  That part was true. They had some fucked up family bloodline that made it so they had to have babies or each one would die on their thousandth birthday. Luckily, Saxon had another two hundred years before he had to worry about that. Two hundred years to find a mate and create a family. Something Thane wouldn’t be doing.

  “You have time, brother. I don’t.”

  Saxon frowned, his beard hiding the tight set of his jaw. “What do you mean? You have time. Find someone. Bear a child.”

  Thane pushed back the blond strands of hair falling over his forehead. “No. I don’t want a mate. I’ve seen what it does to people. Makes them weak. I won’t be one of those.”

  Saxon growled and came forward. Fire lit in his eyes. “Are you fucking crazy? You’re going to die if you don’t.”

  Thane met his hard gaze with his own. “Then I die.”

  “You don’t have to fall in love to have a child, Thane,” Saxon snapped. “Find a willing woman. With your looks, it’s not hard,” he growled. “You’ll live and no need for your heart to be involved.”

  Thane thought about it for all of a second. He didn’t like going into cities filled with humans. They were selfish, angry, and filled with self-indulgence. He wanted to destroy entire countries when he left his quiet mountain and delved into their world.

  “If I don’t have a child soon, it won’t matter anyway.” Thane clenched his teeth, noticing Saxon hadn’t mentioned Ramoth. His half-brother from his father’s side believed the Dreki family owed him. Being the youngest but cruelest o
f their kind, he’d pissed off a lot of people by killing humans and dragons alike. “What did you want to warn me about Ramoth?”

  Saxon’s shoulders slumped. “He means to come and demand father’s fortune now that he’s passed.”

  Thane gave a dry laugh. “Who is he to demand anything?”

  Saxon shook his head. “He has some other shifters that work with him. Shifters he controls.”

  “So?”

  “I’m only here out of love, Thane. You’re my brother and I care about you. Be careful of Ramoth and those who follow him.”

  Thane gave a sharp nod. He didn’t take serious warnings lightly. “I will.”

  “And make a child, Thane. That’s all you need to ensure your life.”

  Thane said nothing for a moment. “I already told you, I won’t be having any children just to live longer.”

  Saxon turned away from him, stomping toward the front door of the cabin before he stopped. “Rethink this, brother. I know we’re not close, but I would like to change that.”

  Saxon walked out the door, slamming it behind him. From the front window, Thane saw his brother shift into an emerald green dragon and take off into the sunset.

  His computer beeped. Now wasn’t the time to think about dying. Until it happened, he had a job to do.

  He had an email from Lily Cruz. A smile broke over his lips. He didn’t know why he kept bothering the uptight woman. Their first phone conversation hadn’t gone over well with her. She’d been too serious. All she’d spoken of was what locations she’d buy for the company. Though he’d only joined Night and Day Ink as a silent partner, once the Day brothers and several of the Night men became mated, he found he was needed.

  The sound of his phone ringing pulled him back to the present. He glanced at the screen and saw the name of his good friend, Royce Night.

  “Royce, everything okay?”

  Royce’s booming laughter came from the other side of the line. “Everything is great! Have you seen Lily’s latest proposal?”

  Thane frowned. The email from Lily didn’t have a proposal, it was just asking for a good time to talk.

  “No. Should I have?”

  “I would’ve thought she sent it to you first. It’s great. She’d getting us in a brand new building right across from one of the busiest malls in the country.”

  Interesting. And she’d said nothing to Thane. He must have really ticked her off when he asked her to have someone air out his office and supervise it. A chuckle rumbled in his chest. The way she was flustered on the phone had been better than any conversation he’d ever had. She probably hadn’t even realized she started whispering curses at him in Spanish. Too bad he had such great hearing, and spoke Spanish.

  “I’ve seen nothing of the proposals, but I’ll make sure I do.”

  Royce laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I would swear she doesn’t want to talk to you, but you haven’t done anything to make that happen, or have you?”

  “I’m just sitting in my mountain, working while you’re off on vacation with your mate.”

  Another harder laugh came across the line. “Right. Listen up, dragon, my mate has instructed me to tell you if you mess with Lily, she will not be happy with you.”

  Damn. He liked Kiara. She was sassy and funny. But he was having too much fun seeing how far Lily would go before she cursed him out loud in Spanish. He’d liked her voice. It was soft and sexy. Hell, even his dragon had managed to enjoy listening to her. He’d done anything to get her to talk to him again.

  She’d been tough, though, rejecting every call and replying to messages via email. Thane knew women liked to stare at him. He had what they called a Viking look. Tall with broad shoulders and at almost six and a half feet tall, managed to intimidate even the biggest men.

  His shaggy blond hair coupled with his beard and blue eyes made women want to spend time with him. But he wasn’t looking for a mate. Hell, he wasn’t even looking for a relationship. He needed sex, though. He hadn’t had that in too long and if he was going to die, he might as well do it with a little less stress in his body.

  “Be nice to Lily, Thane. She’s trying to do a good job.”

  “So am I.”

  Royce snorted. “Yeah, but she’s a feline. She’s not super friendly to begin with.”

  “I will do what needs doing to get the job done, Royce. She’s a big girl. This is business.”

  “All right, my friend, but remember that sometimes we find something we’re not expecting in people. Don’t make me send you a shovel to dig yourself out of deep shit with Lily. She’s not the type to easily forget anything.”

  It was Thane’s turn to laugh. “I’m going on a thousand years old. I forget nothing.”

  He hung up the phone and thought about Lily and grinned. Ms. Cruz was about to breathe fire like the dragon he had inside. He was glad she didn’t have wings or she’d show up at his place and burn his cabin down.

  3

  Lily slammed the files in her hand on her desk. That motherfucker. This was it. She wasn’t taking this crap anymore. She’d been hired to do a job and Thane ‘Asshole’ Dreki decided to make it near impossible for her.

  His latest request made her grind her teeth. To send the actual printed proposal to him. To his cabin. In the middle of no-fucking-where.

  She took the files with her and left the office. It was time for dinner with her cousin Valentina, also known as Tina. It was Tina’s girls’ night which meant her mate, Brett, stayed home with their babies while she went to dinner with Lily at one of their favorite Italian restaurants and talked books, movies, and Tina’s kids.

  Maybe if she talked out her frustrations about Thane Dreki, she’d be able to handle the situation with more maturity than wanting to stick out her tongue at his every email.

  Cold hit her hard as she left the office building and rushed to her car. She’d worn a wrap dress that clung to her very curvy frame and tied neatly at the waist. Of course, that meant the lightweight material let the cold seep right through. Dammit.

  She’d left her coat in her car since the morning temperature had been so warm. She should’ve known better. In this part of the country, it was normal to wake up in the sixties and have low forties by dinner time.

  She shivered and was glad for her heated seats the moment she got in her car. Thane Dreki seemed to be bored as fuck in his cabin and was clearly taking his frustration out on her. Now that Stephanie was on bed rest, there was no way in hell she’d get that temp to handle his needs.

  The restaurant wasn’t a long drive. It was close to the office and not far from Tina’s new house.

  This time she didn’t leave her coat behind when she left the car. She rushed into Patricia’s and grinned as Vinnie, the maître d’, greeted her with a smile.

  “Welcome, Ms. Cruz. Mrs. Night is waiting at your usual booth,” he said and held out a hand to take her coat.

  “Thanks, Vinnie. How’s the family?” she asked, shoving her long curly hair away from her face and wishing she had makeup to hide the fact she hadn’t been sleeping lately.

  “Great, Ms. Cruz. Lucy said thank you for those tickets to Disney on Ice,” he whispered and stopped for a moment which forced her to stop and glance at him. “Thank you so much for that.”

  She patted his arm. “It’s not a big deal, Vinnie. I got them with points. Happy Lucy was able to enjoy them.”

  “Still,” he said. “My wife and I really appreciate it. They were the best seats. We couldn’t have done that.”

  She smiled wider. “I’m glad you all enjoyed the outing.”

  “If there is anything you ever need, Ms. Cruz, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

  They started walking again. “Don’t worry, Vinnie. I’m just happy Lucy liked it.”

  They reached the booth where Tina sat with a glass of wine in her hand.

  “Thanks for bringing her over, Vinnie,” Tina said and motioned for Lily to slide into the booth and hug her.

  Lily hug
ged her tightly and sighed. A good inhale and she reared back and blinked at her cousin. “Should you be drinking wine?”

  Tina laughed. “Dammit! I forgot you’re like me and can sniff the change, too. One glass won’t kill me. Though I am a shifter and can have more, I’ll play it safe.”

  They hugged with renewed purpose. “I’m so happy for you!”

  Tina’s eyes were bright with excitement and what looked like tears. “I can see that look in your eyes. I’m fine. I am just at the super emotional phase.”

  “Is this the reason you wouldn’t meet up with me the past few weeks?” Lily asked with a frown. She watched their waiter fill her wine glass before glancing at Tina again.

  “Yes,” Tina grinned. “I was feeling sick. Brett was out of town and he didn’t know.”

  Lily blinked. “How could he not know? Don’t they always know?”

  Tina laughed. “We had a bit of a rushed last second situation before he went to the airport.”

  “Ah. This must have been new. You knowing before him.”

  “Yes! It was kind of devious of me, but I made him wait until he got home end of last week.”

  Damn, that’s right. Brett had been on the other side of the world checking up on their newest stores. That was the longest he’d ever been gone from his wife. “Was it really hard to be without each other?”

  Tina glanced at her wine glass and then back at Lily. “Yeah. I sound like a love-obsessed teen, but it’s true. My tigress missed him, the kids missed him, and I missed him enough to keep me crying every day.”

  “Oh, honey, why didn’t you call me?”

  Tina waved her hand. “Stop. It was fine. Brett’s mom came to visit and we had a lovely time. She’s really the reason why I didn’t meet up with you for a bit. We were spending time together. She loves the kids and thinks of me as a daughter, so I wanted to give her my full attention.”