by Eliza Gayle
One way or another, something not good was coming down the pike.
“Are you trying to tell me that I smell bad or something? It has been a long trip and I do need a shower, but I’m civilized. I wear deodorant.”
While he was relieved she had a sense of humor, he failed to understand why she wasn’t taking him seriously. And bad? That would be a hell no. Her delicious scent had gone straight to his head and he was in danger of doing something drastic all on his own. There was a lot more for her to worry about than just the other men in the bar.
“I’m sure you know what I meant. And I’m not even implying that it’s you who would be in danger if this situation were to get out of hand. I have no doubt you are more than capable of fighting off each and every one of these shifters if that’s what it came down to. But maybe you could take pity on me since I’m not in the mood to spend the rest of my evening stitching up bloody shifters.”
She paused, a questioning expression crossing her pretty face. “Why are you the only healer in this region?”
That was a damned good question, but not necessarily one he wanted to get into in the middle of a bar on his first night off in ages. So he shrugged instead. “Guess it just worked out that way. Now if I can’t convince you to take pity on me by leaving the bar, how about something else?”
“What did you have in mind?” She asked the question, but he could clearly see she doubted his answer would entice her.
“Dinner?”
A tiny crack of a smile formed at the edges of her mouth. “That’s not what I expected at all.”
“Thought I would suggest sex instead? I mean that is usually what a female shifter in the throes of mating heat typically demands.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?” she asked, her voice lowered to well below a normal whisper. “How the hell would you know something like that?”
Simon stared at her, dumbfounded. What the hell did she mean? Everyone would know. It wasn’t exactly something she could hide. Mating pheromones were strong for a reason. They may not be as productive as they once were when it came to actually producing offspring, but they more than did their job in attracting the opposite sex. As someone who sat next to her with a vicious hard-on could easily attest too.
Except…
He glanced around the rest of the room. Why was he the only one who had made an approach? When an unmated female shifter cloaked in mating scent walked into a room, it often sparked action that wasn’t always good. Shifters liked to fight for dominance and this was normally one of those occasions they didn’t miss the excuse to do so.
Especially since it wouldn’t get them locked up over it. There were laws about public fighting, but those rules were often bent for mating heat.
He closed his eyes, pushed out the loud music playing through a multitude of speakers and used his other senses to gauge the crowd. While tension radiated off of several of the closest men, including Calder standing behind the bar, he wasn’t picking up anything even remotely close to what currently surged through him.
Something wasn’t right here and he didn’t know what it was. He reached out and grabbed the mystery woman by the wrist. “I think it’s time to take this somewhere else.”
Her already ramrod straight posture stiffened to a razor sharp point as she slowly turned her head to where his fingers currently encircled her arm.
“I don’t know what the hell you think is going on here or how you think you know what you may or may not know. But I do know that if you don’t get your hands off of me in the next two seconds things are going to get ugly. And I don’t mean in an embarrassing kind of way. More like the get away from me or get dead kind of way.”
The menacing hiss of her voice had Simon rethinking everything he knew about female shifters. Yes, they were strong. Yes, they could be combative when provoked. But this. This felt completely different. The tension and power sizzled from her.
Unfortunately, before he could respond they were dramatically interrupted by another newcomer.
“Mackenzie Dawn Ferguson!”
At the booming sound of an unfamiliar male voice, she yanked free from his hold and spun around on her stool.
“Oh shit,” she whispered, even though she had to know everyone in the room heard her since they’d all gone silent.
“Do not dare oh shit me, wee sister. You have approximately five seconds to tell me what the hell you are doing here before I burn this place to the ground.”
Simon raised his eyebrows and stared over at the female next to him. Wee sister, huh? While he couldn’t file away the fact that there were suddenly two dragons taking up space in their tiny town, he did put that information on pause. He wanted to see where this little têtê-à-têtê between them was about to go.
“Stop blustering like an idiot. I doubt the proprietors of this bar would take kindly to you burning anything with all these people around. So chill.”
A low rumble sounded behind him and without looking Simon knew that Calder had moved closer and was at the moment growing uncomfortable with the current situation.
Me too, buddy. Me too.
Chapter Four
Mortified. That’s how she felt while standing in a room full of lesser shifters avidly watching while she was being dressed down by her jerk of a brother. Why in the hell did he have to have the worst timing in the whole world?
“I don’t really care what anyone would take kindly to. So if you have a problem with this then I suggest you leave immediately. You don’t belong here.”
So much for Galen being less of an asshole than her other brothers.
“Is that really necessary?”
Kenzie’s head swung sharply to the left. Holy shit, had she just heard correctly? Had the stranger sitting next to her just tried to intervene on her behalf? Did he have a death wish?
She didn’t know what to think about that. Normally she’d rip the head from anyone who dared to do such a thing. But coming from him—well—it seemed kind of—nice.
“It would be best for all if you stayed out of this, wolf.” Her brother’s barely chained anger dripped from each word out of his mouth.
“The name’s Simon, although I think you already know that. And I don’t know how you treat your women, but I’ve never believed humiliation a necessary device to get what I wanted.”
Uh oh.
Galen advanced two steps. Kenzie jumped from her stool and blocked him from reaching Simon. An interesting name for an interesting shifter. Wolf or not. He’d scented her heat and that made him different. Although how, she had no idea yet.
“Whoa, Galen.” She could already see the scales pushing at his skin. Not to mention the heat already blasting from his pores and she still stood several feet away from him. “I don’t think this is the smartest way for us to re-introduce ourselves to the locals, right?”
Now there was a growling coming from behind her and she did not want to turn around and look. If the wolf shifted now so would Galen and then where would they be? His full-blown dragon body would not fit inside this puny bar. Hell, even hers wouldn’t. She had to get him out of here and fast.
“We should go.” She stepped forward and touched her brother’s arm. As she’d expected it blazed burning hot. “We can talk about this at home.”
“You’re going home. Not me,” he seethed through clenched teeth.
“Stop trying to bully me into doing whatever you think you want. I just got here and I am most certainly not going home. Now turn around and lead me to your home. You’ve got one of those here, do you not?”
“Are you sure you want to go with him?”
“Simon!” The sharp bellow sounded not far from the man standing behind her. The bear, she guessed.
“Shut up, Calder. I’ve got this.”
“You’ve got nothing. Let them go before you get hurt.”
The bear was smart. She’d give him that. Although as alpha as Simon appeared, she doubted he would agree. His anger was nearly as palpab
le as Galen’s. Kenzie sighed. She’d spent enough years running interference between males. She did not come to America—to The Dragon—for more of the same.
Don’t say another word. I already said I would go with you. So let’s go.
This time she chose not to say the words out loud and instead spoke telepathically to her brother. If she kept calling him out in front of a room full of shifters, he would never back down. Not until he burned something. That something probably being the entire bar, like he’d threatened.
You don’t belong here.
Galen’s words burned through her mind, making her own dragon push against her skin. He was seriously pissing her off.
Just go outside and stop acting like a child. I’ll follow you out.
Several long seconds passed, although as far as she was concerned it felt like several hours. Her heart beat heavy in her chest as her dragon readied for a fight. Now she’d have to do something to appease both her brother and the dragon inside her. So much for rest.
Finally, Galen turned on his heavy boots and exited the building. No one behind her made a sound, but she felt the collective sigh nonetheless.
She turned quickly to Simon and held out her hand. “It was nice meeting you, Simon.” His name came out a bit silkier than she’d intended, but she chalked it up to the surge of adrenaline coursing through her.
“You too, MacKenzie.”
She shook her head. “Just Kenzie. No one calls me MacKenzie other than my brothers when they are pissed at me. Makes me hate it even more.”
Simon smiled at her and she swore something melted inside her.
“I like them both. But I definitely am not a brother to you, so Kenzie it is.” He grabbed her hand and instead of shaking it, he lifted it to his mouth and placed a soft kiss to her fingers. Her already overworked heart sped up.
“Thank you for the invite to dinner. I would have liked to take you up on it.”
His smile grew bigger and his grip tightened on her hand. “You don’t have to go, you know. We could go out the back.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, I do. I thought I’d have a bit more time before I had to face Galen, but here I am. If I try and put him off now, he’ll lose his shit for sure. No one wants to see that, least of all me. Maybe another time?”
“Tomorrow then. I insist. How about breakfast?”
All this mention of meals made her stomach growl. It distracted her and before she realized it, she’d nodded her head.
“Great. Meet at the bakery in town at nine?”
Wait. What?
“Oh I—I’m not sure—”
“Nope. It’s a date. You agreed and it would be rude to take that back.” With that, he dropped her hand and walked away, disappearing behind the swinging doors at the opposite side of the bar. She watched him, too dumbfounded to say anything until the doors stopped swinging and the other shifters began to go back to their business.
All but one. The damn bear. He stood there watching her with a strange grin on his face. She had no idea what that was about, but she didn’t have the time or inclination to figure it out. She fished out an American bill from her pocket, tossed it on the bar and turned on her heels, practically running for the front door to get away.
What the hell had just happened? Somehow she’d managed to piss off her brother, amuse an odd bear and make a date with a sexy, but not for her wolf all in the space of thirty minutes or so. And she hadn’t even finished her beer.
A freaking date.
Dragons didn’t date. At least not any that she knew of. Dragons had sex. Although not her. As a royal female no one would touch her for fear of what her brothers would do to them. Well, that was the case until she went into heat. Now they would all want a piece of her. If she had stayed there would have been dragon challenges, one after the other until someone had the balls to win her.
She rolled her eyes. That antiquated BS was not for her. Not only would she not be fought over like a piece of property, she had no intention of risking her family at the same time.
She would be hunted. Of that she had no doubt. The stasis of her heat had done something weird to the magic that always resided in her. Her dreams had turned downright terrifying and the malice of whatever could come for her had crawled across her skin. It was as if someone else out there knew about her situation and what that meant she had no idea. However, she had a hunch that whatever their intentions they were in no way honorable. That feeling of impending doom had been so strong that her every instinct had screamed at her to run as far and as fast as she could. So she did.
Maybe her actions had been hasty and foolish in hindsight, maybe even a normal symptom of mating heat, but at the time they had felt as real as everything else going on around her.
And now, instead of worrying about finding that mountain to hide in, she was going on a date.
An idiotic, unbelievable, crazy clear to her bones idea, FREAKING DATE.
It was official. She’d lost her damned mind.
Chapter Five
Kenzie exited the bar to find Galen already gone. That didn’t surprise her. He had no patience for waiting on anyone and he knew she would have no trouble following his scent. In fact, he expected it.
She walked behind the bar, following the trail Galen had left her until she hit a clearing full of gorgeous wildflowers in every color imaginable. For a moment she just stood there and absorbed the sweet scent of late summer flowers, twilight and the scent of angry burning dragon. He’d shifted here and obviously taken flight. To catch up with him she would have to do the same.
Amidst the beauty of nature and the light of an emerging moon bathing her face, Kenzie called the magic that would transform her from her human body to her dragon. For some shifters the transition could be painful. For an original like her, it came effortlessly and without pain. It wasn’t the easiest thing to describe, but she often equated it to offering the same sense of freedom that came from removing tight clothing after a long, long day.
She felt glorious as she lifted skyward and took off after her brother. To her surprise he did not go in the direction of the mountains and instead led her out of town many miles. Where the hell was he going?
When she finally spied the house in another open clearing not far from the road, she was relieved to see it was not located near any other shifter habitats or human homes. It was secluded and large. Although not exactly large enough for a dragon. Once inside she would have to control her emotions so she didn’t accidentally shift and tear the building apart.
That thought made her giggle. If it happened it would be because her brother had provoked it. So in a way it would be his own fault. She also hoped this wasn’t where she’d have to stay. With floor to ceiling windows on nearly every wall, it would not provide nearly enough darkness during the day for her comfort. She needed it pitch black or sleep would allude her. Her family used to tease her that she must have vampire blood running through her veins.
As if there were such beings.
She landed safely several hundred yards away from the house and used her magic to once again transform. There were no wildflowers growing here and that disappointed her. Seeing that field had given her a shot of happiness in the middle of a stressful time. Where ever she settled she would make sure she had her own field of the colorful flowers growing wild and abundantly.
“Took you long enough,” Galen greeted as she stepped inside his side door and smack dab into the middle of a grand kitchen. It wasn’t nearly the size of the one back home, but far more sizable than she expected from her view of the exterior. “Hungry?” He pushed a platter of meat, cheese and bread across his marble topped island.
“Oh damn. Starved.” She grabbed a handful of bread points and piled meats and cheeses on top until she had several layered sandwiches that she basically inhaled in less than a minute.
“That’s classy, Sis. Real classy.”
Kenzie shrugged. “Get over it. I’ve been traveling for days. That’s left
me equally tired and hungry. Manners are not utmost on my mind.”
“Mmmhmm,” Galen hummed while eyeing her warily. The look in his eyes said he thought she was full of shit and that he knew the real reason for her unexplained voracious appetite.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do this on purpose.”
One of his eyebrows lifted. “That’s not entirely true. Apparently the decision to travel from Scotland to America was not only your sole decision, but you did it without informing anyone you were leaving. Do you have any idea what kind of risk that entailed?”
She bristled at Galen’s tone. “If you keep talking to me like I’m a child, I am leaving here too. I didn’t think I was capable of mating heat so maybe you could cut me some slack. I haven’t figured out yet how I want to handle it.”
“You have a responsibility now,” he said, lowering the tone of his voice.
“That’s easy for you to say. You haven’t been asked to compromise your body and your life.”
He shook his head. “We’re all asked to make sacrifices at some point in our lives. It’s our duty. All of us will be expected to produce heirs as soon as suitable mates are located.”
She rolled her eyes and turned away from her brother. The hope that Galen would see her side was quickly dying. She needed to change the subject. At least for now.
“Tell me what’s been going on here. I thought we couldn’t stay here. Isn’t it dangerous or something?” Not that she feared danger. Quite the opposite. If anyone in their family flew too close to the sun for comfort, it would be her.
“Yet another reason why you don’t belong here.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Galen. You’re here. And now I am too. If there’s any danger I need to know about it so I can work on our security.”
Galen narrowed his eyes while shaking his head. “Do not go there. You aren’t staying. I promised our brothers if you showed up here I would make sure you promptly returned to Scotland. I can handle security of one little mountain range.”