Billionaire Dragon’s Nanny
Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Series
Brittany White
Copyright © 2020 by Brittany White
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
1. Kellan
2. Clara
3. Kellan
4. Clara
5. Kellan
6. Clara
7. Kellan
8. Clara
9. Kellan
10. Clara
11. Kellan
12. Clara
13. Kellan
14. Clara
15. Kellan
16. Clara
17. Kellan
18. Clara
19. Kellan
20. Clara
21. Kellan
22. Clara
23. Kellan
24. Clara
Epilogue
CONNOR (EXCERPT)
Chapter 1
Also by Brittany White
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About the Author
Blurb
After years alone, a dragon shifter has found his one true mate – his gorgeous human nanny.
* * *
The Southern Nanny
After my escape from an abusive ex, I lost everything.
Resigned to sleeping on the streets, I was broken and alone.
But a hot billionaire rescued me, and saved me from that fate.
He took me in and gave me shelter.
Now I’m living with my powerful boss – as his nanny.
During the day, I care for his son.
But on warm Texas nights, I crave my boss’s touch.
This sexy CEO ignites passion inside me, but I've vowed to never trust another man.
* * *
The Irish Dragon
Over a decade ago, I abandoned my home.
The Irish Cliffs still call to me, but I can never return to my rightful place in the world.
As a dragon shifter forced to hide in Texas, I’m a single father, raising my son alone, with only the help of my shifter brothers.
My hatchling needs a female’s influence.
Then I find a gorgeous woman desperate for a job.
My beautiful nanny is the mate I’ve always needed.
But she’s human, and I could never share my secret with her.
Even as my dragon insists she’s my mate, I keep the truth hidden from her.
Now it’s too late to confess – an enemy from my past has returned. And my actions have put my nanny’s life in danger.
* * *
Can an Irish dragon shifter prevail against an ancient enemy to keep his nanny safe?
* * *
***
1
Kellan
“Tell me again why humans like doing this so much,” Kellan Cormac said. He was sitting in his favorite spot, at his favorite restaurant, but neither had improved his mood.
“Doing what?” his friend Liam asked. “Sitting outside with friends, watching the sunset, drinking a beer?” Liam smiled as he settled into the chair across from Kellan and ordered a Shiner beer from the waitress.
“Sunset’s the only time we can sit outside,” Kellan said. It had been one hundred degrees that day. But by seven p.m., the July heat had faded enough to make sitting outside manageable, if not pleasant. “You’ve always been the optimist.”
Liam was the main lawyer in their small town, and despite dealing with divorces and lawsuits all day long, he was the most upbeat person Kellan knew. And Liam was more than a friend. He was Kellan’s brother in every way that counted. Ever since Kellan fled his home country at seventeen years old, Liam had never left his side.
Kellan turned his chair to look at the lake. It was flat. There was no breeze. It was a far cry from the choppy sea where he’d grown up.
Usually, when he found himself in a funk, he concentrated on how lucky he was to even be alive. Thirteen years ago, he’d almost been killed.
Back in Ireland, centuries ago, his ancestors made a pact with the witches that lived outside the nearby town of Lahinch. The pact said the dragons and the witches would always protect each other from threats, no matter what, even if the threats came from the humans who lived nearby, even though the humans were seen as weak, and not worthy of the dragons’ time.
But when Kellan was seventeen years old, the witches became enraged. They felt the humans were encroaching on their fields, and they began to murder the humans, one by one.
Kellan’s parents, the leaders in his clan, were against killing any humans, and they rallied the dragons to try and stop the witches. A battle began, but the witches prevailed. They murdered Kellan’s parents when he was only seventeen.
The vampires had stood by and watched, impervious to the suffering of the humans or the dragons.
With the witches vowing to kill him too, Kellan fled. Quinn, Liam and Brennan went along with him to the States, and they’d been in Texas ever since.
But now was no time for a dark trip down memory lane.
Liam kicked Kellan’s chair. “Someone’s got to be the optimist,” Liam said. “What’s got you so pissed off today?”
Kellan rubbed his face. “I’m not pissed.” He pointed to his five-year-old son who was standing on the low wall that separated the restaurant patio from the lake. “His daycare called. He picked up another child and tossed him off the slide.” Kellan had been in the middle of a meeting with his company’s shareholders when the daycare called. Running out on the shareholders was not a great look on the founder and CEO.
Liam chuckled. “That’s how we played all the time.”
“Yeah, we did, but we aren’t human. And getting thrown around is not great for human kids.”
“You’re not wrong,” Liam said. “Was the kid okay? Am I going to be defending you in a lawsuit soon?”
“God, I hope not,” Kellan replied. “He was fine. This time. But I can’t take any more chances until Declan learns to control himself. I don’t want a kid getting hurt.”
Beside them, their friend Quinn pulled up a chair and sat down. “You’re right,” Quinn said. “Those human bones are fragile.”
Quinn would know about human bones. He was the town’s doctor, and he was just as much of a brother to Kellan as Liam was.
The three shifters looked over at Kellan's son, who was now jumping off the wall. Several other diners were giving them dirty looks. But Kellan didn’t give a shit. They’d deliberately sat outside, and they were far away from anyone else.
“He doesn’t know what he’s missing,” Kellan said, staring into his beer. The salty scent of fried catfish rose from the basket the waitress placed in front of them. Kellan would have preferred it to be raw, but he’d take what he could get. “But he is missing it.” A young dragon should be able to play rough. But that wasn’t an option for him.
Kellan glanced up when his son squealed, “Uncle Brennan!”
Brennan, the local sheriff and the fourth member of the dragon shifter family had joined Declan. But instead of telling him to get down or be careful, Brennan held his arms out and told the kid to see how far and high he could jump.
Kellan shook his head. “He should be jumping off cliffs. He shouldn’t be stuck here.” The four of them had spent their days soaring over the ocean off the Irish coast.
“You’r
e the one that picked Texas,” Liam said. “I wanted to live in Colorado.”
“And I sure as hell didn’t pick it,” Quinn said.
“So where would you have us go then?” Kellan asked. He had picked Cedar Lake because it was small, and it was the exact opposite of the Cliffs of Moher, the place where they’d lived in Ireland. It was also an hour from Dallas, which was where his headquarters were located. Although he rarely went into the office these days, preferring to work at his small satellite office with just a few key workers, he wanted to be close enough to get to the city.
Quinn crossed his arms. “Uh, Vegas.”
“Fuck that. I am not raising my kid in Vegas.” Kellan flicked his napkin at Quinn.
Quinn laughed. “Liam’s right. You’re the asshole that picked this town. So you better set a good example.”
“I know. And I love it. Usually.” They all did. Each of them had worked really hard to drop their Irish accents and become true Texans.
“We could move,” Liam said. “We could find someplace on the coast like Nova Scotia. Or Puget Sound. Declan could fly there.”
“What if they looked for us? It’s not worth the risk,” Kellan pointed out. “Maybe when he’s older.”
Brennan, still in his sheriff’s uniform, joined them at the table, holding Declan upside-down by the ankles. “What a day,” he said. “Some little shit painted all the stop signs blue.” He launched into a story about the vandals, and they all listened. Out of the four of them, his days were usually the most exciting.
The guys were supportive of Kellan’s company, but they didn’t want to hear the latest update on the clean energy industry. And Liam and Quinn couldn’t say much because of privacy laws. So that left Brennan to entertain the rest of them.
Kellan glanced over to check on his son.
But he wasn’t there.
Fuck.
He stood up. His chair scraped across the concrete. “Where’s Declan?” This was getting ridiculous. This was the fourth time this week Declan had wandered off.
As soon as Kellan was up, Brennan got up too, while Liam and Quinn paid the tab.
“I’ll check the grocery store,” Brennan said.
“I’ll check the house he likes with all the dogs,” Liam added.
“The ice cream store might be an option too,” Quinn suggested.
“And I’ll go check the park,” Kellan said. “Thank you,” he said to all of them.
“That’s what uncles are for,” Quinn responded with a wink.
The four of them took off at once, searching for his kid, who was a master escape artist. No matter how much he grumbled, Kellan was grateful to the four of them. They were his family, and they always had his back, whether it was following him to a new country, or serving as uncles to his wayward child.
“I’ll see you guys soon,” Kellan said. “Hopefully next time our lunch won’t be cut short.”
2
Clara
“Where do you think you’re going?”
At the sound of her boyfriend’s harsh voice, Clara Alexander froze. A chill raced down her spine. He was home early. Very early. She turned to face him. “To the store,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady as she stepped away from her car.
“To buy what?”
Her boyfriend’s hand gripped her wrist as he opened the front door and tugged her into the house.
Clara wracked her brain. What did they need? “Chicken,” she replied. “I thought we’d have Chicken Parmesan tonight.”
“We have plenty of chicken,” he said. “I checked.”
“Oh.” Her heart pounded. “I guess I’ll get started cooking.” She gripped the handle of her purse. She knew better than to carry a bag or a suitcase. But inside her purse, she’d stashed a few hundred dollars in cash, a toothbrush, and a change of clothes.
She shoved her purse into one of the dining room chairs. “I think I’ll make a salad too,” she said, turning to open the refrigerator.
He came up behind her. His icy fingers squeezed her neck. “Don’t get any ideas.”
She swallowed hard, doing her best not to make a sound as the pressure from his hand tightened.
He let go, then grabbed her upper arm and spun her around.
She stared at his boyish face, a face she’d once found so handsome. Now she dreaded seeing it. “That hurts,” she said, nodding to her arm where he was still squeezing.
“What are you going to do, call the cops?” he sneered at her. “Or ask the judge for an Order of Protection? I’m sure that’ll work out great.”
His taunts were getting worse. During the school year, when she’d been at work all day, every day, he had been tolerable. But as the summer progressed, he got a little more controlling each day. And a little more violent.
She pressed her lips together. His cruel blue eyes bored into hers.
She had to get away from him. Their town had some great resources for survivors of abuse. But they weren’t living with this man, who was the deputy prosecutor, with an uncle who was the judge, and an aunt who was the sheriff. She had to leave, and she had to do it without telling anyone who would alert him. She couldn’t count on any laws to save her. Over the last ten months, she’d thought about leaving many times.
But in October, he’d hit her for the first time, and she’d made up her mind then.
Over Thanksgiving, she’d gotten an IUD at a doctor's office out of town. She wasn’t willing to risk getting pregnant with his baby.
But leaving was easier said than done. Clara was a Kindergarten teacher, and she refused to leave her children. They relied on her. She loved them, and she wouldn’t abandon them. And her co-workers and her principal would have worried about her absence. What would have happened if they’d called her boyfriend? Or the police? She’d never find out.
But now that school wasn’t in session, she had more options. She went through the rest of the night in a daze.
The next day, when he left for work, she texted all of her co-workers. She didn’t have any family that would miss her. And she had slowly let go of most of her friendships, but eventually, her co-workers would wonder where she was. The text said:
“I’m going to visit an old friend in Miami. Be back in August!”
She even took a selfie holding up an empty suitcase next to her car and sent it to each friend. At least this might slow her boyfriend down if he tried to report her as missing, or if he tried to enlist their help looking for her. And none of them would be worried.
She wrote a note for her boyfriend.
“I’m going to Florida. Don’t try to find me.”
She cleared all the information off her phone and left it on the countertop.
And finally, Clara stuffed two extra outfits into her largest purse. If her ex showed up suddenly, like he had before, Clara didn’t want to look like she was traveling. She called a cab and went straight to the bus station.
3
Kellan
“Declan!” Kellan called out as he drove down Main Street with his windows down. At eleven-thirty a.m., the heat of the sun beat down on his face.
His son had run off again. This is now the fifth freaking day in a row he’s disappeared.
Yesterday Kellan had been way more stern than usual with his son, after he and all three of his brothers had to leave their lunch because Declan ran off. Kellan had missed work over and over, and now he’d missed getting to hang out with his brothers. They were the only family he had, and with their busy schedules, it wasn’t always easy to meet up.
Kellan had taken away his airplane simulator video game, and made him go to bed early. Apparently it hadn’t worked out too well.
He wasn’t too worried that Declan would get hurt. Dragon hatchlings were pretty sturdy.
And his sense of direction was excellent.
But a five-year-old running around town was not the kind of attention Kellan needed. Yesterday, Declan had made it all the way to the dog park before Kellan foun
d him. The day before, Brennan, while on duty as the sheriff, had tracked him down in the grocery store. Kellan’s son had been opening packs of beef jerky one after the other, eating them while sitting right in the middle of the aisle.
Kellan knew what was fueling this. His son was driven by his instincts. He should have been spending half the day shifted. He should have been hunting and flying.
Kellan had taken him hunting over the Christmas break. The hard part was making sure they were in a totally isolated place. He never felt comfortable letting Declan fully shift, but he was allowed to breathe fire, allowed to let his claws come out. He’d caught several rabbits that day, and a squirrel.
Maybe I should take Declan fishing again soon. Declan really went for the bass fish the most, flinging himself into the creek when he was half-shifted, and stabbing the fish with his claws.
As Kellan turned onto Oak Street, he spotted a small figure in the park.
Yep, that was Declan. He stood on top of a swing set, balanced on one leg. He was the only kid at the playground.
Kellan parked his car and got out.
Below his son, a woman stood with her arms outstretched. Thanks to his enhanced hearing, Kellan could just make out her words.
She wasn’t yelling. Or scolding.
“Hey, buddy. That’s pretty high. I’m impressed,” she said.
Billionaire Dragon's Nanny (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 1