Enter the Dragon

by Lexxie Couper

  Tyson staggered back a step, a tranquilizer gun in his hand, his confused stare snapping to her face. “Reece?”

  She’d manufactured a reason to get Perkins back into the studio, away from Kellan. She’d made it so he’d be in there for a while, waiting for her to come see him, so she in turn could come out to Kellan, to at least explain what was going on. She hadn’t expect to find Tyson Conley freaking shooting Kellan with a tranq gun.

  What the hell?

  “What did you do to him?” she demanded, slamming her palms to his chest again. The urge to shift, to take her dragon form and tear Tyson apart, lashed through her. He may be Sydney’s apex alpha, but she was going to—

  “Calm down.” He snagged one of her wrists in a tight grip, a warning rumbling through the order. “Now.”

  She pulled at his hold, her own growl as low and threatening. “Tell me what you did to my Fire Mate!”

  Realization flooded Tyson’s face. Releasing his grip, he shoved the tranquilizer gun into his waistband at the small of his back, a soft laugh falling from him. “It’s you? You’re Kellan’s Fire Mate?”

  “Yes. It’s me.” She lunged past him, dropping to her knees by Kellan’s side. He didn’t move. Hell, he looked dead. She touched his chest, hissing at the chill her fingers encountered. “What did you do, Tyson?”

  The threads of their strengthening connection, the threads that had pulled her from the supply closet she’d locked herself in—the softest whispers of his thoughts in her mind, the heat of his building desire, his fear he was losing control of his form—were gone.

  She couldn’t sense anything of him or from him.

  Just a yawning emptiness.

  “Tell me!” she snarled, glaring up at Tyson.

  Around them, people began approaching.

  “Is he okay?” A young woman from the editing department stopped a few feet away, her worried gaze jumping from Reece to Kellan to Tyson and back to Reece. “Are you okay, Ms. Collier?”

  No, I’m not. The mating fire has consumed me, no amount of yoga and deep breathing seems to be helping, and my Fire Mate’s been freaking tranquilized by Sydney’s alpha dragon.

  “I’m okay.” She forced out a shaky laugh, patting Kellan’s chest. “Mr. Donovan here has,” what? “heat stroke. He’s passed out, but Tyson—this is my friend Tyson. Tyson, this is…is…” Shit, what was the young woman’s name again?

  “Charlotte,” the woman supplied, frown pulling at her eyebrows, nervous gaze flicking around them all again. “I’m on the ed—”

  “Editing team,” Reece burst out. “Tyson, this is Charlotte, one of the best editors I’ve worked with. Charlotte, this is Tyson. He’s…” Ah crap, what did she say now? “A fire expert I know. He was coming to take Mr. Donovan to lunch and they were going to talk about fires but now Mr. Donovan isn’t well, and he needs water, and Charlotte, could you get me—I mean, Mr. Donovan—a bottle of water, please?”

  Charlotte’s eyebrows disappeared into her thick fringe, and then she nodded with earnest enthusiasm. “Sure sure. I’ll be really quick.”

  She spun on her heel and sprinted for the studio’s main doors.

  “It’s okay,” Reece called out, giving everyone else mingling around a wide, calm smile. “Mr. Donovan will be okay. You can all just go about your normal business. Tyson’s an expert in heat stroke.”

  “I thought I was an expert in fires,” Tyson muttered, crouching down beside Reece to touch Kellan’s throat with two fingers.

  “Shut up,” she shot back through gritted teeth, smiling with more gusto at those around her.

  Confused and unconvinced expressions met her smile, but thankfully, everyone drifted away. When one of the executive crew told you everything was okay, you didn’t argue. Not if you wanted to keep your job.

  “Oh God.” She let out a shaky sigh and returned her attention to Kellan’s face. “That was…disastrous.”

  “We’re alone though,” Tyson conceded on a relaxed shrug. “So well done.”

  “My reputation as an in-control professional is shot,” she said, sliding her hand over Kellan’s chest, bringing it to rest on his heart.

  It pounded against her palm, way too fast and hard for her peace of mind. “Why is he so cold? What did you do to him?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Tyson muttered.

  “Yes.” She fixed him with a level gaze. “I do. I can’t feel him, I can’t sense him. It’s as if he’s not there—his croi no longer seems to be calling mine.”

  An unreadable shadow fell over Tyson’s eyes. “When did the mating fire begin?”

  “Maybe twenty minutes ago. And yes, I know that means the clock is ticking. Why is he like this? Is he unconscious? In a coma? Hibernating? What did you inject him with?”

  “I injected him with a serum made of ground dragon bone…along with other things. It’ll suppress the ability to shift for a while.”

  “You what?”

  A grimace twisted his lips. “Believe me, I’m as repulsed by it as you are. But it’s better than him shifting into his other form and hunting you down, wouldn’t you say?”

  A cold finger of guilt dragged up Reece’s spine, tempering for a brief second the singeing heat of the mating fire still burning her up.

  She’d done this. She’d made this happen.

  “Do I need to deal with you as well, Reece? Are you close to shifting? Given you’re the other half of Kellan’s Fire Mate dilemma?”

  She blinked.

  Tyson studied her, expression guarded.

  She fidgeted. “I’m okay.”

  She wasn’t. Sexual urgency devoured her, her croi smoldered with it, craving more than the hungry kiss she’d shared with Kellan. Her dragon’s existence pressed at her control, like a tidal wave constrained only by a thin sheet of rice paper.

  “I’m okay,” she repeated. Could he tell she was lying? She’d only been in Sydney for a month. Had barely started to interact with the small dragon shifter community here. Tyson was Sydney’s alpha, which meant he knew a lot about his fellow shifters living in the area, and could—by his very hierarchal dominance—sense a lot about them, as well. But could he tell how close she was to unraveling? “I promise.”

  Tyson’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll believe you. But at the first hint you’re losing control, the first bead of sweat I see on your forehead, the first inhuman sound I hear you make, I’ll dose you up. No hesitation or conversation. Understood?”

  She barked out a dry laugh. “Understood. The last thing I want is to end up catatonic on the ground outside my place of work.”

  “No, Reece.” He shook his head, holding her stare. “The last thing you want is an uncontrolled shift resulting in a horny dragon in the throes of the mating fire. Especially when your Fire Mate is currently out of action.”

  Her stomach clenched at the notion of a dragon untethered from its human sensibility and completely lost to the undeniable power of the fire.

  “I can’t have dragons wreaking havoc in my city,” Tyson muttered. “Not again.”

  Not again? What had she missed? She’d come from Perth for this job, the other side of Australia. The comings and goings of the East Coast shifters before her arrival were unknown to her.

  Some investigation was in order. But later. After she’d gotten through this insanity.

  “I’ll throw myself into the harbor before I let myself shift uncontrollably,” she assured Tyson. “I’ve got all the secluded beaches you showed me when I first moved here memorized.”

  “Good. Kellan was going to do the same thing.”

  Another fingers of guilt slid up her spine and, letting out a ragged sigh, she turned her attention back to her Fire Mate.

  “So what happens now?” she asked, brushing a stray strand of dark brown hair from his forehead. “Clearly we can’t just hang out here. We’re going to start drawing a crowd. Again. As it is, I’m probably fired. Sunrise in Sydney doesn’t stop airing until nine-thirty.”

&nbs
p; Tyson grunted. “Honestly? I wasn’t expecting Kellan to lose consciousness. I’d planned on us being able to walk away.”

  “What?” Reece’s heart smashed into her throat. Her dragon growled. She bit the inhuman sound back, glaring at Tyson instead. “You injected him with something you don’t—”

  “No.” He met her glare. “I’ve tested it on myself. And my brother. It made both of us groggy as all hell, but we didn’t pass out. It only suppressed the ability to shift for a while. Why Kellan has passed out… Maybe it’s the mating fire? Elevated body heat, adrenaline… Could be that his croi is in a heightened state.” He raked a hand through his hair. “This is what I get for trusting a Monstrum Venator.”

  “A monster hunter?” Reece gaped at him. “You injected Kellan—and yourself and your brother—with something you got from a Monstrum Venator? What the fuck, Tyson? Seriously, what the fuck? I thought you were smarter than—”

  “Holy crap,” Kellan groaned. “What hit me?”

  “Kellan!” Reece gasped, dropping her stare to her Fire Mate. A rush of heat and lust and relief and raw hunger crashed over her and, before she could stop herself, she pressed her palms to his cheeks and crushed his lips with hers.

  He groaned into her mouth, fisting a hand in the hair at the back of her head.

  …here…came back to me…my Fire Mate…yes…

  Fresh desire swelled through Reece at Kellan’s thoughts, and she deepened the kiss, her body thrumming with elemental heat.

  “Okay, okay.” Tyson’s low reprimand cut through the haze of pleasure burning through her as a firm hand clamped around her shoulder. “Public spaces, you two. Public spaces.”

  Tearing her lips away from Kellan’s, she swept a quick gaze around them.

  Yep, they were being watched. Why wouldn’t they be? A man stretched out on the ground, a woman kneeling over him, kissing him stupid, and another man crouched down beside them? Who wouldn’t find themselves staring at such a scene? Especially when the woman was Reece and the people mingling around all knew who she was and where she was actually supposed to be.

  “We have to get out of here,” she muttered, looking down at Kellan. “Now. Are you…I mean, how do you feel?”

  Confusion swam in his gray eyes. “I don’t know what Conley did to me, but I feel…odd. Like I have the hangover from hell. And something else, like a part of me is locked away.”

  “Can you shift?” Tyson asked, voice low.

  “Shift?” Kellan shoved himself up onto an elbow, frowning at Tyson. “Why the hell would you want me to shift?”

  “Can you?” Tyson pressed.

  Kellan opened his mouth. And then closed it. His frown darkened. “What the fuck?” he muttered. “I…I can sense my dragon’s existence but it’s…hobbled. As if it’s caged somehow. Did you do this?”

  Tyson straightened to his feet and held out his hand to Kellan. “Yeah, I did.”

  Kellan’s glare darkened. “How?”

  “I’ll tell you later. Or Reece can. Right now, we don’t have a lot of time. We need to get you two somewhere safe. For your sake and Sydney’s.”

  Ignoring Tyson’s offered hand, Kellan straightened to his feet. “Will I be able to—whoa!” Eyes closing, he pressed his hand to his eyes, swaying a fraction. “Shit, I feel like crap.”

  Leaping to her own feet, Reece slipped her arm around Kellan’s back. “I got you.”

  He smiled down at her. Yes, you do…

  Her skin erupted in hungry need at the warm contact of his body to hers, at the equal warmth of his thought.

  Damn it. She shut down the carnal response and fixed Tyson in a level stare. “Somewhere safe. Now. Before I make you regret what you’ve done.”

  Tyson chuckled, the sound far from worried. “Reece, I will do whatever I have to do to protect the dragons and the humans in my territory. Later, after you two have gotten through the mating fire period, you can tell me just how bloody heinous I am, but for now, let’s get you and Kel out of here. Not to call your bluff, but I don’t think you can control your dragon for much longer.”

  Drawing Kellan closer to her side, she scowled at Tyson. “What makes you say that?”

  “Your eyes are no longer human.”

  She blinked.

  Gentle fingers pressed under her chin. “Let me see,” Kellan murmured.

  She turned her head, meeting his direct gaze.

  “If it helps,” he smiled, “your dragon eyes are stunning. The most incredible green I’ve ever seen.”

  “Oh God,” she sighed, squeezing her eyes shut for a second even as she adjusted her arm around his broad back.

  “C’mon,” Tyson muttered. “My car’s this way. I illegally parked getting here in a hurry, so let’s hope it’s still there.”

  “And if it’s not?” Kellan asked, mirth threading through the question as he slung his arm around her shoulder.

  “Reece goes for a swim, and you and I catch an Uber.”

  Kellan snorted. “Practicality, thy name is Conley.”

  Tyson flashed them both a grin. “Yep. Now let’s get our arses out of here.”

  3

  “Donovan?”

  Head still full with fuzzy swirls of black light, Kellan swung his head toward the shout behind them.

  Shit. Perkins.

  The man strode across the jetty—no, almost jogged across the jetty—frown locked on Kellan, his arms swinging at his side, his bony fists balled.

  “Who the bloody hell is this?” Tyson muttered.

  “The media liaison manager for the NSW Fire and Rescue service.” Kellan slid his arm from around Reece’s shoulder, his head swimming with a wave of dark nausea. He ground his teeth, chest tight. “I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Conley, but I’m going to make you pay for it.”

  “I got this,” Reece murmured, smoothing her hand up Kellan’s back.

  He let out a shaky breath, smiling at her, and then groaned as a wave of lust slammed through him

  Reece’s eyes flared with green fire, once again no longer human, and she let out her own groan.

  …need him so much…so hard to fight it…need…

  She squeezed her eyes shut, grief etching her face.

  “I need an explanation, Donovan!” Perkins demanded, barely a few feet away and getting closer. “And it better be good, because I know at least five firefighters as good-looking as you who’d kill to be the face of—”

  A growl filled the air. Guttural and menacing and entirely inhuman.

  Perkins froze, terror flooding his face.

  Tyson snapped his stare to Reece, just as she staggered back a step.

  “I’m about… I’ve lost…” she gasped, eyes still squeezed shut. “Oh no. No no no…”

  “Reece.” Kellan reached for her. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Take my hand. We’ll be okay.”

  “Ah fuck,” she breathed, shaking her head. “I’ve got…oh no…I’m going…”

  A shudder racked through her and she looked at him, dread taking over her expression, her eyes iridescent green. Dragon eyes. “I have to go!”

  She spun on her heel and, without another look at anyone, sprinted across the jetty.

  And threw herself into the water.

  “What the hell?” Perkins yelped, gaping at the jetty’s edge before running toward it.

  “Stop!” Kellan yelled, lunging after him.

  A steel grip clamped around Kellan’s elbow, jolting him to a halt. Tyson shook his head, expression bleak. “Mate, we have to get you out of here. I have no fucking clue how long the serum is going to control your shift, and you’re no good to Reece right now as a dragon.”

  “I need to go after my Fire Mate,” Kellan muttered, pulling against Tyson’s hold.

  “What the hell is going on?” Perkins shouted from the edge of the jetty, hands fisted in his hair as he scanned the water. “Why the hell did the producer of Sunrise in Sydney just jump into the harbor? Where the hell is she? She should have co
me up by now!”

  “Shit.” Tyson dropped Kellan’s elbow, stare locked on Perkins. “Go. Get out of here. Now. I’ll deal with the human and text you the location of a safe house when I’m done.”

  “No, I got this.” Kellan let out a rough laugh. “I brought the guy here, I need to get rid of him as well.”

  Tyson grunted. “In that case, all I can do is hope to hell you don’t have the ability to burn him to a crisp.”

  “Let’s hope.” Gut a knot of tension, Kellan flashed a grim look at Tyson and strode over to Perkins.

  What exactly was he going to say? About his unusual behavior and Reece’s? Whatever it was, it had to be quick. His dragon’s presence was already growing stronger, more substantial. Whatever Tyson had injected him with, its effects seemed to be waning.

  Maybe, “wow, how weird, eh? I don’t understand women, do you? Listen, I’m sorry I fucked up on air. I think I’m getting a migraine. I’m going to catch the train back to Newey.”

  Yeah, that’d do. Cliched, but difficult to argue against.

  Swiping at his mouth, he hurried closer to Perkins.

  And stopped as snippets of the man’s quiet mutters scratched against his shifter’s supernatural hearing.

  “…lucked into two of them? …but her eyes…”

  Her eyes?

  Crap, had Perkins noticed Reece’s inhuman eyes?

  Kellan hissed in a sharp breath.

  “Shit.” Perkins spun around, wild-eyed stare locking on him straight away. “Dona—I mean, Kellan. I didn’t know you were…” He stopped, raking a look over Kellan. Nervous tension oozed from him. He fidgeted on the spot, flicking a glance over Kellan’s shoulder, not doubt at Tyson, before frowning at Kellan. “The woman, the show’s producer. She hasn’t surfaced yet. She dove in and—”

  “My sister,” Tyson called from behind Kellan. “Don’t worry about her. She just lost a bet with me and had to jump in the harbor. That’s what she gets for challenging me to wear ladies underwear for a week.”

  Perkins gaped, eyebrows high. “You’re kidding.”

  “Nah, to be honest, they’re actually quite comfortable. I’m currently wearing a black lace G-string that—”