The Dragon's Charm

by Emilia Hartley

  Kenji nodded. The frostbite had healed, his dragon scales protecting his flesh and the magic of his healing preventing new scars from forming, but neither could take away the memory of being locked in the ice. He didn’t know how Isaac managed it, but Kenji did suspect his affinity for water had worsened the pain.

  Morgan set aside her bowl, having licked it clean during his story. She sat back on her hands and Kenji couldn’t help but let his eyes travel down the front of her. Two mall mounds presented to him as if rewards for what he’d gone through.

  ***

  Morgan could feel his eyes on her. She knew she had to ask him to return her home, but she hesitated. The words were there, on her tongue, but they refused to enter the world while she was in his presence. She found herself lingering, found herself leaning back and savoring his gaze.

  She was an idiot. That was the only explanation Morgan could come up with. That, or the fear of returning to her apartment was greater than she’d anticipated. It made her more than happy to stay on the Territory.

  “I should leave,” Kenji said, shooting to his feet.

  Morgan’s heart pained. She shot up, not thinking, and reached for him. Her hand hesitated in the air, her mind finally catching up with her. What was she doing? It had to be clear in her eyes, the hesitation and confusion, when she looked up at Kenji because he didn’t move.

  He waited, as if for a signal. But, what signal? What was he waiting to do?

  Morgan had an idea, a voice whispering in the back of her mind. It begged her to learn the feel of his body pressed against hers, see if she could make the bulge in his pants grow against her. It was a dumb idea, she shot back. It was careless.

  But, her body rebelled and Morgan didn’t have enough mind to fight it. She knew, she too, wanted something. She knew Kenji wanted something from the way he stayed, the way he looked at her with burning eyes.

  She must have given the signal, whatever it was. Kenji crossed the space between them. His hands grasped her waist and her back hit the wall. Their lips crashed and her hands wove around the back of his neck. She threaded her fingers through her hair, holding on while her body flooded with warmth.

  This man was everything in that moment. He was all she knew. The hard planes of his chest against her taut breasts drove her wild. The bulge in his pants grew and pressed against her abdomen, stirring things inside Morgan she had not felt for a long while.

  She broke away from the kiss, gasping for air, even as her fingers tightened on him. She was mad. She’d lost it. But, her eyes turned up to his and she found him breathing heavy. His hands explored the long line of her waist and dipped back to travel over the curve of her ass.

  “I’m just… I need to make it clear,” Morgan began. “What we’re doing here is only an experiment. It’s a… bit of fun before I go back to my life.”

  Kenji’s hands pulled away from her body and she felt cold without them. He ducked out of her hold on him. His lips pressed together and his jaw clenched. He fought back the need to touch her again, from what Morgan could see. She ached to close the space between them again, but stood her ground.

  “I don’t think we should do anything then,” Kenji said.

  Her throat tightened. “Nothing?”

  “I’m not a toy, Morgan. I don’t want to be used for your fun. If that’s how you feel about this, then I’ll take you home tonight and you can be on with your life. That just might be for the best, honestly.”

  Her mind was caught, spinning in search of the right response. Her body clearly wanted one thing, her hard nipples speaking for her. But, she knew better. Morgan knew if she did what her body begged of her, then her life would be irrevocably changed. There was a part of her that knew if she went through with this, there would be no going back. It meant something, even if she didn’t know exactly what it was in that moment.

  Her chest fell. Her core throbbed with need left unfinished. Morgan swallowed, knowing this was for the best. It was the right thing, as she backed away and let herself fall onto the mattress.

  Images of her wrecked apartment filled her mind and the throbbing ebbed. At least, here, no one would slash the mattress beneath her for kissing the man across the room. She turned her head and looked at Kenji, the man standing where she’d left him, his hands clenched at his sides. Her heart clenched.

  Morgan knew she was a horrible person sometimes. Just to make matters worse, she asked, “Lie down with me? Just for a little while?”

  Kenji’s body stiffened. Morgan knew she was mean, knew she was being cruel. He wanted her. That was clear from what she’d felt when their bodies were pressed together, but Kenji wanted more than just sex. He wanted love, she guessed.

  “I’m not ready to leave yet,” she whispered.

  He turned toward her, eyes downcast so that she could not see them, so she couldn’t read whatever he hid in them. Kenji laid alongside her on the narrow mattress. There was barely room for the both of them, but he wrapped his body around hers, aligning like they were meant to fit together.

  Morgan tried to ignore it and nestled into the warmth of his arms.

  Chapter Eight

  The sounds of construction woke them. Kenji woke with a start and Morgan, realizing where she was, fought to untangle herself from his limbs. He didn’t seem to notice her frantic movements as his ears strained to hear what was going on outside the door. Morgan sat up, just as confused as he was. She reached for the boots she left at the foot of the bed and tugged them on, not bothering to grab her socks.

  The only way they would know what was happening was to go outside and look, she figured. Kenji’s hand darted out and grabbed her before she could open the door. She could feel the tension that gripped him when he touched her, the way his eyes were a tad wild. Slowly, his hand relaxed and he pushed forward, moving toward the door as if to protect her from anything that might be outside.

  “Is this normal?” Morgan asked, already knowing the answer to her question. The way Kenji was acting told her he was not expecting the sounds of construction. She hoped it was only new housing for the influx of dragons the Territory seemingly had.

  They emerged into the center of town, the sun barely a thought on the horizon as their heads tilted back to scan the skies around them. Was that where the sound was coming from? It made no sense. Morgan’s gaze dropped to the ground, but her ears hadn’t deceived her. It was coming from above them and it was not immediately the sound of construction. No, that was a distant sound. What they heard near them was the sound of… helicopters?

  “What the hell?” Kenji muttered, still keeping his body in front of Morgan’s.

  Surprisingly, it made her feel safer. She shouldn’t have felt safe amongst the dragons, but around Kenji, she did. Maybe it was the fact he’d saved her from the two young men outside the Embassy. Maybe it was watching him take care of his own after the dragon’s melt down in town.

  Morgan took a deliberate step out from behind the dragon man before her. Her ears ached to pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from, as if it might be coming from all around them. It made no sense.

  Not at first. Then her stomach tightened. Fear gripped her and made it hard to breathe. Her eyes fell on the wall of trees before her as if she could see through it to the border of the Territory beyond it. Would they do it? Would GOE try such a thing? A voice in her head said, yes, they would.

  She darted forward, her heart racing. She couldn’t afford to get trapped in here. She needed to get out. Her life was outside the Territory, waiting for her in her small town.

  Behind her, she heard Kenji’s bark of protest. He launched into a run behind her, still calling out her name. She couldn’t stop. Morgan needed to get out before it was too late.

  “What are you doing?” Kenji snapped once he caught up to her.

  She didn’t see him. Morgan couldn’t see anything other than the scene ahead of her. Through the trees, cranes and helicopters worked to lift a section of wall into place. The panels th
e construction crew were lifting into place were sheets of thick, gray metal. How much silver had they poured into the alloy? Was it bound into the interior of the panels?

  The world dropped out from beneath her feet. She was about to be trapped.

  But the wall wasn’t complete, she realized. There was an opening from which she could see the other side. There was still time. Morgan said nothing, just darted for the break in the looming wall. Again, Kenji screamed her name. His voice held the sharp edge of fear.

  Morgan was close. She could see the world on the other side of the wall. Her life was close.

  “Halt!” a voice shouted at her.

  Her feet slammed into the earth. Morgan looked up to find a stun gun aimed in her direction. On the other end of the stun gun was a black-garbed GOE agent, a woman whose hand trembled. Immediately, Morgan’s hands flew up in a defensive position. Her eyes flicked toward the gap in the wall.

  “I-I don’t belong here.” Morgan fumbled over her words. “I need to get out, to get back to my job.”

  If she even still had one. She’d called her shift manager, told her what she could without giving away what actually happened. Had Morgan told her shift manager the truth about where she’d been the past day and a half, Morgan’s job would have been over then and there.

  The woman holding the stun gun aimed at Morgan narrowed her eyes as she inspected her. Morgan swallowed, nerves beginning to sing with anxiety. The gun lowered, only a fraction, as the woman called out to another agent. A man stomped through the hole in the wall and Morgan felt hope surge through her.

  They would know she was a human. She would tell them everything that’d happened to her in the past few days and they would understand. If she was lucky, she’d even get a lift back to her apartment.

  Cracking and crunching foliage warned her Kenji had stepped up beside her. The stun gun flicked back up, taking aim at Kenji. The man ahead paused, his eyes sizing up the dragon man who’d appeared. Morgan felt her hope sinking.

  “Please just let me go home,” Morgan asked. “I live at 186 Hamilton street in Elshaw. The past few days have been a mess from hell. I just want to go home.”

  The female agent glanced at her superior. The man took in Morgan and the dragon man beside her before shaking his head.

  “If she’s in here when the wall goes up, she stays here. Obviously, she has business here.”

  “What are you implying?” Morgan snapped, taking a brazen step forward now that her skin warmed. She looked between the two agents, daring them to say more.

  Unfortunately, the superior agent took the dare. “If you hadn’t been rolling around with the monsters when the wall went up, you wouldn’t have a problem. I hope they paid you well.”

  This time, it wasn’t Morgan who moved. Kenji zipped past her. His fist connected with the agent’s jaw before Morgan knew what was happening. Apparently, the female agent didn’t know what happened either, because her gun wavered in confusion before she swung it toward Kenji.

  The dragon man was already backing away. His jaw was tight. Even Morgan could see it.

  “Do I shoot him, sir?”

  Morgan spoke before the other agent could. “He’s already walking away.”

  But, the man nodded and the girl’s gun swung toward Kenji. Feeling a spike through her stomach, Morgan dashed forward. Instead of going for the path of the stun gun, she went for the source. Her torso collided with the woman and the stun gun went wild. The electrified shot flew off into the distance, but Morgan had just made an even bigger problem.

  Morgan pulled herself upright, separating her limbs from the agent’s in a moment of panic and scrambled back.

  That was the second attack on a GOE agent in moments. She’d dug a hole so deep, there was no getting out. Clutching his face, the male agent stomped toward them. Morgan smarted up and ran into the trees, Kenji behind her. Why had she done such a dumb thing? Why did she keep sticking her neck out for this guy, anyway?

  It wasn’t like he was the love of her life. She’d heard of human women becoming dragon mates, but Morgan always assumed that was a kind of thing that happened over time. The bond of a mate didn’t fall into place until years of dating and a mate proposal happened.

  Right?

  Morgan couldn’t deny her attraction to the man running beside her. She’d caught herself wondering what was in his pants on more than one occasion, usually prompted by the natural slide of her eyes over the planes of his sculpted body. He wasn’t unattractive by any means, but that didn’t make him mate material. She barely knew him.

  Memories of their trip into town came back to her. Kenji was a good guy. He cared about his family and, apparently, her, too. Why else would he have punched the GOE agent after insinuating Morgan was a prostitute? The simple insult had ticked him off, that much was clear.

  What was she thinking? He was the reason she couldn’t get off the damned Territory. If Kenji hadn’t shown up, the agent never would have insinuated such things about her. He might even have taken pity on her. She would never know, because Kenji had shown up, made them question her, and then attacked an agent.

  “Are you alright?”

  Morgan’s throat clenched tight. There were perhaps a million things she wanted to say in that moment, but all of them caught in her throat. No, she was not okay. She was effectively trapped on the dragon Territory and it felt like the sky was falling on her. Staying there any longer was going to ruin the life she’d built, but, at the same time, she couldn’t help but glance at the dragon man beside her every so often.

  She couldn’t deny the attraction coiled in her core. It wanted to know more about him, physical things only close lovers should know about one another. It was wildly frustrating, this attraction to a man who should have been the enemy.

  Well, not an enemy in the sense of war. Morgan wasn’t at war with anyone but herself. Kenji was the enemy only in the sense that he was a dragon. There was a beast inside of him who could, at any moment, kill her with a flick of its tail or a snap of its jaws. It was the top of the food chain, a threat to every human simply by existing.

  Yet, when was the last time a dragon had been accused of eating a human? Sure, they were capable, but it hadn’t been reported for years. All she could do, in that moment, was sigh and rub her hands over her face. Kenji continued to watch her with concern in his dark eyes.

  “I just wish you hadn’t shown up,” she confessed. It might have sounded harsh, but there’d been a chance for her to go home before he arrived.

  His lips pressed into a thin line. “If I hadn’t arrived when I had, you would have hand another situation like the other day on your hands. Those agents weren’t going to act favorably toward a human on dragon Territory.”

  “She was considering it,” Morgan snapped back.

  He snorted. “She might have been, but once she called her superior over, you were toast. That guy looked like he had a chip on his shoulder bigger than him.”

  He shoulders sank. Kenji was right and it irked her.

  “I just want my life back.”

  “I understand,” he said, his voice trailing off. There was guilt making it heavy, Morgan realized.

  She looked back up at him and found his face lined with shadows. All of her complaints and demands had been aimed at him and he was feeling the weight of being unable to deliver for her time and time again. The dragon man had been nothing but hospitable to her since her arrival. He’d even brought her dinner and the best apple crisp she’d ever had.

  “How am I getting back?” Morgan asked, her voice low. There was a strain in it, desperation gripping her lungs even though she tried to control her emotions. “I’m going to lose my job if I stay any longer.”

  His eyes widened and he swore under his breath. “We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

  Morgan glanced back at the wall rising behind them. He better, she thought. He better find a way.

  ***

  “There’s a wall?” Dane’s voice boomed
through the cabin.

  Little Miri, the child Dane and his mate adopted, held a finger to her lips as if to shush her father. He gave her a look, not chastising, but with a small amount of humor. The news had hit him hard. Kenji could see the shadows starting to amass beneath the man’s eyes. He didn’t know how old the dragon leader was, if it was natural aging or if the recent events were weighing on him.

  Instinct told Kenji it was the recent events. Dane was a good man who did whatever he could for his family. Hearing of the wall the Guardians hastily erected around their home, pushing the borders in tight, the man had lost it.

  “But the skies are open,” Liana offered from across the kitchen where she was stress eating the apple crisp directly out of the pan. “We should be able to fly out, so I don’t see what GOE thinks they’re doing.”

  Kenji shook his head. “They’re smarter than that. I’m sure something is in place to keep that from happening.”

  Liana’s brows furrowed and her Welsh accent slipped into her voice once more. “I don’t see a bloody dome over our heads.”

  “What does this mean?” Morgan’s voice was frantic. She raked both hands through her black hair and turned toward the window, the wall rising beyond the trees outside.

  There was a wall around the Territory. Kenji felt like their new home was now no better than the cells in the facility basement. The dragons who’d come for safety found themselves trapped once more. He knew it was not Dane or Liana’s fault, but it hurt nonetheless. He wanted to scream, to tear down the walls and show the world they would not be contained.

  The knowledge that it was a bad idea kept him still. It kept him from losing his mind. He had to keep his wits about him. It was hard when his mate stood beside him, panicked because she could not leave his side and return to her own world. The taste of her still lingered on his tongue and it drove him wild. She’d claimed to only want to experiment with him and it’d been an ice pick through the heart.

  As much as Kenji’s body wanted it, he knew he would not have survived the intimacy, not if she was going to walk away again. It was for the best he never know the touch of her skin on his, not fully.