Until this second blackout, Dylan had even been looking forward to suffering the same worry one day over Holly, his own fated mate, and their baby.
Not anymore.
Not when this second blackout meant he had now passed out in both his dragon and human form.
“It happened again, didn’t it,” Bryn stated flatly.
Garrett hadn’t hesitated to tell all the brothers the reason they hadn’t been able to sense Dylan that night a week ago.
He sighed. “Yes.”
“Hm.” To his surprise, his taciturn brother looked more amused than worried.
“What are you looking so smug about?” Dylan demanded impatiently.
“You have a visitor,” Bryn drawled.
Dylan made no attempt to hide his surprise. They never had visitors to their castle in Wales. All the business for Pendragon Security was carried out by email or dealt with by the small staff they kept at a London office, which was then passed on to the brothers, again by email. The sort of clients they worked for very often didn’t want or require a face-to-face meeting with any of the Pendragon brothers.
“Holly Wilson,” Bryn added speculatively.
Holly was here? How the hell did she know— His hospital records. No doubt that information had been taken from the driver’s license he had been carrying the night they met. It would have provided any details she might want to know about him. Including his home address.
Dylan drew a deep breath into his lungs, now able smell that delicious aroma of honeysuckle and ripe peaches unique to Holly. His cock was also as hard as steel behind the zipper on his jeans.
“Why the hell didn’t you just say that when you came in?” he snapped in irritation with his brother.
Bryn shrugged. “Possibly because you were unconscious.”
And once again, Holly was near when it happened.
That couldn’t just be a coincidence.
Had the mating aphrodisiac spiked again too?
Dylan didn’t have the time to check that right now. Holly was here, and that was all he cared about.
Holly’s nervousness had been high when she left London in her hired car. It had increased as she entered Wales and began the drive north. She had become even more uncertain as she found herself surrounded by rugged mountains that looked as fierce and wild as the man she had come here to see.
Her first sight of Pendragon Castle, an imposing gray stone building perched up on a headland and surrounded by a ten-foot stone wall, had caused her to actually stop the car and take several deep breaths as she considered whether or not she could actually go through with asking Dylan for his help.
What other choice did she have?
As the days passed, she had begun to think maybe there wouldn’t be any repercussions from Gayle’s actions. That Gregori Markovic either didn’t know his money was missing or he hadn’t yet made the connection between that missing money and Gayle Wilson.
Until yesterday, when Gayle reported that someone had checked the original account and now knew the money was gone. Now someone Gayle considered almost as good a hacker as herself—ah, the arrogance of youth!—was in the process of tracing where the stolen money had gone.
If this hacker was as good as Gayle said he was, then Holly knew it wouldn’t be long before that trail led Gregori Markovic directly to Gayle.
Desperation led to desperate measures, which was when Holly had decided she had to contact Dylan’s company, Pendragon Security.
She had tried their London office first, of course. The woman who answered the call yesterday had been polite enough as she informed Holly that Dylan Pendragon wasn’t in the office right now, nor was he expected to be. The other woman had been just as polite when she refused to give Holly a telephone number where Dylan could be reached, although she had offered to take Holly’s details and have a member of the Pendragon security team get in contact with her as soon as one was available. An offer Holly had refused. She needed to speak with Dylan in person, not to one of his team.
Luckily, Holly hadn’t forgotten a single thing about Dylan Pendragon, including where he lived. Hence this drive to North Wales.
Her knees were trembling before her ring on the doorbell of Pendragon Castle was answered, but they threatened to buckle completely at first sight of a man who could only be another of Dylan’s brothers. Not quite six and a half feet tall, he had extremely wide and muscular shoulders and chest. His hair was as dark as Dylan’s, his complexion as olive, but his eyes were a strange and glowing bronze rather than that vivid blue.
The scowl he gave her was almost enough to cause Holly to turn tail and run back to the car. She forced herself to stand her ground and give her name before asking to speak to Dylan.
The glowering Pendragon brother didn’t bother to return the politeness, but instead opened the door wider so she could step inside. Holly was so fascinated by the battered suits of armor lining the almost medieval and cavernous entrance hall, she was barely aware of anything else as she followed the Pendragon brother into what was obviously a sitting room. Her host then turned on his heel and left her, still without speaking a word.
Holly sat, perched nervously on the edge of a brown leather sofa, anticipating one of the Pendragon brothers, hopefully Dylan, would return soon.
“Hello.”
Holly gave such a start at the sound of that slightly shy and female voice, she almost slid off the sofa. Instead, she covered her nervous reaction by rising slowly to her feet. The woman who had entered looked to be in her early twenties. She had long blonde hair and warm green eyes, her figure slender in jeans and a sweater.
She stepped forward to hold out her hand. “I’m Izzy Pendragon. I believe you met my brother-in-law Bryn a few minutes ago.”
It hadn’t even occurred to Holly that Dylan might be married. And it should have done. He was a gorgeous thirty-five-year-old man. Izzy could be married to Garrett, of course, but—
“I’m Deryk’s wife,” Izzy supplied softly.
Another Pendragon brother? How many of them were there, for goodness’ sake?
“Eight.” Izzy smiled.
Holly frowned her puzzlement at this random comment. “Eight?”
The other woman nodded. “There are eight Pendragon brothers, and all of them as handsome and imposing as Dylan and Bryn.”
Great. Just what Holly had wanted to hear. Eight Pendragon brothers. It didn’t seem possible any of them could be as intimidating as Dylan, and yet she couldn’t deny she had found Garrett and Bryn equally as intense to be around as their brother.
“Holly Wilson.” She finally gathered her scattered wits together enough to shake the other woman’s hand.
Izzy nodded. “Dr. Holly Wilson.”
Holly frowned; she knew she hadn’t given her professional title to Bryn Pendragon or this woman. Which meant Dylan, or possibly Garrett, had to have spoken about her sometime in the past week. Although she couldn’t for the life of her imagine why they would have needed to do that. Even if they had spoken about Dylan’s condition, there was no reason for them to have discussed the name of the doctor who had attended him.
Izzy raised one blonde brow as she tilted her head teasingly. “Isn’t North Wales a bit far to come for a follow-up visit on a patient?”
Holly laughed softly. “A bit, yes.”
Izzy’s smile widened. “Don’t worry, the brothers really aren’t as overwhelming as they appear.”
Surely that depended on from what perspective they were being approached. Holly’s reason for being here wasn’t exactly social. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Take my wife’s word for what?”
Oh God, yet another Pendragon brother. Tall and blond, with gold-colored eyes, this had to be Deryk, Izzy’s husband.
What was with all the brothers having different colored eyes? Holly’s medical training told her that shouldn’t even be possible.
Izzy snuggled into the arm her husband had placed about her shoulders. “I was t
elling Holly that you and your brothers are all pussycats, despite every appearance to the contrary.”
Deryk chuckled. “Including Grigor?”
“Well… No, maybe not Grigor,” Izzy allowed with an affectionate wrinkling of her nose.
Was Grigor the name of another Pendragon brother? Holly’s head was starting to swim from this bombardment of Pendragons. She just wanted to see and speak to Dylan, not meet his whole—and very large—family. It had been just Holly and Gayle for so long now, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have so many siblings and in-laws. She—
“Holly.”
The fever, itching, and arousal Holly had suffered a week ago had faded to a dull ache in the interim. But they all returned with a vengeance at the sound of Dylan’s deep, throaty voice.
Looking across the room at him as he stood in the doorway intensified those feelings, her nipples going hard and pressing against the lace of her bra and between her thighs becoming plump and damp.
If anything, Dylan looked even more breathtaking today. A black polo shirt emphasized the muscular width of his shoulders and chest, faded jeans resting low down on the leanness of his hips. He wore black biker or hiking boots on his feet.
“What the hell is this?” He scowled at Deryk and Izzy as he stepped farther into the room. “A welcoming committee?”
Deryk shrugged. “Speaking for myself, it was curiosity plain and simple,” he drawled. “Izzy?”
She looked as unconcerned by Dylan’s scowl as her husband did. “I just wanted to come and say hello to Holly.”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you both have somewhere else to be now you’ve done that?”
Holly thought Dylan was being extremely rude to his brother and sister-in-law, but as that rudeness was taking the attention away from her for a few minutes, she wasn’t going to complain. Seeing Dylan again, realizing that he really was as tall, handsome, and imposing as she had thought he was made her question, once again, exactly what she was doing here.
Taking time off work, driving all the way to Wales in order to speak with him, had been an act of desperation, but one that hadn’t seemed quite this ridiculous when Holly was in London. Now she was here, in the presence of all these Pendragons, Dylan especially, she realized she’d been thinking with her emotions and not her head. She’d already known Dylan was wealthy but this castle and the obvious wealth of the Pendragon family told her she was way out of her depth.
“Do you think you could keep the noise down in here? Chloe is working, and I’m trying to get Amelia to sleep—” Yet another man came to a halt in the doorway. His eyes were a vivid green, and yet he could only be another Pendragon brother with that dark hair and those chiseled features. A baby that looked to be about six months old was cradled in his muscular arms. “No one told me we have a visitor.” His arms tightened protectively about the baby.
Dylan gave what could only be described as a snort as he threw his arms up in disgust. “Why don’t we just get the whole family down here and be done with it!”
“Ah.” The newcomer gave an understanding nod before turning to smile at Holly. “I’m Nathaniel, another of Dylan’s brothers, and you must be Holly Wilson.”
Must she?
It was starting to become more than a little unnerving that all these people, all of Dylan’s family, knew exactly who she was. She and Dylan had met for precisely thirty minutes a week ago in London, when she was the doctor and Dylan her patient. There was absolutely no reason for his family to be aware of her existence, let alone her name.
She had met five of the Pendragon brothers now.
Dylan. Garrett. Bryn. Deryk. Nathaniel.
They all appeared to be aged in their mid-thirties. Two of them were blonde; three had dark hair. But they all, without exception, had totally different colored eyes.
Again, Holly’s medical knowledge told her that wasn’t possible if they had been born to the same mother and father. Maybe they were all adopted? No, that couldn’t be it; the chiseled features of the Pendragon brothers all bore a startling resemblance to each other.
Even more curious was the knowledge they all seemed to live in this castle together, even the brothers that were married and had children.
Dylan, aware of the utter confusion on Holly’s face as she looked at him and his brothers, came to a decision. “Holly and I are going out.”
She gave him a startled glance. “We are?”
“Yes.” He crossed the room to take hold of her hand and drag her toward the doorway, glaring at Nathaniel through narrowed lids until his brother stood aside.
Dylan had absolutely no idea what Holly was doing here, but he certainly had no intention of reconnecting with her in front of his whole bloody family. Or of revealing how her unique aroma made him want to throw her down on the floor and claim her the moment he saw her in figure-hugging jeans, a cream blouse, and black jacket. The latter emphasized the red of her hair but also the pallor of her cheeks. The jeans also clung to the most perfect ass he had ever seen. It was neither skinny nor fat, but had just the perfect amount of plumpness for Dylan’s large hands to hold and squeeze.
But it was bad enough his heart was beating so loudly, it sounded as if it was going to pound right out of his chest, and his cock was so painfully hard, he couldn’t think straight. He didn’t need to provide his family with a further show of the possessiveness that had roared through him the moment he entered the sitting room and saw Holly talking to Deryk. An inexplicable jealousy when he knew his brother was totally devoted to and in love with Izzy, Deryk’s wife, as well as his fated mate and best friend.
As Holly was his own fated mate.
Mine.
Dylan had absolutely no idea what Holly was doing here, but he doubted she would be leaving again without him at her side.
Chapter 4
“Where are we going?” Holly demanded as Dylan’s grip on her hand allowed him to pull her along beside him as they left by a side door of the castle. They were now walking in the direction of what looked to be a huge garage at the back of the main building but still within that high and protective stone wall.
“Anywhere away from here,” he muttered, having picked up and put on his black leather jacket on the way out of the castle.
Holly’s reply remained in her throat as she followed him into the biggest garage she’d ever seen. Dylan used his free hand to flick on a light switch and reveal that the building housed almost a dozen bespoke and highly polished vehicles, several of them four by fours. These vehicles alone must be worth a small fortune.
Except, Holly recalled heavily, she was in need of a large fortune, not a small one.
“Are you sure you should be driving that?” She frowned as Dylan, having walked past all the cars and off-road vehicles, now stopped beside a distinctive black-and-chrome motorbike, proving they were biker boots he wore, after all. “Have you had any more blackouts since I saw you last?”
Dylan gave a self-derisive laugh as he shrugged into his jacket. He was pretty sure now Holly was the reason he was having blackouts. Possibly partly because all the blood drained from his head and centered on his cock whenever she was in his vicinity. “Can you forget you’re a doctor for a few minutes?”
She grimaced. “Not when that’s what I am, no.”
“Put this on.” He handed her a second crash helmet before putting on his own.
Not that Dylan needed to wear the protection of a helmet, but British law demanded he did so.
There were only two ways to kill a dragon shifter.
One of them was to cut off their head with their own sword.
The Pendragon brothers’ swords had once hung on the wall of the castle entrance hall along with their suits of armor, but they had been removed and locked in a safe since dragon hunters had pursued some of them in Russia the previous year.
The second way was for a fated mate to refuse the mating once it had begun, causing the dragon shifter and his mate to die three weeks later
. Something Dylan didn’t even want to contemplate happening. But whether they mated or not would be Holly’s decision, and Dylan would abide by that decision. Whether Holly knew it yet or not, she now had Dylan as her protector, and he wouldn’t allow any harm to come to her, even from himself.
“Holly,” he prompted sharply as she made no move to put on the helmet.
Her frown was pained. “I need to talk to you, and I can’t do that on the back of a motorbike.”
Dylan gave her a searching glance, once again noting the pallor of her face along with the shadows of sleeplessness beneath those dark green eyes. “How have you been this past week?” He didn’t see how the mating could have started for Holly when there had been no skin-to-skin contact between them; she had been wearing protective surgical gloves at the hospital. And he certainly hadn’t kissed her. Yet.
But Dylan couldn’t be sure of the mating process since his first blackout. That it had happened twice now whenever Holly was near seemed to imply the fated mating was evolving and developing in unexpected ways.
She gave a grimace. “Depends on what way you mean.”
Dylan’s gaze sharpened. “Have you been ill?”
“Not exactly.”
“Did something happen?” Dylan and his dragon instinctively wanted to protect their mate.
Holly winced. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
He nodded. “Can it wait for just a couple more minutes?”
She sighed heavily. “Yes.” She finally pulled the helmet on over her red hair and secured it before climbing onto the bike behind him.
“Put your arms about my waist,” Dylan instructed as he wheeled the bike out of the garage and felt Holly holding herself back from touching him. “I don’t bite.” Not in this position anyway, he acknowledged self-derisively as, after the briefest hesitation, Holly’s arms encircled his waist and he felt the warmth of her denim-covered pussy pressing against his ass.
Dylan (Dragon Hearts 4) Page 3