The dragon mating bite was given to the back of the neck, which was impossible for Dylan to reach from this angle. Besides which, he intended to explain the situation to Holly before he even thought of mating with her. A dragon mating was for life, and when it came to dragon shifters and their mates, the exchange of a mating aphrodisiac and a mate’s blood would ensure that life would be a very long time for both of them. Centuries. Holly needed to know all that before she made her decision.
Holly’s arms tightened about Dylan’s waist, and she pressed her face against his back, eyes tightly closed as he accelerated the bike out of the castle grounds and onto the uneven track she had driven up earlier. Their proximity increased her physical discomfort. Her nipples tingled almost painfully now, and her nether lips were uncomfortably damp. But she’d never ridden on the back of a motorbike before, so maybe it was worth that extra discomfort to not feel quite so terrified.
It wasn’t. Having her eyes closed enabled Holly to feel Dylan’s every movement as the muscles flexed in his back and thighs, all made worse by the dips and ridges of the track throwing her against him. She breathed a sigh of relief when they at last emerged onto the evenness of the narrow country road.
Within minutes, they had turned off that road down another, smoother track. It came to an abrupt end half a mile later at a small parking area for a coved beach.
Having lived in London all her life, Holly rarely found the opportunity to see the sea, let alone walk on a beach. The wind was blustery as the two of them got off the parked bike, removing and leaving their helmets on the seat before stepping onto the pale golden sand. The Irish Sea was a dark and ominous gray. The waves crashed with white foam onto the shoreline.
Holly felt slightly shy now she was at last alone with Dylan, her reason for being here now seeming even more ridiculous than it had earlier. There was absolutely no reason why Dylan should even listen to her, let alone want to help her.
She gave him a sideways glance as he walked beside her, his hands thrust into the pockets of that familiar black leather jacket. “You didn’t answer my question about the blackouts earlier.”
His smile was more of a grimace than a show of humor. “Because it doesn’t have a simple yes or no answer.”
Holly’s eyes widened. “It doesn’t?”
“No,” he confirmed as he came to an abrupt halt and turned to face her. “What are you doing here, Holly?”
She avoided his searching gaze, knowing her visit must seem strange to him. They had met only once before, a meeting that had necessarily been purely professional on her side. Outwardly, at least. No wonder Dylan was wondering why she’d driven all the way to North Wales to seek him out in this way. He probably thought she was some crazy stalker woman.
“I’m not really sure now that I’m actually here,” she admitted ruefully.
“Start at the beginning,” he encouraged gruffly.
Holly turned away from him, her feet sinking into the sand as she began to walk along the beach. The wind whipped her hair into a tangle about her face, making it difficult for her to see. Even so, she sensed the exact moment Dylan commenced walking beside her. She didn’t need to look; she could feel him there.
It was strange to be so aware of him, a virtual stranger, when she had never so much as had a single serious boyfriend. A few casual dates before her parents died, but since then, Holly had been too concentrated on caring for Gayle and finishing her medical training to have time for relationships too.
They walked in silence for several more minutes before Holly began to talk. “My parents died five years ago, and since then, it’s just been me and my younger sister, Gayle.”
“I’m sorry.” Dylan’s human father had died centuries ago, and he had mourned him. But his mother, Cerridwen, the Welsh goddess of knowledge, was still very much alive. He rarely saw her, of course, because she lived on Annwn, the invisible island off the Welsh coast Dylan and his brothers were banned from returning to until after they were mated. But Dylan knew his mother was there, and that if he needed her desperately enough, she would come to him as Arianrhod had come to Nathaniel and Chloe during the birth of their daughter, Amelia.
Holly shrugged off his condolences. “It is what it is.” She moistened her lips. “Gayle is five years younger than me, and—well, she can behave a little…irresponsibly at times.”
Dylan sensed Holly could have used a much stronger word to describe her sister’s behavior.
She glanced up at him, and he was pretty sure the watery sheen in her eyes owed nothing to the effect of the cold wind. “She’s done something really stupid this time.” She confirmed Dylan’s thoughts.
“Such as?”
She gave a pained wince. “She’s a computer geek.”
He nodded. “Like my brother Aeran.”
Her smile was rueful. “Yet another brother. Izzy said you have seven of them. I can’t imagine having so many siblings. Just having the one sister is stressful enough.”
Dylan shrugged. “I did have ten brothers, but three of them died.” Arthur had lived out his normal life span as a human; Gideon had died in battle. Both those deaths had happened fifteen centuries ago. Rufus had been killed by dragon hunters during Queen Victoria’s reign.
“That’s… I’m so sorry.” Holly frowned. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to lose three siblings. “In the circumstances, that remark about my sister was insensitive. I love Gayle to bits, but she has a habit of getting herself into trouble.” Her very first day at school, Gayle had altered all the passwords on the school computer system, shutting everyone out but herself. Those escapades had only escalated over the years. But none of them, as far as Holly was aware, had been illegal.
Unlike stealing money from Gregori Markovic.
Dylan smiled. “Garrett is the hothead in our family.”
The brother she had met at the hospital, with the eyes that swirled from silver to the darkest gray, like liquid mercury. “I doubt he has ever done anything as reckless as Gayle.” Tears stung her eyes as her feeling of helplessness returned.
“Tell me,” Dylan invited softly.
By the time Holly had finished explaining the situation to Dylan, the tears were falling unchecked down her cheeks and his eyebrows had risen almost as high as his hairline. “So there you have it,” she concluded heavily.
“She stole from the Russian Mafia?” Dylan and his brothers might prefer to live a secluded life in the rugged mountains of North Wales, but they were only too aware of the different strong-arm factions and Mafia families around the world. Pendragon Security was often called in to act for people who found themselves at the receiving end of their brutality.
Holly sat abruptly on one of the rocks scattered haphazardly at the end of the bay, as if her legs would no longer support her. “Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe Gayle’s behavior,” she accepted.
No, it didn’t. Gregori Markovic was one of the more reasonable members of the Russian bratva, but even he couldn’t be expected to take internet theft without exacting some form of retribution. As well as a demand for the return of his money.
“I thought— I wondered—” Holly broke off with a shake of her head. “Forget it.” She stood. “I have no idea what I was thinking, coming here.”
Protect.
Kill.
Dylan had every sympathy with his dragon’s sentiments. He was having similar thoughts himself. But he and his brothers no longer lived in the Dark Ages, where revenge and retribution were a matter of survival. Most humans considered themselves beyond such barbaric behavior nowadays, and he and his brothers had necessarily had to fit in with those mores.
Holly might have no idea why she had chosen to come to him, a virtual stranger, for help, but Dylan knew. Like his blackouts, their single meeting seemed to have triggered some response inside her, even though their mating hadn’t yet taken place. It was a connection she obviously wasn’t even aware of.
She gave a self-conscious laugh. “Wh
y should you want to help me? You don’t even know me.”
Dylan knew Holly instinctively. The doctor in Holly was kind, caring, and totally dedicated to her profession. The woman was a loving sister and would be a passionate lover and a fierce mate and mother.
She sighed. “The thing is, Gayle has been keeping an eye on the account she originally hacked. Yesterday, someone else came onto the account. Not only did they discover the money is gone, they’re now trying to trace where it went and who took it.”
“Markovic?”
“More likely one of his employees.”
Dylan nodded. “Do you want me to go to Markovic in my capacity as one of the owners of Pendragon Security and talk to him on your sister’s behalf?”
Her frown was pained. “It was the reason I came to see you but…I doubt I can pay you your usual fee.”
He frowned darkly. “Did I ask for payment?”
“No, but—”
“You helped me a week ago. Now I’m going to help you.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” she protested. “You woke up of your own volition and then refused any treatment.”
He shrugged. “And to answer your previous question, I’ve been perfectly fine for the past week.” Until an hour or so ago, at least.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is talking to Markovic going to do any good or just put you in danger too?”
Dylan very much doubted that any human, even one as powerful as Gregori Markovic, could defeat even one dragon shifter let alone a whole family of them. But even during their work for Pendragon Security, the brothers were careful never to reveal their dragon to the humans who employed them. They didn’t need to when they were perfectly capable of putting the fear of God into someone in their human as well as their dragon form. And if fear didn’t work, then compulsion would.
“Doubtful,” he drawled confidently.
“I really don’t have any money to pay you,” she admitted miserably. “In fact, I used what little money I had saved to hire the car and pay for the petrol to drive here.”
Protect and kill.
Dylan doubted it would come to the latter, but the need to protect his mate was now as instinctive as breathing. Nor did he like seeing those lines of worry and strain on his mate’s beautiful face.
“I’m coming back to London with you,” he stated firmly.
Her cautious expression showed signs of brightening. “You are?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank you.” Holly’s smile was beaming as she rose to her feet. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She had thrown her arms about Dylan’s neck and was kissing him before he’d had time to know what she intended.
By the time he did realize, it was too late.
For both of them.
Chapter 5
Dylan was aware of the flow and taste of the aphrodisiac in his saliva even as he couldn’t resist deepening the kiss. He groaned low in his throat as his arms moved like steel bands about Holly’s waist to mold her soft curves against his harder ones.
She tasted and smelled so fucking good, of that insidious combination of honeysuckle and ripe peaches. His senses were saturated with it. With the taste and feel of her.
Claim.
Now.
Dylan wasn’t so far gone in the mating lust he didn’t realize how illogical that demand was. Granted, they were standing on a deserted beach, so no one would see them, but the wind was bitterly cold and not conducive to the two of them getting naked together. Dylan might not feel the cold, but Holly certainly would.
Besides, he needed to explain the situation to Holly before even thinking of completing the mating. Chloe and Tegan, also human, had run away, not exactly screaming, but still desperate to get away, once Nathaniel and Bryn explained the situation to them. Izzy was slightly different in that her family had long been connected and servants to a Russian dragon shifter family. But even Izzy had initially balked at the idea of being a dragon shifter’s fated mate.
The very fact that Holly was a doctor showed she had a logical mind, and dragon shifters, creatures of myth and legend, were hardly logical. Hell, most humans didn’t believe they had ever existed, let alone still roamed the earth now. He doubted Holly would believe in them either. Not until Dylan had shown her his dragon, at least. Something that couldn’t happen on a public beach either.
He broke the kiss reluctantly, hands framing her face as he gazed down at her longingly. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes bright, her lips slightly swollen from the kisses they’d just shared. It took every effort of Dylan’s considerable will not to cast caution to this cold wind and claim her right there and then.
Because that single kiss, during which Holly would have taken in some of the aphrodisiac in his saliva, had almost certainly begun their mating.
Dylan, as the healer of the family, had developed an injection to counteract the dragon shifter mating aphrodisiac, and he had also formulated another injection for birth control. But he hadn’t taken either of them himself yet. There had been no reason for him to do so when he hadn’t yet found his mate. Nor had he expected to see Holly today.
Having her kiss him so impulsively had taken that choice out of his hands.
The only choices left now for both of them was to mate and live together for centuries, or to have Holly refuse that mating and both of them would die. Sooner rather than later.
He drew in a deep and controlling breath. “There’s something I need to talk to you about too.”
“Does it have something to do with the fact that all of your family seem to know me by name, even though we’ve never met before?” she teased.
Intelligent as well as beautiful. But Dylan had already known that. His mate was everything, and more, he could ever have wished for.
But Holly had also made herself responsible for her younger sister. A connection that, as his mate, Holly would one day have to say goodbye to. Maybe not for years, but it would happen one day. As a dragon shifter’s mate Holly would age far more slowly than her sister. She would live for centuries, not decades. She would still be young and beautiful when her sister was a grandmother.
Or Holly would die within the next three weeks, and Dylan would die shortly after.
None of this was how Dylan had wanted to claim his mate. If he claimed her. Like Nathaniel, Deryk, and Bryn, Dylan knew he couldn’t just take his mate, he had to give Holly the choice as to whether or not she could accept all that entailed. Could accept him.
“Did you drive all the way from London today?” Instead of answering her, Dylan asked a question of his own. He was worried about those dark circles beneath her eyes and the pallor of her face. She also looked slightly thinner than a week ago.
Evidence of the strain Holly was under because of her sister’s actions?
Dylan believed so. Driving all the way here from London in one day wouldn’t have helped alleviate that strain.
She nodded. “I took two days’ holiday. I brought an overnight bag with me, and, if necessary, I was going to stay at a B&B tonight and then drive back tomorrow.”
Dylan gently smoothed the hair back from her temple. “And your sister?”
“I daren’t risk leaving her alone at our apartment and having Gregori Markovic track her down.” Holly grimaced. “I moved her, and her computer,” she added dryly, “into a small hotel overnight.”
Which meant there was no problem with Holly staying overnight. “Let’s go back to the castle. You can stay the night in one of the guest bedrooms, and we can have dinner together—in my private sitting room, not with the rest of the family,” he assured at her slightly panicked expression. “We can go back to London together in the morning.”
It was a tempting offer, Holly acknowledged longingly. She felt safe here with Dylan. As if nothing and no one could hurt her when she was with him. But if she drove straight back to London tonight, she could be there for Gayle.
“Garrett is back in London.” Once again, Dylan seemed able to guess he
r thoughts. “Give me the name of the hotel and I’ll ask him to keep a protective—and undetected—eye on your sister overnight.”
Holly’s longing to stay here, to have dinner with Dylan, deepened. It would be so nice, just for once, to be the one who was cossetted rather than always being the responsible one.
Besides, Dylan might kiss her again. Might do more than kiss her. There was no doubt her body, aroused and throbbing from that single kiss, wanted more. So did Holly.
She could still taste Dylan on her lips. Feel the hardness of his muscular body pressing against her own. As for the touch of his hands against her skin… They had felt so warm against her much colder flesh. Warm and protective.
Holly had no idea why the word protective kept coming into her mind whenever she thought of Dylan. Which, she readily admitted, was a lot. Dangerous was a far more accurate description of him, for all the Pendragon brothers she had met so far. They were all huge and very muscular men, extremely tall, and they all, without exception, exuded an air of danger that warned of their leashed power.
Leashed power?
That was an even stranger description for her to have used in regard to the brothers. Tall and powerful they might be, but they were all urbanely charming too. Well, maybe not Bryn, but Deryk had seemed warm and indulgent toward his wife, and Nathaniel had been gentleness itself with his baby daughter. The only time Holly had seen Dylan in the least aggressive had been when he’d learned she’d taken blood from him at the hospital.
Of course, there was the matter of the drinking problem Garrett had mentioned. Although Holly still found that difficult to believe. Dylan projected none of the usual symptoms of the alcoholics who stumbled their way into the A&E department of the hospital on a regular basis, just for somewhere warm to sit for a few hours. Nor had she ever smelled the least whiff of alcohol on his breath or clothes. So maybe—
Dylan (Dragon Hearts 4) Page 4