Day Care Dragon (Bodyguard Shifters Book 4)

by Zoe Chant

  "Comfortable up there?"

  "More than comfortable." She squeezed his sides with her legs, a sort of halfway hug. "Let's go."

  Darius leaped off the concrete barricade, and they were airborne.

  ***

  From the air, the winter landscape around Ben and Tessa's cabin looked like the picture on a Christmas card, with its snow-covered trees and the homey-looking cabin with a layer of snow on the roof and a curl of smoke coming out of the chimney. Darius swept down for a landing on the plowed area beside Ben and Tessa's car, his wingtips brushing the snow before Loretta hopped down and he shifted back. He looked very out of place in his nice shoes and dark wool topcoat, surrounded by the rural winter landscape.

  "You still have it?" he asked, a hint of nervousness creeping into his voice.

  Loretta patted her pocket. "Safe and secure. Do you want it now?"

  "Maybe you should give it to them. I can wait outside—"

  "Oh, Darius, for heaven's sake," she sighed, and passed him the silver-wrapped package. Darius tucked it into his topcoat pocket. "Come on, let's get inside before we freeze. And especially before you freeze."

  Ben met them on the porch, in a wash of warm air from the cabin door, turning to steam curling around his shoulders. He was wearing a T-shirt and sweat pants; goosebumps prickled on his arms. "Hey, you two," he told them, grinning. "Come on in. Whoa, no, not you!" He leaned down and caught a flash of purple headed past his feet. He straightened up with Skye, as a dragon, clasped firmly to his chest. "She still can't fly yet," he explained, "and I promise you, if she'd gotten more than ten feet from the door she'd have stopped in her tracks and started crying because her feet were cold."

  The interior of the cabin was warm and smelled sweetly of baking and spices. There were still a few lingering Christmas decorations, Loretta noticed with a smile as she stripped off her gloves and stamped the snow off her boots, though the tree had been taken down; it was almost the end of January, after all.

  "Oh, hi there!" Tessa called from the kitchen, waving with an oven-mitt-clad hand. "Just hold on, there'll be fresh cookies out in a minute. And cake, but nobody gets that because it has to cool so I can frost it."

  Darius cleared his throat. "Yeah, about that." He took the package from his pocket and thrust it in Ben's general direction.

  Ben had to free a hand from the wiggly baby dragon in his arms to take it, so Loretta took Skye. The little dragon immediately ran up onto her shoulders and started nosing through her hair. Loretta giggled. "Careful, honey, that tickles!"

  "Yeah, she does that," Ben said absently, turning the silver-wrapped package over in his hands. "What's this?"

  "What do you think it is?" Darius asked. "What does it look like?"

  Loretta elbowed him.

  "It looks like a birthday present." Ben gave Loretta a look. "Did you—"

  "I assure you," Loretta promised with a smile. "It was entirely his idea."

  Now Ben turned his baffled, suspicion-tinged look on Darius. "I don't even remember the last time you gave me a birthday present. I thought you didn't even know when my birthday was."

  "You told me last summer. January 27th."

  "And you remembered," Ben said, almost to himself.

  "It may take me awhile to figure certain things out," Darius murmured, reaching out to stroke Skye's delicate scales. The little dragon arched into his petting like a cat. "But I do get there eventually. Sometimes."

  Ben stared at the gift, then at his father, and then he grinned, gleeful as a little kid. "You mind if I open it now?"

  "Why not? It is your birthday, after all."

  Tessa came out of the kitchen, dusting flour off her T-shirt, and gave Darius a kiss on the cheek, then hung on Ben's shoulder while he tore off the silver paper. Underneath was a sleek black box, and when Ben opened that, he carefully took out a watch.

  It was an antique, solid and heavy; Loretta knew because she'd held it in her hand this morning. Ben turned it over carefully, examined the worn band and the winding knob, then tilted it to read the D.K. engraved inside.

  "I bought this when wristwatches first started to come out on the consumer market," Darius said quietly. "I have worn it nearly every day for a century. Around the edge ..." He lightly touched the glitter of glass-colored stones inside around the watch's face. "I had it set with the diamonds from a necklace my mother used to wear. It was one of the only things of my parents' that I had left. Fitting, then, that this is one of the few items among my treasures that survived Sharpe."

  "How did it survive?" Ben asked.

  Darius smiled. "Because I was wearing it. And now I want you to have it. I have acquired many things in my lifetime, and lost many more, but there aren't very many things I own that have true sentimental value. This is one of the few, and I think it is only fitting that it should be passed along to my firstborn son. Happy birthday."

  Ben caught his breath, his face full of wonder, and carefully clasped it around his wrist. "I'll wear it every day. Thanks, Dad. Really ... thanks." And the way he said it, it was clear he wasn't just talking about the watch.

  ***

  With the cake out and cooling on the counter (a colander upturned over the top of it to keep the cats off), Tessa wrapped up in a coat and boots, and went out to walk around the edge of the yard with Loretta under the pretext of showing her the new garden shed they'd built before winter set in. Loretta knew the real reason was to give the guys a little time alone. From certain angles she could glimpse them through the cabin windows, sitting on the couch and talking, while Skye sprawled between their laps in her dragon shape.

  "You know, when I first met Darius, he and Ben could hardly be in the same room together," Tessa said, brushing the snow off a greenhouse frame with one gloved hand. "We went to him for help while we were being chased by Heikon's assassin, and that was an absolute last resort. Ben wouldn't even have talked to him, otherwise."

  "I still can't believe Heikon sent an assassin after you."

  Tessa smiled. "You may even have talked to him while we were staying there. Did you meet Reive?"

  "Reive!" Loretta said, genuinely shocked. "That nice young man?"

  "He's not so nice when he's shifting into a dragon to attack you." Tessa pointed to the cabin. "We had to rebuild the entire doorframe and part of that wall after he tore it out trying to get to me."

  "That's amazing. I would never have guessed."

  "So how is your rebuilding coming along? Are you still at the condo in the city? Working at the day care?"

  "For now," Loretta said. "You should see the condo right now. The walls are covered with plans for the mountain stronghold Darius plans to start having built come spring. I made sure to have him put in a pink and yellow rose garden."

  ... among other things. She was already making tentative plans to start her own day care for the workers and villagers. It seemed only fitting to have some kind of onsite childcare facility. And she would like to run a day care of her own, after working at someone else's for so long.

  Tessa grinned. "You're really doing it, then? You better be careful. He's going to build himself some kind of supervillain lair out there."

  "Maybe some part of me always wanted to live in a supervillain lair," Loretta admitted. "As soon as I saw Heikon's place, I fell in love. I told Darius he needs to put in plenty of secret passageways and hidden rooms."

  "Knowing him, you'll have more of those than you know what to do with." Tessa balled up a handful of snow and idly tossed the snowball into the air. "Say ... Loretta ... do you mind if I ask you a question? It's just something I've been wondering about."

  Her innocent query startled Loretta into placing a reflexive hand on her stomach on top of the coat. She couldn't have guessed, could she? Loretta herself wasn't sure. She was a week late with her period, but she was getting close to menopause, so a little irregularity wasn't a surprise. She hadn't taken a test yet. "Sure," she said, not entirely sure how she planned to answer if that was the
question. "Go ahead."

  But Tessa went off in another direction entirely. "Dragons are long-lived, right? I mean, Darius has been around for like 200 years already. How is that going to ... I mean ... I don't want to bring it up if it's a sore subject or anything."

  Loretta grinned. "If you're worried about him outliving me by a few centuries, don't. Darius has told me that's not how it works. Mates' lifespans adjust to each other. I'll live a little longer than a normal mortal, and he won't live quite as long as an unmated dragon. He said that it's more than worth the trade-off."

  "I'm glad." Tessa gave her a quick, impulsive hug. "At least that's something I don't have to worry about with Ben. Regular shifters live normal human lifespans. Although ..." She looked back at the house. "He's got a lot of dragon in him. He might yet live longer than a human would. And from what you're saying, we both will."

  "The only way to find out is just to live your lives."

  "I guess we will." She packed another snowball. "Hey ... you want to help me get the guys out here?"

  Moments later, Tessa with a pile of packed snowballs was lying in wait by the porch, with Loretta on the other side, both of them ducked beneath the level of the windows. "This is so cruel," Loretta whispered.

  "Are you saying you won't do it?"

  Loretta giggled. "I never said that." Raising her voice, she cried, "Help! Darius!"

  "Ben!" Tessa wailed. "Ben!"

  The door slammed open and Darius charged out onto the porch, to be met with a barrage of snowballs from both sides. Ben, behind him, was largely shielded from the onslaught, though he did take a few that sailed over Darius's head or came in from a steep angle.

  "... what," Darius said, shaking off the snow. Tessa and Loretta were dying of laughter.

  "Oh, it's on," Ben said, grinning. "Lemme get Skye into that snowsuit we made for her, and it's on. Dad, you can borrow some boots from us if you want. You're going to freeze like that."

  He reappeared moments later, wearing a coat and carrying Skye. It was the first time Loretta had ever seen a dragon in a snowsuit. It was really more of a puffy snow tube with holes for her legs and wings. It was pink and it had pompoms.

  She was also wearing two pairs of toddler snow boots, one set on each pair of legs. When Ben put her carefully in the snow, she wriggled her little body and then happily dived into a snowbank.

  "Guys versus girls?" Ben asked Darius. "Or couples?"

  "Is shifting allowed?" Darius inquired.

  "No!" chorused Tessa and Loretta.

  They went with "couples," and soon Loretta and Darius were packing themselves a massive snow fort, while Ben and Tessa seemed to be going the "snowballs from ambush" route.

  "I don't remember the last time I was in a snowball fight," Loretta told Darius cheerfully as she stockpiled ammo.

  "I don't think I've ever been in a snowball fight."

  "Surely you must have done it when you were a kid, at least."

  Darius contemplatively rolled a snowball larger than his own head. "I'm not sure. It's hard to remember. I spent so many years burying all thoughts of that time in my life that it's hard, now, to think back on it."

  "If you don't want to talk about it—"

  "Incoming!" squealed a cheerful female voice, and a barrage of snowballs sailed over their half-finished barricade.

  Darius lobbed his enormous snowball over the fort wall, targeting Tessa with pinpoint accuracy to judge from a startled, muffled yelp on the other side.

  "I don't mind talking about it," Darius went on, packing snowballs as if there had never been an interruption. "I truly don't. Not anymore. I thought I was moving beyond my past by hiding it and pushing it down, but in the end I only ended up trapped by it. And I missed out on too much of my children's lives, and my own life, because I couldn't get past it."

  "Darius—ack!"

  This time the snowball went down the back of her neck, flung by Ben with an impressive pitcher's arm from across the yard. Loretta's attempt to return fire fell short.

  "We shall not be defeated, my mate," Darius declared. He packed a snowball that had to be twice as big as the other, clambered to the top of the fort, and hurled it across the yard through the gathering dusk toward Ben's approximate position.

  Having made himself a target, he was instantly bombarded by Tessa's rapid-fire volley of snowballs, even as Ben yelped "Ack!" and went down in a snowbank.

  Loretta was laughing almost too hard to speak as she hurled snowballs over the fort wall until she ran out. By then Tessa was calling, "Truce! Truce!"

  "Is that a cry for surrender?" Darius demanded, one arm cocked back to hurl another snowball. He was so plastered with snow that he looked like he was wearing a winter camouflage suit.

  "That's a cry for a warm blanket and hot cocoa," Tessa called. "And Skye's getting bored. Cocoa inside in fifteen minutes, guys!"

  Darius hopped nimbly off the wall into the snow and gave Loretta a hand around the end. Ben joined them at the porch, clawing snow out of the neck of his coat; his face was covered in it, nose reddened with cold. "Good one, Dad. Remind me not to go up against you in a pitched battle if there's actually something serious on the line."

  They trooped inside, shedding snow. Ben and Tessa contributed a change of dry clothes, and soon they were all gathered on the couch and overstuffed chairs in the living room, wearing an assortment of sweaters and pajama pants. Loretta had to laugh out loud when she saw what Tessa had found for Darius: a huge fluffy sweater with kittens in a basket, playing with balls of yarn, and the caption I WAS NORMAL UNTIL 3 CATS AGO.

  "Where's the lie, though," Tessa remarked, picking up one of the cats that had wandered over for petting. Loretta already had one in her lap and another one making aggressive moves at the lap cat, who responded with lazy swats of its paw.

  "One cat is enough for me," Darius said, putting an arm around Loretta. "More than enough, at times."

  "Yeah, how's Toblerone adjusting to condo life?" Tessa asked.

  Darius's long-suffering expression said it all.

  "Well, he was used to having a whole mansion to run around in and a bunch of people to give him attention, ever since he was a kitten," Loretta said. "It's not his fault if he's bored in the condo."

  "So far he's destroyed three of my shirts, five pairs of socks, several computer cords, and I don't know how many rolls of tissue," Darius said. "He leaves Loretta's things alone for some reason."

  "That's because he doesn't blame me for dragging him from the mansion to a two-bedroom condo in the city."

  Darius snorted. "He'll have plenty of space to run around in soon, when we get the construction project underway this spring."

  "Hey, yeah." Ben turned around from the kitchen, where he was pouring hot milk into mugs. "Do you have a name for the new place yet? You need something fancy. Gotta keep up with Heikon's bunch."

  "We haven't even broken ground yet. Of course we've not named it."

  "The Perch?" Tessa mused aloud. "The Lair? The Cave?"

  "I am not living in anything called The Cave," Loretta declared.

  "Dragon Acres," Tessa said.

  Ben laughed. "Sounds like a retirement community for elderly dragons." He came back to the living room with a tray, and began handing around mugs of cocoa. The antique watch gleamed on his wrist under the floppy sleeve of his oversized gray sweater.

  Loretta snuggled into Darius's embrace and rested her hand on the warm fur of the cat in her lap. She was warm, cozy, and content, surrounded by people she cared about, with a life of love and laughter stretching forward into the future. "I don't care what it's called," she said quietly. "I think I'm just going to call it ... home."

  There was a moment of warm silence in the room, and then Ben raised his mug of cocoa. "To home," he said. "And ... to family."

  "Home and family," Darius echoed in a soft voice, and the others caught up the refrain.

  Outside the window, in the blue winter twilight, a heavier snow had begun to fall, co
vering the white-wrapped world in a fresh, soft blanket. And Loretta couldn't imagine being more contented than she was now, not in a thousand years.

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter. You are also invited to join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook!

  If you enjoyed this book and would like to read more about Darius, Ben, Tessa, Heikon, and the rest, the earlier books in the series are:

  Bearista (Derek and Gaby’s book)

  Pet Rescue Panther (Ben and Tessa’s book)

  Bear in a Bookshop (Gunnar and Melody’s book)

  Bull in a Tea Shop, Bodyguard Shifters #5, Maddox’s book, will be out in 2019.

  Please consider reviewing Day Care Dragon, even if you only write a line or two. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.

  Cover art: © Depositphoto.com

  ***

  More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

  Bearista. (Bodyguard Shifters # 1). A tough bear shifter bodyguard undercover in a coffee shop + a curvy barista with an adorable 5-year-old + a deadly shifter assassin = a scorching thrill ride of a romance!

  Pet Rescue Panther. (Bodyguard Shifters #2). What's hotter than a sexy man holding an adorable kitten? How about a sexy, protective panther shifter cop holding five adorable kittens! Ben must protect curvy cat-rescue volunteer Tessa (and her box of kittens) from the dragon assassin who has sworn to kill her.

  Bear in a Bookshop. (Bodyguard Shifters #3). He’s all wrong for her. So why do his arms feel so right? Shy bookworm Melody never dreamed she’d find love in the arms of a tattooed ex-con, but a danger from their pasts threatens to tear them apart.

  Sheriff Bear. (Bears of Pinerock County # 1). A small-town sheriff + a wrongly accused BBW on the run + deadly enemies and dangerous passions = a sizzling forbidden love!