CHAPTER ONE
Roxy adjusted her name tag and quickly checked her apron for her keys before shutting and securing her locker. Inside was one of her go-bags and she did not need any of her light-fingered coworkers rummaging through it. She had a bag at the diner, one stowed away at the train station, another in the tiny room she rented, and one just recently placed at a bus depot. They each held a small amount of cash, clothes, and a wig.
Wigs wouldn’t help much but they did aid in her immediate disappearance if she was lucky enough to be surrounded by people. Individual scents were harder to track in crowds. Harder, not impossible.
“Hurry up, Nicole!” shouted a line cook. “Betsy is complaining about her ankles again.”
It took her a moment to register she was being addressed. She was Nicole here. Roxy had been left behind four names and more than a handful of states ago.
“Coming!” she called and slowly made her way through the kitchen.
Betsy could damn well wait. She wasn’t the only one to work third shift and see midnight brighten into morning. She wasn't even the only pregnant one. Roxy knew two other girls who were further along and didn't demand as much pity and attention as Betsy. She just hated dumping the large coffee canisters and brewing another batch before the 6 am rush and liked to force Roxy—Nicole—into doing it.
She pushed out of the kitchen’s swinging doors and back onto the floor, doing a quick scan of the filled tables and out the windows. Grizzled delivery drivers and suited business people looking to get a jump on their competition occupied the dark red booths in equal numbers.
The diner sat on a corner and two sides were made up of windowed booths. Being able to check two streets at once was part of the reason why she liked working there.
The other part she enjoyed were the under-the-table payments. If her wages weren’t reported then she wasn’t reported, which meant it would be harder for him to find her.
Not that she thought it would last. Four months without a sighting was the longest she’d had in the last year. Instead of making her lapse into a sense of security, it made her wary. Thilo Cipriano would be angrier than ever when he finally followed her.
The shadow of the Dragon Tower edged over the diner even as the sun warmed the sky. That was the reason why she chose Azra Valley. Surely Thilo wouldn’t be stupid enough to snatch her from the seat of dragon rule.
Even as she thought it, she knew it was a naive wish. Nothing would stop Thilo.
“Nicole, dump the coffee for me, will you, sweetie?” Betsy’s smile flashed the dimples that Roxy was eighty percent sure were the reason why she had two kids at home and another on the way. The woman’s pretty exterior hid a pretty ugly center.
Roxy nodded sullenly and glared as Betsy turned away to refill a customer’s mug with a hand on her stomach. Roxy glanced down at herself. With curves and a bit of extra padding in her stomach region, she was sure she looked more pregnant than Betsy. Maybe she should start rubbing her tummy and playing it up for the extra tips.
Picking up one of the big coffee airpots, she hauled it back into the kitchen and punched the top to open. She poured the coffee down the drain and walked the airpot back to the brewer that Betsy had lovingly not prepped. Roxy eyed the clock as she scooped coffee grounds into a filter. Two hours. Two hours and then she could take the hour bus ride home and sleep for the afternoon.
“Roxanne.”
The voice was a purr in her ear and sent fear straight into her belly. She fit the airpot to the brewer and pressed a button to start, wishing desperately a lack of sleep caused her to imagine the voice.
Only a thin bit of counter stood between her and the man who’d forced her into a life on the run. Thilo Cipriano was a dragon shifter with more than a few screws loose, in her opinion.
Her ears rang and her mouth dried when her eyes met his. The dark brown was hard to distinguish from his black and deadly lust but unmistakable as soon as the whites of his eyes were eaten away by the power of his dragon pushing forward.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered. Her hands shook and she stuffed them into her apron pocket. Her keys jangled. She wouldn’t have time to visit the tiny rented room she called home but she could at least unlock one of her secret lockers if she could lose him in the city.
“It’s your name. A beautiful name.”
“No.” She shook her head. He had her confused with someone else. She was Roxanna Pierce, not Roxanne Cipriano. He was obsessed with making her into someone she wasn’t.
She eyed her exits. The swinging doors to the kitchen would lead outside and to an alley. If she could dodge the kitchen staff, she might stand a chance in making in onto the street that met the alley.
The main entrance would be better. That led right to the already busy streets of morning downtown foot traffic. She could slip between people and use them as something to slow the man down. But Thilo blocked her there.
She’d been so careful. No one in Azra Valley knew her real name. She placed no calls back home to advertise her whereabouts. She never took the same bus route to or from the diner, using the extra time to conceal her tracks. Her hair was still shorter than when he first met her, from back when she thought a style change would help hide her and she switched out wigs like she changed her clothes.
He’d still found her. Nothing would stop Thilo.
The closest she ever came to police help was the second time he caught up to her. Thilo Cipriano was a ghost. No record of him existed in America, none that the police had found while she was still Roxanna Pierce. They thought she was loony and imagining a stalker. Thilo avoided cameras and detection with ease. Even her friends and family thought she was just trying to get some attention, right up until he threatened her family and she fled.
When she was Lydia Michaels and tired of running in Baton Rouge, Thilo strolled into the police station with paperwork saying she was insane and needed to be institutionalized by her next of kin. The forged marriage certificate he flashed convinced the officers to put her in his custody. She shot someone in her escape and hadn’t been brave enough to check if the man survived.
“Nicole! The coffee?” Betsy gestured for her to hurry along.
Thilo’s brows drew together. “Nicole? No, that won’t do. Come along, Roxanne.”
He made a move to round the counter and Roxy knew it’d be over if he laid hands on her. She would destroy herself before she let him touch her again.
So she did what she did best.
She ran.
* * *
Levi’s natural alarm clock forced his eyes open. Even without checking his phone, he knew it would be nearing time to take his place on guard duty. As one of three elite Dragonsworn, it was his job to watch and protect the heir to the Dragon Throne. There was no excuse for tardiness.
Besides, he was due to start training Cassandra de Rege in hand-to-hand combat that afternoon. She’d been sized for miniature body pads and boxing gloves and a whole mess of other equipment. She barely reached his knees but it was time for her to start learning how to defend herself. He was as fond of the child as if she were his own.
Hell, she might be the closest he came to having a child. Dragons couldn’t have children unless they were mated and he certainly didn’t plan on taking a mate anytime soon.
Levi carefully extricated himself from the pile of limbs covering his chest. He didn’t want to wake the girls. One shifted and mumbled in her sleep and he froze until her breathing returned to normal.
The popularity of the Fated Hearts Clubs had grown annoying fast. Levi was finding it hard to have an easy fling without the woman looking him expectantly the next morning and wondering if they were fated to be lifelong mates. He laid no small part of the blame at the Dragon King’s feet. Luca de Rege found his mate after a single visit to the club.
Even avoiding the establishment at all costs didn’t help. It seemed a city with an ever-increasing shifter population also increased the number of women looking for happy ever after. He needed to stop telling his nightly companions he had shifter blood but it was hard to keep secret when his eyes darkened with lust.
Levi finally slithered out of bed without waking his companions and tugged on his jeans. He pulled his shirt over his head and slid his keys silently out of his pocket. He was lacing up his shoes when his cell phone rang loudly in the small apartment.
“Shit.” He cursed and fumbled with the thing until he quieted the ringtone and answered the call. It should have been silenced. Not even an alarm should have shrilled. He was so close to slipping out without detection, the way he liked it.
“You’re late.”
“I have another half hour, dad.” Levi snapped in a whisper.
Brody laughed on the other end. “You’re right. Rafe and I have a bet going. Did I wake her?”
Levi glanced over his shoulder. Two pairs of big, puppy dog eyes met his. “Them. You’re both evil. Pure, unadulterated evil.”
“You owe me. I get double because ‘she’s’ a ‘them.’” Brody’s muffled voice was directed to who Levi assumed was Rafe. The three made up the Dragonsworn team bound by blood and oaths to protect Cassandra de Rege. With their brotherly bond came the brotherly jesting.
“Fuck you both. I’ll be in soon.” Levi ended the call before he could be drawn into or made the subject of any more bets.
“Leaving so soon?” one of the girls asked.
“You could stay a bit longer,” the other suggested.
“Or we could make plans to meet up tonight?” The first licked her lips slowly.
There was zero chance of that. He’s not a one-woman sort of guy. Or two women. They had their bit of fun and that would be the end of it. No need to get their hopes up for anything more by seeing them again.
He stuffed his phone into his pocket and wiggled his way between the two beauties he called company for the night. He didn’t know which one rented the apartment but he knew the bed was far too small to accommodate them all comfortably. No wonder they were a tangled pile when he woke.
He kissed first one’s cheek, then the other. “I wouldn’t dream of subjecting either of you to a life of danger. The mission comes first, dolls, and you deserve someone who will put you first.”
It was a line and they knew it was a line but it was an easy letdown. If they were smart, they would have expected it and not even tried to get him to stay. Neither of them drew his dragon out to play.
It didn’t stop either one from sticking out their lower lips and pouting. Double the fun nearly always came with double the trouble.
He eyed the ceiling before crawling out of bed for the second time that morning. Rafe and Brody were missing out. Sure, they had babes and babies, but Levi couldn’t see the fun in limiting himself to one woman and a life stuck at home. There was a whole world to taste and explore and, now that his Dragonsworn brothers were tied down, it was his job to make sure no woman was left wanting.
Lately, though, there hadn’t been any challenge to it. He went out, bought a few drinks, and found himself tangled up with some woman that he barely remembered days later. They weren’t boring nights by any means but there was something missing. There was no thrill of the chase to keep him interested.
Levi drowned out the incessant itch for more by turning up the music in his car. Fast and sporty, it was made for the sort of mad curves and speedy driving that never happened in the city. But it impressed his dates and he harbored hopes of letting the engine roar on an open road.
He edged through traffic and pulled into the lane needed to reach the parking garage under the skyscraper he and most of the city’s dragons called home. One street before his needed turn, a bus slammed to a stop and opened its doors to let people out at the entrance of the building.
Levi growled and drummed his fingers on the wheel. Traffic made him impatient but he hated carrying his dates around in his dragon form. As much as they loved it, it was too intimate for him. Sometimes cars were the easier option.
He glanced behind him and saw an opening. His foot pressed on the gas and he jerked into the clear lane before he looked forward again.
A flash of a person darted across traffic just as he jerked forward.
“Fuck.” He slammed on his brakes and threw open his door, narrowly avoiding being hit himself. Cars in both lanes honked and drivers rolled down their windows to curse.
He didn’t hear any of it. He rounded the hood and saw her hand fall to the ground. Dark hair circled her round face. Her elbows and knees were scraped to shit but everything looked in its proper spot. Levi knelt at her side and felt for a pulse. Too fast.
Relieved that he hadn’t killed her, he let more details wash over him. A tag clipped to the front of her bright orange dress told him her name was Nicole. The logo on her apron matched one of the tiny diners that had sprung up in the area, hoping to snag a bit of dragon business. Underneath the smell of fried butter and stale coffee was something entirely her and utterly delicious.
His dragon pushed forward and Levi beat the beast back. It wasn’t the time to get fangy after he nearly killed someone. The animal hung back in his mind, heavily present but no longer trying to take control. The scent of her called to the beast but another scent clung to her and made Levi pull back. A male had staked his claim over her. As tempting as she smelled, she was not his to touch.
Levi locked eyes with the bellman who guarded the door to the Dragon Tower. “Get the doc out here! Now!”