Chapter Two
What a cocky prick!
Ash waited until she saw him turn the corner down the hall before going into an adjourning room where she put her pail down on a metal table and proceed to seethe.
Know who he was? She almost laughed out loud. An egotistical dragon. That is what he was. She recognized his type. She inhaled the sting of his scent, like dried ice and vapors stirred in peppermint.
She’d have to keep an eye on this one. Strange, Margaret never mentioned sending another dragon to watch over things. It shouldn’t surprise her, not since a tide of misgivings and betrayal started to wash through the Dragon Keeper Society.
Ash placed her hands down on the cool steel. She felt her body start to flush, the way it did often when she became angered.
She took a deep breath, willed herself to relax, and pushed her foster sister and Margaret’s ward, Jacques, from her mind. She turned her focus on the sexy hunk of muscle who’d waltzed right up to her at the bayberry tree.
She laughed. For all the good looks of a god in disguise, he had the brains of a lark. He’d mistaken her for one of his own kind. Her? A daughter of the ancient dragon riders?
She didn’t let it amuse her for long. She disposed of the pail, marked her feeding of the finches on the chart, and looked up as Quintin walked in. “If you’re just now coming to help me do the feeding I’m nearly finished. I’ve just got the phoenix and then we can grab a meal.”
“Wish I could.” He turned to the cupboards and rummaged through the shelves. His shoulders matched the width of the new guy, and they could stand toe to toe. But her heart didn’t skip a beat when Quintin came near as it had when Sigurd Eltvik had taken her hand to his lips.
“We don’t have any more of the heat bulbs, do we?”
Ash slipped around the table, sure to slide against Quintin as she reached in the cupboard overhead, determined to prove herself wrong. “They’re here. I didn’t think we needed anymore incubators in the hatchery. Did we get new eggs?”
It seemed Dr. Kovak informed her of these things less and less since his days of return from his unexpected visit to see his daughter, Emily. Not that she, Emily’s foster sister, had been invited. The elder, and undoubtably wiser, she had chosen to stay close to the haven where Margaret had placed her, closer to the new family she’d been assigned, and safe from the dragon mercenaries who had killed her parents.
Dragons like Sigurd Eltvik.
She cozied up to Quintin. A native to the village, his dark hair mussed and draped over thick brows. He ignored her attempt to get close, gathered the bulbs, and headed for the door. “These are for the large incubator.”
She reached out and grabbed one of the bulbs he juggled in his hands. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve got to get going. Dr. Kovak is waiting on me.” Quintin took off in his long stride and Ash hurried to keep up with him.
“What’s going on? Have we got a new egg or a hatchling?”
Quintin’s lips thinned. He didn’t answer. She tried pressing him. “Surely it’s not a secret?”
His brows furrowed, and he stretched his gait and she fell behind him, but she wouldn’t let him leave her out of this.
She kept up with him across the aviary part of the building and into the hatchery where she saw the tall Romanian dragon waiting for them along with Dr. Kovak.
Her foster father’s expression darkened with the displeasure of laying eyes on her, but she couldn’t mistake the deep blue eyes of Sigurd Eltvik brightened as she dared a glance at him.
“Why aren’t you feeding the birds?”
“I’ve finished. I thought I could lend a hand to Quintin. Have we new arrivals?” She looked to the three men for an answer.
“Quintin, this is Sigurd, he’ll be assisting you in the haven and overseeing security.” Dr. Kovak turned to Sigurd. “I take it you have met my daughter, Ashlyn.”
Sigurd grabbed the bulb in her hands. “So, you’re the Ash I’ve heard about. Your sister speaks highly of you.”
Ashlyn stepped back, not from the zap to her fingers from his touch, but from hearing her sister’s name. “You know Emily?”
Dr. Kovak adjusted his rimless glasses and before Sigurd could answer placed himself between them. “Quintin will provide you with your clearance card and show you what you need to know during your stay with us. Ashlyn, you’ll arrange one of the guest tree houses for Sigurd.”
“Tree house? Don’t you mean a cave father? After all, isn’t he one of them?”
Sigurd’s brow rose.
“Mr. Eltvik is here as our guest. We’ll see to his comfort, no matter how long his stay.”
“This way, man.” Quintin gave Sigurd a nudge across the hatchery. She opened her mouth, about to correct Quintin. He wasn’t a man. He was a dragon, but then Sigurd narrowed his eyes on her, and Ashlyn couldn’t move. A little tingle of heat spread through her womb.
Only when he turned and walked away did she remember to close her mouth and breathe through her nose. She watched him follow Quintin across the hatchery, past the Ostrich nests and down behind the glass incubators.
Then Ashlyn crossed her arms and blew a stray hair out of her eyes as she glared at her father. “Really, Dr. Kovak, I’m here to assist you with your work, not oversee the accommodations of shelter seeking dragons. I should be here in the hatchery or helping Quintin. We have guest services over at the aviary to handle booking nights in the tree houses.”
“I understand your frustrations. You are doing a fine job in the aviary and I know you will treat Sigurd Eltvik with all the respect and hospitality as your mother would.”
He referred to his wife, Laurel, Emily’s mother, but not Ash’s. Not her real mother. Not the woman who’d loved her those first ten years of her life before having been torn away from her. Before Margaret had come. Before she’d been left to this family.
A family where she never felt she belonged.
“And for what means is he here? Is he not an addition to our security then?”
Dr. Kovak placed his hand on her arm. “It is not my place to explain this to you. It is better to know nothing than to have others put in danger.”
Ashlyn fisted both hands, flexed her muscles. “This has something to do with Emily. You’re protecting her.”
Dr. Kovak sighed. “I’m protecting both you.”
She knew from that look in her foster father’s eyes, he wouldn’t give her anymore answers, nor would he stand and argue with her. Good thing for her, she knew someone else who could give her the answers.