Chapter Four
With her foster father gone, Ashlyn took it upon herself to fill in where he’d left off. Determined to show him she could do more than feed the birds and give tours of the aviary, she had waited for this opportunity for over a decade.
She sat at his desk, a neat surface with a dusty computer and an even more ancient looking rotary phone. She dusted them both off, flipped through the files on the corner of the desk, and sighed. Dr. Kovak left instructions for her and Quintin to take over his charting and for the rotation of the eggs. She turned on the computer, heard its ancient buzz of booting up and found it did her no good. Her foster father had placed a password on his files.
She tried all different combinations of names and dates, about to give up when her sleeve caught on the edge of a folder pushed under a desktop calendar. Pulling out the folder, she squinted at the label with her name on it. A rim of dark yellow tinted the edges where one corner had been exposed to the light for a long time. She opened the file, stared at the contents, and her stomach twisted.
She read and re-read the pages. No! This couldn’t be! She glared at the photographs of her parents and her as a baby. And at the government issued certificate that couldn’t be correct. There under the classification it stated DRAGON breed REGAL COPPER.
Ha. Ha. Her foster father had to know she would snoop and placed it there as a joke. Only her heart pounded. She almost crumpled it. Would have, except for the official Turkish seal. She ran her hand over the embossment. She’d seen this seal a dozen times before. She couldn't’ deny its authenticity.
Someone had made a mistake. Or a very cruel joke.
The Sullivan’s couldn’t have been another set of foster parents. They couldn’t. They were her parents. That was a human baby in the arms of human parents, but in the pages to follow she scanned the analysis of the egg once the dragon species hatched. She shook her head, tried to clear the terrible thought. She was Ashlyn Candance Sullivan. Wasn’t she? Could she be?
No. Yes…
“Hey, baby. Miss me?”
Ashlyn almost jumped out of her chair at the sound of Sigurd’s voice. Flustered she slapped the file closed. She kept her hand on it, looked at him, and blinked. He leaned against the office door jam. “You all right, baby?”
Creases formed on his forehead and his lips turned down. He took two long strides and came around the desk beside her. “Geez. I know I have an effect on women, but they don’t usually go all ghostly on me.”
Ashlyn took a deep breath. Suddenly feeling light headed, she closed her eyes and leaned over the desk. “This is all a bad dream.”
She didn’t dare open her eyes. She never expected the lark to return. She wanted him to go away. She would have to make the file disappear. None of this ever happened. She didn’t see a thing. She wouldn’t get all worked up over it. There was a logical explanation. She was, after all, the daughter of a bird scientist.
“That bad of day, huh?” Sigurd pushed her hair away from her face. “Look at me.”
She opened her eyes, looked at him. “I’m a dragon.” She didn’t know why, it came out without warning.
“Did you think you were a bird?” Sigurd asked, then chuckled.
She straightened, she should have known better than to make a lark of a man-dragon like him understand. “I am a dragon,” she said, slowly, waiting for it to sink in for him.
“So am I.” He shrugged. “You show me your true colors, baby, I’ll show you mine.” He wiggled his brows at her.
She pressed her hand against his chest to shove him away, but his chest felt solid to her touch. Under the thin layer of his t-shirt she pressed her fingertips into his pecs. “I’ve already seen the colors of the likes of you.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He pulled her up against him, clasped a hand over her hip to hold her close. He leaned down, his cheek pressed against hers. “I’m part Winchester and part Blue, but I imagine you’ll turn more red than yellow when I mount you.” He blew cool breath against her ear.
She gasped, tried to pull back, but he held her there. Trailing light kisses down her exposed neck, he licked her, and she shivered with anticipation. “You’re crazy if you think I’d ever fall into bed with the likes of you.”
He pulled back, those blue-gray eyes of his narrowed. Then as if the moment passed in the blink of an eye, he had that silly grin of his on his face again. “I almost forgot, this is a hatchery, is it? Then it will be a nest to your liking then?”
“No. No. And no!” Ashlyn shoved him away. He didn’t budge. She scoped up the file and put some distance between them, fast. She’s smelled the change in him. The heady waft of testosterone, sweat, and his dragon. She’d always been able to identify dragons before her sister or foster family recognized them.
She glanced down at the file. Had she always been able to tell what they were because she was one herself? Absurd. This is all crazy.
“No? No bed? No nest? What is the third ‘no’ for if you don’t mind me asking?” He crossed his arms and stared at her. She risked a glance at him. She didn’t like the spark his tongue caused to flare inside her.
Dragons are dangerous. She tilted her chin up. Held the file against her chest. “No to all of this. To you.”
“Playing hard to get, are you? Fine. I like to play, and when I win you’ll become my mate.” He challenged her. She saw him undressing her with his eyes. More, he stripped her down to her soul and a shiver ran through her. It both thrilled her and terrified her.
She wouldn’t become like one of them. She despised dragons. But how could something so dangerous look so… “I have to go. Some of us actually have a real purpose around here.”
She rushed out of Dr. Kovak’s office. Sigurd didn’t stop her. Didn’t say a world. He crossed his arms and watched her go.