Protection, Inc. # 2

By Zoe Chant

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Copyright Zoe Chant 2015

All Rights Reserved

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Chapter One

Lucas

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Tick-tock.

Usually Lucas enjoyed the ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the meeting room of Protection, Inc. So many things in America were so new that they seemed cheap and sterile. But Hal Brennan, the huge bear shifter who ran the private security company, had a taste for the old and cozy. Hence, the clock of wood and brass.

But today the ticking was driving Lucas crazy. He wished Hal had been more of a typical American and furnished the room with a silent digital clock. Then Lucas could have simply not looked at it.

It was time for the weekly meeting, when all seven members of Protection, Inc. reported on their cases, but Lucas was the only one there. He glanced at the clock again to see if he was early, but he was exactly on time. 

“I said, ‘Where is everyone?’” Nick’s voice, raised and rough with annoyance, startled Lucas. He’d been so distracted, he hadn’t seen Nick come in.

Lucas covered up his inattention with an icy stare. Nick scowled, his tattooed arms folded across his chest and his wolf glaring right back at Lucas from behind the man’s green eyes.

“I don’t know,” Lucas admitted. “It’s late— they’re late.”

No. I’m late, he thought. I’m too late. Today is the last day. If I don’t find my mate today, it’s all over.

Tick-tock.

Hal threw open the door. He held a blood-soaked cloth to his head. His shirt was torn, exposing the bulletproof vest beneath.

Lucas started up from his seat. “Hal! You’re hurt.”

“It’s nothing.” Hal looked more embarrassed than pained.

His curvy mate, Ellie, followed close behind him, a first aid kit in her hand. “Hal, sit down and let me examine you.”

Hal’s rugged features softened into a smile. “Sure. I’m all yours.”

He sprawled out in the huge leather chair that had been custom-made for his larger-than-life size. Ellie, who was a paramedic, sat beside him and took his pulse.

“I appreciate you calling me,” Ellie said softly.

Hal ruffled her hair. “No one but you gets to patch me up.”

The intimacy between them made Lucas feel his ever-present loneliness even more sharply. What must it be like to have a mate? Could that bond of love warm even the frozen places inside of him?

The rest of the members of Protection, Inc. filed into the room. From their chatter, they had run into Hal in the parking lot on their way to the meeting.

Rafa, the lion shifter, leaned over the table, his black hair falling over the anxious creases in his forehead. He and Hal had been Navy SEALs together before Hal had founded Protection, Inc.

“Hal—” Rafa broke off, shaking his head ruefully. “No, wait, you’ll say you’re fine no matter what. Ellie, is he all right?”

“Yes, he actually is. It’s a shallow cut, but any wound to the head bleeds a lot. I’ll just put in a few stitches so it doesn’t scar.” Ellie applied antiseptic to a cloth pad and began to clean the cut.

“How’d you get clocked?” Destiny asked, dumping her backpack and skateboard on the floor.

Lucas was amused to see that she and Fiona had come straight from their undercover assignment at a local high school. Fiona was primly dressed as a teacher, her blonde hair pinned into a bun and glasses she didn’t need perched on her elegant nose, while curvy Destiny was impersonating a student in cut-off shorts and light-up sneakers.

“I was fighting three guys, and number four snuck up behind me,” Hal replied.

“Careless,” Shane remarked, making Lucas jump. The quiet panther shifter had managed to sit down next to him without him noticing. At least that wasn’t due to Lucas being distracted; Shane could sneak up on anyone.

Hal shrugged, then winced as the movement pulled at the stitch Ellie was putting in. “They’re all in jail now. Job done. Okay, guys. Report.”

Normally Lucas paid close attention at team meetings. Though his country, Brandusa, had an elected parliament, the royal family still had a substantial amount of power. As the crown prince, he had been raised from childhood to sit through excruciatingly boring, six-hour conferences on taxes and treaties. And then he’d been quizzed on them. Protection, Inc. meetings were no trouble compared to that. Usually he enjoyed hearing everyone’s accounts of protection and adventure.

But despite his training and the exciting stories everyone was telling, his attention drifted. By the end of the day, unless a miracle occurred, he’d be summoned back to Brandusa. Forever.

Tick-tock.

Hal cleared his throat. “Lucas?”

Lucas blinked. Everyone else was looking at him. “Ah. Yes. My assignment is complete. The stalker made an attempt upon my client’s life. I captured him and delivered him to the police.”

“That’s it?” Destiny leaned over and punched his arm. “Give us the details! That’s where the fun is.”

She grinned at him, her warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners. To make herself look younger, she’d put her hair in tiny braids that fell across her merry face. Unlike some of the others, Destiny had accepted him from the beginning, inviting him to get-togethers and treating him as if he was no different from anyone else. At first he hadn’t liked that— after all, he was a prince and a dragon, and was not like everyone else— but he’d come to appreciate her open-hearted nature.

Lucas looked around the room, observing all the people he’d probably never see again— all the people he’d been putting off informing that he’d never see again. Fiona, the snow leopard, whose cool reserve was almost fit for royalty. Rafa, who had soon joined with Destiny in dragging Lucas to strange places like sports bars and barbecue joints, trying in his own way to make him feel like he belonged.

Shane, who had done his terrifying best to intimidate Lucas, but who had respected him when Lucas had passed his test of courage. Nick, the former gangster, whose rough street background made him dislike people born into wealth, but who had backed Lucas up like a brother when they’d worked together.

Hal, who had invited him to join the team in the first place. Ellie, Hal’s sweet and brave mate. Now that Ellie had finished doctoring Hal to her satisfaction, she leaned so close into him that she was practically sitting in his lap, her head against his shoulder and his arm around her back. That was the mate bond: comfort and companionship, passion and love.

A pang of loneliness pierced Lucas to the heart. He’d run out of time, and now he’d never experience that bond. And he couldn’t bring himself to tell his teammates he’d have to leave forever— not when there was still a chance of a miracle.

He remembered a story his old nanny Vasilica had told him. Once there was a horse trainer who had been sentenced to death by the king.

“Wait!” the horse trainer had cried. “If you postpone my execution for one year, I can teach your horse to fly.”

The king (who must have been very gullible, Lucas had always thought) had agreed to postpone the execution, but told the horse trainer that if he failed to teach his horse to fly by the end of it, he’d not only be executed, he’d be tortured to death.

The horse trainer’s best friend approached him afterward and said, “What was the point of that bargain? You only bought yourself a year, and then you’ll be tortured to death!”

The horse trainer replied, “Many things can happen in a year. In a year, I could die, or the horse could die, or the king could die. And who knows? In a year, maybe I really can teach a horse to fly!”

“Lucas?” Hal asked, frowning. “Are you all right? Did something happen that you’re not telling us?”

Lucas glanced at the clock. Twelve hours. Maybe in twelve hours, he’d die, or the princess would die, or Brandusa would be invaded and no one would care about the arrangement. Or maybe in twelve hours, he’d find his mate.

“Nothing of note,” Lucas replied, and recounted his latest job in more detail. He had been trained from childhood to speak in public, and he let his training take over.

After the meeting, the group had lunch. Lucas didn’t notice what he was eating, intent only on finishing so he could leave and go... somewhere his mate might be.

Ellie stepped aside to text on her phone. Lucas watched her absently, wondering if she was talking to her brother Ethan, a Recon Marine who was off on another mission. Then he decided from her giggles that she was chatting with her best friend, Catalina Mendez, a paramedic like herself. No one in Protection, Inc. had ever met her. Catalina, who was even more adventurous than Ellie, volunteered with Paramedics Without Borders. Soon after Ellie had met Hal, Catalina had been called away to help with an earthquake in another country.

Could she be his mate?

“Ellie?” Lucas called. “When is Catalina coming back?”

Ellie’s eyebrows rose; Lucas had never been curious about Catalina before. “Hard to say. Whenever the emergency services in Loredana get back on their feet.”

That caught Lucas’s attention. “Is that where she is? That’s near my country, Brandusa.”

Everyone stared at him. Again.

“Didn’t you know about the earthquake in Loredana?” Fiona inquired. “If it’s near your country...”

Her words stung Lucas far more than she’d probably intended. He detested the implication that he was neglecting his duties to the land he’d left. He straightened his back and inquired, “Why should I pay special attention to a region to which I will never return?”

His tone would have made most people back off, but Ellie didn’t scare easily. She asked, “Why’d you leave?”

Lucas said stiffly, “I had my reasons.”

Destiny slapped Ellie’s shoulder. “Don’t bother. We’ve all asked, but he won’t say. Even Hal doesn’t know.”

Lucas felt an arrogant expression form on his face, like a mask. He was no more than a couple meters from the farthest of them, but he felt a million kilometers away. And he felt even more distant when he realized that after all this time, he still thought in meters and kilometers instead of American feet and miles.

He’d fled Brandusa partly to escape the feeling that he was always alone, even in company. But nothing had changed. He was still in company, and he was still alone.

Everyone was still looking at him. Ellie seemed puzzled, Rafa and Destiny frowned in exasperation, Nick’s glare was outright angry, and Fiona and Shane had applied their best “too cool to care” expressions. Lucas could deal with all that. But Hal looked concerned, and that was the one thing Lucas couldn’t face.

“Lucas—” Hal began.

Lucas pushed back his chair and stood up. “I have work to do.”

He walked out, the door swinging gently shut behind him. Slamming it would be beneath his dignity.

Lucas paused in the lobby to look at the framed photos of everyone’s shift forms. Rafa’s lion, lazing with his family. Hal’s huge grizzly bear, at home in the forest. Fiona’s snow leopard, lithe and deadly. Nick’s fierce wolf, at the head of his pack. Destiny’s tiger, stalking through the jungle. Shane’s panther, whose yellow eyes seemed to burn through the photo. And Lucas’s dragon, soaring over a castle in Brandusa. Another pang of loneliness pierced him at the thought of Hal taking down his picture.

He had to get control of himself. These feelings were also beneath him. He was a prince and a dragon. He had honor and dignity. And that was all that mattered.

Lucas got his car and drove aimlessly along the streets of Santa Martina. He watched all the passing women walking down the sidewalk, driving their cars, shopping and chatting and working. Out of all the billions of people in the world, one was his mate. But what were the odds that he would ever meet her?

Maybe she was Catalina.

Maybe she was a woman in a country he’d never even heard of, whose language he didn’t speak.

Maybe she was right here in Santa Martina, but had never happened to be in the same place as him. Ellie and Hal had lived in Santa Martina for years before they’d met.

Maybe she was dead.

Maybe she hadn’t yet been born.

Maybe she wouldn’t be born until after he was dead.

Lucas drove until the setting sun turned the clouds to puffs of flame. Then, resigned, he headed for his apartment. As he walked upstairs, he thought, Maybe Raluca found her mate.

And maybe in a year, I can teach a horse to fly.

By the time he reached the landing, he wasn’t surprised to see the tall, straight-backed, gray-haired figure, one arm rising to knock on Lucas’s door. Lucas didn’t need to see his face to know him.

“Grand Duke Vaclav,” Lucas called.

His great-uncle turned around. He had tutored Lucas in etiquette, politics, logic, rhetoric, and swordfighting since he’d been a little boy, often remarking that praise made children soft and a prince needed to be strong. He was a man of his word; Lucas only knew he’d done something perfectly when his great-uncle nodded silently rather than finding something to critique. 

The Grand Duke’s stern expression didn’t soften as he said, “Prince Lucas. I have come to summon you home to marry Princess Raluca.”

Lucas’s heart sank into his shoes. Though he knew it was a foolish, obvious thing to say, he couldn’t help asking, “So she hasn’t found her mate?”

His great-uncle’s disapproving stare made Lucas feel like he was ten years old again. “Have you forgotten your lessons in logic after a mere five years? The terms of the treaty stated that if either you or Princess Raluca found your mate, the marriage would not take place. Given that I have come to summon you to marry her, is it possible that she has found her mate?”

“No,” Lucas started to mutter, then remembered that he wasn’t ten. He was twenty-three. He was an adult who had been living by himself for five years. He had protected others with his life. He might have to return to his childhood home, but he didn’t have to return to his childhood.

Lucas forced himself to meet his great-uncle’s cold black eyes. “I was not engaging in a debate, Grand Duke Vaclav. I was making conversation. Have you forgotten your own lessons in rhetoric? That was a rhetorical question.”

Lucas had the small satisfaction of seeing his great-uncle look abashed, though it only lasted for a second.

“Indeed. Well, enough conversation. It is time for you to leave this... place... and do your duty.” Grand Duke Vaclav made place sound like hovel. His disapproving gaze drew Lucas’s attention to every way in which his apartment was not a palace.

Lucas couldn’t help bristling. “May I invite you into my place for refreshment before you depart?”

His great-uncle folded his arms. “No. I will wait here while you set your affairs in order. We are expected at the castle tomorrow night.”

That gave Lucas a couple hours, at most, to dispose of his apartment, his possessions, and his job.

His entire life.

Lucas looked at Grand Duke Vaclav— looked down at him. With a shock, he realized that he was now taller than his great-uncle.

Grand Duke Vaclav had no true power over him. He couldn’t physically drag Lucas back to Brandusa. Nor was any arranged marriage agreement legally binding in America. All Lucas had to do to make the whole thing go away was to refuse to cooperate. His great-uncle would have to fly back to Brandusa empty-handed. Lucas and Raluca would be free to keep searching for their mates, and perhaps someday find them. Lucas could keep working at Protection, Inc.

As if his great-uncle had read his thoughts, he said, “You swore an oath, Prince Lucas. On your honor and by your hoard. If neither you nor Princess Raluca found your mate in five years, then you must marry each other.”

Lucas replied icily, “Do you question my honor or my memory?”

“Neither.” Grand Duke Vaclav’s voice stayed cool, but Lucas felt the knife twist as he went on, “It was a rhetorical statement.”

Lucas unlocked his door without another word. He barely stopped himself from slamming it behind him. Once the door closed, he found himself shaking with anger he was honor-bound to suppress.

And that would be his life from now on.

He looked around his apartment. It was sparely but elegantly furnished, unlike the lavish opulence of the palace. He had enjoyed creating a home just for himself, to please no one but himself. Now everything he did would be a joint decision with Raluca, plus consultation with his family and perhaps some important courtiers and members of parliament.

But there was nothing to be done. He hadn’t taught the horse to fly, and now he had to ride it.

Without giving himself time to think, Lucas picked up the phone and called Hal.

“Ready to tell me what’s going on?” Hal asked, without even saying hello first.

“I am. There is something I have never told you. When I was eighteen, I was promised in marriage. It is part of a treaty between my country, Brandusa, and a neighboring country, Viorel.” Lucas summarized the story of his arranged marriage to Princess Raluca of Viorel and the oath they both had sworn. “That is why I left Brandusa, Hal. I did not wish to marry the princess, and I hoped to find my mate elsewhere. But I never found her, and so I must go.”

“But—” Hal sounded more at a loss than Lucas had ever heard before. “Lucas, have you even met this princess? What if she is your mate, after all?”

“We have met. We are not mates. That is why we were allowed to wait for five years. Every dragon must be permitted a chance to seek out their mate.”

“What happens if you get married, and then one of you finds your mate?”

“Honor takes precedence. Dragons do not divorce.”

“Then don’t marry her!” Hal’s deep voice almost made the phone vibrate in Lucas’s hand. “Tell them all to go to hell. You’ll be doing the princess a favor, too.”

Lucas’s jaw was clenched so tightly, his teeth hurt. He forced his mouth open. “You do not understand. It is a matter of honor. Without honor, I have nothing— I am nothing.”

“I don’t see the honor in marrying someone you don’t love and who doesn’t love you!” Hal spoke in a growl; his bear was close to the surface.

Lucas’s anger and bitterness chilled into an icy numbness. Of course Hal didn’t understand. No American could understand. What did it matter that Lucas had to leave this country, where he had never fit in anyway— could never fit in?

“Hal, I leave you my car, my apartment, and everything in it. Keep them or give them away or sell them, as you please.” Lucas hesitated, remembering how Destiny loved riding in his Porsche Carrera. “No. I leave you my apartment and possessions. Please give Destiny my car.”

“This is crazy, Lucas!” Hal shouted so loudly, Lucas was forced to hold the phone away from his ear. “You sit tight. I’m rounding up whoever’s available, and we’re coming to your apartment to talk some sense into you.”

Lucas spoke quickly; Hal did not live far away. “Ah, and also on second thought, give Rafa my apartment. He jokes about getting a ‘swinging bachelor pad,’ but perhaps he would truly enjoy one.”

“I’m not giving anyone anything of yours, because you’re not leaving!” Hal yelled.

“Let the others look through my possessions. If they see anything they want, please let them take it.” Lucas hated to give up his favorite weapon, a gold-plated custom pistol, but guns were illegal in Brandusa. With a sigh, he said, “Shane may have my Desert Eagle. He will treat it with the care it deserves.”

Hal spoke with quiet urgency. “Lucas, don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right there.”

“The key will be under the mat.”

The line clicked as Hal hung up. Lucas hoped Hal had heard him.

Unlike most shifters, dragons could take their clothing and some additional weight with them when they transformed. Lucas had always supposed it was from necessity. If dragons had to leave behind their gold when they shifted, they would probably never shift at all.

He opened the safe that contained his hoard. His dragon’s lust for gold and jewels took him even in his haste, and for several seconds he stood mesmerized by the exquisite glitter of his treasure. Then he poured the precious gems and gold coins into a pouch and tied it around his waist, and put on all the jewelry. The chill and weight of gold was soothing on his skin.

Lucas caught sight of himself as he strode past a reflective window, with jeweled rings on every finger and heavy gold chains wrapped around his throat and wrists. He looked like a king about to ride out to his death in a battle he knew he could not win.

He stepped out into the corridor, locked the door, and slipped the key under the mat. “I’m ready.”

For the first time in Lucas’s life, Grand Duke Vaclav gave him an approving nod. “Now you look like a proper prince.”

Lucas hurried him up the stairs, expecting at any minute to hear the loud tread of Hal’s footsteps behind them. When they got to the roof, he made a quick but thorough scan of the area. No one was in sight, and no planes or helicopters flew overhead.

“Conceal yourself,” Grand Duke Vaclav warned him. “You do not know who might be watching.”

“I know,” Lucas snapped, and was annoyed to hear his own voice. He sounded like the resentful teenager he had once been. He had to keep hold of his real self: Lucas the man, not Lucas the boy.

He could tell already that it would be hard.

Grand Duke Vaclav drew in a deep breath. The air around him sparkled black. Lucas’s vision blurred, and he felt the desire to look elsewhere, accompanied by the certainty that what he was looking at was ordinary and unimportant. But he kept watching. As a dragon shifter, he still felt the effects of draconic concealment, but unlike humans or non-dragon shifters, he could resist them.

The black sparks became a whirlwind, then a blizzard. Grand Duke Vaclav vanished within the flurry. Then the sparks winked out of existence. Where a gray-haired man had once stood, a dragon crouched. Every scale and claw gleamed black as if it had been carved from polished iron.

“Lucas!”

He spun around. Hal and Nick burst through the stairs and stood facing him. Hal must have found Nick in the gym; his chest was bare, and his black hair and werewolf gang tattoos glistened with sweat.

“I am sorry, Hal. I...” Lucas swallowed against a lump in his throat. “I have very much enjoyed working at Protection, Inc. I shall never forget it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nick burst out. “And what’s with all that bling?”

The iron dragon’s obsidian eyes narrowed in contempt. He launched off the roof and rose into the sky, then dipped a wingtip, urging Lucas to join him.

Hal and Nick couldn’t see the dragon, but Hal must have spotted Lucas’s gaze shift.

“Is someone here with you?” Hal asked. His hand was on his gun; so was Nick’s. “Lucas, are you leaving of your own free will?”

No, Lucas thought. I am leaving because honor compels me.

But Hal wouldn’t understand that.

“No one can force a dragon to do anything.” Lucas lowered his gaze, unable to meet the frustrated concern in Hal’s hazel eyes or the hot anger in Nick’s green eyes. “Farewell.”

He reached within himself, seeking his dragon. Lucas drew upon his lust for gold, his joy in flight, and the assured power and detachment that he could only imitate as a human. He saw Hal and Nick begin to run forward. Then he was lost in his own transformation, his blood burning through his veins like molten gold, his body expanding like a butterfly breaking free of its cocoon.

His wings stretched out, his powerful legs tensed, and then he was aloft, soaring above the rooftop. The two humans shrank below, frustration and anger in every line of their bodies. Their faces turned upward, seeking him, but whether they could see him or not, he was out of their reach.

The part of Lucas that belonged to the man felt his heart crack into a million tiny pieces. Then his dragon took over. He twisted easily in the air, his wings stroking upward, shedding all feelings but glory in the freedom of the sky.

The gold dragon followed the iron dragon, heading home.

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