Timothy Drago, the dragon of water, member of the council of elements, one of the most powerful dragon shifters in the world, had a problem.

It wasn’t the fact that the council was in a constant state of alarm, due to the threat posed by dangerous fire dragons, who’d recently reappeared.

No, his problem was much simpler. The master of the council, the ancient chimera Gareth, had ordered him to find his mate as quickly as possible.

And to make matters worse, Timothy had been saddled with the task of babysitting their captive fire dragon Braeden at the same time.

Things couldn’t get much worse than that.

Braeden was unable to shift into his dragon form or access his powers, because they kept him dosed with dragonsbane, and the chimera had fitted bracelets of obsidian around his wrists that kept his powers locked.

Still, having a fire dragon commenting on his so far rather unsuccessful attempts to find his mate had quickly become extremely irritating.

“Why don’t you just give up?” Braeden said with a smirk. “I can already tell you that there’s no way a human woman would ever want to live with you.”

Timothy briefly considered throwing his phone at the dragon, but then kept swiping through the pictures in the tenth dating app he’d downloaded.

It would have been bad enough to try and find his mate among shifters—but a human mate? There were millions of them out there! It felt rather like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack—but he’d be damned if he’d give the fire dragon the satisfaction of admitting to that.

“That’s because you have no idea how women work,” Timothy said blithely. “Last summer I went on a cruise where they shot for a new fashion collection. Within a week I’d gone on a date with every single model on that ship.”

He smirked at Braeden, who in turn gave him a disgusted look.

“No wonder you’re not finding anyone. I’d rather date a frog than you, if I were a human woman.”

“Ha, I bet a frog is the only creature on this planet who’d date you, fire dragon,” Timothy said pointedly. “What with wanting to destroy us all. Not a good look on the first date.”

“And leading all those women on is?” Braeden snorted, then demonstratively turned away.

In turn, Timothy threw himself down onto the couch, idly swiping through the app some more. “We’re all just having fun. You should try that some time. Oh, I forgot—you can’t.”

The truth was that while Timothy had been a bit of a party animal in his youth, he’d quickly grown out of it. But pretending that he was off dating ten supermodels at a time infuriated Damon, the prim earth dragon, and so Timothy had kept up the stories. It was an image he was comfortable with, even though the truth was that most of the time, nothing happened apart from some good-natured flirting.

His exploits on the cruise had been more like a business arrangement at the time. The models liked the paparazzi attention and free PR that came from being seen in his company, and he in turn liked the attention it brought for the fundraiser he’d run at the time. But the truth was that even supermodels had to get up early in the morning for work, and Timothy had long ago outgrown the disappointing pleasure of casual sex.

Which didn’t mean that he’d stopped wanting to enjoy himself. But you could have fun going out for drinks and dancing with a gorgeous model without going home with her afterward.

Not that he’d give Damon the pleasure of admitting that.

“Anyway, I’ve already got a date for tonight,” Timothy said with a smirk. “I don’t have one for you, sorry. But you’ll still have to come along. It’s what the chimera decided, remember.”

“He didn’t decree that I was to witness your... your debauchery and wantonness,” the fire dragon said prissily.

Timothy laughed so hard he almost dropped his phone. “Debauchery! That’s a good one. Anyway, you’re supposed to get a better idea of human life, so you’re coming to that nightclub with me. Get a good look at how humans party.”

The fire dragon scowled. “From what I’ve learned about humans so far, I know that I like them way better than I like you. You, I wouldn’t mind burning down.”

“Pity that you can’t.”

Timothy idly waved his hand, and a small amount of ocean water splashed into Braeden’s face from out of nowhere. “Now go dry yourself and get ready. We’re heading out in ten minutes.”

“I hope you’ll never find your mate,” Braeden said darkly. “I hope you go insane and they’ll put you out of your misery. I’ll be there clapping when it happens.”

“I think I’m going to take you to a goth club tomorrow. You’ll feel right at home.”

Timothy smirked when Braeden angrily retired into his own room, then sighed and started to get ready himself.

He couldn’t even say why he’d asked one of the lawyers working for him if she had a single sister.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time—or rather, so far he hadn’t been able to find his mate no matter what he’d tried, so by this point any approach seemed fair.

He’d make sure her sister had a good time. He’d be charming and buy her expensive champagne and make her laugh, and in the early morning hours, he’d slink back to his apartment all alone and disappointed, because none of the hundreds of women in the nightclub had turned out to be his mate.

Maybe the earth dragon was right after all. Maybe it was a stupid idea. But what can I do? We can’t all be as lucky as air and earth and just run into our mate by accident.

Maybe in the end Timothy would be the one who couldn’t find a mate, despite all of his natural charm. Maybe he was the only one of them fated to go insane and die.

And wouldn’t the fire dragon like that.

Timothy glared at the mirror as he shrugged on a shirt and buttoned it up.

There was more at stake than just his life.

A mysterious, fourth plinth had appeared in the council chamber. A plinth marked by the element of fire. Which meant that finally, a fire dragon had appeared who was master of the element itself.

It was that dragon who had to be their enemy. The most dangerous one out of the bunch that had recently reappeared.

And to defeat him, the council needed to be at its most powerful. Which meant that Timothy, as the last unmated council member, needed to be mated to access his full powers.

His phone flashed with new notifications from one of the many dating apps he’d installed, but he ignored it. Tonight, he’d try finding her the old-fashioned way. Surely she had to be out there somewhere.