If Luc could have compared his leader to anything in the world at that moment, he would have chosen a volcano. His leader, a black dragon named Dane King, had lost it when Luc finally descended on their Territory. None of the words aimed at Luc had been particularly nice, but he knew it was out of fear. Dane not only feared for the foundation of this new Embassy, but for one of his closest friends.

“What in the world possessed you to take one of your awful pranks to the Embassy? Do you understand how much work Liana and I are putting into it? You could have ruined everything it stood for today.”

“It was a freaking mannequin,” Luc argued. “If anything, the agent is on edge around our kind and shouldn’t even be placed there. It’s GOE’s fault that they hire dragon haters.”

Dane sighed. “You’re not wrong, but at the same time you need to be aware that we can’t go around triggering this guy. He’s our connection to GOE and we need that to be a stable connection while the Embassy is running. GOE is our connection to the human world and the human law makers. The States aren’t going to be any nicer toward our kind if GOE acts like they hate us still.”

Luc’s mind wandered back to the pretty intern. He was still angry every time he thought about how the agent had dragged the woman out by her arm. They should contact GOE and ask for a replacement. He was clearly unfit for the position they’d put him in if he was willing to shoot mannequins and manhandle young women.

“Try anything like that off the Territory ever again and you’re Territory bound for as long as you breathe.” Dane’s words were final. There was no arguing with them.

Panic seized Luc. There was so much that still needed to be done. They still had to find their parents. Luc needed to know what was between him and the human intern he’d met. He could do none of those things while he was Territory bound. Instead of raging against Dane’s decree, Luc held himself back. He had one more chance.

One more.

“Brother,” a familiar voice snapped Luc back to reality. Marc looked at his twin with disappointment. It was like a knife through Luc’s heart. “You need to take this seriously.”

Luc’s lips pulled back from his teeth. “You don’t think I take this seriously? You don’t think I want to find out what happened to our parents?”

Marc pressed his lips together as he studied his twin’s face. He was the calmer twin, always level headed and reserved while Luc was the wild card. Luc pulled people into his whirlwind, playing pranks and exploring everything the world had to offer.

“If you took anything seriously, you wouldn’t have left a masked mannequin in Liana’s closet at the new Embassy.”

His twin pushed past him without another word. Luc wanted to roar to the skies. He wanted to scream his frustration and rattle the trees around him. Luc wanted nothing more than the truth, than a chance to get his parents back. He couldn’t believe his own brother didn’t trust him.

Instead, Luc straightened his spine. The crackling frustration slowly fizzled out and a steel determination set in. Luc would show them that he could be serious. He would put his head down and keep working toward their goal.

It was all he had left.

As he retreated to their modular home, Luc dared a glance back at his leader’s cabin. Through the big, bay window, he could see Liana chasing Miri around the living room while the small child waved around a stuffed dragon. Dane was lingering in the back, failing at holding back his laughter.

So quickly, they had become a family. Dane had found his mate overseas and once they brought her home, the child found her way into their lives. Luc couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything like that in store for his own life. He could see Marc, his twin, happily settling down with a mate, but Luc didn’t know if fate would allow him such a thing.

Both of them had been looking to the past their entire lives. Now, he glanced toward the future and felt apprehension grip his chest. No, he wouldn’t think about it. He wouldn’t dwell on something that might not happen. All Luc needed was to find his parents.

In that moment, Luc wondered if he’d been attempting to not think about the future this whole time. It was as if every little prank, every joke he cracked was to keep himself living in the moment. Tomorrow was another day, one that held mysteries Luc couldn’t unfold. For all he knew, the GOE agent would turn around and demand his arrest. His brother could go missing like his parents had.

No one could tell him that tomorrow might be a good day. All Luc has was the here and now.

 

***

 

“You’d think you’d be a little more open minded, Dad.” Anya playfully jabbed her father with her elbow. Their skin tones were several shades apart from one another, hers darker from her mother’s African American heritage. Mixed race marriages still weren’t too well accepted in the US, especially not in the rural part of the world where the Guardians of Existence assigned her family.

Her father cast a narrow eyed sidelong glance at her. He was not playing into her carefully worded argument, knowing that she had one stored in that noggin of hers. Anya spared a moment to pout and then let go of the argument. Her father would not be swayed from his view of the dragons. It didn’t matter if they suddenly rained gold over the states, he would complain that dropping gold was hazardous.

Anya wished she could have done something more to sway her father’s view, help him to see the world as she did, because her mind kept returning to the offending dragon. No matter how many times she shook her head to dispel him, he returned.

The dragon had been tall, his shirt clinging to broad shoulders and defining a narrow waist. Black hair had fallen over his forehead, cut short to keep out of his sincere, iridescent eyes. They gleamed like the colors hidden in an oil slick. Anya had wondered what was hidden beneath his human skin. Perhaps, when she got home she would look into South America and their dragon mythology.

No, she wouldn’t. She would go home and fill out the rest of the forms needed for this internship. She wouldn’t go digging around the internet for information about a dragon. She had no reason to be in his business. Absolutely none.

Yet, her mind slowly returned to him again. When his eyes had landed on her, there had been a flash in them, a smirk on his lips. That expression had made her cheeks warm. She’d had to turn away from her father to hide the pink on her face. He would have lost it and the dragon would have been detained.

Anya had already gone against all of her father’s wishes and spent the last two years of her life in a Public relations major with a minor in American Dragon History. He knew she wanted to help change their status here in the States, not that he approved. It’d been her mother that had held him back from stopping her.

If Anya got caught up with this iridescent eyed dragon, there would be no stopping her father’s wrath. All Anya had to do was keep her head down and work hard, get through her internship and move on to her job in DC. That was her dream.

Of course, it would make her father a bit happier, too. There were no dragons in DC as far as they all knew.

“I don’t think you should intern there,” her father finally said.

“I’m not a child,” Anya grumbled. This was a conversation they had at least once a day. The only difference was that her mother wasn’t there to diffuse the situation.

“No, you aren’t. But it is still my money that is paying for your education.” Her father focused on the road ahead of them as if he knew he couldn’t stand the look on her face already. “I think this internship might not be the best for you. It’s still new and finding its legs, meaning it could fail while you’re working there and that would look awful on any application. On top of all that, it is full of irresponsible dragons that could easily hurt you by accident.”

The dragon’s prank had been irresponsible, but it hadn’t hurt anyone. She couldn’t tell her father that. She couldn’t remind him that he’d overreacted to the situation. The dummy hadn’t done anything to deserve what he’d done to it.

“You’re not stopping me,” she said, her words final. She would walk there if he took away her car. She would find a way. This was the dream internship she’d always hoped for. It was the best foot in the door for what she wanted to spend her life doing.

Beside her, her father sighed. His voice was gentle when he spoke. “You can’t save everyone.”

“I can try.”

Despite her small size, Anya seemed to be convinced she was big enough to repair every injustice in the world. She spent her weekends volunteering at the local animal shelter and would gladly stop traffic for an animal trapped on a highway. She gave their thanksgiving leftovers to the homeless and her old clothing to shelters.

“I know your heart is in the right place, but a dragon is not a puppy. It is not an innocent thing that the world has treated unfairly. Dragons are dangerous creatures with violent streaks. There is no helping their situation in the US because they’ve earned this place through their own actions.”

This was another old argument. Anya saw the world very differently. She’d carefully read the laws pertaining to the dragons in this country and found very little hope for a dragon here. The best they could get was a place in the Territory in Nebraska, becoming part of the quiet family that had never done anything to deserve the biased laws.

The SUV pulled into their driveway and Anya shoved her door open. Living with her parents was convenient because it was so close to the Territory and the new Embassy where she interned, but it was not going to be enjoyable, she thought. Anya missed her apartment off campus that she shared with other students. She missed the freedom she’d had there, even if she couldn’t have pets.

“This conversation isn’t over, Anya.”

She stopped and spun around. Her face was flush with defiant anger. The image of the dragon man flashed through her mind again, sending an odd sensation through her gut. The idea of never seeing him again terrified her. It was such a sudden and forceful emotion that she was wordless for a moment.

Her father took that opportunity to press on. “I am your father and I get to say what I think is safe and unsafe for you. I think you should call the organization in DC and take the internship they offered you a week ago. If you don’t, then I will have no other option.”

Anya leveled her steady glare at her own father. The tiny plugs in his scalp from the hair transplant process always made her laugh. It made it easier to look at him without being too angry. It helped keep her from yelling in return.

“I’ve already accepted this internship. There is nothing you can do to stop it, Dad. It’s only a few months of work and then I’m going back to school. That’s it. I’m sure you can deal with it.”

Without giving him a chance to speak, she spun back toward the door. A pair of mutt dogs came pouring out when she whipped it open. Feeling the short fur of the Staffordshire terrier mix under her hand helped calm her down. She looked down at the sweet, brown eyes and felt a smile spread over her lips. The dog happily licked her hand, covering it with slobber.

Both dogs were examples of how Anya could do anything if only she was determined enough. They were rescues about to be put down in the shelter and she’d brought them home. Both of her parents had been angry once they discovered she’d brought them into their house, but the dogs managed to grow on her parents so that they earned a place in their home.

The dogs broke away after greeting her. A long-legged Collie and Greyhound mix returned to its bed beneath her mother’s desk. A pair of reading glasses sat on the edge of her mother’s button nose, a feature Anya was glad she inherited from her mother.

“How’s the next spy novel going?” Anya asked her mother to keep her father from continuing their conversation.

“How’s the argument going?” Bernice Forrest asked in return.

“Same thing, different day.”

Without jumping in on the back and forth Anya had with her mother, her father retreated to the kitchen and cracked open a beer. He deserved it, she thought. It isn’t every day he gets to Taser a dummy. Anya followed suit, grabbing a beer before heading upstairs to finish her paperwork.

Unfortunately, the beer only helped her thoughts to return to the dragon man she’d met. She thought about his smile, like she’d dazed him and all he could do was smile at her like that. It made her chest warm. She couldn’t help but hope that she might see him again the next day.

She knew that humans could be a dragon’s mate. She’d read about it online, it was rare but it has happened before... How did they know when they were mates? How was the bond acknowledged? Were there fireworks at first sight? Or was it more like this, that constant nagging feeling in the back of your mind?

Anya knew better. She wasn’t a dragon’s mate. She was the daughter of a high ranking GOE agent. She would get on with her life and go to DC to lobby for dragon rights, not fall in love with a bronze skinned dragon man.

 

***

 

First thing in the morning, Anya poured herself a cup of chai in a travel mug and skirted out the door before her father could stop her. She needed to take her own car, a beat-up Jeep, anyway. Today, she had to log into data storage at the nearby GOE facility and start sending electronic files over to the computer system at the American Dragon Embassy.

For this, she chose a simple midi skirt and tucked in t-shirt combo. It felt much more comfortable compared to the little dress she’d worn yesterday. She could still feel Beauchamp’s eyes like slime across her legs. The tea provided a jolt of caffeine with each sip, the bracelets on her wrist jangling with more cheer than Anya could manage that early.

If she was lucky, she would be able to flash her badge, fumble into the secure office and begin the transfer without any interference. That was if she was lucky. It turned out, this day, that Anya had a little bit of luck in storage. The security guard at the door scanned the dependent status identification badge she’d had for years, even asked her how her father was doing before letting her through.

There was no receptionist on duty to ask Anya when she was going to cash in her rain check with Beauchamp or warn her to not let a catch like that slip past her. That meant Anya didn’t have to choke back the gag she felt each time she had to sit through the interaction.

Her badge slid through the key card lock and welcomed her into the secure office, number 114 as mandated by her instructions from Headquarters. Anya wondered why she had to use this computer in particular. There were other offices she could have accessed, labs with computers readily available for agent research.

She tried not to question the American branch of the Guardians of Existence because, most of the time, they showed that they didn’t outwardly hate anything not human. The higher ups had assigned Tasers and not silver loaded handguns as the weapon of choice during the assembly of the Embassy and that gave her hope. It might have been to keep from having a lawsuit on their hands as the dragons grew to become their own entity within the country, but Anya would take a win where she could get it.

Sipping her chai and getting frustrated with her jewelry choice, Anya slowly began the digital transfer of files. They were sent in chunks, data and information packaged by decade from which she worked back in time. The first files to go were the early 2000’s. Then back into the nineties and eighties. It wasn’t until Anya reached the file that belonged to the decade of the sixties that she had a problem.

A red error flashed across the screen when the data refused to send. She set down her chai and glared at the screen. There shouldn’t have been a problem. Anya checked her connection and it seemed to be fine. Not once had she thought to click on the folders to see what laid inside them.

Feeling anxiety begin to stir, she clicked on the defiant folder. It prompted an access code, the box bordered by a red band that said this was a high-level security file. Brows furrowing, Anya decided to test something. She closed out of the security code box and clicked on a copy of one of the previous files she’d sent. The information freely opened and spilled out over the screen.

She didn’t understand why the other decades of information weren’t bound by access codes if the older ones were. Anya closed out of the information she’d opened and returned to the defiant file. There was only one thing she could do that would allow her to sleep at night. She chewed her lip. She could leave it and let GOE have its secrets, or she could open it and figure out why this file was locked.

In the end, Anya couldn’t leave it be. She’d seen her father use his passcode on his work laptop at home in the past week, memorized it in case she needed anything at the Embassy that an intern wasn’t normally allowed to access. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but it often made Anya’s life a bit easier. There had been times she’d even been able to charge cafeteria food to his account by memorizing his passcodes.

Anya held her breath as she typed in the code. It might not work, she told herself. If it didn’t, there would be a flag up in another office that someone without access tried opening an encrypted file. It would be only a matter of moments before they realized she’d done it. Still, she pressed ENTER and waited.

The program seemed to be content because a wall of files opened before her. She couldn’t believe how many there were. She scrolled up and down. None of the file titles made any sense to her. They weren’t labeled by month and year like the other files had been. These were labeled with letters and numbers that didn’t add up to anything.

Curious, she clicked a file labeled LA-257. With baited breath she watched the folder unfold into several redacted documents and scanned photographs. The first document that appeared listed the details of what seemed to be a person, from hair, eye, and skin color to weight and disposition. Anya wondered if these were documents from detainees after the Welsh Occurrence.

She knew that there were a number of dragons that had been unfairly arrested only to be released years later when circumstances changed. But, the files she found started to change. The next document began with words that when strung together sounded suspiciously like a weapon. Anya’s stomach dropped. She flicked over to the photos that had been scanned into the folder.

Grainy images in black and white depicted a woman with a stern set to her face. She had dark curls that were carefully pinned back and a set of silver cuffs around her wrists. It was a mugshot. The next photo changed dramatically. The woman from the mugshot was strapped to a table, her face twisted in pain while several men in surgical uniforms plucked feathers from her arm.

Suddenly, the screen flashed before her face. The files all disappeared. Panic was a knife in her chest. The sixties folder disappeared completely. Even when she searched for it again, the folder was nowhere to be found. Her eyes shot up to the door.

She had to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her and now it was going to cost her father his job. Why had she been so dumb? Why couldn’t she leave things alone?

Using her father’s passcode to access the files was going to show as a leak in security that would lead them right to his doorstep. If they found out he’d let anyone else learn his code he was in trouble. There was a reason the codes were changed every few weeks.

Anya gathered her bag and her travel mug and shot out of her chair. If she could slip out unnoticed, she would go hide in the Embassy basement until she figured out what she could do to fix this for her father. If someone caught her… she could lie. She could say that she slipped up and accidentally opened the folder. It was a stretch.

Another fear churned deep within her stomach, a truth that would not lie still no matter how hard she tried to look away from it. That woman had been a dragon, one that had been arrested for whatever reason. There was no instance when an arrest meant consent to experiments like the one she’d seen. Why were they removing the feathers that appeared in her semi-dragon form? What did that gain anyone?

Anya slipped past the door, praying that the receptionist was still away from her desk. If she was lucky, the woman had called out sick this day. But, it seemed Anya’s luck had run out. Not only was the receptionist sitting happily behind her too large desk, but the head of the facility, Andrea Backus, and Agent Beauchamp leaned against the desk in conversation.

Holding her head high and moving so that her heels didn’t click too loudly, Anya tried her best to slip past the three of them. She should have known she wouldn’t get far. The damned receptionist wouldn’t let Anya get away with anything.

“Oh, Darling!” the receptionist called out. Anya heard the woman’s voice lower as she whispered conspiratorially at Agent Beauchamp.

Anya froze. There was no way she could look Andrea Backus in the face, not after illegally using her father’s passcode to open an encrypted file. The truth lingered beneath the surface and Anya feared it would only take a glance before the older woman realized it.  She did her best to force herself to turn around, to plaster on a socially acceptable smile.

Best not to look guilty, she thought. 

Beauchamp broke away from the counter and stepped closer to Anya. His perfectly carved lips, the kind that movie stars wished they had in the thirties, were stretching into a wide smile like he’d already won something.

Before he could say anything, Andrea Backus sauntered up behind him and held her hand out toward Anya. “I heard you’ve managed to complete three years of Public Relations while also minoring in history. All this while keeping up a 4.0 GPA as well! I must say I’m very impressed.”

Anya had no other choice but to take her hand and shake it as the woman expected. “What can I say? I’m forty thousand dollars in debt, even with Dad helping out. I have to make it worth it.”

Andrea Backus laughed as if the astronomical number assigned to Anya’s debt was nothing. It might not be for someone who runs a GOE facility. They were a worldwide organization funded by governments everywhere.

“When you get that fancy degree behind framed glass, you should apply to work with the organization. We would be more than lucky to have you.” Andrea’s voice made something crawl across Anya’s skin. She pulled her hand away from the woman’s grip and fought the urge to wipe it on her skirt.

“Well, I’m going to move on to my Masters after this,” Anya informed them. “Then, my goal is to head out to DC and work from there.”

Andrea’s eyes changed. Anya wasn’t sure how to read the new look the woman gave her. It was almost as if the woman knew something Anya didn’t, as if she expected another outcome.

“We’ll see about that,” Beauchamp challenged her openly. Bile rose in her throat at the idea of wearing a ring on her finger, placed there by Beauchamp of all people. She had a feeling he wanted to own her and it almost distracted her from Andrea’s gaze.

Did the woman already know Anya had accessed files illegally? Did she suspect Anya had snooped where she shouldn’t have? How would the woman even know? She’d been standing at the receptionist’s desk only moments after the computer had freaked out.

Then, Anya’s eyes fell to the cell phone in Andrea’s left hand. Technology was an amazing thing these days. The software could have sent an alert to Andrea’s phone that someone accessed the files. As the person who ran this whole facility, Anya knew it was more than possible. It was probable.

“Uh,” she fought for the right words to disentangle herself from the situation. “I’m going to be late for my internship over at the Embassy.”

Her heart thumped oddly in her chest. Even walking the streets outside her apartment alone at night hadn’t been as terrifying as this moment was. She expected Andrea to descend on her with cuffs at any moment. They would drag her away to a cell somewhere so that she could never tell a soul about what she’d seen.

The truth about the file burned her tongue. Anya truly wanted to tell someone. She wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery and offer the woman in the photo peace, but she knew that it would be too dangerous. It would cost her family too much and that war inside her raged, loyalty versus her own spirit.

“Do you need Agent Beauchamp to escort you? I’d understand if you felt uncomfortable.”

Agent Beauchamp stepped a little closer to Anya and she felt her skin start to crawl. She was going to have to find a boyfriend after all of this just to keep the agent at arm’s length. Heck, even a fake boyfriend would serve the purpose. Maybe she’d pay someone.

Anya shook her head. “It’s not that bad. Besides, I drove myself today.”

Andrea nodded and Anya took that as her cue to slip out of the building. She could feel Andrea’s eyes on her skin, feel it boring a hole into her to reveal everything she hid beneath the surface. It made Anya wrap her arms tight around her chest.

Why had she been so dumb?

Footsteps caught up with her and Anya jumped. But, it was only Agent Beauchamp. He held his hands up in defense, soft laughter on his lips. She wanted to glare at him, to tell him he was a dick for laughing at her fear. Instead, she swallowed it because she knew it would serve no purpose.

“I’m going to follow you,” Beauchamp informed her. She felt her heart sink into the ground. “You look uncomfortable. I want you to feel safe at the Embassy.”

Anya sighed. She could tell him that she didn’t need his help all day and her words would still fall on deaf ears. It was when he looked back at the sliding glass doors and nodded that she felt her stomach flip. It was an almost imperceptible motion, the slightest jerk of his chin. Anya fought the urge to glance back and see who he was nodding to.

She knew Andrea Backus would be standing on the other side of the sliding glass doors.

 

***

 

Luc didn’t bring any toys or props with him to the Embassy today. He was going to abide by Dane’s decree the best he could. He was going to prove to his brother that he could be serious. This Embassy would not only help the American dragons in the long run, but the twins hoped it would serve to help them find out more about why dragons had disappeared.

Then and only then, with all the information they could gather, they would turn to their leader. They would present him with the knowledge they’d gathered and prove that someone was threatening their kind. Maybe, with Dane’s help they would be able to find their parents.

Marc held out with the hope that their parents would still be alive. He had dreams of reuniting with them after all this time. It was Luc that was more realistic. He knew the chance of finding either parent alive after all this time was slim to none. Instead, Luc chose not to think about things like that. Usually, he let himself fall into his pranks.

Today, he lost himself in the meager amount of information that the GOE facility had offered them. He knew there wouldn’t be anything important in these boxes. The Guardians would never let anything significant fall into a dragon’s hands.

Luc had half a box splayed out on the floor around him when he heard the rushed footfalls of someone coming down the stairs. His head shot up and the smell of cinnamon tickled his nose until his beast rose to the surface. The pretty intern appeared at the base of the stairs, face flushed and eyes wide with fear.

Luc lurched into motion. His body was drawn toward her, hands reaching out as if he had the right to comfort her. At the last moment, he drew his hands back. It was the intern that saw him, sucked in a breath, and reached for his arm. She dragged him deeper into the basement only moments before more footsteps sounded on the stairs.

The intern pulled him into a shadowed corner of the basement, nothing more than space for a closet that must have been gutted. Why he allowed her to push and pull him, Luc would never know, but he did as she instructed and tucked his body in the small space with hers. The glowing light of the computer screen and the tiny lamp made the shadows around them thick and impenetrable.

Her rising chest pressed against his, her breathing too fast. His arms rose to encircle her. Shifting slightly, he put his back to whatever it was that made her so afraid. Her hands rose to lay flat against his chest. The urge to press her against the wall and take her mouth until her fears fled was strong. He fought to keep his hands where they were, protecting her shoulders instead of wandering lower.

Behind them, someone entered the basement. Luc twisted his head to get a peek. A young GOE agent stood in the bubble of light, hands on his hips as he looked around the dim basement. When he didn’t see anything, he threw his hands in the air.

The intern pressed herself into Luc’s body as if she could melt into him and disappear altogether. The beast inside Luc rose with a hot wrath. It would destroy whatever had frightened this woman. It would make sure she was never threatened again.

Eventually, the young GOE agent stomped back upstairs, clearly upset that he’d lost track of the intern. Luc should have asked what was going on, but his mind jumbled when he looked down at the woman in his arms. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and her eyes seemed large as they looked up at him.

His hand moved, cupping her cheek. A thrill passed through him as his thumb swept over a patch of freckles on her skin, almost lost in the shadows they still hid in. Could she feel how much he wanted her? Could he steal a kiss before she screamed and ran from him too?

It was that thought that made Luc break away from her. She might have been nice to him the day before, making an attempt to keep Forrest from detaining him, but she was still a human girl. If Luc was caught with her, Forrest wouldn’t waste a moment in slapping the silver cuffs on his wrists.

The intern reached out in the space that now separated them, like she felt bereft without him. She quickly recovered, her spine straightening. Her eyes darted toward the staircase. He could hear her breathing quickening again. Luc did something he probably shouldn’t have. He reached out and took her hand in his own. The sensation of skin on skin brought her back to the present, her eyes darting over to his. He was amazed at how it grounded her.

She swallowed and he watched her throat bob. Luc imagined placing featherlight kisses along the line of her throat, imagined her bare skin beneath his hands. He had to shake his head to dispel the stray thoughts and return to the present.

“Thanks,” she whispered. The intern wandered over to the dusty computer chair and sank into it, still glancing over to the staircase every now and then.

“Care to fill me in on what’s going on?” Luc still wanted to protect her. The urge was there, beneath his skin as it rose his beast. The feathered creature inside of him wanted to wrap around the woman like a wall that would forever keep her safe.

“I may have done…” She caught him watching her and shook her head. “It’s not important.”

It clearly was, but he wasn’t about to push the truth out of her. He had to be careful around the human. He couldn’t give any of the GOE agents a reason to detain him.

The woman looked back over at him, her head tilting to the side. “Do you think… could you stay down here with me for a little while?” She paused, then seemed to remember herself. “I’m being silly. I’m sure you’re busy, I shouldn’t be asking you to do things for me.”

Luc shook his head. He would stay beside her however long she needed him, but he didn’t know how to tell her that. “I was browsing the files down here anyway. I’ll be here for a bit longer.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, the smile that slipped over her face taking away Luc’s breath. She lit up like sunshine, he thought. He wanted to see a beam of sunlight cast over her face, watch her eyes close as she basked in its warmth.

Luc realized he was going to have to have a talk with Dane later. Something was going on with him and he wasn’t sure how to sort it out. He suspected there might be something to it as he took a seat on the floor with the files he’d disassembled earlier. Yet, he snuck a glance at the intern and knew there was no way he was right.

He was just horny. That’s all it was. The females on the Territory were alright, but more often than not he left their beds feeling a hollow ache in his chest. He knew they could feel it, too, from the emptiness in their eyes as they lay together. Those nights might serve to keep raging hormones at bay, but they both knew that the near mythological bond they yearned for wasn’t between them.

“I’m Anya, by the way. Anya Forrest.”

Luc swallowed hard. His stomach turned into an aerial acrobat. Not only had he held a human woman in the corner of the basement, he’d held Agent Forrest’s daughter. That was why the man had dragged her out of the room the day before. It was why she had the power to ask the agent not to arrest him.

“Luc Avila,” he grumbled.

The intern seemed to freeze. There was something going on behind her eyes, connections being made that Luc didn’t understand. His name shouldn’t have triggered anything. He was a nobody. The only thing he was known for was his aptitude to prank people and cause trouble.

She snapped back to the present. “What are you looking for?”

Luc glanced back down at the mess he’d made. There had been nothing about any of the missing dragons in these files. They’d detailed some of the laws surrounding his kind that arose in the fifties and a few of the first eyewitness views of dragons in the United States. They did not tell him where his parents had gone or what happened to the families of the other dragons on the Territory.

He reached for the small, hardcover notebook he’d brought with him and shoved it into his pocket. The human woman didn’t need to know what he was looking for.

“I’m just brushing up on my history,” he replied.

She tilted her head, not fully convinced. Her eyes dropped to graze over the files on the concrete floor before spinning in her chair. The computer screen illuminated her face and Luc’s attention was caught on her in that moment.

It would be nothing to reach over, grab the rolling chair, and pull her over to him. He would think nothing of the ruined paper files as his mouth devoured hers, as his hand slipped beneath the long skirt that hid her legs.

“Um…” The intern cleared her throat while she struggled with words. “Thank you.”

Luc’s head perked up. “For what?”

“For helping me hide. I, uh, have a problem with that guy. He’s always asking me on dates and treating me like I’m already his wife. I can’t stand it anymore.”

Luc heard the hesitation in her voice. It was like she’d made a quick grab for an explanation to keep the truth from coming out. Still, the idea of the man hounding her heels made Luc’s beast growl. It was sound that escaped his human form and made the intern’s head turn. While he fought down the beast, he expected the intern to show fear similar to what she’d worn earlier.

Instead, her face was taken by a soft smile that made her cheeks rounder. She reached up and tucked a curl behind her ear and Luc’s brain jumbled again.

Mate? The beast’s voice howled through his head.

Great, Luc thought. She couldn’t be. Fate wouldn’t drop the daughter of a GOE agent into his lap as a mate. It was as cruel as cruel could be. She probably hated his kind. Or, worse, feared them. Her father probably taught her to fear the dragons on the Territory since she was a child. They’d all seen how Agent Forrest had reacted to Luc’s mannequin in the closet gag.

Then again, Luc thought. Anya had stopped her father from detaining him for the prank. He looked up and studied her profile. She nervously chewed her thumbnail while she downloaded a number of files to the bulky server in the basement.

“Why did you choose to intern here?” Luc asked through the silence.

Anya jumped in her seat. She slapped her hand over her heart and laughed at her own shock. Luc’s brows clashed together. He wanted to hurt whoever had made her scare so easily. What threat lingered other than the slimy GOE agent? He had a feeling there was something bigger going on.

“A deep-seated desire to go against all my father’s wishes,” Anya answered while clicking on file folders. “That’s what he would tell you if you asked him. I like to think of it as a good launching pad for my career. I’d like to finish my schooling and throw myself at the unfair laws that pertain to the inhuman in the US. Call me naïve, call me a social justice warrior, or whatever you want.”

She was babbling and it was adorable. Luc almost forgot why he was there, he was so lost in Anya.

“Are those the other information files that were sent to the Embassy?” Luc pointed to the screen behind her.

She glanced back before nodding.

“Do you have anything from the…” He counted the years backwards. He wasn’t old by a dragon’s standards, but he was getting older. “Are there any files from the sixties?”

Anya’s face blanched.