Anya felt all the blood rush from her face. She felt the world move beneath her.

What were the chances?

Was he working with Beauchamp and Backus? Of course not, she told herself. Luc was a dragon and the facility clearly did not like dragons around here. She met Luc’s gaze, watching the iridescent layer flash over his dark eyes.

Anya couldn’t help but wonder why she felt so safe in his presence. She wondered why she’d felt compelled to grab him and pull him into the shadows with her when Beauchamp was hot on her heels. It had been odd, the feeling that this stranger of all people would do anything for her. It was as if he was made for her and her soul recognized this.

She shoved those thoughts from her mind and pulled herself back to the conversation. Her thumb nail was between her teeth again. It took some effort to pull it back and make her hand lay flat against her lap. Luc looked at her with worry, his eyes glancing to the screen behind her every now and then.

“Why do you ask?”

His lips pressed together and his eyes slid to the side while he thought about how to string together his words. Anya glanced toward the staircase again, expecting Beauchamp or Backus to descend into the room any moment and carry her away. When her eyes returned to him, they met with Luc’s and there was an electrical jolt that rocketed through her.

Trust him, a voice in her mind whispered. Whatever he says, trust him.

Easy for the voice to say, she thought. How convenient a thought. This was a time in which she should trust no one, not even this magnetic dragon with his short, dark hair and bronze skin.

“I’m looking for my parents,” he confessed. She could tell because the word came out of him like a creature trying to get free. His eyes widened a fraction once he realized what he’d said and his lips pressed shut again.

Well, shit. Anya had a thought earlier. It was such a small hint that it shouldn’t have made any sense at all. It really shouldn’t have made her think of the woman in the mug shot or the seemingly random letters and numbers assigned to her file.

LA-257.

The numbers meant nothing to her yet. L. A. Luc Avila. If she looked into his face, she could see the similarities. The woman in the mug shot also had darker skin and a similar aquiline nose with high cheekbones. Anya’s thumb nail returned to her lips. She shouldn’t tell him. She really shouldn’t.

It wasn’t her information to divulge.

“The files from the sixties weren’t released for the Embassy’s digital library.”

Luc’s brows dropped again. “But, the facility sent over paper files from the fifties and everything else from the seventies on, from the looks of it. Why wouldn’t they release the sixties?”

Anya hesitated. She should shrug. She should tell him she didn’t know and move on. Instead, her lips parted.

“Because they don’t want what is in those files to get out. They don’t want the dragons to know.”

Luc shot up from his seat. She felt her heart thump hard, but he turned away from her and began pacing. Anya felt her body move of its own accord. She left her seat and moved toward him until she could take his hand in hers. The contact made him pause, frozen in that moment. His eyes met hers.

She held a finger over her lips for him to be silent, just like he’d done when they first met. Gripping his hand to keep her own from shaking, she pulled him toward the door at the back of the Embassy. The alarm had been disabled for the techs and construction workers to enter as they wished while setting up the server. Together, they slipped out into the fresh air behind the old building that housed the new Embassy.

Luc looked at her questioningly. She hesitated, shifting from foot to foot. Was she really about to do this? Could she do this? It went against everything her father taught her. It went against the loyalty she should have felt toward her family.

But, she couldn’t hold the images she’d seen inside of herself forever. Eventually they would begin to rot and turn into something black and monstrous. Anya couldn’t afford that kind of stain.

“Take me somewhere you know for certain the Guardians won’t be able to hear anything I say.”

Luc studied her face. She stood as tall as she could manage despite her pixie like figure. After a long moment, he nodded.

“I don’t think you’re going to like how I’m going to get us there.”

Anya swallowed, thinking twice about what she was about to do. This was her mission, though. She’d seen this evidence for a reason. It was her job to get to the bottom of it and bring it to light. Maybe she should have gone into investigative journalism, she thought. It would be a nice minor, maybe.

“Let’s do it.”

Without another word, Luc grabbed her hand. He surveyed the town around them. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to get caught before she could escape. Her father was going to be pissed. That was nothing new, she told herself.

Finally, the two of them reached a small park. At the far end was a break in the trees that led them into a clearing. Anya looked around with a question on her lips. She hadn’t minded that small trek. She didn’t know what he was going on about until his hand slipped away from her grip.

Luc disappeared and something beautiful took his place. It’s long, lithe body reminded her of a snake, but it’s wings were covered in rainbow colored feathers that shifted color beneath the sun. Her stomach turned. Not because of what they were about to do. She knew what was coming now that he’d shifted.

No, Anya knew that she was right.

The woman in the mugshot was Luc’s mother.

The dragon before her purred, a bird-like cooing sound that pushed Anya’s worries to the side and made her laugh for a moment. Luc did it again before brushing his cheek against her shoulder. She raised her hands, running them across his cheeks. The beast’s eyes looked into hers, completely content.

A clawed hand closed around her middle and her feet left the ground. It was uncomfortable at first, then Luc managed to slide a claw beneath her bottom like a bench. He tucked her close to his chest to keep away from prying eyes and began launching into the skies.  

The ground shifted beneath her and her stomach dropped. Her skirt flapped around her legs and her heels dangled from her toes, moments away from being lost on the winds. One slipped off and plummeted to the ground far below. Her shout was lost on the wind that roared around her ears.

Ten minutes later, the dragon descended into a wooded area. Anya’s feet touched the ground, one still wearing a heel and the other bare. Before she had time to complain, there were people appearing all around her. The door to a cabin opened and a massive man came pouring out. He would have been intimidating if it hadn’t been for the child racing behind him, laughing and shooting him with foam darts.

Anya suppressed her smile because he didn’t look all that happy. She’d seen him at the embassy before. He was her boss’s mate which also meant that he was the leader of the American Territory. Luc’s dragon folded away and the human form appeared beside her, moving to place an arm at the base of her back.

For a moment, Luc’s gaze fell down to her feet and he realized she only wore a single shoe.

“Damn it,” he breathed. “I’m sorry about that.”

She leaned into him before the leader could get to them. “When I said a place GOE couldn’t hear me, I didn’t mean an audience of dragons.”

Luc’s face twisted into a frown, like he truly regretted his decision. Before he could say more, Dane, King of the American Territory descended upon them.

“What the hell are you doing in the Territory with the daughter of Agent Nathan Forrest?” Dane’s voice was booming and reverberated through her very bones.

Anya stepped closer to Luc, actually placing herself slightly between him and Dane. The leader might punish his own people, but she was confident he wouldn’t hurt her. If she could save Luc from this moment, then she would.

“I asked to come here,” Anya said defiantly. She hadn’t asked to come to this place in particular, really, but he did do as she asked.

The massive man looked down his nose at her, eyes slowly becoming inquisitive. Hands touched her hips from behind and she startled. Luc’s cheeks flushed before he whispered a low apology and guided her to stand beside him. She fought to stay where she stood for a moment, until Luc leaned in and whispered in her ear.

She almost didn’t hear what he said as the sensation of his lips against her ear tilted her world sideways. A hot feeling rushed from her cheeks and slammed into her core. She was grateful that she was wearing a loose skirt, keeping the fabric from coming in contact with the moisture than now pooled between her legs.

“Don’t worry, kitten. We aren’t in trouble,” Luc had whispered. He flashed her a confident smile before turning to face Dane King with somber eyes.

Dane’s shoulder’s fell and a huff escaped him. He rose a hand and pushed his fingers through his hair as he turned away from Luc. If Luc was anything like she’d seen the first day she met him, she could understand the leader’s exasperation.

“I have information that I wanted to share with Luc in a secure place. He brought me here because he thought it was secure.”

Dane glanced back, studying her face to see if the truth would be written on her. She was the daughter of a rather cantankerous GOE agent. She understood his reluctance to believe her, too. All Anya could do was raise her head high and keep her gaze challenging.

Dane took in Luc’s proximity to Anya, how his hand still rested at her hip, and jerked his head toward the house made of what looked to be shipping containers. They were nestled in an almost staircase-like way, the left side creating a second level with another shipping container stacked on top.

It was kind of ingenious, Anya thought. It had been beautifully modified for a modern kind of home. She knew when she stepped through the door that it was a bachelor pad. There were empty food wrappers on the couch, a stack of beaten up paperbacks on a side table, right next to the video game controllers. Dane took one look around and sighed again.

The small child that had been racing after him whined when Dane asked another dragon to watch over her. Anya was grateful. She didn’t think what she had to say was fit for a child’s ears, even if it hurt to watch the girl get dragged away.

Another dragon drifted in, pausing as he took in everything going on around him. It struck her that the new dragon looked almost exactly like Luc. The only difference was the lack of mirth in this dragon man’s eyes. He looked almost too serious to be Luc’s twin.

“Now,” Dane began. “I’m not saying I don’t trust you. We should trust all agents of the Guardians of Existence…”

Anya cut him off. “I do not work for GOE.”

Dane’s gaze whipped toward her. She held it, standing firm. Eventually, he nodded.

“My father works for them, but I do not. You have no reason to trust me, but I learned something today that I think you and your people need to know.”

 

***

 

Luc wanted to marry the woman who stood toe to toe with Dane for him. He swallowed his laughter only because he could tell that the moments to come would be no laughing matter. He told his brother he would take things more seriously, and he would try, but it was amusing to see Anya stand up to his friend.

When she’d looked him in the eye in the Embassy’s basement, Luc had known there was something going on. He knew that whatever she had to say he would not like. It was in the way worry made her eyes waver, in the way she chewed on her thumbnail repetitively. Anya had been jumpy from the start and it was more than just a pushy suitor.

Anya let go of the breath she’d used to puff herself up. Her shaky knees dropped her to his couch and he could hear the crackle of brownie wrappers beneath her.

“Today, I was supposed to send copies of the last five decades worth of information over to the Embassy. Some classified material somehow got mixed in and, being the idiot that I am, I opened it using my father’s passcode.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Luc told her.

She gave him a tight-lipped smile, a thank you even if she didn’t believe his words. “Inside the file from the sixties I found a whole slew of oddly named folders. Inside those folders were…” Anya’s gaze became distant. Luc didn’t like the look of horror that quickly passed over her face.

He vaulted himself over the back of his couch to sit beside her, gently taking her hand in his. The contact made her gaze snap to him and the look of horror receded. Luc looked down at the place where his skin met hers, noting the differences in their dark skins while wondering what it was that caused the electrical jolt when he touched her. He fought to keep from looking at Dane with a question. It would have to wait.

Right now, they needed to know what Anya had found.

As Anya’s story unfolded, Luc could feel his grip on her hand grow tighter until he forced himself to let go of her completely. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. At some point, he’d shot to his feet and had begun to move around the room with a restless energy. No, he could believe. It made sense. It meant that he and his brother had been right about the disappearances. It meant that someone had taken their parents.

Anya’s face was lined with worry and fear. There was an apology in her eyes as if she’d been the one to take people away from their loved ones. Luc was pacing. He knew it was making her uncomfortable. She looked around, taking in the men standing around her as if they might start blaming her for the information she shared. Was she afraid they would hurt her? He couldn’t stand to see that look on her face, so he dropped to his knees in front of her. It put his face below hers so that he could look up at her.

“Are you telling us this because you had something to do with it? Are you trying to hide your involvement by saying you accidentally found this information?”

Anya’s brows shot up and she shook her head. “I would never…”

“Then stop beating yourself up over this,” he whispered to her. It didn’t matter if there were other people in the room. It didn’t matter that his leader and his brother were boring holes into him with their gazes. “We will not punish you for what someone else did. You have nothing to worry about here with us. I promise you.”

She sucked in a haggard breath. Luc was glad to hear that it did not have the telltale signs of incoming tears. Anya would not cry.

Dane’s lips curled back from his teeth and air hissed out.

Luc pushed himself to his feet and Marc moved to stand beside him. “We’ve been looking into this for a while now.”

Dane whipped toward his dragons. “Then why haven’t you told me? Why am I just learning about this now?”

Luc didn’t back down, but it was Marc who spoke. “Were we supposed to come to you with half-cocked theories about why we think our parents went missing? You have enough on your plate every day, Dane.”

“Still,” he pleaded with the twins. After a second, he shook his head. There was no point in arguing now. They had to get down to business. “I want the two of you to start looking into this. I want you to dig up whatever you can find on what happened or is happening or whatever, and bring it to Liana and me so that we can deal with it through the Embassy.”

Luc caught movement and realized Anya had stood. She moved to stand on Luc’s other, empty side. When she looked up at him, his chest ached. He knew what she was going to say, but he didn’t want to hear it. If anything, he wanted to send her home to her father so that she could be safely kept out of this. But, she said it and there was no going back.

“I want to help.”

Those words almost made Luc cringe. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being in the thick of this, of her being knee deep in their troubles, but he would allow her to be her own woman and make her own decisions.

It was Dane who spoke, Dane who put words to what Luc was feeling.

“We let you off the Territory for two days and you’ve already come back with a Mate.”

Luc felt his heart twist. He looked over at Anya, unable to keep the fear from his eyes. It wasn’t the kind of fear reserved for losing one’s bachelor status. It was the fear of losing her before he’d even gotten her. She was processing the words. Luc watched as they slowly sank in, her lips caught in the O shape of a question.

Slowly, her brows sank together and she shook her head. Before Luc could say anything, Anya left the room. She quietly opened the door and slipped out into the open air. Luc looked back at his leader, feeling all sorts of rage and fear and unidentifiable emotions starting to spin out of control inside of him. He wanted to yell at his leader, blame him for pushing his mate away.

Dane had the grace to look apologetic. He must have assumed they already knew.

Instead of fighting or yelling or punching a hole in the wall, Luc followed Anya outside. She stood, facing the small village, her back to him. How could he approach her? How could he tell her that he would never force her into anything she didn’t want? Fate had already done that for her, so there was nothing he could say.

It wasn’t Luc or Anya who spoke first. Miri raced through the center of town, a kazoo perched on her lips and the dragon charged with babysitting hot on her heels. Miri stopped just long enough to look up at Luc and Anya and send one long puff out the kazoo.

Anya erupted into laughter, tears slowly streaming out of the corners of her eyes. A smile touched the corners of Luc’s lips, some of his worry easing. Still, he had no idea what Anya was thinking. He would gladly accept this brave human woman into his life, but she might not be so willing. She was the daughter of a GOE agent, after all.

Miri realized her babysitter was catching up and she darted away, leaving the two of them alone for the moment.

“I’m…”

Anya shook her head before he could go on. She turned bleary eyes up at him, the tears of laughter turning into something else. “This… this bond doesn’t scare me. I may not be one hundred percent ready for this, but I’m not afraid for myself. I’m afraid for you.

“There’s so much at stake right now that it seems like my world is resting on the tip of a pin and any wrong move is going to send everything flying. What I did this morning was illegal, very illegal. By telling you, I’ve opened up a whole new can of worms that could destroy everything I know.

Luc reached out, not to pull her into his arms, but to feel skin on skin. His hands rubbed up and down her arms. She laughed, the kind of hiccough laugh that happened after crying.

“Also, my father is going to be pissed. He’s going to stop at nothing to hurt you if he sees you’re anywhere near me. As it stands, he’s trying to get me to leave my internship. How can I have a long-term relationship with a dragon if my father is constantly trying to arrest him?”

She had a point. Still, Luc gathered her hands in his and met her gaze with a smirk.

“I’m willing to endure all of that if only to give what we have a try,” he told her. His thumb rubbed over the soft skin on the back of her hand. He was amazed that she didn’t pull away or back up from him. Americans were supposed to be wary of dragons. They were supposed to distrust them at all times, yet here was this small human who stood against a community she’d grown up in to tell the truth.

Her eyes drifted closed. “I think I need to get back to the Embassy before someone realizes I’m gone. Either Liana or my father.”

That wasn’t the response Luc wanted. It wasn’t even close. The crease in her forehead made him worry about what was going on inside her mind. His hand rose to caress the lines away, but fell back down again. Luc had no real idea of what he was supposed to do. All he knew was that he needed to hold her.

“I think Liana is going to know,” Luc said as he jerked his head toward Dane.

“Shit,” she breathed.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Dane will count this venture as part of your work at the Embassy. But, you’re right. We should be getting you back.”

Luc, reluctantly, let go of her hand and began to turn towards the spot where he’d landed earlier. Something jerked him back. He turned to find Anya holding his hand. Catching him off guard, she was able to pull him into her. Their lips crashed together, Anya standing on her tiptoes. Luc’s body felt like it was going to burn away, starting with his lips. His hand rose to wind around her lower back and hold her to his body.

When she broke away, he reached for more. Anya ducked out of his grasp. Her breath was coming fast and her cheeks were flushed, but she remained out of his reach.

“I needed to know… I wanted to experience that before we returned. It can’t happen again.” She paused again, her gaze slowly returning to Luc. Her gaze was heated.

His hands clenched at his sides. He wanted to reach out and pull her back into his embrace. He wanted to feel the press of her lips against his once more. Her touch had done crazy things to his mind and he was not ready for it to disappear forever.

“What are you saying?”

She swallowed and it looked like it took effort. Her eyes met his with a confidence that wavered ever so slightly. “I’m saying we can’t be together. I’m saying I wish we could, but it’s not going to work.”

Luc heard an audible snap. He wasn’t sure if it was the crack of a branch in the woods or if it was the sound of his heart breaking. Tears burned the corners of his eyes and his jaw clenched. Here was his mate, this beautiful and brave woman, standing before him. Yet, she just declared their bond null and void.

He had nothing to say. He couldn’t form words to fight her decision. All he knew was anger and sorrow. Luc blinked away the tears forming in his eyes as he pushed past her. His beast rose to the surface and urged him to turn back, urged him to take her in their arms and kiss away all of her worries.

Luc didn’t think that would work. His mate would fight him off and push him into a corner. Luc had to tell his beast that they would win, slowly but surely, they would win. The beast didn’t believe him, but they both knew Luc was patient. Not only did he often have to wait for someone to walk into his pranks and jokes, but he’d waited decades to figure out what happened to his parents.

Luc would wait until they worked through GOE’s secrets and then he would try again. Maybe his mate would feel more comfortable then.

We cannot wait forever, his beast reminded him. She will grow older while we remain the same unless we claim the bond.

While the mate bond was there, Luc knew it would not give her any of the dragon life benefits until they consummated the bond. That was when their souls would mingle and the magic that fueled his existence would leave its mark on his mate. It would grant her the long life of a dragon so that Luc could spend his long years with her.

Luc wouldn’t give up on his mate.

In the clearing, Luc spared no time letting his dragon out. He didn’t say anything because he didn’t trust himself to even speak yet. He didn’t trust himself not to beg and plead. That would do nothing to win her heart. So, he let his beast take the reins and carried her back to the Embassy in the small town nearby.