Anya woke to a house full of dragons. She yawned and stretched, feeling Luc’s side of the bed empty and suddenly feeling bereft. She bit down on her lower lip and reminded herself those were not emotions she could afford to have right now.

The smell of coffee and fried eggs wafted into the bedroom and drew her out of bed. Voices filled the kitchen, a symphony that the cottage hadn’t seen in over a decade. It was loud and cheery and filled with static in the way that only a family could do.

There were two male dragons sitting at the kitchen table, one that looked like the slightly upset version of Luc and another with a head of ash blonde curls and a phone in his hands. Behind them, the Ambassador Anya worked for stood between Luc and the American dragon leader. She was tall and lean and used the length of her arms to stretch in front of the other two dragons and snatch things away from them.

Dane grabbed the side of her head and pulled it close to lay a kiss on her hair before turning toward the table with a plate full of bacon and eggs. His eyes widened when he saw Anya lingering in the hall. He slowed his pace as if he was afraid of spooking her.

She wasn’t a rabbit.

As if sensing the sudden tension, Luc turned. His eyes fell on Anya and she watched emotion rocket across his eyes. It was there and then gone, completely unreadable.

“Hungry?” Luc asked to break the sudden silence.

If anything, her stomach turned when she thought of what she would soon have to do. The time on the clock read 5 AM. If she was going to go to the GOE facility, she would have to start getting ready soon. Any later than 7:30 and it would look strange, considering that her internship started at 8.

Anya didn’t have an answer ready. Instead, she drifted toward Luc, the only voice in the room that she knew. Sure, she’d worked for Liana Taniff for a week or so, but she’d never interacted with the female dragon that often. Now that Anya knew what the woman’s black scales meant, Anya had to admit she was a bit intimidated. It explained the woman’s gruff exterior and immovable stance. Liana had already been through hell and nothing else compared.

Suddenly, Anya felt silly. She had never gone through anything in life that would be the equivalent of Liana’s hell. Anya was a sheltered college student with no real world experience. She didn’t know pain. She didn’t know disappointment.

Here were the people she championed for and she was cowering from them. Anya forced herself to take a seat at the small table, putting her between the two male dragons. Moments later, Luc pulled up a stool and forced the dragon man with the mop of curls to shove aside.

“What makes you think I’ll move for you? Your last stunt got me in deep shit,” the blond dragon man said, even as he scooted his chair away from Anya.

Across the table, Liana burst into laughter as she sank into her seat. “It was that stupid airbag stunt that won me over and you know it.”

Dane glared at his mate and, in turn, at his dragons. Whatever they’d done had involved his mate and Dane was clearly still not happy about it. Eventually, his shoulders sank. It was the past and he couldn’t change it.

“Are you ready for this?” Liana asked her as the female dragon hovered over the table. “As far as I know, nothing that happened yesterday was mentioned to the head of the facility. For all they know, everything is as it was.”

Anya nodded. She wasn’t ready, but she didn’t think she ever would be. Anya spared a moment to wonder why no one had been informed of the shoot out of her disappearance yesterday, but she guessed the two agents must have agreed to sweep the ordeal under the rug. How long would that last?

“We’ve agreed to send Luc and Marc with you in case anything happens and you need help. They’re only going to be a text away from you at all times.” Liana perched on the edge of Dane’s lap in an intimate gesture. “Isaac will be here with a computer to help you decrypt the files and explore them for information.”

The dragon man with floppy curls raised a hand and nodded his greeting. Anya nodded in return. Luc responded by pushing Isaac’s chair even further away from her with his foot.

Her hand paused as she reached for a piece of toast. Did that mean her father had forgiven Beauchamp? Or, did he buy into Beauchamp’s lie? Her jaw clenched as she thought about it. Instead of grabbing food, Anya pulled her hand back. She shook her head and pushed back from the table. The excuse she gave the table of dragons was that she needed to shower.

In reality, Anya felt lost. She belonged to nothing in that moment. There was a happy family of dragons cavorting in the kitchen, a world she couldn’t afford to let herself get pulled into. On the other hand, she had a family that might have betrayed her. Not by telling the truth of what she’d done, but by forgiving a man that had hurt her. It made her stomach roll.

Anya lurched into the bathroom and collapsed in front of the toilet bowl. Nothing but bile came up. Anxiety over what she was about to do and the realization about Beauchamp’s threat hit her hard. It was like a slam in the stomach that left her gasping for air.

The door behind her creaked open and an odd sensation slithered over her skin. She jerked up only to find Luc looking down with concern. He slowly dropped to his knees beside her, his big hand pushing back the curls that fell over her face.

“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered after kicking the door closed with his foot. “You don’t have to do anything.”

Anya shook her head. How could she tell him it wasn’t the idea of stealing the files that had made her puke? How could she tell him she thought her life had been handed over to the slimy man that attacked her the day before? She had another option, she thought as she looked up at the strong line of Luc’s jaw. She could tell from the vibration of his muscles that he desperately wanted to pull her into his arms.

But, he was a dragon.

“I need to shower,” Anya whispered. She gave her stomach a moment to settle before clumsily pushing herself to her feet. Luc reached out, hands on her hips to help steady her.

He looked up at her from where he knelt. Anya felt a hand clench around her heart. She wanted to bend over and claim his lips. She wanted to rake her nails down his back while his body was over hers.

She shook her head. How could she get away from these thoughts while he was around? Luc would be in her life until she gave him the files. Then she had a choice to make. She could go back to her father and talk to him. Or, Anya could stay here with Luc and enjoy what time she had with him while she helped him find his parents.

Anya leaned towards option two. If this was her mate, then she wanted to at least get a taste of what life tried to offer her before she had to turn her back on it. Was that selfish? Was it cruel to want to know what it felt like to lay with her dragon mate before she turned her back on him?

Her hands clenched at her sides as she fought through the mess of her own mind. Luc’s hands travelled up her bare legs, pulling her out of the torrent. Her eyes snapped open and met his as he hovered over her. There was a cautious expression on his face, but as Anya let his hands move further the expression morphed into his smirk once more.

Anya let him pull her closer, let him grab her hips and slide her across the floor so that she laid on her back. His head dipped and feather light kisses trailed across her skin. She squirmed, not because she didn’t want it, but because it sent fire coursing through her veins. Anya felt alive each time his lips connected with her skin.

His teeth nipped the taut flesh of her stomach and she let out a soft cry. Luc laughed into her skin. Anya watched as his head dropped lower and teeth grazed over a part of her that hadn’t been touched in a while. Her cry was one of surprise and pleasure. She hadn’t been expecting that, even with the layers of fabric between them.

Unfortunately, laying on the bathroom floor with Luc all day was not an option. As much as she wanted to feel him explore every inch of her body, there were more pressing things to do. Besides, she knew that his heart was full in and she couldn’t give him that kind of commitment in return. Anything done here was temporary.

Life waited for her outside those doors and life was not a fair and forgiving mistress.

Anya wriggled out from beneath Luc, feeling the absence of his heat like a wash of cold water. She wanted to crawl back to him, but forced herself to get up and get into the shower.

“Right,” Luc said. His eyes were downcast and she felt a pin in her heart for what she’d done. “I’ll get you a plate of food for when you’re done.”

Luc didn’t meet her eyes as he slipped out of the room. Anya knew she’d hurt him again. There was no way she wouldn’t hurt him. She should have commanded him to leave when they arrived yesterday. She should have saved him the torment of dealing with her.

But, her stomach lurched at the idea of being without him. Really, Anya? You’re going to cling to the poor man for the sake of your own feelings while you tear him apart? Real smart.

 

***

 

She waited for the world to fall on her head. The moment Anya stepped through the doors of the GOE facility, she felt an anticipatory tension grip her. The receptionist behind the counter smiled, the same smile she greeted everyone with, cherry colored lipstick and all.

“Back again so soon?”

Anya nodded, forcing the words up. “We had a server crash yesterday and some of the information I sent over ended up getting corrupted so I have to do the transfer all over again.”

The receptionist pouted, her way of saying shit luck, man. Anya nodded and clutched the bag at her hip. Her heart gave a heavy thump each time it beat, reminding her that there was a chance Beauchamp informed the head of the facility that she was now a traitor.

But, Anya was surprised that she made it to the assigned room with no interference. There wasn’t even an IT tech investigating the computer or the keycard reader. It was as if what she’d done had never happened. It made her stomach turn.

If no one knew what she’d done, that meant Beauchamp was still holding his information close to his chest with the hope that he could still own her. She thought of the man waiting for her outside. Luc didn’t own her. He let her be the idiot she wanted to be and followed shortly behind to save her from herself.

It would have been the dream relationship if he hadn’t been a dragon. Anya hated herself for thinking that, but it was part of the wrench that had been thrown into her life.

She shook her head and seated herself at the desk. Logging in was easy and nothing popped up to warn her she’d been blocked. How had Howard Beauchamp even figured out what she’d done? If no one in the facility had caught on, then, how had he? Nothing made sense. He’d been at the receptionist’s desk when she emerged from this very office.

Anya thought about the phone in Andrea Backus’s hand, how she could have gotten a notification. If she’d been the one to tell Beauchamp, then he didn’t have anything to blackmail her with. She chewed her cheek while she wondered how Beauchamp had figured her out. 

She reached down and pulled out a small thumb drive from her purse. This was for all the files, all the souls she’d found in the records. The file was easily pulled up again. She prayed her father hadn’t had his security code changed overnight when the door creaked open.

Anya shot up from her seat. Her heart thundered and bile rose in her throat. She didn’t expect the face that turned toward her.

“Dad?” her voice cracked.

Nathan Forrest turned toward his daughter, an apology in his eyes as he gently closed the door behind him. He kept his back to it, like he expected someone else to break through it at any moment. He gave her a small smile.

“I’m not mad at you,” he began. He paused, eyes searching the room while he searched for the right words to use next.

“You have every right to be mad at me.”

Nathan Forrest shook his head. “I noticed something yesterday. Now, I can’t say that I like it very much, but I can’t deny it in the least. That dragon protected you when I didn’t. I trusted Howard because he was human and a coworker, but in the end, the dragon man was the one who protected you from a human GOE agent. I understand why you felt the need to leave with the dragon, but your mother and I would appreciate it if you would come home.”

Anya’s shoulders sank with relief for a moment. Then, she brought them back up. “That isn’t the only reason I left,” she confessed.

Her father nodded. “We can work this out. I know where you and your mate went, but I didn’t tell anyone so that you could have the time you needed.”

Anya was thrown for a moment. “You know he’s my mate? How did you figure that out?”

“I’m a GOE agent,” Nathan said. “But, I’m also your father. I know these things. I know the way that dragon looked at you and what it meant for a dragon to look at a woman that way, human or not. It’s something we can… work on. I’m willing to if you will come home. Bring him along if you have to. We just need to know you’re safe.”

Anya laughed. That was the least of her worries. She’d agreed to help Luc find his parents and that meant betraying GOE secrets. How could she look her father in the eye and say that? Despite being his daughter, he would never believe her. She sighed and rubbed her face.

“I know you wouldn’t think I’d be okay with this, but…”

Anya held her hand up for her father to stop. “Maybe the mate bond is a small part of why I left, but it’s not the whole story. It wasn’t even about Beauchamp’s assault, although getting away from him felt good.”

Her father rocked back on his heels, confusion knitting his brows together. “Then what is this about?”

“I think it might be better to show you than try explaining it to you,” Anya told him. She turned back toward the computer and clicked on the offending file folder. She was slightly amazed that it was still there.

The fact that the file was still there meant Beauchamp hadn’t told anyone what he knew yet. That also meant Beauchamp hadn’t given up on her. She felt her lip curl as she thought about it. Next time she saw him, Anya was going to give him a swift kick to the baby makers. Beauchamp had rightfully earned it.

She input her father’s security code, feeling her face warm when his eyes narrowed at her. Sorry, Dad, she thought. The folder opened and the files filled the screen, all labeled with meaningless letters and numbers unlike the other files that had been labeled by date. Her father gripped the back of her chair as he leaned in to look. She moved the whole folder over to her thumb drive before clicking a random file.

Nathan Forrest opened his mouth to comment on the movement of the encrypted file, but before he could form words the screen filled with photos and documents. The first was a mugshot, not the same one as before. This was a man, with gaunt cheeks and a dead look in his eyes. The only indication that he was alive was how hard he gripped the letter board in his hands.

Anya flicked over to the next photo. It showed the man strapped to a table with his chest open. She pulled back, her stomach lurching so violently she thought she would vomit. Her father filled the space she left and began reading through the redacted documents.

“They’re trying to figure out where his breath abilities come from,” her father whispered to the screen. With frightened eyes, he glanced toward the door as though it might swing open at any moment and GOE guards would swarm in to arrest them.

Anya moved back and searched for the file folder that she’d opened days ago. A familiar face filled the screen after she clicked the file.

“I think that is Luc’s mother,” she told Nathan.

Her father mulled over this information. “Luc. That’s your mate, right?”

Anya nodded. She opened her mouth to tell him that she had no plans to continue her relationship with the dragon, but her father raised his hand to stop her. She didn’t have to explain anything to him. He turned back to the screen and closed all the folders before jerking the thumb drive out of the modem.

Her heart gave a heavy thump. Nathan Forrest held the thumb drive between his thumb and forefinger, giving it a strange look. For a moment, she thought he might crush it in his hand. Everything would be over. He would drag her home and try to brush all of this under the run, but, instead, he handed it to her. She took it with surprise dancing along her frayed nerves.

“I hope you trust me when I say I had nothing to do with this,” Nathan Forrest told his only daughter. “You have no reason to believe me, but I hope you still have faith in your old man. Take this and go back to your mate. I won’t tell anyone where the two of you are laying low. This is between us.”

Anya pocketed the thumb drive in the tiny, hidden pocket of her purse before throwing her arms around her father. This was more than she could have ever expected from him. He, in turn, hugged her tight. He held her like it might be the last time he saw her. She spared a second to hope, to pray, that it wouldn’t be that way.

“All of the computers are monitored for restricted activity,” Nathan Forrest said into her hair. “You need to leave as soon as possible.”

Anya sucked in a breath. That was how Beauchamp knew about what she’d done. It was only logical for Beauchamp to assume Anya, the champion of dragon rights, told the dragons about the encrypted files when he saw her returning with a dragon. Yet, that meant Andrea Backus should know, too.

If the head of the facility knew, they why hadn’t she arrested Anya, yet? The information sat like a stone in Anya’s stomach. It threatened to drag her under, but she held her head high and did as her father commanded.

Nathan Forrest would go out and distract the receptionist while Anya snuck out of the building behind him. If they had any luck, no one would notice her disappearance. Anya was familiar with the imbalanced concept that was luck. It chose odd times to shine its favor upon her.

That, again, was not one of those moments. Her father left the room, head high and hands in his pockets like nothing in the world was wrong. It was a bit off for a man who was supposedly missing his daughter, but Anya had a feeling no one in the facility knew she’d run away with a dragon.

Run away with a dragon. Those had to be the strangest words she’d ever thought, but she thought it might not surprise many agents in the facility.

When Anya cracked the door open, she heard a familiar voice coming down the hall. She slammed the door shut again, her heart beating so hard it made her hands tremble. Beauchamp was here, chatting gaily with another agent as they walked down the hall. She waited, listening to the voices pass by. Trapped behind the door, she could hardly tell which direction they were moving in.

Anya closed her eyes and eased the door open again. She had to take a chance or else she would never get out of the facility. Luc needed the information that was in her purse. Nothing else mattered. She had to get him the information so that he could find his mother or, at the very least, figure out what happened to her. She forced herself to glide out into the hall, carefully closing the door behind her so that the noise wouldn’t attract any attention.

Anya looked up and down the hall, but there was no sign of the excuse of a human that was Beauchamp. Her father’s voice drifted toward her through the hall. He was chatting with the receptionist in the lobby. All Anya needed to do was be patient and quiet.

This isn’t about me, she said to her thumping heart. The words steadied her. She repeated them over and over again until they became a mantra that overpowered every nervous tremble. Her father would distract Beauchamp if he didn’t pass through.

She started down the hall when a hand gripped her arm and spun her around. A hawkish nose hovered a hair’s breadth away from hers. Beauchamp smiled wide. Anya gritted her teeth and forced her churning stomach to settle. She stood her own ground. There was no way she would turn into the cowering brat she’d been the day before.

“What brings you back so soon? Dragon couldn’t warm your bed like you thought he would?” Beauchamp sneered at her.

Anya held down the urge to bring her knee into his groin with as much force as she could manage. Flashes of the heated kisses she’d shared with Luc danced through her mind. Her father’s approval filled the spaces between. Luc was her mate. He was the man the universe promised her, dragon or not.

“He does so much more than you ever could have,” Anya whispered back as a smile crawled over her lips.

Beauchamp’s grip on her arm tightened to a painful point.

“Don’t like being denied? Too damn bad. I was never yours and I never will be if I have anything to say about it.”

“You think you have anything to say? I could let the world know what you’ve done, let GOE know that you’ve shared their secrets with the dragons and then your life will be in shambles. You’ll be behind bars. What then?”

Anya leaned in closer. “You don’t have the balls.”

Beauchamp leaned back with a confident smile. His mouth opened and Anya panicked. She brought her knee up. It slammed into his groin. She felt soft bits flatten and his face contorted with pain.

His hand slipped away from her arm so that he could clutch himself.

“I guess you do have the balls,” she said before scurrying down the hall.

As promised, her father was chatting away with the receptionist. The conversation was stretching thin as he’d been there for a while at that point. Anya cringed. The receptionist perked up when her eyes met Anya’s, but her father launched into a tirade about the Welsh dragon Ambassador. He said things Anya normally would have admonished him for. This time, she let the words fly because she knew they were saving her skin.

The door slid open before her, offering freedom only steps away. Beauchamp’s voice followed her, hoarse with rage.

She picked up her pace, struggling not to drag attention to herself.

“What are you screaming about, you immature baboon?” her father used his commanding voice when he shouted at Beauchamp to drown out the other man’s shouts.

Anya stifled her laugh. This was not the time. Ahead of her, Luc gripped the steering wheel of the truck. His eyes were on her.

 

***

 

“I hate this,” Luc growled at his brother. They sat in the cab of their truck as they waited for Anya to retrieve the encrypted information from inside the GOE facility. There was no way two dragons were getting inside the building without being recognized, so Anya had no other option but go alone and it was making Luc anxious.

Marc let his head fall back against the seat, eyes on the truck’s ceiling and not the facility ahead of them.

“You’re just freaking out because of the bond.”

There was a low growl that vibrated from Luc’s chest. He never took that kind of attitude with his brother, but Marc let it roll off him. Luc often wondered if there was a core of Zen inside his brother, a kind of imbalance that happened in the womb that made the brothers so drastically different.

“What do you know about it?” Luc grumbled. All he wanted was to see Anya coming through those doors. His mind didn’t help, playing out scenario after scenario of everything that could go wrong while he was trapped outside and she was inside.

What if the agents caught her? What if they figured out she was a dragon’s mate? It wasn’t often that a dragon found a human mate. It was never something anyone talked about. Probably because of the American dragon stigma.

“I know that she keeps saying she doesn’t want you,” Marc acknowledged.

Luc burned. Anger writhed through him like a living creature that was anxious to break free. His words felt like a bomb hidden behind his lips. Anya said over and over again that they couldn’t be together, but she would still lay kisses on his lips, she would still reach for him. The mixed signals were driving him mad. He had no idea what his future held. He couldn’t afford to look toward the future. All he could do was take it one step at a time, those steps being one forward and one back so that he never moved anywhere.

“But, she does want you,” Marc finished.

Luc’s anger fled out the window. His chest deflated and he turned to look at his brother. Marc’s somber face helped center his twin. Marc had to be lying, saying what Luc wanted to hear and he told him as much.

Marc shook his head. “She’s your mate. She feels the same you do. There’s no getting around the feeling of a mate bond, but life can often get in the way. If she’s holding back, it’s because there’s something else in her life that’s making her keep her distance. Use your brain, meathead.”

Luc turned his attention back to the facility outside the windshield. They sat in a GOE parking lot, the very facility that his mate’s father worked at. When it dawned on Luc what his brother was trying to tell him, he let out a soft curse. Was he daft or dull? Did it take eons for things to sink in? Luc let his head fall against the steering wheel. How could he win his mate when she still stood on her father’s side?

The door ahead of them slid open and Luc’s heart lurched. A familiar head of golden brown curls appeared, one hand holding tightly to the purse over her shoulder and a speed to her gait that made Luc nervous. Once she was a distance away from the door, she burst into a sprint. She threw open the door once she got to the truck and threw herself inside.

Anya’s breathing was fast, either from the run or nerves, Luc couldn’t tell. All he knew was that panic gripped his own heart. Was his mate safe? Had she been found out?

“We need to leave,” she breathed from the back seat before ducking below the windows. “Don’t gun it out of the parking lot, but we should go now.”

Luc nodded and turned over the ignition. The old engine protested. Ahead of them, the facility door slid open again. Beauchamp appeared, his face bandaged from where it had collided with pavement after Luc threw him, and his face purple from something else. Luc wished he could have done more. The urge to get out of the truck and teach the human man another lesson was overwhelming. So much that his hand paused on the key.

“Meathead!” Marc yelled at him, reaching over to turn the key himself.

The engine roared to life and the truck jerked forward. Anya’s father lurched out the doors and grabbed the younger agent, spinning him around. Agent Beauchamp’s eyes narrowed at the truck as it rumbled past. Luc was going to kill that man someday. He knew it deep down as a fact that would never change. He would kill Beauchamp, because if he didn’t Anya would never know peace.

Unfortunately for Luc, today would not be that day.

They hit the highway as fast as they could. Isaac was waiting at the house on the waterfront with his desktop. If there were any protections on the file Anya had just procured, Isaac would be able to bypass it. While in Wales, Isaac had happily chatted up Liana’s sister-in-law, a royal Egyptian gold dragon, and exchanged a plethora of computer secrets like the nerds they were. Too bad she was mated to Liana’s older brother or the two of them might have made a cute couple.

Behind Luc, his own mate, the most confusing woman he’d ever met, leaned back and let out a long sigh of relief. Their eyes met in the rearview mirror and something struck Luc. There was something different in the way she looked at him. What had changed while she was inside?

“You’re on the wrong side of the road!” Marc shouted at his twin. The passenger dragon grabbed the wheel and jerked the truck back to the right side of the road.

Luc’s heart thumped. He’d been so distracted by his mate that he almost hurt them all.

Whatever was going on needed to be resolved soon. Luc couldn’t take the come and go nature of Anya’s affections. She was a distraction that kept returning to rip his heart out. His brother helped him sort out some of the reason she’d been so confusing.