Chapter 3
“What are you doing, Grigor?”
He swung round to glare at Chloe, his brother Nathaniel’s wife, as she stood in the entrance hall below. “Do not interfere,” he warned.
Whatever she saw in his face was enough to make her gasp, her eyes wide as her gaze moved to the woman at Grigor’s side. “Is she…?”
“Yes,” he bit out through clenched teeth.
Her brows rose. “Really?”
“Really.”
She eyed him incredulously. “Are you sure?”
“Very,” he growled.
“Wow,” Chloe breathed softly. “I didn’t see that coming!”
“Neither did I,” Grigor admitted self-derisively. He knew his brothers would be as incredulous as Chloe, as he was, that the very young, fiery, and disrespectful Gayle Wilson was his fated mate.
No doubt Garrett, at least, would also be amused by fate’s choice for him. Grigor was the cold and remote brother who always made his decisions based on that detachment of nature. The impetuous, even reckless Gayle Wilson was going to change all that. Was going to change him.
Chloe winced. “You only just got back, yes?”
“Yes,” Grigor confirmed tersely.
The brothers each had a cave, a safe sanctuary when their dragon needed to be apart from humans and each other for a while. Grigor had left his cave in Alaska only yesterday, and yet it seemed a lifetime ago.
A different lifetime ago.
Because finding his fated mate changed everything. His priority was no longer the safety of his family or protecting vulnerable humans from feral Pendragon dragons as much as from other scumbag humans. Gayle was his priority now. Her physical health, her emotional happiness, every part of her. His to protect and treasure. She was his treasure, both as human and dragon.
“So you’ve known Gayle for what?” Chloe probed gently. “A few minutes at most?”
His nostrils flared. “As you are well aware, time is of no relevance in this situation.”
Chloe winced. “Maybe not for you but…” She ascended the stairs until she stood on the step just below them. “Gayle, love, step away from Grigor and then come down here to me.” She held out her hand in invitation.
A hand Gayle definitely wanted to take. Except she couldn’t, because Grigor’s fingers had tightened about her wrist rather than eased. She winced as her attempt to pull out of that steely grip a second time proved far more painful than the first. She was definitely going to have bruises there later today. “He’s too strong.”
No one had thought to mention that Grigor Pendragon was… Well, if Gayle was being polite, she would have said he was a little strange. But taking into account the fact he had come down to the dungeon and scared the shit out of her, then dragged her up here with the intention of taking her up to the second or third floor where all the bedrooms were situated, where his bedroom was, with the intention of doing God knows what to her, and then proceeded to have a conversation with his sister-in-law that made absolutely no sense to her, Gayle wasn’t feeling in the least polite. So she’d call it, him, for what he was. Charismatic good looks aside, Grigor Pendragon was fucking weird.
“You’re hurting her, Grigor.” As if to confirm Gayle’s assessment, Chloe Pendragon spoke in an even, almost cajoling tone usually reserved for the slightly insane or dangerous.
He glanced down to where his fingers were gripping Gayle’s wrist so tightly, the skin had gone from pink to white. That grip eased a little more, but still not enough for Gayle to pull free and move away from him.
Her nervousness spiked higher at the realization Grigor had bared his teeth—very sharp teeth?—at his sister-in-law. His eyes had also once again taken on that strange red glow at their center, and there was a weird growly sound vibrating in his chest.
“What the hell is going on here?” Nathaniel Pendragon demanded as he stood into the entrance hall looking up at them, his eyes widening as he no doubt saw his wife’s tension and the iron grip Grigor had on Gayle’s wrist. “Release her and step away, Grigor,” he rasped as he took the stairs two at a time until he stood on the same step as his wife. “Go back downstairs, love,” he instructed Chloe softly. “Find Bryn and send him here,” he added as Grigor’s growl grew deeper and louder.
“Mine,” he rasped in a guttural, almost unrecognizable voice.
Gayle started to shake as the other woman beat a hasty retreat, her usual defiant bravado of absolutely no use to her in this current situation. Whatever this situation was. Because Gayle had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.
In Grigor’s absence, Nathaniel had seemed to be the brother in charge, but even he seemed unsure of how to deal with Grigor’s odd behavior.
Which wasn’t in the least reassuring for Gayle, who was currently caught between these two physically powerful men. If it came to a straight fight between the two brothers, Gayle would put her money on Grigor winning. The two men were of similar height and build of toned and ripped muscle, but Grigor had that edge of untamed wildness about him, as a warning to any other predator to keep their distance.
Untamed?
Wild?
Predator?
What the hell was she thinking? Grigor was a man, nothing more, and a damned strange one at that.
“Gayle.” Nathaniel kept his gaze on his brother even though he spoke to her. “Order Grigor to release you.”
“I’ve already tried that—” No, she hadn’t. She had pulled and tugged to escape that first time, bruising herself in the process, but no amount of tugging or pulling this time, or cursing and swearing, had succeeded in attaining her release a second time. “Let me go, Grigor. Now,” she added for emphasis.
To her complete surprise, he did exactly that, and the moment he did, Gayle pushed past Nathaniel and ran back down the stairs, not daring to look back until she reached the bottom.
The two brothers were still glaring at each other, that rumbling in Grigor’s chest and throat sounding even louder.
Bryn appeared at her side. “Go to the sitting room. Chloe is there waiting for you.”
Gayle had no idea why her asking Grigor to release her should have worked, but she certainly didn’t need to be told twice to hotfoot it away from what looked as if it definitely might come to actual physical violence between the three brothers.
She ran rather than walked to join Chloe in the sitting room.
She had managed to get herself out of trouble with Gregori Markovic, the head of London’s bratva, and avoid any retribution from his ruthless second-in-command, Nikolai Volkov. But this situation, Grigor, felt more dangerous than those two men combined.
“Grigor,” Nathaniel snapped. “Brother.”
Grigor closed his eyes as he battled the red haze that prevented him from seeing and feeling anything but Gayle, his human fated mate. His senses were still saturated with the touch of her skin beneath his fingers, her unique perfume of flowers and pepper.
It was the latter which finally managed to breach that red haze threatening to consume him.
Why had he ever questioned fate’s choice of mate for him when Gayle was everything and more than he had realized he wanted or needed? Fire and defiance, heat and courage.
She was Gayle.
All that Gayle was now, all that she would become in the long years they would spend together, was exactly what Grigor desired and wanted in his mate.
As he wanted and desired her.
No other woman, no matter how beautiful, would ever appeal to him again. Only Gayle. Because she was his fated mate.
With the receding of that red haze came the realization that, in his need to claim her, he had probably frightened her. More than frightened her. The knowledge of that, despite having released her when she asked him to do so, as he would always answer to his mate’s needs, was enough to cause an ache in his chest.
“Grigor?”
He focused his gaze on an anxious-looking Bryn. “I am my normal self,” he assured him evenly.
“Are you sure?” Nathaniel continued to frown.
“Yes,” he bit out. “But I… I cannot… Would you offer my apologies to my mate for my absence, explain to her… No, do not tell her anything.” His earlier jealousy of Dylan, the thought of any of his brothers being the one to tell Gayle of who and what they all were, was unacceptable. That was for him to share with his mate. “I will talk to her when I am feeling calmer.” He drew in several deep breaths as he turned to continue up the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Bryn demanded.
“To the roof.” Grigor didn’t even spare a glance back at his brothers. “I need to let my dragon fly, to ease his tension as well as my own, and then I will try to explain to Gayle that she is my fated mate.” An explanation he was not looking forward to, considering how fiery his fated mate was and his own lack of control whenever he was near her.
But he had to try, damn it, because he owed Gayle that explanation. That choice.
A choice he had almost taken from her a few minutes ago, without thought for her wishes or desires.
A dragon shifter mating usually began when their aphrodisiac entered their mate’s bloodstream through saliva when they bit her on the nape during lovemaking, at the same time the shifter sucked some of their mate’s blood into his own system. This exchange would result in the mating frenzy that could last anywhere from a few days to a week. A barb on their cock would latch on inside their mate each time they made love, until the mating was fully completed.
They had recently discovered, when four of his brothers found their mates, the mating could start for their female if she ingested some of the mating aphrodisiac through saliva if they kissed, or by ingesting another of the dragon shifter bodily fluids. When that happened, the female’s physical need for her mate became unbearable, a burning arousal that only their mate could ease, and then only temporarily. Only a full mating would ease, not cure, that painful arousal for their mate.
Grigor gave a self-derisive snort at the realization there was no way either the kissing or the ingestion of any other of his body fluids was likely to happen with Gayle in the near future, not when his behavior had scared his mate at best and terrified her at worst.
Once up on the roof, Grigor didn’t hesitate to shift into his glittering red dragon, not quite twenty feet tall, as some of his brothers’ dragons were, but far more powerful. His dragon was the only one of all the brothers to differ from his eye color.
He immediately spread his wings and launched upward. It was late evening, when not too many humans ventured out into the Welsh mountains, but he nevertheless took care to cloak his appearance as he glided up into the rapidly darkening sky. A dragon shifter’s compulsion could take care of any who did see him, but Grigor was too strung out this evening to want to deal with a human.
Another human.
Because his fated mate was human.
Gayle was also beautiful and had shown herself as more than capable of standing up to his dominating nature.
Gayle wasn’t at all what Grigor had thought he wanted in a mate, but now that he’d met her, recognized her for the strong woman she was, he couldn’t envisage having any other mate but her.
His chest swelled with pride in her strength of character, along with a sense of peace that he had at last found his mate.
Persuading Gayle into becoming his mate might be—would be—a battle, but it was a battle Grigor found himself looking forward to, in the knowledge that if she agreed to be his mate that they would both win.
Grigor would no longer be in danger of shifting to dragon and becoming feral, but instead have a companion to share the rest of his long life with.
Gayle would never be alone again, but cared for and cossetted by him for the rest of her equally long life. Something Grigor knew, despite her earlier denials, Gayle needed to be truly happy.
He knew some of her family background from Holly, Dylan’s mate and Gayle’s sister, and although none of his brothers could ever have accused him of compassion in the past, Grigor knew that, where his mate was concerned, his knowledge of Gayle’s life to date gave him the necessary insight into her future needs. Most of all, she would need to be reassured Grigor would be completely hers. Steadfast and true. Always.
If Grigor could reassure her of that, easing some of Gayle’s insecurity from the past and her uncertainty about the future, especially now that her sister was Dylan’s mate, then he had no doubt her courage and strength would shine through. Not as the defiant bravado it was now, but as the confident woman, the partner of her proud dragon-shifter mate.
He—
Grigor’s dragon’s gaze narrowed to the woods at the foot of the mountain, Pendragon Castle at its summit. For a moment, he had thought he’d seen… Yes, there it was again, at the edge of the trees and just outside the border of their property and security surveillance, a very small and faint red glow before it faded again. Seconds later, there was another glow before it faded for a second time.
Grigor drew in the air through his nostrils, his acute dragon senses catching a very faint but distinctive whiff of tobacco.
The red glow he’d seen was someone smoking a cigarette.
Aeran’s security of the property only extended to the borders of their land. The intruder had also used the trees to hide his presence. So he could watch the castle above undetected?
If so, for what purpose?
Grigor’s instincts immediately sharpened with a need to protect his mate.
He flew downward with the barest tilt of his wings, his cloaked appearance hiding him from whoever was down there as his dragon landed soundlessly.
He shifted back to his human form as he realized the intruder was no longer there. Only that faint smell of tobacco remained, and a still-warm filter crushed into the ground, along with several others, the aroma of those cigarettes helping to mask the scent of whoever had been standing here.
Someone who had been watching Pendragon Castle, and consequently its inhabitants, for some time, judging from the number of cigarettes butts on the ground.