Chapter 2
“Was that the best you could do, tell my mate I have a drinking problem?” Dylan arched a reproving brow at his brother.
He had discharged himself from the hospital minutes ago, and the two of had now found the privacy and darkness of a park nearby in readiness for shifting to their dragons. Dylan’s dragon had been fighting the separation from his fated mate with every step he took away from her.
“Well, you were intoxicated, even if that intoxication was caused by her mating scent.” Garrett shrugged. “You completely disappeared, you know,” he added with a worried frown. “For over two hours, none of us could sense you were even alive, let alone where you were.”
Dragon shifters could compel humans, but they weren’t telepathic. But after sixteen hundred years’ existence, the eight Pendragon brothers were able to sense each other’s presence, at least. And it now seemed Dylan had disappeared off his brothers’ radar for two hours.
He frowned. “That’s odd.” It wasn’t good news when taken into account with his total blackout.
Garrett nodded. “Grigor was frantic when he called me. He’s very conscious of how close he is to shifting and remaining in his dragon form. He feared you might have already done so until we began to sense you again an hour or so ago. Thank God, I was able to get to you before too much damage was done.”
The eight Pendragon brothers had all been born within one week of each other, to a different Welsh goddess mother and a single human father, on the island of Annwn, the Welsh Underworld. They had developed the ability to become dragon shifters on their thirty-fifth birthday, which was when they had left Annwn to protect and serve their human brother, Arthur. They’d done so with the promise that they would one day find their fated mate.
They had willingly served and protected Arthur until the day he died, having ensured the Welsh royal bloodline survived, and then they had become mercenaries for any cause they considered worthy of a dragon army, century after century, adapting and changing with each one that passed. In the twenty-first century, they continued to rid the world of murderers and terrorists under the guise of their company, Pendragon Security.
It had taken sixteen hundred years, but in the last year, three of the brothers had found their fated mates.
But if the rest failed to do so before their dragon became feral, they would shift and remain dragon, resulting in their brothers having to destroy them before they hurt or killed someone, and by doing so, revealing their existence to the human world.
“What happened?” Garrett prompted now.
Dylan still had no idea.
Nor was he sure how much to tell his brother.
In recent months, he had been able to sense his own rapidly approaching shift to becoming and remaining dragon. As their healer, he had been determined to log each and every facet leading up to that last fatal shift. If the blackout was part of his dragon taking over his body completely, then Dylan wanted to keep that knowledge to himself until after he had carried out tests on the blood Holly had taken from him.
His chest tightened at how close they had been to having a technician in a human hospital realize the differences in his dragon blood to human.
Dylan shrugged. “When I know, you’ll know.”
Garrett nodded. “On the bright side, you did meet your fated mate.”
Holly Wilson. Red hair. Green eyes. Voluptuous figure.
She had been angry when he insisted he was leaving the hospital, had continued to lecture him on the stupidity of his decision right up to the moment he signed the discharge papers and walked out of the emergency department with Garrett at his side.
And each and every step Dylan took away from her had been like a sword being thrust into his heart.
Mine.
No, she’s mine, Dylan fiercely corrected his dragon.
But until he knew what the hell was going on with his own body, Holly would belong to neither of them. Dylan refused to put Holly at risk, especially from himself. Holly didn’t know it yet, but she had a dragon protector who would happily give his life for hers if the need arose.
Garrett eyed him speculatively. “Why aren’t you claiming her right now?”
Dylan gave a snort. “Hasn’t knowing Chloe, Izzy, and Tegan taught you anything about human women?” The fated mates of his three brothers were all human. Proud, strong, and beautiful women, who took no crap from anyone, least of all their dragon mate.
Garrett gave a rueful grimace. “Point taken. So what now?”
“Back to Wales.”
His brother’s eyes widened. “You’re going home and leaving your mate unclaimed?”
“Yes,” Dylan bit out between gritted teeth.
“Why?”
“Because that’s what I’ve decided to do for the moment,” he rasped, not giving his brother time to make any further comment before he shifted to his dragon and took to the sky.
There was still time, Dylan assured himself on the flight back to Wales. He hadn’t gone feral yet, and he knew where to find his fated mate.
If or when he decided it was safe for her to mate with him.
Holly had no idea what was wrong with her. Which, considering she was a doctor, was a sad admission to have to make.
She had been feeling slightly…off since leaving the hospital at the end of her night shift.
Feverish, but with no rise in temperature.
Itchy, but no spots had appeared on her skin.
Lastly, and even more inexplicably, her nipples ached and her clit throbbed. In arousal.
Those latter two might have something to do with the fact she had been unable to stop thinking about Dylan Pendragon since he left the hospital in the middle of the night.
No, Holly was sure it had something to do with him!
She couldn’t get the man out of her mind. His skin had felt firm and smooth, and yet as hard as steel beneath that outer covering. His hair was so dark and springy, she had ached to take off the safety of her surgical gloves and run her bare fingers through it. His eyes… Oh God, his eyes were that vivid shade of blue she had never seen before, with lighter shards fanning out from the pupils. Just thinking of his gruff and smoky voice sent those now-familiar shivers of pleasure down the length of her spine.
And increased the throb of arousal of her breasts and core.
She needed to get out more. That was all this reaction was to a complete stranger. An arrogant stranger, a patient, and wealthy enough to be completely out of her social reach, Holly reminded herself firmly as she looked around the sparsely furnished apartment she shared with her sister. Even the few furnishings they had were bought from a second-hand store.
She couldn’t afford to go out more. She’d had huge loans to pay back by the time she finished her doctor’s training, and her sister had been unemployed since she’d finished her university course at the beginning of the summer. At least Holly thought she had. She gave Gayle what money she could spare, which wasn’t much, but somehow, her sister never seemed to be short of cash to buy new upgrades and equipment for her already state-of-the-art computer system.
Which, Holly freely admitted, was a worry she hadn’t yet found the courage to confront Gayle with. Mainly because she was afraid of the answer.
There was only the two of them since their parents died in a car crash during Holly’s second year of studying medicine. Having always lived for the moment, their parents had left very little money to support their two daughters through university. Hence the debts.
Holly shouldn’t really complain about Gayle’s lack of employment. It wasn’t as if her sister went out drinking and clubbing every night. No, since getting her degree in computer science, Gayle spent every evening and most of the night in her bedroom, doing God knows what on her computer, and then, like Holly, she spent most of the day sleeping. The only times Holly saw her sister was when Gayle came out of her bedroom to look for food, usually just as Holly was about to rush off for yet another night shift at the hospital.
This morning was different.
Gayle was in the kitchen, the delicious aroma of freshly made coffee permeating the air.
Even more unusual, Gayle now poured Holly a mug of that coffee before joining her at the kitchen table.
Holly took a reviving sip before speaking. “Okay, out with it.” She sighed as she placed the mug back on the table.
Gayle’s hair was as red as her own, her eyes also green. Five years younger than Holly, at twenty-two, Gayle was beautiful enough not to need to wear makeup. She also had the height and body of a model, but preferred to wear T-shirts and ragged jeans, no matter what the season.
Her sister now avoided meeting Holly’s gaze. “Out with what?”
Holly gave her a knowing look. “Whatever it is that persuaded you to stay awake long enough to make and pour me fresh coffee the moment I got home.”
Gayle gave her an irritated glance. “Can’t I show a little sisterly concern now and then?”
“No.” Holly had spent most of her childhood and all her adulthood protecting and caring for her younger sister, and she recognized Gayle’s guilty look when she saw it.
Her sister grimaced. “I’ve…got myself into a bit of a tangle.”
Holly’s heart sank. “What sort of tangle?” If it was financial, then they were screwed. They had no savings, and Holly barely managed to cover the rent on this apartment, pay the bills, and feed the two of them on the wage she earned at the hospital.
Gayle stared down at the scarred, worn kitchen tabletop, where the two of them ate their meals. “I’ve been doing a little…hacking on the side. To earn extra money,” she added hastily as Holly groaned. “I now have more than enough for you to pay off the student loans you took out to get us through university.”
Oh dear God.
Holly’s lips felt stiff from the shock, and her mouth had gone dry. “Illegal hacking?”
Her sister snorted. “Hacking is illegal by definition.”
She knew that. She had just been hoping… Hope had never helped her in the past, so why on earth would she think it might start now? “What did you do?”
“Well,” Gayle sighed heavily. “All the work comes in online, of course. And this one client wanted me to enter a specific system and—and—”
“And?”
“And empty a bank account into another, untraceable, one.”
Holly stared at her in horror. “Jesus, Gayle.”
“The client assured me it was their own money,” her sister continued quickly. “That with all the new legislation that’s come in recently, he just wanted to move it to somewhere it couldn’t be traced.”
“Such as?”
“Well, it was in an offshore account anyway, so I then put it through several other accounts, and finally to the Cayman Islands.”
Holly’s stomach churned. “And what did you get out of it?”
“Fifty thousand pounds.”
A band tightened about her chest. “How much money did you move from the original bank account?”
Gayle chewed on her bottom lip before answering. “A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
“Several million.”
“Several! And was it his own money?”
“I have reason now to believe it wasn’t, no.”
Of course, it wasn’t. No legitimate client would contact a twenty-something hacker online and ask them to transfer money that was already their own.
“Do you know who this client was—is?”
Gayle gave a pained wince. “That isn’t how this works, Holls.”
“That isn’t how…? Of course, it isn’t.” Holly felt sick, to add to all her other discomfort: the fever, the itching, and the arousal. “Can’t you find him by tracking the emails he sent you?”
“I already tried. The email account he used has been closed down, and I can’t trace him through…other means either. He’s effectively disappeared off the system.”
“What were you thinking, Gayle?” she groaned. “No, scrap that question. You obviously weren’t thinking at all!”
“I was only trying to help with our finances,” she defended sulkily.
“Help?” Holly stood with a noisy scraping of her chair on the bare wooden floor. “Stealing isn’t helping us. It’s a serious felony that could, and probably will, end up with you going to prison.” And God knows her sister wasn’t equipped to deal with a prison sentence of any kind.
“I very much doubt it will ever be reported to the police,” Gayle assured her confidently.
Oh dear Lord… “Whose money did you take?”
Gayle gave another pained wince. “Just like you to go straight to the point.”
She sighed her impatience. “I doubt delaying it is going to make the answer any sweeter.”
“No,” her sister conceded. “Please believe I had no idea… It’s the guy who heads the Russian Mafia in London,” she admitted with a grimace.
Holly swayed where she stood, and black spots started to dance in front of her eyes. The Russian Mafia! Gayle had stolen from the man who headed the London branch of the most dangerous organization in the world? One run by and filled with people who felt no qualms about eliminating anyone who got in their way.
Or stole from them.
She winced. “Are we talking about Gregori Markovic?”
Gayle nodded. “That’s the one.”
“You have to give it back,” Holly said desperately.
“I can’t.”
“Of course, you can,” she snapped. “You created the account in the Cayman Islands and transferred the money there. Hack into that account and transfer it back again before anyone discovers it’s gone.”
Gayle closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. “I already checked into doing that last night, after discovering my client was no longer reachable by email. The new account is closed and the money all gone. Through a series of dummy companies, I eventually discovered the original company was owned by Gregori Markovic.”
Working in a hospital that had one of London’s busiest emergency departments, Holly had heard the gossip about Gregori Markovic. He was known throughout the city as the ruthless head of the Russian family that ran London’s underworld. His second-in-command, Nikolai Volkov, went by the name of the Wolf, with a reputation to match.
Holly’s heart was now beating double time. “And you didn’t think to check any of that before you stole his money?”
“Obviously not,” Gayle muttered.
Obviously not.
“What about tracking the fifty thousand paid to you?”
“I was instructed to take it from the account before making the transfer to the Cayman Islands.”
“And that didn’t ring any alarm bells with you?”
“Well, of course it did.” Gayle glared. “But it’s fifty thousand pounds, Holly!”
“I suppose you were lucky he paid you at all.” Except… “Your client did it that way because now you’re not only implicated because of the hacking but for receiving some of the stolen money.”
“I managed to work that part out for myself,” Gayle acknowledged heavily.
Which left the two of them precisely where?
Oh God, what if Gregori Markovic already knew his money was missing?
Holly glanced toward the apartment door as if she suspected Nikolai Volkov and several of his muscular sidekicks might kick it in at any moment before carrying off her sister to do God knows what to her. They might take Holly too and use her as leverage against Gayle to get the money back.
What were they going to do?
Correction, what was she going to do, because it was pretty obvious her sister had absolutely no idea how to put right the mess she had made.
The memory of the business card in Dylan Pendragon’s wallet naming his company as Pendragon Security immediately came to the forefront of Holly’s mind, before it was as quickly dismissed. She didn’t even know Dylan Pendragon, other than as a difficult patient. She certainly didn’t have any money to pay for a private security company to protect Gayle and herself. Nor were they touching a penny of the money Gayle had been paid to hack into and steal from Gregori Markovic’s bank account.
Besides, given the circumstances, Holly had no reason to think that Dylan would want to help her and her sister, even if Holly could somehow find the money to pay him.