Chapter 4
“Where are we going?” Holly demanded as Dylan’s grip on her hand allowed him to pull her along beside him as they left by a side door of the castle. They were now walking in the direction of what looked to be a huge garage at the back of the main building but still within that high and protective stone wall.
“Anywhere away from here,” he muttered, having picked up and put on his black leather jacket on the way out of the castle.
Holly’s reply remained in her throat as she followed him into the biggest garage she’d ever seen. Dylan used his free hand to flick on a light switch and reveal that the building housed almost a dozen bespoke and highly polished vehicles, several of them four by fours. These vehicles alone must be worth a small fortune.
Except, Holly recalled heavily, she was in need of a large fortune, not a small one.
“Are you sure you should be driving that?” She frowned as Dylan, having walked past all the cars and off-road vehicles, now stopped beside a distinctive black-and-chrome motorbike, proving they were biker boots he wore, after all. “Have you had any more blackouts since I saw you last?”
Dylan gave a self-derisive laugh as he shrugged into his jacket. He was pretty sure now Holly was the reason he was having blackouts. Possibly partly because all the blood drained from his head and centered on his cock whenever she was in his vicinity. “Can you forget you’re a doctor for a few minutes?”
She grimaced. “Not when that’s what I am, no.”
“Put this on.” He handed her a second crash helmet before putting on his own.
Not that Dylan needed to wear the protection of a helmet, but British law demanded he did so.
There were only two ways to kill a dragon shifter.
One of them was to cut off their head with their own sword.
The Pendragon brothers’ swords had once hung on the wall of the castle entrance hall along with their suits of armor, but they had been removed and locked in a safe since dragon hunters had pursued some of them in Russia the previous year.
The second way was for a fated mate to refuse the mating once it had begun, causing the dragon shifter and his mate to die three weeks later. Something Dylan didn’t even want to contemplate happening. But whether they mated or not would be Holly’s decision, and Dylan would abide by that decision. Whether Holly knew it yet or not, she now had Dylan as her protector, and he wouldn’t allow any harm to come to her, even from himself.
“Holly,” he prompted sharply as she made no move to put on the helmet.
Her frown was pained. “I need to talk to you, and I can’t do that on the back of a motorbike.”
Dylan gave her a searching glance, once again noting the pallor of her face along with the shadows of sleeplessness beneath those dark green eyes. “How have you been this past week?” He didn’t see how the mating could have started for Holly when there had been no skin-to-skin contact between them; she had been wearing protective surgical gloves at the hospital. And he certainly hadn’t kissed her. Yet.
But Dylan couldn’t be sure of the mating process since his first blackout. That it had happened twice now whenever Holly was near seemed to imply the fated mating was evolving and developing in unexpected ways.
She gave a grimace. “Depends on what way you mean.”
Dylan’s gaze sharpened. “Have you been ill?”
“Not exactly.”
“Did something happen?” Dylan and his dragon instinctively wanted to protect their mate.
Holly winced. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
He nodded. “Can it wait for just a couple more minutes?”
She sighed heavily. “Yes.” She finally pulled the helmet on over her red hair and secured it before climbing onto the bike behind him.
“Put your arms about my waist,” Dylan instructed as he wheeled the bike out of the garage and felt Holly holding herself back from touching him. “I don’t bite.” Not in this position anyway, he acknowledged self-derisively as, after the briefest hesitation, Holly’s arms encircled his waist and he felt the warmth of her denim-covered pussy pressing against his ass.
The dragon mating bite was given to the back of the neck, which was impossible for Dylan to reach from this angle. Besides which, he intended to explain the situation to Holly before he even thought of mating with her. A dragon mating was for life, and when it came to dragon shifters and their mates, the exchange of a mating aphrodisiac and a mate’s blood would ensure that life would be a very long time for both of them. Centuries. Holly needed to know all that before she made her decision.
Holly’s arms tightened about Dylan’s waist, and she pressed her face against his back, eyes tightly closed as he accelerated the bike out of the castle grounds and onto the uneven track she had driven up earlier. Their proximity increased her physical discomfort. Her nipples tingled almost painfully now, and her nether lips were uncomfortably damp. But she’d never ridden on the back of a motorbike before, so maybe it was worth that extra discomfort to not feel quite so terrified.
It wasn’t. Having her eyes closed enabled Holly to feel Dylan’s every movement as the muscles flexed in his back and thighs, all made worse by the dips and ridges of the track throwing her against him. She breathed a sigh of relief when they at last emerged onto the evenness of the narrow country road.
Within minutes, they had turned off that road down another, smoother track. It came to an abrupt end half a mile later at a small parking area for a coved beach.
Having lived in London all her life, Holly rarely found the opportunity to see the sea, let alone walk on a beach. The wind was blustery as the two of them got off the parked bike, removing and leaving their helmets on the seat before stepping onto the pale golden sand. The Irish Sea was a dark and ominous gray. The waves crashed with white foam onto the shoreline.
Holly felt slightly shy now she was at last alone with Dylan, her reason for being here now seeming even more ridiculous than it had earlier. There was absolutely no reason why Dylan should even listen to her, let alone want to help her.
She gave him a sideways glance as he walked beside her, his hands thrust into the pockets of that familiar black leather jacket. “You didn’t answer my question about the blackouts earlier.”
His smile was more of a grimace than a show of humor. “Because it doesn’t have a simple yes or no answer.”
Holly’s eyes widened. “It doesn’t?”
“No,” he confirmed as he came to an abrupt halt and turned to face her. “What are you doing here, Holly?”
She avoided his searching gaze, knowing her visit must seem strange to him. They had met only once before, a meeting that had necessarily been purely professional on her side. Outwardly, at least. No wonder Dylan was wondering why she’d driven all the way to North Wales to seek him out in this way. He probably thought she was some crazy stalker woman.
“I’m not really sure now that I’m actually here,” she admitted ruefully.
“Start at the beginning,” he encouraged gruffly.
Holly turned away from him, her feet sinking into the sand as she began to walk along the beach. The wind whipped her hair into a tangle about her face, making it difficult for her to see. Even so, she sensed the exact moment Dylan commenced walking beside her. She didn’t need to look; she could feel him there.
It was strange to be so aware of him, a virtual stranger, when she had never so much as had a single serious boyfriend. A few casual dates before her parents died, but since then, Holly had been too concentrated on caring for Gayle and finishing her medical training to have time for relationships too.
They walked in silence for several more minutes before Holly began to talk. “My parents died five years ago, and since then, it’s just been me and my younger sister, Gayle.”
“I’m sorry.” Dylan’s human father had died centuries ago, and he had mourned him. But his mother, Cerridwen, the Welsh goddess of knowledge, was still very much alive. He rarely saw her, of course, because she lived on Annwn, the invisible island off the Welsh coast Dylan and his brothers were banned from returning to until after they were mated. But Dylan knew his mother was there, and that if he needed her desperately enough, she would come to him as Arianrhod had come to Nathaniel and Chloe during the birth of their daughter, Amelia.
Holly shrugged off his condolences. “It is what it is.” She moistened her lips. “Gayle is five years younger than me, and—well, she can behave a little…irresponsibly at times.”
Dylan sensed Holly could have used a much stronger word to describe her sister’s behavior.
She glanced up at him, and he was pretty sure the watery sheen in her eyes owed nothing to the effect of the cold wind. “She’s done something really stupid this time.” She confirmed Dylan’s thoughts.
“Such as?”
She gave a pained wince. “She’s a computer geek.”
He nodded. “Like my brother Aeran.”
Her smile was rueful. “Yet another brother. Izzy said you have seven of them. I can’t imagine having so many siblings. Just having the one sister is stressful enough.”
Dylan shrugged. “I did have ten brothers, but three of them died.” Arthur had lived out his normal life span as a human; Gideon had died in battle. Both those deaths had happened fifteen centuries ago. Rufus had been killed by dragon hunters during Queen Victoria’s reign.
“That’s… I’m so sorry.” Holly frowned. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to lose three siblings. “In the circumstances, that remark about my sister was insensitive. I love Gayle to bits, but she has a habit of getting herself into trouble.” Her very first day at school, Gayle had altered all the passwords on the school computer system, shutting everyone out but herself. Those escapades had only escalated over the years. But none of them, as far as Holly was aware, had been illegal.
Unlike stealing money from Gregori Markovic.
Dylan smiled. “Garrett is the hothead in our family.”
The brother she had met at the hospital, with the eyes that swirled from silver to the darkest gray, like liquid mercury. “I doubt he has ever done anything as reckless as Gayle.” Tears stung her eyes as her feeling of helplessness returned.
“Tell me,” Dylan invited softly.
By the time Holly had finished explaining the situation to Dylan, the tears were falling unchecked down her cheeks and his eyebrows had risen almost as high as his hairline. “So there you have it,” she concluded heavily.
“She stole from the Russian Mafia?” Dylan and his brothers might prefer to live a secluded life in the rugged mountains of North Wales, but they were only too aware of the different strong-arm factions and Mafia families around the world. Pendragon Security was often called in to act for people who found themselves at the receiving end of their brutality.
Holly sat abruptly on one of the rocks scattered haphazardly at the end of the bay, as if her legs would no longer support her. “Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe Gayle’s behavior,” she accepted.
No, it didn’t. Gregori Markovic was one of the more reasonable members of the Russian bratva, but even he couldn’t be expected to take internet theft without exacting some form of retribution. As well as a demand for the return of his money.
“I thought— I wondered—” Holly broke off with a shake of her head. “Forget it.” She stood. “I have no idea what I was thinking, coming here.”
Protect.
Kill.
Dylan had every sympathy with his dragon’s sentiments. He was having similar thoughts himself. But he and his brothers no longer lived in the Dark Ages, where revenge and retribution were a matter of survival. Most humans considered themselves beyond such barbaric behavior nowadays, and he and his brothers had necessarily had to fit in with those mores.
Holly might have no idea why she had chosen to come to him, a virtual stranger, for help, but Dylan knew. Like his blackouts, their single meeting seemed to have triggered some response inside her, even though their mating hadn’t yet taken place. It was a connection she obviously wasn’t even aware of.
She gave a self-conscious laugh. “Why should you want to help me? You don’t even know me.”
Dylan knew Holly instinctively. The doctor in Holly was kind, caring, and totally dedicated to her profession. The woman was a loving sister and would be a passionate lover and a fierce mate and mother.
She sighed. “The thing is, Gayle has been keeping an eye on the account she originally hacked. Yesterday, someone else came onto the account. Not only did they discover the money is gone, they’re now trying to trace where it went and who took it.”
“Markovic?”
“More likely one of his employees.”
Dylan nodded. “Do you want me to go to Markovic in my capacity as one of the owners of Pendragon Security and talk to him on your sister’s behalf?”
Her frown was pained. “It was the reason I came to see you but…I doubt I can pay you your usual fee.”
He frowned darkly. “Did I ask for payment?”
“No, but—”
“You helped me a week ago. Now I’m going to help you.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” she protested. “You woke up of your own volition and then refused any treatment.”
He shrugged. “And to answer your previous question, I’ve been perfectly fine for the past week.” Until an hour or so ago, at least.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is talking to Markovic going to do any good or just put you in danger too?”
Dylan very much doubted that any human, even one as powerful as Gregori Markovic, could defeat even one dragon shifter let alone a whole family of them. But even during their work for Pendragon Security, the brothers were careful never to reveal their dragon to the humans who employed them. They didn’t need to when they were perfectly capable of putting the fear of God into someone in their human as well as their dragon form. And if fear didn’t work, then compulsion would.
“Doubtful,” he drawled confidently.
“I really don’t have any money to pay you,” she admitted miserably. “In fact, I used what little money I had saved to hire the car and pay for the petrol to drive here.”
Protect and kill.
Dylan doubted it would come to the latter, but the need to protect his mate was now as instinctive as breathing. Nor did he like seeing those lines of worry and strain on his mate’s beautiful face.
“I’m coming back to London with you,” he stated firmly.
Her cautious expression showed signs of brightening. “You are?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank you.” Holly’s smile was beaming as she rose to her feet. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She had thrown her arms about Dylan’s neck and was kissing him before he’d had time to know what she intended.
By the time he did realize, it was too late.
For both of them.