The sight of dragons stomping about around her should have thrilled Lilly, but it didn’t. It scared her and confused her. She was supposed to be one of these dragon people, but she’d never changed form, and she’d never been able to call forth fire.
The huge silver dragon bowed its head, and her sister Claire patted it as if petting a friendly dog. A stunning blue and green beast walked up to them and blew out a long breath of steam from flared nostrils. They were both her sister’s mates. The silver one was Nathan, leader of the dragon clan, and the blue and green one was Dom.
Claire spoke to her, but Lilly missed some of what she said. She was lost in thought as she watched another dragon come in to land. It thrilled her, but then she’d feel the sharp twinge of sadness and disappointment. She had grown more and more frustrated as the days passed and her so-called magic refused to appear. She hadn’t asked to be brought to this strange place, and she missed aspects of her life back home more and more as time went on. Worried about the animals at the shelter where she volunteered, and whether she missed out on any news about her errant ex-boyfriend, Zach.
Her bestie, Missy, kept in touch, but no news on Zach so far. Lilly sighed and scratched her arm.
“You can ride on one of them. Don’t you think it’ll be fun?” Claire’s gorgeous eyes shone at her, full of hope.
The idea of riding a dragon was kind of cool, but Lilly didn’t want to show too much enthusiasm or she’d give her sister false hope that she’d join her in living a dragon’s life. Lilly’s home would be in Connecticut, with Zach and her parents and her work at the animal shelter. Once Zach came to his senses and dumped the girl he’d run off to France with.
Claire’s bright smile lit up her face. God, her sister was a looker. Lilly didn’t have the same gorgeousness going on. She saw the similarities in their coloring and features, for sure, but Claire came built all slim, toned, and tanned, whereas Lilly tended to lean more toward dumpy and too curvy. One thing about being stuck in the Scottish Highlands which did thrill her was finding out she had a blood relative alive in this world. It was the only reason she’d journeyed here in the first place. She’d been shocked as hell to see Claire standing waiting for her outside work one day. It had been like looking at a slimmer version of herself in a mirror, and she’d known immediately the young woman was her blood.
Lilly had already been aware of being adopted because her first adoptive mother had died when she was only nine. She’d hit the lottery, though, after a period languishing in a foster home near Leeds, and she’d been taken in by the Franklins. How some wealthy American couple wound up on her doorstep in rain-sodden Yorkshire, she had no idea. From then on, her life had been golden—on the surface, at least. Twenty-room house, pool, staff. But now her sister wanted her to give it all up and stay here for months on end, learning the ways of her people. Worse, there’d been an endless parade of pairs of men brought in to meet her by her brother-in-law Nathan, who seemed to think the answer to all her problems would be to mate with two dragons. No pressure there, then! They honestly seemed to expect her to swoon over a couple of dragon males and then settle down to live her life here. When she already had a life back home…sort of.
Not that it didn’t tempt her a little. The setup the women had going on here. Wow. Two men for every female—talk about cool. And these guys did everything for their women. Lilly could dig it, if only any of the endless parade she’d met did anything for her. When her sister and her mates came to talk to her in Connecticut, they’d cleverly kept the whole dragon part of their story on ice until she’d returned to Scotland with them.
Once they shared their little secret, they’d seemed to expect her to be impressed with the fact that dragons were real and her supposed heritage as one of them. But she hadn’t been. More scared and perturbed to begin with, then it grew old kind of fast. These people didn’t do anything. They puttered around this forlorn, endlessly green hillside, doing God knew what, and every now and again, they changed form. After a few nights of it all, she wanted to scream.
She followed her sister off the hillside and back toward the home Claire shared with Nathan and Dominic. Claire still chatted, too bright, too awkward, and Lilly hated upsetting her. They reached the house and headed straight for the kitchen where Claire held up the coffee jar. Lilly nodded. A cup of coffee would be great. Maybe a cookie, too. Although… She glanced down at her hips. She shouldn’t.
Nathan and Dominic walked into the room, already changed back into human form and dressed, and smiled at Claire. Just like that, the air changed. Lilly picked up on the current flowing between the three of them and fought off a twinge of sadness. She wanted what they had, but with Zach.
Her ex owned her heart in some ways because of their history. The way he’d been her protector from an early age. Although, these days, he seemed determined to be her tormentor. She’d never met anyone who’d remotely been a match for him in her mind, though. Well except… She pushed the thought away, but it pushed back. Those two men, the ones she’d seen on the sidewalk that hot summer’s day out shopping with her mother. They’d made an impact, but she’d forced herself to ignore it. After all, she’d only seen them for a few seconds. A few intense seconds as her eyes met theirs, and she’d been unable to move for long moments. But then her mother had pulled her into a shop, and the strange spell shattered.
Sometimes, she feared she was broken. Giving her heart to a guy who trampled on it, repeatedly. Lusting after two men she’d seen briefly one day and making them the center of her fantasy life. It seemed she liked the unobtainable.
There’d been dragon pair after dragon pair coming to see her, men who wanted her and would cherish her and…nothing. Two pairs had been downright gorgeous, but she hadn’t felt anything for them. Probably partly due to her pining for Zach, despite him dumping her for Casey Evans and spending time with the bitch in France. She felt sick at the thought he might settle down with the girl, with her big fake boobs, fake hair, and faker laugh.
“What’s the plan for this evening?” Dominic turned to her and gave a bright smile, as overly cheery as Claire in his attempts to make all of this less difficult and weird.
Nathan merely shot her a bored glance and looked away. She waited for the moment he’d tell her to get lost. Any day now, she reckoned.
Dom kept trying, and Claire too. And bless her, her sister did try. Lilly appreciated it, truly. She wasn’t some heartless bitch, but she wanted to get back to her life. There’d been three new pups come into the shelter the day her sister had shown up, and Lilly worried about them. Her work at the animal shelter was the highlight of her life. She loved going there three days a week. It felt real, away from the fake, moneyed bullshit of a lot of her peers. And the animals were so loving, even the damaged ones, if you treated them right.
She believed herself related to Claire. Their physical similarity screamed as much. But the rest of it, the idea she possessed some inner dragon, she highly doubted. All this magic they talked about. The power to start fires and other shit, she’d never experienced it in her life. If it weren’t for the fact that she looked the spitting image of Claire, she wouldn’t believe a word they said. Well, that and the fact that she’d seen real live dragons stomping around all over the place. Her theory? She was Claire’s sister, but she possessed none of the dragon genes. Just like some siblings had red hair and others didn’t, surely some could have dragon genes and others miss out on them?
A man scuttled into the room, one of the servants, and his flustered face caught her attention. Normally, things ran like clockwork around the place.
“There’s a visitor. I told him he couldn’t come in, but he—”
“He ignored your manservant.” A huge guy walked into the room, and she sucked in a breath. Holy crapola…him!
How odd she’d been thinking of her most private secret only today, and then one of the two men she’d seen on that street walked into the room. Her mind spun, and she felt sick at the weirdness of it all. On top of the whole finding out she was a dragon and had a sister, it seemed far too much of a coincidence.
If the guy had been handsome in her memories and fantasies, in the cold, stark light of day, he proved to be absolutely…well, not handsome. No, his features were too harsh, too domineering for such a pedestrian description. His high forehead and patrician nose were made rugged by a strong jaw, heavy scruff, diamond-sharp cheekbones, and the deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen without contacts being involved. He wasn’t handsome—he was downright gorgeous.
He was the guy from that strange day in New York, or at least one of them, and she became surer of it as she stared at him.
She flashed back to the sweltering day when she’d turned on the sidewalk to see two impossibly big, stupidly striking men, and they’d been looking right back at her. Masculine and powerful, they’d starred in her deepest, darkest fantasies for a while. But after a few months, the potency of the odd moment faded, and she’d convinced herself they’d been a figment of her imagination. Berated herself when she thought of them.
She’d swear this guy was one of them, but so much time had passed, a year and a half or more, and it had been a fleeting moment of connection. She’d been heartbroken at the time, once again over Zach, and so the moment got swept up in all the emotional turmoil going on inside her. A startling, precious few seconds of clarity in her fog of despair over losing Zach. Over time, her image of the two men changed, faded, shimmered like an oasis in the desert, until it became harder and harder for her to summon their likenesses.
Thick, dark brows sliced across the man’s forehead, and his scowl made her shrink back against the cupboards behind her. This close, he intimidated the hell out of her. His long, almost black hair hung in thick curtains on either side of his astonishing face, extending past his shoulders. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and God help her, a vest, which only showed off those broad shoulders and his narrow waist. His shirt lay open at his neck, but he had an old-fashioned gold watch in the pocket of his vest, on a chain. He looked like a steampunk cowboy come to life or something.
The guy strode into the center of the room and placed huge fists on the granite work surface running the length of the middle of the kitchen.
Nathan gave an odd sound, and she whipped around to look at him. The color drained from his face, leaving normally healthy tan skin a sickly, wan yellow.
The air in the room heated and snapped and crackled at her skin. All the hairs on her wrist stood on end, and her heart hammered so hard she heard it. A tiny voice, one she hadn’t listened to much before but had been aware of in the past, whispered to her now. It told her this moment was a defining instant in her life, that this man mattered to her somehow. Seeing him before wasn’t a coincidence. Pressed up against the unyielding wood behind her, she watched the scene unfold.
“Surprise, old friend.” The visitor spoke, and his raspy voice caressed her skin as surely as if he’d touched her with his fingers. His lips were beautiful, seriously sensual, but his deep blue eyes got to her the most. They were so full of sorrow, it made her want to run over to him and comfort him, which seemed like a stupid idea because the dude was scary huge. Taller than Nathan and built like a truck.
“Get the hell out of my home. Now!” Nathan bellowed the last word, and she automatically cowered.
For the first time, the stranger looked her way, and the moment his eyes landed on her, something lit within his gaze. A smoldering flame of heady lust, and she knew in an instant it would consume her if she let it. His nostrils flared, and he took a deep breath in, faltering for a moment. The same connection she’d sensed in her confused, heartbroken state on a scorching day in New York flared to life again, here in this kitchen.
He moved forward, an inch closer to the counter his braced arms rested on, and the movement made his forearms bulge with thick muscle. She swallowed. Dear God.
“One more fucking step, and I’ll end you.” Nathan swept his arms out and pushed Claire and Dom behind him, leaving only himself and her exposed to the man looking like he wanted to rip the granite countertop to shreds with his bare hands for shits and giggles.
“I come to you in peace. We’ve had our differences, but I mean you no harm. I’m here for something of mine.” The man said the words calmly, but his body language screamed something else. Some barely controlled need to move and to act, and he kept darting his gaze her way as if unable to avoid looking.
Nathan inhaled, long and slow, and blinked. He looked from the visitor to Lilly and back again, and his eyes widened. “No.” He raised one hand and pushed forward. A ball of fire shot from his palm, heading straight for the stranger. For some unknown and probably insane reason, she cried out in dismay. But the ball didn’t hit the guy. Instead, it hovered in the air in front of his face.
A second man strolled into the room, one arm straight out, palm up in front of his face. He glanced from the ball of fire to Nathan. This second man sighed and gave a roll of whiskey-colored eyes. He grinned a shit-eating grin and tsked against his teeth. “Rhyndor, Rhyndor, Rhyndor. Always getting into trouble. And I’m surprised at you, Nathan. He said he came in peace. A dragon’s word is his bond, after all.”
The guy kept smiling as he dropped the ball of fire to the floor, and it fizzled out.
She stared, wide-eyed, shock eating her up. It was the same two guys. It had to be. Hot dude number two confirmed it. While all her friends usually talked on their nights out about how much they crushed on their boss, her secret crush for the last eighteen plus months of her life had been on two men she’d seen for an instant on the street. And they were here, in Nathan’s kitchen. Fear slammed into her because as she’d thought before, coincidence? No way.
“I…” Nathan dragged a hand through his hair and scowled, but he didn’t attack again, and he looked…worried. She’d never seen him look anything but confident and in control. Her fear ratcheted up another notch as she swallowed past a dry throat, wishing the cupboard doors would open and let her hide inside.
Her arousal didn’t dim, though, despite her terror. In fact, the second guy’s presence only added to the strange heat filling her. She got to properly look at them, too, instead of relying on a memory of a moment. Just as beautiful as dude number one, dude number two had more conventional good looks, the sort of handsome features women everywhere responded to. But his full lips, dimpled chin, and those eyes made him almost too good to be true.
“I thought you were dead.” Nathan’s voice shook as he addressed dude number two.
The second intruder shrugged, still holding one palm up. “Nope. Not dead, but tired of it all. The wars, the endless shit about roles, rules, and hierarchy, and generally, the whole thing. Sorry to disappear on you, cousin. But you see, I can’t let you hurt him because he’s my male now.”
“Will someone here please explain what the fuck is going on?” Claire pushed her way past Nathan, who tried to pull her back behind him, but she squirmed out of his grasp and shot him a glare, one perfect brow arched.
“Who the hell are you? And what makes you think you can walk into our home uninvited?” She pointed to the long-haired man.
He blew out a harsh breath. “It’s a pleasure to meet you finally, Claire. I am Rhyndor, and you could say your mate and I are sworn enemies. And this is Callum, my bonded male and Nathan’s cousin.”
Rhyndor pressed his fists harder into the counter, and his arms bulged once more. God above, the two of them were insanely hot. Was it her imagination, or did the cool autumn air seem to be turning humid? She pulled her T-shirt from her body and fanned her face. Callum followed the movement with those hooded, whiskey eyes of his, and she saw something of Nathan in him then. A shadow of familiarity in the way he moved. Whereas Nathan was all dark eyes and seriousness, this guy’s gaze could light a fire if you ran out of kindling. His lips twitched at the sides with something akin to amusement.
Dangerous. These two men were dangerous to know.
“As to your second question,” Callum drawled, “we’re here for the female.”
Rhyndor turned those blue, blue eyes on her, and the air in the room went supernova with heat. Her head spun and her vision swam.
“Here you go. Don’t try to get up yet.” Claire stood over her, concern etching her features and a glass in her hand. “Take the water and take a small drink. Don’t try to get up.”
Lilly looked around in shock. How did she end up on the floor?
Angry, low male voices reached her. Oh, shit! The men, they’d said they’d come for her. They might be hot, but no way would she be going with them. They scared the crap out of her. Still woozy and dizzy, she understood one thing. She’d never tell anyone she’d seen them before. It all added up to something too scary. Something threatening to take away her autonomy if she let it. So, she’d keep it her secret.
“Don’t let them take me. I’m sorry I’ve been a pain, but don’t let them take me.”
Claire shook her head vigorously. “No way. You’re not going anywhere with them, don’t you worry. I’ve heard of this Rhyndor before. He did crazy bad things a long time ago in some war or other, and he and Nathan are sworn enemies. You know our other sister?”
Lilly sipped at the blessedly cool water and nodded.
Claire went on. “Her mate, Steffan, many years ago he lost his previous mates. That bastard Rhyndor took their lives. Killed them for this witch he hung with. Nathan took his bonded male in retaliation, and we all thought the fucker was dead, to be honest. One thing’s for certain. He’s not coming within ten yards of you.”
About to state how, technically, the man was already within ten yards of her, Lilly bit back her cocky response. If she pissed off Claire and her mates, they might get sick of her and let these beasts take her.
For a moment, a sick thrill ran through her and her blood heated at the idea, but she swallowed it down with more cool water. She’d lost her mind. It provided the only explanation for how she came to be sitting on the floor, half wanting to run far away from those two big, scary men and half wanting to run toward them as fast as her legs would carry her, telling them to do wicked and terrible things to her as they carried her off.
“Come. Let’s leave the men to their talk. You need to sit down and get yourself together.” Claire led her out of the room and toward the large glass conservatory.
Not sure what else to do, Lilly meekly let herself be dragged away from the two visitors, but she couldn’t resist turning back for one last glance. Rhyndor turned to her as she paused by the door and ran his tongue over firm, harsh lips, and her legs nearly buckled. Shit, she was in trouble.
*****
“I ought to end you where you fucking stand!” Callum had never seen his cousin so angry. He watched Nathan pace the length of the kitchen.
“How the fuck could you take up with this murdering piece of shit?” Nathan jabbed a finger right in Rhyndor’s face, tapping his forehead with the blunt edge of his nail.
Rhyndor’s jaw tensed as a muscle ticked there, but he didn’t do anything.
Callum swallowed down his rage because he’d promised Rhyndor he’d come here and be all calm and shit and not cause a scene. Guilt nipped at him too, sharp at his usually worn edges, for letting Nathan and his family think him dead for the longest time. He’d walked away, and no dragon walked away without letting his clan and family know where he was going. In doing so, he’d let them think the worst. Simply because he’d needed to escape the claustrophobia of clan life. “Cousin, understand something now. We are blood, you and I, and I have regrets for my behavior in the past. But Rhyn is my bonded male. He comes first. You fucking disrespect him, and I will defend him.”
Nathan snorted, and his lips turned down.
Rhyndor put a hand out and touched Callum’s arm, and a moment of pure calm washed over him, banking the inferno of rage he’d been building up at Nathan’s dismissive gesture. His cousin had always been an arrogant shit, all high-handed and imperious.
“Let me speak.” Rhyn once more touched him briefly before turning his attention to Nate. “It is true I took lives I’d no right to take. As did you.” Rhyndor spoke in that hoarse, sexy fucking way he possessed, and Callum wanted to kiss him right there and then. To claim his mouth in front of his stuck-up cousin and show Nathan how much he loved his male. But he didn’t, he stayed still and kept quiet.
“We were at war, and Steffan did terrible things himself, but I admit I was wrong to kill his mates. It’s why I disappeared for such a long time. I felt…bad.” The word came out slow and elongated as if the letters tasted so odd, Rhyndor struggled to spit them out. “And trust me, Nathan, I didn’t often suffer pangs of guilt in those days. They were barbaric times, but taking his mates proved so terrible it changed me. I nearly went mad, truth be told, and I decided to drown the noise in my head with the noise of human life. I went to the busiest place on earth, Manhattan.
“One day, over three decades ago now, I saw a male I thought could be you from behind. When the person in front of me turned around, I realized it wasn’t you, but I sensed a fellow dragon straightaway. I walked by him, wanting to find out why a dragon would be amongst humans, when his scent hit me. The rest, as they so clichédly say, is history.”
“How could you?” Nathan stared at Callum, refusing to look at Rhyndor. “How could you take up with this piece of crap?”
“Seriously, cousin. Stop it, or I’ll shut your mouth for you.”
“You’ll have to go through me first.” Dominic pushed himself forward.
Callum bit back his laugh at the interference. The dragon male may be pretty, but he had no chance in a fight between them. He’d be toast, quite literally, in minutes.
Nathan knew as much and turned to put a restraining hand on his mate.
“All I ask—” Callum tried for patience “—is a little respect when you talk of my bonded male. There’s a lot we need to discuss, and we won’t get anywhere if we are fighting and insulting one another. Now, we can either go outside, you and I, and sort this out the old-fashioned way, or we can be all civilized and talk shit through.”
“I want him, not you.” Nathan jabbed a finger at Rhyndor again, but he didn’t touch him this time.
Callum laughed. “I want doesn’t get. You can’t have him because he’s mine.” The windows rattled when he roared the last word, and Dominic went as pale as the off-white walls behind him.
Yeah, let the bastards see what they were up against, because these days, Callum maybe had as much power as his cousin, and Rhyndor… Well, who the fuck knew? Rhyndor refused to fight anymore. Not even in self-defense, but Callum sensed the deep wells of incredible power his bonded male kept locked down.
“I say we go and talk this through, Nate.” Dominic touched Nathan’s arm, a mirror image of the way Rhyndor had tried to calm Callum.
“You said you want the female.” Nathan changed track suddenly.
“She matches us. We came across her totally by accident, in New York. Out shopping with her human mother. Neither of us believed it at first. We scented her, and the shock…finding our mate in the middle of New York City… We realized straight off she didn’t understand what she was. So we followed her, but we eventually lost track. It took us a while to find her again, and a few months back, we rented a house near her family home in Connecticut. We planned to find a way into her social circle, get introduced to her and tell her who and what she was, but then you came and took her. We understood her heritage once we looked into your little triad here. Figured out she must be Havsa, as is your mate. And, of course, there’s Steffan and his mates.” Callum wanted this over with. He hated being back here. It reminded him leaving hadn’t been kind to those he’d left behind. He’d disrespected them by simply disappearing. But at the time, he’d been stir-crazy.
“I owe the male, Steffan, a debt of apology. A tithe, and I hope he will accept.” Rhyndor’s sad words hit Callum in the gut, but they made him angry too. Rhyndor had to stop with the fucking guilt trip all the damn time. It ate away at him, and not even their bond seemed to stop it. Callum hoped against hope that finding a female to protect and cherish might be the thing to bring Rhyn truly back to the living.
“You don’t owe Steffan anything!” Callum bit back his anger and tried to force calm into his words. “He took your bonded male in retaliation. He may have used Nathan here as the weapon, but Steffan pulled the trigger. Don’t you get bored of it, Nate?” He switched the focus of his attention. “This fucking shit happened centuries ago. At some point, the vengeance and the killing have to stop. Rhyndor won’t fight you. Hasn’t fought for centuries. Not in aggression or self-defense.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes at Rhyndor and shot out a wave of heat toward him. Callum let it hit, knowing Rhyndor wouldn’t stop it and sensing it’d do no real harm. Maybe if Nathan saw Rhyndor wouldn’t defend himself with his own eyes, he’d believe them? Rhyn went down hard and hit the tiles. Nathan blinked twice then bit out a response. “Lies. Fucking lies. You’re going to lull us into a false sense of security and then attack us.”
“Rhyn.” Callum knelt by his male and lifted his head gently. “My love, stand. Can you stand?”
Rhyndor groaned, but he stood.
“Put your arms up for me, babe.” Rhyndor did as asked, still stunned, and Callum pulled off his T-shirt.
Dominic gasped, and Nathan’s eyes went comically wide. Scars covered almost every inch of Rhyndor’s body. There were bullet holes and deep claw marks, gashes from swords and knives, and puncture wounds from where he’d been hit repeatedly with a mace.
“When I found him, he was half dead. Letting himself be used as a fucking punching bag for human idiots training to fight. He’d been living that way for centuries, and many of these scars are from serious attempts by various dragons to end him. He let them attack him and walked away, wounded and in pain. So, tell me again, cousin, how this is all a trick? I understand that Steffan will want vengeance. But he needs to realize something. He comes after Rhyndor, and he comes after your blood—because I will defend what’s mine. And Steffan will also take away the best chance that spoiled and confused little princess in there has of ever having a happy life. Because we match her so fucking well. She’ll be safe and secure with us…and very, very content. Right now, she thinks she’s in love with an absolute waste of space, as far as our information says. A piece of trash who has led her on for years, plays with her heart, and needs to learn a lesson about how you treat dragon females.”
“What about your pet fucking witch? The bitch always came two steps behind you. Where’s Celine?” Nathan asked, ignoring Callum and focusing on Rhyndor.
Callum sighed as Rhyndor began to speak, but he choked on the first words. Callum put his hand on the small of his bonded male’s back. “Let me explain. Please, Rhyn.”
He looked at his cousin and hoped the horrifying truth of what he said shone in his eyes. “She enchanted him. Made him do things he never wanted to do. Didn’t any of you wonder how he went from one of our most honorable and venerated dragons to a murderer for hire? She wove a spell so strong and deep it bound him in ropes of magic for centuries.”
Nathan frowned, but his eyes flickered to Rhyndor and something almost soft shone there for a moment.
Rhyndor leaned against the counter, letting it hold some of his weight. “It’s why I regret what I did. I have memories of it, knowledge of it, but at the time, I possessed no control over my actions. She’d been building her magic for centuries when she trapped me. So, you see, she wasn’t my pet witch, I was her pet dragon.”
His shoulders slumped, and Callum’s heart fucking hurt. He hated seeing his magnificent mate brought to such wretchedness.
“It’s too much of a coincidence that we found one another and then found the little pampered princess. There’s magic at work here. Fate. The gods want it this way.” Callum hoped Nathan bought it, because they’d taken a huge risk coming to his clan. But they wanted the female, and he fervently hoped Lilly might be the thing to finally bring Rhyn fully back to the living.
As much as they loved one another, his male still lived consumed by his guilt. Callum didn’t need caring for or protecting in the way a young female raised to be human would. He believed if they claimed the female to protect and look after, it might reignite Rhyn’s warrior instincts. Never mind how much Callum wanted her for himself. He’d basically run out of options, though, with Rhyn. The day he’d scented Lilly, he’d almost fallen to his knees and thanked the gods. Because he had to believe some sort of intervention was at play here to send them such a perfect female and place her right in their path. He said as much now, aloud.
“As I say, I think magic must be at play with us finding each other and coming across Lilly—but good magic. Maybe the gods want Rhyndor to have something good in his life finally? I love him. He’s mine and I’m his, so understand this, Nate. If you harm one hair on his head, he might not fight you, but I will. We want to stay a few days. Get to know Lilly. And then we need you to contact Steffan.”
“Holy fuck, Callum. You always were the black sheep of the fucking family.” Nathan scrubbed a hand over his suddenly drawn face, but he nodded. “You can stay. But I swear to you, if anything happens to any of my clan while you are here, I’ll burn you to a crisp myself, but not before you see your male here destroyed. Family of mine or not.”
Callum knew his cousin meant every word. And he knew it because he’d do the same if anyone touched either Rhyndor or Lilly. The female might not be theirs yet, but ever since he’d scented her that fateful day in New York, he’d been a goner. He’d been highly amused to follow her spoiled lifestyle once they’d found her, but he didn’t worry about it. And Lilly didn’t seem like the other young adults in her social circle. She didn’t wear extravagant clothes or spend her life at the spa or beauty parlor, and she volunteered at an animal shelter.
Besides, he and Rhyndor possessed more than enough money. But she wouldn’t care about such things once she’d experienced being with two males who matched her so well. She’d been spending her time with silly spoiled boys and girls. Boys, like the idiot Zach, who worked for their daddies and had soft hands and a sense of entitlement wide enough to drive a truck through. She’d never been with a proper man, let alone a male of her species, and with them, she’d get two who’d fought and forged their charisma and strength over centuries.
“Why have you been living amongst humans?” Dominic asked.
“I wanted to get away from Dragonea life. I hated it for a while. Sorry, guys, but I did. It was an amazing coincidence I found Rhyndor and we matched. But once I did, I didn’t want Steffan to find him, so we moved around for a while. I have an apartment in New York. I found Rhyn in Chicago, letting fighters in the underground bare-knuckle scene use him as a punching bag for their training. I made him stop the crazy shit, and we returned to my place in New York. We spend most of our time now in Connecticut, nearby to where Lilly lives. We also spend some of the year in the city, in the apartment I have there. It’s worked well enough for us, but now we have a female to protect, if she’ll let us. We want back into dragon society.”
“If you felt so bad, as you proclaim, why not go find Steffan and let him kill you?” Dominic raised one eyebrow in challenge at Rhyndor.
Rhyndor rubbed at his heavy scruff and blew out a breath. “I’ve been afraid if I met with the male and he attacked me, some sort of long dormant defense mechanism might kick in, and I’d fight back and maybe hurt him. My poison lives in him. Gods know how he’s survived so long. If I went back into fight-or-flight mode and put any more in him, he’d die. I couldn’t risk having it on my conscience.”
Callum sighed. Rhyndor hadn’t merely attacked and fought Steffan, he’d used his dragon claw to place a strong poison deep under his skin. It was the worst of dragon warfare and strictly forbidden these days. He knew Rhyndor hated that he’d done it.
“He’s going to want to kill you. Gods know how we’ll stop him once he finds out you’re alive.” Nathan folded his arms and regarded them both. “He might want to kill me, too. No joke. He’s going to go apeshit when he finds out I’ve let you stay.”
“He has his mates now. Maybe it’s mellowed him about the past.” Callum prayed it to be the case.
“Doubt it’s mellowed him enough to walk away from the dragon who murdered his mates. We must hope he’ll decide to let you live, but you need to realize he might not. You can walk away now. I won’t tell him you were here. Leave Lilly, she’ll find some males eventually.” Nathan smiled. “We’ve had a never-ending parade of them since she got here.”
Callum’s teeth clenched at the idea of all those young males coming to try to mate their Lilly, because that’s how he saw her. As theirs. “Not going to happen, cuz. We’re not leaving. Not without her.” He didn’t add how much he needed her, not only for himself, but also to try to save Rhyn from his internal hell.
“She has free will. You do get that, right?” A frown divot popped between Nathan’s brows. “She only goes with you if she decides to. You can’t force her.”
“I’d never force her. I doubt we’ll have to. You know how strong it is. I can scent how perfectly you three match, and it’s the same with us. She will want us like crazy.”
“As may be. But she’s different from Claire and Mia. Lilly likes her human life. Can’t wait to get back to it and the male, Zach, you mentioned. She volunteers at an animal shelter, writes some sort of blog. Seems to find it hard to accept she’s Dragonea, and unlike her sisters, she’s never experienced her magic. I doubt she’ll want to live in a clan.”
“Which is why she’s perfect for us. We have no clan and don’t want for one. We intend to live as we have been, but with the ability to visit our brethren from time to time.”
Nathan shook his head. “No way. If you’re not part of a clan, then you’re rogue. And rogue males are not a good mate pair for any female. You said you wanted back in. I thought you meant you wanted back in dragon life. Properly. There’s a clan in Canada, not a million miles away from where you live now.”
“Stop being so fucking medieval, Nate. More and more dragons are choosing to live free of the stuffy ways of the clans. There are many ways dragons can choose to live, and the clan life is but one. We aren’t rogue. Stop using the terminology of those stupid wolf shifters. They say rogue to describe those freaks they produce. We aren’t like them. This isn’t the dark ages anymore. We aren’t fighting in pointless human wars and living according to centuries-old rules, and we choose to be free of all this bullshit. Mia, Steffan, and Aiden hardly live a normal clan life, do they?” Callum shook his head at his cousin’s intransigence.
“You still need a clan to have your back once your existence becomes known, if you ask my opinion,” Dom piped up. “If someone threatens you, then you want the backup a clan offers. Rhyndor is going to have a target on his back for many years. Even if Steffan lets him live, others are alive who will likely want their own revenge. And he may be more powerful than any of them, but it won’t do him much good if he won’t fight. You need a base to call home, a clan to come to your defense if needed. Otherwise, you’re taking the female into danger.”
Callum braced himself as he laid out his final reason for coming here today. “Last I checked, I did have a clan. This clan. Unless Nathan throws me out, the Scottish clan is my home when all is said and done. And if Nathan were to decree Lilly and Rhyn members, then whether we lived here or not, all Dragonea would realize we have your support.”
Nathan slammed his fist down on the counter. “You ask for too much and push too far. You want me to take a male into my clan who harmed my close friend? No. No fucking way.” He blew out a long breath, visibly trying to calm himself. “Shit. I need time to think about all of this.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You need to get out of here. There’s a house at the end of the small track, backing up to our abode. It’s empty. We use it for when Claire has visitors. You will stay there. You can’t see Lilly. Not yet. I need to think and to talk with my mates. You stay on the property, okay? I don’t want you upsetting people in the clan, and I don’t want word to reach Steffan. Not until I’ve decided what I’m going to do. You’ve brought a shitstorm down on my head, Callum. On all our heads. And it is only because of our history that you’re still standing here breathing.”
Callum didn’t doubt it for a moment. He nodded once and took the keys Nate grabbed from a hook on the wall. “We’ll wait to hear from you. And…I do appreciate this. Truly.”
Rhyndor gave a dip of his head toward the two males and followed him out of the kitchen. They walked quickly along the path, keeping their heads down, and let themselves into the small cottage. Callum’s heart still hammered like crazy in his chest. He wanted to be sick, but he kept his countenance calm. Rhyndor hadn’t wanted to come and didn’t need to witness him freaking out. Fuck, Callum had risked it all to come here and find their female. He hoped to the gods he’d been correct and she’d want to be with them once she’d spent time in their company.
He turned to his mate and pulled him in for a kiss. Rhyn went willingly into his arms, and their lips touched. A soft brush and caress, not the usual heated exchange. They rested their foreheads together for a moment, and Callum breathed in Rhyndor’s familiar scent.
Pulling back, he considered those eyes, the color of a deep sea, and smiled. “It will be okay. And if she doesn’t come with us, we’ll be okay. We’ve done well so far, and I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Rhyndor pulled him in tight and squeezed.
It always amazed Callum how strong Rhyn could be, physically, because most of the time, the male drifted through life, up in his own head. Probably stewing in his endless guilt. Or perhaps hurting from all his old war wounds. He didn’t ask for much at all, seemed happy for Callum to make all the decisions. In fact, he might almost say Rhyndor was submissive, except he really wasn’t. He seemed more…disconnected. Not fully there. The only time he appeared to truly come alive was when they fucked, and then the male wasn’t submissive at all. Not one bit.
Callum shivered at the memory of what they’d done the previous evening. Yeah, he’d like to see the fire and dominance in Rhyndor more often. And maybe, just maybe, Lilly would be the one to unlock it for them.