“Tell me about it.”

  “He made me feel important,” she says. “And then he made me feel like I was nothing at all. It was over so fast that sometimes, I still wonder if he thinks of me.”

  “You’re worth more than that, Nicole.”

  She doesn’t say anything for a long time, but I know she heard me.

  “Fuck that guy,” I tell her. “You deserve better.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lawrence

  “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” Wilson and Cameron are standing beside the main Fablestone office when I land. The girls slide off my back and I shift back, tired and worn out from the flight.

  “It’s a long story.”

  “They aren’t shifters,” Cameron says. “Why is one of them blindfolded?”

  Julie and I exchange looks. Yeah, I heard everything Nicole said and I think it’s fair to say I may have jumped to conclusions about her. Oh, Bernie seemed like a raving psycho and so did Nicole, at least at first. When she was talking to Julie on the flight, though, she seemed...normal.

  Is it possible that she, too, was being drugged?

  She’s only been with Lucky for a week and Nicole honestly doesn’t seem to know they’re evil. From what she was saying, they were trying to capture sick shifters in order to help them. Does she really believe that? I get the vibe that she does.

  “It’s a long story,” Julie says. She removes the blindfold from Nicole and starts to untie her arms. “I’m sorry if you’re sore,” she whispers, lowering her voice.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nicole instantly starts rubbing her arms.

  “And who is this?” Wilson looks from Julie to me and back again. Then he fucking growls. “Are you shitting me? A mate? First Cameron, and now you? That’s it. I’m not letting any of you go to the stone tower again. No single dragons can go. Only dragons who already have mates and aren’t going to go catching humans and bringing them back.” He throws up his hands in the air.

  “Julie is...ah...she’s a teacher,” I say slowly. “And she’ll be staying with me for a little while. For a...uh...visit,” I finally say. It’s super lame. We haven’t talked about the whole mate thing yet, though, and I’m not interested in scaring her.

  “And Nicole is with Lucky,” Julie says, dropping the news on the clan like a fucking bomb. Instantly, Cameron and Wilson both start talking at once, but I hold up my hand to silence them.

  “There’s a problem,” I say. “She was in the forest with her friend trying to catch a dragon.” The guys go stiff. “She was told there were sick shifters in the woods and she was supposed to help them,” I continue.

  “What?” Cameron looks confused.

  “That’s right,” Nicole says quietly. “We make medicine. We can help.”

  “You need to tell her,” Julie whispers.

  “Nicole,” I say. “Lucky isn’t helping shifters, love. They tricked you. In fact, Lucky is known for running medical experiments on shifters, especially in this area.”

  “What?” She goes pale.

  Yeah, she didn’t know.

  She had no fucking clue.

  “I know you didn’t know, and we aren’t going to hold that against you,” I say. “But there is the matter of Bernie.”

  “What about her?” Nicole whispers.

  “You...killed her, Nicole. I saw her.”

  “What? No, I didn’t. I shot her with one of the darts.”

  Cameron and Wilson are listening intently, but wisely not speaking yet.

  A dart?

  “You mean, she’s not dead? Wouldn’t the dose kill her?”

  “No,” she shakes her head. “The medication inside of it causes temporary paralysis, but it’s not fatal on any level. You had the ointment, so you were able to recovery pretty quickly. She didn’t, but she’s definitely fully recovered by now. Probably went back home to work.” Nicole sighs. “I probably shouldn’t have shot her with the dart, but I was so pissed.” She shakes her head, then turns to Wilson and Cameron. “She tried to drug Julie. I thought Bernie was being a fucking weirdo, but even I couldn’t believe she went to such lengths.”

  Nicole fidgets, moving from one foot to the other.

  “So...can I go now?”

  Wilson, Cameron, and I all look at each other. If she’s being honest – and her scent doesn’t smell like fear or tension that would come from lying – then not only is Bernie still alive, but she’s likely back at Lucky headquarters. She’s undoubtedly filled them in and told them that Nicole is a traitor to their team.

  I don’t know if Bernie was going to introduce Nicole to dragon hunting or if she, too, wasn’t sure why they were trying to capture shifters, but I do know that when it comes to Lucky, they don’t like loose ends.

  Nicole?

  She’s a loose end.

  “You can’t go back,” I say.

  “What?” Her eyes dart to me. “Why not? You’re going to kill me, is that it? Oh, fuck.” She sinks to her knees and lifts her hands to her eyes. Then she starts to sob. “I never should have taken this fucking job,” she cries. “I just needed something not-shitty in my life. For once.”

  “You aren’t going to kill her, are you?” Julie asks, looking from me to Cameron to Wilson and back again. “I mean, you can’t.”

  “Of course we aren’t going to kill her,” Cameron rubs his forehead. He’s obviously getting a headache. We all are. This situation is messier than we’d like it to be. “But Lawrence is right. She can’t go back. Nicole, do you understand what you just told us?”

  She stops crying, but doesn’t look up.

  “Lucky doesn’t fuck around,” Wilson says. “If your ‘friend’ really went back to work, she told them you left. She might have even said you had met another girl and ran off with her. I don’t know. Either way, they’re going to be looking for you. Oh, I don’t think they’re going to waste a search party on you. They might be hoping you’ll get lost and die in the woods, but if you go back, that’s going to be the last time anyone ever sees you.”

  Nicole looks up at them.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because,” Wilson squats down and lifts her chin. He stares at her hard, and then he tells her the cold, hard truth. I hate that she’s learning it this way. No one should have to learn the truth like this. “Lucky hates shifters. The entire corporation is built on hurting us. If they think you’re going to turn on them or that you have friends who are shifters or even that you have friends who know shifters, they’re going to gut you for information and then they’re going to kill you.”

  Fear radiates from her, but she doesn’t move.

  “Wilson, I’m going to take her to my mother’s place,” Cameron says. Cameron’s mother is a veterinarian who sometimes moonlights as the clan doctor when Donald needs another hand. While he was away, she handled things on her own. She’s been more than happy to offload some of the responsibilities that come with caring for an entire clan. “She looks dehydrated and she’s going to need some help. Maybe some therapy?” He looks at the clan leader. “I don’t want her going into shock. I’m taking her.”

  Without another word, he pulls Nicole to her feet, takes her hand, and guides her away. Nicole doesn’t look back, and my heart fills with sadness.

  “Is she a threat?” Wilson asks me when they’re out of earshot.

  “I don’t think so,” I tell him.

  “She hurt you?”

  “Yeah, she shot me with a dart. Julie?”

  Julie reaches into her bag and pulls out the dart gun, the darts, and the antidote.

  “There’s a cream that works to minimize the effects of the drug,” she tells him. “I used it on Lawrence and he recovered fairly quickly.”

  “She thought I was a threat,” I tell him. “I don’t think she’s going to hurt any other dragons.”

  “She better fucking not,” is all he says, and then Wilson turns and marches away. No doubt he’s going to assign guards to Nicole for awhile, as he should. Bringing strays to the clan isn’t the best way to ensure our survival as a species, but sometimes these things can’t be helped. Nicole can’t go back to Lucky.

  I brought her here to be punished, but things aren’t always as they seem. Part of being a leader means knowing when I’ve made a mistake and how to correct that mistake. With Nicole, maybe she’ll go on to live in another city: one far away from Lucky. For now, though, we’ll keep her close and find out what else she knows. Maybe she can tell us where their main headquarters is.

  Maybe she can help us fight for freedom from them.

  “Lawrence?” Julie says, looking up at me. “What are we going to do now?”

  “Let’s go home,” I tell her. “I just want to go home.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Julie

  LAWRENCE DOESN’T LIVE far away, so we walk to his place and go inside. He pours us each a glass of lemonade. I down my quickly. He sips slowly, watching me.

  “So,” I say. “Nice place you’ve got.”

  “She was right, you know.”

  “What?”

  “The entire ‘mate’ thing. Nicole was right.”

  “Was she now?” I raise an eyebrow. “Which part, exactly, was she right about? That dragons believe in having one true mate or that you think I’m yours?”

  “Both.”

  We look at each other for a long minute, then I set my glass down slowly. He follows suit.

  “Does that scare you?”

  “No. Say it again.”

  “You’re my mate, Julie.”

  “How do you know?” I shake my head. “Is it just some sort of weird dragon intuition? You barely know me.”

  “I know more about you than you think.”

  “Prove it.” I’m feeling feisty, but it’s fine. I know he can handle it. We can handle anything. The invisible rope tugs at my heart, pulling me to him. Before I realize what’s happening, I’m standing in front of him. My hands are on his chest. He’s still naked, but I don’t care. I’m not uncomfortable with this situation at all. Should I be? Yes. I’m not.

  “You’ve been through hell,” he says. “You question your judgment of people because you were hurt so deeply. Now you’re wondering what else you’ve been tricked about.”

  Bingo.

  “You want to believe you’re my mate because you feel something between us, too. It’s not just this raw power or heat or passion. There’s something else. There’s something binding us to each other and if you leave now, you can go on to live a satisfactory life in a satisfactory city with a satisfactory job, but you’ll always wonder.”

  “What will I wonder?”

  “What if you’d taken the leap?” He asks.

  And then I leap.

  Without hesitation, without waiting, without thinking things through, I jump up into his arms and I wrap my legs around Lawrence. He kisses me instantly, pulling me close, holding me tight.

  He doesn’t say a fucking word. He just kisses me like he means it, like I need it. We both need it. There is no more holding back, no more questioning this, no more thinking. There’s just passion and need. There’s just him and me and this moment.

  I wrap my arms around him, pressing my body tighter to him. I need to be closer. Just closer. I reach for him, kissing him, owning this moment because I’ve been waiting for something like this my entire life. I just didn’t know it until now.

  Lawrence moves, carrying me from the kitchen. I think he’s going to head upstairs to one of the bedrooms, but instead, he brings me to the living room, places me gently on the couch, and starts pulling my clothes off.

  I kiss him as his hands tug at my shirt and pants. Somehow, he doesn’t seem to break the kiss even as he undresses me, and before I know it, I’m naked on the couch. He kisses my neck, my collarbone, my chest. I reach for him and Lawrence moves onto the couch with me. He runs his tongue over my skin and my heart soars.

  I feel full.

  I feel complete.

  I feel like no matter what happens next, everything’s going to be okay because me? I was brave enough to fucking try. I didn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself after my relationship soured. I didn’t lay on the couch watching sappy movies or wondering what I did wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong. My mistake was getting into a relationship with someone who didn’t care about me.

  Now I know better.

  Now things will never be the same.

  His hands are everywhere, but so are his lips, and I close my eyes. Lawrence is incredible. He’s sexy and smart and interesting. We had an incredible time talking last night and I feel like when we chat, our banter is just really fun and interesting.

  We’ve only just met, but the connection I feel with him is strong enough to make me think there’s something to this mate thing.

  “Julie,” he whispers.

  “Lawrence.”

  “I want you.”

  “I want you, too,” I reach for him, pulling him close again. I kiss him, silencing him. He nips at me and pulls away. Then he strokes my cheek softly.

  “Are you sure?” He whispers. “We don’t have to do this now, princess. We can slow down. We can take things slow.”

  “I’ve been taking things slow my entire life, Lawrence. I’m ready for the fast lane. I’m ready for you.”

  He bites my neck then, running his hands up and down my sides. My body fills with tension and pleasure as he moves over me. Lawrence makes me feel like I am a dragon princess. He might be the one with the wings, but in this moment, I swear that I’m soaring.

  He thrusts inside of me, filling me. His lips never leave my skin as he makes love to me on the couch. It’s not rough or crazy or porn-staresque. It’s just us. It’s him and me and it’s everything I want.

  It’s everything I need.

  He kisses me over and over again, playing my body like he’s done this a thousand times before and as he touches me, hope fills me that we will do this a thousand times after. Lawrence really is my dragon dude. He really is incredible. And he makes me feel like the sexiest woman alive.

  He reaches for my breasts, bouncing them in his hands before he teases my nipples. My body clenches, tightening around him. He groans, and I run my hands down his back before squeezing his ass and pulling him tighter, closer to me.

  “You’re so fucking good,” I whisper, murmuring into his ear.

  “You’re so tight,” he counters, thrusting into me again.

  “Fuck,” I groan, and now I run my nails down his front, down those perfect fucking abs. I wrap my legs around him more tightly, forcing him deeper into me. “More,” I whisper. “More.”

  He thrusts harder, faster, whispering to me as he makes love to me in the middle of his living room. He tells me how happy he is, how good I feel, how much he wants this, how much he needs it. He’s not only really fucking hot and good in bed, but his mouth is fucking delicious, too.

  “Your pussy feels so damn good,” he tells me. “I can’t wait to taste you. I want to taste all of you,” he says.

  “I want to taste you, too, baby. I want to get on my knees in front of you and just savor that fucking dick.”

  “Yeah?”

  “When I saw you in the woods...” I start, and he smiles.

  “You fucking looked, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Naughty girl.”

  “I think you liked it,” I stroke his cheek, and he nips at my finger.

  “More than you know,” he tells me.

  “I want to taste you now,” I whisper.

  “Next time,” he smirks. “Your pussy feels too good, princess. I’m not going to last much longer.”

  “Me neither,” I groan, closing my eyes as he fucks me harder, deeper.

  We’re both so close, right on the edge. We hover there for a minute before I bite him on the neck, hard, and that’s all it takes.

  We topple over the cliff of pleasure together, as one.

  “Julie,” he whispers, filling me. “My mate.”

  “Your mate,” I agree, because I accept it. I want it. I need it. I’ve been searching for something. I just didn’t know it was a dragon man who could take me to the stars and back again. I hold Lawrence for a long time, pulling him close to my chest, holding him tightly because I know that whatever comes next, we’re in this together.

  Me and my dragon mate.

  Together, we can do anything.

  Together we can conquer the world.

  Epilogue

  Three Months Later

  Julie

  FALLING IN LOVE ISN’T what I thought I’d be doing when I left for my camping trip.

  Nope.

  I figured I’d get to spend some time outdoors and come to terms with the way my life has turned out. I thought camping would help me feel recharged. I thought it would make me feel like I’m actually doing something meaningful with my life and with my time.

  I didn’t expect him.

  I didn’t expect all of this.

  Now I’m in love with the sweetest, most wonderful dragon I’ve ever met and I know my life will never go back to the way it was.

  I finished the semester at school, but I turned in my notice. I didn’t want to spend any more time away from my dragon than I had to. He assured me that the school in Fablestone had an opening for a well-qualified English teacher, and luckily, I just happen to be one.

  Life in the clan is everything I hoped it would be and more.

  It’s calm.

  It’s relaxing.

  It’s wonderful.

  Best of all, I get to spend all of the time I need to just loving on my dragon guy. He makes me feel like the world is mine. He makes me feel like I can do anything I want to do. Most of all, he believes in me, and that’s something no one else has ever done before.

  I don’t know what’s going to happen with Lucky. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that bad guys are tenacious, and they’ll probably come after the clan again.

  It doesn’t matter because I’m going to do everything in my power to protect these dragons, just as I know they’ll protect me. That’s the wonderful thing about being in a clan. We all love each other, look after each other, guard each other. Individually, we can’t do all that much, but together, we can conquer anything.