He smirked, laughing inwardly at the idea he would even care about that.

  “If you think you can stop me, try it.” He pulled his jacket sleeve out of her grip and started walking again.

  To his chagrin, her footsteps caught up to him. “Fine, you stubborn basilisk. But if you’re going in, I’m coming with you,” she said, pulling a fancy-looking pistol out of her jacket and holding it at her side.

  Ajax grunted. “Suit yourself.”

  It suited him just fine actually. Then he could keep a close eye on Olivia, make sure she didn’t get ideas about going in after him or trying to do things on her own when she had a perfectly good basilisk willing to kick ass for her.

  And he could protect her easily. Especially since he hadn’t smelled anything bigger than bear shifters from inside the mine for a full half hour now.

  The ground crunched beneath his feet as he walked quickly now, all his senses at high alert for every sound, every scent, every inch of motion happening around him for a hundred feet.

  He heard Olivia huff as she had to almost jog to keep up, but her expression was serious and alert, not saying anything as they passed the fence and headed toward the center of the facility.

  Dammit, every time he wanted to stay angry at her, she impressed him with her sheer courage and mettle. Far beyond that of any human he’d ever encountered.

  “We’ve had people surveilling this place for days. There will be guards posted up at these doors, patrolling the interior.”

  Ajax just nodded. He’d heard their footsteps already, but he was grateful for the info nonetheless.

  Get in, make the place safe, get out, and get Olivia back to Dragonclaw safe.

  His basilisk rumbled inside him. Then we make Olivia our ma—

  Not now, basilisk. He shoved the thoughts aside.

  They reached a green door with chipped paint, and Ajax held a hand up behind him. Olivia paused beside him, so still it made him wonder how many times she really had gone on missions like these.

  There was a faint sound from inside and the smell of cigarette smoke.

  Then, just as Ajax could hear the barely audible clink of the door handle turning from the other side, he grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open.

  A tall wolf shifter with brown hair yelped as he flew forward, out of the doorway.

  And right into Ajax’s waiting fist.

  He only used a small portion of his strength, knocking him out with a heavy thud, then catching his limp body before it hit the ground too hard. He carried the body over to a corner where he’d be out of sight. Then Olivia checked the man’s pockets before pulling out a ring of keys.

  “Bingo,” she said.

  Ajax wanted to roll his eyes, but Olivia was being so competent he almost grinned instead.

  As if they’d need keys to get anywhere when Ajax could just punch his way through every door in the place if need be.

  They went in through the door the man had just opened, and Ajax kept his strides light and noiseless, even as he moved quickly.

  He spotted another man leaning against a wall, half asleep.

  Ajax grabbed him by the neck and just held him for a few moments as the guy kicked and flailed before finally going limp and unconscious.

  Ajax just dropped him on the ground where they’d found him.

  After all, these guys were trying to distribute deadly dragon poison. He wasn’t going to go easy on them.

  “We’re inside. I’ll call for backup if we need it,” Olivia spoke into a little microphone that was attached to her jacket, one that probably went out to the other guys still waiting for them outside.

  Ajax bristled. “We won’t need it.”

  She turned away from the mic to look at him. “Then show me that letting you come here by yourself wasn’t just a huge mistake I made.”

  Was she… spurring him on? Or just still annoyed he’d thrown a wrench in her plans that failed to compensate for the fact his basilisk was becoming more and more protective of her by the second?

  He cracked his knuckles.

  Either way, he’d give her a show she wouldn’t fucking forget.

  “With pleasure.”

  He strode down a metal-paneled hallway, headed straight for the sounds of steps and the scent of shifters, Olivia close behind him.

  But instead of waiting for them to round the corner, Ajax leaped out in front of them.

  “Boo,” he said as both men opened their mouths to yell simultaneously in shock and horror.

  With two punches, Ajax silenced them before they could make a single sound, and he let their bodies drop to the floor in heaps.

  “Not bad. There’s a guard post up ahead where the old security office used to be—”

  But he was already halfway there, Olivia close in tow.

  He kicked open a heavy metal door, and four men sitting at a card table all looked up at him in unison.

  In a flurry of motion, they reached for weapons propped against the table or on their belts.

  Too slow.

  Ajax stretched his hand forward, and a rock the size of four bricks formed instantly and shot toward the one who reached his gun first, slamming him in the face and throwing him onto his back. Then he sent another one, hitting a burly-looking bear shifter in the chest, making him utter a pained oof as he was thrown back into the wall fifteen feet behind him.

  The man closest to Ajax jumped up from his seat, pulling out a knife.

  With the ease of someone taking a stroll in the park, Ajax slapped the weapon out of the man’s hand before delivering a crushing blow to his nose that sent him tumbling backward across the floor.

  In a blur, he was in front of the last one, who was fumbling to extract his weapon from its holster, and he threw his knee into the man’s gut.

  With a rush of air, the wind was knocked out of him, and he crumpled onto the ground with the others.

  Fighting these guys was only making Ajax see more and more red, though. And each time they tried to resist him, he wanted to crush them into pulp just for daring to put up such meager opposition.

  Behind him, Olivia whistled lightly as she appraised the scene.

  Then suddenly, a red light filled the room, and a warning klaxon went off through the entire place.

  “Crap, we must’ve tripped a perimeter sensor or something,” Olivia said quickly, remaining totally calm. “They probably figured someone would come after them after we busted their operation up in Dallas.”

  Ajax just felt a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.

  Olivia pulled on the lapel of her jacket as if to order the others to come.

  Ajax yanked the little black mouthpiece off, then muttered, “Stay put,” into it angrily.

  Then he crunched it in his hand.

  Olivia gaped. “What hell was that for—”

  “I don’t need backup. And the last thing I want is to have your guys coming in here, not knowing who or what to shoot at while I finish my job.”

  And keep your ass safe, he thought to himself.

  She’d already pulled out a small walkie-talkie-looking device and was about to speak into it. Then she got an odd look in her eyes. Was it trust?

  She clicked the button, muttered something into it he couldn’t quite hear over the alarm going off, then stuck it back in her pocket.

  “Okay, basilisk. Do your job.”

  His gaze remained locked on hers for a moment as he felt that strange stirring inside.

  Then the door off to the right flew open.

  And Ajax went berserk.

  He was between Olivia and the men at the door in an instant, slamming his elbow through one guy’s face while he yanked another forward to crack their skull with a fierce headbutt.

  A mass of ten or fifteen more were all rushing toward the door in a loosely packed group, eyes going wide when they looked up to see a red-eyed monster striding out of the room and into the hallway to meet them.

  Hello, friends, he thought as his fist blasted one’s jaw. Then his booted foot came up and slammed another in the chest, pushing him backward and tumbling into the men crowding the hall like bowling pins.

  No longer calm at all, Ajax leaped to the front of the group, keeping himself between them and Olivia at all times.

  With a growl, the shifter closest to him jumped to his feet and slashed at Ajax with extended claws. Ajax ducked to the side easily, then kicked him in the knee, shattering it as the guy fell forward.

  And right into Ajax’s fist.

  Three more came at him in unison, wielding blades of various lengths and sizes.

  As if their weapons were anything to a monster like him.

  He thrust his hand into the metal-shingled wall on his right, blowing a hole right through it. Then he held on to the sturdiest part he could feel before wrenching a five-by-five section of wall right off and slamming it into the men, bludgeoning all three of them with one blow that made shards of wood and metal and dust fill the cramped space.

  With a shriek, they were flung in every direction, and the haze of debris just gave him even more of an advantage than he already had.

  Not like he needed it.

  Sensing they were up against something much stronger—and much scarier—than anything that had fur, the remaining men in the hall started to run for it.

  And like a shark catching wounded minnows, Ajax flew at them, knocking them down one after the other as his ears and nose kept tuned in to Olivia’s presence close behind him.

  When he was done, a string of bodies littered the hallway behind him.

  Then he heard motion at his feet, and he whirled around to finish off someone who had apparently survived his first attack, somehow.

  To his surprise, though, Olivia was already there, jabbing her pen thing into the guy’s chest, which made him convulse for several seconds before his eyes rolled back and he fell back onto the floor.

  Damn, she was quick.

  For a human.

  “I said stay behind me,” Ajax said, already not liking that she was this close to danger.

  “With how fast you move, that’s easier said than done,” she said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

  He frowned. Good point.

  He heard the clink of weapons far away, though, as he looked and saw the hallway open out into a large square-shaped room several stories high.

  And standing on metal catwalks above the room, he saw several men raise weapons and begin to fire wildly in his direction.

  With a flick of his wrist, a wall of rock exploded up from the ground, blocking the gunfire and shielding Olivia from it as she ducked behind the wall.

  “The only ones left that I can sense in this place are all inside there,” Ajax said as the dull sound of bullets hitting the rock intensified.

  “That figures. It’s probably where they’re keeping what we’re looking for.”

  “Stay here. I’ll finish them off.”

  “I’ll watch your back,” she said with a grin.

  He grunted, already striding around the corner.

  Several stray bullets ricocheted off his incredibly durable skin as he took in the sight before him in less than a second.

  Three on catwalks. Four more down in the main area below, where Ajax could see a raised area where tables and lab equipment had been set up around a rock formation the size of a small car.

  Let’s make this fast, he told his basilisk, not wanting to waste more time away from Olivia.

  The closest man, twenty feet from him, got a hail of rock in his face with a wave of Ajax’s hand.

  The other two, who were busy reloading, didn’t even see the next wave of rocks coming as they were pelted into unconsciousness.

  Then Ajax leaped over the side of the railing, falling thirty feet with a thud into the center of the warehouse as the last few shifters scrambled, some to attack, some to run.

  He knocked the heads of the two wolf shifters in front of him together like cymbals, and their faces went blank. Another, who was sprinting for a door, ran into a wall of rock that appeared from the ground, and before he could recover, Ajax was there, knocking him out.

  The last one, a rangy-looking guy with limp brown hair and a lab coat, just knelt on the ground, his hands raised in surrender.

  His basilisk growled. Every one of these guys deserved to be six feet under for the sole reason of threatening Olivia and even daring to resist the fury of a basilisk.

  Ajax had cocked his arm back when Olivia’s voice broke the silence high above him.

  “Wait, don’t hit him. We’ll need him for questioning.”

  Ajax looked up, and though the hunger for violence wasn’t quite sated, he paused.

  Something about her calmed the beast in him, somehow.

  “P-p-please, I’ll tell you everything I know!” the man whimpered.

  Ajax grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and started dragging him toward the tables, where he could see vials of strange teal liquid along with a wide assortment of tools and metallic objects he didn’t recognize.

  For some reason, it was strangely familiar, that glowing, bluish-green substance, but Ajax didn’t know from what or where.

  They had the poison in their hands now, most likely.

  And far above that, Olivia was safe.

  That was all that seemed to matter for some reason.

  6

  It was several hours before the double dragons’ agents could round up all the unconscious shifters to take them back to Dallas for questioning, as well as secure the rest of the place to make sure no bad elements came back for whatever it was they’d been extracting from the obsidian rock in the main room.

  Something about the whole thing unsettled Olivia, though. The lone scientist they’d captured hadn’t actually been a scientist at all, and he’d had no clue of the origins of the venom or even an awareness of its potency. Just that someone had discovered the liquid seeping through the rock, and with some help, they’d extracted it and had just begun distributing it.

  It was almost sunrise by the time she and Ajax had driven back to Dragonclaw Ranch to meet with Troy and Jack for a final debriefing in the cozy bunkhouse where they were staying.

  And the whole drive back, she couldn’t help looking over at Ajax and remembering the utter… efficiency with which he’d dispatched so many men. Especially since many of them seemed to have had combat experience.

  But their skill had meant nothing in the face of the fierce, nearly murderous intent with which Ajax had taken them out en masse.

  It was hard not to think of his huge, muscled body from those moments. The way he’d moved. His long fingers and strong hands. The intensity of his red eyes, which seemed to almost glow there at the end when he’d taken them all out but one.

  She had no idea how she’d managed to stop him.

  Every time she found her gaze lingering a little too long, Ajax’s eyes would meet hers, and he’d just smirk.

  She was still angry at him for barreling past her well-laid plans like a runaway freight train.

  But it had all worked out, so there was that.

  And the way he’d done it, so protective of her, like he was more interested in guarding her than even completing the mission, had stuck under her skin.

  Once she was inside the house, she flopped onto the couch, her muscles sore and body aching from such a long night. Jack had set himself in a chair over by the table in the small kitchen area, watching Troy while he paced back and forth.

  And from the corner of the room, looking calm and hot as always, Ajax just glared in his usual fashion.

  “So did you get anything else from our friend back at the mine?” she asked.

  Troy just sent her a look that said no. “You mean the prisoner? Not yet, but I’ll have more time with him when I get him and the others home.”

  “So does anyone know what they were actually working with?”

  “The only thing we’ve figured out so far is that it’s incredibly acidic and incredibly volatile,” Jack said, always the calm before the storm that was his partner. “It eats through anything it touches, even solid rock. It must have gotten stuck in that deposit they pulled from the earth, but heaven knows what put it there or how long it’s been there.”

  That explained why the rock had kind of looked like swiss cheese. Whatever had made it probably had a tolerance to poison that outmatched even Troy.

  “You got any bright ideas over there, Ajax?” Troy asked with a frown.

  Ajax shook his head slowly, then glanced over at Olivia.

  Her whole body shivered, and she pulled her jacket around her tighter. She probably just needed some rest.

  After yearning for something more interesting to do than make calls and coordinate things for years, Olivia didn’t mind the idea of going back to do desk work for the double dragons when she got back to Dallas.

  “About that,” Troy said, not even realizing he’d been reading her thoughts a second ago, “I want you to stay here, Olivia.”

  Olivia sat straight up. “What?”

  Jack spoke up before Troy could say something harsh. “We don’t know who or what’s behind all of this. Until we do, we could use some eyes and ears way out here on the far side of Texas.”

  From behind Jack, Olivia could see Ajax’s eyes open slightly with sudden interest.

  Kind of the same look he’d had before he’d gone charging into the facility.

  “What if I refuse?” Though, honestly, Olivia liked it out here. Maybe even a little too much for comfort.

  And worse, she couldn’t shake her attraction to Ajax.

  She’d met countless shifters over the years. And more than a handful of them had gotten ideas about her being their mate. Or they thought that because she was a frail, little human to them, they could beat their chests and talk about being protective like it would impress her.

  But she took care of her own shit. She got things done. She didn’t need someone to protect her.

  Least of all Ajax.

  “It’s my call,” Troy said firmly. “We need you out here more than we need you back in Dallas. And besides, you need a vacation, Olivia.”

  She rose to her feet with a huff. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Is it? When was the last vacation you took, hm?” Troy said with a smirk.