Ryker Drake

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by Emilia Hartley




  Table of Contents

  RYKER DRAKE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Thank you!

  RYKER DRAKE

  Emilia Hartley

  © Copyright 2019 by Blues Publishing. - All rights reserved.

  The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Legal Notice:

  This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Chapter One

  Ryker wanted nothing to do with the mountains. He’d escaped Grove years ago and being dragged back by Jasper’s intolerable beast only made him grumpier. He kicked aside a carboard box, waiting for the satisfying thunk when it hit the wall.

  The sound never came. Ryker scowled and turned to find Wyatt clutching the box. His cousin scanned the mess that was the second-floor landing with disdain written all over his face. Ryker shrugged and turned back to the boxes blocking his path. The small sound of his foot hitting carboard filled the offensive silence that had suffocated him for days.

  He couldn’t take it. His ears rang, a tinny sound that wouldn’t leave him be. He longed for screaming, for electric guitars, and bass beats so loud his bones shook. Left alone with himself, he was forced to face the beast living inside him. The creature was just as uncomfortable as he was, and it was starting to grate on them both.

  “Have you even started unpacking?” Wyatt asked, incredulously. He chucked the box to the side.

  “That’s a dumb question. The boxes are all empty. Aren’t they?”

  Wyatt’s brows fell. He was not amused. “Then why haven’t you gotten rid of the boxes? The packing wrap or the foam peanuts?”

  Ryker shrugged. He didn’t tell his cousin that the mess was a form of noise, that the chaos settled the restless beast inside him. It gave him somewhere to focus his frustration when he could no longer keep it contained.

  “I can’t believe you bought this massive house and you’re going to let it look like a pig’s sty.”

  Ryker rolled his eyes after turning his back to Wyatt. “There’s nothing wrong with the way I live. If you don’t like it, then you can leave. You don’t have to be here.”

  Wyatt grumbled something Ryker couldn’t pick up. The ringing in his ears was too loud.

  The beast paced just beneath his skin. He could feel its tail thrashing and the impatient toss of its head. If Ryker was alone, he would have taken something outside and destroyed it. An old bookshelf, a record player that was no longer working, or just a pile of boxes that he could burn with dragon fire.

  Anything was better than this tedious argument with Wyatt.

  “You need help,” Kennedy said, boldly, when she appeared at the top of the stairs. She put her dainty nose in the air and waded through the mess toward them.

  Ryker would have snapped at her if she hadn’t brought half a cake. He’d learned to put up with Wyatt’s presence because it meant his mate had baked again. The human woman was testing recipes for her blog, or that was what she told him. Ryker didn’t understand any of it. All he knew was that she brought the most delicious food.

  More than once, he’d offered Kennedy a place in his home. It was a joke, but he would not have minded the feminine presence or the smell of vanilla she often left in her wake. Also, the teasing flirtations rankled Wyatt, which was well worth Kennedy’s unamused stares.

  “I mean it,” Kennedy said. “I can’t come back here until you clean it up.”

  Ryker felt her rejection like a knife in the heart. A butter knife, blunt and brutal in its execution. But he didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like he was going to clean. That wasn’t even an option in his mind.

  Wyatt growled as he snatched three boxes off the floor and stacked them together until his mate touched his shoulder. There was a glint in Kennedy’s eye that made Ryker want to take a step back. He’d learned long ago not to trust human women. They were always far smarter than him and his interactions with them never ended well.

  “I’m going to call a maid service,” Kennedy said before turning her gaze on Ryker. “And I’m going to put it on the company budget.”

  Ryker narrowed his eyes at Kennedy. He didn’t like the idea of anyone else in his house. This was his space, even if he felt like a trapped beast. Adding another body to the mix would only end in disaster. Especially if it was a human woman.

  He’d seen the magazine article. It’d gotten him too much attention on the road, before he left the band crew to come back to Grove. Surely, half the town had read the same article. Any maid that Kennedy sent in would be looking for more than dust.

  “There’s no way in hell Jasper will approve it,” Ryker said with conviction.

  Kennedy laughed in his face.

  “My mate gets whatever she wants,” Wyatt mumbled. “She has a better relationship with Jasper than half his court.”

  Ryker’s brows furrowed. He’d been avoiding his family since he returned, only ever seeing them in the sky or when they came to break down his door. To think that this small human woman was friends with the king of the mountain was almost laughable. Ryker would have laughed if she hadn’t done so first.

  The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he sensed defeat on the horizon. “Whatever. Just get out of my house.”

  Kennedy shrugged and spun on her heel.

  “Wait. Leave the cake.”

  He thought, for a moment, that he’d offended her, and she would hold the cake hostage, but she eventually set it down on an overturned box. Through the plastic wrap, he could see layers of white buttercream and toasted coconut. His mouth watered.

  Chapter Two

  Mina pulled up to the great glass-faced cabin nestled into the side of the mountain and checked the address in her GPS again. After tapping the screen with her finger a few times to no avail, she figured knocking on the door would set her in the right direction.

  After getting out of her car, she took in the view around her. The driveway ended in a soft curve near a steep cliff. It showcased the mountains in all their glory. The forest snaked up the sides of the mountain like evergreen fingers, impossibly thin rivers running between them like threads. Mina wished she was a painter so she could capture the sight, but she wasn’t any good at being creative.

  A cold winter wind blew through, whistling in the valley and making her clutch her jacket tighter. Finally, she tore her gaze away from the view and turned back to the house, the mountains reflected in the massive windows.

  Her skin hummed when she stepped closer. By the time she reached the door, she could hear the muted music blasting from the inside. It h
ad to be deafening. She hesitated, hand hovering over the door. The owner wouldn’t be able to hear her knock through the music.

  But before she could turn around, the door flung open. A bulky man stood in the doorway, staring at her with metallic eyes. Her heart leapt into her throat and her voice vanished altogether. She wanted to shrink down to the size of a mouse to escape his intense glare.

  His nose flared. She noticed the steel bar in his eyebrow and the narrow black mohawk that ran down the center of his head. There was a streak of silver in it, right in the front, that matched his pale eyes. When his lips parted, she caught a glimpse of sharp, wolfish teeth. Everything about him seemed sharp, like just touching him would slice her hand open.

  A metallic dragon, Mina realized.

  Mina held up her hands in apology, wanting to tell him that she never meant to stumble onto his territory. She knew she didn’t deserve to be in his presence. She was low in the clan, a chromatic dragon that meant nothing to the metallic dragons of the king’s court.

  She was suddenly desperate to run back to her car and pretend this never happened. His eyes dropped to her chest, and her face flamed. But it wasn’t her breasts he was looking at, she realized. It was the logo embroidered on her shirt. His brows fell into a flat, unamused line. Mina would have apologized and asked for him to point her in the right direction, but her lips wouldn’t even move.

  “So, Kennedy succeeded. I guess I should invite you inside.” His tone was filled with defeat, almost obscured by the music blaring behind him.

  Mina couldn’t believe it. The address was correct. She was in the right place.

  She was going to clean the home of a metallic dragon. She hesitated, pressing her eyes closed so she could find some kind of composure. It never came. Her head was a mess of white noise and her heart beat furiously inside her chest. It wasn’t until her beast came forward and slid her foot forward that Mina moved at all.

  The beast kept her moving, following the steel dragon inside. The music pressed against her ears, but it was a welcome relief from the static in her head. She looked around and realized why someone from Aurum had called for a regular cleaning service.

  All around her was chaos, from boxes half unpacked to records stacked haphazardly on shelves. Mina couldn’t imagine anyone living in this, save for rats. Just the thought of the tiny beasts made her shuffle her feet and kick at the newspapers littering the floor.

  Ahead, the steel dragon waved his hand over his shoulder. If he said anything, Mina couldn’t hear it. Which was fine by her. She sucked in a breath and retreated to get her things. She would do her best to keep her head down, and when she returned, she would ask for someone else to be put on the job. Perhaps a human maid.

  All Mina knew was that she didn’t belong here. She carefully avoided eye contact with the steel dragon, fearing his wrath. Most of the metallic dragons had left Grove, but it seemed they were returning one by one.

  Mina shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She filled plastic bags with forgotten newspapers and plastic wrap. More than a few times, she gave herself paper cuts as she broke down the cardboard boxes. Each time, she sucked in a sharp breath and waited for the wound to close. By the time she looked up, the steel dragon man would be leaving the room, as if her gasp had summoned him and he’d realized she was fine.

  She doubted he cared all that much about her. Mina was as low as she could get in the hierarchy. She had no power among her fellow dragons, making her nothing more than a servant. The steel dragon man, on the other hand, was about as high as a dragon could get. He shared blood with the king of the mountain.

  Never in her life did she ever think she’d be in the same room as a metallic dragon. So, when he crept away again, she followed. Mina just wanted to see where he was going. She wanted to know what it was like being a metallic dragon. It was similar to reading tabloids while she waited to be run up at the grocery store, a desire to see something she would never be able to experience.

  The steel dragon prowled through the house. His shoulders were wide. Broad enough to shield her from the world, she thought.

  Mina scowled at herself. She shouldn’t be thinking about the steel dragon like that. If she had a mate waiting for her, he certainly wouldn’t be a metallic dragon. She didn’t deserve anything like that. It just wasn’t her place in life.

  The steel dragon passed through the house and out the back door, but not before he picked up an ornate electric guitar. She thought he might play it, but as she crept behind him, she slowly realized he had no such thing in mind. The lawn around him was littered with pieces of metal, plastic, and wood. It was a veritable battlefield, and as she watched, he lifted the electric guitar over his head.

  It came down in a flashing arc, catching the setting sun behind them. Bits and pieces sprayed in every direction. She thought she could hear the crunch of metal and wood over the mind-numbing music inside the house.

  Oh, Mina thought.

  The steel dragon’s lips twisted in a ferocious scowl, his brow grooved with anger. He rolled his shoulders as he walked, dragging the busted guitar behind him. Then, without warning, he spun around and slammed the guitar into the ground once more.

  His lips split and a roar filled the air. She could most definitely hear that over the music. It shook through her entire body, waking the mild beast inside her. Mina thought the creature would rear back in fear, a true scaredy-cat, but it only watched the steel dragon with pity. And another emotion Mina couldn’t describe.

  Was it…compassion?

  She didn’t have long to figure it out because his head snapped up and their eyes locked. Fear shot through her like an electrical zap. She let out a small yelp and raced back inside. There was no pretending she’d been working all along. He’d seen her. Mina had invaded his privacy.

  The dragon man was surely going to fire her. Then, her manager would want to have a word with her. Mina couldn’t afford to lose her job. She didn’t even know why she’d risked it in the first place.

  She began stuffing anything she could reach into plastic garbage bags, furiously trying to make up for her transgression with the hopes that he would see that she was worth it. All the while, Mina berated herself. She’d been foolish. She knew better. Dragons like her didn’t interfere with the affairs of the metallic dragons. She was not welcome in his life.

  She was nothing more than a speck of dust to him. Inconsequential.

  ***

  Ryker felt like an ass. He hadn’t meant for the little maid to see his frustrations. The moment she’d arrived on his doorstep, he’d smelled her. His beast dragged him toward her, panting and heaving. When he opened the door and saw her there, a waif of a dragon woman with black hair hanging over her face like a veil, it was like he’d been hit by a truck.

  Just the sight of her knocked the sense out of him. When she followed him inside, his beast purred with satisfaction. He’d wanted to lock the door behind her. Home, the beast told him. She was home.

  Ryker didn’t understand any of it. He didn’t know why his beast had taken so quickly to the woman. It happened so fast his head was left spinning even as she began picking up his mess. His beloved chaos was being tamed and he didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop, to leave it alone.

  Worse even, every time she made even the smallest sound, his beast yanked him toward her. A drop of panic would send him running only to find her patiently waiting for a paper cut to heal. His heart would stop thumping and the sudden drop in blood pressure would make his head spin.

  Ryker had never had a more confusing day in his life. He couldn’t deal with it any longer, the built-up tension in his shoulders and hands needing somewhere to go. So, he’d grabbed another useless guitar and took it outside. He found the flying shrapnel and the shuddering impact quieted his beast.

  But the look of horror on the woman’s face shattered the illusion of peace. She gasped and dashed inside. Regret coiled in his stomach. He hadn’t meant for her to see that sid
e of him. Now, she would tip-toe around him in fear. He couldn’t bear the idea of it.

  Ryker followed her inside, but she was already back to work. The music still filled the house. The screaming lyrics and electric guitar riffs filled any space they might have had for conversation. Besides, he didn’t even know how to apologize. He wasn’t sure he’d ever tried before in his life.

  He’d been unapologetic about everything, from the way he liked to dress, to his taste in music, to his desire to escape the cold silence of these mountains. Ryker never once asked for permission, and he certainly didn’t ask for forgiveness. Yet, he craved it from this small woman. The scent of fear filled the air, sour and sharp.

  His stomach dropped. He didn’t know what to say. If he approached her and she startled, he would feel even worse. The only thing he could think of doing was retreating. He climbed the stairs and locked himself in his room, even though the beast clawed at him from the inside, demanding he go back to her.

  For once, the music did nothing to silence the creature, so he flicked it off. The soft sound of scuffling downstairs helped mitigate the silence. He drew his phone out of his pocket and made a quick call to the maid company.

  Chapter Three

  Mina was exhausted. Her beast lay down to nap, no longer making her sniff the air for the scent of the metallic dragon. Her shoulders eased away from her ears and she could breathe easy, even if her feet were dragging on the ground. She hauled the last garbage bag out to the bin and fought to fit it alongside the others.

  “Let me help with that,” a male voice said. The steel dragon stepped alongside her and drove his fist into the stack of garbage bags. They crunched and compressed beneath his hand.

  Mina wanted to say something, to apologize for her intrusion, but her voice was gone again. Her lips flapped, and nothing came out.

  She thought he would turn away and retreat, but he didn’t. The steel dragon lingered near her. He was impossibly warm despite the winter chill. She found herself leaning into him, his spicy scent heating her in other ways. Suddenly, Mina caught herself and leapt away from him.

 

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