by S. E. Smith
“Uh-huh,” DeWayne answered, scooting back when the dragon suddenly changed into a man and walked toward them. “I… I don’t think I’d want to tell anyone this.”
Delilah reached up when Brogan held his hands out. Rising to her feet, she wrapped her arms around Brogan’s waist while Barrack rose to his feet to stand next to them. The two symbiots reformed into large Werecats and sat down. Delilah turned and looked at the burning remains of the truck before catching the door behind Brogan and shutting it. With a deep sigh, she turned and looked at DeWayne.
“Why don’t I prepare some tea and we’ll explain what happened?” she said in a voice that still trembled with emotion.
“Can I have another hot chocolate – with a shot of Whiskey?” DeWayne mumbled, rising to his feet and running his hands down over his chest.
“Yes,” she said, reluctantly pulling away from Brogan and bending to pick up the papers.
“You sit down. I will make the drinks,” Brogan said.
Barrack shook his head. “No, I will. Remember, you are terrible even with the replicator on our ship,” he said.
Brogan chuckled and slapped Barrack on the shoulder. “If you insist,” he said.
Barrack winced and rotated his shoulders. “The next time, you get to be the decoy. That hurt!” he grumbled, walking down the hall to the kitchen.
“I did not know he would shoot you without warning. I thought all humans talked as much as Pearl,” Brogan defended.
“Ship…. Replicator…. All… humans?” DeWayne repeated faintly.
“They’re aliens,” she said with a smile.
DeWayne’s eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. Delilah could feel his eyes on her back as she made her way through the sitting room to the dining room. She paused by the small cabinet mounted to the wall. Opening it, she pulled out a brand new bottle of Jack Daniels. She unscrewed the top and took a deep swig before wiping across her mouth with the back of her hand that was holding the papers.
“I want to know why Ray Lister sent someone to kill me,” she said, placing the bottle on the dining room table and sitting down. “Start talking, DeWayne, or my granddad’s shotgun is going to be the least of your concerns.”
Delilah’s dragon was more than happy to share what she meant with DeWayne. The pale, shaking lawyer slid into the chair across from her. He reached over and grabbed the bottle of whiskey in front of her, opened it, and drank half before he put it back down with a resounding thud.
“Sometimes I hate being a lawyer,” he muttered.
Several hours later, Delilah watched Bubba Joe drive the heavy truck his uncle owned back down her driveway with a very quiet DeWayne in the passenger seat.
Brogan and the symbiots had removed the burnt remains of the mystery man’s truck. She didn’t ask them where they had put it or how they did it. At this point, she didn’t honestly care. She was still too shaken by what had happened.
Delilah had been impressed with how professional DeWayne had become once he went into his lawyer mode. After several hours of discussion, Delilah had finally accepted that there was no way she could stay here. DeWayne had been the calm voice of reason. While Brogan and Barrack had made good points, they had both been more emotional.
The decision to leave was hard. The things in this house – and the house itself – had so much sentimental value for her. They had finally worked out what would become of her property and all her belongings. She had been shocked when DeWayne offered to purchase the property with the intent of living here.
“My grandparents left me pretty well off,” he had admitted. “I’ve always wanted to move back to this area. I’m honestly ready for a change and I like what you’ve done to the house,” he’d said with a sheepish grin. “I’ve been thinking about opening a Bed and Breakfast. The next question would be – what do you want to do with the money from the sale of the house?”
“Give it to the library,” Delilah had automatically replied. “In my mother and father’s name,” she had added.
“I’ll set up a trust so it lasts. I… Are you sure about this, Delilah?” DeWayne had asked, studying her face.
“Yes,” Delilah had replied, smiling at DeWayne and reaching out her hands to grip both Brogan and Barrack’s.
A short time later, the sound of a pickup truck had drawn their attention. Rising, she’d looked fearfully at the door. DeWayne had peered out the window, then looked back at her with a smile.
“It’s Bubba Joe,” he’d said.
She had nodded and released the breath she was holding. Barrack had wrapped his arm around her while Brogan had followed DeWayne to the sitting room to look outside. She had gripped Barrack’s arm, feeling the fear slowly fade.
Once Bubba Joe and DeWayne were gone, she retreated upstairs, and opened the door to find her two beloved Rottweiler protectors passed out on her bed. She was just thankful that they had been locked in her bedroom during the incident earlier. She had no doubt in her mind that the man who attacked them would have killed the two dogs.
“Oh, hell no! I told you, that is my side of the bed. Get your mangy, totally worthless asses over,” she growled.
After pushing and shoving them, Moonshine finally got up and walked over to the other side of the bed while Rum rolled so he was mostly off of her side. Twisting as she fell onto the bed, Delilah stretched her arms over her head and blindly stared up at the ceiling.
“I’m going to another world,” she murmured. “I’m leaving Earth and going far, far away where there are aliens and spaceships.”
“And a place where our dragons can soar,” Brogan said from the doorway.
Delilah turned her head and stared up at him. She could imagine her eyes held both excitement and pure terror. The men and her dogs would be the only familiar comforts that she would know on the new world she was traveling to – and perhaps Sara, if she could find her friend.
“Are you sure that humans can live there?” she asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty.
“We are very sure. Our king and the princes have human mates… and younglings. There is another set of twins from our village who also have a human mate and a child,” Brogan said, walking over to the bed and sitting down.
She held her hands out to him, and her gaze softened when she saw a look of uncertainty flash across his face. He looked down at their joined hands.
“…And your friend Sara will also be there. Everything will be well, Delilah. We will do everything we can to make you happy,” Barrack vowed.
“I know. It is just a lot to take in,” she said, looking up at him with tears shimmering in her eyes. “I know I can’t stay here now, but this isn’t like packing up to move to a new town or even a new state. What if things don’t work out? What if…?”
Her voice faded as all kinds of fears suddenly rose and swamped her mind. Barrack walked around the bed and motioned for the dogs to get down. She sighed when the two Rottweilers jumped down and happily trotted out the door.
“At least they listen to you,” she muttered with a piqued sniff.
Brogan twisted around and laid down next to her. “They know that this is our side of the bed,” he teased.
Delilah giggled. “Thank you,” she murmured, snuggling up between the two men. “I realized I could have lost everything I loved today. When I saw you on the floor….” She looked at Barrack, her eyes dark with memories. “When that man….”
Barrack rolled over and captured her lips. Delilah opened for him. She needed this connection to help push away the memories of Barrack lying on the floor. She poured all of her love into the kiss she gave him in return. Her body heated when he deepened the kiss.
Her fingers worked frantically at the buttons of his shirt. Tonight would be about erasing the fear – her fear of losing them and her fear of what her new life would be like on a world far, far away. He ended the kiss and she tilted her head back when he brushed a series of small kisses down along her throat.
“Barrack,” she gaspe
d. He slid his hands under her shirt and the feeling of his fingers against her heated flesh was incredible.
“You have too many clothes on, Delilah,” he muttered, rolling off of her.
She looked over at Brogan. He had already removed his clothes. A smile curved her lips. She could look at both men 24/7 and never get tired of the view. Her fingers moved to her pants. She had barely unfastened them before Brogan was pulling them and her panties off. Her shirt and bra quickly followed suit.
Her breath caught when she suddenly found her arms pinned above her head and her legs spread wide. Delilah’s body immediately went into meltdown when Barrack bent his head. The first touch of his tongue against her sensitive nub left her panting and straining to break free.
“Tonight we will love you until you remember nothing but our touch,” Brogan promised, bending to capture one of her taut nipples in his mouth.
Closing her eyes, she believed him. Her body hummed as they whispered impassioned words of love and adoration, promising her a life that she’d thought only existed in fairy tales, a life filled with two loving men in a house in the woods near a village where instead of being scorned, they would be welcomed.
“Bite me,” she gasped, coming hard against Barrack’s lips. “Let me feel the heat.”
Her loud cry filled the room as both men eagerly fulfilled her every desire before finding their own pleasure. The Dragon’s Fire burned through them with the same intensity of their first night together.
Delilah lay draped over Brogan, her body relaxed as the darkness gave way to the light of day. She didn’t move when Barrack returned from the bathroom and gently stroked her body with a warm, damp cloth, but she sleepily smiled down at Brogan when he gently rolled her over. Her fingers slid from his when he rose.
“Where are you going?” she murmured.
“The dogs need to go out,” he said, bending to press a kiss to her tender, swollen lips. “I will return.”
“Love you,” she murmured, her eyes slowly closing in exhaustion. “Love you, both.”
“Not as much as we love you, elila,” Brogan replied before brushing another kiss across her lips. “Sleep.”
She nodded and turned into Barrack’s arms when he returned to the bed. Snuggling close to him, she released a contented sigh.
“Sleep, my little fighter,” Barrack murmured, rubbing his cheek against her hair. “We will have many more adventures to come.”
Epilogue
Delilah looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and grinned. She was glowing. There was no other way to describe her shining eyes and the stupid grin she couldn’t keep off her face. She was happy. Her nose twitched and she drew in a deep breath.
Breakfast! her dragon growled in delight. Hungry!
Me, too! she giggled.
Of course, they would both be hungry since they were the same person, but she couldn’t help but think of them as being separate. Having a voice in her head was weird, yet not weird at the same time. Delilah thought of her dragon more like an extension of herself.
Because I am, her dragon replied.
She was still trying to sort out the complex relationship in her head as she descended the stairs. She paused halfway down when she heard a knock at the front door. Her heart skipped a beat as memories of the day before rushed through her.
Her gaze turned to Brogan as he paused at the foot of the stairs in the hallway. He looked up at her, then stepped forward to open the door when the knock sounded again.
“You found us,” he greeted.
“Yes,” a male voice replied.
“Is… is Delilah here?” a woman asked.
Delilah couldn’t see who was at the door, but she immediately recognized the woman’s voice. Her hand lifted to her mouth and she bit down on her knuckles when Brogan opened the door all the way to reveal a tall woman with long blonde hair standing in the doorway next to an even taller man.
“Sara,” Delilah choked out, tears filling her eyes. “Oh, Sara.”
She rushed down the stairs, meeting Sara at the bottom. They wrapped their arms around each other and held on as if afraid that one or the other would disappear. Trembling with emotion, Delilah leaned back far enough to gaze into her friend’s eyes.
“You….” they both said at the same time.
“I missed you,” Delilah said, struggling to talk over the emotions cascading through her.
“Me, too,” Sara replied, before turning to the man quietly standing in the doorway. “Jaguin, this is my friend, Delilah. Delilah, this is my true mate, Jaguin. He…. I love him.”
Delilah wiped the tears from her cheeks with one hand and held out her other to Jaguin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Come in! I…. We were just about to have breakfast. Have you eaten?” she asked, reaching for Sara’s hand as she talked. “I want to know everything.”
“Everything?” Sara repeated, looking at Brogan and Barrack with a worried frown.
“She knows about us – and her,” Barrack said.
Sara nodded in relief, turning to look at Delilah. “I have so much to share with you. I’d love some breakfast and you can tell me how you met these two,” she said with a grin, looping her arm through Delilah’s. “By the way, the house looks fabulous. It looks a lot like when your grandparents were alive.”
“Yeah, but a fat lot of good all that hard work will do me now,” Delilah laughed.
“I see you were successful,” Jaguin replied, stepping inside so Brogan could shut the door.
“Yes,” Brogan replied.
Jaguin raised an eyebrow. “We brought a transport. It is out front. It looks like the weather here got as bad as what we experienced at Paul’s ranch,” he observed. “What did you burn up?”
Barrack chuckled. “We’ll tell you at breakfast,” he said. “Delilah loves hot chocolate. Would you care for some?”
“As long as it is not like that bitter black stuff that Sara enjoys drinking,” Jaguin said with a shudder.
“This is much better,” Brogan promised.
“I think those were the last boxes,” Sara said, looking around the room.
Delilah nodded. A bittersweet smile curved her lips as Jaguin and Barrack carried out the last of what she wanted to take with her. It hadn’t taken long to pack up. She had been in the process of moving everything up to this house and hadn’t unpacked yet because she was still working on the renovations. She frowned as she looked out of the window for the hundredth time. The snow had stopped falling and the sun was actually out.
“What’s wrong?” Sara asked, coming up to wind her arm around Delilah’s.
“Brogan left hours ago and still hasn’t returned,” Delilah murmured, worried.
“What does his symbiot show you?” Sara asked.
Delilah pulled her arm free of Sara’s and lifted the left wrist. She ran her fingers over the smooth surface. She focused on Brogan.
Are you okay? she asked.
A flash of warmth immediately filled her. I am on my way back, elila. All is well. I love you, he replied.
I love you, too, Delilah answered.
“That he is enjoying himself and will be back soon. I guess the prospect of being back in space for months again has him needing to spread his wings, one last time,” she admitted in a rueful tone. “What is it like? Traveling in space?”
“Fantastic, fun, and thankfully not as long as expected,” Sara admitted with a laugh. “I think I hear the dogs barking. They may want to enjoy some outdoor time as well. Let’s go make a snowman.”
“I have some carrots,” Delilah laughed, following Sara out of the sitting room to the front foyer to bundle up.
Brogan slipped into the home office of Ray Lister. His gaze scanned through the room. A fire burned in the gas fireplace. Two chairs were in front of it. There was an empty glass on the end table between the chairs and the fireplace. The room had a masculine feel, as if the human male spent a lot of time in it.
Turning to the right, he walked over to
where a large square table with a contoured relief map was displayed. Brogan immediately recognized the overview of Delilah’s property. In the background, he could hear a woman trying to calm an agitated young male. A moment later, he heard an older human male yelling at the boy.
“You are registered and start on Monday. This is the finest Military academy in Virginia. You need some discipline. You are going,” the man shouted.
“I hate you! You don’t care about this family. All you ever do is see how many people you can screw out of their property so you can make more money,” the boy yelled. “Now you’re going to ruin my life, too!”
“You’ve done a good enough job of that without my help. The money you turn up your nose at is what gives you all these unappreciated comforts and luxuries that you have. Maybe it is time you learned to appreciate what it takes to make it,” the man retorted. “Mabel, make sure he is packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning. The school is sending a van for him.”
Brogan heard a door slamming and a woman softly crying. A moment later, heavy footsteps on the tile floor warned him that Ray Lister was heading for his sanctuary. Brogan’s eyes narrowed when Ray paused outside of the door.
“Damn it, Earl. Where are you? You should have returned those papers to me by now,” Ray muttered to himself.
The doorknob rattled before it turned, as if the man opening it was distracted. Brogan saw Ray’s head was bent and he was looking at the device in his hand as he entered before he closed and locked the door behind himself. Ray walked over and picked up the empty glass before he moved to a small bar set up against the wall near the fireplace. The man poured himself another drink, drank it, and then swiftly poured another one before he turned and froze when his gaze swept over the display table and finally caught sight of Brogan.
“What the…?!” Ray exclaimed in shock. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?”
