Doctor Dragon’s Fake Bride
Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Series
Brittany White
Copyright © 2020 by Brittany White
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
1. Juliana
2. Quinn
3. Juliana
4. Quinn
5. Juliana
6. Quinn
7. Juliana
8. Quinn
9. Juliana
10. Quinn
11. Juliana
12. Quinn
13. Juliana
14. Quinn
15. Juliana
16. Quinn
17. Juliana
18. Quinn
19. Juliana
20. Quinn
21. Juliana
22. Quinn
Epilogue
Firefighter Wolves Shifters
Chapter 1
Also by Brittany White
About the Author
Exclusive Offer
Blurb
A dragon shifter must fake a proposal with his virgin neighbor, to save her from a forced marriage.
* * *
The Virgin Mate
My family wants to trade me like a piece of property.
And force me to marry a cruel man who only wants my virginity.
I flee, and find refuge in Texas.
I get lucky, because my next door neighbor is a sexy doctor.
When I break my arm, my handsome doctor mends the bone, and
When my father sends a thug to kidnap me, my gorgeous doctor rescues me.
He promises to marry me, to protect me from the mob.
We host a fake wedding,
But when he touches me, my passion is real.
Our marriage might be pretend, but there is nothing fake about how much I want this smoking hot man.
* * *
The Irish Doctor
Thirteen years ago, my dragon shifter tribe was decimated by witches.
I followed my brother to the States to start a new life.
I miss my Irish home, but I’ve settled in Texas, as a doctor to humans.
The best part of my home is my neighbor, a beautiful young woman.
When a man breaks in, and tries to abduct her, I rescue her.
She confesses her secret.
She’s a virgin, and her family is forcing her to marry.
I vow to protect her, and fake a proposal.
Despite the fake marriage, this woman is my mate, but I hide the truth about my heritage.
Her family sends the mafia after us, and I will do anything to protect her.
Even if it reveals the truth about who I am.
* * *
Can an Irish dragon shifter protect his virgin bride from her past?
* * *
***
1
Juliana
On the evening of her twenty-fifth birthday, Juliana Costeau was not prepared for her life to change—forever.
“Juliana, don’t leave yet,” her mother said from across the wide mahogany table in their ornate family home.
Juliana folded her napkin and pushed her chair back from the table. “Mama, I have to go. I have an early meeting in the morning.”
The household staff took their empty dessert plates away, replacing them with steaming mugs of hot tea. Her mother laid her arm across Juliana’s. “No meeting is more important than this.”
Her mother’s fingers were ice cold against Juliana’s skin, and the tone of her mother’s voice set Juliana’s teeth on edge. “More important than my job? What’s that?” she asked.
Juliana had busted her ass for years to get to a place in her family’s business where she was respected. Her accounting degree had helped, but mostly what worked was her hard work, her tenacity, and her very thick skin. Despite all the advances in society, in the close-knit Romanian network, sons were still favored over daughters.
Her mother narrowed her eyes, sending Juliana a silent warning that said, “Do not argue.” Her mother pulled her arm away from Juliana’s and pressed her hands together. “We have found the man you will marry.”
Juliana must have misheard what her mother just said. “What?”
Her parents’ marriage had been arranged. So had the marriages of Juliana’s aunts and uncles, and even one of her older cousins. No one had said a word about it to Juliana, though. Sure, her parents were overly invested in her life, but they always claimed that’s just how Romanian parents were. In college, she’d learned that was absolutely not the case.
Her father leaned forward, somehow looming even while sitting down. “You are twenty-five now. It is your obligation to marry.”
“We have already chosen your groom,” her mother said. “It cannot be undone.”
What the fuck? Can’t be undone? What kind of bullshit were her parents pushing tonight? She was a professional woman with a professional job. This wasn’t the eighteenth century—she wasn’t their property. “There’s no way I can marry someone I don’t know.”
“Do not be naive. You will marry the man we have chosen for you,” her father said. “You will marry him in three months’ time, and you will be grateful to serve your family in this way.”
Juliana’s skin crawled. Her parents were old-fashioned, and she’d suspected for years that their business dealings were not all aboveboard. Well. If she was honest, she hadn’t just suspected. She’d been privy to too many discussions not to realize that her parents had some loose ties to the underground crime world.
“Who is it?” Juliana asked.
“Mihal Berceanu,” her father proclaimed.
Bile rose in her throat. Mihal was older than she was by at least fifteen years. He was known to be ruthless in the business world, with a cruel streak and a hard edge. He wasn’t just loosely affiliated with the gangsters that controlled the town, either—he was known to have very strong ties to both the Romanian and Russian crime families. His uncle was currently serving a fifteen-year sentence in the federal penitentiary for racketeering violations because he’d ordered his employees to commit crimes in his stead. His brother was known to be a mercenary who’d do any job for hire.
“But he’s a—”
“Do not speak that word in our home,” her father snapped.
She had planned to say gangster. What was preferable? Mobster? Thug? Criminal?
Her mother’s eyes pierced hers. “Do you not sit here and eat the food from our table? Mihal will provide for you in the same manner.”
“I don’t need to be provided for.”
Her mother didn’t acknowledge that statement. “Your engagement will be announced one week from today,” she said.
Juliana had to find a way out of this. She was smart enough to know that logic alone wasn’t going to work. “What’s the rush?”
“He is the owner of Ivanov Shipping Industries. They have a monopoly on the east coast,” her father said. “Our business will be merging with theirs.”
“So, this is about money.” And control, but she did not voice that part.
Her father’s eyes narrowed. “You need to watch the words coming out of your mouth, Juliana.”
Her mother nodded. “He knows that you are a virgin. See that you stay that way in the weeks to come.”
Hot rage flooded her veins. Shame and revul
sion warred in her mind. Her parents had told Mihal she was a virgin? It was true, but how did they even know? If she let the obscenities she felt on her tongue spew out of her mouth, they’d lock her up until the wedding. She took a few calming breaths.
“I really do have to go,” she said.
She kissed them both goodbye and rushed to her car, where she dialed her cousin’s number. As soon as he picked up, she said, “Mama told me I have to marry Mihal Berceanu. Did you know about this?”
“Of course I knew. He’s the head of the Berceanu family, now. Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming.”
“No, I did not see this coming.” She rested her head against her steering wheel. “Can I stay with you?”
Her cousin didn’t even hesitate. “Hell no. Do you think I want my head on a pike?”
So, her cousin was just like the rest of them. Spineless. What a bunch of shit. She marched right back inside her parents’ opulent townhouse. Their butler let her in without asking what she was doing. She made her way to the dining room, but the household staff told her they’d already gone up to their bedroom. She made her way down the long hallway, and outside their bedroom, she heard their voices.
“We need her to make this arrangement work, and without any new-age attitude,” her father said. “You were always too indulgent with her.”
“I know.” Her mother sighed heavily. “I believed she would rebel less if I was not so heavy-handed.”
“We cannot afford to be lax in our line of business,” her father said. “Mihal wants her as his wife. If we were to refuse, it would cause damage. Significant damage.”
“Would the Berceanus respond with force?”
Juliana had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from gasping out loud.
“Without a doubt,” her father said in a low voice. “We will make her understand that.”
Juliana might be young, but she was not stupid. Clearly, her parents’ connection to the Romanian mafia that operated in select parts of New England was much more intense than she’d realized. Or maybe she was stupid. She grew up with bodyguards, her playdates were limited, and she was never allowed to attend summer camp. The other wealthy kids had bodyguards, but they’d been allowed to go anywhere they wanted with anyone they wanted. Not Juliana.
“Our territory has expanded. She has always enjoyed the fruits of our labor. She will adjust her viewpoint,” her father said, and his voice carried an air of finality.
Juliana’s stomach lurched. Her parents were heavily involved in organized crime. She couldn’t deny it any longer. She couldn’t write it off as business connections or networking.
There was no future for her here. She’d been in denial for twenty-five years, but she couldn’t hide from the truth any longer. She had to get the hell out of Boston before she was forced into marriage at gunpoint.
2
Quinn
From his seat on the bleachers, Quinn Walsh jumped up, clapping for his five-year-old nephew. “Go Declan!” he yelled as Declan gave the soccer ball a swift kick.
After a long day working as a doctor at Cedar Lake’s only health care clinic, watching a kids’ soccer game was a nice way for Quinn to spend his evening. Though Declan wasn’t his biological nephew, he might as well have been. He was the son of Quinn’s friend Kellan, who was as close as any sibling could be.
Quinn and Kellan had come to Texas from Ireland thirteen years earlier when they were only seventeen-years-old. Their other friends, Liam and Brennan, had also come with them. The four men weren’t brothers by blood, but they were brothers by choice. They’d all lost their home in Ireland on the day that their dragon clan had been attacked by powerful witches. Most of their clan had been murdered, and the rest of them scattered out across Europe.
Quinn and his brothers had picked Texas as the best place to settle, mainly because of how vastly it differed from their home, the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Dragon shifters had always resided on in caves, near cliffs that overlooked the sea. They’d thought the witches would never think to look for them in Texas, with its bright sun and flat ground. Quinn missed home every day, but he was grateful to have his brothers near him.
As Quinn cheered again, Declan shot a glance up at his dad, his mom, and his uncles. They’d trained him well. As a young dragon shifter, Declan would be able to outrun and outperform any human child, but they’d taught him exactly where to limit himself, and he loved soccer now just as much as he loved swimming.
Thanks to Kellan’s new wife, Clara, he got along with the human kids, too. Before Clara had come along, Declan played too roughly with his classmates, but Clara, a kindergarten teacher, had been a very good influence.
Beside him on the bleachers, Brennan elbowed him. “Ready for a getaway this weekend? Kellan’s got the jet ready. We’re going to Peru. Torres del Paine National Park has got some amazing cliffs over a lake, and it’s deserted most of the time.”
For the last few months, the brothers had made a point of finding remote cliffs as a vacation place so that they could transform into their shifter forms. For too long, they’d only shifted occasionally, but after they’d fought the witches, they’d vowed to make more of an effort to shift and not suppress their true dragon nature. It was also really good for young Declan to get to stretch his wings. When he got to shift more regularly, he wasn’t nearly so rowdy in human form. They were all fortunate that one of them, Kellan, was a real-life billionaire, so money was no object.
“Damn. I forgot. I scheduled an immunization day on Saturday,” Quinn said.
“Can’t you reschedule? I’m off for the whole weekend.”
“No, I can’t reschedule it. The people in this town need tetanus shots, including your deputies.”
“Fine. We’ll wait and leave after you’re done,” Brennan said. Brennan was the town sheriff, and he had the craziest hours out of all of them. “God knows you guys have waited on my crazy schedule to clear up more than once.”
The people around them jumped up, cheering. Quinn squinted at the field. Declan’s team had won.
Kellan cupped his hands around his mouth. “Pool party at our house.”
The soccer kids screamed with delight. Even at the end of summer, the air was still warm in Texas, and the pool always felt like bath water until Kellan had some massive ice blocks dumped in to cool it.
An hour later, Quinn was sitting on the side of Kellan’s pool next to Brennan, watching the kids splash in the lazy river. Ridiculously, or so Quinn thought, Kellan was rich enough that he had his own lazy river in the backyard. Liam sat down on the other side of Quinn and handed them both an ice-cold beer. Liam was the town’s lawyer, and he stayed just as busy as the rest of them, but his hours were more predictable.
Brennan cracked the tab on his can. “A year ago, who thought we’d be sitting here, watching Kellan with a fucking sports team in his backyard?”
That was true enough. A year ago, Declan had been so wild that he’d been unable to have human friends because he was so rough. Hosting a successful party full of kids was a massive accomplishment for him.
Liam shook his head. “That’s not as surprising as the gorgeous wife he picked up.”
Brennan laughed. “Yeah. We’re lucky Clara puts up with his fucking ass.”
Quinn sipped his beer. He loved Declan like his own child, and he was thrilled for Kellan. He really was. He adored Clara, and he’d do anything for her. He’d never thought it would be possible, but he envied Kellan. Kellan had found his mate. He was happy.
Quinn was happy, too. Mostly. He was lonely, though.
Just then, Brennan stuck his freezing can against Quinn’s ribcage. “Ow, shit. Don’t do that,” Quinn yelped. He might be tough, but that was still annoying. He looked around. “You just made me curse in front of these kids.”
Brennan chuckled. “It’s not like they haven’t heard worse. In fact, I know they have. They heard much worse from their soccer coach tonight.”
Liam leaned over. �
�He’s right, though you were daydreaming and wouldn’t know. Look.” Liam gestured with his can. “Stacy’s been looking over here at you every five seconds.”
He rolled his eyes. He’d been victim to Stacy’s flirting more than once. She was a single mom, and her kid was on the soccer team. She was hot, but she’d been quick to tell his friend that she’d like to date Quinn because he was a doctor. Her ex-husband was an orthopedic surgeon, and she was looking to replace him. Quinn had news for her—a general practitioner in Dallas did not make the same kind of money that a surgeon in Dallas would make.
“Just ignore her,” Quinn said, trying to do just that.
“Don’t you want to get laid?” Brennan asked. Brennan was by far the crudest of them.
Quinn scoffed. “Not if it comes with strings attached, I don’t.” At least not the kind of strings Stacy had.
Liam, by far the most understanding member of their group, slapped him on the back. “We’re just giving you a hard time. Finish your beer, and we can go race the kids.”
There weren’t many single women in Cedar Lake, currently, but there were a few when Quinn had established his practice there a few years ago. Sometimes, it was awkward, dating when he was the only doctor in town. Many of the people preferred to use him as their doctor instead of driving to Dallas, which was great for his career but bad for dating. So, dating in Cedar Lake was a bust. He’d tried Dallas, but the women had either wanted a fling or wanted to get serious immediately.
Doctor Dragon's Fake Bride (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 2) Page 1
