by Anna Lowe
Connor took a deep breath as he turned to look out over the gently sloping grounds and out to the moonlight rippling over the ocean. Jenna had been scared too. On the run from something — or someone. Why was the world full of shitheads who wouldn’t leave innocent people alone?
Maybe we can fly tonight and find Jenna, his dragon said. To check on her, I mean.
He took a deep breath. He hoped to hell Jenna didn’t have the kind of trouble Cynthia had. As a human, that was unlikely, so he had to keep his focus here. A good leader protected his pack — and that meant Cynthia and her son.
“Hey there, little guy,” Dell said, turning on his best big-brother voice. He sank down to his haunches as the boy peeked out from his mother’s arms. Dell opened his eyes wide, pretending to be impressed. “Wow. Are you a real dragon?”
The boy nodded silently.
“That’s so cool. Your mom is too?”
Joey nodded solemnly.
“That’s amazing. You know what I am?”
Joey shook his head.
“I mean, other than being your new friend.” Dell winked and poked his thumb at his own chest. “Lion shifter here. That guy over there is a grizzly,” he pointed to Tim. “And Connor is a badass dragon.”
Connor straightened. Badass might be overdoing it, especially since he was supposed to be turning over a new leaf. But, yeah. No one messed with him.
“And Chase over there is a wolf. You know how he got his name?”
Joey shook his head again, watching Dell uncertainly.
Cynthia did too, but Connor knew where Dell was taking this. The guy had the ability to make shell-shocked kids in the world’s meanest war zones smile.
“He used to chase his tail.” Dell turned his finger in a circle to mime the action, and Joey broke into a faint smile.
Chase grinned and turned slowly, faking surprise as he looked behind him. “Hey, what happened to it?”
The little boy giggled. “You don’t have one.”
“Not when he’s human, he doesn’t,” Dell said. “But when he turns into a wolf, it’s there. And you know what? He’s a really ferocious wolf. All of us get that way when we shift, and we beat the bad guys every time.”
“Every time?” The little boy’s eyes went wide.
“Every time,” Dell said solemnly. “So, since you have your mom here — and she’s scary as anything…”
Cynthia shot Dell a look that was equal parts watch it, buster and grateful mom.
“…I can promise you no monsters are going to come along. Not with all of us here to protect you. From now on, your greatest danger is Chase’s cooking.”
The little boy giggled and looked up at his mom.
Cynthia hugged him and nodded. “He’s right. So how about we get to bed? It’s late.”
“Is your meeting finished?” the little boy peeped, rubbing his hands in nervous circles.
Connor’s heart melted all over again. The poor little guy had probably been given a stern warning not to disturb his mom at work, or else.
Remind you of anyone? Tim murmured into Connor’s mind.
He closed his eyes. Yep.
He and Tim knew a thing or two about single moms and absent fathers. Their mother had done her best, working two jobs to keep them afloat. It was a wonder he and Tim hadn’t gotten into more trouble, considering all the times they’d had to fend for themselves while their mom was at work.
“I just need to finish the schedule,” Cynthia said, reaching for her whiteboard again.
Dell hooked his foot around the chair it was propped on and slid it out of reach. Then he faked a huge, slow yawn, letting just enough of his lion fangs show to impress the kid. “Nah, it’s definitely bedtime. And you know what, boss?”
Cynthia raised one thin eyebrow.
“I’m sure we can take the rest as it comes.”
She stared at Dell like he was speaking a foreign language. One after another, Cynthia looked at each of them until her gaze rested on Connor. Other than the chirp of crickets and the quick whoosh of a swooping bat, the place was totally silent, the air charged.
Connor stared back at her, quietly resisting the urge to take command. Yes, there was a hierarchy to be sorted out. And, yes, he wanted to be the one who came out on top. But he wasn’t going to use Cynthia’s moment of vulnerability to assert his power.
“Bedtime,” he agreed quietly. “Chase and Dell can take the first watch tonight, with me and Tim taking over after that. Okay with you?”
Cynthia gave him a long, hard look like he was trying to trick her instead of offering a peace pipe. What kind of world did she come from? Some fucked-up world, for sure.
And just like that, he thought of Jenna’s sunny smile and the way she’d bounced into her sister’s arms. Maybe what his mom used to say was true — that common shifters had it better than the upper classes, what with all their backstabbing and archaic laws.
“Kai said it was a night off,” Dell protested.
Connor shook his head. It was never a night off. Not in his world.
Cynthia nodded at last. “Okay with me.” She took Joey’s hand and headed inside, then paused at the doorway.
“Oh, wait. I have to show everyone their rooms—”
Tim shot Connor a look. God, she’s already assigned us barracks. Act quick.
“I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Connor said as gently as he could. “Goodnight.” He waggled his fingers at Joey, who waved back.
Cynthia fingered the string of white pearls around her neck, then went inside after uttering two quiet words.
“Thank you.”
Her words hung in the air, fluttering there like a pair of doves, and eventually wafted away with the sea breeze.
No one said anything after that, not for a long time, at least. Every man sank into his own thoughts while the stars slowly arced overhead. At some point, Chase and Dell lumbered off to start their patrol, and Tim headed for one wing of the big plantation house. Connor had gotten a second wind and wasn’t ready to sleep. Instead, he stood on the porch and gazed out at the sea, wondering if he’d ever find the inner peace to enjoy the view that stretched all the way over the plantation to the sea. For now, all he could do was mull over everything he’d seen and heard that day.
Starting with Jenna. Where was she? What had brought her to Maui? But his thoughts wandered over to Cynthia too. On the surface, the two women had nothing in common, yet both appeared to be on the run.
He dug his nails into the porch railing. Damn it. Both those women had gotten under his skin, if in totally different ways. Cynthia was like a long-lost sister appearing out of nowhere, the way Chase had a decade ago when he’d had nowhere else to turn. Jenna, on the other hand, knew all about trust and support. What she needed was protection, and beyond that — well, what did she need?
A mate. A powerful, loving one, his inner beast growled.
Did she? Or was his dragon projecting his own needs onto Jenna? And if so, then, shit. What did that say about him?
We definitely need her, his dragon insisted. And she needs us.
A voice chuckled faintly in the back of his mind. That no-good, gossipy voice of fate.
Both those women have to do with your destiny, dragon. Both of them will help you prove yourself.
Connor frowned. He didn’t want or need help to get ahead.
The voice grew blustery then dropped off again, like a boxer past his prime. You do not get to choose the path to your destiny. Only the choices you make once the journey begins.
He snorted. Right. Choosing paths. Making decisions. Some shifters had an unshakeable faith in fate, but not him. Fate had fucked with him from the day he’d been born, and it was messing with him now. Trying to distract him from his true course.
Whatever that may be, his dragon sighed.
He frowned at the deepest, darkest part of the sky. Whatever that may be.
Tim ambled out of the adjoining room, scratching his chest. “What are yo
u thinking about, man?”
Sleeping Beauty. Destined mates. A peaceful existence in a quiet corner of the world.
“Work,” Connor lied, then slowly stood. “Good night.”
Chapter Five
Jenna woke, stretched, and yawned a mile wide. She’d slept like a baby—
She giggled. Maybe baby wasn’t a good word for a woman who’d fantasized about sex all night. She turned over in the big bed, wishing her fantasies could fill the extra space with the real thing.
Namely, Connor.
Somehow, her mind had turned every one of his chaste gestures and careful words into an entire raging lineup of a girl’s hottest dreams. They’d started with kisses in their airplane seats, and the deeper those became, the more her libido stirred. Soon, she’d needed more — desperately — and she dreamed of sneaking to the airplane restroom with Connor and doing it perched on the sink. Then her mind had turned the back half of the plane into a private jet with a huge, heart-shaped bed and silk sheets where Connor had laid her out like a feast.
Special Forces. Gorgeous eyes. A hint of mystery. What girl wouldn’t dream of a night with him?
She rolled onto her stomach and propped her head in her hands, looking out the door to the beach. Yes, the beach, not ten steps away. Her sister had set her up in the estate’s guesthouse, an adorable hobbit hole of a cottage built right at the edge of the beach.
So — wow. Her sister hadn’t been kidding about living the good life.
Jenna watched the surf break on an offshore reef. Given a view like that, she figured her mind would be filled with images of riding those waves or exploring the depths with a couple of long free dives. But all she could think of was the man from the plane. Preferably naked and dripping with water.
She glanced around. What she wouldn’t give for him to stroll by now. Or better yet, to knock at the door and come in with a tray of her favorite pancakes. Hell, she’d be content to have his number to be able to call.
Hi, Connor. It’s me — Jenna, from the flight. I was thinking we might be able to meet.
She kicked the sheets, wishing she’d asked for his number. She’d probably never see him again.
She thumped the mattress and stood, determined to stay positive. The plane ride — and Connor — had helped her relax, and Maui was doing its part too. California and the notion of vampires seemed far, far away from this well-protected private estate. She stepped outside, breathing deeply while finger-combing her hair. Maybe there really was magic here on Maui. She could feel it in the sweet scent of roses arranged along the porch of the tiny cottage and in the never-ending pulse of the sea.
She’d agreed to find Jody by breakfast time, so she ducked back inside to pull on her favorite cutoff jean shorts and a blue tank top, and—
“Ugh.”
She stared at the knife she’d left on the bedside table — a reminder of everything that had driven her here.
“Fine,” she muttered, strapping it to her calf before heading out to explore. It looked a lot like a diving knife, so she wouldn’t appear too loony to anyone who noticed it. Anyway, she’d promised herself not to think about bad things in her first day in paradise. She had exactly one free day before starting work, and she was going to squeeze in all the carefree living she’d missed over the past weeks.
So she dug her toes into the sand with gusto and gazed out over the endless blue sea. She listened to palms dancing in the breeze and inhaled blissfully clean air. Then she splashed through the shallows, pausing here or there to pick up a shell or interesting rock. According to her dad, she’d been a beachcomber from the time she could walk.
Just like me, he often said with a proud grin.
She smiled and pocketed a shell. Later on, she’d send a picture of it to him. In the meantime, she really had to get to breakfast. So she walked to the end of the beach where a couple was spreading out a blanket in the shade. Jody had introduced Jenna to her new friends when she’d arrived, and that was Nina and Boone, if she remembered correctly.
It had to be, because each of them held a baby as they arranged the blanket and settled down. Nina waved with a hearty, “Aloha!”
“Hi,” Jenna called.
“Say Aloha, sweetie,” Boone murmured to the baby he held. He propped one tiny arm up and made the baby wave, and then rewarded the child with a huge smooch. “That’s my girl.”
“You’ll have to excuse Boone,” Nina said. “He’s still living on proud daddy cloud nine.”
“Not my fault I have the two best kids in the world.” He shrugged and started tickling the other child’s foot. It gurgled and kicked with glee.
Jenna grinned. “I know the type. My dad is like that with my niece.”
Her stomach rumbled, and Nina laughed. “Let me guess. Time for breakfast.” She motioned toward a path that led between the palm trees. “Just keep to the main trail, and you’ll find the meeting house.”
“How about you?” Jenna asked.
Boone laughed. “We’re on the babies’ schedule now. I’m pretty sure we had breakfast at about five, but it’s all a blur. I’m practically ready for lunch.” Then he cuddled the baby right up to his face and switched to baby talk. “How about you, Luna? All nice and full?”
Nina rolled her eyes as if the sight of a big, muscled man holding a tiny baby wasn’t the cutest thing ever, and Jenna excused herself with a smile. She turned up the path with a light step. If those two could hang out on the beach with their babies, she could feel safe too.
The path meandered this way and that. While Nina had made it sound easy, Jenna couldn’t always tell which branch of the trail to follow. But surely, the estate wasn’t so big that she could lose her way.
“Wow,” she murmured five minutes later. Maybe it was big enough. She’d wandered under enough palm trees to line most of the boardwalk back home and startled more skittering crabs that she could count — and she still hadn’t found the estate’s meeting house. Her stomach was rumbling, and she was starting to wish she’d slipped on her flip-flops, after all.
“First world problems,” she muttered to herself, picking up her pace as she turned around the next bend.
It was a really tight bend, and the foliage was extra thick, so she had no forewarning of the solid slab of rock she ran into a second later.
“Sorry,” the rock said as she stumbled back. Two thick arms steadied her, and a deep voice sounded in her ears.
“Jenna?”
She blinked. “Connor?” Because, wow. That hadn’t been solid rock. It was him.
A smile flashed over his face — a from-the-heart smile that told her he was as happy to see her as she was to see him. He still had that fresh, outdoorsy scent, but he looked tired from too little sleep.
She blushed. Was it possible that he’d been kept up by the same hot fantasies she’d had, or was she flattering herself? After all, she’d slept through the flight, and he hadn’t.
His eyes sparkled, and a vein pulsed at his neck. Maybe it was the former, after all.
“Hi,” she managed.
He grinned. “Hi.”
She fished for something to do or say that wouldn’t make her come off like a love-struck teen, but nothing came out. After another few seconds of staring at each other, they both spoke at the same time.
“What are you doing here?”
She laughed, and he did too.
“I’m trying to find my way to breakfast,” she said.
His hazel eyes looked more green than brown in the morning light, and they swept up and down her body — not ogling her the way some men did, just warming her up. Warming himself up too, judging by the pink flush that spread over his cheeks.
Jenna bit her lip. Her skin tingled all over, and she leaned closer. It was crazy, the pull she felt toward him. Like a fever had struck both of them at the same time. Of course, there were people she had hit it off with right away. But this was different. This was the thrill of a chance meeting combined with the warm goodness of a
reunion with an old friend.
She blinked, trying to snap out of it. Maybe there really was something magical about Maui. Or maybe it was just the romance of a tropical island combined with that burst of freedom she’d started the day with.
“No, I mean, what are you really doing here?” Connor asked.
“Visiting my sister, like I said.”
His eyes went wide — really wide, like a guy who’d just discovered a girl’s father owned a very big shotgun. “Your sister lives here? At Koa Point?”
She turned away from Connor long enough to wave at the path she’d come down, about to explain. By the time she turned back, he’d inched closer to peer over her shoulder, and they bumped again. He caught her arms and held her a little closer. A little tighter, like a treasured possession he didn’t dare release.
Her breath caught as she gazed up into his eyes. Back on the plane, they’d been almost eye-to-eye. Now, his height showed, and she had to look up. And not just look up but look deep because his eyes were doing that trick of theirs again. Swirling. Glowing, almost. Or was she seeing things?
She dropped her gaze to his lips, watching them form soundless syllables. Maybe she wasn’t the only one drunk on a mysterious elixir of love.
A bird zoomed by overhead, breaking the spell just long enough for her to pull away an inch. “Wait. What are you doing here?”
He didn’t answer right away, still looking stunned. When he did speak, it was a single, quiet word. “Destiny.”
She wondered if she’d heard right. “What was that?”
He gave himself a little shake and cleared his throat. “I mean…er, duty. I work here. Well, I do now.”
“I thought you said you worked in security.”
“I do.” He waved around. “For Koa Point estate. I’m staying at the plantation house.”
Her jaw hung open in one of those holy crap moments. “So you’re…you’re…”
“Your new neighbor,” Connor rumbled in that low, growly tone she already loved. And damn if the man didn’t lick his lips.
Her cheeks flushed. Connor McStud was her neighbor, and he was on foot, which meant they were only separated by a short walk. So technically, she could sneak over to his place whenever she wanted, or he could sneak over to hers. Which meant…
