His Dragon Protector

by Jill Haven

  But I had to be near him to do any convincing, so I threw my hands up into the air, took a deep whiff of his scent on the wind, and gave chase.

  “What are you doing?” Bishop came running up behind me, but I ignored him. I caught a glimpse of his hard features and his rough glower. I merely pointed after Seth. Bishop cursed and slowed and finally, after a few paces, I left him behind.

  “Good luck,” he called with more cheer than I would have thought him capable of. Just goes to show even old dragons can be surprising sometimes.

  The feeling I’d been fighting all along with Seth reared up in me—that this chase was a passionate prelude. If I caught him, that part of me that was a beast—and I loved my dragon as much as the rest of me—would get to mate him, have him, and keep him. As a man I’d begun to think more about what my life was lacking. I was getting older, settled, and now my best friend was more or less married. Seth teased me in the best ways possible as well, so I had to hope he kept doing this dance with me for a reason. I ran deeper into the city and farther away from the well-known roads. Large old French country-style homes that had been separated into small kitschy shops took up both sides of the street, seemingly out of place with the standard ugly buildings I’d seen so far.

  I lost sight of him behind a few people and stopped on the sidewalk and raised my head, getting a few looks from other pedestrians. I caught his scent on the air again and ran after him. Would being mated be so bad? I was suspicious of whether or not it was a good thing when Carlisle seemed to become someone so different from who he normally was, but now that the problems seemed to be working themselves out with Haiden, he seemed really happy, and there was no denying that Carlisle and Haiden were both in love with their daughter.

  Babies. I shelved that thought for later. Our dwindling clan population, which had seemed a serious—yet not having directly to do with me personally—problem when we first started this idiocy of searching for Divine Omegas, now hit closer to home. If I mated—I shook my head at myself—made love to Seth, there was a real chance he would become pregnant. And then what? I caught sight of Seth again and sucked in a deep breath. For a half-human, he had dragon speed.

  He rounded a corner out of my sight, and I let myself run faster. I didn’t feel like I was in love right now, I felt like I was in lust, and while Seth was amusing and certainly the type of omega I could maybe have all the feelings in the world for one day, right now I was just trying to get to know him. So why was I chasing him while my cock firmed up from his enticing perfume drifting along on the cold air?

  Maybe I’d never been in love, but I’d had sex partners over the years, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with someone who smelled as perfect and sweet as Seth. I wanted to pleasure him and ease into his heat, stroke him until he was screaming for release, and then fill his ass with my seed. I wanted him begging for me, and then sweet and happy in my arms afterward—in Seth’s case I would settle for not punching me and only lobbing halfway insulting barbs. I grinned and ran faster.

  Seth got ahead of me again, but it didn’t take me long to catch up. The wind was in my favor, and I snickered to myself when he came back into view waiting at a bus stop. I slid into the entryway of a small clinic and peeked around the doorway at him. He glanced around like he was in a spy movie and bounced on the balls of his feet. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to allow this to play out. My heart thumped hard at the thought of him getting away from me again, but at the same time, where the hell was he so intent on going that he’d hop a bus? I thought about trying to get on the bus, but even if he didn’t see me board—unlikely since he was one of only a few people waiting—he would certainly smell me. We were in the city, so I doubted it would be difficult to track the bus.

  He boarded the vehicle, a wide reddish-brown monstrosity with dirty windows and salt stains up the outside, and I tensed, ready to jog again. When the bus pulled away at a slow lumber, I followed at a moderate pace, nothing faster than a normal human could accomplish while exercising. I wasn’t dressed for running, though, so I got a few strange glances as I trailed the bus. It stopped about every other block, which gave me plenty of time to keep it in sight.

  Eventually, I noticed the neighborhood we were making our way into wasn’t as nice as the one with the police station. The buildings got shorter and shabbier, and as the bus kept puffing along, belching black smoke, I realized that we were in something that qualified as a slum. The high-rise buildings on both sides of the street had names like Wintergreen Court and Pacific Palm Reserves, but there were smashed out windows visible on every level of the buildings, kind of like someone had taken random pot shots with a gun and busted them out, and rusty old fire escapes clung to the sides of the graffitied stucco like metal vines. This was an urban jungle, and it seemed as if nature would dearly like to reclaim this place and turn it back to rocky rubble.

  I hoped the bus would keep going through this terrible neighborhood without incident, and take Seth out to a much nicer place, where he belonged. My heart sank, but I couldn’t say I was completely surprised, as Seth hopped from the bus with a jaunty wave at the driver. He said something to a few men who exited with him that had them laughing and pointing at him, and then he easily strolled toward one of the falling apart buildings.

  Carlisle and I hadn’t grown up in the type of wealth we had today. Our early years were spent in the dragon homesteads, which were little more than caves in Wales. Somehow, those early haunts of mine didn’t seem as decrepit as this horrible building that Seth had disappeared into. Did he live here?

  Something akin to anger surged in me. He was running away from me to this? I took some long, deep breaths. This wasn’t safe. I wanted that beautiful omega to be somewhere he could relax and be taken care of. My house in Charleston sat not far from Carlisle’s, and while it wasn’t as big as his home, it was sizable, and far nicer than this.

  The Carlisles had always been the richest Blood dragons, their fortune built by a mixture of good luck and tenacity. For whatever reason, that dragon impulse to hoard treasure had missed me, and I’d focused on helping our clan and any humans who stumbled across the various medical practices I’d held over the years. Right now, I wished I’d taken more time with that aspect of my life nearly every other dragon seemed to hold in the highest esteem. I wanted to present Seth with gold and jewels, and I laughed to myself. Was this the part of our dragons that had been so wildly misunderstood by legend and myth? We all wanted to gather shiny stones, but not because we were horrible misers, so we could present the baubles to our mates and charm them with sparkling gems.

  I hung my head and fought the urge that overtook me to follow Seth into the building. He’d made himself clear, over and over, this time he even hit me to drive me off, but I couldn’t make that little impulse in me quieten that whispered I should keep him safe. Follow him. You came this far, why stop now? The emptiness that hid in my chest near my heart gaped and ached, like a sucking wound.

  I felt colder with him farther away. I’d felt good while I was chasing him, but now I was back to the hell of the last few weeks. Eventually, knowing it was wrong, I let my feet go their own way, and they took me across the street to the building Seth had vanished into. I went up three sets of long, stained cement stairs, with Seth’s sweet, perfect scent such a clear trail that I could follow it almost as easily as if he’d unwound a string behind himself. I got to the top floor and followed his delicious smell all the way to a door with a number one hanging crookedly under the peephole.

  Dragging in a deep breath, I was sure that Seth was in there. My dragon bristled closer to the surface of my skin as a thought struck me—what if he’s not alone? My hesitation vanished, and I put a hand to the doorknob. I expected it to be locked, but the knob turned easily, and all of my instincts seemed to rejoice at once as a wild riot of emotion ricocheted around in my gut. I pushed open the door just enough to slip inside and closed it quietly behind myself.

  5

&nbs
p; Seth

  The living room was mostly empty except for the ratty old plaid couch Dad and I had found on a street corner. We didn’t bother buying furniture now that I was older and understood why we kept renting and abandoning apartments. I’d learned not to put a lot of stock into physical objects, and put more in people—namely my Dad. My nose felt stuffy, and I sniffed back a few measly tears that kept trying to sneak out of me.

  Really, I never cried. Crying was for the weak. I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand and relived that day we’d pulled the couch up the stairs by ourselves, laughing. Dad wasn’t much bigger than I was now. He claimed Mom was a statuesque goddess and that any of my lesser qualities, like my lack of height, were from him and not her. He’d told me that again as we tried to muscle the couch up three flights. It was clear, all these years after her death, he was just a middle-aged Italian-American man still broken up by the loss of his one true love. His face had gotten red and he’d said, Seth, you’re so smart, just like her. I have to keep you alive. You’re going to do some good in this world, if we can ever get you settled into one spot.

  And now look at me, sneaking into the last apartment we rented, hoping beyond hope the landlord hadn’t gotten around to renting it out to someone new. Dad had always told me to stay away from the ‘family business’ and drugs and booze and any other thing he could think of that were bad for me. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t around to witness my crowning glory of stealing a bunch of money from his old man.

  That unsavory thought pounding through my skull, I rushed through the living room, unwilling to stand there with the lump of grief stopping up the back of my throat. I stormed into the bedroom. This was a shit place and there was only the one bedroom. Someone had been through and stolen the box spring and mattress, which was fine, because we’d bought them fourth- or fifth-hand. The drawers of the cheap plywood dresser were hanging open and empty, so whatever we hadn’t taken with us the last time had been lifted as well.

  We’d left most of our stuff when we ran from Vladimir and his men. Dad had picked them out spying on the building, but we hadn’t lost them in the end. I suppose someone was bound to take me eventually, given the number of times the attempt was made. I walked over to the closet and, peeking inside, felt just the smallest bit smug.

  The shitty shag carpet at the bottom was undisturbed and the seams at the back of the closet were unbroken. First thing, I peeled back the carpet, exposing the beat-up wooden floor. When that was out of the way, I took a folding knife out of my pocket, dropped to my knees, and then jammed it directly into the corner of the closet, working it around. The drywall split halfway up, a thin line becoming clear on the wall. I’d worked for three hours staining up this piece of painted drywall to match the rest of it. When I had wiggled the piece free, I set it aside. There, in the hole between walls, snug in the empty space between support studs, were two black hard drives and a loaded shiny silver Glock.

  Behind me there was a slight exhale, like a small chuckle. I startled into action, grabbing the gun. I raised the Glock as I pivoted and pointed it at whomever had snuck up behind me. Mason’s shocked handsome face and hazel eyes trapped me in place. He flinched back. My hand trembled for a hot messy second, and I nearly squeezed the trigger before the smoky, delicious burnt sugar whatsit that he exuded—cologne maybe? —registered in my mind.

  Relief had me lowering the weapon, but the insane adrenaline zipping through my body didn’t dissipate. This could have been someone else who wanted to hurt me. I’d felt strung out like I’d drank too many cups of coffee while running away from Mason, and now that he was here, a mellow calm settled over me, sort of like a tarp over a hole in an icy lake—everything was still dangerous. All of my body reactions around him were bizarre, and that in and of itself worked to have me fighting his pull. It was like I was trying to be upset, but my body kept telling me I didn’t need to be with him near, but that just made me want to be even more. I hated the feeling. Or maybe I didn’t.

  I let out a growl. “I won’t shoot you, even if you deserve it for chasing me.” I shook the gun in his direction.

  “Hey, now. Why did you have to run?”

  I shrugged. “General principle when you’re being chased.”

  He opened his mouth and scowled, then seemed to change his mind and close it again. “Why do you have a weapon?”

  “You were there for the whole thing with Vladimir, right?” I rolled my eyes and turned back to the hard drives, pulling them out of the closet into the bedroom. He was here, so there was no use hiding them.

  He harrumphed. “But why isn’t someone with you? You’re, I mean, Haiden had a protector. You’re a Divine Omega.”

  “No shit,” I grumbled and moved around so I could glare at him while I checked over the hard drives to make sure nothing had happened to them while I was gone. They seemed as intact as the day I hid them. “I know what I am. My dad was the one who stayed with me from the time I was young. He did everything he could to keep me safe until the very last. He gave everything for me. Don’t ever say a word about him.” I pointed at Mason.

  “Wasn’t about to. I was curious, is all. You’re important.”

  I snorted at that. “Says who? I’m not sure how important a person is just because they’re supposed to be a high-end piece of ass.”

  “That’s not all Divine Omegas are,” Mason fired back quickly.

  “Okay, sure, you don’t want to fuck me. I imagined that.”

  Mason’s face blazed beet red. I had scored a direct hit. “I’m sure you have a lot to offer beyond physical appeal.”

  “Yeah, but can you think of one other thing you know about me, other than you see all this hot stuff and want to take a bite?” I was being a jerk on purpose now but couldn’t seem to tamp down the need to start another pissing match. Being obnoxious was as much a part of my soul as loving to code, and if he wanted to be with me, well, he’d have to deal. Maybe he’d leave me alone now.

  Mason scowled and a sinking sickness settled into my stomach, so I pretended to see something wrong with one of the hard drives. I got really close to it and poked around at nothing to avoid looking at him.

  “Wait, you did it again.” He huffed. “You threw me off track. Damn it, how do you keep doing that?”

  “Not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “Why do you need a gun? What are those computer parts for? And where are you planning to go now?”

  I shrugged, and he sighed. I tried really hard not to watch him pace a small circle nearby while he muttered something under his breath that sounded like “stubborn omega” but could have been something else, I’m sure.

  “Why did the cops let you go so easily? I didn’t expect that.” He came to a stop beside me. I sat back on my knees and looked up at him. That was a mistake. He was so tall, and I was in such a suggestive position, with his body close. He seemed to realize my proximity to his fun bits around the same time I did because a heat entered his eyes that couldn’t be missed. I shivered and stood fast.

  “Well, you should probably know. My Grandfather is Matthias Volpe.”

  Mason grunted and leaned closer to me for a second, studying my face. “You don’t seem like you’re bullshitting. That mob boss who was all over the papers a few years ago?”

  “Yeah, he got away clean from all that stuff. The feds looked fucking stupid. Gramps is good.” I grinned, proud in spite of myself. I knew most of the business was illegal in one way or another, but I also hated to see anyone go down to the cops.

  “But… your last name isn’t Italian? Isn’t it Preston?” Between his eyebrows, a little furrow popped up.

  “Mom’s name. Dad and Mom gave me her last name. Pissed Grandpa right off, but he had no say in it. For a long time, he tried to get Dad to change it, but I think he eventually let it go because talking about Mom upset Dad so much. Anywho, I stole a pile of money from him, so he’s probably gonna try to murder me at some point, along with anyone dumb enough to b
e near me.” I said that last bit in a rush and smiled big at Mason, hoping to distract him, though there was fat chance of that.

  “Okay, that’s a lot to take on board.” Mason ran a hand through his longish black hair and my fingers twitched. When had I started wanting to touch him?

  “Sure is, so you can go now, right? Okay, good talk,” I mumbled and stared down at my gun. I wasn’t sure what to do with it because I had two hard drives to carry and a loaded gun, and I didn’t think I should shove it into my waistband like people did in the movies because that just seemed like begging for a flesh wound.

  Mason carefully reached over and pointed at the safety. “I would engage that.”

  “Yeah, I know how to use it,” I said, and turned away to do as he said.

  He sighed. “Let me help you, okay?”

  “What do you think you can do that my Dad couldn’t, what with him giving his life for me?”

  “Let me try. I can shift into a dragon.”

  I crouched down to look at the hard drives again and laid the gun on top of one. I went to my knees and sat there way too long staring at nothing. I needed to get the hell out of here, and I was wasting a lot of time. It wouldn’t take anyone long to track me down in this city. It was no NYC, that’s for sure, and there were only so many hidey-holes for rats to hunker down in.

  The next thing I knew Seth was on his knees beside me. He used a gentle touch to turn my face toward him and he was so large and strong beside me that something in me wavered. I wanted to relax for a while. I felt bone-tired and old, and I was barely twenty-three. I wanted to trust that Mason could do what he said, maybe help me out.

  He caressed his hand along my jaw and up into my hair, and I gasped as a bolt of heat slammed into my gut, strong and pure and unlike anything I’d ever experienced, as he lightly scraped his blunt fingernails along my scalp. Mason closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them, that mouthwatering, strong smoked-sugar smell of his was all I could focus on. I was shockingly aware of the slight pressure of his fingertips on my body. I wanted his hands everywhere on me. My dick plumped for him, and I sucked in my stomach, wanting to rearrange myself but afraid to touch because I was so primed right now.