by Benton, Ava
Stryker
Dragon Protectors
Ava Benton
Contents
Stryker
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Afterword
Stryker
A secret group of dragon shifters operate in a city not far from all of us.
They save lives. They demand secrecy. They take no prisoners.
Or do they?
Stryker is one of that elite bodyguard cadre.
She’s the target of organized criminals, the daughter of a gambling man.
Fate brought them together. Will death separate them?
1
Kat
He was going to be pissed.
My feet sped up on the cracked concrete. Here and there moss crept over the sidewalk and edged in toward the path, and in an occasional spot, grass poked up between jack-o-lantern grins in the pavement.
A pretty girl walked past me, her head held high, and her hair flowing in ribbons down her back.
“Hi,” she said softly.
I nodded. Her big blue eyes left mine, and I wondered if she was a model; she was that dang pretty. I’d never seen her before on my way home.
On my way home—late. Crap.
It wasn’t my fault I’d be getting home late. I’d been offered an extra half an hour at the restaurant I worked in as a waitress. It meant I had to rush home and change to head to work at the bar I worked in five nights a week. But I’d do it with a smile on my face because we needed the extra cash badly.
Not that I could tell my father that—I couldn’t tell him anything. Not that I was a grown-ass woman that shouldn’t have to check in with him, not that I worked two jobs and was more responsible an adult than he was, not that I was disappointed in his destructive habits.
He wasn’t a bad guy, my dad. Just a lost soul that needed my support, not my criticism. How long could I keep up this breakneck pace? I worked from ten in the morning to six in the evening waitressing, then got home, took an hour before zipping to the bar to work eight at night to two in the morning. I’d go home, sleep like the dead until my alarm went off in the morning and then repeat. I didn’t have time to breathe much less have friends or even a boyfriend.
The wind kicked up and cut right through my worn sweater. I hugged myself tightly, struggling to hold on to every last bit of heat I possessed.
I’d get through this. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d managed so far.
I turned off the sidewalk and hopped off the curb to take the same alleyway I’d taken every day for the last three years. Sheesh, I’d been locked in this dead-end job for three damn years. Crap; that meant my twenty-fifth birthday was coming up. I’d be working right through it—happy birthday to me.
Not that I minded. I’d rather be working than at home. At home, I had to face my father. I had to struggle to get my mother to eat. I’d have to clean her room, dust it all out, open the windows and let the sunlight in. My mother had shut herself in three years ago and refused to leave her room since. Her depression had always been poorly managed, but now... now it was out of control. And even though I’d taken to working two jobs, I was still losing ground on paying the mortgage. What would she do if we were forced to leave?
Forcing the troubling thoughts out of my head, I tilted my head back and stared up into the blue skies. Grey clouds threatened rain, and I smiled. I loved the rain. The Pacific Northwest’s legendary thunderstorms and rain were about the only damn thing in my life that brought me joy. How pathetic am I?
With a snort, I scurried behind a bright red building. The spicy bite of Thai food filled the air and somewhere on the other side of a propped open door; someone shouted something I didn’t understand.
I moved past, slipping behind the church. The wide-open parking lot didn’t even have one car, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Getting through this alley on Sunday was dang near impossible. Something to my right clattered loudly, and I jolted, jumping to the side and flashing a startled glance at a random calico cat that had knocked over a metal rack next to a dumpster.
“Hey, pretty kitty.” The words popped out of me, fueled by my need to cover how afraid I’d been of a cat.
The alley closed in as the church building took up one side and an old, abandoned warehouse stood on the other. Chilly shadows ate me whole, and I glanced over my shoulder as something prickled at the back of my neck. I’d walked this path a million times, but something didn’t feel right today.
That cat must have really messed me up.
“Kat Hudson!”
I winced, spinning to face the dark sedan tucked almost out of sight in the bay of the old warehouse. Three men stepped out of the bay in a loose triangular formation like something out of a bad action movie.
That tingling sense of fear kicked up a notch, and I stopped dead in my tracks as they blocked my exit. Terror backed up my throat, and I swallowed something bitter and thick that stuck and blazed like fire in my throat.
The man in front looked like a bouncer from the toughest biker bar in town. He stood so imposing and big that he could block out the sun if he tried. The guys on either side of him a few steps behind weren’t any smaller.
Without taking another second to assess the situation, I turned and bolted back the way I came. My heart jackhammered in my chest as my feet flew over the dark ground. Three more guys stepped around the corner, and I slid to a halt.
I spun around, staring down the guys behind me. Every nerve in my body was on fire. Icy hot fear prickled up and down my arms and stabbed at my chest.
“Stop running.” The first guy walked up as the group circled around me in a ring of danger. He walked right up to me and eyed me as he walked around me like he was checking a bit of meat. “Kat Hudson.”
“Sorry, no idea who that is.” My heart threatened to beat right out of my chest as I lied to the thug.
He flashed a truly terrifying grin at me and chuckled. “Your old man said you’re clever.”
Dad. What did he do?
I struggled to stay on my feet as fresh fear washed through me. Lifting my chin an inch, I glared at the guy. “Seriously, I have no idea who you’re looking for. I’m Jane Seymour.” The lie left my lips easily, and I was proud of myself for a second.
Until the guy reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He touched the screen, and a short video clip of myself at work introducing myself to the new girl began playing.
“So, Kat Hudson, you’re not really Jane Seymour, are you?”
Mute with terror, I glared at him.
“I’m going to make this easy on you.” He stepped closer to me. “See, usually we take women and sell them. You’d fetch us a pretty penny, but your dear old dad said you’re clever. Clever is bad in this line of work.” He touched his index and middle finger to his temple. “Causes too many headaches.”
He stopped in front of me, his dark eyes sweeping over my face, down my body, and back up to meet my gaze again. “Pity. But it is what it is. You have my word we’ll make it quick.”
“Make it quick?” The words almost strangled me and reduced my voice to a whisper.
“You don’t know, do you?” He studied me almost sadly. “See, your dad owes some very powerful people a substantial sum of money. It’s been made clear he’s not going to pay it back, so we need collater
al. Usually, we’d leverage a little thing like you to pay off the debt, but see, we can’t take that risk.”
“So you’re going to kill me?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. But then again, I wasn’t that surprised. I knew my father’s ugly habits and bad secrets would only lead us deeper into trouble. I’d been right.
“And your momma’s next.” The guy pulled a gun out of the back of his pants.
I closed my eyes. This was it. The end. Game over. I expected to feel relieved. Instead, I felt cheated. This wasn’t how my life was supposed to go. And I couldn’t die now, I had to stay alive and protect Mom!
Sudden heat surrounded me as if the sun had broken through the clouds to shine down on me. I opened my eyes to a massive wall of some kind. A red and black wall. A… scaled wall?
The pop, pop, pop of gunfire echoed in my brain and I flinched. But nothing touched me. Instead, the weird wall moved. And I finally figured out that the wall wasn’t a wall at all.
It was a dragon.
Serpent-like red eyes locked on me as the thing whipped around faster than my eyes could even track. Once more, I closed my eyes. This was what happened when you died? Hallucinations?
Shouts and cries filled my ears and when I opened my eyes again, the men were no longer standing. I was face to face with a massive red and black dragon that could squish me like a grape under one of its talon-pointed toes.
One of the guys rolled over and lifted his gun.
“Watch out!” I threw myself at the dragon and it scooped me up in a claw.
Suddenly, the ground fell away and we were flying off and toward the outskirts of town. As the city limits gave way to lush greenery and trees, the dragon landed near a river and set me carefully on my feet.
I watched it in shock as it took on a very human shape. A masculine shape.
After a few moments, a man stood before me. He had jet black hair and rusty red-brown eyes and towered over me.
I backed up a step as he advanced on me. My heart galloped in my chest and my mouth went drier than a stone in my mouth. This dragon had just turned into the most handsome man I’d ever seen with magma swirling dangerously in his eyes. I stared at him, wondering what the heck was going on. Was I dead? Was this some weird hallucination?
What was going on?
My hands ran down my sides and up my ribs, searching for blood, holes, pain. I had to have been shot. Blood loss would make me hallucinate, right? But I found nothing.
I stared at him, confused. I’d been shot at. They’d been aiming to kill me. But he’d shown up and took every bullet.
But he didn’t look wounded. No, he looked… good. Really good.
“What… are you?” I breathed the question while tilting my head and studying him.
His eyes narrowed.
2
Stryker
I’d broken the rules. Fuck.
I had no doubt I’d pay for this one way or another. But for now, I eyed the woman I’d saved and tried to figure out how to answer her. I also tried to figure out what my dragon was thinking, pushing me to save her. He was roaring in my skull, drowning my own thoughts. He’d been looking for his fated mate for ages. He was convinced we’d found her and claiming her was paramount.
And for this, he’d pushed me to break the rules. Double fuck.
Her almond-shaped brown eyes studied me, waiting for an answer. What are you? Of every question she could have asked me, that’s the thing she chose to ask?
Your worst nightmare.
We stared each other down in silence. She didn’t seem afraid of me. There was a calm about her that might have just been remnants of the acceptance of meeting her fate. Though I’d have sworn I saw fight in her up to the last moment when men were trying to gun her down.
I respected her fighter’s spirit. I’d stared death in the face many times before and found it impossible to accept the end. But I’d known others that knew their time had come and accepted it. Hell, that calm acceptance had been a far more common reaction in my experience. Fighters in the face of certain death were a rare bunch.
Her head tilted a bit to the side as she studied me with those doe-like brown eyes. There was something so fresh-faced and appealing about her I wanted to lean in and taste her lips. Fuck, maybe one of those bullets had gotten past my hide and bounced around in my head, turning my brain to mush. Obviously, I’d gotten more stupid.
“Why did you save me?” Her soft-spoken words flowed through my atmosphere, demanding my attention. Surprise flashed like a neon sign in her eyes and she pressed her lips together. She held them like that for a moment, then let them slip free. They turned scarlet against her pale skin and I found the whole action unbelievably appealing. “Thank you for saving me. I guess I should have led with that.” She let free a nervous giggle.
“Why were they going to kill you?” I knew them well; they preferred to kidnap girls and sell them. That was the very reason I’d been tailing them in the first place. It didn’t make sense that they’d kill this girl. A quick glance told me she was a nice human specimen despite her attempt to hide behind oversized, ugly clothing. They’d turn a nice profit off her. Innate instinct told me she was a virgin; that alone would drive her value up substantially.
Something didn’t make sense. It didn’t ring true. I didn’t like that. Everything in life fits into neat boxes, so when something doesn’t, it bothers me. It threw a monkey wrench in everything I thought I knew about the thugs. Not knowing details made my job that much more dangerous.
She shifted her weight to her left hip, her dark hair shining as she lowered her head. With the toe of her worn shoes, she nudged a blade of grass like she’d find the answer in its shadow.
“Tell me.” I didn’t have time for these games. I’d been tracking the bastards in the hopes they’d lead me to someone else. Or lead me to clues that the brotherhood could use.
“They said I’m clever. Clever is dangerous. I guess it’s headache-inducing.” Her brown eyes met mine and I read the flash of truth in them. Her scent didn’t change. There was no hint of deception in her body language or in her eyes. So I found myself inclined to believe her.
So they were going to kill her because they knew she wouldn’t be easily broken. Interesting. I advanced on her, expecting her to flinch or back up. To my surprise, she held her ground and lifted her chin to look up at me.
“What is your debt?”
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
I leaned in closer. “What do you owe them?” I wondered what her vice was. Drugs? Gambling? Something darker?
She shook her head. “I don’t—”
“Don’t lie to me.” They didn’t grab people or kill for no reason. They had something on her, or she wouldn’t be a target.
Anger lit in her brown eyes. “I’m not lying! I don’t owe anything. My father…” she trailed off and it hit me; she didn’t know. All she knew was that her father had some debt with them. No doubt they’d told her that. They had their own twisted sense of honor. They’d tell people why they were being punished even if the charges were often trumped up and made worse than they actually were.
Her eyes widened and the stench of panic rolled off her. “I need to get home! I have to go to work!”
I needed to let her go. She wasn’t a mark, she wasn’t someone I’d been paid to protect. The protection of my brotherhood doesn’t come cheap. This girl needed help, but I knew that I’d already broken the rules. If I also took her on pro-bono, then I’d be risking a lot more than a mere slap on the wrist.
Still, if I didn’t protect her, the thugs would find her. And this time, they’d finish the job. “No, you need to run.”
Her arms locked up tight across her chest and her eyes sparkled with fire and brimstone. “No, you don’t understand. I work two jobs to try to cover our bills. I take care of my mother and father. If I don’t work, we don’t eat. If I don’t work, we lose our home.”
She stepped around me and walked toward t
own.
I let out a growl. The bastards were right; she was a fucking headache all right. Still, I had to admire her tenacity. Maybe there was a fine line between stupid and stubborn, but like my brother, she seemed to walk it like a tightrope.
My brother…
I shoved painful thoughts aside and stalked after her. I caught up to her short stride easily. “They’ll come for you again. And they’ll kill you this time.”
She didn’t stop walking. “So they kill me, or I starve to death. I’ll take my chances.”
I was wrong. She was absolutely on the stupid side of stubborn. “You said you take care of your parents.” I stepped over a molehill poking up out of the rich grasses and got in front of her. Planting both hands on her shoulders, I locked gazes with her. “If you die, who will take care of them?”
She seemed to pause. Then tears sparkled in her eyes. “What choice do I have?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Either we starve, or I get taken out by hit men. I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” Her scent filled my nose and I inhaled. Something sweet and juicy like fresh fruit emanated from her and I longed to lean in and really breathe her in. It wasn’t body wash; her natural scent just sang to my senses.
She shrugged off my hands. “Look, I’m glad I met you. Thank you for saving me. But I need to save myself now.”
“And how are you going to do that?” I threw the words at her retreating back as she walked away from me. Her shoulders squared and she stopped in place. A moment passed, then she turned to me, her eyes red rimmed and her nose pinker than it had been a moment before.
