Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1)

by Rita Stradling

  “But—”

  “No. You want me to leave and you to stay? Fine. Go ahead and live like a coward. But you’re going to have to live with the piece of my soul you stole from me.”

  I swallowed. “I’m going to go now,” I said and without looking back at him I walked into the house. Closing the door behind me, I walked up the stairs slowly.

  I went inside my room, lay down on top of the covers and just stared at the wall. I had slept next to him only seven nights in a row, but for some awful pathetic reason, it did not feel natural to be sleeping alone. Breaking it off with him was the right decision; I had previously been so complete on my own and in such a short time, he had made me feel incomplete.

  After a long time, I fell asleep.

  “Morning Dakota,” said a woman’s voice.

  I opened my eyes to see a woman I did not know sitting backwards in my desk chair that she had pulled next to the bed. Another woman leaned against the wall behind her.

  I reached down to the hem of my dress opened my portal purse, pulled out Contingency and aimed.

  “Whoa,” the woman said, raising her arms in an ‘I surrender’ gesture. She sounded more amused than scared, however, when she said, “Maybe you don’t need that much protection after all.” She had some sort of accent, Native New-Anglo maybe. She had eagle-like sharp features and a second soul, which was also an eagle. Were-eagle infection, that was rare.

  “How did you get in here? Who sent you?” I asked.

  “Your mom let us in but it was Wyvern who sent us,” she said.

  I was taken so off guard that I lowered my aim. “Come again?”

  “Wyvern, the dracon you’re in a contract with, he sent us,” the other woman who was standing against the wall said, she did not seem concerned about my gun either.

  The two women could be twins, their only glaring difference was that one of them was infected and the other one was completely human.

  “You’re my security team?” I asked.

  “Sophie,” the woman in the backwards chair said.

  “Sarah,” the woman leaning against the wall said.

  “You must not have talked to him since last night,” I said with an apologetic shrug.

  “We talked to him this morning right before he headed for the airport.”

  “He’s leaving early?” I asked, feeling a stupid amount of hurt at the idea.

  “He already left,” she said.

  And he sent his goodbye by the ‘twin courier service,’ how thoughtful of him.

  I stowed my gun back in the portal and gave them an apologetic smile. “Well, it was nice to meet you both. I’m sorry you had to make the whole trip out here for nothing.”

  She blinked at me. “We need to work out some details about your security; it will only take a minute.”

  “Come again?” I said, blinking right back at her.

  “Your security, we are your security team,” she said.

  “But the contract is over,” I said.

  “No actually it’s not,” Sophie said. “Wyvern told me that whatever you say, the contract is not over. He told me to tell you that you’re still in danger from the humans you ‘drew the attention of’ while looking for Honua and possibly others; by the terms of your contract, he has the right to keep you in the contract and he plans to. He also told me to say to you: ‘you are a coward and you are in denial.’”

  “Of course he did, the jerk,” I said. “I’ll just be right back.” Climbing off the bed, I walked out of the room as quickly as I could and closed the door.

  I was still wearing my dress and heels from the night before. They would probably tell Wyvern that. I knew that if they saw the expression that crossed my face they would definitely tell their boss and I just could not have that.

  But the expression was inevitable; there was nothing I could do to stop my lips from curving into a smile.

  A Note from the Author

  Thank you for reading Henchgirl, I hope you had as much fun reading this novel as I did writing it. Before concluding this novel there are a few matters I wish to clarify.

  While the Mabiian Islands in this novel were inspired by the Hawaiian Islands’ land, history, mythology and culture, the Mabiian Islands were intended to be a completely separate and fictional location. I did not intend to make any political parallels or judgments; the people and political systems in this book only exist within its pages. I lived in Maui for two and a half years and fell in love with the islands’ land, rich history and culture; but in all ways I was an outsider looking in and I do not make any claims to be different than that. I did not in any way intend to faithfully represent Hawaii, Hawaiian culture or the Hawaiian people.

  Another clarification I wish to make is that yes, this book was in some sections loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I love Pride and Prejudice, it was my first ‘favorite novel’ and remains in my top ten list still. The parallels to Pride and Prejudice in this novel were written out of love for Jane Austen’s novel and were in no way intended to claim her ideas as my own.

  Lastly, I will give you a small teaser. Yes, there is a sequel in the works for Henchgirl. I have tentatively titled it Rex.

  Thank you for reading. Here are some links if you wish to give feedback:

  Goodreads

  Author Website

  Reviews are always appreciated on: Amazon