After everyone was served, Kelly spoke up. “I suppose you’re all wondering about my story.”
Lachelle rolled her eyes and pushed a bite of salad around on her plate.
“After the fighting started, Gerard and I hung in there, doing out best to protect our family,” Kelly explained. “We were still so young, and the royals didn’t believe in violence or in exposing ourselves to the humans.”
Declan nodded. “The original conflict for the war.”
“Yes, and I’m not sure where I stood at the time. All I was worried about was becoming Gerard’s bonded mate.”
Lachelle stabbed a piece of meat, and her fork scraped the plate. Several people glanced at her, but she ignored them. Everything was mate with these dragons. She just wanted to love and be loved, to have a family and be a police officer. Heck, she didn’t even need Gerard to kiss the ground she walked on. Was that too much to ask?
“When things turned really ugly, and Declan and Gerard’s parents were killed, Gerard said it was time to go.”
Gerard looked over at his brother, and the siblings exchanged a moment of grief. The older of the two commented. “We were separated, an explosion.”
Declan gritted his teeth. “A fire breather set off propane canisters. Many were killed.”
This information confused Lachelle. “Both of you are fire breathers, right? Why should fire hurt you if it exists inside you?”
Declan smiled. “I don’t have fire rolling around in my belly. If I did, it would burn away my food as I eat it.”
“Feels like it anyway,” another of the men joked as he stuffed a huge forkful of meat into his mouth and chewed. Lachelle noted the guy hadn’t taken any salad. Why waste stomach room for the less desirable, she assumed.
Declan chuckled. “Yeah, the dragon is a hungry beast who is never satisfied—on many accounts.”
Janessa rolled her eyes. “Keep to the subject.”
“Magic.”
“That’s always your answer?” Janessa complained.
“Works for me.”
The other men echoed the same.
Kelly took up the conversation again. “If one of us is caught without bringing out our scales, then we can be killed just as anyone else, especially in an explosion. Word went around that Declan was killed. I was injured in the explosion, and the enemy was coming at us from every side. Because he cared so deeply for me, Gerard decided he had no choice but to fly us out of there.”
Jealousy almost deafened Lachelle. She fought to pay attention, but it wasn’t easy. For the first time, she noticed that while Kelly’s hair had been pinned up on her head at the police station, at some point she let it down. The long silky strands flowed in perfect sheets halfway down her back.
Tears filled the silver eyes and hung on heavily mascara-covered lashes. She ducked her head so that her hair covered half her face. Lachelle considered giving the woman an Oscar. There didn’t seem to be a man in the warehouse who wasn’t drawn in, including Declan and Gerard.
“With a small group of others, we made our escape. The first few nights alone and away from our home and safety were so hard. Gerard suggested we should go ahead with our bonding ceremony if only to feel normal.”
Declan gaped. “You performed the ceremony?”
“Yes.”
Gerard’s brother looked at him for confirmation. “Is this true?”
“I…don’t remember.”
“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Declan demanded. “The bonding ceremony is the most memorable experience for a dragon shifter. It’s what brings us to completion, when we bond with our mate.”
Gerard shoved back from the table and stood. He paced and drove a hand through his hair. With his back to Lachelle, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Nothing is clear. I don’t like to remember.”
Declan slammed a fist on the table and stood. “Gerard. Your heart should tell you, the bond you share should vibrate in your blood.”
Gerard didn’t respond.
“For that matter, you shouldn’t be able to have another mate when you are already bonded. We’re just not built that way.”
Still nothing. All of Lachelle’s senses strained toward Gerard, willing him to provide some sort of explanation, anything to clear the confusion. He kept his back to the group and didn’t speak.
She thought of when she met Gerard. He was so wounded in his heart and mind. That much she knew. He hated being around anyone for long. He lived in almost complete poverty. Maybe it was a way of punishing himself for the past. She didn’t know and didn’t ask.
When Janessa suggested he see his brother and try to forgive himself his own mistakes and just let it all go, Gerard refused. Lachelle figured eventually he would come around or just heal with their love for each other. He had come a long way, but maybe not far enough.
“I can tell you why he won’t say anything.”
Kelly’s performance wasn’t over. She raised her chin and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. It was a classic, ‘I will survive’ moment if ever Lachelle saw one. She dreaded what the woman would say next.
“A mate is everything to a dragon shifter,” Kelly explained. “One can’t live without one’s mate. It’s just not possible. And to be separated, well, it means death. No one would choose that fate.”
If I hear the word mate one more time…
“After we bonded, one of the others turned traitor and attacked me,” Kelly said. “I had been injured, was on the mend, and then was attacked again. But that wasn’t the worst of it.”
“Oh God.” Lachelle pushed her plate away. She really was going to be sick because she knew what was coming.
“When I was at my weakest, scared, alone, and unsure of who to trust, Gerard left me. He left me to die.”
Chapter 3
“You liar!” Lachelle screamed. She jumped to her feet. “Gerard would never do something like that!”
At the same time, Gerard rounded on Kelly. “I didn’t. You were dead. I saw you die.”
No one could miss the misery in his eyes—or the uncertainty.
“And yet I’m here,” Kelly declared. She, unlike Gerard and Lachelle, had kept her seat and continued to eat with dainty elegance. “How do you explain that, Gerard? If you saw me die, how am I sitting right here? And if you would never leave me, why have we been apart and you’ve been telling everyone I died?”
“I…don’t…know.” His voice was a whisper, hardly discernable.
Lachelle grasped his arm. “Tell her, Gerard. She’s wrong. You would never do anything like that. There’s some kind of code in your DNA, right? You live and breathe your mate.”
His gaze bore into hers. She tried to read his thoughts, but all she got was misery and then anger. He pulled his arm from her grasp and turned back to Kelly. “I saw you die. The others can verify.”
“What others? The ones who betrayed me—I mean before you did? I was left alone, dying, hurting, and scared. Everyone I have ever loved was dead. I thought you must be too because there wasn’t any way you would turn your back on me. We pledged our love for each other until death.”
Gerard looked sick.
“Enough,” Declan snapped. “You don’t have to rub it in. And where were you all these years? How did you recover? Why didn’t you look for him?”
She wiped her mouth with a napkin and pushed her shoulders back. “I had to fight my way back to life—in a sense. As I said, I didn’t die, but I was close to it. In my heart, I felt like giving up because Gerard abandoned me.”
Declan glared at her. She rushed to continue.
“An older woman—a human—happened along. She took me in and cared for me. After I was better, I elected to stay with her and her son. They were my new family, and they were loyal to me.”
When Gerard didn’t question her, Declan continued with the interview. “Who is this woman? What’s her name?”
“She’s gone now.”
“Convenient,” Janessa snip
ed.
“What have I got to hide? You’ve seen where I work. I’ve sworn to uphold the law.” She chose that moment to glance at Lachelle as if she didn’t uphold it and that’s why she was fired. “The woman I called Granny for years is Constance Ridgeley, and her son’s name is Zeek. He’s developmentally disabled, and I had to put him in a care facility after she died, but I pay for his upkeep faithfully.”
Lachelle felt a grudging respect for a woman who had gone through so much and come out with a good career and a strong mind. Her own suffering seemed to pale in comparison, but she couldn’t shake the negative feelings she had for Kelly. And why should she? The woman wanted to steal her man.
Or I’ve stolen hers.
Her stomach flip-flopped again. She had to move away from the table, or the scent of the food would make her hurl. There was no sense spoiling everyone else’s enjoyment of their meal.
She wandered to the spot where she had spoken alone with Gerard, dropped onto the couch, and pulled her feet up onto the cushions. Running her hands over her braids, she ducked her head and shut her eyes. Memories flitted through her mind of times spent with Gerard.
After the initial shock of seeing him transformed into a dragon, she let him take her for a ride in the air, just for pleasure. She’d ridden on the beast’s back when he had made himself no larger than a horse. The experience both thrilled and frightened her. To think she’d come to love someone like him, a being she never knew existed.
Questions rolled through her mind as to whether it was weird or wrong to date him. Maybe they should stick to their own kind. But by that time, when she thought of giving him up, it was impossible to consider.
Gerard was sweet and innocent, and downright ignorant of the simplest things in life. She’d taught him a lot, and he listened with interest. On the other hand, he was a bundle of instinct and possessiveness that had him growling and behaving aggressively when a man pushed up on her.
Because she loved him, she concluded it didn’t matter if everyone in the world was against them. She wanted to be his and for him to be hers. But now this situation came up. Kelly’s existence might take the decision out of her hands and destroy her heart.
Janessa sat down beside her to wrap an arm about her shoulders. “Hey, you okay?”
“No.”
Her sister rubbed her back, and little Bannon, who had come over with his mom, patted Lachelle’s knee. She offered the sweetheart a half smile and stroked his cheek.
Janessa turned her son around and gave him a gentle nudge toward the shifters. “Go back to Daddy, baby. Let me and Auntie Lachelle talk.”
Her son scampered off to his dad’s waiting arms.
“Want to go outside?” Janessa asked. “Maybe we can walk a little so no one can hear?”
“How far is that?” Lachelle sighed and stood.
They left the warehouse and walked along the alley behind it that was clean and wide enough to allow eighteen wheelers access. A few men unloaded a truck in a bay no far from where they walked, but they were humans and wouldn’t hear.
“I feel so lost,” Lachelle admitted. “And you know how confident I usually am. Gerard’s not saying anything. Kelly’s making claims. I can’t think.”
“Then don’t.”
Lachelle looked at her for clarification.
“You don’t have to rush to know what you feel or even what you should do. I’m ticked at how Gerard is handling all this, but from the few times I’ve spent around him, it’s typical. He gets quiet and prickly when he doesn’t like the subject.”
“You’re right, but he’s going to have to get over it. I need him to talk to me. That woman…”
“Girl, don’t I know it. Did you consider this?” Janessa began.
“What?”
“She was eighteen the last time they saw her. She’s pushing forty, and she still looks like she’s twenty-five.”
“Ugh.”
“I heard something among the shifters back on the estate that they live longer than we do, and they age slower.”
“Great.”
“It doesn’t happen at first. Like they’ll age the same as we do, but once they reach a certain point, it slows down.”
“I thought you brought me out here to make me feel better.”
Janessa chuckled and hugged her. “I’m sorry. Don’t worry about anything, Lachelle. I’ve got you, girl. If Gerard even thinks about going back to her, he’s going to answer to me. I’m not going to let him treat you like you don’t matter just because of some mate garbage. On the positive side, at least you guys didn’t get married, and you aren’t pregnant.”
Lachelle moaned.
“Wait, you’re not preggo, are you?”
“It’s not that.” Lachelle stopped walking and faced her sister. “Yesterday we told each other how we feel and…”
She choked. Her throat grew thick, and she couldn’t stop the tears. Her sister dragged her into her arms and squeezed her tight.
“Crap.” Lachelle sniffed. “I’m never like this. I’m tough. I’m a policewoman.”
She cried harder.
“I used to be.”
Janessa muttered words of comfort that offered no consolation at all. The world Lachelle had carefully built was falling apart. All the dreams she thought she had at last held in hand were dissipating.
“He asked me to marry him,” Lachelle admitted.
Janessa gasped. She stared at Lachelle for a minute and then spun on her heel to walk away.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going upside his head!”
“Whoa, slow down, sis. No, don’t do that.”
Janessa stopped walking. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t.”
“Because I don’t want a man who doesn’t want me. He’s either all in, or he’s not. Period. I’m not that desperate.”
“You’ve got a point, but can I beat him?”
Lachelle laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. Go ahead.”
They arrived back at the warehouse in time to hear Declan taking a call. At the person’s report on the other end, he tensed. “What did you just say?”
Everyone grew silent, trying to hear. After a few moments, Declan barked an order for the person on the line to wait for him to contact him again. He emphasized that they should do nothing for the time being.
When Declan disconnected the call, he turned a grim face to the group around him. “It seems the hunters are back at it. They have informed the police—and any who will listen—about our common characteristics.”
“Oh God,” Lachelle rasped. “You’re talking about the silver eyes, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Among others.”
And good looks? And height? What else would the hunters know about them?
“The humans, both authorities and civilians, have been rounding up everyone with gray eyes. There is mass pandemonium, and innocent people are being accused of being shifters.”
Chapter 4
Gerard landed easily on the ground, flapping his wings. When he was steady, he tucked the appendages into his back and gazed down at his shoes. He recalled spending much of his time barefoot, and sometimes he missed it. The temptation to discard the footwear came over him now. He considered whether he should follow the instinct.
“Gerard.”
He frowned. Of course he knew he wasn’t alone. Not only his brother but also Declan’s men had joined him in flying over to City Hall. Declan suggested it. Gerard had never had reason to seek human law or to follow it for that matter. When he had let go of the job working for Patrick, it was a huge relief. All he wanted was a simple life.
This isn’t it.
“Why didn’t you want Kelly to fly with us?” Declan asked.
Gerard’s tongue sat heavy in his mouth. He thought long about what to say to his brother. To share what he felt didn’t come easy.
Declan waved a hand, signaling for his men to give them space. Each man dispersed to stand several feet away.
One guy pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his jacket and slipped them on. He was the one who had first dove into the food earlier. He strolled down toward the street, and within seconds several women surrounded him, chattering nonstop.
“She could take my place,” Declan said when he didn’t answer. “It’s her right as your mate.”
Gerard frowned.
“Look, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”
“I’ve said I don’t remember.”
“That’s not good enough. If she’s your mate—”
Gerard growled low in his throat. His brother’s nostrils flared. They faced each other, of equal size well over six feet and broad shouldered. Declan, although younger by three years, wasn’t intimidated in the least.
“If she’s your mate”—Declan emphasized—“that gives her the right to lead our people. And yeah, before you say it, that includes whether you have given up the position.”
Gerard said nothing. He didn’t care who lead the dragon shifters as long as no one hurt them.
“At least I assume so.” Declan considered the matter. “I make the rules with the help of a senior council I set up. We like to stick as close to the old ways as possible, with some adjustments for modern times. I’m thinking if Kelly chooses to lead, the council will have to agree.”
“If she’s my mate.”
“You’re the one who must let us know that, Gerard. You feel her, don’t you?” Declan touched his chest. “Here? Your blood should be calling to hers.”
“I have to think about Lachelle.”
“What about her?”
Gerard looked at him.
“Look, man, I’m not judging you, but since Kelly is alive, Lachelle can’t be your mate. It’s not possible. We questioned it before, remember? About there being a second mate for one of us? We took it at face value that since you said she’s the one, she was the one. But this thing with Kelly?”
“You doubt me.” Gerard didn’t blame Declan. He blamed himself. As hard as he tried to remember everything that happened in the past, he couldn’t. A part of him didn’t want to remember the horror and the loss of life that he saw with his own eyes.
Mate For Hire: For Hire Series - Book 3 Page 2
