Dane laughed on the other end. “I don’t think the world gives any women enough credit. They could destroy us all if they really wanted to.”
Isaac looked back toward the gas station where Quinn was pumping gas. He caught her watching him before she pointedly looked away. “I think we’d help them do it, too.”
“Good luck with that one.”
A breath left Isaac as he remembered what she’d offered in exchange for his help. It was something he’d never thought he’d get back in this lifetime, even with his dragon years. While he had Dane on the phone, he told him what the woman offered.
Silence and static filled the time until Dane could gather his thoughts. Isaac’s stomach used that time to churn and fill him with apprehension, both good and bad. Did he really want to know where or who he’d been? Isaac liked the man he’d become. What if he didn’t like the man he’d been?
“Take her up on the offer,” Dane said, finally. “It doesn’t matter what you find out in the end. You’re already who you are and who you’ve been won’t change that.”
How did his leader nail all of Isaac’s thoughts on the head? How did he so easily slip into the minds of his dragons? It made him a great leader, Isaac acknowledged. It was what kept Dane in charge for fifty years or more.
Isaac sighed and gave in. “Alright, you’re right. I can do that.”
“Good, now go take care of your human. Make sure she and the others come back safely.”
Dane hung up before Isaac could say more. The dragon leader hadn’t even asked where they’d gone. Isaac had shut off his location services on his phone ages ago, so he knew that no one would find them. He reminded himself to take Quinn’s phone and do the same for her later.
Inside, the motel lobby was just about what he expected. There was a dirty vending machine filled with snacks that would last a nuclear fallout. A tiny TV screen sat behind the counter with a portly woman watching soap operas in front of it. She glanced up when he came in and suddenly shot up from her seat. She fluffed her hair with her long-nailed fingers and smiled up at him demurely.
“We need a room for two,” Isaac said.
Her face faltered for a second. “One bed or two?”
“Two should do, I think.”
The woman’s smile brightened again. She batted false lashes at him. Isaac could only tell they were false because one was coming off her eyelid at the corner, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her. She was also missing a nail on her left pinky finger. He didn’t tell her about that, either.
“I just need some identification, sweet heart.”
Isaac’s stomach sank. He opened his wallet and pretended to search through it for a long moment. Dragons weren’t allowed to do much in the U.S. and that included getting a driver’s license. They didn’t even get government IDs, as if the government would rather pretend they didn’t exist at all.
He’d never spent much time off the Territory; never had much reason to. Now, he looked down at his wallet and felt panic strike him in the gut. He couldn’t put a roof over their heads for the night if the woman denied him for not having an ID. She was eyeing him, her demure expression slowly shifting into one of suspicion. Isaac was frozen, rooted to the spot and forced to watch as the woman realized what was happening.
He knew the exact moment she realized what he was. Isaac felt oddly bare when her eyes took him in, roving over him head to toe as if what he was had been written into his skin. Her drawn on eyebrows shot upward and her eyes grew so wide he could see the whites all around. Her mouth tried to form words, but nothing came out.
“You’re not human.” She sneered as she backed up.
The bell on the door behind him rang and Quinn appeared at his side. Her hands on her hips and her leather jacket flared, the woman became an imposing figure as she stared down the receptionist.
“Does that mean you’re going to deny the money two lovers are willing to lay down for your business?”
The woman’s mouth flapped, but nothing came out. She was at a lack for words in the face of Quinn. Eventually, the woman checked them in and handed them a room key, but the whole time, Isaac could feel her eyes boring into him. They kept flicking in his direction with accusation and fear.
The recent events in Wales had struck a chord in the States, igniting fear and outrage among some humans. He’d been there for a short while to help put down the white dragon uprising. He’d been there when his leader’s mate had been brutalized. He’d been there when his leader’s mate killed the last white dragon to stand against them.
Not long after, a trained group of Egyptian gold dragons had stormed the new Embassy they’d built in an effort to get their runaway princess back. While it had ended well, a red dragon finding himself mated to the runaway princess, it had also been horrible press for the red dragons and their Embassy.
And, then there was the take-over that had happened only two weeks ago. The family of escaped dragons had laid claim to a local GOE facility to free Luc, Hector’s son, from the clutches of the corrupt GOE officials. A female Quetzalcoatl had landed on the facility and began tearing it apart while the rest of the family surrounded the building. Sure, they’d shouted their injustices to the world, but the world didn’t look at dragons and feel sympathy.
So, Isaac stepped back and let Quinn do all the talking to keep the receptionist from calling the nearest GOE facility. It was the last thing they needed in that moment, especially when they planned on intercepting the GOE agents that had taken two of the escaped dragons.
Quinn touched his arm and Isaac startled. He hadn’t realized how zoned out he’d been until that moment. He’d been focusing on the floor, focusing on disappearing, and had nearly faded into the scenery. She gave him a look filled with questioning concern before gently leading him out of the lobby.
Their room was at the far end of the motel, as if the receptionist couldn’t bear the idea of them being anywhere near her while they slept. Then again, after Quinn’s choice of words, the receptionist most likely wasn’t expecting them to get much sleep. Isaac’s feet stuttered beneath him and he came to a stop on the sidewalk.
“Why did you call us lovers?” He’d caught her choice of words, but didn’t understand why. Her words didn’t match her standing, at least, not the way Isaac saw it. Was there something he was missing? A piece of information she’d yet to share with him?
“Two reasons,” Quinn said without turning around. “One: she won’t think I’m a captive if I claim to be your lover. She’ll be less likely to call a GOE agent if she thinks I’m here of my own free will.”
“But, you are here of your own free will.”
Quinn stopped. The keys jingled in her hand while she nodded. “But, not everyone is going to assume that if they see us together. You’re a big scary man and, as much as I try to be intimidating, I’m still just a frail human woman.”
Isaac snorted. She was anything but frail. If anything, the woman before him was stubborn and loyal and had a willpower stronger than steel. Yet, he knew if he laid all that bare before her, she might scoff and tell him he was blowing smoke. People, dragons and humans alike, would often rather believe the worst of themselves than hear the best. He wished there was another way to tell her, wished he could take her in his arms and kiss the doubt from her mind.
But, she was the mate of another dragon, even if she was here with him.
The door swung open before them. Isaac’s stomach flipped when he took in the room.
“I asked for two beds,” he said apologetically. There was only a single, king sized bed in the room. The space was so small that there was barely even room for him to sleep on the floor. He sighed and turned toward the empty jacuzzi tub in the room. It was set deep and, if he had to, he guessed he could find a way to sleep in it.
There was no way he was going to sleep in the bed with Quinn, not when she had a mate. Kenji would be furious. He couldn’t imagine Dane’s reaction if anyone made any sort of move on Liana. Then again, he also couldn�
�t imagine Liana if anyone made a move on her.
“It’s all part of reason number two,” Quinn informed him before jumping onto the bed. She bounced, her hair flouncing around her, her breasts rising and falling beneath the fabric of her shirt. “If the woman think’s we’re here to do the dirty, then no one is going to come knocking on our door tonight.”
Isaac felt the urge to go over to her. Her words were a tease, a taste of something delicious that only made him want more. He wanted to throw her back onto the mattress and take in the scent of her before tasting her from her neck down to her thighs. It was all he could do to force himself to breathe, his hands clenching at his side as he fought the urge to betray a mate bond. What was it about this woman, he wondered, that drew him in, that beckoned him like a moth to light?
It was all he could do to force himself to stay put, to breathe through his nose and quiet the beast thrashing inside of him. The beast roared with need, with desire. The beast wanted her. It had claimed her, but she was already claimed. Isaac’s hands clenched at his sides and his body grew tense. He would not meddle with the bonds of another.
His tension attracted Quinn’s attention. She looked up at him with her soft eyes, her lips slightly parted. Those lips, a perfect cupid’s bow, begged for his touch, for his teeth. Instead, Isaac lurched forward. He spun on his heel and let his body fall into the jacuzzi tub. He landed with a heavy thud and threw his hand out in her direction.
“Give me your phone,” he commanded.
“Excuse me?”
“I need to disable the GPS tracking device in your phone. Unless you want your family tracking you down and knocking on our door.”
She made a small sound of approval before tossing him the cell phone like a frisbee. He snatched it out of the air and began the process of locating the GPS on her phone. Slumped in the tub, with something to occupy his mind and hands, Isaac found control of himself.
“Are you okay?” Quinn asked with a sly smile.
“What’s so funny?”
She laughed. “I don’t know if you noticed, but that’s not exactly a couch.” Her expression softened with concern. “Did the receptionist bother you?”
Isaac snorted. If only that was the problem, he thought. He would almost gladly go back to the dragon fearing receptionist than fight the impulse to betray another dragon’s mating bond. When he was finished disabling the GPS on her cell phone, he handed it back to her. She reached out, her fingers brushing his in the process. The beast inside of him growled with need. It claimed her. Why couldn’t they have her?
Because that is wrong, you selfish idiot.
Isaac wasn’t sure who he was calling a selfish idiot. Was it the beast inside of him or the man?
“So, what’s the plan?” Isaac tried to get them back on track if only to get his mind off the urgent need to touch Quinn.
***
Quinn let herself fall back onto the bed. There seemed to be a magnet inside her stomach that pushed and pulled her toward Isaac. She was overwhelmed with the desire to crawl into the tub with him and curl up beside his bulky frame. He wasn’t a small man, by any means, but she would find all the ways their bodies fit together.
Yet, she wouldn’t allow herself to. She couldn’t leap into intimacy with no guarantee that her fickle heart would stay true to Isaac. She wanted to believe they were mates, she felt the truth of it in her bones, but she didn’t trust herself. The last thing she wanted was to hurt this sincere man.
Rubbing her thumbs into her eyes, she let out a long sigh. Her mind tracked all the paths they could take. She knew where many of the GOE facilities were located across the country. It’d been her job each time the family moved to a new settlement to locate the nearest GOE facility, to make sure their settlement was never too close.
She knew she’d done her job this time. She knew her assessment of the location had been out of the way, that the agents shouldn’t have found them so quickly. That also meant the agents weren’t getting home that fast.
“The nearest Guardians of Existence facility is a two-day’s drive from here,” Quinn said into the room as she organized her thoughts. She rolled over onto her stomach to face Isaac. He was staring, very intently, at his shoes rising from the bathtub. As much as she wanted to reach out, Quinn propped herself up on her elbows and tucked her hands beneath herself.
Isaac’s gaze slide sideways to meet hers. He seemed to chew the inside of his cheek for a moment. “If I flew, I’d be able to catch up to them. That would mean not only leaving your bike behind if you wanted to come with me, but also having the chance of another storm catching up with me.”
Kenji’s words flashed through her mind. There was a strong possibility that Isaac had come from a facility, that he was an experimental dragon and that Mother Nature wanted him dead. How could she tell him that? It wasn’t an easy thing to spit out.
Hey, you were made into something so unnatural that even Mother Nature wants to destroy you.
No, it didn’t quite roll off the tongue.
“We’ll fly,” Quinn said. It was their best chance of catching up to Ruby and Casper. She was willing to take the chance of running into another storm if it meant they caught the dragons before GOE tucked them away.
Isaac grimaced before pulling his own phone out of his pocket and swiping the screen open.
“What are you doing?” Quinn feared he might tell her family where they’d gone. She’d seen him on the phone earlier and wanted to trust him, but she hadn’t been able to hear any of the words shared or who had been on the other end.
“I’m looking at the weather forecast. Modern technology and meteorology is a gift from above when it comes to my flights. Last time we forgot to check the radar, Marc Avila got struck by lightning.”
That made sense. How else would a storm dragon that attracted storm systems ever fly if he didn’t learn about his surroundings first? Then Isaac’s words sunk in.
“One of the Avila twins was hit with lightning?” Her stomach did flips, awful, lurching flips. Hector would not be happy if one of his boys was killed while under Dane’s protection, even if it was a natural occurrence. They’d all seen how the storms gravitated toward Isaac. They would all assume a lightning strike would be his fault, no matter the circumstances.
Isaac shrugged. “It was one of those fate situations, in my opinion. As bad as I felt, the chain of events led to quite a lot of good. Marc was knocked out for a while, but an orphaned dragon child found him and took care of his ass until Liana Taniff found him. Dane and Liana not only adopted the child, but put an end to a dickhead vigilante dragon that was circling our home.”
Quinn’s brows shot up. “So, Marc is okay?”
She watched as Isaac’s face twisted for a split second. Jealousy gripped his features, only for an instant, and then was gone. It made her smile. He, apparently, felt the same as she did. It made her toe tingle with anticipation until she shut it down.
She couldn’t give in. Not yet. Quinn had only just met this man, possible mate or not. There was so much they still had to learn about one another before she could think about sleeping with him. She needed to know that she wasn’t going to lose this feeling.
Her eyes darted toward the window. Across the street was a bar and her stomach tightened with hunger. “If I map out the route, how long do you think it will take us to catch up to them?”
Isaac mulled over her words, his mind tearing apart the situation. “Hours, probably. I’m a decently quick flyer as long as there aren’t any storms.”
“How about we grab a bite to eat and a drink, then?”
Quinn felt butterflies in her stomach when she watched a slow smile overtake Isaac’s face. It made things in her body tighten with anticipation. She carefully ignored the feeling and rolled off the bed, bouncing to her feet. Before she knew it, Isaac was at her side, steadying her as the world stopped spinning.
They were dangerously close. The heat of his hand against her back spread like a gentle wa
rmth, a warmth she wouldn’t mind wrapping herself in. Instead, Quinn forced herself toward the door. The exhaust filled air outside helped to clear her head. She was no longer stuck in a tiny room with a giant dragon man. The world unrolled like a carpet at her feet.
The bar held a similar feeling. Smoking inside was prohibited, but the bar was old enough that she could still smell the cigarette smoke that clung to the booths. A hostess with big hair and red nails led them to a small booth where it was amusing to watch Isaac fold himself into the seat. He looked a bit like a giant at a child’s playset and it brought a smile to Quinn’s lips.
She ordered herself a cranberry vodka and Isaac asked for a plain cola. There were small, laminated menus at each table, sticky with the use of the thousand hands before them. Quinn didn’t care. She already knew she’d order the same thing she did at every bar. It was the one thing bars did really well.
When the waitress came to their table with their drinks, Isaac spent his time staring down at the table. Quinn couldn’t blame him after the receptionist issue, but it made her angry. He shouldn’t have to hide what he is so that the general public would feel safer. It wasn’t like Isaac planed on raiding the nearby town or tearing the bar apart, glass by glass. He was just here for a drink and some food.
Eventually, a giant bin of hot wings was placed between them. Quinn’s stomach growled in happy anticipation as the scent of hot sauce and butter hit her nose. Isaac’s stomach grumbled in response, making them both laugh.
“Dig in,” Quinn ordered as she plucked a wing from the basket. “I ordered enough to share.”
They were deep into their second order when Quinn fell back into her old ways of digging for information.
“What is your… favorite food?”
Across from her, Isaac smiled while he thought about it. “I guess I’d have to say Luc’s enchilada lasagna. For a shit head, he’s an amazing cook.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of enchilada lasagna. Is that really a thing?”
Isaac nodded as he set aside his wing bone. “He found the recipe on one of those social media sites where you can save giant pictures of food. I’m sure it’s more popular with soccer moms than a set of bachelors, but I’m happy he found it.”
The Dragon's Lover (Elemental Dragons Book 2) Page 7
