The Panther's Rival

by Emilia Hartley

  “A man’s foolish hormones,” he said in response. What else could he tell her? Under her gaze, he wondered if maybe she could see a bit of the truth. “I don’t normally partake in the excursions. I always thought that it would be difficult to find a mate in a single night and I didn’t want to torture myself with the hopes that it would magically happen.”

  “When I imagine my future, I see myself as the stereotypical woman with a bunch of cats. I don’t ever see a man in my future.”

  Wes looked to her, feeling sadness overtake him. He studied the profile of her face, from the curve of her lips to the strong line of her nose. The woman beside him expected a life of loneliness? He reminded himself that he had expected much the same for himself. If he could not win her love, it was the very future they were both doomed to.

  “What if you were to fall in love?” Wes asked, carefully keeping his eyes trained on the road. He didn’t want her to see the hurt and the bevy of other emotions that were probably swirling through his eyes. “What would your future be like then?”

  Dakota pulled her gaze away from him. She looked down at her hands in her lap. He could smell his scent mingling with hers, reminding him of how they had made love earlier. It had been easy to fall into one another. She lit his skin on fire with her touch. He hoped that he had done much the same with hers. From the way that they’d burned together, he guessed that he very much had done so.

  “It won’t happen,” Dakota said through a tight throat. “I doubt I have the emotional capability to maintain a relationship.”

  They didn’t say anything else until they pulled up to the restaurant, Dakota squirming in her seat once she realized they were on the opposite side of the road than she was used to being. The restaurant in question was in the city proper, but in a neighborhood that Wes knew to be on the opposite end of the city from the campus. He was playing it safe as he did not want to further damage her reputation. She reached for the door handle and cracked the door open, but Wes didn’t move.

  He sat in his seat for a long moment, running his fingers along the cracks in his steering wheel, wondering if he should tell her the truth. The kind of truth that might weigh too heavily on her shoulders. She had a life of her own, dreams. The truth of what they were could sway her decision toward something that would, eventually, make her very unhappy.

  His mate was going to leave him after this. He was going to have to stand and watch her leave. The knowledge of that made him want to grab her and run right back to the tower in his territory. He wanted to lock her up and throw her back down on his bed. He wanted to make sure that she knew she was his and his alone.

  The rush of possessiveness that consumed him was new and he didn’t know how to handle it. He didn’t know how to keep from doing those things, the things he knew would ruin his relationship in the long run. His mate would be no prisoner. That would become poisonous very quickly

  She would leave. That was all there was to it, he told himself. Dakota would go on to live the life she thought would make her happy. He could do his best to try to win her over, but he could not force her into anything she did not want.

  ***

  They sat at a table in the front window of the restaurant. Dakota leaned forward, putting her head in her hands, and watched the people pass outside. None of them had any idea that there was a dragon shifter sitting on the other side of the glass. Now that she knew, stealing a glance at him while she thought, it seemed all too obvious.

  Wesley was beautiful in the way that no ordinary man could be. The planes of his face were neat and smooth, his fingers long and nimble. He looked up from his menu and she felt her cheeks warm.

  “Got caught staring,” Wesley teased. “Don’t deny it.”

  She shrugged, a small smile on her lips. What could she say in response? Could she say she was amazed no one had found him out yet? Or, could she say that she felt bland sitting beside him? Both were certainly true. Instead, her eyes fell on the silver band around his arm. She vaguely remembered it from the night before, but he hadn’t worn it this morning.

  “What is that? I mean, does it have any special meaning, or do you just like shiny things?”

  He grimaced and she felt awful for her words. “The band is part of an agreement. Just between you and me, I’m not supposed to be outside of my territory right now. The silver in the band blocks the magic that is my beast. With this on, I’m unable to change forms.”

  “Couldn’t you just take it off? That seems really silly.”

  Wesley smiled, showing even, white teeth and a dimple on the left side of his face. The sight of it warmed Dakota in places that made her uncomfortable while she sat in a public place. Had she seen that dimple earlier? If she had, why hadn’t she kissed it?

  “Think of it as a sign of good faith more than anything else. The governments asked us to wear them, not quite willing to ask us to do anything more permanent than that. I’ve heard that some dragon shifters will get silver implants just so that they can be part of everyday society.”

  “That seems drastic,” Dakota noted.

  Wesley nodded. “Imagine living for two hundred years with only four walls and some trees to keep you company. Not everyone is cut out to be a hermit. Many of our kind can’t stand to be around one another without killing each other, so taking part in society alleviates that loneliness. I cannot say that I would ever take part in an implant, but I do see why they chose that route.”

  Loneliness was something that Dakota knew well. “Growing up, we were poor. My parents either worked two jobs or worked a lot of over time. It meant that they were never there. In school, I didn’t have a lot of friends because I devoted my time to my studies. The summer months were the worst. I would wake up to an empty house with no friends to visit. I spent a lot of time reading as a kid.”

  Wesley looked at her as though seeing her for the first time. His head cocked to the side as his blue and gray eyes studied her face. She looked away, unable to hold his gaze while she felt so vulnerable. He opened his mouth to say something, but the waitress chose that moment to appear beside their table. He pressed his lips together, and after a moment, turned his attention to the waitress.

  The young woman, blonde curls flowing over her shoulders despite the hair tie that held them back, smiled warmly at Wesley. Dakota felt something hot stir inside of her. Anger. Jealousy. It slammed into her like an ice pick when the young woman giggled at something Wesley said and playfully batted her lashes at him. Dakota bit the inside of her cheek to keep from drawing the woman’s attention away from Wesley. She shouldn’t act so territorial of him. He wasn’t hers.

  Wesley directed the waitress’s attention over to Dakota. Her face reddened. She’d been so caught up in hating the woman that she hadn’t chosen her order. Fumbling, she looked down and chose the first thing that she could read.

  Don’t be so stupid! Dakota was busy being angry with herself while the waitress walked away. He was buying her food. This wasn’t a date. It wasn’t anything. He was a dragon. Dragon plus school program equaled disaster for her. She had to remember that.

  No matter how good the sex was. She shuddered remembering it. Wet warmth pooled between her legs. She crossed them, trying to push back the embarrassment that followed.

  “Are you alright?” Wesley asked.

  Her head shot up. “Fine. I’m fine.”

  His nostrils flared. A predatorial smile crossed his lips. He could smell her, she thought. She watched his grip on the table tighten. And he wanted her.

  Good, she thought before shaking her head. What was wrong with her? He was just another man. She could find ones that weren’t also dragons. What was so enticing about this one? Besides his soft, gray eyes and his long fingers that she wanted to touch the top of her thigh? She was suddenly grateful that there was a table between them. It kept him out of her reach. It helped her regain a little bit of control.

  “Tell me more about yourself,” Wesley said. He reached out and covered her hand w
ith his own, his thumb rubbing the skin of her wrist like he could barely control himself either. Just the small amount of contact, she noticed, helped his shoulders ease.

  “There isn’t much to tell.” She didn’t pull away from his touch like she told herself to. “I spent my childhood reading books. My teen years were spent wither working or with my nose in a text book. I’m a boring old maid at twenty-two.”

  “I highly doubt that.” He laughed. “When we first met, you were drawing. Am I wrong?”

  Dakota thought back to the bar and realized that wasn’t what he was talking about. Wesley was talking about their run in during her field trip, in the ruins outside the Snowdonia territory.

  “I enjoy sketching people in their natural habitat the most, but I couldn’t pass up drawing the ruins, either.” There was little evidence of the ruins in her journal. She had, in fact, drawn his dragon form that day.

  “So, you’re an artist as well?”

  Dakota shook her head. “Art doesn’t pay the bills.”

  His brows sloped together. “Is that why you’re getting the degree in…art history? To pay the bills?”

  He wouldn’t understand. He would forever have a home. If he was hungry, he could fly off the roof of his tower and eat a deer, or something. When you lived like her parents had, bills needed to be paid. Art, as pretty and consoling as it was, would never give her the comfortable life that she yearned for.

  The giggling waitress returned with two full plates of food. Wesley must have seen something on Dakota’s face, because he sent the waitress packing quite quickly and changed the subject once she left.

  “When I was a child, I visited my grandfather quite a bit. At the time, this didn’t seem so odd. It was just the way things were, but now that I’ve gone out and seen a bit of the world, or Wales at the very least, I discovered that living inside of a mountain was not normal.”

  “Inside of a mountain?” Dakota hissed.

  Wesley nodded. He continued to regale her with his grandfather’s immense abode inside of a Snowdonia mountain. He described the carved arches that filled the halls and the polished granite floors that led from room to room. It was hard to believe that such a thing could exist inside of the earth, seeming like a grand castle from the inside out.

  Perhaps, Dakota thought, that was where Dinas Emrys laid.

  As their meal continued, Dakota stole glances at Wes while he spoke with his hands. Every so often he would become aware of how loud his voice was and glance around the room, with a look on his face as though he swallowed his tongue. Each time, it made her laugh. She wasn’t used to feeling this way, bubbly and light.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Her head felt light as she walked the dorm hall. Now that she was away from Wesley, the reality of what she had done weighed on her. Had she not only had lunch with a dangerous dragon shifter, but slept with one, too? She barely knew him. All she knew was that she risked a lot.

  Dakota paused in front of her dorm room, keys in hand. Her mind danced back and forth over the subject. Fear and excitement built inside her in a flurry that made her want to let her head fall against the solid wood door. Before she could give in, the door whipped open in front of her.

  Clary stood, wide eyed for a moment. Then, she drew Dakota into her arms and buried her face in her roommate’s shoulder. Dakota fumbled back, catching her crying friend. Muffled words were spoken into the borrowed shirt.

  “I’m so happy that you’re okay,” Clary exclaimed as she pulled back. “When you stopped responding I thought the worst. It would be so easy for someone to text with your phone. I thought that the guy from last night had kidnapped you.”

  Dakota laughed softly as she held her hysterical friend. Clary wiped her budding tears away with the back of her hand as she pulled back. “I was safe, Clary. You don’t need to beat yourself up over this. If anything, we should go out and beat those guys up. They tried to drug you and I drank your drink.”

  Clary ran a hand through her messy blonde tresses. “That’s what I found out later. I panicked when I realized you were gone. What happened to you?”

  Dakota pushed her way into the room, not wanting to talk about what happened in the hall even if she was bursting with the need to share her night with someone. It wasn’t like she could call her mother up and gush over her exciting day. Boy crazy Clary would be happy to listen to her. She sat on the edge of her dorm bed and let a smile take over her face as she looked up.

  “I met a…” She couldn’t say dragon shifter. It would destroy everything. Especially if he was some kind of prince. It still blew her mind that the prince of the Welsh dragon shifters had slept with her. “I met a guy.”

  Clary’s eyes widened. She quickly shut the dorm room door behind her and rushed over to hop onto her own bed. As Clary settled in to listen to Dakota’s story, Dakota was trying to find a way to tell it without incriminating herself.

  “Remember the guy I talked to at the bar last night?”

  Clary’s eyes widened and she practically bounced with excitement. “You bet your ass I do! He was all about you until you walked away.”

  Dakota smiled. “His name is Wesley. When the guy that drugged your drink tried to take advantage of…” Dakota swallowed hard as she thought of how close she had come to real danger. “When he realized I drank your cocktail, he tried to take me into an alley behind the bar. Wesley caught on and came to my rescue. I don’t remember much of what happened, just that Wesley didn’t know what to do with a roofied girl besides take her home.”

  Clary’s eyebrows pushed together in worry. Dakota raised her hands in his defense.

  “Not like that. He didn’t know where I would be safe so he took me home with him and let me sleep off the drug. I have to say it was alarming to wake up in an unfamiliar room when I couldn’t remember the night before.” Dakota told her friend about how her text had helped to set things straight.

  “I see you’re not wearing the dress from last night. What happened to it?”

  Dakota felt her face warm. Clary took that as evidence and bounced excitedly again.

  “You slept with him?”

  Dakota waggled her eye brows suggestively and her roommate let out a howl of laughter before leveling serious eyes on her again.

  “How was it?”

  “You have no idea.” Dakota didn’t regale Clary with details. Those were too private to share, but she did let Clary know that he most definitely put her first. Dakota didn’t once mention that her lover for the night had been a dragon. That was one detail she would likely keep to herself for the rest of her life. Clary was appeased to know that her friend was not only safe, but ended up having the morning of her life, too. She was more than a little jealous, bemoaning how hungover she had felt after such a disappointing night.

  “Do you plan on seeing him again?” Clary asked suddenly.

  Dakota looked up from what she was doing. Her heart raced at the thought. Going against her own desire, she shook her head. “There’s no way we could be together.”

  Clary pouted. ‘You mean your lover isn’t your dragon mate?”

  Dakota’s head shot up. She felt the world fall out from beneath her for a second. Then, Clary winked and the world righted itself again.

  “I was kind of hoping to meet one while I was here, but it would be really hard to hide from the school. Those guys have got to stand out in a crowd. Don’t you think?”

  Dakota nodded. Her secret was still safe.

  For now. What would she do if it did get out? She couldn’t go home empty handed. She couldn’t go home and tell her mother that she lost her chance because she foolishly slept with a dragon shifter.

  Bea Brennan would implode from sheer impropriety alone.

  ***

  History class wasn’t as bad as Dakota had expected it to be. The professor that had mocked the GOE representative hadn’t mentioned the dragon territory once during her lecture, which surprised Dakota. Instead, Professor Taniff launched into ear
ly welsh history long before the rise of Dinas Emrys.

  Dakota even found herself somewhat enjoying the class. It wasn’t until the end, while she was packing up her notes and text books that the Professor became weird. She was walking between the desks, chatting with students to let them know she was there if they needed help later in the class. That wasn’t what Dakota found odd, even if professors were usually more hands off.

  It was when the professor paused at the edge of Dakota’s desk that warning bells went off in the back of her mind. Looking up, she found Professor Taniff practically glaring down at her while her nose flared. Dakota barely said a word at all during the lecture. She didn’t know what she’d done to earn such ire.

  “I-I’m sorry?” Dakota stuttered under the woman’s indomitable gaze.

  The professor seemed to wake from a haze. She shook her head and plastered a smile across her face, revealing the crow’s feet that touched the corners of her eyes. “Apologies. It seems my tea hasn’t quite enough caffeine to keep me going.” Her head tilted to the side as she studied Dakota. “Did you enjoy the visit to the ruins the other day?”

  Dakota wasn’t sure how to answer. The woman clearly had no regard for GOE and brought her student far too close to the Snowdonia territory. Yet, Dakota woke there only two days ago and threw away her fears to sleep with the dragon man that helped her.

  “It was okay,” was all Dakota could manage.

  She gathered her books and her bag before the professor could launch into anymore conversation. There were other classes to get to. There was a night that she had to forget about. She left the strange professor behind, in a hurry to get to her next class across campus.

  Outside, the weather was a little chill, even if the sun was shining. She ducked between buildings as she tried to find the quickest way to her next class.

  Dakota felt the hair standing on the back of her neck as she walked between buildings. She reached up to rub the tingling skin. Her mind was filled with the events of the day with Wesley. Each movement reminded her of how the dragon man had touched her. In the spare moments between classes, she thought of the laughter they shared over lunch, the stories of his homeland that he’d fed to her had been more filling than food. She’d allowed him to put his phone number into her phone, giving her the choice to call him.