The Panther's Rival

by Emilia Hartley

  He was oddly concerned with her safety, no matter how much she brushed him off. She was a tough and faultlessly loyal woman, but he didn’t know if anyone had ever looked out for her before. He felt as though her boss led her into hell simply because she would follow blindly.

  His head shot up when he heard the sliding door open. Standing in the doorway, white as a sheet and smeared with blood, was a haggard looking Rhiannon. He lurched to his feet, sending the folding chair tumbling backward. He raced to her, hands already searching for the source of the blood.

  She fought his hands back, holding them tight with both of her shaking hands. Her dark eyes rose to meet his.

  “Tell me it isn’t true,” she whispered before placing something small into the palm of his hand.

  He opened his fingers and felt the world tilt sideways. Many confusing things clicked into place for the first time. He breathed in deep, looking past the smell of blood and fear in the air. It was much stronger this time, the scent of the female dragon. He watched as the beast pushed forward into Rhiannon’s eyes. The darkness swirled into a deep gold color and revealed slit-like pupils.

  A smile curved her lips upward, unlike the woman he had come to know. He stepped back, but the beast that took possession of Rhiannon stepped forward. Her bloody hands rose to his chest. He had to grip her wrists to keep her hands from travelling south.

  “Give me the girl back,” he growled.

  The beast in her couldn’t use words the way that his could. He doubted, from the silver in his hand, that the beast ever had a chance to learn. She pulled her lips back from her teeth and sank her nails into his shirt to jerk him closer to him. The beast took a deep breath of his scent and Gareth’s chest tightened.

  “I recognize you beast,” he whispered. “Now give me the girl back so that I can comfort her.”

  The beast cocked her head and seemed to think over his request before conceding. The gold pulled back from her eyes and darkness returned. Her eyes widened with more fear than before. He let go of her wrists and pulled her into the comfort of his arms, nuzzling her hair with his chin. How was he going to tell the agent of GOE that she was not only a dragon, but his mate, too.

  Gareth didn’t have the words to use just then, so he scooped the trembling woman into his arms and carried her to the bathroom. It, too, was caked in blood. He could see where she dropped the implant and how it bounced across the floor. He set her on the edge of the tub, with her feet inside. The room smelled of bile beneath all the blood.

  “Where are your towels?” he asked.

  Rhiannon didn’t respond. She stared at the wall. Glancing back, Gareth could see where blood was slowly soaking through her thin bathrobe. He saw the knife in the sink and realized that she carved herself to get the implant out. It must have come as a shock to find a silver implant in her skin. He had heard of some dragons using them to blend into society, but had never seen anyone use them. From the looks of Rhiannon, she hadn’t chosen it for herself.

  Someone had made that decision for her.

  His shoulders tightened with anger. Who would do that to a young woman? To a child? She claimed that dragons had killed her parents, but Gareth wondered how true that was. More likely, GOE had killed her parents and taken pity on the defenseless child. Instead of killing her, they chose to make her one of them.

  Gareth finally found the small towels in a cupboard over the toilet. He grabbed the bottle of rubbing alcohol and turned the hot water on in the tub. With a hot towel, he knelt beside the tub and began to gently wipe the blood from her skin. He wiped it from her cheek where she must have accidentally smeared it.

  Once she was clean of her own blood, he dug through the cabinet beneath her sink and came up with a heavily packed first aid kit. He was all at once grateful and wondered what happened in her job to make her so prepared. There was nothing to stitch the self-inflicted wound closed, so Gareth had to settle for a few butterfly strips to pull it closed.

  When all was done, he looked into her face. He could see how this epiphany had drawn her down, how she was struggling internally with a beast that might never have seen the light of day. The beast recognized him and what he was to her immediately. He didn’t think that Rhiannon needed that kind of news in her life just yet. One life altering event at a time, he thought to himself.

  Gently, he touched her chin to raise her gaze to meet his. The darkness in her eyes swirled back and forth with the gold that was struggling to push forward. She pressed her eyes closed and regained control for the time being. When she could look him in the eye with her dark gaze, he spoke.

  “Do not forget that the woman you are has not changed. You are still the fierce and irritating woman that I met days ago.”

  “How can you say that?” she whispered. “I am not at all who I thought I was. Everything I’ve ever been taught is turned upside down right here and now. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know myself at all.”

  Gareth shook his head. “So, you’re a dragon after all.”

  Her face visibly paled. She jerked to her feet, but Gareth’s hand snaked out to grasp her own. He didn’t hold her, but pulled her attention back to him. He was surprisingly calm through all of this. She needed him to be or else he would be flying into a rage over what someone did to his mate. His fingers pressed into her hand and he had to pull himself back.

  “I can’t say that I’m all that surprised, to tell you the truth. You’re a stubbornly loyal and dangerous woman. Why is it so impossible that you’re one of my kind?”

  “I am not a dragon,” Rhiannon shouted. The mirror behind her cracked. She startled and looked over her shoulder.

  Gareth chuckled. “That can happen from time to time. Control will come through years of practice and Zen like focus. Though, I can’t say I’ve had much practice with either of those myself. Think of it like the echo of your dragon form surrounding you. When you get upset, the dragon form can move around and break things around you.”

  Rhiannon pressed her eyes shut, a sweat breaking out on her forehead. “Make the voice in my head go away.”

  Gareth shook his head. “Only silver can do that and I have no plans to let you have any more silver. You need to come to terms with what is happening to you. If you don’t, you’ll be a danger to those around you or slowly destroy yourself.”

  Her eyes slowly opened. Her voice was small and defeated when she spoke. “GOE is going to kill me when they find out.”

  Gareth launched himself from where he’d been sitting. His arms wrapped around her like a shield against the world. His face close to hers, he whispered. “I will not let that happen.”

  She placed her hands on his chest like she would push away, but didn’t make any effort to break free of his arms. He pulled her closer until the length of her body lined up with his. He would not let her own people hurt her again. He was her people now. He and his family on the Territory. They would stop at nothing to keep her safe.

  Her head fell back and she looked into his eyes, flicking to his lips every few seconds. His heart thumped in his chest.

  Chapter Six

  Life didn’t make sense anymore. So many people lied to her. All she knew in that moment was that she was pulled to the man beside her like a magnet. He was her due north in that moment. She had put her hands on his chest to fight her way out of his embrace, but it backfired.

  She looked up at him and found herself drawn to his lips. It didn’t help that his full bottom lip begged to be bitten.

  Where had that thought come from?

  She questioned herself for a second before it vanished once more. Her hand slipped behind his head, fingers tangling in his red tresses. A growl filled her chest and her hand fisted in his hair. She heard his sharp breath before she pulled his lips down to meet hers. She pulled his lower lip into her mouth, gently nipping before she let it go to press her tongue between his lips. She needed to taste him, to know his taste intimately.

  As though he’d been trying not to move
before, his hands tightened on her and he kissed her in return. He deepened the kiss, accepting her demanding tongue. Through her thin bathrobe, she could feel just how much he wanted her. He walked her backwards until he could press her up against a wall. His body flattened against hers and his tongue pressed into her mouth. She bit it hard and he let a lusty laugh fill her.

  The tie to her robe fell away and his hands snuck beneath the fabric. Rough skin passed over her hip, up her stomach, and beneath her breast. His thumb flicked her nipple and she felt a jolt of pleasure settle in her core.

  He pulled away, breathing hard. “You are no different than you once were.”

  His words brought her back to reality. Panic shot through her, alarming and polarizing. Her eyes widened and she shoved him off her. Confusion and hurt flashed across his face. She could not be kissing the enemy. He was a dragon.

  “Get out of my house.” She pointed her finger toward the door. He knew the way out from there.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” His voice was deep with anger, but he didn’t move.

  “You heard me,” she said, fighting the tremble in her own body.

  “I came in here and picked you up when you were falling apart and this is how you treat me? You cut yourself open, bled all over yourself, and nearly broke down when you realized that you’re a dragon…”

  “Do not say that,” she hissed.

  “Are you going to deny it now? Are you going to try to live your life lying to yourself? Because it isn’t going to end well if you do. I’m not mad about the kiss or how you pushed me away. That is your choice and always will be, but do not think to lie to yourself after today.”

  Without another word, he stalked out of the bathroom. Rhiannon didn’t have to follow him to know where he went. She could hear his every footstep though her creaky house. Never before did she realize how much the floorboards creaked. She even heard him throw his body into the lawn chair on her back porch.

  She sighed, angry that he didn’t go as far as she hoped. Her control around him was little to none and that scared her. She prided herself on her self-control, on her ability to look trouble in the eye and tell it to fuck off. Today was the complete opposite of that.

  Inside her head, she felt a giant creature writhe. It circled through her head, brushing her insides in a feeling that was largely unsettling. She knew that if she turned her attention inside of herself she would be greeted by a pair of gold eyes and charcoal colored scales.

  But, she didn’t. Instead, she set about getting ready for the day like it was any other day of the week. She tugged on a pair of skin tight black jeans and a black V-neck top. She was reaching for her gold necklace when her phone vibrated on the nightstand. A single message flashed on the screen.

  Tonight. Sundown. You know where.

  Her heart sank. Inside her head, her alien beast growled. It was awful at using words. Instead, it settled for grunts and growls as though Rhiannon could understand what it was trying to express. It made her head throb. She yanked open the top drawer of her nightstand to retrieve the drug store pain killers. After popping two and swallowing them dry, she deleted the message Everett sent her.

  She would sneak away from the dragon man on her back porch and meet Everett tonight. Her stomach rolled. Was she willing to go through with this now that she knew what was really going on? That she was a dragon shifter after all? No matter how much she wanted to deny it, the truth of it was there and she couldn’t ignore it.

  But, she owed Wilson her life. She tried to tell herself that he did it so that he could better take care of her, so that he could raise her like a normal girl. This was Wilson. She could lie to herself as long as it made her feel better about her discovery. She would be there for him tonight.

  She just didn’t know how much she would help.

  She let her head fall into her hands. GOE would not like her being a dragon. They would be in an uproar if they knew one of theirs was less than human. It would feel like an attack from the inside to them and they would retaliate on her. No one could know. No one in her life, not even Everett.

  ***

  Ditching the dragon man had been easy. He was fast asleep on the back porch and she was more aware of the sound her footsteps made now that the dragon inside of her was awake. Quietly, she crept out of the house. She didn’t bother with her car. There was too much energy pent up inside of her now. It made her palms hot and her muscles twitch. Rhiannon traded her jeans in for a pair of spandex leggings and a pair of black trainers.

  In what felt like no time at all, she was standing outside a small government building. It was the offices of many of the higher ranking GOE officials in Wales. Most of the lights above the first floor were off for the night. Officials had the luxury of going home when the clock struck five. The security guards, on the other hand, had no such luxury. Rhiannon watched the two security guards patrol the first floor through the tall glass panes that surrounded them. Every once in a while the two would stop, exchange a few words, and move on while laughing about some joke she couldn’t hear.

  She hoped that Everett had a plan for getting them out of the building before it was destroyed. The guards were GOE; they were one of them.

  But she wasn’t one of them, she reminded herself. She was a dragon shifter. The thought made her stomach roll anxiously. She hoped that she would be able to ignore the voice in her head long enough to seem like nothing had changed. She didn’t need Everett figuring out that she was no longer the human he laid with once upon a time.

  As if in response to the thought of their past love making, her beast growled unhappily. She was getting better at gauging the beast’s emotions from the sounds it made. She couldn’t, however, figure out why the idea of laying with Everett pissed the creature off so much.

  “I didn’t know if you would come,” a familiar voice said from behind her.

  She spun around, barely able to hide the snarl that touched her lips. It was so unlike her usual self. She knew that it was the beast inside of her, grabbing for control. It had been locked away for all of her life. It made sense that the beast was wary of everyone.

  Except for Gareth.

  Rhiannon locked that information away for further inspection later. She rolled her shoulders and looked Everett in the eye. She was ready for this. He nodded, falling into their old rhythm. Everett placed a small explosive in her hand. Its weight was heavy in her hand, carrying all of the implication of what they were about to do with it.

  Rhiannon didn’t see where he had pulled the plastic explosive from, but she couldn’t see evidence of any more. The mission had called for several to be placed in specific spots all around the building. She wondered if he had begun without her because there were no more explosives to be seen.

  “This is going to be a riot,” another voice joined them.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A jolt raced up her spine when his scent hit her nose. It was frost on a cold day.

  “Why is Raphael here?” Rhiannon asked through clenched teeth.

  “Because this was his idea,” Everett informed her. Her partner slapped a paper map into her hand and left without saying another word.

  Beside her, Raphael watched her with sparkling eyes. He had to know. He could smell it on her, she thought. Her hand clenched around the map in her hand. The beast inside of her thrashed and growled at the white dragon standing ten feet away. She did not like him.

  The smell of burning paper greeted her nose and she looked down. A small bark of surprise escaped her when she saw the paper burning in her hand. She shook it out and held it by the corner to keep from burning it further. Avoiding Raphael’s gaze, she set about her own mission. The further she could get from him, the better she could control herself.

  Her eyes roved over the map, combining with her own familiarity of the building in question. She was supposed to go around the back side and slip into a basement window. From there it was her job to place the small plastic explosive
beneath the furnace. The resulting explosion would make the end result look like fire damage.

  She slipped through the alley between the buildings, but, to her dismay, Raphael followed her. The beast inside her thrashed from side to side. She swayed on her feet from the beast’s movement. Her teeth clenched. She couldn’t give in to the thing’s fear. She couldn’t let it give her away.

  Everett would kill her on sight.

  “Are you doing okay?” Raphael asked, petulantly. He could see the strain that her fight for control was putting on her. It was a wonder that he hadn’t outed her from the get go. He could have easily sniffed her and told Everett the truth. If he hadn’t by now, he was waiting for something else to happen.

  He was waiting for her to give away the secret herself.

  “Just dandy,” she tossed back at him when, in fact, she was not doing okay.

  The window she was supposed to slip through was just ahead. It was low to the ground and narrow. When she knelt to push it open, the glass warped under her touch. The heat radiating from her hands was uncontrollable. She fisted her hand and closed her eyes, trying to summon her inner calm if only for a second. Turning inward, all she found were frayed nerves and the low, rumbling growl of her beast.

  It screamed at her, but she couldn’t understand what it was trying to say. All the beast was succeeding in doing was making her head throb. She could barely feel the prickle of her nose that announced the arrival of someone else.

  Her head snapped up.

  Raphael was gone. She hadn’t even noticed his exit. Instead, at the head of the alley stood a uniformed security guard. She could hear the voice of her partner coming closer. What she heard made her stomach roll. The beast inside her revolted.

  “She’s a traitor!” Everett’s voice filled the alley. “Find her before she blows up the building!”

  She was never more aware of the small plastic explosive in her hand. It was damning evidence. She gripped it harder. If she dropped it, there would be no getting out of this. The security guard raised his weapon and his flash light at the same time. The light blinded her newly sensitive eyes. She threw her arm over her face.