Carrie and the Dastardly Dragons: A Paranormal, Bully Romance (Fated Mates Book 1)

by Ava Mason

  “She’s not touring the area, she’s trying to find the wolf who killed the girl from the other night.” Easton still stood defensively by my side. “You three will help her, do anything she asks you to do.” Easton stepped forward so that he was in between me and the guys. “And you will put all personal feelings aside, is that clear? Queen Aria chose you three because you are the best, and because she trusts you. You know as well as I do that there are spies within, even amongst those closest to her. If you betray the Queen, she will have your head.”

  “And,” Hunter stood next to Easton, creating a wall between the guys and me, staring specifically at Denver, “If anything bad happens to her, I will personally ensure that your life is a living hell. You will look after her, take care of her like she’s your own sister.”

  Denver flinched at his words, then glared at Hunter, not breaking eye contact. I had a feeling this was all about dominance. A staring contest. Hunter was giving him a death glare. I could feel the heat ramp up. It was the kind of fire that could erupt into a fight.

  Eventually, Denver averted his eyes. No matter what a badass this guy was, he’d deferred to Hunter. Well, well, well.

  His eyes moved to me instead, and I caught the look of rage in them. “We will do our duty, you can be assured.” His voice was sarcastic, though, and Hunter growled, low and deadly. I suddenly saw the dragon in him, prowling forward. He came face to face with Denver, their noses almost touching, and pressed his finger into Denver’s chest.

  “Let’s try that again. You have been assigned to protect Carrie, by the Queen’s orders. Do you have a problem with your commission? Or would you like me to get you reassigned?”

  Denver straightened, the emotions in his eyes closing off. “No, sir.”

  Hunter stared him down, not moving.

  After a moment, Denver took a step back, completely backing down, and looked at me. Something caught in his gaze. His eyes simmered and his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. He pinned me with that look and I couldn’t move.

  “I promise to protect you. You can trust us.” His eyes were dead serious. “We are the best of the guards; you’re in good hands.”

  Even though he’d just made me a serious promise, I wanted to laugh and it came out a choked cough. I bet he’d like his hands on me, all right. Either around my neck, choking me, or in his bed. By the way he’d acted the other night, he’d take any girl.

  Easton tugged on my arm, pulling me to the side, his voice lowering. “Look, I know that Denver is a piece of work, I’ll give you that. But he’s very good at his job, and very strong, and you’re going to need those qualities on your side. We need to figure out who did this. It’s bigger than whatever happened between you two at the bar. Plus they’re all loyal as they come; they would never betray other dragons. And if the Queen orders it, they won’t let anything happen to you.” He gently squeezed my shoulders, giving me a warm smile. “If they don’t, you let me know and I’ll kill them myself.”

  I gave him a half smile, feeling the tension bleed out of me. Besides, I remembered what Lizzy said about needing to figure this out so we could stay here. Staying in Aerwyna was the safest thing for us and if I needed to work with some jerks, then I would do it. I nodded, sighing. “Okay.”

  Besides, if Hunter and Easton and Lizzy and the Queen trusted them, then I could too.

  “Good girl,” Easton said. I felt his magic ripple over my skin. Nothing was condescending about the way he said it. It was just the feel of a big brother, helping me in the right direction. And he was right, even if I was reluctant to admit it.

  I took a deep breath and followed Easton back to the rest of them.

  “All right, suit up, guys, and meet us at the east side of the guesthouse in an hour,” Easton said.

  They all nodded, even making eye contact. And despite how tense it all was, despite the less than warm greeting, I couldn’t help but think each of them was the hottest person I had ever seen.

  8

  Blaze

  I hated the bitch. I hated her with a passion so deep it twisted the very depths of my soul. Every time I looked at her, got a whiff of her smell, or felt the power of her wolf, rage and anguish twisted my gut like gnarled roots knotted the soil.

  It didn’t matter that she hadn’t personally killed my sister.

  She was a wolf, and that’s what wolves did.

  It also was a reminder of what I’d done, and seeing her made the guilt rip at me like dragon claws slashing my insides.

  And now I was going to have to protect her.

  See her every day, follow her around like I was a fucking dog. I didn’t need the headache.

  I didn’t want anyone else in my life - Denver and Tallon were enough for me. Them, and whichever woman rumpled my sheets for the night. And I certainly didn’t need some wolf telling me what to do, telling me how to do my job, for fucks sake.

  I might even have to hurt someone for her, because hell knew dragons didn’t like wolves, and someone might be dumb enough to attack her while we were around.

  We stood side by side, our lockers open, suiting up with guns and knives. Our uniforms were black, making it easier to fade into the background if necessary, and I had enough heat on me to shoot up a nation if I wanted to. Denver strapped knives to every inch of his body that protruded, except his dick. His eyes were as sharp as the blades he handled so easily.

  “This is bullshit.” He put his knife into his boot.

  I nodded, saying nothing. It wasn’t going to help. The Queen had personally signed the order, which meant we had to do it.

  “You keep saying that,” Tallon said.

  “That’s because it’s true,” Denver responded.

  “Except it’s not going to magically make a difference if you say it enough times.” Tallon slammed his locker door shut. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned across the lockers, a glare on his face. “So just shut up, for once.”

  “Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Denver snarled. “Since when am I not allowed to bitch and moan?”

  “Look.” I turned to them, interrupting the beginnings of a fight. “Let’s just do this, get it over with, and move on. You guys have been friends too long to let this kind of shit get between you. We stick together as a team on this, sniff out those wolves that caused the shit in our midst. And then the little wolf and her posse will go packing.”

  “You’re right,” Tallon nodded, his face softening towards Denver. “We stick together, show a united front.”

  Tallon and I gave Denver a pointed stare.

  “Fine,” Denver scowled. “No more arguing about something we can’t help anyways. But it can’t be over soon enough.” He rolled his eyes, shutting his locker door. “If I never have to look at a wolf again, it would be too soon.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  Denver pushed past Tallon and stomped out into the sunlight.

  “What’s with him and this wolf anyways?” Tallon turned to me, an eyebrow up.

  “Fuck if I know.” Denver hated wolves but most times his apathy won out over his hatred. This anger was something new - he cared enough about this girl to even be pissed off. As for me, I just wanted her out of my life.

  “Oh, boy,” Tallon headed out, me following behind him. “This is going to be fun.”

  “Always is.”

  We got into the van that we were supposed to use, now that we were driving Carrie around. They usually let us drive our own vehicles but apparently it wasn’t good form to play bodyguard in an Aston Martin. Denver was already in the front, scowling. Of course, he took the wheel.

  The drive to the guesthouse was a short one and when we pulled up, Carrie walked out as if she had been waiting for us. She’d changed into something more suitable and was… Drop. Dead. Gorgeous. Her dark hair had been pulled back in a ponytail that only made her deep eyes stand out more. She wore a white shirt, perfectly contrasting her rich, caramel skin. And her tight jeans showed off her sculpted ass perfectly
. My cock grew rock solid at just the mere sight of her, making my loathing for the bitch grow deeper.

  I hated that I wanted her, even as I needed her out of my life. She reminded me of everything I was trying to forget and yet, my body thrummed every time I was around her.

  “Afternoon, Kid,” Denver’s drawl was thick was sarcasm.

  Carrie pinned him with a glare. “Sup, Horns?”

  Tallon coughed out a laugh, and she climbed into the van, sitting next to him in the back. The funny thing was, Denver did have horns, long spiked black ones. She’d pegged him perfectly, without even knowing it. Denver fumed as he watched Carrie get in.

  Tallon glanced at me, looking for a way to break through the tension between them, always the gentlemen. I gave him a cold stare; I wasn’t going to get in between whatever was going on between them.

  Tallon cleared his throat. “Excuse him, he’s—”

  “An ass, I know,” she finished Tallon’s sentence, slamming the van door shut.

  “I was going to say, ‘in a bad mood.’”

  “Oh,” Carrie gave Tallon a skeptical look. “I’m sure that’s it.”

  “Where to?” I asked from the front seat, wanting to get this over with.

  “I don’t know,” Carrie turned towards the mountains, staring at them as if they would give her answers.

  “God, can this be any more fun?” Denver peeled out, headed towards the main road.

  Carrie scowled, but said nothing.

  “How about we head to Max’s office?” Tallon leaned forward so we could hear him. “I’m sure he’s worked up a case file about this.”

  Thank fuck for Tallon; if I had to drive around all day with Carrie trying to figure out what the hell she was doing, I was going to shoot myself.

  “Who’s Max?” Carrie asked, her voice less sure.

  “Our boss.” Denver snapped. “The guy in charge of keeping Aerwyna safe.”

  “Oh, you mean the guy who failed,” Carrie said.

  The car grew immediately silent and Denver shot daggers at her in the rearview mirror. I glared at her, anger pulsing from me.

  “That came out wrong.” A soft pink colored her cheeks, making her face look even more beautiful. I wondered if she would balk at a fucking in her ass. Would the pink deepen if I even mentioned it? If I asked her to suck my cock?

  What the hell was I thinking? I growled and stared out the window. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn’t happening.

  “Yeah, it did.” Denver sounded pissed off. And I was right there with him. But I wasn’t angry because she’d insulted us. I was angry because she was right.

  It would fall on Max because he was in charge of the teams, the schedules and shifts, plus the routes that needed to be taken. He was in charge of everything. And if something out there had been missed, he was the one who would have to take the fall for it.

  But we’d all failed. We hadn’t been able to keep the dragon woman safe.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sorry that these things happen. I wish that there was something more I could do, or could have done, to prevent it.” She hesitated, taking in a deep breath. “But I’m determined to find out who it was. I swear to you, even though I’m new at all this, that we will find them.” She sounded so sincere, so determined to figure it out, that I almost believed her.

  And, despite the raging anger of three dragons who were pissed off enough to rip the heads off any wolf that came into our territory, there was something about her. Something that I could’t quite put my finger on, that managed to force the budding anger inside all of us into a soft buzzing.

  It irritated me that she could calm us; I’d never met someone who could do that. Not to me or Tallon. Definitely not to Denver. And with all three of us together, our anger collectively becoming something alive and invincible? It should have been impossible.

  And yet, she’d been able to do it, with just her sincerity and mere determination to find the killer.

  I huffed, staring out the window as we drove. Traffic wasn’t too thick and Denver weaved through it, heading toward the office where Max would be taking care of business, trying to keep the Council off his back with questions he had no way of answering.

  When we arrived, I jumped out of the van.

  “Stay here,” I bit out, and left them there. For some stupid reason, I didn’t want Carrie to go inside. I rationalized that I didn’t want her blaming Max for the death of the dragon woman, asking him questions and making his guilt even worse. But something deep inside me whispered that I just didn’t want all those male eyes on Carrie. Our profession was male dominated, and any girl who entered this building was up for a bunch of muscled men staring at her.

  I pushed my reasoning behind me and headed towards the doors. The place smelled like stale cigarette smoke and too much cologne. When I knocked on Max’s door and pushed it open, he sat hunched over the desk, a cigarette hanging from his lips, his hands in his hair.

  “Blaze Safra, what are you doing here? I thought you had orders from the Queen.”

  “We’re here with the wolf,” I announced.

  “What for?”

  I lowered my voice so no one could hear me. “She’s got no idea what she’s doing. Thought it might help to show her the case file.”

  Max sighed and sat back. “So, now we’re letting clueless civilians snoop around?”

  “It’s the Queen’s orders, what can we do?” That was all I needed to say; he knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it. I didn’t know if Carrie was capable of taking care of this, but for some reason Queen Aria trusted her. Someone – Hunter or Easton, probably – had put in a good word for her, and now she was on the case.

  “Fine.” Max sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. “See if she can get anything more out of this than we can.”

  I nodded and took the file Max handed to me. He wasn’t happy about this, but none of us were. Except maybe Tallon. He seemed pretty indifferent. Lucky him.

  When I joined the others with the file, Carrie took it from me and sat in the van. She opened it and started reading.

  We waited in silence while she tried to figure out what to do. After a while, Denver sighed heavily. “Shit. Woman doesn’t know what the hell to do.”

  Carrie’s face snapped up to him, cheeks flaming red now, but before she could respond, he hopped out of the van. Walking away from us, he complained loudly about her ineptitude and pulled out his phone, tapping furiously. Grumbling, she went back to reading through the file.

  Tallon got out of the van, leaning against it with arms folded across his chest, eyes on Carrie. Not irritated, not upset. Just… curious. After a while, he leaned into the van, his face earnest. “How are you managing?”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure where to start with this.” At least she was honest about being a novice.

  “Why don’t we go to the scene of the crime?” Tallon offered. “That way, you can see what the file is telling you first hand.”

  Carrie nodded but she didn’t look happy or relieved. In fact, she looked pissed off about it. Tallon looked at me and shrugged. I didn’t know why she seemed so pissed; at least he’d been nice about it.

  She stood up and climbed into the van. Tallon followed suit. I turned to Denver.

  “You coming?”

  Denver turned and grumbled, walking towards us. “Sure. Don’t want to hang out here until next year.” He climbed into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get the little kid to her next destination.”

  I sighed, shutting my door. It was going to be a long day.

  9

  Tallon

  Well, excuse me for being nice.

  Being an empath gave me an insight into other people’s motivations, and Carrie’s emotions were all over the place. One moment she was confident and sure of herself, comfortable with her power. The next, she felt way out of her comfort zone and clueless. I didn’t know exactly what she was thinkin
g but, judging by her emotions, Carrie wasn’t sure she was the right person for the job.

  I couldn’t agree with her more on the subject. But I felt bad for her, especially with the way Denver was treating her, so I wanted to help.

  But apparently, being nice only pissed her off.

  So, she didn’t like Denver because he was an ass. And she didn’t like me, trying to show her a little curtsey, either.

  Tough bitch.

  Whatever. We were only here to look after her until the Queen found out who had killed one of our dragons.

  Music blaring loudly from the weak van speakers, Denver was unnecessarily harsh on the drive over. He took the corners so sharp she grabbed my arm to keep from gliding across the seat. Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I wrapped my arm around her and she stiffened, but I didn’t let her go. The next time he took a corner, I tightened my hold on her so she wouldn’t slide.

  Her face snapped to mine and I gave her a small smile. She smiled in return. It lit up her sweet, caramel colored face, and it drew me in. Fuck, she was sexy when she smiled. She relaxed into me and I caught Denver’s eyes glaring at me from the rearview mirror.

  Curious about his unusual behavior, I lowered the wall I kept between us. Jealousy blasted me, pulsing so strongly it almost made me groan. He wasn’t pissed because I was being nice to a wolf; he was mad because he wanted her for himself.

  I met his eyes in the mirror, mine own revealing my shock. And then a grin slowly made its way across my face, stretching my lips so wide they ached.

  He growled, furrowing his eyebrows. “Keep your magic shit to yourself.”

  Making sure he was still watching, I leaned down slightly and took in a deep sniff, just to piss him off more. She smelled like vanilla and roses, with an undercurrent of the forest, pines and dirt, an earthly savor. I closed my eyes, taking it in.

  It was fucking seductive.

  Despite Carrie’s obvious bad attitude, she fascinated me; her magic was lush, untamed, and flowed around her in emotional bursts. I’d never sensed anything like this and I liked it.