by Donna Grant
He turned away, unable to bear looking at her another moment. Yet he had a choice to make. He could return to his human form and hope for the best.
Or he could fly away and never see Jane again.
Banan hadn’t understood Guy and Hal’s feelings for their women, but he did now. He wanted Jane with him always, to be by his side. He wanted to climb in bed with her each night, and face the dawn with her each morning.
He might have thought himself immune to whatever was affecting the Dragon Kings, but there was no denying his love for Jane. “Banan,” Rhys’s voice sounded in his head. “Show Jane who you are. She went to you because she senses something about you.”
“She could run.”
“Aye,” Rhys said sadly. “She could. But she might no’. I see how much she means to you. Doona let her go. You’ll regret it always.”
Banan’s gaze shifted to Con, who stood silently watching. Con was leaving everything up to Banan. Regardless of what Banan decided, Con would abide by it.
If Banan flew away, Jane would have no reason to know their secret and could very well live out her life in safety.
But whoever had been on the other side of that wall with her, who Banan suspected was the same bastard who’d kidnapped her, knew how important she was to him. They wouldn’t ever stop hurting Jane now that she was connected to him.
Banan took a deep breath and made his decision. He shifted with barely a thought. He kept his eyes closed as he knelt with one knee and both hands on the floor, the rain pounding his flesh.
It was Jane’s soft gasp that tore at his heart.
“Banan?” she murmured in confusion.
He lifted his head until he was caught in her gaze. Then he slowly stood as Rhys moved to cover Jane with his wing. “Aye. It’s me.”
Her hands shook, and the shock etched on her face couldn’t be dismissed. All Banan could pray for was that she didn’t run. If he had the time to tell her everything, to explain who he was, it might win her over.
But he knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“You were a dragon,” she said, her voice wavering from fear or anger—he wasn’t sure which—as her gaze looked over his naked form.
“It was the only way I could find you. The only way I could make sure you were safe.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
Banan wished they were alone for this discussion. There was no denying the anger rising in her tone. He hated that Con was there, but at the same time knew the King of the Dragon Kings had come to help.
“I couldna,” Banan said.
“This,” Jane said as she waved her hand at Rhys, “is what you protect at Dreagan?”
Banan nodded his head. “You’re the third human to know. Only Cassie, Elena, and you know what we’ve kept secret for millennia.”
Her eyes bulged. “Millennia? This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” Jane turned away from him, one hand on her forehead as she paced back and forth. “I feel like my brain is going to explode any minute.”
Rhys slammed his foot on the concrete, his long talons scraping the floor. Banan winced when Jane jumped. He glanced at Rhys and knew his friend was urging him to tell Jane everything.
“Once, a verra long time ago, dragons ruled this world,” Banan said. “We filled the skies, the land, and the water. Every size and color dragon imaginable existed. With each species of dragon, there was one with more power and magic than the others. We were made into Dragon Kings. We ruled our dragons as kings, and answered to only one—Con.”
To Banan’s delight, Jane stopped pacing and turned to him. At his mention of Con, she glanced at Constantine to find him leaning a shoulder against one of the walls, uncaring of the rain that soaked him.
“We lived such a life for eons. Until one day there was man. In order for both man and dragon to coexist, each Dragon King was given the ability to shift from dragon to human form and back again at will.”
“Why?”
Banan fisted his hands at his sides instead of pulling her into his arms as he wanted. “The only way for dragons and humans to communicate was through us.”
“Did it work?” she asked, her curiosity bringing her a step closer to him.
“For a time. Then a human betrayed us.”
Jane looked away and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s the reason you keep yourselves secret, isn’t it? Because you fear another human will betray you?”
“It’s more complicated than that. The human, a woman, was to be bound to a Dragon King, Ulrik. Discord abounded throughout the land between dragons and humans, and there didna seem to be a reason we could find for it. Nor could we determine the source. To make matters worse, humans began to hunt dragons.”
Jane shook her head, her stricken gaze lifting to his. “Why?”
“It was Ulrik’s woman causing the discord. It all happened so fast. Many of the dragons wanted to retaliate against the humans for the killing of the dragons. Con refused. We were supposed to keep the peace and protect both humans and dragons. We might no’ all have agreed with Con, but we obeyed him. All except Ulrik. He and his silver dragons began to pursue the dragon hunters.”
“If this human woman was to be bound to Ulrik, why did she begin such a war?”
Banan glanced at Con to see his face turned away. Banan let out a deep breath. “She cared for Ulrik as a man, but no’ as a dragon. There was only one way to stop the war, and that was to stop the female.”
“You killed her,” Jane stated flatly.
“Aye,” Banan said. “It’s easy to look back now and think we should’ve found Ulrik and told him what we’d discovered. Then he could have decided what to do with his woman. In the heat of battle, in a war that was dividing the land, there isna a lot of time for decisions. We found her, and we killed her.”
Banan paused as he recalled Ulrik’s devastation. In all the centuries since, Banan had never comprehended why Ulrik reacted so to the death of one human. Now, Banan understood entirely.
He cleared his throat and continued. “Ulrik wouldna listen to reason after what had happened to his woman. He pushed dragons to kill humans, solidifying a war we were desperately trying to halt.”
“Did you kill Ulrik as well?” she asked.
“Nay,” Con finally spoke. “I had inflicted enough harm with the slaying of his woman. The only way to stop Ulrik was to take his power as King. He can no’ shift to dragon form, nor can he speak to his Silvers.”
Jane’s dark gaze turned to Banan. “So there are still dragons here? Besides the Kings?”
“We captured a few of Ulrik’s Silvers. They are under our magic and sleeping at Dreagan. Only Ulrik can wake them, and if that happens, the war will begin again.”
Jane’s forehead creased with a frown. “Where are all the other dragons?”
“We sent them away,” Con said. “I couldna chance them being killed off. They are gone from this world and safe.”
“Maybe,” Jane said as she looked at Rhys as a dragon. “But they don’t have their kings, and you don’t have them.”
Banan didn’t allow himself to think of the dragons he had once ruled. If he did, the ache inside from missing them would eat him alive.
But it was too late not to think of them. Jane had put the thought in his mind, and he couldn’t dismiss his yearning to have the Blues around him as they rode the wind currents. He couldn’t stop the longing to hear their roars in answer to his.
Suddenly, soft hands cupped either side of his face. He found his gaze staring into coffee brown eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Banan.”
He pulled her against him and buried his head in her neck. Just being able to hold her helped to push the gnawing ache to a small corner of his heart.
Her arms were full of strength and tenderness as she held him, and he never wanted it to end. She belonged next to him. But did she know it yet?
“There’s more to the story, isn’t there?” she asked.
Banan
nodded.
She pulled out of his arms and urged, “Tell me.”
“I’m immortal, Jane. The Dragon Kings have been around since the beginning of time. After we sent the dragons away, the Kings set up residence at Dreagan in Scotland. We use the distillery as a cover for what we are.”
“Don’t people tend to recognize you’ve been alive for hundreds of years?”
Banan rubbed her arms with his hands as he felt her shivering. “We take turns sleeping in the mountain. Con is the only one who doesna sleep. But we are tied to Dreagan because of the Silvers we have caged there. It’s our magic that keeps them sleeping. We can leave, but only for short periods of time. Then we must go back or our magic begins to loosen its hold.”
“I see,” she said, and shoved a wet strand of auburn hair behind her ears. “So you’re immortal. Does that mean you can’t be killed?”
“No human can kill us. No’ even a dragon can kill us. Only a Dragon King.” At her frown, he elaborated. “In dragon form, Kings can battle one another and kill. As Dragon Kings, we each have a sword that belongs only to us. Only we can use our swords. In human form, Dragon Kings can battle using these swords and we can kill each other.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “No wonder you want to keep yourselves hidden. Is that all you can do?”
“Nay. Each of us is given a certain kind of magic as a Dragon King.”
She raised a brow. “Interesting. What is yours?”
“I can give hallucinations.”
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said with a small smile. “Was it Ulrik who kidnapped me and sent Sloan to Dreagan?”
Banan shook his head and met Con’s gaze over her shoulder. “Nay. Con has him watched constantly. Ulrik had nothing to do with this.”
“Then who was it?”
“A verra good question, and one I had hoped we’d discover tonight.”
“He knows you,” Jane said. “He told me there were Dragon Kings. He said he wanted to be here to see my face when I learned what you are, and that he wanted to see your face as well.”
Banan felt the rage rise in him again. “He thought you’d run from me.”
“You are a fearsome sight.”
Banan’s chest constricted at the note of anxiety he heard in her voice. “You’re afraid of me.”
“No. No,” she said again, and gave him a quick, hard kiss. “I admit, at first, yes. I wouldn’t have come to you or touched you if I had been that afraid. I always knew there was something different about you.” She ran her hand over his tat. “The dragon tattoo makes sense now. I just wish you’d told me.”
Banan rejoiced at her words, but he couldn’t hold back anymore. He covered her mouth in a kiss. Her sweet taste enflamed him, the desire licking at his blood.
He wanted to lay her down on the floor and claim her body again, not just as a man, but also as a Dragon King. She hadn’t run from him, hadn’t left him.
His hands skimmed down her back to cup her round bottom in his hands and bring her against his aching cock. Her soft moan was music to his ears. And just when he was about to start stripping her clothes off, rain pelted them.
Jane tore her lips from him as she laughed. Banan looked for Con and Rhys only to discover them gone, and he hurried to get Jane out of the rain.
She was running toward the door left open by Rhys or Con, but Banan pulled her to a stop.
“I need to know something.”
She wiped the water from her face and smoothed back her hair, a smile dancing in her eyes. “What is that?”
“You’ve seen and heard a lot this night. Is it too much for you to be with me?”
She grew very still. “Be with you?”
Banan swallowed. He’d never been nervous before. He’d never been a lot of things before Jane, but he wanted to experience them all with her.
“Because of the human female’s betrayal, Con used his magic so that none of the Dragon Kings would ever fall in love with humans.”
“Oh,” Jane said, her gaze lowering to the floor.
“All that changed over five months ago. Hal fell in love with Cassie. Then Guy fell in love with Elena. Something has changed, Jane. I used to no’ fully believe it. Then I held you in my arms.”
Her eyes snapped to his. “What are you saying?”
“I’m say—” He paused because he didn’t want to mess it up. “—I’m saying I’m in love with you, Jane Holden. I want you as mine. Always. Will you come back with me to Dreagan? Will you stand by me in all that my now-uncertain future holds?”
For long minutes she didn’t reply, and Banan was trying to think of what else to say to convince her, when a lone tear fell down her face.
He stopped the tear with his thumb before it reached her chin. “Jane,” he whispered.
“I’ve waited for you all my life,” she said. “I’d go anywhere with you, Banan.”
A laugh exploded from him as he crushed her against him. “I love you.”
“And I love you,” she said between the kisses she placed on his neck.
Epilogue
Jane got out of the Jaguar and closed the door, her gaze locked on the same tavern she’d visited months before.
“You can do this,” Banan said as he came up beside her.
She smiled as he took her hand. “Yes, as long as you’re with me.”
“I’ll always be with you.”
“You didn’t answer me yesterday, by the way.”
He looked away from her as he asked, “What are you talking about?”
Jane shook her head. “You’re lying. Why are you afraid to tell me how this will work? Is it because I’m right, and you just don’t want to admit that I’ll grow old and die while you live on?”
“Jane,” he said, and suddenly had her pinned to the car. “I doona have any answers. I wish I did, but all this is new. For the little time when humans and dragons coexisted together, there were humans who mated with Kings. None of their offspring survived. Hell, half of the women never carried the babies to term. And all the women eventually did die.”
She cupped his face and looked deep into his gray eyes. “I’m not really keen on you seeing me all wrinkled and hunched over, but I want whatever time we have, Banan. I understand that you’ll grow tired of me one day.”
“Nay,” he said, and gave her a gentle shake. “You doona understand. I’ve never, no’ once in all my life as a dragon or a Dragon King, felt for anyone what I do for you. You, Jane, are different. I was going to wait until we reached Dreagan to tell you, but you willna relent.”
She laughed and raised an auburn brow as she waited.
“A human can be bound to a King. You’ll live, staying as you are now, for as long as I live. Only if I die will you die.”
“Oh.”
“Is it too much?” he asked, knowing she’d taken in a lot over the past few days.
Jane rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “No. Is it something you want to do?”
“Aye. Most definitely, but I was going to give you some time.”
She rolled her coffee brown eyes. “Apparently, I haven’t let you know just how much I don’t want to be without you.”
“We’ll start making plans for the ceremony once we reach Dreagan.” He stared at her a moment before he chuckled. “Now, have you wasted enough time? Are you ready to meet Sammi?”
“No, and I don’t know. I’m scared, Banan,” she admitted.
He pulled her into his arms. “It’ll be all right.”
Jane took a steadying breath, and then they walked into the tavern. Sammi was behind the counter, drying some glasses and laughing at something a customer said to her.
Her sandy brown hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail as bangs covered her forehead. And then her eyes swung to Jane.
Banan smiled down at Jane as she gave his hand a squeeze and went to her half sister. He stood back and watched while she hesitantly began to tell Sammi everything.
It wasn’t unt
il she pulled out the letters she’d found that Banan slid into a bench and relaxed. Everything was good. For now.
How long it would last, he didn’t know. Rhys and several other Dragon Kings, with the help of Henri North, were still scouring London for any sign of the man who had kidnapped Jane and killed Richard Arnold.
But so far, they had come up empty-handed.
The unease Banan had felt ever since he’d been unable to detect the man in dragon form had only grown. They hadn’t seen the last of the bastard, that was for sure.
“Banan,” Jane called.
He lifted his face to her. “Aye?”
“Come meet Sammi.”
Banan greeted Jane’s smile with one of his own. Today was theirs. Tomorrow, the Dragon Kings would begin to look for their enemy.
He stared at the little tavern in Oban from his car window. It had taken all he had not to get out of his car and kill Jane while Banan had been holding her.
His plan should have worked. It would have worked.
But he hadn’t factored in Banan and Rhys turning into dragons and attacking as they had. It had broken the rules Con put into place.
Still, though his plan might not have played out as he wanted, it hadn’t been a total waste. It had gotten Con to London.
He hadn’t been able to stay and listen to the conversation between Jane and the other three since he had to run for his life. Yet in the end, the retreat had worked to his advantage.
The Dragon Kings knew they had an enemy, but they didn’t know who. And they had shown a weakness—one he would exploit until they were all dead.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles by
Donna Grant
The Dark Sword Series
Dangerous Highlander
Forbidden Highlander
Wicked Highlander
Untamed Highlander
Shadow Highlander
Darkest Highlander
The Dark Warrior Series
Midnight’s Master
Midnight’s Lover
Midnight’s Seduction (coming in November)
The Dark King series
(eBook-only originals)
