by Rinelle Grey
He wanted to laugh and agree with her, but he needed to set one thing straight first. “Lyrian and I aren’t mated.”
“Not yet.” Karla winked at him.
Her implication twisted Brad’s stomach and heated his face. He wished he could smile and joke with her. Wished he could believe that he and Lyrian stood a chance. But it wasn’t to be.
And there was no point in pretending.
“We’re not planning on it either.”
Suddenly, there was a silence in the room. The others had been so busy cooing over Anarian, Brad had forgotten he was surrounded by other dragons and humans until they all stopped talking and stared at him.
If it were just him and Karla, Brad might have admitted the truth to her. She’d been through the same thing, she might understand. Might even have some advice for him. But somehow, he didn’t feel like admitting the whole mess in front of all these other people he didn’t know.
So instead he said, “I have a job back in America. I’m a heart surgeon. I can’t… I can’t just walk away from all that.”
The stares continued, one or two might even have looked a little accusing.
Karla glanced over at the others, at Lisa in particular, then back at him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
As though her words were a signal, the rest of the group went back to cooing over Anarian, but their voices were softer now, as though they didn’t want to miss anything else that might be said.
Brad wished he could escape. He felt bad enough about how things were with Lyrian, he didn’t really need the judgement of all the other dragons and humans.
“I’m sorry,” Karla said again, her voice low. “I just thought…”
“It’s okay,” Brad said quickly, interrupting her before she could say anything more.
“I think Anarian is getting a little overwhelmed,” Lisa announced loudly. “I think we should all give her some peace and quiet to get some sleep.
The baby looked just as cheery as she always did, so Brad could only assume this announcement was for him. And he appreciated it. He tried to signal that, by giving Lisa a smile as she handed Anarian back at him.
Lisa gave him a wink, then carefully herded the reluctant people and dragons out of the room.
All except Karla. Lisa didn’t even try to encourage her to leave, and Karla didn’t make any move towards the doorway. Brad looked down at his daughter, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Karla’s voice was quiet.
Brad gave a laugh. Was she really going to give him an out like that? “Not really.”
He looked up to find her expression concerned. “Do you really think it’s that easy just to walk away from them?”
“You’re forgetting, I already did it once.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And how’d that go for you?”
Brad gave a short laugh. Maybe she did get it. Maybe she’d even tried the same thing.
He didn’t want to remember the sleepless nights, going over and over his time with Lyrian, or the erotic dreams that had haunted him once he’d managed to get to sleep. “Not so well,” he agreed. “But what other choice do I have?”
Karla raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
Her implication was clear, and staying was obviously the option she had chosen. But that didn’t mean it was right for Brad. To him, that choice was just as impossible as all the rest.
Helplessness welled up in him, along with frustration. “Lyrian lied to me. She only used me to heal. She never felt the way I did, as evidenced by the fact that she pushed me away.” He glanced down at the sleeping baby in his arms. “And she felt she needed to keep Anarian’s existence from me. If my uncle hadn’t left his house to me and brought me back to Australia, I might never have even known I was a father. How can I trust her after any of that?”
Karla’s expression was sympathetic. “Dragons make mistakes, just like humans do. The Mesmer bond is very strong and can overwhelm common sense. It’s obvious though, that you feel something for her, and just as clear that she cares for you. Don’t you think that’s worth exploring further?”
He had. He’d been very tempted to. Right up until…
“You don’t get it,” Brad said softly. “It’s only chance that Lyrian and I even ended up together. She nearly ended up with my brother.”
“Sounds like a fortuitous chance to me,” Karla said pointedly.
Brad just stared at her. How could she be so laid back about it?
“Dragons see sex very differently than us humans,” Karla said softly. “How could they not, when they need it to heal? When they bond for life if they sleep with someone three times? There’s no in between for them. It’s either casual sex, or deadly serious.”
Brad hadn’t quite thought about it like that before, and the implications took his breath away. He had known both those facts, but he hadn’t quite put them together like that before.
Of course dragons took casual sex as a matter of course. In a strange way, it was similar to the way he took having access to a good hospital as a matter of course. He gave a brief laugh.
There was just one problem with that. “She could have told me,” he said softly.
Karla shrugged. “As soon as you touched her, you both would have been consumed by the Mesmer bond, that isn’t the time for talking. And trust me, talking is the last thing on your mind,” she said wryly.
She gave him a conspiratorial wink, as though she expected him to know what she was talking about. The trouble was, Brad didn’t. “I wasn’t the one who woke Lyrian. My uncle was. Apparently he was too old to complete the ritual for her, so he sent for my brother. When he wasn’t available, he called me.”
“Oh.” Karla stared at him for a moment.
She didn’t have an answer for that one. Brad might have felt smug, except he was a little disappointed. He wouldn’t have any objection to someone convincing him to give Lyrian another chance.
Karla wasn’t silent for long. “Good,” she said briskly. “That means your relationship wasn’t overshadowed by the intense emotions of the Mesmer bond. You know what you feel for Lyrian is true.”
Brad frowned. “What do you mean?”
“When Taurian and I met, I woke him without having any idea of the bond, or that it was what made me feel this intense attraction to him. When he explained to me, I thought everything I was feeling was a result of the Mesmer bond. It took me quite a while to accept that it was real.”
Brad could see how that could be a problem. “Sounds like you had a pretty rough start too.”
Karla shrugged. “Loving a dragon isn’t easy. But it is worth it.”
Brad bit back a sigh. He was sure it was. But that didn’t change anything. “It’s hard enough without the lies.”
Karla raised an eyebrow. “And, of course, you told her all about the fact that you had a job back in America you couldn’t leave?”
“Of course I did,” Brad said flatly. He had no reason to doubt his own honesty in this situation. He never hid his commitment to his work.
“Before you slept together the first time?”
“Well…” Brad stammered. It had all happened too fast. He wasn’t sure what he’d told Lyrian then. Her alluring scent, her bright, vivid personality, her sweet curves, they all blurred together, blotting out any other memories. “Well I told her about my commitments long before she told me she was a dragon.”
That, at least, he was sure of.
“But not straight away,” Karla persisted.
“Maybe not. But I don’t see what that matters. At that stage, I had no idea that things would go so far, or that I’d feel so strongly about her. And I definitely had no idea we’d have a child together.”
“And when did you start to figure out this was more than a casual fling?” Karla asked. Her eyes were fixed on him, as though waiting for him to incriminate himself.
Brad wasn’t sure how. He considered her question for a moment, findi
ng the idea interesting enough that he answered honestly. “At first I wasn’t thinking like that at all. I was…” he gave a rueful laugh… “I was pretty much just infatuated. I couldn’t think of anything but her.”
He hadn’t even been thinking about getting back to the hospital, a first for him. “It wasn’t until it was nearly time for me to leave that I realised how much I didn’t want to leave her. I asked her to come with me, but she shut me out and refused to talk.”
He knew why now, but he hadn’t understood it at all then. Frustration welled up in him. “If she’d told me then, I might have understood.”
“Would it have made any difference?” Karla asked softly.
“Of course it would have. It wouldn’t have hurt nearly as much.”
“But you still would have left.”
“Well…” Brad heaved a sigh. There was no denying the truth. “Yes, I still would have left.”
“Then can you see why Lyrian couldn’t tell you?” Karla asked softly. “It’s not even just her secret to tell. Her clan has relied on her keeping that secret to keep them safe all these years. She couldn’t give it up for someone who was planning on leaving.”
Brad stared at her, wanting to keep arguing. Wanting to deny the truth right in front of him. Surely there was some way this could have been different? Some way Lyrian could have told him the truth, and for it to have all worked out perfectly.
But he knew there wasn’t a way, anymore than there was a way that they could make this relationship work.
Brad heaved a sigh, his whole body relaxing from a tension he hadn’t even realised he was feeling. There were still many problems getting in the way of a relationship with Lyrian, but at least some of the hurt he’d been carrying had eased. He hadn’t realised how affected he’d been by her rejection.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “She couldn’t have told me. Not then.”
And she couldn’t have told him later, because he wasn’t there. That one, at least, had been his fault as much as hers.
Karla put a hand on his arm. “Don’t beat yourself up too much. There’s still time to sort it out.”
Brad shook his head. Though his heart was more at peace now, he still didn’t see any way he could make things work. His and Lyrian’s lives were too different, too far apart, for them to share anything more than what they had.
He wasn’t sure how he could possibly make Karla understand that though.
Before he could even consider the possibility, the quiet in the room was interrupted by a sound overhead. A dull thunk, thunk, its sound muffled a little by the thick walls of rock.
Brad stared at Karla, his heart in his mouth. Was that what he thought it was? The fear in Karla’s wide eyes said she was as concerned as he was.
Both of them rushed out of the room and back to the main cave.
“What’s that sound?” one of the dragons asked as they burst into the cave just as Lyrian, Taurian, and Verrian arrived from another entrance.
“It’s a helicopter,” Karla said tightly. “Flying over the lair. But don’t worry, they can’t see us in here.” She looked at Taurian, as though confirming that.
Her mate nodded, though he looked far from convinced.
Everyone was silent, listening to the sound pass over head. Holding their breath, waiting for it to fade into the distance.
Except it didn’t. It grew fainter, then louder as it came around again.
Brad’s heart pounded in his chest. If only the lair had a window he could look out. Had the helicopter seen something, or were they just flying a search pattern? What could they possibly have seen? Karla was right, there was no sign of the lair from above.
But the helicopter sounded like it was hovering directly overhead.
Then the sound grew louder, as it moved down almost directly in front of the lair.
The explanation hit Brad with a sickening thud.
“The cars,” he said hollowly. “The ute, and Nate’s four-wheel drive. They’re parked right in front of the lair.”
Karla’s face paled. Even Taurian and Verrian looked a little shaken.
Taurian recovered quickly. “It may be unusual for cars to be out here, but surely not unheard of. We’ve seen at least two groups of tourists drive out here to look at the cliffs since we returned. They are rather spectacular.”
“Yeah, but they’re going to recognise my car,” Brad said guiltily. “The police have pulled me over a couple of times, once looking for Lisa,” he nodded in her direction, “and once to ask why it was all burnt. Now they know about the dragons, they’re going to realise there’s a connection.”
The sound of the helicopter outside changed note for a few moments, before stopping altogether.
Everyone was silent, as though afraid any noise they made could be heard by those who had landed below.
Which was unlikely. They were a reasonable distance away, and several feet of rock stood between them and the occupants of the helicopter. There was little chance of the sound carrying, as evidenced by the fact they couldn’t hear anything below now that the rotors had stopped.
“What are we going to do?” Brad asked quietly.
“Shh.” Taurian held up a hand.
Was he really so worried they might be heard? Brad had spoken very quietly.
Karla drew him aside. “Dragon hearing is a lot better than ours,” she said in a low voice. “They’re trying to listen to what’s being said.”
“Oh.” That hadn’t even occurred to Brad. He waited, silently, wishing he could hear what was being said as well.
“Looks like we could be stuck here for a while,” Taurian said, his voice grim. “They’re calling for more humans and planning a search.” He turned to Brad. “Sounds like they’re looking for you.”
“For me?” Brad’s voice came out in a squeak. His heartrate sped up. That was not good. Not good at all.
How long were the police going to search? How long would they stay here?
“Can they find us up here?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Taurian and Verrian looked concerned. They glanced around the room, and Brad saw many other concerned dragon faces.
“Of course they can’t,” Taurian said, his voice sure and confident.
Brad suspected his confidence was put on, a show for the audience watching him. It didn’t make him feel any better.
His heart began to thud in his chest. If the police found them, he was going to be in trouble. The last thing he needed was a police record.
And his concerns were small compared to those of the dragons around him. To Lyrian, and their daughter, Anarian.
If the police found them, who knew what would happen to them.
Brad’s mouth was dry, and he struggled to swallow.
He’d thought Lyrian would be safe once she was back with her clan, but it appeared the problems had just followed them.
How was he going to keep them safe now?
Chapter 4
Lyrian could sense Taurian’s unease even before his voice entered her mind. “We should be safe here. The entrance is hard to see, even for a dragon. The human’s flying vehicles are far less maneuverable.”
He sounded certain, but Lyrian knew him well. She could see the tightness in his lips, and the stiffness of his body. He wasn’t anywhere near as confident as he appeared.
Verrian was looking at him too, Taurian was projecting his voice to both of them.
“What if they do?” she projected back to both of their minds.
Everyone looked at everyone else, hoping someone had an answer.
Someone had plenty of answers. “We should go down there and make sure no human comes near our lair again,” Ostrian said firmly. “If we catch them by surprise, they are no match for us.”
“We can’t let the humans know we are here,” a young fire dragon said with a hint of panic in his voice. His eyes whirled gold. “If we do, more will come.”
“Jayrian is right, we can’t figh
t them,” a female voice said into Lyrian’s mind. Lyrian’s eyes widened slightly as she tried to work out who it was. Karla, Taurian’s mate, looked at him, her eyebrows drawn down. It had to be her, but…
What was a human doing with a dragon voice?
“Attacking them will only make the situation worse,” Karla continued. “We all know that dragons don’t do too well against guns, and if they bring in anything larger…” She let the threat hang, not needing to spell it out.
Lyrian suppressed a shiver.
The situation had changed so much while she was asleep. Before, all they’d had to worry about was an enemy dragon. Now the humans added an extra layer of danger to the fray.
“We could call a lawyer.” Lyrian was slightly more prepared for Lisa’s voice to join in their conversation, but it still rattled her a little. “My boss has already offered to work with us if we need help.”
Her suggestion was so human, Lyrian wasn’t quite sure what to think of it. She wished she could ask Brad. He seemed so knowledgeable and confident about the human world. But though she could project her voice into his mind, he couldn’t answer back.
“A lawyer is only useful for defending us in court,” Karla said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Brad was watching them, as though he knew there was something else going on. A conversation he wasn’t part of.
And he had his own suggestions to offer. “Nate and I need to get down there,” he said softly. “If we claim the cars, and say we were out here searching for dragons, but found nothing, then there will be nothing they can do. We can lead them away from here so you will all be safe.”
He glanced around at the other dragons, all of whom were watching him. One or two nodded, as though they thought his suggestion a good one. Especially Ostrian.
Taurian was looking thoughtful.
Lyrian’s heart froze. “You can’t,” she said immediately. Panic slammed through her body at the thought of Brad going out there with the humans. “You can’t let him,” she said to her brothers in her mind.
“It’s the only way,” Brad insisted. “The only way I can keep you and Anarian safe.” He looked down at the baby in his arms, his eyes full of love.
