Colton: Rogue Beginnings (A Rogue Enforcers Novel)

by Grace Brennan

  There was a couple walking down the street on the other end of the lot, holding hands as they made their way to the restaurant next door. There were cars passing down the street, but no one else was nearby. That she could see, anyway.

  Her eyes landed on a car parked in the corner, and she cocked her head as she stared at it. It looked like one that had been at the diner earlier, but there was no one in it, and no way to know for sure from this angle if it was the same one.

  But surely it wasn’t. There was no way the same one belonging to the creepy men earlier was in the hotel’s parking lot. That would be one hell of a coincidence, and she wasn’t sure she believed in coincidences like that. Not after the way she let her imagination run wild earlier.

  Shaking her head, she forced those thoughts out of her mind as she opened the door and slipped inside. What she needed was a long, hot shower, followed by about ten hours of sleep. Maybe then, she could get her imagination under control.

  Colton straightened with interest as a pretty brunette got out of her car at the hotel. She looked just out of place enough to pique his curiosity. It wasn’t uncommon for people to be coming and going from a hotel, but one who was wearing what looked like a waitress uniform was.

  He let his mind wander as she walked to the door, wondering what her story was. Was she coming to visit a friend? Maybe having trouble with something at her home, or even coming off of a break up, so she was staying at the hotel short term?

  The truth really didn’t matter, he supposed, but it was something to occupy his mind as he searched for any sign of Justin.

  A moment later, she hesitated with her hand on the door, stiffening as she turned her head. He slid down in the truck seat, but her gaze passed right over him before coming to rest on the car parked in the corner. Eyes narrowing, he studied her as she froze, a hundred emotions flashing across her delicate features, too fast for him to pick any of them out.

  He was just about to get out of the truck and ask her if she knew the car, or its owner, when she turned around and walked inside the hotel. Letting out a curse, he sat back in the seat, not willing to leave his spot long enough to chase her down. He couldn’t risk leaving and missing Justin.

  But knowing that he couldn’t risk it didn’t make it any easier for him to stay in his truck. That car was the closest lead he had to finding Justin, and if she knew anything about it, he needed to know. He wasn’t going anywhere though, not unless his cousin showed up, so he’d be there when she came back out again.

  Exhaling heavily, he scanned his surroundings again as his mind raced. But he was no closer to solving the riddle of what the hell was going on than he’d been in the beginning.

  Everything had seemed fine for the last few months. Better than fine, actually. Better than it had been in years. When he first came back from Enforcer training, Justin tried to put on a normal, happy façade, but it wasn’t long before it started to unravel.

  It happened slowly at first, so slowly that Colton hadn’t noticed it. Or maybe he’d been too selfish, so desperate to believe that things could go back to how they’d been before his cousin’s dreams were crushed, that he willfully ignored the signs that not all was right.

  Justin said that he’d known there was a chance he’d be rejected, after all. And Colton had gone to Enforcer training, just like his cousin asked—he hadn’t finished, but Justin didn’t know that. He’d enjoyed the training, more than he thought he would. But he couldn’t shake the sense that he was training to work for blind idiots, and it’d been too weird without his cousin.

  So, he’d packed up early and headed out, taking the long way home so Justin wouldn’t know he bailed on completing the training. Like his dragon pointed out, he didn’t want to make his cousin feel like he was keeping him from his dream.

  Justin seemed a little down when he got back, but that was to be expected, so Colton decided to act like everything was fine, ignoring the signs that his cousin was cracking more and more with every passing day. After a year had gone by, he hadn’t been able to ignore it any longer, but nothing he did or said helped. And the following five years hadn’t gotten any better as Justin continued to spiral.

  But then a few months ago, he completely turned around. He started showing signs of life again. Something had him excited and willing to try to live again, but no matter how much Colton pestered him, he wouldn’t tell him what was going on.

  And then he disappeared.

  That was a month and a half ago and Colton hadn’t rested since. Every second of his time was spent worrying, tracking, making call after call, trying desperately to find Justin. Just vanishing without a word wasn’t like him. Even in his darkest moments, he found it in him to try to force a smile to reassure Colton. He wouldn’t disappear without a trace, if for no other reason than he knew it would worry him.

  Colton finally managed to track down a few people who saw him driving a black Toyota Camry with an Alabama tag and a Tasmanian Devil decal on the back corner of the windshield—just like the one in the corner of the parking lot.

  Thanks to the help of a hacker he knew and a few illegal maneuvers, he finally tracked him to this area in Atlanta. He’d found the car at the hotel and went in to get a room for himself. But at some point, Justin slipped outside and left. Colton panicked and drove around in random circles looking for him, and when he finally gave up and came back here not too long ago, the car was back.

  This time, he was staying in the damned truck until he set eyes on his cousin, no matter how long it took.

  We’ll find him, his dragon said, pacing with agitation inside him.

  I know. At least I think I do. It’s been too long.

  I have a bond with his owl. He’s still alive, and he’s close. We will find him.

  Colton shook his head, not replying. It was hard to stay hopeful like his dragon wanted, but he was trying. But whether he did or not, he knew he’d never give up, even if it looked completely hopeless. He’d scour the ends of the earth for his cousin for the rest of his life, if that was what it took.

  It was times like this that he wished he’d become an Enforcer, though. That he had a team of badasses skilled in hunting at his back. Hell, he could have already found Justin if he had that.

  For the millionth time, he thought about calling Blake Olsen. He’d gone through Enforcer training with him, and although they hadn’t stayed close like they became during that grueling month of training, they stayed in touch. He knew Blake had an Enforcer team of his own, and knowing Blake as he did, they had to be the best of the best.

  The only thing stopping him was that he’d found out the current mission the Blood and Bone Enforcers were on, and it was an important one. They’d found a male dragon who was kidnapping female dragons and auctioning them off. They were in the process of rescuing the females and taking Fernandez down—otherwise, Colton would have called them in ages ago.

  But if he didn’t set eyes on Justin—or at least hear from him—in the next week, he was calling them in, even if they were on an important mission.

  Fucking entitled male dragons. They gave the whole species a bad name. They’d been taught from birth that they were superior in every way, that they had a right to everything. That if they saw something they wanted, they could just take it with no questions asked. And that included the females.

  All dragons hid what they were. The majority of people, shifters included, had no clue they even existed anymore. Dragon hunters used to roam the earth—they still did, although they were scarcer these days—hunting them down and killing them. Probably because they were a threat, and most people feared what they didn’t know, especially anything that was more intimidating than them.

  Kill them before they killed you. It was the number one rule of dragon hunters. They thought surely all dragons were evil man eaters, just waiting to devour them. And since there weren’t any other shifter species capable of defeating a dragon in a fair fight, it painted a target on their backs.

  Kill
ing a dragon also gave someone bragging rights for life, since they were nearly indestructible in their animal forms. So not only did they have those who were scared hunting them, they also had idiots who wanted the title of Dragon Slayer.

  Over time, their species had dwindled to few, and they were hovering on the brink of extinction. It didn’t help that dragon babies were born few and far between. The women had difficulties getting pregnant, and the gene only passed through them. If a male dragon impregnated a different species, the child would always be the other animal. And if a female mated a different species, it was still rare for her to have a dragon baby.

  That was why the females tried even harder than the males to hide. They didn’t only have the hunters to worry about, they had the males, as well. Males were full of their own importance and their need to carry on their line, and they wouldn’t hesitate to steal a female when they found her.

  Fernandez wasn’t just stealing them for himself, though. He was stealing them to auction them off to others and making himself a huge profit by doing so. The man was reprehensible scum.

  Besides the situation with Justin, that was the only other time Colton yearned to be an Enforcer. He’d give anything to be on Blake’s team, taking him down. His dragon hummed in agreement, and the sound sparked his ire more. He’d love to be there when they took him down, and he’d take pleasure in tearing him apart.

  Because it didn’t have to be this way. If each generation would stop teaching their children—the males, especially—that they were entitled to everything they wanted, the vicious cycle would end. The men might actually be fit to walk the earth, and the women wouldn’t have to spend their lives fearing not only the hunters but their own species.

  He was living proof that the old ways could be ditched. Maybe it was because his dad was a snowy owl, not a dragon. Colton was a rare breed—not only had his mom gotten pregnant with him, but he’d gotten her dragon and not his dad’s owl. Or maybe because after his parents were killed, he went to live with his aunt and uncle, neither of whom were dragons. Regardless, it meant that being a dragon didn’t mean they had to be total pricks.

  Movement caught his eye and he jerked his head around sharply, disappointment filling him when he saw it wasn’t Justin. Blowing out a breath, he settled in to wait.

  He wasn’t going anywhere until he found his cousin.

  Chapter Two

  Yawning so wide she felt her jaw crack, Katia stood from her chair at the front desk, making her way to the coffee pot on the counter behind her. Despite her best efforts, it took her forever to fall asleep the night before, her mind too full of mysterious, creepy men to rest easily. She’d gone through half a pot already, but the jolts of caffeine didn’t seem to be working very well.

  She rushed to pour her cup, ready to sit back down as fast as she could. Her feet were still aching from the double shift the day before. Maybe she was getting too old to keep up the schedule she had. Snorting to herself, she took a long sip of coffee, not caring that it was still too hot to drink. It could burn her tongue all it wanted, so long as it woke her up a little.

  Maybe she was working and studying too much. She felt a hundred years older than her twenty-six years. Sometimes she wished she didn’t have such a strong work ethic and could have taken her uncle up on paying for college. It would have made life a lot easier, and she would have been done with school a long time ago, working one job in her chosen field.

  Instead, she was working two jobs that weren’t even close to being what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, and spending every other moment in class or studying. She was worn out, more tired than she should be, but she still didn’t regret making the choices she had. She’d make them all over again if she had to.

  Still… maybe it was time to try to carve out a few hours to find a real life. Maybe even go on a date every now and then. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone on one. Years ago, she was sure.

  But even if she wasn’t dating, she needed to do something differently, shake up her life a little bit. Maybe then she’d have something else to occupy her thoughts than imagining strange men were the Russian mob.

  The door to the hotel opened and she glanced over with an automatic smile, eyes widening as she saw the huge man walking inside. He was absolutely gorgeous, tall and muscled up as he sauntered through the lobby. He glanced her way and she swallowed hard as she met his striking hazel eyes. Grinning at her, he reached up and tipped the black cowboy hat he was wearing.

  He walked toward the hallway opposite of the front desk, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away as she watched him. Her eyes traced over the length of him, stopping on his taut ass, highlighted to perfection in snug jeans.

  She stared until he disappeared down the hallway, blowing out a breath and fanning her face. Lordy. They didn’t get many men who looked like him in these parts, and she found herself wishing she’d been the one to check him in, so she knew his name.

  Now, he was something worthy of daydreaming about, unlike the creepy dudes. If she’d seen him in the diner the night before, she probably still would have had a restless night, but hell, at least her dreams would have been a hell of a lot steamier.

  A few moments passed by as she wondered just how steamy they would have been, but when she glanced up, it felt like she’d been doused with ice water. The men from the diner were walking into the lobby from the hallway opposite of the one the gorgeous cowboy went into, and she swallowed hard as her spine stiffened.

  The car in the parking lot really had been theirs, then. Crap. It was a coincidence she didn’t care for at all—and it had to be a coincidence. There was no way it was more than that. They walked toward the door and she dropped her eyes, pretending like she wasn’t watching them while she gazed through her lashes. The one who paid their tab at the diner looked over at her, staring with narrowed eyes, and she gulped as her stomach tightened painfully.

  She felt like a mouse that had just been spotted by a cat, but she didn’t understand why she was reacting so strongly and negatively to these men. When she saw them at the diner, it was late at night after a long day of working, and she’d been tired. She could kind of understand it then.

  But now… it was midmorning, and she’d at least gotten a little bit of sleep. She was still imagining them as sinister men, though, and her gut was telling her to run. Especially now that it seemed like that one had recognized her.

  He finally looked away, leading the other one out as she gave a sigh of relief that was short lived as the other walked toward her. Plastering on what she hoped was a professional smile, praying that she didn’t look like a scared deer caught in the headlights, she looked up fully as he made his way to the desk.

  “I’d like to check out now,” he said in a deep, cold voice. Was that a Russian accent she heard, or was she projecting things onto him that weren’t there? “Room three fifteen.”

  Nodding, she accepted the room keys and tapped some commands into the computer, reading the name from the screen. “Certainly, Mr. Alexander. I hope your stay was a good one. Do you need a receipt?”

  “No.”

  Eyebrows raising, she watched as he turned around abruptly and walked to the door. Once he was outside, she let out a sigh of relief as she slumped down in her chair. They’d checked out with no fuss and hadn’t killed her for seeing too much before they left. She called that a win.

  Snorting at the direction her thoughts went, she gazed at the keys, trying to resist the urge to go to their room and see if they’d left any incriminating evidence behind. Before she could give in to the urge, the hot cowboy from earlier walked back into the lobby. That time, she didn’t spend the whole time he walked through staring at him, too distracted to give him the appreciation he deserved, but at least his presence distracted her from doing something stupid.

  She should at least give the creepy men time to get on their way before she went snooping, after all.

  Biting her lip, she waited about thirty seco
nds after the lobby emptied—the longest she was able to manage as curiosity burned through her—before picking up the key and standing. But before she could take a step, the door flew open as the cowboy rushed back inside. He jogged over to the desk, the friendly gleam in his hazel eyes replaced with panic.

  “Did a man just check out? About my height, with brown hair and blue eyes. Did you see where he went?”

  She felt her eyes widen as she stared at him, and she slowly her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t give you any information about guests—”

  He cursed as his eyes dropped to the key in her hand. “He’s gone, isn’t he? Dammit!” Yanking his cowboy hat off, he ran his hand roughly over his brown hair before settling it back on. “What room was he in? I need you to let me in.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  His eyes narrowed on her and she felt a shiver creep down her spine as his eyes turned from hazel to a shimmery, iridescent green and yellow. Was that—did his pupil just flicker and elongate for a second?

  God, what was wrong with her? First, she imagined that men in the diner were in the mafia, and now she was seeing eyes flicker and change in a way no humans could.

  Yeah. She definitely needed to get a life, because clearly all the time she spent working was beginning to make her hallucinate.

  “I don’t see why you can’t. He’s already checked out, right?”

  “I’m not sure who you’re looking for, but the man who just checked out was blond, so he can’t be him. Is there something else I can do for you, Mister…?”

  “Alexander,” he muttered, still gazing at her with intense eyes, like he was trying to figure out the best way to talk her into doing what he wanted.

  And then his last name registered, and her eyes dropped to the computer screen still pulled up. Justin Alexander. Uneasiness snaked through her belly as she realized they had the same last name.