by Mikayla Lane
Drago
By Mikayla Lane
Cover art by: humblenations.com
First Wave Series in Reading Order
Hunting Cari
Finding Jess
Chasing Dare
Grai’s Game
Taming Jax
Second Wave Series in Reading Order
Viper
Drago
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Tam- Thank you for just being you!
Beth –Thank you so, so much! My prayers to William!
To my Readers:
Thanks so much for putting up with the delay in Drago’s release (it shouldn’t happen again!) and for all of the awesome reviews, suggestions and comments.
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Mikayla Lane
468 Word Document Pages
102,775 Words
Chapter One
The sharp clicking sound of high heels, echoed loudly on the old floors as Devon Sinclair’s long legs ate up the distance to the office she was looking for. She was so intent on her destination and the coming confrontation that she never noticed that the few people in the building, stared at her in horror before running to hide behind closed doors.
Devon hated this building and what it had come to represent and never came here unless she absolutely had too. And the man that she was hunting down would regret causing her to come, she thought as she tried to tamp down her anger before walking right up to a familiar face.
Devon gave a beautiful smile to the armed guard blocking the stairs. “Hi Tony, how is your new baby girl doing?”
The young man grinned broadly before stepping aside and letting her pass. “She’s doing wonderful, Ms. Sinclair! Thanks so much for your help, we’ll never forget it.”
Devon patted his shoulder as she went up the stairs to the second floor. “You’re more than welcome. If you need anything else, you call my office first.” Devon turned to grin back down at the beaming young man before wiping the smile off her face and heading determinedly up the stairs.
She had learned early on that it was better to catch flies with honey and had paid a lot of attention to the people who could make her job easier. In this world, money was king and she had access to an almost unlimited quantity that she used to achieve an impressive collection of loyal ‘friends’. Friends that gave her freedoms that no other could get.
Devon easily weaved her way past the other guards. Some were friendly, like Tony, others were terrified of her and did their best to avoid her. All of them knew she was the most dangerous thing in the building right now and were glad that they were not the reason for her rare appearance.
She’d only been there one other time in two years and people still talked about it in frightened whispers. Devon didn’t handle stupidity or incompetence well and when people failed her expectations, or to do exactly as they were told, she was known to lash out rather excessively.
Devon stopped in front of the door she was looking for and turned to the guard that was standing near it. “Mike, you should probably go take your new friend for a break. I need about twenty minutes,” Devon said as she nodded to the new guard standing a little further down the hall.
Mike smirked. “You got it Ms. Dev.”
Devon waited until the hallway was clear before walking into the office without knocking. She grinned evilly at the shocked look on the man’s face before noticing the beads of sweat begin to pop out on his forehead.
“Devon… what are you doing here?” He asked, coming to his feet. He’d never been so glad to have the desk between them and vowed to stay behind it and out of the woman’s reach.
Devon casually strode to the front of his desk and sat down in one of the leather chairs in front of it. She crossed one long leg over the other and leaned back before giving him her best hateful stare.
“I believe you know exactly why I am here. In fact, if you hadn’t been avoiding me for the last week, we could have already been done with this conversation. However, you have never been very bright.” Devon stared at his orange tinted complexion and added, “At least not intellectually.”
The man turned beet red. “Wait just a damn…,” he began before Devon stood and cut him off.
With her blue eyes blazing angrily, Devon took a deep breath and sat back down, folding her hands in her lap. She would not allow her anger to control her. “No, you are the one who needs to wait a damn minute. You were tasked with one thing and you screwed it up so badly that there may not be a chance to recover the situation.”
Devon held up one hand when he looked like he was going to speak again and continued. “Then there is the fact that when I tried to get in touch with you, in order to mitigate the damage that you created, you refused all of my calls, texts and emails. Which, of course, made the mess much larger than it had to be.”
Devon sat back and stared at the interesting color on the pathetic idiot’s face. The original orange tint, mixed with the red of his embarrassment and rising blood pressure, made him look like a cartoon character. All she needed now was the river of tears the spineless moron usually produced when cornered for his greed and stupidity. If all else fails, cry, was his motto, but Devon wasn’t swayed by emotion. Definitely not this fools.
Devon sighed when, as expected, he turned watery blue eyes to hers as his weak, quivering voice began the excuses she knew he would make. “Ms. Sinclair… Devon… I was only trying to ensure the success of your plan. It seemed prudent to allow the Chamber of Commerce to benefit from the vote as well…,” he said before Devon cut him off with a wave of her elegantly manicured hand.
“You did nothing as you were asked and now that you have basically told the majority of the country to go fuck themselves it is unlikely that you will be able to pass the bills that we require you to pass.” Devon watched coldly as his tears multiplied and his face turned a darker, mottled red.
He wrung his hands like an old woman and paced behind his chair. “I didn’t have a choice! I couldn’t get them to pass a budget without doing it! Besides, we’re the majority, I’ll keep getting what you want done!”
Devon laughed coldly. “Do you think I’m an idiot? We both know that blatantly going against the will of the majority of the country will not only make you a pariah but potentially unelectable again. Half of your own party believes you to be a traitor.”
Devon snorted. “Don’t get me wrong, I knew you were when you took that first bribe. I expect you to be a traitor. But when you’re told to be one, not for your own gain. There was no reason not to make an effort to make it look like you were following the will of the people. For once.”
Devon watched his trembling hand take his handkerchief out of his breast pocket and wipe the sweat from his brow before he sat heavily in his chair. She was completely unmoved by the watery stare he turned to her before making more excuses.
“Devon, this is not something that can’t be fixed. I… I can make this work the way you want it to work…,” he sputtered before Devon cut him off again.
“You know as well as I do that with the atmosphere in the country right now, the people needed a win. We needed them to think they had a win and you didn’t just ruin that, you destroyed it. And you continue to make it worse by assuming the people are stupid and don’t see what you’re doing!” Devon stood and almost laughed when he flinched away from her like a frightened child.
She put her hands on the desk and leaned across it as he sat as far back as he could, away from her. “I will notify you how we want you to fix this and y
ou will comply immediately. You will answer every single phone call, text and email, promptly, from now on. Do you understand me?” Devon glared at the fool as he cowered behind his desk like the spineless pig that he was.
She waited until he nodded like a bobble head before turning and heading towards the door. She had begun turning the handle when she heard his trembling whisper.
“What are you going to do to me?”
Devon smiled quickly, then wiped all traces from her face as she turned back to the sniveling fool and gave him a hard stare. “Ahhh, you’re thinking of another recent ‘exercising’ accident among your colleagues.” She stared at him hard, her cold blue eyes making a point of looking him up and down while her sneer told him that she didn’t care for him at all.
“We pay very, very well for your allegiance and assistance. We don’t like it when your greed and thirst for power undermine our plans. Besides, the other fool only made a small mistake, and was punished for a very long string of those ‘small’ mistakes.”
Devon smiled widely. “Maybe he will see and understand our view more clearly next time, with his remaining eye. And will remember in the future that our wishes take precedence over his personal greed. Your transgression was much worse than that and will be punished accordingly at a time that I see fit.”
Devon watched as his whole body began to tremble violently before she opened the door to the still empty hallway. She looked at her watch as she walked back down the stairs. Ten o’clock. Just great, she thought. Another long night and it would still take her another five minutes just to get out of this damn building!
Her long legs and her irritation propelled her quickly out of the Capitol Building as she considered the phone call she knew she was going to have to make when she got home. She hated it when the fools she managed went off script. It always made her life a little more miserable than it had to be and that pissed her off.
Easily finding her car, Devon slid behind the wheel and sighed as she put the keys in the ignition, let it warm up, then maneuvered out of the parking lot. She knew she was going to have to suck it up and explain to the boss why their plans were going to be delayed and she didn’t relish the screaming match that she knew would follow either.
Her mind completely preoccupied with the coming phone call, Devon was surprised when she realized she was parked down the street from her house. The long line of cars in front of the homes on the block, forced her to park farther away than she liked and she’d have to hoof it half a block, but that was typical for most neighborhoods in this part of DC. She leaned back in her seat as she turned the car off.
Pushing her thoughts aside, Devon took a deep breath and grabbed her purse and briefcase before she got out of her car. Keys in hand, she shut the door, set the alarm and headed down the empty, snow covered sidewalk to her home.
Her mind on the coming phone call and how she would explain this screw up, she never saw the shadow that pulled away from the bushes and began to follow her.
*****
Drago fle’ te’ Trugh, of the planet Tezaria, looked around the darkened streets with interest. This city fascinated and repelled him at the same time, as impossible as that sounded, he thought as he shook his head. There was also an energy here that was driving him crazy and he couldn’t figure out what it was. It was starting to keep him awake at night. Like tonight, he thought with a sigh.
He had noticed the energy changes when they were in Dillon, TX, but it had increased dramatically since they had arrived here in Washington, DC, two days ago. Drago considered speaking to his sister, Lara, about it but had decided that there was enough going on that he didn’t need to complicate the situation further with what may be nothing.
Besides, he thought to himself, what the hell could he tell her? That he felt as if his blood was on fire? That his energy was roaring through his body as if electrified? He couldn’t sleep? If it didn’t make sense to him, he didn’t think it would make much sense to her either.
Drago shook his head to clear it and continued down the sidewalk that ran in front of the house they had been using since they had arrived in the area. The snow and lateness of the hour had cleared the streets, with only the random car passing by once in a while. He had hoped that the walk in the brisk cold would clear his mind and allow him to try and figure out what was wrong with him, when a sound caused his head to jerk up.
Looking farther down the sidewalk, Drago saw the back of a tall woman in a black business suit, heavy coat and high heeled boots. He saw her keys on the ground beside her, on the snow covered sidewalk and realized that was the sound that he heard. Assuming all was well, he waited for her to pick up her keys and when she didn’t he opened his senses and looked more closely.
The woman was much taller than most human women he had encountered and as he looked around her, he saw a man was holding a gun on her. With his heart racing and without thinking, Drago melted into the shadows of the shrubbery growing in front of the homes, along the sidewalk.
Keeping low, Drago moved quickly to the man and woman, desperate to get to her for reasons he couldn’t explain. He was within feet of them when he heard the woman speak and it sent electric chills down his spine, causing him to pause so he could gain control of himself.
“You really don’t have to do this. I have a lot of money on me and some jewelry you can have. Then you can just walk away and we’ll both pretend like this never happened.” Devon’s husky voice had a slight edge as she held out her hands and spoke to the gunman in front of her that was holding the weapon on her with a shaky hand.
Drago looked through the bushes and saw the man’s gloved, shaking hand and the weapon in it. Anger and fear for the woman roared through his body, dulling all of his senses, but one. He paused for a moment as he gathered his energy.
In the blink of an eye, Drago’s hand shot out. He snatched the man by the back of his neck and pulled him through the bushes. He easily disarmed him and with one punch Drago knocked him out cold. It was only the realization of the smallness of the man that had made him pull most of his energy from the punch before he made contact. Otherwise the man would be dead right now.
Drago looked down at the prone figure on the ground and shook his head in frustration. He had hoped there would be more of a fight. More of something that would distract him from his energy disturbances.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more impressive. Or shockingly direct. Thank you Mister…?” Drago shivered as her voice seemed to skitter up his spine, setting his energy on fire.
He turned slowly and barely contained his gasp as he looked into the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Her light blond hair hung in riotous waves around a heart shaped face. She had full, kissable lips and a long graceful nose with high cheekbones. But it was her light blue/gray eyes that held him riveted to the spot.
He pulled his eyes from her smiling gaze and traveled down her impressive form. His initial assessment had been correct, she was very tall. He estimated her to be at least five-foot eleven, if not a full six-feet tall.
Although she was wrapped up in layers, in deference to the cold and snow, he could clearly see that she was as strong in body as she was beautiful in the face. Unlike most of the human and hybrid women he had met, this one looked like he could touch her and she wouldn’t break.
He stared dumbly at the hand she held out for him and looked back at her blue eyes trying to comprehend what she was saying. Instead he stared in fascination at her pouty lips as they formed the words as she spoke and he could feel himself harden.
It wasn’t until she cleared her throat loudly that Drago shook his head and turned red in embarrassment. He stepped away from the still unconscious man on the ground and moved forward to shake her still proffered hand.
He knew it wasn’t just him that was affected by the energy between them, when their hands touched and her eyes widened. The energy shot through him so quickly and forcefully, he had to force himself to swallow his own gasp of surpris
e. The woman jerked her hand away from him and took a large step back, her wide-eyed questioning stare telling him that she was just as confused by the jolt of energy that ran through them as he was.
Devon stared open-mouthed at the large man who had just knocked out her attacker with a punch that had seemed to come from out of nowhere. The zap of the static electricity she’d felt when they had touched had surprised her almost as much as his sudden appearance.
She had no idea where he had come from. She had looked both ways down the sidewalk when she’d gotten out of her car and hadn’t seen anyone. And she knew he wasn’t a neighbor. She had all of her neighbors checked out before she moved in. Glancing down at her unconscious attacker, she shook her head. She hadn’t seen that asshole either, she thought to herself before looking up into the beautiful, dark blue eyes of her hero.
His eyes were amazing. She’d never seen a blue that was so dark and deep, they almost looked black and the dark swirls were captivating. Devon wasn’t sure what part of him surprised her more, the fact that he was actually taller than her six-foot self, or that he was so hard and deadly looking that she almost felt fear. And she feared nothing. Ever.
His jaw looked like it was chiseled out of stone and the way he seemed to be clenching it only emphasized it more. His perfect brows sat on a strong forehead that looked like it could crush boards... or other heads, very easily.
The guy’s large head sat on a neck that looked to be the size of the man on the ground’s waist. It was that big. His shoulders and chest were as broad as a small table with arms attached that looked like tree limbs with huge baseball glove-like hands.
His waist was only slightly smaller, leading to long legs that were just as big as the rest of him. Rarely in her life had Devon met someone as tall as she, never had she met someone so damn massive and deadly looking. Feeling much less safe than she did moments earlier, Devon swallowed the lump in her throat and took a tentative step away from him.
