The Enforcer (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  Rune didn’t say anything, but his gaze moved from Drake over to Cami. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. Then he clapped a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “It’s time you met my men.”

  “Who says I want to meet them?” But Drake let Rune drag him first to the stove.

  “This is Jiǎ. Don’t hold it against him that he looks like Hall.”

  Jiǎ nodded as he scooped eggs onto a plate for Rune. But all Drake could see was the patch of blank skin on the back of the man’s hand—right at the fleshy part between his thumb and forefinger—where the brand of his king should’ve been. The absence of that mark declared him a rogue. All Drake could think was that for the past centuries, if he would’ve met this man—this rogue—as an enforcer, his job would’ve been to capture him and turn him over to the Alliance or execute him if he put up a fight.

  Rogues were dissenters. Men who’d been kicked out of their clans or who’d chosen to leave. Disloyal. Selfish bastards. Usually the dredges of dragon shifter society. The criminals.

  He glanced at his own hand, now similarly bare.

  Giving up his role as an enforcer, walking away from his team, and especially joining Rune, meant he was rogue now. But, until this second, in his head, it had been a noble thing. In the end, the choice to not be a burden to his friends, his family, had made abandoning everything he’d fought for not a choice at all. He’d do it again.

  The mark of Chandali had disappeared the instant he made the final decision to leave the team and go with Rune. Like Finn’s had changed the instant a new king took the Blue throne. Like a dragon mate’s would appear under fire, and permanently once she successfully mated the right man.

  Fuck.

  He should’ve just pitched himself over the side of Rune’s back on the way here and let his failing body smash apart on the ice and rock of the Andes mountains below them.

  “Jiǎ’s brother attempted to mate the woman Jiǎ believed was his own mate during the last stage of the mating process. She had chosen Jiǎ, but the Mating Council had pushed her to consider both him and his brother.”

  Drake didn’t need to read between the lines to see what came next. If Jiǎ was here, that meant the mate had died. At his brother’s hand.

  Rune didn’t bother to wait for Drake’s response, probably because he knew there wouldn’t be one. “While he can’t cook worth a damn, Jiǎ’s a deadly fighter in both human and dragon forms.”

  Drake didn’t miss that Rune said nothing of trust. So, despite the similar looks, nothing like Hall. His teammate on the Huracáns might be sarcastic, but when it came down to it, Drake knew he could trust Hall with his life. He made a mental note to keep an eye on this one.

  With a reluctance that gnawed at him, he followed Rune to the two tables holding seven other men. Some of whom he knew. Some he’d fought, coming up against them as enemies when his team had assumed Rune’s allegations against the kings, Alliance Council, and Mating Council were crazy and blasphemous.

  …

  Cami was sitting close enough that she could shamelessly listen in on Rune’s introductions.

  She’d gone to Drake’s room expecting to find him there, knowing he’d gained enough strength to not need her to bring him food, only to be greeted by an empty chamber. A message to her that he didn’t need or want her around.

  She was starting to get used to the habitual snap in his voice accompanied by the unsmiling expression. Infuriatingly, that didn’t take away from the chiseled beauty of his face, damn him. When she didn’t smile, she slipped into a resting bitch face that had dates asking if she was okay.

  Drake reminded her of her uncle. Her father’s youngest brother who’d enlisted in the army. Though he’d been retired for years now, he still struggled with what he’d done and seen. The man was all buttoned up, but if you could get him talking, even just a little, sometimes it helped. Like she could see the tension seeping out of him with the words. Not that Tio Matt would ever admit it.

  Drake was like that.

  Maybe this pull she felt to the man sitting across from her was about helping him. Maybe that’s what she was meant to do. Unbidden, her gaze dropped to his lips, but she jerked it back up.

  All she was meant to do.

  Now he was getting to know the men, settling in. Perhaps her part to play in his life had ended.

  Why did that idea sit like a burr under a saddle blanket against her skin?

  The man had made it more than clear that he wanted neither her friendship nor her help. She was tempted to offer him her body, but suspected he’d reject that as well.

  Cami wasn’t into humiliation.

  That left her with no options, and that, for some damn reason, was unacceptable to her.

  “Tyrek you can meet later, and Egan is manning the security room,” Rune’s voice carried across the room, but Cami didn’t pay him much attention. She’d been given the same spiel. Instead, she focused on Drake’s reactions.

  Which wasn’t really a reaction. Crossed arms, usual glower, a nod if they were lucky.

  Wait…was that a… Did he just lift his lip in a snarl? The expression was so fast, she wasn’t entirely sure she caught it. Except the man on the receiving end, a red dragon named Chay, one of three brothers all here together, sort of froze. Deer in a headlight style.

  What was that about?

  “Someone caught your eye?” Skylar asked beside her.

  Cami turned her head and hoped her expression was the neutral indifference she was going for. “I’ve been helping the new guy recover.” She shrugged. “Apparently he glares at everyone. Guess I’m not as special as I thought.”

  There. No one could interpret any amount of interest in her words.

  Anyone except Skylar apparently. “I see.” Skylar’s tilted grin said she wasn’t buying it. “So that’s why you’re staring at his ass like you want to drill holes in it with your eyeballs?”

  Dragon shifters had great hearing. Which, of course, Skylar was well aware. Cami pinned her new friend with a look that said quit it, while at the same time brazening it out. “He does have a spectacular one. Firm, muscular, filling out his pants in all the right ways.”

  A male bark of laughter hastily choked off came from over to her left, but she didn’t bother to look over.

  Skylar stuffed a bite in her mouth and spoke around it. “You just described every man in here.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Apparently, dragon shifters tended toward stupid hotness. Jury was still out on how their brains and souls matched up to the outsides, though. Cami had always thought she’d end up with a funny guy. Brooding sexiness was so not her thing.

  Her gaze slid to Drake. Yeah, Cami. Keep telling yourself that.

  Rune left Drake with his men. “Ready?” Rune asked her.

  Cami blinked. Guilt tried to insert itself in with the mountain of worry already heaped on her when it came to her family. Here she was, focused only on herself, ogling some guy’s ass when he’d been nothing but standoffish with her, and her family was out there trying to put their lives back together.

  Today was phone call day. And this was the first time that hadn’t been the instant thought she’d had when she’d woken or scarfed down her breakfast to get to the call sooner. Like she was already leaving them behind.

  She swallowed around soggy eggs that had turned to cement in her throat and nodded. Maybe they’d have good news about the weather.

  As she followed Rune out of the mess hall—at least that’s the way she thought of the space because it reminded her of a summer camp she went to once—instinct had her glancing at Drake, only to blink because he was right behind her, plate in hand.

  But her head and her heart were too full of her family to try to point out that he could have finished his meal in the hall.

  “Is much of your family still living?” he asked. A little too casually,
perhaps.

  Cami startled a little because this was the first time he’d voluntarily spoken to her since they met. Usually she had to pester or drag words out of him. And a question no less. About her life. A piece of it that part of her wanted to share with him for reasons passing all understanding, which bothered her enough for the other part of her to want to protect it in some strange way. Like if he was involved, that made her leaving them more real.

  “Yes.”

  From the corner of her eye, she couldn’t miss how his expression went all flat and irritated at her one-word response.

  “That’s unusual. To have family.”

  “So I’ve been told.” Of the five other women here, besides Skylar and Yelena, only one other had family still living, and then only parents. No siblings or extended family. Rune had explained it as the fates not giving more to a new dragon mate than she could handle.

  What? So the fates—whoever those mysterious entities were—put them through the hell of losing people close to them or being alone while they were human, just so they could leave that life behind easily? The fates were total bitches in Cami’s opinion. And what did that say about her? That she could handle hurting her family with her absence? Handle missing them? The most important people in her life?

  “You haven’t talked about them,” Drake said.

  Did he even want to know? Her impression so far was he didn’t give a shit about her and would rather she just leave him alone, anyway. What had he said after that overheard phone call with her parents? That she should leave them? “Why would I?”

  “Seems like you’ve shared everything else about your life,” he pointed out on a dark grumble of words.

  She almost smiled at the complaint implicit in his tone.

  Rune stopped at an open door to the room where they usually made her calls and nodded at the man currently sitting in front of the monitors. Egan, a blue dragon who had an unfortunate chewing gum habit. Loud. All the time. Egan hopped up and left the room.

  She went to follow Rune inside.

  “Cami—” Drake put a hand on her arm, stopping her with a surprisingly gentle touch. “Answer me. Why not this?”

  With a hard, reddish gaze he scanned her face, searching for answers most likely, but also something more. A shadow in his expression, in his eyes—something she couldn’t put her finger on—made her feel like he truly wanted to know but was pissed at himself for the wanting.

  Maybe it was the way he gripped her arm, or the flash of surprise—there one instant, then gone in a blink—probably at himself for pushing the issue. But suddenly she wanted to curl into his big body and lay every problem she had over shoulders broad enough to bear the weight.

  Cami stepped away from him. “You haven’t earned the right to this part of my life.”

  She’d bet the scowl he laid on her at that would’ve scared lesser mortals right out of their skin. Even so, she felt no fear of him. No need to duck and cover.

  Which either made her bat-shit crazy or…something else.

  “But Rune has earned the right?” Drake snapped.

  After days trying to help a sick man, no matter how honed his body, this was the first time she saw the warrior—hard, uncompromising, and, oddly, pissed as hell.

  “Yes. He has.” On that declaration, she shut the door on Drake’s scowling face.

  Chapter Seven

  Ogun glared out the window of his bedroom without seeing the pristine snowy vista laid out before him like an endless ocean of mountaintops. The phone against his ear rang with an annoying, endless sound. Unanswered.

  As it had gone for the last week.

  Not a word from Tineen about Nidhogg’s progress with the investigation into the Huracán team. With a low growl, Ogun jerked the phone from his ear and hit the button to end the call. Only to have the thing ring a second later. He narrowed his eyes at the untraceable number displayed, then hit the button to answer.

  “Yes,” he snapped.

  “I apologize,” Tineen’s smooth tones came over the line. “I was literally on the other line with Nidhogg when you called and wanted to get his full report before talking to you.”

  “And?” Ogun tried to keep any eagerness from his voice.

  “He’s discovered very little so far. Rune’s people were indeed responsible for the most recent fire the Huracáns dealt with.”

  Damn.

  “There are two small things of note that he’d like longer to check out.”

  “Which are?”

  “He’s scented one or two of the Huracán team near a small human ranch that was affected by the fire.”

  “That’s not unusual. They were helping put it out.”

  “They did so in daylight hours. The two dragons he’s scenting shouldn’t have been out in daylight.”

  Ogun pulled a face. That wasn’t exactly a smoking gun. A waste of checking, most likely. “Fine. And the other?”

  “Drake Chandali seems to be missing.”

  Ogun scowled. “I thought your man was going to stay away from the team. They can’t know he’s there.”

  “Trust us to do our jobs.” Tineen came the closest to a snarl that Ogun had heard from the Alpha who tended toward irritatingly stoic.

  Ogun said nothing as he wrestled with either calling the Alaz leader out for insubordination or letting it go. “I assume he can’t get too close?”

  “No. Which is why he wants to look more. But he’s seen every other team member, including the orphans the team is training—”

  “Yes. We already know about them.”

  Ogun put a hand to the window, allowing the cold of the glass to seep through his palm, soothing his frustration. “It doesn’t sound like he has much but have him continue.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Tineen?”

  “Sir?”

  “If Drake’s discovered, execute him.”

  The Alpha paused. “Yes, sir.”

  …

  The door to yet another random path that led back to the hangar room creaked. Didn’t they have any WD-40 in this place? Though as rust coated as the hinges were, it probably wouldn’t do any good. Drake paused just inside the door as a scent hit his nose. He didn’t need to bother to look for the source. He knew who was out there without having to open the door wider.

  Cami.

  He could smell the enticing scent of her, floral and fresh with that hint of winter and smoke…and damned if his body wasn’t already tensing with whatever the hell she made him feel. He refused to label it.

  What was she doing near the hangar? Alone. The most vulnerable of all the rooms in this place.

  “Get lost?” he asked as he came the rest of the way through the door.

  Her back was to him, arms folded. She seemed to be surveying the room. The second he spoke, her shoulders tensed, and she paused before turning to face him.

  “I like seeing natural sunshine. Rancher’s daughter. I’ve spent most of my life outdoors.”

  He remembered.

  “You’re looking better,” she said as she turned to walk back into the cave. “Still pale under your natural coloring, but an improvement over death’s whipping boy.”

  He fell into step beside her. “I feel better.” Clearer. He’d even risked working out this morning, putting his body through push-ups and sit-ups with little effort.

  No way would it last. This was the universe dangling normal in front of him before it sideswiped his legs out from beneath him. It had to be.

  “You shouldn’t push too hard,” she warned.

  Drake gritted his teeth against the tone in her voice. Total mother hen mode. The last thing he wanted Cami to be with him was motherly. “I’m fine.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be difficult.” She paused and seemed to consider her words. “Oh wait. This is you.”


  An unwanted ping of humor tugged at him. She did that a lot. Made him want to laugh. A small grrrr of frustration escaped him instead. Both for the situation, and for wanting to laugh.

  His dragon gave a little hiss inside his head at that. The stupid animal seemed to like Cami, like it when she came around…and that side of Drake, like the man, didn’t like anyone.

  “I’ve been wanting to ask you…what’s an enforcer?”

  The woman was always full of questions. “Ask Rune.”

  “I did.”

  “And?”

  “He decided it was more important to fly off for patrol at the time. I suspect that talking about it is too…painful for him.”

  “Yeah.” It should be. Rune may have been right, but he’d also abandoned his team instead of fighting to make them see the truth.

  “So? Enforcers?” she prodded.

  He was going to have to answer her. After days spent together, he knew that much. But it wasn’t the talking that had him bothered. The fly in his drink was the fact that he wanted to tell her these things. Talking to Cami was almost…soothing. In the strangest way. In a way he had no intention of exploring.

  …

  Drake’s lips flattened, probably because he knew she wouldn’t take silence as an answer. “Enforcers are the best and most loyal fighters from each of the six clans,” he said.

  Rune had told her about the clans—Blue, Black, Green, Gold, White, and Red—each led by a king. Dragon shifters had started in Asia and Europe, colonizing Africa to start, and then, as European humans got around to finding the Americas and Australia, they’d colonized those next.

  “Two from each clan make up a team who are given a region in a colony to help govern.”

  “You make the laws?” she asked slowly.

  He bent a look on her that she had no trouble interpreting. Stay quiet and he’d tell her.

  Cami buttoned her lips together and waved for him to continue.

  “The kings make the laws. The Alliance—one man appointed by each king—are the authority in the North American colony and have the power to interpret and, sometimes, even add to the laws. Three enforcer teams in the Americas—the Imoogi team in the eastern region, the Alaz team in the central region, and the Huracán team, my team, in the western region.”