The Enforcer (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  Drake slid a single finger inside her in one long stroke, humming to himself, probably because she was so damn wet. Then he paused. “Did you know some dragon shifters can shift a single part of themselves?”

  Already panting, she lifted her head to stare at him. “Is this the best time for lessons in dragon shifter physiology?”

  “Most can’t,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken. Only now he slowly added movement to his finger, fucking her with it in long strokes. “But I can.”

  Cami swallowed as he brushed her clit with the pad of his thumb. “Oh yeah?”

  What was he talking about again?

  “You want to know what I can shift?”

  She swallowed again, pumping her hips now to the rhythm of his finger, using his shoulders as leverage, trying to make him go faster. “I want you to make me come,” she said.

  The fire still starkly beautiful in his eyes turned almost black it went so hot. “Then you’re going to love this.”

  He opened his mouth and Cami gasped at the sight of a forked tongue, the split long and—She jerked her gaze to his as all the sexual implications struck her, and damned if she didn’t get a hell of a lot wetter at the mental image of what he was about to do to her.

  Drake tipped his head back, mouth open, and blew a concentrated stream of red-tipped flames into the air.

  Superheating that sexy as sin tongue.

  The thought barely had time to manifest before he was on her, pulling his finger out to replace it with his mouth, spearing her with that long, hot tongue.

  Cami about came off the bed, though he had her precariously positioned. Heat went everywhere as he fucked her with that incredible dragon tongue. Only he didn’t just fuck her. Almost as if he could control both sides of the fork independently, curling them inside her in ways that had her fisting the sheets and writhing.

  Drake lifted his head, a knowing light in his eyes. “More?”

  She didn’t bother to answer. Just pushed his head back down. His chuckle against that most intimate part of her only driving her higher as he went back to owning the pleasure of her body with his mouth.

  But he wasn’t done. Even as his tongue plunged into her over and over, his pace frantic, something hot and wet lashed at her clit. Also him? One part of the fork in and one out? He could do that?

  Actually, she didn’t give a shit about the how of it all, only how incredible it felt.

  Whatever he was doing, he turned that wet, velvet heat on that bundle of nerves into a vibrator, ramping her desire until she thrashed beneath him, her hips held still by his hands, gripping her tightly. Moans poured from her unbidden and almost unnoticed as every part of her focused on what he was doing with his mouth.

  Pressure built. Tightened. Swelled.

  Then imploded. Cami screamed as he continued to fuck her with that amazing tongue while sensation crashed through her, stealing her breath and cutting off her screams of pleasure, drawing out her orgasm until she was practically sobbing with the pleasure, then slowing, gentling, lapping at her until she sighed, going limp. Drake lifted his head, hands kneading her hips as he lowered her to the bed.

  “You okay?”

  “Wow.” The word punched from her. She lifted her head, which took some effort given the lethargy stealing through her body, and grinned. “What else can you do with that tongue?”

  “You’ll have to wait and see.” He stood, scooped her up, and dropped to the bed with a groan and with her across his chest.

  With a surprisingly gentle touch he smoothed her hair off her forehead and tucked her head under his chin. “I told Rune he owed you. My guess is he provided the workers for the house, and he’s footing the bill, too. The least he could fucking do when his fire stole everything from your family in the first place.”

  Cami blinked. Drake had done that? “When?”

  “While we were still in the Andes. I didn’t know when he’d get around to it, though.”

  When he was still mostly annoyed by her? Absently, she traced a pattern over his chest with the tip of her finger. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  He shifted under her like even the words made him uncomfortable. “He owed you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Yeah, well…” He lifted a hand, probably running it through his hair, but she didn’t raise her head to see, too content where she was. “Don’t thank me yet.”

  Cami paused in her finger tracing. “Why?”

  “Levi’s in my head relaying info. The group Rune sent are bear shifters.”

  With a gasp she jackknifed to sitting, staring at him. “You sent bear shifters to my family?”

  “I didn’t send them.”

  Cami narrowed her eyes. “What kind?”

  “The kind who shift into large bears.”

  She pinched his arm.

  “Ow.” He rubbed at the spot.

  “I mean what kind of bear,” she pressed.

  “Grizzly.”

  Giant grizzly men were building her family’s ranch back up? Even with what she’d witnessed the last months, she had trouble wrapping her mind around it.

  “I see,” she said faintly.

  Drake paused, eyes going all vague as he looked into a distance she couldn’t see, obviously working through something.

  A not-good something if the way his brows inched lower over his eyes was an indication. “Fuck.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “When Rune got Sera away from the Alaz team and the Alliance, Hall still had her son, Blake. Rune made it look like he stole Blake, too, so that Hall didn’t come under suspicion. And he used—”

  “Grizzly shifters?”

  “Yeah. Rune’s out of pocket. He probably set this up before he left on whatever damn crusade he’s on now.”

  She could already see where this was going. “Aren’t the Alaz guys coming here? What if they swing by my ranch and smell them?”

  Wouldn’t they be suspicious at the very least?

  She hardly finished the sentence before Drake was out of the bed, throwing her clothes at her. “Get dressed. We need to get to your ranch.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cami struggled to keep up with Drake’s long-legged stride as he hurried them downstairs. From out of nowhere, he produced a cell phone, tapping at the screen and still managing not to trip or walk into anything.

  “Are you letting Finn know?” she asked.

  He didn’t look up, not even as they went down the stairs. “I will. This is Rune. I’m texting his pager. Those are his guys out there.”

  Hopefully those guys could clear out before the Alaz team arrived. She knew Drake was right. Rune would want to know either way.

  “I can’t believe he was this stupid,” he muttered to himself. “I just hope he’s back on the grid.”

  Cami set aside the fact that he’d shared the thought rather than keeping it in, huge progress for her destined mate. He would not appreciate anything that resembled a pat on the head. “What do you mean off the grid?” she asked instead.

  He paused, then kept typing. “It’s part of what I brought you here to tell you about. Hall has been working for Rune all this time. He told us Rune was off the grid.”

  Okay. Let me unpack that overstuffed set of information. “Rune’s often gone for days or weeks at a time.”

  “Yeah.” Drake changed the screen to phone mode and pulled up the last number. Her parents’ number.

  Cami waited in silence, able to hear the tiny sound of the ring.

  “Christina, this is Drake.”

  She could hear her mother’s voice, but not quite make out the words.

  Drake grimaced, though. “I’m happy I could help. Do you mind putting the foreman on?”

  “Of course.” Cami caught the response that time.

 
; A beat of silence, then the base tones of a male voice came over the line, exactly what she’d have guessed a grizzly might sound like.

  Drake didn’t bother with niceties. “You’ve got the Alaz enforcer team of dragons coming down on your ass. No way they don’t recognize your scent if you’re the same grizzlies that helped snatch a little boy last summer.”

  “Fuck.” Again, she got the single word.

  “Get your asses out of there,” Drake warned.

  “Right. Thanks for the heads up.”

  Drake hung up the phone with a swipe. Before he could say anything, the ear-piercing wail of a siren split the air. Instinct had Cami ducking and covering her ears with her hands. Drake didn’t stop, though, and she hurried after him, jogging a little awkwardly because her ears were still covered by both hands. How was this not killing his more sensitive hearing?

  “What is that? Are we being attacked?” she yelled over the sound.

  “It’s the signal to gather in the war room. Something has shown up on our systems.”

  “And?” This was one of those times she wasn’t loving his non-communicativeness.

  “And we’ll find out when we get there. Could be a fire. Could be something else.” Only the grim set to his mouth told her he wasn’t banking on something else.

  The same as yesterday, only now she knew where she was going, they ran down the spiral stairs leading to the next level. Only, unlike yesterday, the pounding of booted feet came before and after them as every person in the mountain rushed to get there.

  Inside the room, crowded with such big men, including several younger men she hadn’t seen yesterday, was a massive golden-haired guy with a jaw hewn from rock that had to be Levi, and, of course, Delaney and Lyndi.

  Finn stood front and center, his back to the wall of monitors and screens, Delaney at his side. The other woman sent her a brief flash of a smile when Cami inched in behind Drake. Lyndi did, too.

  “What’s up, boss?” Rivin…or was it Keighan?…asked from behind her. She kept getting those two mixed up.

  “I’ve asked Kanta to come in from patrol,” Finn said. “Give him a second.”

  “Righto.” The white dragon shifter turned to her with a smile and hand outstretched to shake. “We didn’t really get a chance to meet last night. I’m Rivin.”

  Cami gave his hand an exaggeratedly wary look. “I’d shake, but I don’t know where that hand has been.” She grinned to let him know she was joking.

  Rivin’s white-blue eyes lit with appreciation, his grin about as charming as any she’d encountered. “Oh, I like you. What do you think, Keigh?”

  “Definitely,” the dark-haired man beside him agreed. But Cami didn’t take either of them seriously.

  That was until a devilish light lit Rivin’s face. “Hey, Drake, I know you have dibs, but can we—”

  “No,” Drake snapped.

  Rivin cocked his head. “You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

  Drake narrowed his eyes, the red in the flames consuming his irises more crimson now. A warning, if she had to guess. “The answer’s no to anything and everything you want to do with her.”

  “That hurts, man. It really does.” Rivin shook his head and clutched his hand to his chest, doing a decent wounded impersonation. Then he switched his focus back to her. “So…Drake talks about us, huh?”

  Keighan reached around her to give Drake a playful shove. “I knew you were interested in joining us, you dirty dog. Why don’t you want to share now?”

  Share? As in her?

  Not that she’d want it in reality. She’d be too self-conscious and didn’t need anything more than Drake for her body to ignite in desire. That didn’t make the mental image of all three men bringing her pleasure any less sexy, though.

  Cami waited for Drake to snap Rivin’s hand off, or at least snarl, but he just ignored the white dragon shifter. He also took her hand and pulled her around, practically putting his body between her and the other two.

  A move that only made Keighan laugh. “Look at that.”

  “He doesn’t trust us with the new mate,” Rivin added. “How cute.”

  Kanta walked into the room, and the two suddenly turned serious. Immediately silence bloated with expectation filled the room until it felt ready to pop.

  Finn turned to the gold brute beside him. “Levi?”

  She’d been right. So that was their Beta?

  Levi lifted his hand, showing the brand on the back between his thumb and forefinger. “My brand has changed.”

  With Drake pressed up against her back the way he was, no way could she miss how he stiffened, or the murmurs from the shifters around her.

  “Um…” She stuck her hand in the air.

  Finn’s eyebrows went up, amusement lighting his otherwise serious gaze which licked from her up to Drake. He shrugged against her, and Finn dropped his gaze back to her. “Cami?”

  “For those of us who don’t know what that means?”

  “Ah.” He gave a sharp nod. “Every dragon shifter carries the mark of the king of their clan.”

  She knew that. It was part of her education with Rune, though the rogues she’d been living with bore no such marks. Cami still nodded.

  “A change in brand means that the clan has a new king.”

  She glanced around the room of grave faces. Way too grim for what seemed like a pretty simple thing. America changed presidents every four to eight years. What was the big deal? “And that’s a…bad thing?” she asked.

  “We don’t know yet.” To give him credit, Finn didn’t get frustrated by the questions. “The clans went through a major upheaval of kings about five hundred years ago.”

  She waited for the next bit that was definitely coming, no way was that it.

  Sure enough, Finn continued. “We hadn’t had a new king since in any of the six clans. And, in the space of a year, we have two.”

  Two. Two of the six dragon shifter clans had new kings.

  She knew about Ladon Ormarr, the new King of the Blue Clan. She was also vaguely aware that his reign wasn’t exactly going smoothly, at least, based on how the guys around Rune’s mountain had talked. And now, apparently, a new king for the Gold Clan?

  “What family took the throne?” Kanta asked.

  “That’s the thing.” Levi’s eyes glittered like a dragon’s hoard of gold. “The new mark is the brand of our previous king. The house of Dagrun. But I thought that entire family was wiped out. Executed when Uther Hagan took the throne by force.”

  Behind her Drake shifted on his feet. Something was going on over her head here. “I get that a new king is a big deal, but why the alarm?” she asked.

  Finn looked at Delaney who nodded. Like he needed support for what he was about to say?

  “We’ve heard from the Alliance already. The entire Alaz team is coming here now, not just Tineen and Nidhogg. They should be here within the hour.”

  “What, all of them?” Rivin demanded.

  Cami backed up into Drake, who took her by the shoulders, like he could pass his strength to her. Only, with them, it was the other way around. She was his strength, a notion that bolstered her now.

  “I won’t have time to get Cami home,” Drake said.

  “No,” Finn agreed.

  “Boss…” Hall called, his gaze trained on the wall of monitors.

  Finn didn’t answer.

  “I could take her to a cabin,” Drake said. “That’s not unusual to have a human at one of our private spots. I don’t have one, but Rivin’s maybe, since we’ll need to drive there to avoid flying with a human.”

  “Boss…” Hall called again, moving to the long desk that sported a series of various keyboards and paraphernalia.

  “That could work,” Finn agreed.

  “Boss,” Hall snapped. “You need to
see this now.”

  Finn spun and looked over Hall’s shoulder at a screen with a red blip of color. “Fuck.”

  “Do you see where it is?” Hall mumbled, waving a finger at the screen.

  Fear was a nasty feeling that Cami was starting to get pretty damn sick of. Not that she could control the way her entire body filled with it at that question. There was no reason to suspect it had anything to do with her—

  Finn looked at Drake, blue flames consuming his eyes for the first time since they’d come in the room. Not a good sign.

  “No,” Drake said.

  Her gut clenched at the sound of the word, the dread in that single syllable.

  But Finn nodded. “I’m afraid it’s right on Cami’s ranch.”

  “Oh my God.” The words punched from her. Cami shook her head, shock stealing her ability to get past those three words. “Oh my God,” she said again.

  Not again. She’d brought this down on the people she loved most. How could she have been so naive, so damn selfish?

  “Let me go,” Drake said to Finn. Asked. Why was he asking? Why wasn’t he sprinting out of here to go save her family? His body practically vibrated behind her.

  Finn shook his head in a hard motion. “I can’t let anyone go.”

  “What?” Cami whipped her head back and forth, looking between the two men as Drake stared down his Alpha, his jaw chiseled from the same stone as the mountain they sheltered in. “Why not?” she demanded. “That’s my family.”

  Finn winced. “The fire is not dragon caused, it’s natural. Otherwise the color on that screen would show a different heat signature.”

  “So?” Cami was ready to start throwing punches if someone didn’t do more than stand here jabbering.

  “We’re not allowed to intervene unless it’s dragon fire,” Drake explained through clenched teeth. He bent a look on his leader that made even Cami shiver. “You suspect the Alaz team set it deliberately?”

  “To test you? And us?” Finn asked. He shrugged. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

  Drake stared at Finn, and for long moments they didn’t move or speak. Moments they didn’t have to debate this, dammit. Her ranch was on fire. Again.