Dragons For Hire: A Dragon Shifter Romance

by Sadie Sears

  The look on Lila’s face as she ran haunted me. I knew exactly where her mind had gone when she saw that woman in the hall. The woman who’d been bitten by a dragon who thought he was her destined mate—and was wrong.

  If the wizards hadn’t already been arrested for their schemes at the hospital, I would’ve loved nothing more than to track them down and throttle them for ruining this sacred bond, not just for me, but for Mitias’s friend.

  I stood out there on the street for a while, watching the spot where Lila’s car had disappeared around the block. I barely even noticed when they brought the woman out and I didn't pay attention to the screaming ambulance that had to go around me to get of the house. When another car pulled up and Gretta walked out of the house with a boy no older than seven or eight, face red and streaked with tears, I got a taste of Cam’s empathy, and my heart broke for the boy and snapped me out of my daze.

  “What happens to them now?” I asked Cam when he approached.

  “There’s no known cure for this.” Cam huffed and lowered his head. “I got her calm so they could get her into the ambulance, and Gerald should be headed there now, but I don’t know what they can do for them. They might be looking at padded cells and lithium medicine for a long time. And if Gerald’s dragon gets out of control—”

  “They’ll have to put him down.” I swallowed hard and watched the car with the boy pull away. Gretta stood on the sidewalk holding her stomach. “What about the kid?”

  Cam squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Being an ether dragon, empathy weighed heavily on him, and he couldn’t always control what he felt when he was around other people.

  “She was trying to kill him. He locked himself in the bathroom. She was going to kill him and then herself. When whatever spell Gerald was under wore off, and he tried to explain that he wasn’t her true mate, she snapped. He tried to pull her out of it, and when he realized it wasn’t working, he came for help.”

  “What will they do with him?”

  “Family, friend, maybe foster care? I’m not sure.” Cam looked up and met my eyes. “She was a friend of Lila’s, that woman.”

  Fuck.

  That complicated things.

  Today was the day of fantastic timing. I found my destined mate, but she turned me away fervently, then we found out that her friend was turned into a lunatic by another dragon who thought he’d found his destined mate. I would be lucky if Lila ever let me near her again.

  Those damn wizards. A thought popped into my mind that curdled my blood. “Cam, you don’t think I’m under a spell, do you?” I looked at him in horror.

  But he shook his head right away. “I doubt it. They’ve been in jail for a few weeks. Long enough for the spell to wear off with Gerald.”

  Maybe he had a point. It certainly felt real. “What if a different wizard got to me?”

  “If you’re that worried about it, come around and Theo and I can check you out to be sure. I know it seems hopeless now, but give her time,” Cameron said. He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Destiny is never wrong.”

  “No, but sometimes it has shitty timing.”

  Cam’s huff of laughter eased some of the tightness in my chest. “I think Sam would agree with you on that one. Take some time, go fly or mingle with people and get out of your head for a bit.”

  Evening wasn’t too far off, which meant dinner would be starting soon, and I still had that shift to look forward to at the old folks’ home. Maybe Miss May would bring me some more of her granddaughter’s homemade cookies so I could try to recreate them at home. I nodded reluctantly and turned toward my truck.

  “Leath.”

  Gretta stepped off the sidewalk in front of me. Her expression looked serious, but I couldn’t tell if it was directed at me or left over from the situation we’d just been through.

  “Why did you leave her this morning?”

  Oh, yeah, that look was meant for me. “She literally shoved me out the door and told me to forget we ever met.”

  Gretta winced and sighed. “Yeah, that sounds like Lila. She’s too stubborn to know what’s good for her. But you still shouldn’t have left. That creep is still out there, whether she believes it or not.”

  I wasn’t going to argue that with her. If I’d been in the right headspace, I would’ve stayed outside on the porch and watched over her, or better yet, in the forest where she couldn’t see me and yell at me, but I could watch the property and listen for trouble.

  “I know. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’ll head out there now, keep a low profile.” I scratched the back of my neck and nodded at the house behind her. “After this, I don’t think seeing me is going to do anyone any favors.”

  Gretta’s mouth opened, then shut, and she shook her head and hopped back onto the sidewalk. I climbed into my truck, waved to Sam and Cam, and headed for the mountain. A few weeks ago, Sam had shown me a great place to shift and take off, so I went there. Knowing now where Lila’s place was, I could fly and burn off some energy, then go watch and protect. My golden oldies would have to do without me tonight. My mate needed me, even if she didn’t know it.

  After calling in a replacement at the home, I flew, letting the wind pull the thoughts from my head. I kept low, skimming the treetops, inhaling the scent of pine and maple. Lake Champlain came into view, and I had half a mind to dive in, but curbed that thought. The heat probably made a good swimming day, and who knew how many people were down there now. There were tons of public and private beaches all along the shore, and I would most likely cause a panic.

  Tilting my green and bronze wings, I turned back toward Spruce, sweeping around the outskirts of town until I spotted the familiar house with the horseshoe driveway. I made sure to stay low, then dove down, flying in between the trees when I got close enough. Even in my smaller form, I was nearly as big as a car, so it was a tight squeeze in places. Utilizing my dragon senses, I circled the house, sneaking up to the tree line every few minutes to try to get a glimpse of Lila inside.

  Just to make sure she was okay.

  I spotted her on my fourth try. She sat alone in a very open room, legs crossed. Probably meditating, judging by her stillness and even breathing. I caught a faint hint of peppermint on the air and vaguely recalled that it was supposed to be a calming tea, up there with chamomile and lavender. Once upon a time it’d been a favorite of mine. Now it only brought bad memories. I huffed the smell from my nostrils and kept going.

  I was coming up on her front gate, which was naturally standing open again, when I smelled something. One of the advantages of being an earth dragon was being able to differentiate between natural plant smells and not-plant smells. This smell was distinctly not-plant. It was, as far as I could tell, human. And I could tell.

  I followed my nose to footprints that stopped just inside the gate, along with small circular indentations around them. The person wasn’t very large, but an adult at the very least. The impressions in the ground suggested an odd way of walking, inconsistent, perhaps trying to sneak up quietly. This was either her stalker or a very shy client.

  Taking a large whiff of the scent and trying to hold on to it, I kicked up into the sky and headed back to where I’d parked my truck. The sun was starting to set now, so I threw my clothes back on quickly and drove my truck back into town. I found a good spot by the park and pulled in, letting my gaze linger appreciatively on a beautiful red maple.

  First, I headed toward Snowshoe Brew. My nose wasn’t quite what it was when I was in my dragon form, but it was still strong enough to sort smells. I circled the block, then went down to the next block, trying to match the scent that was outside Lila’s gate. Considering that I towered over most people, the person’s seemingly shorter stature wasn’t enough to go on to narrow it down. Hell, out of my clan mates, only Theo matched me in height.

  As I circled in front of Sprucie’s on Main, I heard someone call out.

  “Hey, Leath!”

  I was tempted to shift and roar at them to g
o away, that I was busy on a job, but I couldn’t bring myself to. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I’d been excited about getting to know the people in the town. I was a veritable social butterfly. If I went around flexing my dragon muscles and growling at people, no one would talk to me anymore, and that would be a different kind of pain.

  When I forced my eyes up, I saw Mike jogging across the street. He was frowning, never a good sign, but I pulled my chin up and met him with an extended hand. He took it hesitantly, shaking briefly. Mike was a shifter, a member of the local wolf pack. One of theirs had gotten caught up in the wizard situation and ended up in the hospital not too long ago.

  “How’s Reggie?” I asked.

  Some of the tension drained from his shoulders. “Fully recovered now, thanks to you and yours. Thanks for asking. Sorry for bothering you—you looked kind of focused on what you were doing—but I was kind of hoping to ask about what happened earlier today? Kristin—she wasn’t pack or anything, but we’re a small community, you know? She was one of our favorite servers here. We heard something went down and that you all were involved somehow.”

  There was no insinuation in his tone, just genuine curiosity. I tried to recall the woman’s face, Kristin’s, and realized that I had actually recognized her. The last time I could remember seeing her, she’d been hanging off of Dominic’s arm, our other fire dragon. That hit a little closer to home than I was comfortable. What if those wizards had targeted Dom instead of an outsider?

  “They said she started missing shifts, and then just never came back, no call, no warning,” Mike said. He scratched the back of his head, messing his hair up, and leaned in closer. “Is it, you know, the wizards again?”

  I wasn’t sure how much to tell the wolves, but I didn’t think it would hurt to be aware of any potential backlash. They had, after all, been the de facto protectors of this town long before we showed up a few months ago. Dragons made up less than one percent of the population, so in a town of five thousand, there were probably fifty dragons in the immediate area, give or take, but they weren’t outspoken about it like the wolves. They tended to remain in the shadows. The Dragons for Hire crew was an exception to the general rule that dragons flew under the radar when possible.

  “We don’t have all of the details yet, but another dragon in the area, an old friend of the clan that lives nearby, thought she was his true mate and gave her the claiming bite, but it drove her crazy. It looks like the wizards were involved, just based around the time it first happened, but we can’t be sure which one of them, Gerald or Kristin, was manipulated until some tests are run.”

  As I spoke, Mike’s eyes hardened. “So, you’re saying another dragon did that to her?”

  I held my hands up. I didn’t have time to do this right now. “Look, from what I heard, he was entirely convinced she was his mate. Whether the wizards did something to him to make him think that, or did something to her to attract him, we don’t know. If the wizards had beef with the wolves like they do with us, it could’ve easily been one of you.”

  Mike let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, I got you. Sorry. Tension’s just been a little high since you guys came into town. Thanks for telling me. Will she, uh, come out of it?”

  “They usually don’t.” I shrugged and gave him a sympathetic look. “I know that they normally send them to a specialist for it, but that’s it.”

  “Jeez, man, she has a kid.”

  I wasn’t about to get into those details. The look on the little boy’s face when Gretta brought him out of that house was enough to haunt me the rest of the day. I just nodded and hoped that was the end.

  As if sensing my desire to leave, Mike started to turn. “Well, thanks again. If you guys need any help with anything, you know where to find us.”

  I waved as he jogged back across Main to Sprucie’s and continued on my route. Dark was falling fast now, and I had pretty much given up any hope of finding that person’s scent among all the thousands of others in town. My gaze lingered on the beech tree further down the street, contemplating sitting beneath it for a while, but that wouldn’t get me on the trail. With a sigh, I started the trek back to my truck.

  When I got back to the park, instead of going to my truck like I expected to, I ended up on a bench close to the red maple I’d noticed earlier. I wasn’t sure what made me change my mind, except for how cluttered it was, maybe.

  Though Sprucie’s and Snowshoe Brew were bustling, there weren’t many people out on the street at this time. It was fairly calm and quiet, almost peaceful. Crickets chirped and fireflies lit up the open space of the park. I wondered if Lila ever thought to meditate here in the quieter hours of the day.

  The sound of running caught my attention, and I turned to see a woman jogging down Main. I almost went to see how I could help when she raised her hand at the intersection, and I heard an answering call across the way. I shook my head and laughed at myself for being a paranoid mess.

  Sitting back in my seat, I saw another person heading down the sidewalk of the parallel street. A man, walking with a cane. The circular indentations around the footprints. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, then caught myself. There were plenty of people that walked with canes, including Lila, I was fairly sure. Probably most of her clientele did since, if she was anything like most yogis, they went to her for chronic pain management.

  He stopped near the intersection and peeked in the window of a seemingly empty building on the corner. I felt a little guilty for suspecting the guy who was probably just looking for his favorite store, only to find out it wasn’t there anymore. That had to be rough but stick around long enough like we did and changes like that were inevitable.

  When the man rounded the corner and disappeared, I finally got up and jumped in my truck. There was still time to circle around Lila’s on foot again. Maybe I could find more evidence of places the stalker’d lurked or hidden. Lila had no notion of safety, what with the windows and doors always open, so there would likely be no evidence of a breech, but if the stalker was at her front gate, they could’ve gotten a lot closer.

  With that image in the back of my mind, I set out for Lila’s again. Night had fallen completely, but nature was on my side. There was no porch light on, and only a couple of interior lights glowed, so I walked right up to the house and started my inspection.

  There were some bushes that grew too close to the house that someone could hide in, but I didn’t catch any suspicious scents there. The overgrown garden I’d noticed before had actually been somewhat recently worked, but it didn’t look like she was getting far with it. Looking closer, there were small signs in the growth, nearly buried now, for cucumbers and cabbage. In the cleared-out areas, it looked like she’d already transplanted tomato plants and some kind of peppers.

  The woman certainly knew her gardening seasons, I’d give her that.

  I circled back, frowning at more bushes, and ducked under a window that lit up without warning. Peeking over the sill, like a creep, I saw Lila walking slowly into the living room and looking around. My dragon sighed, or maybe I did. She jerked her head up, and I ducked back down. She didn’t need to know I was lurking, inspecting, making sure she was safe from her stalker and herself. The light went out again, and I moved stealthily away from the house.

  I couldn’t just avoid her forever. Someone had been near her house, and relatively recently. I needed to man up and stick closer, even if she hated me for it.

  4

  Lila

  I hadn’t been able to sleep at all that night. The same questions kept circling in my brain, and I didn’t know how to shut them down. Not to mention I kept getting weird feelings like I was being watched, or just vague impressions that someone was outside. It was unsettling with all the so-called stalker nonsense, but in the end, I never found or saw anyone. Pure, plain paranoia is what that was.

  I got up early, made a quick breakfast for Zoe, then got her off to the school. Technically school was on summer break, but she
had enrolled in a theater workshop and would be there most of the day. That gave me plenty of time to do nothing until I had to meet up with Sophie, my soon-to-be business partner.

  Whenever I thought about planning for the future, it became a battle between depression and excitement. I was excited because I believed having a brick-and-mortar business would attract more customers, plus it was easier to get to in a central location in town. Depression came on when I thought about what would happen when I relapsed and couldn’t make it to the lessons that my clients booked. But I was trying really hard to be the positivity I wanted to see in my life.

  My phone dinged on the kitchen counter. I padded in there, poured another cup of tea, then picked it up and swiped the screen. It was from Gretta.

  How are you feeling today?

  Fan-freaking-tastic. I wasn’t about to tell her about how my own paranoia was keeping me up at night and how the stress from yesterday was starting to wear on me. I could feel another relapse just waiting, sitting at the edge of my perception. My fingers flew across the screen.

  Tired, but fine. Have you heard anything about Kristin?

  Gretta was normally pretty good about not pushing if I told her I was fine, and I hoped today would be one of those days. I picked up my tea, swept through the living room, grabbed a book I’d tried to start last night, and went outside. The wicker furniture on the front porch was calling my name.

  My phone dinged again, and I glanced at it.

  She’s being taken care of. I don’t know much more than that yet. Do you need me to get Zoe today?

  My eyes narrowed, but I breathed through it. She was just trying to be helpful. Picking up Zoe was nothing out of the ordinary for her. I did say the magic word tired after all.