Dragons For Hire: A Dragon Shifter Romance

by Sadie Sears

  Oh, good, I was right. This was the man I was supposed to meet. I’d been fairly sure, but if he’d walked up and introduced himself as someone else, I would’ve been sorely disappointed with myself and my intuition. “Sophie,” I choked out a couple of seconds too late. Leaning forward, I grabbed his hand and shook vigorously.

  Too vigorously. For too long.

  Snatching my hand back, I tried not to act like he’d scalded me and put it behind Shae. “And this is my daughter, Shae.”

  Cameron held out his hand to her and she shook it timidly. “Nice to meet you, Cameron.”

  “Please,” he flashed a magnetic smile, “call me Cam.”

  “Cam do,” I quipped, then desperately wanted to smack myself on the forehead. What in the world had gotten into me?

  But he chuckled at my joke, a genuine laugh slipping from his lips. “Cute,” he said as if he’d never heard the joke before. He was a dragon, probably twice my age. I was sure he’d heard it. I was sure of more than that. Sure that I was safe, sure that he wanted to look out for me.

  Hell, I felt like I’d known this guy my whole life.

  Then he turned his beautiful eyes on me. His beautiful, multicolored eyes. Polychromatic was the technical term. “I had a cat with polychromatic eyes,” I blurted.

  Really now. I never babbled. I only ever said things I intended to say. What was it about this man that made me feel like… like… I felt like someone had their fingers hovering over my most ticklish spot and were about to go to town on me and make me laugh until I peed.

  The spirits had to be influencing me. Maybe Riley was so convinced that Cam could help me that he was affecting my aura and making me feel overly comfortable with him.

  I trusted my dead husband. If this feeling was his doing, I was going to roll with it.

  “My agency told me you’ve been having problems with hauntings.” Cam looked concerned and willing to jump right in and do whatever he could to help.

  I opened my mouth to describe what had been going on at my house, but Shae stepped forward with her hand on her hip. “It’s probably my Daddy warning us that someone bad is coming into our lives.”

  That child. I shot her a mom look, the kind that all kids know means to shut up and sit down before the mom look turned into the mom point, or worse, the mom count.

  Shae shrugged and walked away, stuffing her earbuds back in her ears. I waited until she plopped down under a nearby tree and scowled at her phone before I turned back to Cam. “I’m sorry. You were saying?”

  “Leath filled me in on some of the details, but I would like to hear it from you.” He motioned toward the closest bench, still nearby Shae. “Would you like to sit?”

  He waited for me to position myself on the bench before sitting, and he was close enough that the warmth of his body, higher than a human’s, seeped into mind. There was a different kind of warmth between us, though, as if we were comfortable with one another. Like old friends.

  “Friday night, I was doing a tarot reading, and a picture started to float around. Lila was there and took me and Shae to her house, then called the agency.” I’d been a little resistant to accepting the help, but I was spooked enough that I was sure I’d never do another tarot reading at home. “I’m just so grateful that we opened Sacred Spaces in town with Lila two weeks ago, so I can read tarot there and now I don’t have to work from that scary room at home.” I couldn’t stop my shudder.

  “Then yesterday I went back to the house with Leath to pack up the last of my stuff from the tarot room.” Cam watched my face avidly as I spoke and nodded when I paused. “Uh, I went to, uh, move it to Sacred Spaces. I’d just passed him the last box to put in the car when I came back inside and heard doors banging upstairs.” I shrugged and gave him a sheepish look. “I couldn’t stop myself. I had to see. I rushed upstairs to find doors banging by themselves, then a horrifying scream cut through the house. Shae’s bedroom door slammed shut in my face. Something smashed in the bathroom down the hall, the bathroom door flew open, and a bunch of jewelry boxes came flying at me. I barely got my arms up over my face in time before they hit me.” Cam’s jaw dropped as he listened, but his gaze moved to my arms. He moved his hands as if he wanted to grab me and check for injuries, but I wasn’t done telling him what happened.

  “I ended up stumbling back against Shae’s bedroom door, which went flying open.” I waved my arms, exasperated, because of course it had burst open. “I tumbled into Shae’s room, landing on my back, to find blood pouring down the walls above the bed, and all of her jewelry boxes spilled all over the floor.”

  And damn, that jewelry wasn’t just ticky-tacky cheap stuff. I had inherited a significant amount from all the older women in my family. I had aunts that never had children as well as my mother’s and grandmother’s things. All of the women in my family had apparently always loved jewelry. There was so much that I had already passed a lot down to Shae. But I’d been far too terrified at the moment to worry about broken stuff.

  “I got up as fast as I could and high-tailed it out of there. Leath drove me back to Lila’s.” That was when I finally agreed I’d meet Cam for help. And here we were. I was so glad I’d agreed. Cam was already proving to be wonderful.

  I had only been speaking to him for a few minutes, but I couldn’t shake this fascination. I hadn’t felt this kind of heat stirring since Riley died. But that was impossible, right? I mean, I’d only been a teenager when we’d met and fallen in love, and it always happened so much faster at that age. Now? Now, I was a woman with a preteen daughter. Love at first sight didn’t happen for people my age. Right?

  Then again, I was really tired and maybe, possibly not thinking as clearly as I should have been. And he was a really attentive listener. His eyes lowered to my mouth and he licked his lips. I was just as tempted to lean in as it looked like he was.

  “Can I come to the house to check it out?” Cam put his hand on my shoulder, and heat rushed through me.

  When I shifted to pull the keys from my pocket, he dropped his hand, and my stomach clenched. I had really liked having it there. “You are more than welcome to go, but I do not want to go myself.”

  He nodded. “You don’t have to at all. I don’t expect you to be a part of this. In fact, I’d rather you stay away until we figure it out.”

  “It’s okay, I have lots of errands to do today. I really didn’t expect you to be able to jump in and go so soon.” And it was so incredibly sweet of him to be so protective. I knew with every fiber of my being that I could trust him in my home. As I dropped the keys in his hands, I knew nothing had ever felt so right.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said, backing away as if he didn’t want to take his eyes off of me. “It’ll be okay.”

  I grinned and watched him go, my chest full to bursting.

  As soon as he left, I grabbed Shae and walked across the street to Sacred Spaces to unpack the rest of my things. Shae was quiet, and I knew I should say something to her, but meeting Cam had been… overwhelming, to say the least. There were feelings there that I would be crazy to feel upon meeting any other guy for the first time. And yet… I sighed and wondered what it all meant.

  Shae was still twirling the feather in her fingers. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “Are you missing your dad, sweetheart?”

  “Yeah, I am. A lot.” She sniffed and scrunched her nose. “I also don’t want a dragon poking around in my stuff. You can’t trust them.”

  I startled and turned her to face me, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. “What about Lila and Leath? Gretta and Sam?”

  She shrugged, her eyes glued to the sidewalk. “I don’t want Zoe to be a dragon. What if it changes her?”

  That was a fear I understood. So far, the only change I’d seen in Lila since her transformation was her health. Before Leath had come into her life, she’d been suffering from MS, but when they bonded, it had healed her. I couldn’t blame her if she started pulling away for a while during their honeymoon phase,
but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a tiny worry about our close friendship.

  Of course, I wasn’t about to tell my daughter all of this.

  “Honey, people change all the time.” I lifted her face to meet my eyes. “Sometimes it can be rough, but change isn’t always a bad thing. Friendships, the really true ones, will last through anything. If a couple of old women like Lila and me can do it, I think you and Zoe can, too.” I tapped her nose with my fingertip. “And I’m sure Cam won’t poke around in your room. He seems like the kind who respects privacy.”

  Even though I was fairly certain he would at least stick his head in there after what I’d told him, Shae didn’t need to know that, and she certainly didn’t need to know what I’d seen in there. She shrugged and turned away from me, opening the car door to grab a box. As we started unloading, Lila and Zoe showed up to help, and some of the tension ebbed.

  “Just stack them up outside the tarot room for now.”

  I’d had a lot more stuff there than I realized. That room had been in my house for so long that perhaps a part of me hadn’t wanted to let it go, despite opening up the shop. After that spooky business the other night, though, it had to be done.

  Just as I crossed the street with the last box, a tingling feeling ran down my spine. I looked up to see Mary watching me from across the road. She was bundled up in a number of scarves, and she waved and smiled pleasantly. Chills washed over me and I struggled to smile back, oddly grateful that my hands were full so I couldn’t wave.

  Mary had been the last reading I’d done at my house. In fact, all three times I’d read for her, she’d insisted it be done in my home rather than Sacred Spaces. I felt bad, wondering if perhaps I’d lost a client by officially closing up my home to readings. I really did love my home space, but Sacred Spaces was beautiful, too. There was a gorgeous stained-glass window on one side, high ceilings, and it was soundproof.

  Plus, it had been blessed by Glenda, our local good witch and friend of mine and Lila’s. No weird stuff flying around here. I wondered if I could get my house blessed, as well. That might take care of that nasty poltergeist. Until then, Sacred Spaces would be my only workplace. We’d been open for two weeks now, and I just needed to unpack my stuff and it’d be cozy in no time.

  Lila helped me start unpacking the boxes while Shae and Zoe went to play with the props in the yoga studio. I carefully avoided meeting her eyes as I unrolled my favorite purple tarot mat with Metatron’s Cube in silver. She cleared her throat as I placed more white candles around the space with a bit too much focus.

  “So?” Lila prompted. “How was your meeting with Cam?”

  “Oh, it was fine! He’s gone up to the house to look around.” I winced as my voice came out pitched a little higher than usual.

  Lila put her hands on her hips and leveled a knowing look at me. “Sophie Naismith, what aren’t you saying?”

  She knew me entirely too well. “Just that Leath was right and he’s the perfect dragon for me—er, my problem.”

  “Sounds to me like there’s more than one problem he’s capable of solving.” She winked and laughed.

  I sat down hard in one of the chairs, nearly knocking over the amethyst and quartz obelisks on the reading table. “Lila, I feel insane! Is it normal to feel something so strong for a virtual stranger at my age?” I threw my hands in the air. “Maybe I’ve been hexed. That’s gotta be it, right?”

  “Are you serious right now?” Lila put her hands on my shoulders and met my eyes, her green against my blue. “You think feeling something for a guy means you’re cursed?”

  “That did sound a little melodramatic, huh?”

  Lila grinned, and I’d come to be wary of the mischievous look in her eyes over the years. “It sounds to me like destiny.”

  I sputtered outwardly, but somewhere inside the idea warmed me. “You mean, like, destined mates?”

  “You should follow your heart on this one, Soph.” She smirked at me. “If it turns out that’s what this is, don’t be as bullheaded as I was with Leath.”

  Rolling my eyes, I stood and dug out all the extra Rider-Waite decks—because one could never have just one deck—and stored them on a shelf. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as bullheaded in my life as you were with that man. I almost feel bad for him now that he has to put up with you for a few hundred years.”

  Lila laughed and threw a bundle of sage at me. I snatched it out of the air and tucked it into a drawer with my extra incense sticks. A shadow fell across the doorway and I turned to see Shae watching us, her expression upset.

  “Mom, I don’t feel good. Can we go home?”

  My happy little bubble popped. When Shae said she didn’t feel well, it was usually because she was getting worked up emotionally. She’d been getting better the past few months, and I’d thought maybe we were both finally starting to heal, but after catching that feather in the park and her brief interaction with Cam, I knew.

  I walked up and put my arms around her. “Yeah, sure, sweetheart. I can finish unpacking tomorrow and we can head back to Lila’s.”

  “I don’t want to go to Lila’s, I wanna go home,” she whined.

  “I know, but our home is not safe right now, not until Cam—”

  Tears sprung up into her eyes. “I need to sit under Daddy’s tree.”

  When Shae was born, Riley had planted a tree for her in our backyard. Ever since he died, she’d spent a lot of time out there, and I knew that’s where she felt closest to him. Sometimes, when she was at school or with Lila, I would sit out there, too.

  Relenting, I nodded. “Okay, since Cam should still be there to keep an eye out, we can make a quick stop. Then we go back to Lila’s for the night, okay?” Shae agreed sullenly. I reached over to squeeze Lila’s arm. “We’ll be by later. Tell Zoe bye for me?”

  “Will do.” Lila smoothed her hand over Shae’s head. “Feel better, sweet girl.”

  Shae barely acknowledged her as we left and started for home. She sat quietly in the car and twirled the feather in her fingers as we drove up into the mountains. As much as I wanted to say something, more often than not, she just wanted her space. I would be there when she was ready.

  As we approached the house, we found the driveway blocked by an enormous figure. A dragon stood in our path, towering over us. His scales were like his eyes—nearly translucent with a shimmering fractured rainbow of color reflecting from them—though his eyes were closed at the moment. It seemed like he hadn’t even heard us pull up, he was so deep in his trance.

  There weren’t any words to describe how I felt while watching him. I stared up through the windshield, transfixed by the sheer beauty of Cam’s dragon form until Zoe’s groan snapped me out of it.

  “Mom, why is he so weird?”

  3

  Cameron

  I flicked my eyes open, pulling myself out of my meditative state. Sophie had been coming closer, I’d known that, but I was so deep in my ether field that I’d lost track of the concept of space and time. It happened sometimes. When I got in the zone, it was difficult to find my way back until I found what I was looking for.

  But I hadn’t known she was so close. Sophie was already here, stopped just behind me in her car. My own surprise made me chuckle as she peered up at me through her car window with her perfect little mouth in a perfect circle on her perfect face. Her sapphire eyes were wide with fascination, and it was hard not to preen a little when she was watching me like that.

  Damn, I really did have it bad. I’d shifted into full-size dragon mode to better connect with the energy here, so I couldn’t exactly get out of her way easily without injuring the trees that formed a thick canopy overhead. But if I shifted back to human form, I would end up butt naked.

  Not a great way to be in front of Shae, but what choice did I have? I couldn’t move without breaking something, and I didn’t want to start this relationship—working or otherwise—by destroying her property. I was too big. I started to shift, and before I go
t into the part where I couldn’t see anything, I caught Sophie’s panicked face right before she lunged for the passenger seat to cover Shae’s eyes.

  When I opened my eyes again in my human body, it was just in time to hear Shae yell. “Gross! He’s so weird!” She had her eyes covered and she bent over in the seat, disappearing from my view.

  Of course, I covered all my private bits the first second I could, then hightailed it over to the tree where I’d hidden my clothes. As Sophie moved the car forward, I peeked around the tree to see her looking my way with a big grin on her face.

  That part wasn’t embarrassing, at least. I found myself more than willing to give her a show, if that’s what she wanted—just maybe without her daughter next time. Regardless, I grinned right back at her until she was out of sight.

  Once dressed, I jogged to meet them at the front of the house. Shae glared at me and I rushed to apologize, knowing that must’ve been at least a little traumatizing for a young girl.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t expect you to come right then, or I wouldn’t have blocked the drive like that.” I actually hadn’t expected them to be by at all, given the odd activity happening around the house. Sophie had mentioned they were staying at Lila’s, so I’d planned to stop by her place afterwards to drop the keys off.

  “You shouldn’t even be here,” Shae yelled. She stormed off and disappeared around the house.

  Oh, no. I got the impression that Shae was feeling a bit threatened that I was going to be taking her mom’s attention. Did I need to say something? Being a hair over two hundred years old, I wasn’t really sure how to handle kids anymore. It’d been so long since I was one, and the times had changed so much.

  Sophie gave me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry about that,” she murmured. “She’s not normally so rude to new people.”

  I glanced behind me to where she’d disappeared, remembering our brief interaction in the park. “She’s intuitive, isn’t she?”