Dragons of Cadia - The Complete Dragon Shifter Series

by Amelia Jade

  “You should find a new job,” Zander said unexpectedly.

  “Right,” she scoffed. “Because it’s so easy for a human in Cadia to just go find another job.”

  His eyes took her gaze and held it, sending tiny tremors of excitement through her nerve endings. “You should try,” he said. “Don’t be so shy, and you might just find it easier than you think.”

  “Being more outgoing isn’t as easy as you think,” she shot back.

  Why had she opened the door again?

  “When was the last time you tried?” he returned with aplomb.

  Gritting her teeth, Riss glared back at him with all the fire she could muster, but it just seemed to wash over him like a gentle breeze.

  “Why did you not leave when I closed the door?”

  “Why did you open the door?” he asked, and moved closer to her.

  Not much. A step, perhaps. No, not even that much, an inch, a fraction of an inch even. But it was enough. Enough to set fire to her blood and make her short of breath, all in the span of a microsecond.

  What was he doing? Was he going to kiss her? Was she even okay with that? If he tried to kiss her, would she kiss him back? Those questions and more raced through her head faster than a lightning bolt through the sky.

  But nothing happened, and Zander didn’t try to initiate anything. Which meant she was left having to answer his last question.

  Which had been?

  Oh, right. Why I opened the door.

  “I don’t know,” she replied truthfully. “Perhaps I wanted to ensure that you had actually left, instead of doing something really weird and creepy, like standing on my porch and looking away from the door or something.”

  Zander’s eyes twinkled. “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t do anything like that, isn’t it?”

  She laughed despite herself. “Oh yes, such a good thing.”

  They stood there, looking at each other. One moment of silence became two, which turned into ten, and stretched to thirty.

  “Do you want to come in for some dinner?” she asked.

  “I would love to,” he replied, striding past her. “I’m famished.”

  What have I done?

  Chapter Four

  Zander

  He wasn’t actually hungry, but that wouldn’t stop him from taking her up on her offer. Perhaps this courtship could move along faster than even he’d planned. A current of dissatisfaction at his detached, uncaring thought flowed through his mind, but he shunted it aside for the time being. There would be ample opportunity to consult his conscious later, after it was all over. Zander knew what he was doing wasn’t overly nice, but he would make sure Riss was well rewarded for her help.

  The door opened up right into what appeared to be her living room, off to his right. The door was right in the middle of the house, with a hallway that led to the back. He could see doors on either side.

  “So, there isn’t much,” Riss said, moving inside after he’d deposited his shoes and stepped onto the worn reddish-brown carpet that covered most of the floor.

  “It seems…cozy,” he said, trying not to make the word sound forced.

  The more he saw, the more he realized just how far the money she’d earned off his suit sale would go. The corners of the walls were chipped, and the burgundy-colored paint was in dire need of a touchup. The couches, pushed together in an L-shape in the far corner of the room, were worn and uncomfortable-looking.

  “That’s a polite way to put it,” she sighed, shucking off her jacket and hanging it from a hook on the wall to the left.

  Zander, not waiting for a tour, walked forward. The wall opposite the common area ended, an arched doorway giving way to the kitchen. The gray tile and faux-granite countertops were also cracked and chipped. Paint peeled from the cabinets in more than one place, and several of the bulbs overhead were burned out, giving it a dingy feel.

  Yes, his thanks to her would go a long way in sprucing up her life. They would hopefully be enough to get her out of this place, and into something more fitting of her worth as a person.

  “This is the kitchen,” Riss said dryly, moving up behind him. “Feel free to go explore every room.”

  “Why would I do that?” he asked, letting humor slip into his voice. “It’s not like I’m going to just walk around your house for the first time without you showing me around.”

  “Right. You would never do something like that,” she said.

  Zander laughed and began to turn around when a black ball flew from the countertop to his right, rebounded off his side, and darted under the couch.

  Belated reflexes sprung into motion and he whirled in pursuit of his attacker, almost bowling Riss over in the process. To keep her on her feet, his arms shot out and wrapped around her shoulders, bringing her in close to him.

  “What was that?” he asked, almost oblivious to the way she seemed to melt against him.

  Almost.

  “Chester,” she said with a sigh. “One of my cats.”

  “Oh,” he said, feeling embarrassed.

  He, king of the skies, two-century-old dragon shifter, had been taken completely by surprise by a plain housecat. There was a story that would never see the light of day.

  “It’s okay,” she replied with a pat on his chest. “I won’t tell anyone that you screamed like a girl when Chesty jumped at you.”

  “I did not scream,” he rumbled.

  “Happened so quickly you didn’t even notice what you did?” she asked, fingers digging into his muscles as she pushed herself away from him, turning to go fetch the ball of black from under the couch.

  Zander’s head tilted slightly to the side as she bent over and retrieved the cat. Her dress stretched tight across her rear as she did, providing him with a lovely view.

  “I did not scream,” he repeated as she stood back up, thrusting the four-legged critter at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Introducing you,” she said, as if it should be obvious. “And yes, you did scream.”

  “If I take this thing from you, will you stop saying I screamed?”

  Riss put the creature into his arms before she responded. Then, as he held it up to his chest until it started to purr, she walked into the kitchen. “Why would I start lying?” she asked over her shoulder.

  Zander made a noise like rolling thunder deep in his chest at that comment. As if thinking he was trying to talk to it, the cat slammed its head into his neck and began to purr even louder.

  He eyed Chester dubiously.

  Not so bad for a housecat, I suppose.

  A paw reached out and scratched his skin.

  On the other hand…

  Chester, realizing that perhaps he’d made a mistake, pulled himself closer into the crook of Zander’s neck. He simply lay there, purring contentedly, draped over his shoulder. Zander no longer had to even hold him.

  “I think I’ve been adopted,” he said, walking into the kitchen to see if he could be of help.

  Riss glanced over her shoulder, and her face brightened at the sight. “Oh that’s so cute. Chester hates everyone. How did you get him to stay there?”

  “You gave him to me.” Zander paused. “Why did you give me a cat that hates everyone? That seems cruel to both me and the cat.”

  Riss snorted laughter. “He scared you, made you jump and scream. I was hoping he would say sorry. It appears he has.”

  “For the last time,” Zander said in exasperation. “I did. Not. Scream.”

  Riss just winked at him.

  “Do me a favor, check the fridge. See if I have any cream cheese and sour cream?” she asked, gesturing behind her as she rummaged through a cupboard.

  Zander reached out and grabbed the handle to the fridge and gave it a tug.

  “Wait!” Riss said, spinning. “Don’t pull it by the—”

  “Handle?” he asked, holding the metal piece in his hand, the fridge itself still closed.

  “Yes,” she sighed, turning back to the
cupboard, but not before he could see the embarrassment on her face.

  Zander gingerly put the piece of metal on the counter, and using the door itself, gently opened the fridge. He kept quiet for a moment as he looked inside, feeling bad for Riss. She had opened her house to him, likely without thinking. Without remembering that he was a dragon shifter from a wealthy family, likely used to the finer things in life.

  And here she was, showing him her house that was falling apart.

  While it didn’t actually bother him in the slightest, he knew that convincing Riss of that at this stage of the game was a pointless exercise. She had her preconceived notions of him, and it wasn’t yet time to be able to deconstruct those. He would do best by simply not bringing it up. Yet.

  “There is both cream cheese and sour cream,” he said, after carefully checking the expiry dates and the insides.

  “Sweet. Chicken strips with pasta in a white cream sauce?” she asked.

  “Sounds delicious,” he replied with an easy smile. It was far more utilitarian than what he was used to.

  And yet that suited him just fine at the moment. Spending more time with Riss—and Chester, he added as the cat pushed its head against him again—was what interested him just then, not some fancy four-course meal. Heck, it might be refreshing to just have some easy chow.

  “So, are you a full-time Guardian?” Riss asked as she put a pot of water on to boil, tossing in a dash of salt with it.

  “I am now,” he replied.

  “Now?” she asked, turning and leaning up against the counter to look at him while they waited.

  “I am also an instructor at Top Scale Academy,” he explained. “We just finished with a class, however, and while I will continue with individual lessons with the new graduates, as a whole there is nothing going on. So I have moved back into being a Guardian.”

  “Really, Top Scale? That’s pretty impressive,” she said with a low whistle.

  Zander just shrugged, then reached up quickly to calm Chester, who had been dislodged by the motion of his thick shoulders as they bounced up and down. The kitten mewled once, digging its claws gently into his shirt and skin to reposition itself, and then curled right back up, once more purring loudly.

  You’re lucky I like your owner, wee one, he thought. It was true though; he did find himself enjoying Riss’s company. For a human, she was unusually interesting, similar to the mates some of his recent trainees had found. Perhaps, he wondered, there’s more to the human species than I’d originally considered.

  In the two hundred-plus years of his life, Zander had had minimal interaction with them. What he’d had was often in the form of human women practically throwing themselves at him so that he’d sleep with them. That had suited him fine for a time, but he’d grown weary of it after a while. He wanted a bit more of a challenge.

  But it’d never come. Nor had his interest in a woman ever grown either. Zander had, to this date, never found himself intrigued by a woman who he wasn’t interested in purely for a round or three in the sheets.

  And yet, as much as he was attracted to Riss, he was coming to realize more and more that he actually enjoyed her company and talking with her. It was a strange novelty.

  ***

  That thought continued over dinner—which, while plain, was quite tasty—and into the evening. They chatted about mostly things inconsequential, and a few that weren’t, like the upcoming trial of a shifter from another territory called Fenris. He was charged with the kidnapping and assault of one of Zander’s close friends, Rhynne Nova, daughter of several powerful scions in Cadia. It was a trial that had captivated all of Cadia, especially because of the threats from Fenris that had followed with it.

  Once dinner was done though, and after he’d help clean the dishes with their faded crosshatch patterns and put them away neatly, he decided it was time to go. This was far longer than he’d planned on staying in the first place. His original thought had been to escort her home, and that would be all. Instead, he now found himself at the door to her house, throat dry and words failing to come as he struggled to decide what to say.

  Riss, thankfully, was equally silent as they looked at each other.

  “Thank you for dinner,” he said, shocked at how awkward he sounded.

  “It was the least I could do after you made sure I was safe,” she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

  Something stirred inside Zander, but he forcefully pushed it back down. Now was not the time for that.

  “I, ah, I suppose I should go,” he said with a look over his shoulder at the door.

  “I guess,” Riss said with a shrug of her shoulders, the motion raising up the swell of her cleavage slightly.

  The motion did nothing to help the stirring between his legs, and Zander knew it was now or never.

  He leaned in to Riss and hugged her, his arms settling around her shoulders. Her hands swept up under his and grasped his shoulders, her fingers digging in tight. They stood there together for just a moment longer than what would be considered appropriate. Then, as if by some mutual agreement, they broke apart.

  Zander tugged on the sides of his shirt, resettling it around his shoulders, while Riss pulled up her dress top, concealing some of the cleavage that had become exposed when she reached out to him.

  “I’ll see you in the morning, then,” he said politely, nodding his head.

  “Yes,” Riss replied with a jerky nod.

  “Take care,” he said, looking once more into the swirling gray abyss of her eyes before all but fleeing out the door.

  “Try not to scream at any more cats,” she called after him, having recovered her wits.

  “I didn’t,” he thundered into the night, though there was humor in his voice now. That was to be an ongoing thing, it would seem.

  A smile crossed his lips as he fled into the dark. A real smile, one full of happiness and excitement.

  Things were looking up.

  ***

  Riss

  The shop came into view at last, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  Her walk to work that morning had been one of the most stressful events of her life. Doubly so when she had gone past the point where, the night before, she had almost been mugged, or worse!

  Without Zander’s strong, imposing presence next to her—which she was finding she craved more than she should—Riss had walked nervously alone, hunched over and not stopping for anything as she just tried to bull her way to work.

  There were people out and about this time thankfully, and she hadn’t encountered any trouble. That wasn’t to say she hadn’t been a bundle of nerves, jumping at every noise and bit of movement that skirted through her vision.

  Would Zander walk me home again tonight, if I asked?

  She didn’t want to, but the other alternative was taking the main streets all around, which added almost twenty minutes to her commute. Of course, if the alternative were encountering some shady character in an alley, then she would take that time without hesitation. But if a certain tall, broad-shouldered, sandy-haired dragon shifter wanted to walk next to her, she wouldn’t object either.

  Her key out, she fiddled with the lock and slipped inside. The back room was already lit, and the whirring buzz of a sewing machine came from the room to her left as she walked down an aisle between racks of clothes and other items.

  “Hey Miranda,” she called to the in-house tailor, waiting for a pause in the noise to ensure she was heard.

  “Morning Riss,” came the distracted reply, that of someone focused wholly on another task.

  Riss just shrugged and hung up her jacket and light scarf. The morning had been a slightly chilly one, so she’d worn the extra layers, expecting the night to be even worse by the time she got out of the store.

  “How was your evening?” Miranda asked as Riss poked her head into the tailor’s room.

  There were still a few minutes before she had to worry about opening up the shop. After working there for so lon
g, she’d timed her morning walk to get her to work at the exact time that was necessary. This morning, however, because of her added speed to avoid anyone who might be lurking along the way, she’d arrived early.

  “Good,” she said, trying to keep the smile off her face at the memory of her evening with Zander.

  Clearly she failed, because Miranda put down the garment she was working on—Zander’s suit by the looks of it—and gave her an appraising eye. The two of them, while not friends outside of work, had become friendly enough, united by their distaste for Mr. Barnesworth.

  “Okay,” the diminutive owl shifter said, leaning back in her chair. “Spill.”

  “Spill what?” Riss asked, trying to sound innocent and confused.

  Miranda just stared at her.

  “Holy shit, am I that obvious?” she asked in disbelief.

  The shifter just nodded slowly.

  “Damn. Okay, well…”

  “Oh my goodness. It was a guy!” Miranda exclaimed as Riss hesitated in her delivery.

  “How the hell could you possibly know that?” Riss asked, genuinely astonished.

  “Women’s intuition,” Miranda replied with a wink. “I need all the details. Now.”

  “I…can’t give you much details,” she said. “Partially because nothing really happened, like, nothing physical I mean. But he ended up having dinner at my place. So, yeah, that happened.”

  “That is definitely more than nothing,” Miranda admonished with a smile. “Who is he?” she asked with an excited gleam in her eye.

  Miranda was a gossip. Riss liked her, but if she wanted whatever was going on with Zander—if anything even was going on—to remain a secret, she couldn’t reveal who it was. Her eyes flicked to the suit and back up just as quickly, hoping the other woman hadn’t noticed.

  But Miranda was too busy waiting for juicy details to have picked up on it.

  “I can’t tell you that,” she said quickly. “Not yet, at least,” she added. “I have to figure out just what’s going on, and why he’s…why, whatever. It’s so weird. I barely know him, yet I want him around more.”