A Mate to Protect (Dragons of Mount Aterna Book 3)

by Riley Storm

  She smiled tightly. One beer wouldn’t quite make or break her, but it was still just a little extra in her pocket. Every bit extra helped.

  “Well, I still wanted to say thanks. For intervening back there.”

  Even hunched over the table his shoulders were still level with hers. So when he leaned back to gaze up at her, Anne abruptly felt very, very small.

  “No behavior like that should be tolerated,” he growled, his eyes looking past her at Jake. “It is not within me to stand by.”

  He had such a strange way of speaking. So stilted and formal. Anne was used to the gutter slang of useless pricks like Mikey and Jake. To hear someone talking normally was almost a surprise.

  “Well, I appreciate it anyway,” she said. Then for some reason she reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. “I owe you one.”

  “You owe me nothing,” he said. “I just want to drink in peace and—”

  A shattering of glass spun her around.

  Jake was on his feet, glaring at her. “We ever going to get some service around here?” he snarled. “Or are you too busy giving that asshole what you denied me?”

  There was the scraping of a chair on the ground behind her, and she watched as Jake’s gaze ranged upward. And upward some more.

  “That is enough,” the mystery man growled from behind her. “You will treat her with respect. Is that understood?”

  “Now guys,” Anne said, putting up a hand toward both of them. “Take it outside, there’s no need for this. We can all handle this like good people.”

  But neither of them were listening.

  “Please,” she said, turning to the stranger, pleading with him. “No fighting in the bar. Go outside.”

  He looked down at her, focusing on her face for a moment. Anne gazed up at him. Looking at him like this, he was handsome. Very handsome. How did I never notice that before?

  She opened her mouth to speak, but his eyes flicked to the side first, and then he suddenly wrapped her up in a hug, slightly spinning them at the same time. Anne cried out in surprise at the unexpected movement.

  But she felt the thump of something hitting him, and then more glass shattering. Gasping she stepped back, out of his warm, muscular embrace. Jake had thrown a mug at him, she realized, noting the beer dripping down his back, and the broken glass at his feet.

  “You will pay for that,” the big man growled.

  Just like that, Anne knew it was too late. She’d lost her chance at peace. With a yelp she dove to the side as the bar erupted into chaos.

  Chapter Three

  Anne

  The last thing she saw before ducking down behind the bar was the stranger casually flip a table out of his way as he stormed toward Jake.

  Though he was bigger than any of the others in the bar, Anne feared for his safety. The other trio she’d served seemed to be siding with Jake, or someone at his table. They were all getting up too.

  What followed next was a lot of shouting. Jake was spewing all his best insults at the unknown intervener. Anne didn’t hear him say anything further. What she did hear, was the sound of a fist hitting something meaty, followed by an even louder crash, and more shouts.

  Fearful of what was happening to her precious bar, she peeked up over the lip.

  “Oh no,” she moaned.

  Her stranger was in the midst of a tornado of angry bar regulars. Jake was on the floor, groaning and trying to pull himself together, laying in the wreckage of one of her tables.

  The giant was taking all sorts of blows, and she feared for his safety. Punches and kicks flew at him. Then someone grabbed a chair and smashed it over his head. The other men all cheered, as if expecting that to end the fight then and there.

  Instead the angry giant rose up, shrugged off the pieces of broken wood and grabbed one of the unknowns by both shoulders. He roared in his face, a wordless violent noise, and tossed him clear toward the back of the bar. Wooden paneling shattered and broke as he slammed into the wall.

  Ronnie and Donnie had picked up a table and lifted it high over their heads, thinking that would do more damage than the chair. Ignoring the other men trying to take him down, Anne watched, fascinated, as the giant stood up, grabbed the table and threw it backward.

  Ronnie and Donnie went with it. Anne winced, then cried out as she saw the table bounce off Ronnie and throw one corner through the stained-glass front window. The glass shattered into a million tiny pieces.

  “My bar,” she moaned. “Stop it! Please, stop!”

  Nobody was listening to her. By this point their tempers were up, and that was the end of rational thinking. Another table was shattered as the giant literally flung a man through it. How was that possible?

  Anne had hot, wet tears streaming down her face by this point as she watched them destroy her bar. This was it, her last chance. There was no money in the budget to fix all this! No way that she could come back from it. She would have to sell it for whatever pitiful amount she could get, and that would be that.

  She and Liam would have to move on. Another city for her son, another place that he would hate. Anne was already dreading telling him. He deserved better than what she’d been able to give him over the past two years. So much better.

  “Stop,” she cried out as Mikey was thrown against another wall, destroying random decorations and wall art that decorated it, his bulk simply crushing it all and denting the wall before he rebounded and fell to the floor.

  “I’m calling the police!” she shouted, fishing in her pockets for her phone.

  Everything paused at her pronouncement. Anne wished she’d done it earlier, but she’d been so shocked by the sudden outburst of violence that her brain had needed time to process it.

  Jake took that moment to step up behind the giant stranger and swing something at his head. Instead of the dull thonk of wood though, Anne gasped as she heard the hollow thong of metal.

  The huge man stood still for a moment, and Anne thought he was going to somehow shrug off that attack as well. He’d managed to fight off all the other regulars so far. But then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell forward in a heap.

  As if they understood the gravity of what Jake had just done, the others gathered up their stuff and bolted for the door, hauling their barely conscious friends with them.

  Anne just watched it all happen, phone still in her hand. She hadn’t even had a chance to dial the Sheriff’s department.

  “Please don’t be dead,” she said, getting up and rushing around the bar.

  A child’s voice sounded blearily from behind her. “Mom? What’s going on?”

  She paused halfway to the unconscious stranger. “Go back upstairs Liam!” she said, perhaps harsher than she intended. “I’ll be right up, okay? Just go back to bed.”

  Ten-year old Liam thankfully couldn’t see over the bar—yet—and so he just nodded and turned around, doing as he was told for once. Anne breathed a sigh of relief. That was one less problem she had to worry about immediately. Of course, that would all change if she had a dead body on her floor.

  Rushing to the stranger’s side she fell to her knees amid the destroyed remnants of a table and chairs, putting a hand to his throat, hoping against hope to feel a pulse.

  Not only did she get a strong pulse but, to her relief, Anne saw his eyes flutter, and he groaned.

  She breathed heavily. “Thank god.”

  Now all she had to do was figure out how she was going to fix all the damage.

  Chapter Four

  Kal

  Consciousness returned swiftly to him, a byproduct of his heritage.

  Also it wasn’t the first time he’d been knocked out, so he had a bit of experience with it. Blinking rapidly, he calmed his heartbeat and took slow, steady breaths. It was important to focus, and assess his surroundings.

  To his surprise he was still in the bar. On his back.

  “How long was I out?” he muttered.

  A face hovered into vie
w.

  “Oh thank god, you’re awake.”

  Kal’s eyes focused on the face. It wasn’t a bad sight to wake up to. In fact, it was a great wakeup call. It was the face of the bartender, a face he’d seen many times over the last week and change. Those hazel brown eyes that he’d noticed from the start, so big and luminous, were now filled with worry.

  Worry that was directed at him he realized a moment later, when her mouth twisted up in concern, obscuring her thin lips from his view as they curled under her teeth.

  “Hi,” he said softly, taking in her lovely little heart-shaped face, pert nose and the front bangs that hung from her forehead, so perfectly midnight black, in contrast to her pale skin.

  “Uh, hello,” she replied.

  Kal continued to marvel at her eyes. They were the thing he’d noticed from the start, the very first day he’d walked into Rocky’s and discovered she was the new owner of his watering hole.

  “How long was I out?” he repeated, knowing it couldn’t have been long. Still, the cops were likely on their way, and he needed to be gone before they arrived. If word got back to his clan about this incident, he would be in even more shit.

  “A minute, maybe two. Not long. How’s your head?”

  Kal shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Been hit by harder things from stronger men. No need to worry.” He wanted to put her at ease. “Where are the others?”

  “They left when I threatened to call the cops.”

  “I see.” He tried not to stiffen. “Did you?”

  “Did I what?”

  “Call them?”

  Anne shook her head. “No. Jake hit you over the head with that metal bar and I was more concerned for you being dead.”

  “I’ve got a hard head,” he said, relaxing immediately now that he knew she hadn’t called anyone. “I’ll be okay.”

  With a bit of effort, he forced himself to sit up. Woodchips and bits of broken glass tumbled from him as he did. By this point his system had already burnt off the alcohol, and Kal was returning to normal.

  That was why he had to keep drinking, non-stop. The damned dragon DNA in him made it real hard to get good and drunk off beer. Unfortunately, Kal hated the taste of stronger liquor, so he was left with no other option but to drink copious amounts of beer for a long period of time if he wished to numb the pain.

  His returning senses though were picking up the distress in Anne’s voice, and on her face. She was no longer worried about him. Instead she was worried about—

  “The bar,” he said, speaking out loud.

  “It’s a mess,” she said, her voice cracking.

  “I’m sorry,” Kal said, feeling terrible. “This wasn’t my intention.”

  Even as he said it, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was a lie. If he’d been trying to take out some of his anger on the regulars by taking his time with them, toying with the humans. It wasn’t as if half a dozen or so humans posed any sort of threat to him. He could have dealt with them all quickly and easily. Without any damage to the bar, if he’d truly wanted to.

  “I know, I know,” she said. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  Kal winced. He wasn’t so sure he agreed.

  “But I just don’t have the money to cover it, you know?” she said, resting her forehead in one hand. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  “Won’t your insurance cover this?” he asked, reaching out to rest one hand on her shoulder. She flinched at the unexpected contact, but didn’t pull away.

  “Ha,” she said. “There’s a laugh. No, and even if they did my premiums would go up so much that I’d be out of business in a month anyway.”

  Kal frowned, dropping his hand. This was his fault. He had caused all this. Why was he trying to offload the responsibility to Anne? She hadn’t asked for it, hadn’t invited a royal rumble in her bar. A bar she had just bought.

  “Stay here,” he said, getting to his feet. “Everything will be okay,” he assured her.

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  He reached down and helped Anne up as well, casually lifting her. She wasn’t overly large to begin with, though she did have a bit of extra around her waist and thighs. Not that he cared. Kal had always thought it gave her an air of womanliness. Proof that she was a mother, and cared more for her offspring than herself.

  Kal could respect that.

  “I’m going to make this right,” he said.

  “You should really go get your head checked out. You’re not making any sense,” Anne said, looking at his temple in concern.

  Reaching up Kal probed at the side of his head. He could feel the bump from where Jake had smashed him in the head, and his fingers came away sticky with drying blood.

  “Trust me, I’ll be fine. It’s not much of anything.” Though Kal couldn’t just tell her that he was a dragon shifter with superhuman healing abilities, he wanted to put her at ease.

  “Where are you going? Are you coming back?” she asked as he headed for the exit.

  “Of course I’m coming back,” he said with a bit more force than intended. “This is my fault, Anne. I’m the one who did this. So I’m the one who has to make it right.”

  “How do you plan on doing that?” she asked, pausing several feet back from the door as he gripped the handle.

  “I’m going to make it right,” he growled. “I’m going to get you the money you need to fix this place up.”

  Anne’s mouth dropped open in a tiny o-shape as she struggled to come up with words to say.

  Kal didn’t wait. He pulled the door open and stepped out into the late evening twilight. This far into the mountains, the sun set early in the sky, but light persisted for a long time after that, giving Five Peaks a beautiful prolonged period of twilight. It was about to end though, things were becoming dark quickly.

  The door closed behind him as he set off for the bank and the ATM inside. A cool wind bit at his face, whistling over his various cuts and scrapes, reminding him that he looked like a horror show. The bank was going to be fun to deal with when he looked like this, but Kal didn’t care. At this hour the tellers would be closed, so he only had to worry about anyone using the ATM.

  As he walked, frustration at his actions boiled over. Kal smacked one meaty fist into his palm, startling several other passersby, who had already been looking at him in shock.

  He paused in front of a shop’s glass window, looking at his reflection, using the streetlight to see. Blood covered half his face, and he had a splinter of wood sticking out from his skull.

  Muttering angrily, he pulled the splinter out and tossed it away. This was all because he’d been an idiot. A loser. That needed to stop, and now!

  Why? It’s what you are. You’ve got no reason to care otherwise, so why stop? You’ve been doing a fabulous job of it for the past month. What changed?

  Kal looked over his shoulder, back the way he’d come.

  What had changed, he realized slowly, was that he once more had something to care about. A purpose.

  He was going to rebuild that bar, and make it better than ever. That’s what he was going to do!

  Why do you suddenly care about this human bartender so much?

  Kal frowned at his own line of thought. That wasn’t why he was doing this. He was doing it so that he’d have a place to go to drink. To numb his pain. That was his reasoning.

  Wasn’t it?

  Chapter Five

  Anne

  After the stranger left, she locked the door and, with another mournful gaze around, headed behind the bar, to the doorway that led to the back. There, a set of stairs led up.

  The “apartment” above the bar had helped solidify her desire to buy it. This way she and Liam could have a place to live, that wasn’t an extra set of expenses on top of the bar itself.

  Buying the place had taken all her remaining money, almost down to the penny, but she’d done it. It was hers.

  And now it was destroyed.

  “What happened mommy?�
� Liam asked as soon as she got into the room that they shared.

  Anne rushed over to his bed and crouched down, wrapping him up in a hug. It was clear that he was worried, that he didn’t understand what had happened. All the loud noises, shouting, things breaking, it would have woken up anyone. But Liam didn’t know what it was, so he’d been scared.

  “Nothing baby,” she said, giving him a squeeze. “Go back to sleep.”

  “Are you sure?” He was trying to act serious, to grill her with more questions, but sleep was also calling him, and he yawned midway through.

  “I’m positive,” she said.

  “Did Daddy come back again?”

  Anne’s heart nearly broke at the worry in his voice. “No, darling. No he didn’t. We’ve been over this, your father isn’t coming back. He’s back at his home. We’re here now. Just the two of us kiddo,” she said, reaching out to ruffle his hair.

  “Hey!” Liam protested with a little giggle as she attacked him with love.

  “I told you to go back to sleep,” she said. “This is what you get if you don’t!”

  She tickled him for a few seconds more, then relaxed, tucking him back down into bed, stroking his hair out of his face.

  “I love you sweetie,” she said, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

  “I love you too mommy.” Liam paused. “What happened downstairs? It was so loud, and I heard people shouting. Did they hurt you?”

  Anne remembered the way Kal had grabbed her and shielded her using his own body.

  “No sweetie,” she said softly. “Nobody hurt me. There were just some people that weren’t careful with what they were doing. Some things got broken. That’s all, it’s fine.”

  She hated telling that little white lie, but what choice did she have? Liam didn’t need to have her own problems dumped on him. He already had enough troubles of his own.

  “You mean some people got drunk and they fought, don’t you?” Liam asked.

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “You, mister monkeypants, are too smart for your own good,” she said, tickling his sides briefly. “Yes. That’s what happened. It’s all finished now though, so you can go to sleep. There won’t be any more noises tonight.”