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

by Riley Storm

  He knew. How he understood what she meant, Anne never figured out, but somehow he knew. Maybe he was thinking the same thing all along. Maybe it was written on her face and in her eyes. She didn’t know, but he didn’t need any more clues.

  Hands closed on her waist. Anne gasped in surprise and aroused delight as he did just as she’d fantasized, lifting her up and putting her on the bar. She was nearly at his height now, so he didn’t have to bend down to kiss her.

  Her legs parted around him as he stepped in close, inviting him in closer to her. She moaned softly as his hands slid off her waist and down to the insides of her legs. He was rough, but gentle at the same time.

  Anne was falling into him with dangerous ease. At her core was still a barrier, a line she wasn’t willing to let herself cross, mentally at least. Physically, right then, she was his. He could do whatever he wanted to her and she would let him.

  But inside, deep down, she held back some of herself. Just like she knew Kal was doing. There was something about him that he hadn’t told her, something he wasn’t ready to share, and so she did the same, keeping a part of herself locked away, unavailable to him.

  That part though, was certainly not her body. He could have that. She wanted him to have it, to take it. That one kiss had left her hooked, addicted to his touch, and tonight she was going to have it all. She was ready for it, for whatever would happen.

  “Kal,” she moaned as he explored her body, pulling her to him with force and power, yet keeping his touches light and tender where it mattered. She was writhing on the bar, wishing he would just take it to the next level already. “I want you.”

  His growl sent shivers through her. It was so deep, so powerful and yet more than that, it was possessive. Anne loved it. That deep, primal instinct coming out when he was aroused. It stoked her fires higher.

  As he kissed her neck, Kal’s fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt. Anne’s head lolled to the side, giving him full access to the sensitive skin there, trying to keep her breathing even, nervously anticipating the next step.

  The front door squeaked and pushed open. Anne’s hands dropped to her sides.

  “We’re closed,” Kal growled in irritation. “Come back tomorrow.”

  Anne cursed herself silently. She’d left the door open because Kal’s truck was parked right out front. After he left she’d lock it. Except she hadn’t anticipated things going this way, and now someone was interrupting their—

  She felt Kal go tense. Every hair on her neck rose at once and she slipped off the bar.

  “Get in the back,” Kal growled. “Now.”

  Anne didn’t argue, didn’t hesitate. She ran for the back, only glancing over her shoulder once, seeing two large men, one a good several inches taller than the other, lurking in the shadows near the entrance.

  “You should leave,” Kal said as she ran upstairs to Liam. “Now.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kal

  “What the hell are you two doing here?” Kal snarled. “How did you find me?”

  The two shifters were back, both Clifford and Goldenrod looking particularly smug with themselves.

  His first worry was for Anne and Liam. With the way Viko was acting lately, he couldn’t be certain that the commander wouldn’t seek to somehow involve them in this. If they had been watching Kal, they would have known he was close with them even before walking in and interrupting things between him and Anne.

  I have to lead them away from here if it comes down to it. Protect Anne and Liam, at all costs.

  “Finding you is easy. We put a tracker on your truck before we jumped you last night,” Clifford said, rolling his eyes.

  Kal eyed the pair, sizing them up, wondering if he could take them both in a fair fight. He had experience on Goldenrod, the other shifter was clearly younger. The one he’d nicknamed Clifford because of his size and red scales, well he was an enigma. Kal was wary about him.

  “You’re going to come with us,” Clifford said.

  It wasn’t a request.

  “Guys, we quite literally just went over this,” Kal sighed. “You have nothing to hold me on. No proof, nothing. So leave me alone before I involve the clan heads and they come down on all three of you like a load of bricks.”

  The shorter one of Viko’s thugs shifted uncomfortably, but Clifford remained still. Impassive.

  Interesting. So Viko is doing this on his own, without an order from a clan head.

  Another piece of leverage for Kal. Assuming he could fight them off, he could now go to one of the clan heads and report Viko’s actions. They would begin looking into the rogue commander, and hopefully find out whatever it was he was up to.

  “Just come along, and this won’t have to get messy,” Clifford said quietly.

  Kal lifted his eyebrows. “Was that a threat? Are you threatening me? You have no right to haul me away like this. Did you not get what you wanted this morning? Come on now guys, this is ridiculous.”

  “This morning was different,” Goldenrod spat, fingers tightening into a fist menacingly.

  “Really? Do tell? Is that because the sun was up and now it’s down? Or because the clocks were a different time?” Kal taunted. “Seriously, get over yourselves. I’m not going anywhere. Get out and leave me alone. I didn’t do anything, as we established this morning.”

  “My companion is right,” Clifford said in that same quiet tone.

  Yeah, he’s definitely the more dangerous of the two, Kal decided. The confidence was what gave it away. No bluster, no overt moves. Just blunt talk.

  “Care to enlighten me then?” Kal said, crossing his arms defiantly. There was nothing they could say that would convince him that the situation was any different. Still, he schooled his face into an impassive mask. No point in giving away his reaction to whatever was about to be said.

  “This morning, Vlad and Sache were still present,” Clifford said. “Now they’re missing, and their rooms have been ransacked, just like Gunnar’s was, before he too disappeared.”

  Kal was immensely grateful for his forethought. He nodded slowly in response to that information.

  “What makes you think they’re missing?” he asked. “It hasn’t even been a day?”

  Clifford rolled his eyes, the first sign of frustration seeping through a crack. “Both of their rooms were torn apart. Nobody knows where they are. You do the math.”

  Kal had to be careful here. He didn’t want to give too much away. It appeared as if neither of the guards—and thus Viko—were aware that both Vlad and Sache had come to visit him a handful of hours earlier. Kal knew exactly where they had gone, and he knew that nobody had kidnapped them.

  Therefore, nobody had a reason to go through their rooms. Nobody except for the person that was responsible for Gunnar’s disappearance. The same person that had tried to pin that on Kal. Who was now also trying to pin Vlad and Sache’s disappearance on him.

  Commander Viko.

  What are you trying to cover up Viko? Why are you trying to get rid of us?

  The plot was thickening, but Kal still had no idea what his former boss was doing. It could still just be in the planning stages. Once he had his hands on Kal and the others, Viko could implicate them in whatever it was that he was about to do.

  What could Viko possible want though? He was well-respected by all five clans, he had a power matched only by the head of each individual clan. Why risk it all on this crazed plan?

  Whatever it was, it had to be big. Unfortunately, that was the only thing Kal could say about it. There just wasn’t enough other information.

  For a moment he thought about going to one of the clan heads. Of putting the information he had forward to them, of exposing Viko.

  And what would that accomplish? Nobody is likely to believe me.

  Being thrown out of the Gate Guard in disgrace didn’t do a whole lot for one’s reputation with the other dragon shifters. That was why Vlad and Sache were leaving in the first place. They wanted
to go somewhere else, to have a fresh start. Where their reputations wouldn’t precede them.

  Unless Kal had ironclad proof that Viko was doing something illegal, he wouldn’t be believed. The commander simply had built up too much respect among his peers.

  Not to mention that I am the only one left of my team from that day. I was the one in command. Fairly easily to make me look like an angry, disgruntled shifter upset that they let me down, blaming them for what’s happened to me. More than one person would buy Viko’s story that I was eliminating them as some sort of revenge for their perceived failure.

  Almost like what Viko’s doing…

  Could that be it? Was Viko trying to keep shifting blame, so that he came out of this squeaky clean?

  “Time’s up,” Clifford said, half-turning back toward the door. “Let’s go.”

  “No.”

  Goldenrod grinned. He’d been spoiling for a fight it seemed. Clifford on the other hand, wasn’t so eager to tangle with Kal. Again, proving that he was the smarter and more dangerous of the two. Unfortunately, when talking about dragon shifters, their sheer strength meant that if Kal ignored the shorter of his two opponents, he would still be in for a world of hurt.

  Kal rolled his shoulders as the pair squared up to him. “Go back to Viko. Tell him I’m not playing his games anymore. I didn’t do anything, I’m not going to do anything. I just want to be left alone. Got it?”

  “Sorry buddy, not the way it’s going to happen,” Goldenrod said, flashing that same smug grin.

  Clifford glanced at his partner, eyes tightening. But he then nodded in Kal’s direction. “He’s right. You’re coming with us. One way or another.”

  Kal almost told them to come and try taking him, but stopped himself in time.

  He wasn’t going to make the same mistake a second time.

  Looking back and forth at the pair of them, he let himself sag forward in resignation.

  “Fine. Let’s do this whole dog and pony show all over again,” he said. “Lead on.”

  Goldenrod went to the door and stepped outside. Kal walked across the distance, but Clifford didn’t move.

  “Well come on,” Kal said. “You wanted this, now you’ve got it. Chop chop.”

  “You go first,” Clifford said.

  Kal pointed at the door. “I have to lock up after. So that more idiots like you don’t come barging in. I told you I was coming with you. I’m right here. Let’s go.”

  Clifford seemed ready to put up a fight, but in the end he shrugged. His partner was waiting right outside the door, watching everything warily. They had him outnumbered. Every advantage was theirs.

  So with a shrug he walked out the door ahead of Kal.

  Idiot.

  The second Kal cleared the door he lunged forward, slamming an elbow into the back of Clifford’s head and continuing onward right into Goldenrod.

  Like he would ever go peacefully with these two dickbags.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anne

  Liam was still sound asleep when she got upstairs. Anne thought of waking him, but she knew that by the time he was up and dressed, whatever was going to happen downstairs would have happened. So she stood by the door in his room, metal baseball bat poised in hand.

  She’d had it under the bar in case anyone tried to cause her trouble but, with Kal working security, she hadn’t needed it. She’d grabbed it on her way by, not knowing what was going to come. Whoever those people were, Kal had recognized them as bad news immediately.

  Down below she heard footsteps as someone headed toward the front door. Were they leaving? Was Kal going with them?

  Anne thought about heading downstairs, but she knew that wasn’t the best thing to do right now. Up here she was out of the way. Once Kal was finished with whoever they were, she was positive he would come up and explain everything to her.

  And it had better be a darn good explanation too!

  Creeping across the floor she peered out the window. Down below yellow light spilled out as the door opened, and someone exited. It didn’t look like Kal, it was too short, and there was a lack of facial hair as well. One of the intruders then. Maybe they were leaving now. Perhaps Kal had talked them down from whatever it was they wanted.

  Or not, she realized as a second figure came through the door and was immediately attacked from behind.

  “Kal!” she gasped, thinking they had attacked her friend. Who exactly were they, she wondered briefly.

  A moment later she saw the shape that could only be Kal come charging through the door and tackle the other person to the ground.

  She wanted to run over to the table and grab her phone, to call the police, but what she saw next stole her breath away and left Anne enraptured by the fight happening below.

  Kal rolled over his tackled victim, and then he kicked out. Anne’s mouth dropped open as the unknown person went flying. Not just thrown a few feet, but quite literally thrown across the street and into the brick facing of the other building. It all happened so fast that she thought she was imagining it.

  “Impossible,” she whispered. Nobody was that strong. Kal had just hurled the man like he was a rag doll.

  The first man was getting back up now, but Kal was already headed toward him. Anne covered her mouth as punches were thrown and blocked. Then one landed and this time Kal was the one flung back.

  She’d seen a few bar fights in her time, and her ex-husband was a trained Mixed Martial Arts fighter. Anne had watched Alexi fight multiple times before. Those had been vicious punches, but the impact had been nothing compared to what had just happened.

  Kal flew back, landing on the hood of a black pickup truck. The hood and windshield crumpled inward. Yet he popped back up like it was nothing and moved back in to continue the fight.

  All at once it was too much for Anne to watch. Flashbacks to her past, to sitting ringside with Alexi when he was fighting, to endless training sessions. The sound of punches hitting the body. She couldn’t take it anymore.

  Retreating from the window she went back to Liam’s bedside, sitting down, gently stroking his head while he slept, oblivious to what was going on outside.

  And so I hope you stay that way sweet child, for as long as possible. The world is a harsh place, and your innocence precious. Hold on to it. Please.

  She stayed like that for an unknown amount of time. The occasional thump reached her through the walls. A shout. Then silence.

  Please, please be okay Kal.

  Floorboards creaked downstairs. Anne stiffened, looking back to the window, where she’d left the baseball bat. Would she need it? Who had those people been, and what did they want with Kal?

  Moving silently, she crept across the room and grabbed the bat. She had no reason to suspect that anyone would be coming up for her, but right then, it seemed that ‘better safe than sorry’ was the best way forward. She gripped the bat tightly in both hands as footsteps sounded closer, and then came up the stairs.

  “Anne?”

  She sagged, the bat drooping. “Kal,” she sighed, recognizing his voice.

  Putting the weapon down she opened the door as he approached faster.

  “You’re okay,” she said when he appeared in the doorway, his face outlined in shadows only from the nightlight in the room.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, stepping forward, extending his arms out to hug her. “That should never have happened around you.”

  Anne flinched back.

  Kal paused at her reaction, looking at his arms, then dropping them to his sides. “Oh,” he said in a quiet voice. “What is it?”

  Anne chewed on her lip, shaking her head, unable to meet his gaze. She couldn’t bear to look upon the pain in his eyes, but right then she couldn’t be in his arms. Watching him fight had been too much.

  “It’s not you,” she said, figuring that he at least deserved an explanation. “Not…really. It was just watching you fight—”

  “You saw?” Kal asked, alarmed.
<
br />   She nodded. “Through the window.”

  “I see.” Kal shifted uncomfortably on his feet, but didn’t say anything more.

  “My ex fought a lot,” she said, then gestured for him to go back into the hall. She didn’t want to risk waking Liam.

  Kal went back downstairs, and she followed.

  “He was a trained fighter,” she said quietly. “I watched some of his fights. He loved it, was always looking for an excuse to throw punches. Thought it made him tough.”

  “I’m not your ex-husband,” Kal said gently. “I don’t want to fight. I didn’t want to fight them.”

  “Maybe,” she said quietly. “Maybe not. But the memory of it wasn’t pleasant. Not to mention, you jumped them, Kal. Not the other way around.”

  Kal sighed. “That’s…a complicated thing to answer. All I can tell you, is that they were going to attack me.”

  “Why? Who are they, why are they here? There’s just so much I don’t know about you Kal!” she bit down as her emotions threatened to spill over, trying to keep her voice calm, and not yell.

  “I understand that you don’t like the idea of people fighting,” Kal said gently. “But Anne, I feel like there’s more to it. Something else. What’s going on?”

  Was it that obvious?

  “Alexi called me earlier today,” she said.

  “You still talk to him?”

  “No, not if I can help it,” she said quickly. “I’ve told him to leave me alone. Changed my number numerous times. Moved half a dozen times in the two years since I left him. Yet none of it works, he still tracks me down. He called me on the bar phone, Kal. Not my cell. He knows where I am, knows that I bought the bar!”

  This time she didn’t fight it when Kal wrapped his arms around her. It felt good to talk to someone about this. Why him, and why now, she didn’t know. Frankly, it didn’t matter.

  “I promise,” Kal said in a dark voice. “I will keep you safe, Anne. I won’t let him hurt you.”

  A tremor ran through her. That hadn’t been what she was asking for. It wasn’t something she expected of Kal. Why would she, they weren’t ‘anything’. Perhaps they were on the verge of heading there, but that was a perhaps.