Her Dragon: An Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 2) Page 8

  “I’ll stay to make sure you don’t need anything in the night,” I said, giving him a stern look.

  “I’m sure I will,” he said, his usual smirk returning. “I’ve also been known to enjoy a sexy wakeup call, if you’re willing.”

  “Cash,” I warned. “I’m serious. I can tell you’re in pain. You need sleep.”

  “They gave me painkillers in the ambulance,” he said. “Which means I can’t be held responsible for what I might do while under their influence.”

  “They also told you to take it easy,” I said. “Which means I’m going to make sure you get plenty of rest and zero excitement. Got it?”

  He slid an arm around my waist and nuzzled my neck. “You don’t want to heal me like you did Maximus?”

  “Hey,” I said, swatting his arm. “What I do with Maximus, or any of my mates, is none of your business. We’re not going to be counting and keeping score.”

  “I make no such promises,” Cash said, drawing my earlobe between his teeth.

  I crossed my arms and pretended I wasn’t affected by the shivers of warmth running through my body. “Fine,” I said. “Then you get no more bedroom fun until all my mates have caught up with you.”

  “Wait,” Cash said, leaning back with wide eyes. “That’s not fair.”

  I gave him a smug smile. “Your rules, not mine.”

  “Okay, okay, your rules,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender.

  “Good,” I said. “Let’s get you in bed so you can rest and recover.”

  “Only if I can get you in bed with me,” Cash said.

  I shut off the light and helped him into bed before climbing under the blankets with him. He pulled me into his arms, pressing his nose into my hair and inhaling deeply. “You even smell like silver,” he murmured, sounding drowsy already.

  “You mean like metal? That’s probably the smell of blood,” I said.

  Cash chuckled. “You’re really not going to let me put the moves on tonight, are you?”

  “Nope,” I said. “Cuddling only.”

  He sighed. “What a waste.”

  “Hey, just because you got in my pants like a week after we met doesn’t mean you’re going to get laid every time I’m in your bedroom.”

  “Don’t act like you didn’t like it,” he purred into my ear.

  Desire spread through me, and my wolf growled for more of his touch. “I liked it,” I said, curling my hands around his arms and drawing them tighter around me. “But you’re not ready for a repeat.”

  “Oh, I’m not?” he asked, laughter in his voice.

  “A lot has happened today,” I said, my own voice serious as I remembered Virion lying on the gurney. “I can’t make it go away by having sex with you, Cash.”

  His body went still, and he didn’t speak for a long moment.

  Shit. Totally insensitive.

  “Ariana, that’s not why,” he said. “I admit, maybe I haven’t always used sex for the right reasons, but that’s not…”

  I waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.

  “Not what?” I asked when my impatience got the better of me.

  “Shit,” he said. “Maybe you’re right.”

  I turned over and wrapped my arms around my dragon mate, pressing my cheek to his warm chest and listening to his heartbeat. He ran his fingers absently through my hair. At last, he said, “Virion was… Well, he meant a lot to me.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “He was a prickly old bastard, but growing up, he was always there for me. That’s probably why I agreed to bring you here. It wasn’t just to get the dragon fleet to protect us. I wanted to make him proud. His opinion means a lot to me and…”

  I gulped. “And what?”

  “And maybe I wanted to show you off,” he admitted. “You’re my mate, and the Silver Shifter, and…you.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I wanted to come, too. We needed that fleet.”

  “It was stupid,” Cash said.

  “I’m sure he was proud of you,” I said, squeezing Cash’s warm body.

  “I don’t know,” Cash said. “The women he’s met, the ones leaving in the morning carrying their shoes… I don’t think I gave him a lot of reasons to be proud of me when it came to the company I keep. But you, Ari… You’re someone I’m proud to call my mate. I let my feelings cloud my judgment.”

  “I’m sure Virion would understand,” I whispered, my heart hammering. The air in the room felt charged suddenly, heavy with his confession.

  Cash let out a quiet scoff. “A dragon alpha shouldn’t get carried away with emotion,” he said as if recited a mantra. “I’ve never felt this way before, Ari. I’ve had women, sure, but no one like you. I was always looking for something, even without realizing it.”

  “What were you looking for?” I asked.

  He squeezed me closer before tipping my chin up and brushing his lips over mine. “You.”

  12

  Jett

  With a sigh, I walked into my apartment, which doubled as my office for now. Unlike those fancy dragons, my clan had fallen on a bit of a tough spot financially, and I was doing everything I could to lessen the burden. I peeled off my shirt and reached for the light switch.

  “Someone was out late,” a voice purred, making my panther nearly jump out of my skin.

  “Fuck, Cassie,” I said, scowling at her as the light illuminated the room, where my Second sat curled in the recliner. “You trying to kill me?”

  “I think the better question is, are you trying to get yourself killed,” she said. “Again.”

  I glared at her, a knot of bitterness forming in my stomach. “I never tried to get myself killed.”

  “Trying to get yourself killed, playing hero, same difference,” she said with a wave of her slender hand. Her freshly manicured nails were sharp and rose-petal pink.

  “What do you want this time?” I asked, bracing the toes of one shoe against the heel of the other and sliding them off one at a time.

  “You could start by telling me where you’ve been.”

  I sighed. “None of your damn business, that’s where.”

  “Actually, as your sister, everything you do is my business,” Cassandra said, unwinding herself slowly and standing to face me. “And as your Second, it’s equally my business to know where you go and what you’re doing. It’s clan business. If you don’t like it, you should have passed the Alphahood to me when Dad died.”

  I glared at her, the knot turning into something else, something laced with ten years of poisonous guilt. At least she didn’t blame me for our father’s death. That burden fell to me alone.

  “I was at the dragon headquarters,” I said. “I have to deal with this Silver Shifter bullshit. It’s part of the job, too, along with informing you of every step I take.”

  She crossed her arms and screwed her lips to one side. “Why do you think she showed up now? I mean, it wasn’t really supposed to be part of your job. It hasn’t been part of the job for a century. Dad and Granddad never had to deal with it.”

  “Well, I do.”

  “I’m just saying, it’s convenient timing,” she said. “Right when all the U.S. panther clans start talking about uniting under one ruler, here comes the Silver Shifter to unite us with the other non-panther clans of New York.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked, running a hand over my head. Time for a shave.

  “Are we really sure this is her?” Cassie asked. “There’s no way someone could fake it? I mean, back in the day, it would have been harder. But nowadays you can get any color hair from a box at Walgreens.” She held up one of her hot-pink highlighted braids.

  I smirked. “All your hair comes from a box.”

  “Don’t start with me, Jett,” she said, flicking her braid over her shoulder. “And I’ve done this job long enough to notice when you change the subject.”

  Heaving a sigh, I dropped onto the couch. “Can she fake it? I don’t know, Cass. It’s a
whole lot of trouble for what could be nothing but a token title. We don’t even know what she’ll do. What she can do.”

  Not to mention that if my panther had anything to do with it, she was going to be my mate. But I hadn’t gotten into that with the clan yet. I didn’t even want to get into that with myself. I had too much at stake to be distracted by a piece of ass.

  But damn, it was a fine piece of ass…

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what the Silver Shifter title means,” Cassie said. “It’s not a token title, and we both know it.”

  “I don’t know it,” I said. “Last time there was a Silver Shifter, we didn’t know dragons existed yet. Women couldn’t vote. A telephone was still a twinkle in Alexander Graham Bell’s eye. Things change, sweetheart.”

  Cassandra gave me a scathing look. “Don’t sweetheart me, Jett,” she said. “I’m well aware that things can change. But if she’s just a token, how come all she had to do was waltz in claiming to be the Silver Shifter, and all four alphas lose their shit and go chasing after her like babies after candy?”

  “I’m not chasing after her,” I said, stiffening.

  “Aren’t you?” Cassandra purred. “A month ago, you were set on eliminating the world of the bloodsucking plague of vampires. Now all I hear about is this supposed Silver Shifter, and if my nose does not deceive me, you smell like you’ve been to a vampire barbecue tonight.”

  “You might need to see a doctor about that nose,” I said. “The only thing on the menu at that barbecue was the vampires themselves.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Glad to hear it.”

  “Now that the interrogation is over, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep. As much as I love a good vampire slaughter, it takes its toll on the body.”

  “There’s a conference call at eight sharp,” she said. “You and the other panther alphas. Don’t sleep in and forget it. And if you’re against uniting the panther clans under one organization, they need to know about it.”

  “I know,” I snapped. “I’m still thinking it over. I got other shit to deal with right now.”

  “Time’s up, big brother,” she said, stopping at the door. “And it would be nice if I knew the answer to that question before the rest of the country.”

  “I’ll make a decision,” I said. “You can sit in on the call tomorrow morning. That good enough for you?”

  “Not really,” she grumbled. “I’ve been fielding questions about it for weeks.”

  “If you don’t like it, you should have passed the Second status to Jerome when Dad died,” I said, mocking her earlier words.

  “You know, Jett, you’re a real piece of work,” she said, yanking the door open. “No wonder you don’t have a mate yet. No woman’s going to put up with your shit.”

  “I’m not asking one to,” I said. “And that’s exactly why I don’t need a mate.”

  “Fine by me,” Cassandra said. “If you don’t have a mate, that means the Alphahood gets passed to my babies.”

  With that, she stormed out the door.

  I lay back on the couch, a headache beginning to pound in my temples. Before I could relax, though, my phone rang. Cassie, of course. It wasn’t enough for her to get the last word once. She had to get it twice.

  Without bothering to greet her, I said, “What do you need?”

  “No one cares if you fuck around while you wait for your true mate to show up, but can we keep it to other panthers, at least?” I could practically hear her nose wrinkling with distaste.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, my blood going cold. The longer I could put off telling the clan about Ariana, the better. My panther thought she was his mate, but he was full of shit.

  He growled inside me, but I pushed him down, growling right back. He’d fucked up. I hadn’t.

  “You shouldn’t leave your laptop open,” Cassie said. “It was right there on the screen when I went in.”

  “You mean when you broke into my apartment?”

  “All in the name of doing what’s best for the clan.”

  “Breaking into my apartment and hacking my computer are best for the clan?” I growled.

  “Secrets aren’t good for anyone, Jett. You’re my brother. I trust you. Why don’t you trust me?” Her voice had gone serious, but I wasn’t having any of her manipulation tonight.

  “Ask me that question after I get my locks changed,” I said. “Again.”

  “You might want to change your password, too,” Cassie said. “I’m flattered that you used my birthday, but that’s not very original. If I can guess it, so can anyone else who might break in.”

  “Goodnight,” I said, hanging up without waiting for a reply.

  I opened my laptop and logged in to see what she was talking about, though I had a good idea already. My calendar was open, showing a meeting scheduled with one of my contacts. I sighed and slumped back in my chair. Not Ariana. Just a human.

  I passed out on the couch, only to be plagued by nightmares. In one, Cash was standing in front of me, his leathery wings extended.

  “You can trust me,” he said. He turned and flew off over the city while I bounded along the streets in panther form. We had to find my father before the vamps killed him. He was the Alpha, and our pack couldn’t survive without him.

  I rounded a corner and saw a figure standing in an alleyway, wings stretched from one edge to the other. I pulled up short, and the figure turned slowly, wings glinting in the moonlight. Not red-brown wings like Cash’s. Silvery wings.

  “I’ll tell you the cure if you’ll be my mate,” Ariana said, her smile full of cunning.

  I woke with a start, sitting bolt upright and sucking in a loud breath. The upholstery under me was damp with sweat. I stood and paced the apartment in the dark. My panther growled inside me, wanting to get out, to run. But I couldn’t trust him anymore. He wanted things that weren’t possible, things that weren’t natural. Things that we could never have, so he might as well shut up about them. Until he got his shit together, I was keeping him on a short leash.

  With a sigh, I turned on the light and started the coffee. Cassie hadn’t needed to remind me to get up early. I wouldn’t be able to sleep the rest of the night. My panther was restless, and I had too much on my mind to snooze in comfort. I got out my laptop and searched for everything I could find on the Silver Shifter. Was Cassie right? Was Ariana a mole? And which clan would be so dead set on keeping the panther clans from uniting under one government that they’d plant a fake Silver Shifter?

  I swallowed a mouthful of coffee, barely noticing that it had grown cold while I worked. If Ariana wasn’t a fake, if she was real, that might be worse. I couldn’t solve that problem. I couldn’t root out the source, couldn’t expose the fraud and bring them to justice. All that left out one important detail, though. Whoever she was, whether she was a fake planted by another clan to cause division among the panthers so we would remain the weakest of the four New York Clans or the real deal, my panther thought she was our mate. That was the part I couldn’t understand.

  I dropped my forehead to the table with a groan.

  Who was this woman who had appeared out of nowhere and turned my whole fucking life upside down? All the other alphas had blindly accepted her at face value. Were they all in on it together—all three of their clans against the struggling panthers? Or was it the fucking vampires again, trying to get to all four of the clans? I’d floated the idea by Cash, but the bastard acted like I was nuts. Once, he would have listened to me, but not anymore. That had ended the day he told me I was going too far with my “revenge fantasies.”

  They weren’t fantasies. The world would never be safe for shifters until the vampire plague had been eradicated. Cash may not see the urgency, but he had a whole council to share the blame when he fucked up. I didn’t have that luxury. The welfare of my entire clan was my responsibility. If I fucked up, they would suffer. They would pay the price for my mistakes, just like my father had.
br />   When he died, I had promised my sister and brother that I would protect them with my life. I meant to keep that promise, even if it meant I could never claim my true mate. In the grand scheme of things, finding a mate was trivial. Lots of people never found their true mate, and they managed to live happy lives. The fact was, claiming a mate was dangerous. Having a family was dangerous. It was leverage. Someone might hurt them to get to me. Someone might kill me, leaving them fatherless and alone. I wasn’t going to do that to anyone, no matter what my panther wanted. The only way to keep a family safe was not to have one.

  And the only way to keep the clan safe from vampires was not to have vampires in existence. Too bad that was impossible.

  Or was it?

  I pushed back from the table so fast my cold coffee sloshed over the side of the cup. Ariana might not be who she said she was, and she might not unite the clans. But maybe she was. After all, she did have a gift, and it sure as hell wasn’t just turning into a dragon. I’d seen with my own eyes what she could do. She could make vampires mortal again.

  13

  Ariana

  The next morning, I snuck out of Cash’s room to barely conscious grumbles of protest. I smiled as Cash stretched out on the bed, his fingers searching for a body that wasn’t there. After a few moments, he stilled and his gentle snores returned.

  I sighed in relief. I really didn’t want to wake up the dragon alpha after yesterday. He needed all the sleep he could get if he was going to heal those wounds. I took one last peek at his handsome, sleeping face before slipping out into the brightly lit hallway.

  Light refracted off a chandelier, creating a dazzling pattern on the white walls. I watched the tiny rainbows until they faded from sight behind me. It might still be bedtime for Cash, but I’d been awake for at least an hour.