Captive Dragon (3 page)

But a she-dragon wouldn’t put him in a tank at the aquarium. He was in a tank. At the aquarium.

Damn
!

It wasn’t quite his worst nightmare—to be taken back to the deep, but it was close. He was an exhibit in the Sandy Bay Aquarium. Where
she
worked.

Swimming around the tank, he found no access other than at the top. He pushed up to study the thin grating covering the silo shaped tank. Even if he shifted, his fingers wouldn’t fit through there. No handholds.

No escape.

“They put Santa hats on Beluga Whales?” Chloe quirked a smile and stroked the snout of the dolphin nudging her hip. The cold blue water of the pool lapped on the platform she gripped. She gave her playful Bottlenose friend one last stroke before hoisting herself on the grated surface.

“Yeah, it’s not enough that they still hunt them down, but now they have to humiliate them with silly hats?” Sara’s pretty, freckled face twisted in disgust. “All for a silly publicity stunt. I wonder how they got them to stay on.”

Sara Williams, best friend and dolphin trainer extraordinaire, handed Chloe a towel from the stack behind the podium. The stage and benches of the auditorium, quiet in the pre-dawn hours, seemed barren, devoid of the excitement and exuberance of the crowd.

Sara had made an exercise lap with the dolphins before delivering the promised cup of coffee, close-mouthed about why they should meet here, well before their usual time, rather than their gym. Chloe’s day at Sandy Bay Aquarium usually started at ten, after two hours spent in the research lab.

She wrapped the towel around her waist and followed Sara, her skinny, well-proportioned body not quite making Chloe jealous. In the locker room, she made quick work of her change, left her hair wet, and grabbed the still hot styrofoam cup full of rich liquid bearing caffeine.

“Hmm. Thanks, Sara.”

Wearing her disgruntled look, Sara shoved into her wetsuit, the required uniform for the dolphin show. “I can’t believe you don’t care about the whales.”

Relaxed, she sipped her coffee and waited out Sara’s familiar rant—this time over a news story from overseas. “I know you didn’t get me out of bed early to hit me up to join the Marine Life Liberation Organization. Again.”

“No.” Sara grumbled. “I didn’t. But, you should join.”

“Tell me again. How can a dolphin trainer belong to an organization whose sole purpose is to free animals from any type of captivity? Including from this very aquarium?”

“Sandy Bay only has rescued animals. It’s different, and you know it. We don’t receive captured animals here.” Sara’s expression hardened into that familiar stubborn pout.

She dropped it. Sara had changed in the past few weeks, becoming more involved with MLLO. Her friend didn’t seem to understand Chloe’s reservations about the organization. In the past, their disagreement hadn’t mattered as much. Sara’s heightened interest came after a recent breakup. Chloe waited it out, supporting Sara with as much chocolate-chunk ice-cream as they could eat while watching chick flicks and long nights of male-bashing.

But the argument was getting old, especially after the latest headlines. Chloe had spent her life dedicated to marine biology, the ocean’s ecosystems, creatures, and their survival. Every time she saw the leader of MLLO speaking to the cameras, she barely contained the anger. Chloe still rankled as she followed Sara out of the locker rooms and thought of that particular man.

Reef Bayard was movie star gorgeous, and his involvement swelled the ranks of MLLO, drawing in girls ready to swoon at his feet. Sara probably joined to be close to Bayard, who seemed intelligent enough and held to his convictions, but a woman couldn’t excuse a man for calling her work abusive and morally wrong.

She loved the ocean wildlife in the holding tanks, nurtured them, and when she could, she released them back into the wild. She couldn’t do that work if MLLO succeeded in closing down her livelihood. Due to the success of local protests, donations were down and the aquarium research funds took a direct hit. Her work was everything. A career she’d pursued to the detriment of her personal life, forsaking her father’s last years so she could attend college. She’d left a dependable boyfriend in her wake, moving to Sandy Bay for this job. If her work here was wrong, what did that say about her? That she’d left her pained, cancer-riddled father to die alone? That she’d left a good man to follow her career? But she wasn’t wrong.

The charismatic activist thought she was wrong. Chloe might have heeded his call to act for animal rights, but well-run aquariums served a good purpose by providing research and medical help for injured wild life. Bayard had a definite appeal, but he was close-minded, militant, and unmovable.

She couldn’t stand to be within three feet of him. This was a problem since he’d been showing up with increasing frequency to all the aquarium fundraisers. Luckily, he’d been unusually quiet with his views while around her. He’d been at her guest lectures at the local university. He’d even attended a local art opening for her former college roommate. He was everywhere, always charming and solicitous.

If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was stalking her.

“What kind of name is Reef anyway?” She couldn’t stop the question even though she should steer clear of the topic that held a morbid fascination for her. Sara rolled her eyes.

“He didn’t mean to hit you with that red paint. He was aiming for the trainer with the seal exhibit’s new addition. He said the female was stolen.” Sara looked meek for a moment before she grinned. “It was water colors, though. Washed right off, didn’t it? You should have seen your face.”

“Don’t you dare laugh.”

Chloe was surprised to be at the large warehouse-sized dock filled with holding tanks for rescued wildlife. She’d been so wrapped up thinking about the man she tried not to think about, she hadn’t paid attention to their destination. “What are we doing here?”

“This is why I asked you to come in early. I heard about this last night and wanted to be sure we were alone.” Sara placed her coffee on a nearby counter and picked up a clipboard. “They want to keep a tight lid on this one. They brought it in yesterday. Spent all night studying it. They’re bringing in an expert.”

“Who are
they
?” She caught Sara’s excitement and her curiosity ran rampant.

“The guys were out checking the dolphin enclosure last night. Just follow me.”

Sara put down the paperwork and jogged toward a large container in the back of the room. Her scraping footsteps competed with the gurgling of water pumps and filters. When she stopped behind Sara at the holding tank, she splashed in a small puddle on the concrete floor. Shaking her foot, she moved beside her friend.

Massive makeshift curtains hid the contents, something not usually done—unless the specimen was sensitive to light. A scurrying sound to her left brought goose bumps over her arms, but she couldn’t make out anything in the shadows. Probably a rat. She shivered in disgust and looked back to the covered container.

“Is it some type of bottom-dweller?” Chloe fingered the rough nylon as Sara rustled through the fabric for an opening.

“No. Not if they caught it in the enclosure. Besides, I heard them talking. It’s something they want to keep secret, but I don’t know what it is. They probably would have brought you in on it soon, anyway. But this is their usual shift change time. I knew they’d be gone.”

“Why on earth—”

Confused at first, she stopped when Sara moved the curtains aside. The tank was dark, and all she could see was a large swath of seaweed. A typical kind. Nothing fantastic enough to keep secret.

Sara flipped the light and illuminated the tank. Chloe blinked, sure her eyes deceived her. Sara’s deep breath of awe broke Chloe’s frozen amazement.

Excitement ran through Chloe, the kind of feeling that came from discovering unexpected knots of cells under a microscope. A new discovery.

“A giant seahorse?” Sara squeaked.

“A type of one, I think, but this one is at least six feet long, and it’s different. Look at the proud arc of its neck and the curled tail. And there,” She pointed at the midsection. “There’s a brood pouch. A male, but the sack isn’t protruding, so he’s not carrying young. Can you imagine if he had? This is incredible.”

“Damn.” Sara whistled.

Chloe couldn’t agree more. Magnificent. Reaching for the clear glass, her hands touched the smooth surface, and she shivered. The eyes of the seahorse were not cold, flat, or fishy.

They were human, crystal blue.

The glass fogged from her breath, and no longer able to see those haunting eyes, a strange disappointment filled her.

***

Things couldn’t get worse. When he’d spotted a shadow—unnervingly similar to a she-dragon—slicing through the water, he’d botched the selkie rescue attempt and had stupidly gotten caught in nets at the underwater gate leading to the bay.

To top it all off, the selkie—wasn’t. She was a seal, not a denizen of the sea who could shed her skin and become human.

The rescue went haywire, and here Reef Bayard was, imprisoned in a holding tank in the aquarium he’d breached and staring through gallons of water at the woman he craved. Against all reason and all good sense, he’d wanted this woman from the moment he’d seen her. Which is too bad, since all he’d ever done was piss her off.

Having Chloe was not something he could permit himself. More to add to the list of things that could not happen.

When she’d walked into the holding area with Sara, Chloe had been talking about him. In response, his tail curled into a tight circle. The appendage longed to caress her leg in an inescapable link, entwine around her and clasp her to him. He’d never seen her when in his aquatic form and was shocked at his need to wrap her and told tight.

Studying him through the tank, her lush body hid inside a dowdy pair of slacks and a shapeless button-down blouse. Her clothing couldn’t disguise her scrumptious build with curves in all the right places. Her chin length brown hair fell across her black rimmed eyeglasses that did nothing to hide the intelligence in her soft, kind brown eyes.

A wet strand of hair hung at the corner of her plump red lips. If he listened, he could hear her words, though the tank distorted them. The movement of her tempting mouth held him entranced.

She reached toward him and pressed her palm to the glass, and he was caught, the previously futile attraction now undeniable.

Creating eddies in the water, his body trembled. Water pulsed around him, agitating in pace with his ardor. For the first time, he reacted to the timeless call of the seadragon’s nature.

Searing, hot white pain slashed through his middle, and a fevered ache swept his body. Never in his life had he known the agony his kind always experienced before their first season. Across his abdomen, a line of fire quivered and swelled with need, trying to open to the eager flesh within. His body’s response was undeniable. He wanted to mate.

He wanted Chloe Pearl.

Now
that
was impossible. Human female and seadragon stallion did not mate. But his terra form knew exactly what to do. If only he could escape his prison, convince her that she didn’t really hate him, and find a way into her bed and into heaven.

Bliss, until she found out what he was. A human wouldn’t mate a seadragon. This one in particular. She’d want to study him, like all of the inhabitants of this facility. There was no future for them, even if he didn’t have his own mission. A responsibility that made it impossible to have relationships, or to love, because helping his brethren escape and thrive here in Sandy Bay was his first and only purpose in life, and he’d failed.

Two weeks ago, a female warrior, a she-dragon, had captured and taken one stallion back to the deep as they’d escaped Etrusca. He suspected he’d been followed this time when he’d fled. Their location could be compromised. Now was not the time to be hung-up on the idea of mating.

He forced his tail to uncurl and reined in his desire, even though he understood the magnitude of his awakening. His imperative to procreate had to come second. Or maybe never.

With a shove to the top, he repeated his fruitless search for a way out. He’d continued his visual scan, hoping he’d somehow missed an opportunity for escape, but there would be no getting out of here without help. The top grate latched on the outside.

Already trapped for at least a day, there was no time to waste. Scientists at the aquarium had spotted him, trapped him, and put him in the tank. To study. To prod. They’d be back to humiliate him completely.

There was no choice. He’d show himself to Chloe and hope she’d open the top. Once she knew what he really was, she’d hate him even more, but it was the only way out before it was too late and more seadragons were taken from their new homes.

Awaiting his moment, Reef watched the two women with hard won patience as they discussed him, pointing. When Chloe’s friend checked her watch, waved goodbye, and left, Reef concentrated, grabbed the core of humanity that folded upon itself deep inside, and opened the guarded secrets there. In a flash, his body transformed.

Chloe startled, her hand clutching at her heart. With wide eyes, she stared at him. Her mouth parted.

With his nude human form settling toward the bottom of the tank, he brought his finger before his lips in the sign for silence.

Face drained of color, she did not move or speak—even though her mouth opened and closed as if she tried.

He scissored his legs, and his arms flowed through the water to the surface. Pushing his head above water, he took a deep breath in the half-foot of clearance. He swam to the edge and looked at Chloe twenty feet below. Frozen in place, she slowly moved her gaze from his feet, up his body to his face. He couldn’t help his reaction when she lingered a heartbeat at his groin.

He saw the instant she recognized him. The shock morphed to anger, but he didn’t give her time to think. “Could you please help me out of here?”

A perfectly innocent request. He was the victim here. So then, why did she grin at him with wicked intent? She replied, “No way. Not until I get a promise from you.”

Recovered from her shock a little too quickly for his liking, she stood with arms crossed and hip cocked to the side. Well, he’d just have to convince her to set him free.