Hidden Dragons (31 page)

She tightened her sheath to give him more friction. To her surprise, he pulled out. Why quickly became clear. Cursing with urgency, he flipped her over, hitched her up on her knees, and shoved into her from behind—his favorite position for when he was cranked up. Cass slapped her hands on the headboard just in time.

“Ah,” he cried, the swelling at his base increasing.

His new angle was good for her, her passage most sensitive exactly where the engorged gland pumped over and over it. Hearing her excited cries, he wrapped his hand around her vulva and rubbed.

The strength of his hold sent her sensations into overdrive.

Her peak crashed through her with the force of a tidal wave. Rick was going too. His wolf teeth clamped on her neck, holding her prisoner as he slammed in for his finish. It was a big one. Hot ejaculate flooded her. He growled out his pleasure, the vibration tingling down her vertebrae. His body wrapped hers, speared hers, overwhelming her inside and out. She didn’t want him to stop shooting. Given her way, she’d have let him drown her in his ecstasy.

That he didn’t split the headboard was a miracle.

“God,” he finally said.

He’d released his grip on her neck. They both were shaking, both slippery and hot with sweat. Rick nuzzled her shoulder, his hand slipping from her pussy to rub gently up her front.

Then he pulled out of her.

Cass had just enough energy to fall onto her back. She knew he’d enjoyed what they’d shared, but when she looked up at him, he didn’t seem happy.

He sat back on his heels and touched her cheek with one fingertip. She suspected he was going to bring up the topic she’d been afraid he would before.

“Cass . . .” he began.

“I’m sorry,” she said, hoping to head him off. “I’m sorry I threatened to compel you.”

If anything, his expression grew more somber. “I believe you. The problem is you can’t promise you won’t do it again, not if you think you have a good reason.”

“Could
you
promise, if you were in my shoes? If I wanted to face something terrible by myself?”

“I don’t know, which is why I can’t judge you.”

“And why you can’t trust me.”

She saw she’d hit the bitter nail on the head.

“Yes,” he said. “And now I have to decide if I can live with that.”

RICK collected his sword and left. He claimed he needed to talk to his alpha, but Cass suspected putting space between him and her was just as important. She wished she could blame him. She understood how he felt. Her father had taken choices from her, and she hadn’t liked it one bit. She could promise she’d try to show more restraint, but that might not be good enough for Rick.

People had a right to chart their own course in life.

“Crap,” she said to the empty room.

She wiped her eyes, annoyed by her tearfulness. She wanted her dragons with her something awful—though she knew their energy and mischief would wreak havoc in Jin and Bridie’s beautiful home. Her babies were housebroken, but not house-safe. Guarding them in the stables was a reasonable solution.

Well, fine
, she thought. She’d go to them if they couldn’t come to her.

She pulled on the comfy sweats Jin had been kind enough to leave her. The house was quiet as she strode through it, the mansion’s many rooms easily swallowing a handful of lupine guests.

When she reached the stables, the first glimmer of coming dawn was turning the sky pearly. Given how early the cousins left for the studio, Cass didn’t expect to find Jin there. The charming half elf leaned over the swinging door to the dragons’ stall, but Cass recognized her from behind. Her one figure flaw, if it truly were one, was that she thought her butt was flat.

“Hello, darlings,” Jin was murmuring. “Come up and meet me.”

She seemed to be having trouble coaxing the brood to her.

“I think they’re shy with strangers,” Cass said.

Jin spun, her gold eyes wide with surprise. She looked like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Oh,” she said, recovering with a quiet laugh. “I know I probably shouldn’t be here, but I couldn’t resist peeking in on them. They’re so wild and beautiful. That little red one is a heartbreaker.”

She was whispering.

“Where’s the guard wolf?” Cass whispered back.

Jin pointed into the stall and smiled. Nate was indeed inside, as Cass saw when she joined her friend at the door. He was sound asleep sitting up, his back leaning on a hay bale, his mouth open but not snoring. Scarlet really had taken a shine to him. The boys were cuddled to either side of his black-jeaned legs, but she’d curled up on his chest with her ear over his heartbeat.

As if the weapon were a baby too, Nate’s second arm draped his big-ass machine gun.

Watching Rick’s pack mate slumber struck Cass as an invasion of his privacy. Jin didn’t seem to see anything wrong in it, but she was bolder with men than Cass.

“Isn’t he supposed to be on duty?” Cass asked softly.

“Oh you know wolves.” Jin waved her pink manicure in dismissal. “I’m sure he’d wake up in a snap if anything were wrong.”

Cass imagined that was true. She’d seen Rick do it enough times. Then again, she’d expect the sound of their voices to wake him. Verdi stirred when he heard her, lifting his head and opening his silver eyes.

I’m here
, Cass thought at him, though she wasn’t certain they could communicate this way.
Everything’s fine. You rest up, and we’ll play tomorrow
.

He seemed like he understood. He gazed at her, and she felt the love all her babies were good at sending out. Her troubles fell away as she wished it back to him.
I love you too, sweetheart
.

Apparently reassured, the green dragon let his head drop onto the werecop’s thigh. A little sigh issued from him, followed by a wisp of smoke. Cass smiled. If that meant what she thought it did, Scarlet was about to lose her fire-breathing monopoly. She watched Verdi’s cute rounded belly rise and fall in his sleep, her own body relaxing as she leaned on the stall door. How attached she’d grown to the brood was its own sort of magic. It was difficult to imagine what she
wouldn’t
do protect them.

She realized she’d found the purpose she’d been searching for when she returned home to the Pocket.

“Do they all do that?” Jin asked.

“Do what?” Cass responded, turning her head to her.

“Send that little love fest to you.”

Cass’s brow puckered. Jin’s tone held a trace of bitterness, as if she might be jealous. Cass couldn’t think why she would be. Jin had tons of people in her life who loved her, including her and Bridie’s audience.

“I suppose they do. I didn’t know you could sense that.”

“I may not have your pedigree, but half elves aren’t rocks. We’re sensitive to magic too.”

Jin smiled, but Cass felt a need to apologize. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Jin waved her hand that it didn’t matter, then leaned sideways on the door like Cass was. The pose invited confidences, something her job demanded she be good at. “Tell the truth,” she said as if Cass were an interviewee she was wooing. “You imprinted them, didn’t you?”

Cass’s mouth fell open.

Jin broke into a laugh. “Come on,” she said. “I’m more than on-air talent or a pretty face. I do my research.”

“I guess I did,” Cass admitted. “My dad said it’s because I’m half Maycee as well as half faerie. He claims Maycee genes were changed when the last dragon’s energy washed across their farm.”

Jin looked thoughtfully over her shoulder into the stall. “Not the last dragon anymore.”

“No. Not anymore.”

“The red dragon is a girl.”

“Yes,” Cass agreed.

“Since they’re magical, they probably have a way to overcome the hazards of inbreeding.”

“They’re too little to think that way!” Cass objected.

Jin faced her again and smiled. “They’re not people.”

“I know. But they’re still too young.”

Amused, Jin rolled her eyes at her. “You always did have a moral streak.”

“Someone had to. You and Bridie were juvenile delinquents. Still are, I’d say, sneaking out in the dark to watch men you don’t even know sleeping.”

Jin flashed a gleaming grin. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them. And speaking of sexy, why aren’t you denned down with that hot hunk of wolf who can’t keep his eyes off you?”

Cass’s good humor dropped from her like a stone.

“Oh boy,” Jin said in response to her expression. “This seems like a conversation that requires more privacy—and possibly good liquor.”

~

Jin kept a stash of triple-blessed Benedictine and Brandy in her and Bridie’s shared sitting room. According to the store that sold it, the blessings were for health, happiness, and avoiding hangovers. Bridie wandered in from her bedroom as Jin began to pour. Wearing pajamas and with her naturally straight blonde hair in soft rollers, she plopped into a flowered armchair and sprawled her legs.

“I don’t know if it’s too early for alcohol or too late.”

“Man trouble,” Jin informed her cousin, handing her a snifter.

Bridie swirled the liquor and took a sip.

“Don’t you two have to go to work?” Cass asked.

“Not today,” Bridie said. “We’re off.”

“We couldn’t abandon you anyway,” Jin assured her. “Not with a broken heart.”

Was her heart broken? Hearing Jin say so depressed her.

“Rick and I
could
work through this,” she said tentatively. She took the glass Jin offered but didn’t drink.

“You don’t believe that. You only wish you did.”

“What does she wish?” Bridie asked sleepily.

“That the big wolf actually loved her and wasn’t just caught up in the romance of having to rescue her.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Is there another reason you think he can’t love you?” Jin’s hands were on her hips, her golden eyes kind but stern. It seemed impossible not to answer her.

“I don’t know about
can’t
. . . He’s mad because I threatened to glamour him.”

“Really?” Bridie sat straighter with wide eyes. “I thought you had rules about that.”

“I do. He wanted me to stay behind while he faced the faerie who was torturing my father. I couldn’t let him do that by himself.”

“Of course you couldn’t,” Bridie said soothingly. “He’s an idiot if he’s annoyed by that.”

“
Men
,” Jin said, tossing back half her drink.

She sounded brittle, like she had back in the stable. Was Jin having trouble with Felipe? She frowned when she noticed Cass’s attention.

“Men always break your heart,” she declared.

She said this with such confidence it seemed it must be true. Her beautiful honeyed gaze held Cass’s.

“Maybe,” Cass agreed unsurely. Her stomach felt unhappy.

“Look at your dad,” Jin went on, gesturing with her glass. “How many times did we watch him disappoint you? Never loving you back as much as you loved him. And that human you met Outside, the weak-willed druggie you compelled to fall for you.”

“Accidentally.”

“Does it matter? He broke your heart the same as the others. Half the time, when men think they’ve fallen in love, they’re kidding themselves. The only people you can count on are female friends.”

“Friends are forever,” Bridie put in helpfully.

Cass looked at her. Bridie generally agreed with her cousin, but Cass would have preferred she didn’t then.

Giving up on staying awake, Bridie pushed up from her chair, yawning. “Sorry about the wolf. Gosh, I need to go back to bed.”

“I should too,” Cass said, inexplicably reluctant to stay. Confiding her troubles to the cousins usually made her feel better. She set down her untouched glass.

“You sure?” Jin asked. “My shoulder is yours as long as you need it.”

Cass gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Jin. I appreciate you being here for me.”

Probably Jin was surprised to be embraced. She stiffened for a heartbeat before she held Cass back.

Her hesitation increased the heaviness of Cass’s spirit. She trudged back to her room with cement feet. Maybe she’d never be loved by anyone. Maybe a lifetime of keeping up her guards so she wouldn’t inadvertently dust her friends made that impossible. She didn’t think to wonder why she’d gone from being merely unhappy to miserable so fast. She
ought
to be miserable. Her life was a hopeless mess.

In her current mood, the cold spot she passed through outside her door seemed appropriate. Maybe it was a draft, but ghosts chilled the air pretty much the same way. Given that Cass was haunted by her past, why shouldn’t a stray specter be drawn to her?

She curled up on the bed she and Rick had rumpled, a bolster hugged to her stomach. Nice though the pillow was, it was no substitute for him. Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes, pathetic but somehow right.

Sleep tight
, she thought she heard someone say.

~

The house Cass’s friends lived in was too damn big. Rick resorted to using his nose to track down his alpha. He found him in a book-lined study lit by a Tiffany lamp. Adam was asleep at the dark wood desk, his cheek resting on his folded arms and his ElfBook open in front of him. Knowing Adam, he’d skimped on sleep since Rick went AWOL.

Even alpha werewolves had to catch up sometime.

The room was cooler than even shifters liked. Rick grabbed a throw from a nearby chair to spread over Adam’s back. His boss didn’t stir as he covered him.

Amused and absurdly touched, Rick patted Adam’s arm, then drew the notebook closer to himself. The computer’s screen woke to a search Adam had been doing on Jin Levine.

That was weird. Had Jin done something suspicious? He glanced at the files. Apart from quite a few parking tickets and a two-year-old Disturbing the Peace complaint for a loud party, she had a clean record. Rick contemplated his sleeping boss. Adam was the one who’d suggested they bring the dragons here. Rick assumed he’d gotten the idea when Cass’s friends reported her missing, because they’d seemed trustworthy. But perhaps the opposite was true. Perhaps Adam thought they were in league with Ceallach’s female accomplice.