Love & Wrath (First Dragons Book 1) Read online

  “You kidding? Hell yes. You get your regular pay on top of what the shop pays you and then there’s the bonus. You’re set up with a furnished apartment and everything. If he wants to throw money at you, I don’t see why you’d dodge.”

  “Apartment? Where’s this job?”

  “Virginia. I’ll send you the details.”

  After disconnecting the call with Clarence, Jess still couldn’t believe her assignment was simply to work in a coffee shop or bistro or whatever. There had to be a reason she was being sent there. Maybe she’d find something in the additional information Clarence was sending.

  When she got to her apartment, Jess grabbed a beer from the fridge and opened her laptop. She signed into a secure server and got the message from Clarence. She read it three times.

  There wasn’t much to go on. She was to go to the shop, apply to work like a normal employee using her real name, and work there for four months. She was free to fraternize with fellow employees and locals, her job with the firm had to remain secret. Lying was to be avoided as much as possible.

  Her cover story was that she wanted to get out of Texas for a while. That was it. It was technically true because she did want to get out of Texas to get the money.

  There was no way the favor for a family member was just to find a staff member for a bistro.

  She supposed she was chosen for this assignment because she was single. She didn’t have to uproot a family to go to Virginia. She had no kids in school. Her parents died when she was a baby, so she didn’t have any close relations. She lived with her grandparents until she was eighteen and they died one after the other of influenza a few years later. Of course, that’s also the kind of background you’d want for someone who was at risk of dying on the job. Who would kill her in a bistro?

  Nobody, that’s who. Jess was no easy target.

  Jess stayed up late into the night coming up with a more solid cover story. She didn’t have to look far. It turned out that her family on her dad’s side was from Virginia a few generations back.

  She tracked down the cemetery where some were buried, and it was only a thirty-minute drive from the town where she’d be staying. Why wouldn’t an orphan feel the need to get in touch with her roots? It was only natural. While she was there, she’d research her family.

  She’d also try to figure out why she was sent, but that was a given. Even her employer had to know that.

  Chapter 2

  Ezzu, who changed his name to Wrath upon moving to England and kept it in America, was an old dragon shifter though he didn’t look it. He was likely presumed dead by most of his family since they hadn’t seen him in hundreds of years. Only his brother Alal tried to catch up with him. Each time, Wrath would move on before his brother could find him.

  It wasn’t that he had anything in particular against Alal. It was that too much had happened between him and his dragon family for him to ever really be one of them.

  He had his own family and enough treasure hoarded to last him for quite a while. The problem was, he was beginning to crave female company more often these days. That’s why he was leaving his home in rural Virginia and getting out more.

  At his age, he knew his rhythms well. A little after a grand solar minimum, he’d get the urge to find a mate. Every dragon was different, but they all seemed to be guided by the sun to some extent while other creatures were more in tune with the Earth or the moon.

  While the grand solar minimum made him want to settle down, that didn’t mean he abstained for the rest of the time. It was just casual sex, though. He’d resisted the urge to go mate hunting in the past, though his dragon side was always eager. Maybe too eager.

  Many dragons waited for that one special day when their dragon instincts kicked in and they thought something like, “My treasure. Mine,” in reference to a special person. It was a once in a lifetime thing.

  Wrath’s dragon instincts were broken. Just after the grand solar minimum, a woman just had to smile at him, and his dragon was declaring she was his mate.

  It started around the time he lost his mate and the mother of his three boys about two thousand years ago. He supposed losing his mate must have made his dragon lose its mind. He knew he didn’t have much chance of finding his true mate. It might be impossible.

  It was probably better that way.

  He drove his Ford F-450 down Route 1 into the town of Ashland, Virginia. It wasn’t a great pickup spot for women, at least for humans. But, with his looks, women would try to pick him up while he was grocery shopping. He was an ordinary dragon, but human women found ordinary dragons extraordinarily attractive.

  He kept his dark hair short as well as his beard. When he went out, he wore jeans and a t-shirt. Women like the way his clothes fit him, apparently. It was hard not to notice the way their eyes would linger in fascination. If he took the time to stare back, the encounter would often end with a wink from him and a blush and shy smile from her. Sometimes it ended something more fun.

  Wrath had the body of a gym rat, but he didn’t have to work out as much as one. It was easier to build muscle as a shifter. That, and he only ate once every other day. His metabolism didn’t work like a human’s.

  Even so, he didn’t mind a good cup of coffee every now and then. Not that he really needed it to wake up. He hadn’t slept in months and wouldn’t need to for quite some time.

  He pulled into the parking lot of his favorite coffee shop which was now more of a bistro. As he stepped out of his truck, he saw a familiar face. Erin. She was an assistant professor at Randolph-Macon College he’d slept with the previous year. She was a sweet thing. Maybe too sweet for his tastes. The second she saw him, she stopped dead in her tracks.

  It was nice to know he could still blow her mind just by being there.

  Treasure. Mine. His demented dragon said.

  “Nice to see you again. How are you?” Wrath asked.

  Her hand drifted up to one of his pecs. It was like she was hypnotized. He removed her hand gently and kissed the back of it before moving it out of his personal space.

  “Erin, how are you?” Wrath repeated.

  “I’m fine,” she said, snapping out of it. “I’m here with my...with my…”

  She was looking into his eyes. Wrath had always had a magnetic appeal to women. Some were more susceptible than others. Erin was particularly susceptible. Poor sweet girl.

  “Erin? Is he bothering you?” asked a man stepping out of the bistro.

  He wasn’t a small man, but he was human. The look on his face indicated he felt possessive of Erin. He was the boyfriend. Wrath wasn’t intimidated nor did he want to cause trouble. Fighting humans wasn’t even fun for sport anymore. Wrath looked the human man in the eye and turned up his magic.

  “She’s a sweetheart, be good to her,” Wrath said. “You’re not angry about this encounter.”

  The man nodded.

  With that, Wrath left Erin with her boyfriend and headed into the bistro.

  Sometimes that play would backfire, because not all humans were suggestable. Not that fighting the human would be a problem. It was just boring.

  There was a time when it was more challenging. When he was younger and his magic was weaker, he’d had to use all his training to survive.

  Pulling himself back to the present, Wrath scanned the bistro. His dragon alerted him that the elderly woman emptying the trash was his mate, as was the middle-aged woman using her laptop at a nearby table.

  Then he noticed a new girl behind the counter. She was making a cappuccino. Someone bumped into her back and her hand went under the steam. She didn’t even flinch. Heat didn’t bother her. Interesting.

  Wrath inhaled through his mouth and tasted the air. There was a shifter present, but it was male. A werewolf. There was the distinct but faint scent of dragon magic only it was different. Almost feminine.

  He sensed a trap.

  His dragon said nothing. Something had to be wrong if his dragon wasn’t declaring that she was
his.

  The werewolf headed for the exit. That wasn’t unusual. Predator shifters weren’t comfortable around each other. Werewolves would shy away just like a wolf in the wild unless there was something they had to protect. It was a wiser course of action than the mindless aggression some attributed to them.

  Wrath stepped forward, into the presumed trap, and waited in line. There were creatures that could take the powers of others. That could explain how the woman had dragon magic, but she didn’t have the sickly-sweet aroma of that kind of being.

  The most damning thing was that she looked like his type, her dark hair was long, and she had an athletic build with small but perky tits. Her lips were pink and pouty. He could easily imagine kissing them and having them put to more erotic uses. If someone who knew his history wanted to lure him in, they would use a woman just like her.

  Yet, he sensed no other dragons around.

  Her hazel eyes glanced his way and then back at her customer. That was the only thing that betrayed that she was aware of his presence. Was she expecting him, or did she just find him attractive? Did she feel the weight of his magic?

  He sent a text to his people. On the off chance something would happen to him before he could get back, they needed to be ready to leave. He may not be a part of the dragon community, but that didn’t mean he had no one to watch out for.

  The woman was too perfect, and she smelled of dragon magic, at least for a minute there. He couldn’t just walk away, though. He had to know who sent her and why. Then he’d move on to another hideout with his people since his current location had obviously been compromised.

  This woman was going to tell him everything, whether she liked it or not.

  Chapter 3

  It was spring in Washington State. Kurt Drake was helping his mate, Faith, in the garden when his phone rang. He took off his gardening gloves and removed his phone from his back pocket. It was nice to get away from the manual labor. Faith loved working in the garden, so Kurt would be happy to let her do it alone if she weren’t heavily pregnant with his child.

  As it was, she pointed and he planted.

  The caller ID said it was Etel on the line, so Kurt answered.

  “Are you going to tell me why I sent my employee to Virginia with no explanation?” Kurt asked.

  “As I told you, she’s obviously a dragon blood with firedrake powers. Has she reported back?”

  “I’m not convinced she’s a dragon blood. Even though Alal found her through her genealogy, that doesn’t mean she has dragon magic. Anyway, what the hell is she supposed to report? Her mission is to work a part-time job. There were no specifics.”

  “She survived a fire unscathed as an infant. Alal and I agree that she’s perfect for one of our lost brothers. He’s been missing for a while, but I tracked him to that town. I want him to find a mate and settle down. With a dragon mate, he may come back to the fold. Ask her about any unusual men.”

  “Who is he?” Kurt asked.

  “I’d rather not say just yet.”

  “And Alal agreed with you on all of it or just that they’d make a cute couple? Because I have a hard time believing Alal would agree with you on any plan. He’s known for taking the direct approach, isn’t he?”

  “I came up with the plan after Alal left.”

  “Right. Is my employee in any danger? Is this mystery brother of ours skittish around other dragons?”

  “I wouldn’t call him skittish, no. He has no way of knowing she’s a plant since she doesn’t even know.”

  “What if she has dragon magic and he senses it?”

  “As you said, she’s calm under pressure. She’s unlikely to use magic in ordinary circumstances.”

  “You don’t know that. She’s exceptionally good at getting people to open up to her. She could be enthralling them.”

  “Kurt, we need him. The only appeal that will work with him is one to his heart. A woman could get past his barriers. That’s what we need and she’s the best one we could find.”

  “Right, but you aren’t going to tell me who he is, why you need him, or if he could be a threat to her. That’s not what I thought this was, Etel. I can’t just throw my employee out there like a gazelle into a lion’s den.”

  “He would never hurt a woman.”

  Something about that statement triggered an alarm in the back of Kurt’s mind. A memory of something he’d heard about the history of his family.

  “Because he had a mother, Etel? One that he knew? Tell me it isn’t Ezzu,” Kurt asked.

  “Kurt, he’s not a criminal. He mated the wrong woman. That’s all. You could have done the same in his shoes.”

  “That’s not all it is, and you know it. If he spots her and thinks she’s a plant...Fuck. She’s my responsibility, Etel.”

  “Calm down.”

  Kurt disconnected the call and texted Clarence.

  Tell Jess to go home. She can keep the bonus, just tell her to get out of there. It’s a setup. She needs to leave now.

  Kurt watched his screen for a reply saying that Jess had gotten the message and was going back to Texas.

  It was the thunder that took his attention away from his phone and to his mate, kneeling on the ground. The weather had been clear a second earlier. Something was upsetting his storm drakaina. She still had trouble controlling her powers and would sometimes trigger a storm when he did something to piss her off.

  “Kurt,” Faith said, breathlessly.

  He ran to her side, thoughtlessly putting his phone in his pocket. Her jeans were wet. A quick inhale through his mouth told him that her water had broken. He scooped her up into his arms.

  “Kurt,” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

  “Is it time, baby?” he asked.

  She nodded and then nuzzled into his chest. The wind picked up and rain began to fall. He could feel her body tremble and the wetness of her tears soak through his t-shirt along with the drops of rain as he carried her to the front door of their rural home, leaving the roses—and various annual flowers he couldn’t name—behind in their plastic nursery pots.

  Even with Faith in his arms, he took the stairs to the second floor two at a time. He had to get her in bed and call the doctor, a local mage who happened to be an obstetrician specializing in shifter births.

  Hopefully magic wouldn’t be needed.

  She would be ready for the call. Faith had reached her due date. The baby dragon, the first to be birthed by a drakaina, was on his way.

  As the storm raged outside, he set Faith on the bed and helped her remove her clothes. He got her cotton nightgown and fluffy pink robe out for her before making the call. His phone buzzed with an incoming text, but he didn’t have time to deal with any of that right now. His first child was on the way.

  Chapter 4

  Jess had trouble taking her eyes off the impossibly tall man in line. There was something different about him. Sure, he was probably the most attractive man she’d ever seen, but it was more than that. She wasn’t one to believe in auras, but if he had one, it would white hot. The man didn’t just smolder, he looked like he could incinerate the world with the raise of an eyebrow.

  Power, that was it. He looked and felt powerful. It was more than just his broad shoulders and trim waist.

  Some people said Mr. Drake had a presence like that, but Jess had never met him. Maybe this guy was the reason she was there.

  No, she would have been told, right? If she had a target to check out, Drake couldn’t expect her to just magically know who the guy was. It’s not as though the feeling she got from him was anything someone could predict, was it?

  That, and she wasn’t a private investigator. She worked for a cybersecurity firm. Unless this guy worked for a client, she had no idea why he would be a target. If he were a target, there was no reason they wouldn’t have given her a file on him.

  Then he was there in front of her. His dark eyes fixed on her as though he could see right through her. She gave him a smile—he
didn’t return it.

  “What can I get for you today?” she asked, ratcheting up the cheerfulness in her voice. She really wanted to know what his smile looked like.

  “The reason you’re here and a black coffee. I’ll be waiting at the corner table,” he said.

  He put a five-dollar bill on the counter and that was it, he walked away. She tried not to ogle his firm looking backside as he went to the corner table.

  Okay, I guess he’s the target I didn’t know I had.

  It was a dilemma. She could text Clarence but bringing out her phone to text while she was supposed to be working would all but confirm the man’s suspicions. The fact was, she didn’t know if she was there for him so there was no reason to be nervous about him finding out her true intentions for being where she was. She had no target. She was just working at a bistro.

  The early morning rush was dying down, so she told Mark she was going on break. Before he could argue, she grabbed a cup of black coffee and her purse before heading to the corner table. She felt her phone buzz in her back pocket but ignored it.

  She set the coffee down in front of the handsome stranger.

  “I think you might have me confused with someone else,” she said. “I’m just here to work. I’ve never met you. I’m sure I’d remember if I had.”

  “Are you telling me you weren’t in any way coerced into coming here?”

  “In any way?” Jess asked. “That’s hard to say. I mean, being on the schedule could be coercion. I’d be fired if I didn’t show up, right? Is there a reason you think I would be here other than to work? Were you expecting to meet someone here?” She was pleased that her voice didn’t waver. The man was intimidating.

  “Please, sit,” he said.

  Jess pulled out a chair and sat across from the mystery man.

  “I’m Wrath,” he said.

  “Jess Etherton,” Jess said, settling her purse in her lap. “So, tell me who you expected to be here.”

  “No one. You just stood out to me as a plant. No offense. My family can be a little on the nosey side and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sent someone here to integrate themselves into my life. A spy. I’d be very interested in knowing why you're here. You don’t sound like a local. I’d say Texas. Am I right?”