PROLOGUE
(EPILOGUE FROM STORM DRAGON TO CATCH YA’ UP)
“Cyrus will stay as long as you need him,” Carrick confirmed for what seemed like the hundredth time, his hand resting reassuringly on the back of a nearby chair. “I have told him that you are the Queen, and…”
"Ruairí is the King," the younger Dragon mimicked the Dragon Leader’s voice almost perfectly. His eyes, nearly as dark as hers, gleamed with mischief. Then he burst out laughing, "I know how to behave."
“Indeed, he does, Brother,” Ruairí confirmed. Then, with a twinkle in his eye and a smirk, he added, “And if he forgets, we’ll head out to a pasture and run training drills from sunup to sundown like we used to.”
“Oh, hell, no!” Cyrus pretended to whimper. With one hand over his heart and the other up in mock surrender, he tried to sound like a little boy when he whimpered, “Please, please, Mr. Carrick, sir. Don’t make me stay with the bad Dragon. He whips me so.”
Laughing out loud for only the second time since she’d met him, her almost brother-in-law shook his head. Looking atTamsyn, he chuckled, “Please don’t kill them. We do still need them, even if they are pains in the arse.”
“But I can still beat ‘em every now and then, right?”
Giving her a thumbs up, another thing she never thought she’d see the renowned Dragon Guardsman do, Carrick teased, “Beat them, whip them, send them to bed without dinner. The choice is yours, my lovely sister.”
“Hey!” Cyrus loudly objected, throwing his hands in the air as Ruairí wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Leaning down close, Ruairí whispered, “You wouldn’t send me to bed without dinner, would you,Mo chroí?”
“I call foul!” Cyrus yelled, pointing dramatically at her Mate with a silly grin on his face. “No fair playing the Mate card. No fair, Old Man. No…”
The back door swung open with such force that it slammed into the antique China cabinet, rattled the glassware and dishes that belonged to Tamsyn’s parents with such fury that they tingled like silver bells and drowned out Cyrus’s words. Before the Bobcat Queen could catch her breath, her best friend’s massive body filled the doorframe.
“Luke, what the hell are you…?”
Sweating and panting, the Black Bear stepped into the kitchen. Eyes wide, his worried gaze met Tamsyn’s. The worry etched into his haunted expression made her heart skip a beat, but his words were even scarier.
“There’s a woman trapped on the ledge outside Dead Man’s Cave.”
“What? No!” Ruairí roared. “We closed that off. I laid the wards myself. There’s no way…”
Holding up his hand, Luke shook his head. “I know you did. I have no clue how she got there. All I know is that she’s hurt, can’t walk, and her name is Vanessa.”
“Vanessa?” Cyrus gasped. “It can’t…”
Before he could finish his thought, the voice of his Dragon King floated through his mind.“The past is never just the past- not when the heart and Fate are involved.”
1
“You might as well just talk to him, Lad.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I’m so good at small talk.”
“No, because he helped convince the Enforcer and his Mate not to come along.”
“Well, shit, when you put it that way...”
And just then, Luke’s deep grumbling, rumbling mumble echoed across the frozen mountainside as if he’d yelled. Cyrus knew he should strike up a conversation. At least, attempt small talk- something he’d never been able to do. Maybe he could talk about American football. He’d seen the Dallas Cowboys memorabilia all over Luke’s room when they stopped to grab his go bag. The Black Bear was a serious fan.
Searching his mind for the last time he’d actually been able to sit down and pay attention to SportsCenter, Cyrus tried to remember if Luke’s favorite team was having a winning season or not. If they weren’t, the conversation would die a horrible death before it even got started.
But Luke Jackson, always quick and aware, foiled the Dragon Guardsman’s plan. Stomping so hard the ground shook, the massive Black Bear’s rolling Southern accent boomed, “Enoughof your shit, Cyrus MacDonald. Either you tell me who Vanessa is and why you turned whiter than Aunt Ida’s sheets hangin’ on the line in the summer sun, or I’mma call Ruairí and Tamsyn and have them come see what’s going on.”
“No!” The word flew from his mouth a full second before his brain caught up. Eyes meeting Luke’s, the Dragon knew he’d lost the battle before it had even started. There would be no talk of football or anything else mundane. The Black Bear was on a mission. Not only was there a twinkle in his eye that hadn’t been there a second before, but the knowing grin that lifted the corner of his thick, black beard had Cyrus shaking his head and cursing under his breath, “Son of a bitch.”
“Yep,” Luke happily nodded. “I gotcha now, don’t I? I’m quicker than the average bear, ya’ know?”
“I see that.” Unsure if he was more irritated with himself for opening his mouth or the Black Bear for looking way too satisfied, Cyrus added, “You got me alright.” Sighing, he relented quicker than any other time in his life and said, “Yeah, okay, why not. You’re gonna meet her soon enough anyway.” Shrugging, he went on, “Vanessa and I dated for a while. Everything was great, then it wasn’t. In the end, it got really bad, really quickly.”
