Alashiya blinked as Debbie handed her card back. “Right,” she breathed, shoving her wallet back into her pocket. Her hands shook as she stuffed her purchases into her canvas shoulder bag. Clearing her sticky throat, she asked, “Debbie, have you seen M?—”
She was interrupted by the clang of the bells over the door. Tensing, she looked up in time to see the very man she intended to ask about.
Monty Howard had looked the same all her life. Tall, rail-thin, with a shaved head and deep lines grooved down his cheeks, he would’ve fit in with the unhappy men of any era. He usually wore sunbleached baseball hats pulled low over his eyes, layers of baggy clothing that needed a good wash, and a pair of boots she suspected were older than her.
He’d never spoken to her until one awful day at the start of hunting season several years ago, when he’d approached her about opening up her land for killing. The Shifter Alliance put harsh restrictions on when and how much hunting could be done on public land, but there was more leeway on private property, so long as she allowed the surveyor to keep an eye on things once a year. Since her land was almost entirely wild, it’d become a haven for deer, elk, rabbit, and the occasional moose — an irresistible buffet to a man like Monty.
He hadn’t liked her answer. She thought turning him down had sparked some resentful interest in her. She’d been more or less beneath his notice before then, but after, she couldn’t seem to escape it.
Unfortunately, it was Monty who she suspected would be able to get her what Taevas needed.
Like always, Monty’s watery blue eyes fixed on her the second he spied her by the register. Adjusting the brim of his hat with one dry, work-worn hand, he said, “Look at that — the little princess has graced us with her presence again, huh?”
Debbie brought her can up for a covert spit of brown tobacco juice. “Morning, Monty. Don’t be a dick.”
“Deb,” he grunted, releasing the door. It didn’t swing shut, however, as a hand caught it just before it made it to the jamb.
Alashiya had opened her mouth to force out her question about getting a satellite phone like the one she knew Monty had, but the words died on her tongue when a pale blue arm pushed the door open again.
Monty glanced carelessly over his shoulder as he shuffled inside, making way for the much bigger man to follow him in.
It was remarkable how one could go from never seeing a dragon in their life to seeing two in the span of a week.
Alashiya stared at the man who stepped into the shop with wide eyes. He had to duck to accommodate his height, which was added to by a set of short gilded horns. His hair was dark and carefully styled out of his eyes. Heavy-set in the way people with natural muscle often were, he was perhaps the single largest being Alashiya had ever seen. Even slightly bigger than Taevas, though they had to be close. Her dragon was a bit leaner and ever-so-slightly taller, but it was a near thing.
Dressed in what looked like brand new hiking gear, sans the boots, he made a bizarre image there in the narrow doorway.
“Move, princess. You aren’t the only one who has shit to do,” Monty barked.
He nearly elbowed her away from the register, but she stepped aside just in time. There was suddenly hardly any room to move in the space between the register and aisles. With the three men, Monty, and the huge dragon, Alashiya had the thought that she might actually get stepped on.
“That’s not very nice,” a deep, smooth voice rumbled. “Give the lady some room.”
Alashiya tensed when the three men immediately stepped aside, their attention moving in sync to the dragon, who’d shoved his massive hands into the pockets of his expensive-looking hikingpants. He smiled at her, showing off pearly fangs and the webbing of crow’s feet around his dark eyes.
The motion of his tail slowly swishing back and forth behind him drew her eye. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. It moved in the way a cat’s tail did just before they pounced on an unsuspecting bluejay.
He was handsome, in a mature, dangerous sort of way, and he appeared to know it when he gave her a slow perusal with a smile. “Where haveyoubeen hiding, pretty thing? Never thought I’d find a treasure all the way out here.” He flashed her a wink. “The gods have sent me a blessing in my time of need. What’s your name?”
Monty, who’d already begun arguing with Debbie over the price of a week’s worth of MREs, drew his back up to level a glare at the dragon. “Why’d you need to know that?”
The dragon’s easy smile didn’t fall, exactly, but something cold slithered in his gaze when he briefly turned his attention to the hunter. “I’m not paying you to question me, arrant. I was speaking to the lady.”
Fear was suddenly a hard, spiky lump in the pit of Alashiya’s stomach. The dragon hadn’t done anything. He didn’t raise his voice or even take his hands out of his pockets, but he didn’t need to. The menace was in his eyes.
What if he had something to do with Taevas’s abduction?
She shuffled her feet in an effort to dispel the urge to run. There was no evidence of that. He hadn’t explained who kidnapped him. It was strange that she’d see another dragon so soon after finding Taevas in her barn, sure, but more improbable things happened.
But that menace lingered in her mind’s eye like a stormcloud on the horizon. Goosebumps broke out across her arms.Whoever he is, I want nothing to do with him.
Monty was either too irascible or too stubborn to take the hint from the dragon. Alashiya would’ve wagered it was equalparts both, if she weren’t fighting her instinct to run with everything she had.
The old hunter gave her a scathing once-over and made a derisive sucking sound with his teeth. “Oh, she’s a lady all right. Too good for anybody or anything in this town.”
“Shut the fuck up, Monty,” Debbie groused.
Eyeing the dragon in the way that meant she was estimating just how much money she might be able to wring out of him, Debbie explained, “This is our Shiya. Born and raised here, never been trouble for anybody in her life. Comes from a real old, royal family, her grandma told me — Grim guide her soul. This grouchy fuck’s just bitter she doesn’t want an old man breathing down her shirt and killin’ things on her land.”
