“Ma’am—”
One of the other guards shifted their weight uncertainly. “Do you know who that is? She’s—”
“Look, it’s getting dark. Why don’t we take this inside? If it makes you feel better, I’ll call Lance—” She paused deliberately. “My phone is in my pocket. I’m just going to reach down and get it out. Can you all stay calm while I do that?”
“You stay where you are, ma’am.” Collins holstered his gun and stepped forward. The other guards lowered their weapons.
“Of course,” the woman demurred. She stood still as Collins carefully moved closer to her. They formed a strange net around her, the squad of armed shifters on either side of the narrow path leading up to the front door of the ‘safe house’, and Julian himself standing in the open door. The woman stood caged by them all and acting as though she couldn’t decide whether to be amused or irritated by it.
Who was she? At least one of the guards recognized her, and from the way another one had shushed him, he wasn’t the only one. But Julian had never seen her before.
She was almost as tall as he was, all glossy hair and smooth skin. He’d learned that the outside world expected women to be willowy and slender, regardless of their natural build, but like many shifters, this woman was clearly proud of her body: she was statuesque, tall, strong under curves that he wanted—he wanted to…
The surge of carnal desire left him reeling. It was so long since he had felt anything. The last months had been a pit of gray fog, and this was the sun and all the stars blazing at once.
He clutched the doorframe, averting his gaze, and almost missed the glint in the woman’s eye.
“The left pocket,” she said in a helpful murmur as Collins reached for the right-hand pocket of her light jacket. As he changed direction, she pounced.
She went from motionless to mid-leap so quickly there was no time to react. The guards’ shocked yells were still echoing in Julian’s ears when his back hit the wall. She’d tackled him inside—and there was no time to ponder that before she twisted, arm locked around him in a dance that kept him between her and the guards as she hunted for something on the opposite wall.
“Where is it—he wouldn’t have moved it—There.”
Her nostrils flared, victory shimmering like the aurora over her golden eyes, and why in all the hells was that all he could think about when she was manhandling him—
The door slammed shut behind him.Morethan the door. Security panels rammed into place with the heavy hiss of hydraulics, and all throughout the house, every other exit did the same thing. The safe house transformed into a fortress.
And he was locked inside.
With his mate.
Her arm was still clasped around him. They were pressed together. Close enough to hear her breath begin to shake. Close enough to feel her spine straighten as she got control of herself again.
He braced himself for that blandly sharp smile as she turned her face to him, but when their eyes met, she wasn’t smiling.
“Julian Rouse.”
It wasn’t a question. She knew who he was. It was—a test, maybe?
Ataste.To know what his name tasted like in her mouth.
He swallowed. Now was not the time to be fanciful. “And you are?”
The gold in her eyes darkened, swamped by pupils that got larger the longer she stared at him. Everything he was—man; dragon; hopeless, faithless wretch—yearned towards her.
And she to him.
“I—” She closed her eyes and let out another shaking breath. Her mouth clamped shut, and her eyes snapped to his. Dark, but no longer heated. “We need to leave. Immediately. You’re in danger.”
His head was spinning. “Yes. A strange woman just infiltrated my lodgings, evaded my guards, and took me hostage.”
Annoyance flashed in her eyes. “I mean someone is trying to kill you,” she half-snarled. “And your family, too.”
His family?
Julian and his dragon both froze, all their combined attention on the strange woman. Their mate. “What do you mean?” he asked coldly. “My family is—”
“In Antarctica, yes. Hidden in a magical fortress nobody can find unless they have the coordinates, which they do, and access to draconic magic, which they also do,” she snapped. “You thought Harper was bad? Wait until you meet the people who’ve taken his place. They’re not here to waste time making shifters tear each other to pieces for their amusement. They want the world, and they’re going to use your people to take it.”
