***
The truck was loaded by the time he hauled himself into the driver’s seat. Morning light stretched across the fields, but a bank of low clouds already gathered in the west, bruised and heavy.
“Perfect,” he muttered.
He slammed the truck door and started the engine.
Keep the day strictly business,he reminded himself.No distractions. No vanilla-scented problems.
He gripped the steering wheel harder and drove.
His first stop was the veterans’ home, dropping off a flat of fresh clotted cream.
“Rhavor! My boy’s here!” Mayor called. He wasn’t an actual mayor, just a title the residents had gifted him somewhere around the last century. “Come, sit down. Have some tea. We’ve got scones that’ll do that cream justice.”
Rhavor pulled out a chair, unable to say no to the old man.
“How’s life treating the handsome young dragon?” Mayor went on, already settling in with the practiced ease of the elderly. “At your age, I had nymphs lining up at my door. One in particular wouldn’t leave me alone. I had to jump on the first ship out just for peace of mind. Those creatures just wouldn’t leave you be.”
Rhavor smiled despite himself. He had heard the story a dozen times, but he enjoyed the company of a man who had seen the world and still possessed the frantic, unspent energy of a youth who refused to let the fire go out.
The stories never lasted long, though. Mayor tended to drift mid-sentence into a sudden, unapologetic nap.
When a loud snore finally rattled the teacups, Rhavor rose quietly and slipped out.
By the time he reached the truck, the sky had turned a heavy charcoal gray.
He rounded the corner by Joe’s Grocery when movement on the pavement snagged his attention, hitting him like a physical blow.
He would know those hips anywhere.
That slow, unhurried sway that seemed to mock his need for order.
She wore a skirt that exposed her calves—and fuck—they were taut and perfect. Made to test him. Made to undo every ounce of discipline he tried to summon against the rising tide of his own instincts.
Two vampires glanced after her, their eyes openly appreciative, lingering on the curve of her waist.
His dragon didn’t just stir.
It roared.
Mine.
He wanted to jump from the truck, throw her over his shoulder, and carry her back to his home—and keep her there.
Forever.
The sky split open without warning.
Rain crashed down in sheets, a sudden, violent deluge.
He watched, frozen, as it soaked through her top, the fabric clinging shamelessly to curves it had no business advertising to the street.
She spotted his truck and waved.
Gods help him. This was already going wrong.
“Are you following me?” she breathed, a little smirk playing at her mouth as she climbed into the cab.
