The Christmas Dragon's Love Read online

  But already he could feel the toll the fight took on him. His muscles ached—and the power within him was dangerously low. He’d used up a dangerous amount of his newly regained strength.

  I won’t let him escape again, no matter what.

  One last time, he made himself turn in the air.

  The wind was howling with increased strength now, summoned by the dire wolf’s anger. It took a lot more cunning to hold himself upright in the sky, with the storm tearing at him and constantly changing direction.

  He inhaled again, ignoring the gales that drove snow into his eyes.

  This was his element. The ice had always been his friend. It had sheltered him for ten long years.

  I won’t be defeated by snow.

  Something inside him ached as he began to draw on his power once more. It felt as if he was scraping the bottom of the barrel. When he parted his jaws to inhale, his lungs ached, something inside him feeling raw and sore.

  He ignored the pain. He’d have to bring this to an end, one way or another, if he wanted to have any hope of bringing Angel back home.

  This time, he won’t escape...

  With the power of the ice filling his throat, he folded his wings, dropping from the air to come straight at the dire wolf.

  The shifter had awaited him. With the blizzard swirling around him, the wolf bared his teeth, the wind picking up even more.

  Where did the second wolf go?

  The blizzard had turned the air around him into a chaotic vortex of white.

  Jonathan roared, beating his wings, still holding his course—and then there was a sudden shot. The sound of it echoed even through the roar of the storm.

  For one heartbeat, the wind grew in force until Jonathan couldn’t hold himself upright anymore. Desperately fighting against the iron fist clenching around his wings, he kept trying to keep himself in the air.

  Then, just as suddenly, the wind died away.

  The snow stopped falling. The blizzard was no longer roaring in his ears, blinding him with snow.

  Beneath him, the dire wolf was on the ground, a patch of red blood spreading in the snow as the beast groaned weakly.

  And there, just a couple of steps away, stood Angel with the gun in her hand.

  Joy and an immense relief spread though Jonathan. Ignoring the ache of his sore muscles, he landed near her, shifting back as soon as he touched the ground—but Angel didn’t look at him.

  Instead, she was still aiming the gun, her face determined. Her voice shook a little when she spoke, but her hand was steady.

  “Step away from the crown,” she said.

  He’d lost sight of the second dire wolf during the fight—but now he could see that the other shifter had just bided his time.

  No—her time.

  He realized all of a sudden that the new dire wolf was female. She was standing over the iron crown, her expression grim, fangs bared—but not at him and Angel. She was growling softly at the other wounded dire wolf.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice suddenly said from behind them. “Drop the gun. Please.”

  When Jonathan turned around, he found himself facing a human woman he’d never seen before. She was dressed in a warm, white parka that kept her nearly invisible in the snow.

  She was also pointing a gun at them—but for all that she was threatening them, she looked strangely relaxed.

  Very slowly, Angel turned around. There was a look of stunned disbelief on her face as she stared at the newcomer.

  Then she let the gun drop.

  Chapter Nineteen: Angel

  “Mona Mitchell?” Angel said incredulously.

  It seemed impossible. The Mitchells were touring Asia with their big blockbuster movie press junket. Why the hell would Mona Mitchell show up here at their mountain home, interrupting a fight with a dire wolf—and brandishing a gun?

  For a moment, Angel worried that somehow, they’d walked straight onto the set of the next Millennium Woman movie.

  No. I saw the dire wolves shift. This isn’t a movie. And that gun she’s holding is real...

  “Thanks,” Mona said, giving her a relieved smile as she lowered her gun. “I couldn’t let you hurt Clara.”

  “Clara?” Angel repeated slowly.

  She squinted, trying to see if someone had been hiding behind Mona. But Clara Mitchell, the other half of the famous Hollywood couple, was nowhere to be seen.

  Mona smiled and nodded towards the snowy plain behind Angel, where moments ago, the dire wolves had fought.

  Frowning, Angel turned around.

  Dire wolf number one was still out of it, bleeding into the snow. As Angel watched, Reed shifted back into his human form, groaning weakly as he clutched his bleeding thigh.

  Then her gaze went to dire wolf number two.

  The shifter was still in wolf form, standing above the iron crown. The wolf looked oddly pleased with herself.

  Then, golden eyes gleaming at Angel, the wolf began to shift.

  And a second later, Angel found herself face to face with Clara Mitchell.

  Clara looked just the way she did in the interviews on TV: short black hair slicked back, wearing a smartly tailored suit combined with comfortable boots and a pair of sunglasses.

  “Sorry you got caught up in this,” Clara said as she pushed her sunglasses up into her hair. Then she reached down for the iron crown, idly spinning it in her hand for a moment before she laughed and placed it on her head. “I guess I owe you two the full story now.”

  “You’re the people Angel was dog-sitting for?” Jonathan asked.

  Through the fragile bond between them, Angel could feel his puzzlement, although he had relaxed against her side.

  Whatever was going on here, the Mitchells weren’t a threat.

  Even though apparently, they were dire wolf shifters.

  Or at least Clara is...

  “Let’s get this situation cleaned up first,” Mona said. “I’m gonna call some friends I have to deal with these two. And then we can sit down and I’ll give you the full story. I promise.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow your phone and call Henrik,” Jonathan said, sounding reassuringly calm. “This is too close to his territory. He’ll want to know what the hell is going on here.”

  Clara and Mona looked at each other for a moment, then Clara nodded.

  “Sure. I guess it’s time to come clean. I knew there was a dragon nearby, but I figured that as long as we stuck to our home here on the mountain, Henrik would never even know I was here. Which was exactly what we wanted.”

  ***

  In the end, they locked the wounded dire wolf shifter down in the empty concrete room below while they waited.

  Poodle shifter Sean was still unconscious, but fortunately his wound had stopped bleeding.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” Mona said when she checked up on him. “I think he’ll be fine. He’ll recover just in time to go to jail.”

  “Did you know he was a shifter?” Angel demanded. “Did you set me up to take care of a criminal dog shifter, all alone out here in the mountains?”

  “No,” Clara said immediately and sighed. “Believe me, if we’d known we’d have never left. Or hired an undercover detective, maybe. We’re really sorry you got dragged into this. That’s why we flew back as soon as we heard from you.”

  The two women looked sincerely sorry.

  After a moment, Angel nodded reluctantly. “All right. So you didn’t know about Diego—well, Sean. But you do know why he was here. And I want to know everything now.”

  “I think I know at least part of it,” Jonathan said.

  He’d wrapped his arm around Angel again, quietly offering his support as they huddled in one of the rooms that hadn’t been devastated too badly by the blizzard and the fire.

  “You’re a dire wolf shifter. And shortly before I retreated into the ice, I heard a rumor. I heard that the king of dire wolves had died. That he didn’t have a son,
only a daughter. A daughter who refused to mate any of the alphas her father had chosen.”

  “It’s a good story, isn’t it?” Mona’s lips quirked, and she leaned against Clara. “Instead, the daughter and heir of the king of dire wolves grabbed his crown after his death and ran. And whoever wears the crown rules the dire wolves—who are for the most part not very nice people. So she thought that this way, she’d kill two birds with one stone. Keep the dire wolf shifters from getting up to terrible things without a king to lead them, and go to live her own life.”

  “And marry the one she loved. The one who was her real mate.” Clara smiled and slid her own arm around Mona’s waist. “We always feared they’d eventually find us. We kept the crown hidden for ten years. That’s not so bad, is it?”

  Jonathan nodded with a faint smile. “It’s quite impressive, really. Especially given the career you’ve had in the meantime.”

  Looking obviously pleased, Mona gave him a grin. “What can I say, it worked out pretty well for us. And it’s not like you see us two on the big screen. Just our movies and our actors.”

  “And you’d be surprised by just how little your average dire wolf crime lord is interested in Hollywood gossip,” Clara said dryly. “We’ve been hiding in plain sight all these years.”

  “Until someone found you,” Angel pointed out. “And then they hired Diego, because you two are famous for how much you love your dogs.”

  Mona sighed. “They’ve found our weak spot. I’m not going to deny that. We wanted a new companion for Lola after we lost our old poodle, and then fate brought us a stray whining and pawing at our door...”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t realize he was a shifter,” Clara said ruefully. “I thought he was traumatized from months on the streets... He didn’t smell like shifter at all, and my wolf has a pretty good nose.”

  “That’s his one special power.” Angel still didn’t like the thought of having lived with a criminal dog shifter all this time. She grimaced at the memory of letting him lick her hands. “The only thing that’s special about him. And why he decided to use this power to make money as a career criminal, as soon as he realized that’s what he could do.”

  Clara made a thoughtful sound. “I wonder how many other unsolved crimes he committed...”

  “Let the authorities deal with that,” Jonathan said. “I bet they’ll be glad to get a lead on whatever shifter-assisted crimes might be out there.”

  “And the dire wolves?” Angel really didn’t like the idea of an entire kingdom of dire wolves out there.

  It had been bad enough to face one of them out in the storm. But an army of dire wolves? She shook herself.

  I’ve really had enough of wolves for the rest of my life.

  Clara held up the crown again, sighing as she inspected it. “It was probably not a bright idea to hold onto this. But it belonged to my father, and my granddad before him. It’s a very powerful item. It wasn’t just nostalgia either—I guess I always thought that if something happened, I’d be able to put it back on. I could return and keep the dire wolves from starting a war with the lion shifters, or whatever mess they’d get into.”

  Angel nodded slowly. It was strange, but she trusted Clara.

  Even though she was a dire wolf just as Reed was. Angel had seen her shift, after all. But still. Nothing about Clara gave off the vibe of an angry, homicidal criminal wolf out to conquer the world, or at least to rob a bank.

  Clara looked pretty much exactly the way she’d looked in all of the red carpet interviews from her movie premieres. Elegant, laid-back, with an easy smile and a hint of something rougher hidden just beneath the Hollywood veneer.

  Well, now Angel knew just what was hidden beneath the movie glamour. A past as the heir of the king of dire wolf shifters.

  Angel’s smile widened. “Now I know how you came up with the idea for Millennium Woman’s nemesis.”

  Mona and Clara looked at each other, then grinned. “We hoped it wouldn’t be too obvious—we figured that as long as we added a couple of evil aliens, no one would realize that the shifters in the movies were based on experience, and not fairy tales.”

  “Well, you fooled me,” Angel admitted.

  “And you’re making me curious,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “I feel like I’ve got a lot to catch up with. Like every movie you two have produced, for example.”

  Clara turned to Mona. She gave her one of those looks Angel had begun to realize was hiding the quiet conversation between true mates that didn’t need any words.

  A moment later, Mona smiled at Jonathan, clearly amused. “We agree. How would you two feel about an invitation to the premiere of Millennium Woman Four in New York next month?”

  Chapter Twenty: Jonathan

  Jonathan had been worried that Reed would try to put up a fight, but once Henrik arrived with a friend of his, another dragon shifter whom he introduced as Raul, Reed was quickly dealt with.

  “Where is he taking him?” Angel asked when Raul flew away, Reed securely held in his claws. “Is there a shifter police force?”

  Jonathan nodded. “Something much like it. Don’t worry, we know that human prisons wouldn’t hold a shifter like him. We have our own prisons, and strong shifters that can deal even with a dire wolf.”

  “The dire wolves won’t like that,” Clara said and laughed. “They pride themselves on the fact that none of our own ever had to pay for a crime they had committed.”

  “It’s about time that changes.” Mona smiled as she looked at her mate, and a moment later, both of them started laughing softly.

  “I think we just found our plot for Millennium Woman Six,” Clara announced, eyes gleaming as she turned towards them. “Maybe there’ll even be a cameo for a thief who hides in plain sight as a dog.”

  “And if that gets you the attention you’ve been trying to hide from?” Jonathan looked at the iron crown resting next to Clara. “You got rid of one of them—but there’ll be more. And with another king to rule them, the dire wolves could become a real problem if they decide that they’ve had enough of hiding in the shadows.”

  Clara’s smile widened. “Only one way to deal with that,” she said. “It’s time to let go of the past.”

  She took hold of the crown and held it out. “Would you do us the honors?”

  Despite the warm smile, there was a core of steely determination in her eyes. She had the heart of a wolf. A queen of the dire wolves.

  Someone strong enough to resist the lure of easy power. Someone who’d taken her life into her own hands, fighting impossible obstacles to be with the one she loved.

  Jonathan felt a deep respect rise up in him as he contemplated her. And a sudden distaste at his actions ten years ago.

  It had seemed like the only possible solution back then—but he knew that he’d never again listen to the seductive song of the ice.

  Some things are worth fighting for. Some things are so precious that it doesn’t matter at what cost they come.

  To be with Angel, wouldn’t he have done the same? And wouldn’t, perhaps, his sister and Vincent have done the same...?

  He shook off the thought, focusing on the task at hand.

  “Thank you,” he said simply. It was a sign of tremendous respect to be trusted with this.

  Then he reached inside himself, to the core of pristine white at the heart of him, where his dragon’s power resided.

  He breathed in and held out his hand, not quite touching the crown.

  And when he exhaled, coldness flowed from his fingertips. It enveloped the crown, freezing it so rapidly that white steam rose from it.

  He cooled it down to such an extent that he could feel the strong iron turn brittle, the flawed rubies close to cracking along the imperfections hidden within the red jewels.

  “Thank you,” Clara said calmly. Then she turned, still holding the crown—only to hurl it with all her might against a rock that jutted out from the cover of snow.

  The second the brittle, fro
zen iron hit the hard rock, it burst into a thousand tiny pieces. They scattered all over the pristine white that surrounded them here.

  Clara was breathing heavily, staring at her empty hand with an expression of shock.

  And then, very slowly, the corners of her mouth turned up.

  A moment later, she began to laugh.

  “It’s done!” She turned around to Mona, who hugged her tightly.

  “You really did it!”

  “Now we’re free. Really free,” Clara said. She looked relieved, as if she’d just gotten rid of a burden she hadn’t even known she’d carried. “Damn, this feels great. We should have done it years ago! Now let them squabble for leadership for decades to come. This’ll weaken them considerably. And we can just go on and live our lives.”

  Next to Jonathan, Henrik prodded one of the tiny bits of iron with his foot. “All of this for a crown that wasn’t even worth that much.”

  Clara smirked. “You dragons don’t know everything. It isn’t always just gold. That crown was worth a lot more than its weight in diamonds. It wasn’t money—it was power.”

  “Power that’s gone now.” Mona gave a deep sigh of relief.

  “And you two? What’ll happen to you now?” Angel asked.

  “With Sean and Reed in prison and the crown destroyed, I think we’ll just go on living our lives.” Clara wrapped her arm around Mona. “And we’ll make sure that the rumor gets out that the crown is gone. That’s probably the best way to handle it.”

  “You should tell Sean,” Angel suggested. “He seems like the sort of person who can’t keep these things silent.”

  “You’re right. He’ll try to sell the information—and then the wolves will go wild. They’ll be at each other’s throats, trying to fight for leadership the old-fashioned way. With teeth and claws.” Clara laughed. “Which is just what we want.”

  “And meanwhile, the two of you can enjoy a peaceful Christmas,” Mona added. “With no dogs spying on you and no wolves attacking. Sorry again for that.”

  “That’s all right,” Jonathan said, his voice rough when Angel leaned against him. “Without all of that, I’d still be asleep in the ice, without my mate. And I’d rather fight a hundred battles than lose her.”