A Mate for the Dragon Read online

  Holly laughed a little shakily, feeling foolish. She must look like an idiot, she thought – wandering around here where she didn’t belong, tripping over and being frightened out of her wits by bears. She looked wistfully at the rippling cords of muscle in the man’s forearms. He didn’t look like he’d need to be frightened of anything.

  “I should thank you,” she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. “I don’t know – I mean, like I said, I’m sure the bear didn’t mean me any harm – but still, I – ”

  “It’s okay.”

  That voice again. It seemed to send warmth straight to the pit of Holly’s stomach. She didn’t recall ever having responded to any man like this before in her entire life.

  Then again, the men she mostly mixed with in her day-to-day life were office-bound city-dwellers – not that there was anything wrong with that. After all, she was an office-bound city-dweller. Most of them were perfectly nice men.

  But now, confronted with the rugged beauty of the man before her, they all seemed to pale by comparison. This man was the definition of an outdoorsman – six foot and change of muscle and scruff, his handsome face tanned by the sun, his body tempered by hard work. His hair was jet black and his eyes an unusual shade of green – bright, almost like a cat’s.

  He was – there were no other words for it – smoking hot.

  And here Holly was, sitting on her ass in the middle of the woods, her hair sweaty and unkempt, unflattering hiking shorts rucked up over her thighs, needing rescuing from a bear.

  Of course, she thought, feeling her face burning with embarrassment. Of course I couldn’t appear to the most handsome man I’ve ever seen all made up in an evening gown, drifting down a set of stairs like a siren of the silver screen. That would actually be impressive.

  “I’m okay,” she said again, trying to salvage what dignity was left to her. She went to stand up – only to feel pain shoot up her leg from her ankle. “Ouch,” she gasped, stumbling, all thoughts of dignity temporarily evaporating.

  The arm that suddenly wound around her shoulders prevented her from ending up straight back on her ass in the bracken. Warm and strong, it kept her in place without any apparent effort at all.

  Sucking in a sudden breath, Holly blinked, eyes going wide as she stared up into the man’s eyes. Her skin tingled where it touched his, little sparks of electricity racing over her body.

  Oh. My. God.

  The warmth that had begun in her stomach was now wending its way very firmly downward. Holly swallowed.

  He looked down at her, green eyes seeming to bore into her soul. He smelled like a man – like wood shavings and unspoiled earth. Like… like smoke. Like fresh, clean sweat. His eyes were as wide as hers as he looked down at her, his lips slightly parted. And just for a moment, Holly imagined that – that –

  And then, suddenly, the warmth of his body was gone, and the only contact between them was a polite hand on her wrist, helping her to stand on her painful ankle.

  “Did you hurt yourself?” His voice was soft and husky, and Holly noticed he kept his eyes averted this time. She blinked, still collecting herself, her head feeling muddled after the sudden contact with his body – and the sudden absence of it.

  “I – I guess I just hurt my ankle a little when I went down,” she finally managed to get out. She tried to laugh. “How stereotypical, right? The damsel in distress twists her ankle.”

  She laughed weakly at her own self-deprecating joke, but the man didn’t join in. Instead, he glanced at her quickly, before looking away again. Holly felt a stab of disappointment in her chest.

  But about what?

  They had literally only just met when he’d thrown himself into the path of a bear for her. What exactly was she hoping would happen?

  If this were a movie, it’d be the start of something special, she thought, before quickly squelching the thought. This wasn’t a movie, she reminded herself forcefully. This was real life. And handsome strangers in woods enacting daring rescues wasn’t the start of anything, except maybe a bit of help finding her way back to the cabin.

  You know better than that, Holly told herself. And anyway, hadn’t she just gotten out of one relationship that had left her battered and bruised? The last thing she needed was to rush headlong into another.

  “Is it badly hurt?”

  His voice pulled her back out of her daydreams.

  Gingerly, she put her foot to the ground, resting some weight on it. It was painful, but didn’t feel badly injured.

  “No – I think it’s just been wrenched a little. If I go back and put an ice pack on it I think it should be fine.”

  “Are you staying… here? In the woods?” he asked, blinking as if he was confused.

  Holly nodded. “I’m renting a cabin for a couple of weeks. I thought… well, I needed a break. It seemed like the perfect place to get back to nature. Forget about… about the city for a while.”

  She was surprised by how easily she spoke to him. She’d been on the brink of telling him she’d needed to forget about her real life for a while, and the terrible mess she was in.

  Handsome strangers in the woods don’t need to know that stuff, she told herself. In fact, it’s better if they don’t.

  “Is it far from here?” he asked, and this time he looked at her, green eyes piercing.

  Holly found she could only shake her head. “Not very,” she finally stuttered. “Maybe an hour’s walk.”

  “You can’t make it back on your own. Not with your ankle like that.” His voice was matter-of-fact, and Holly could tell already that it would be useless to argue with him. “I’ll help you. Come on – the sooner we get ice on that ankle, the better.”

  The flutter in her chest grew faster. Was this really happening?

  Don’t get too excited, she warned herself as the man put one hand on her shoulder. A display of normal human decency is nothing to pin your hopes on.

  But as he helped her over the bracken and fallen logs that stood between them and the path, Holly found she couldn’t ignore the persistent thump thump thump of her heart.

  What’s the matter with me? she thought. She’d never been one to lose her head over a man. Even with George, she’d taken things slowly at first – and then, afterwards, she had to admit there’d been a certain element of the sunk costs fallacy at play: she’d invested so much in the relationship that it felt stupid to break things off.

  Before George, other men had never really turned her head. She’d been far too focused on study and then work to notice them

  But have you ever seen a man like this before? her brain asked slyly as she glanced up at him from beneath her eyelashes.

  No, she was forced to admit. No, I have not.

  Chapter Four

  Stefan

  It can’t be true. It can’t be.

  And yet, Stefan knew it was.

  The thing he’d been both dreading and dreaming of, ever since he’d first realized that he was the last of the Novak Clan left.

  My mate.

  Inside him, the dragon’s eyes were ablaze, curls of smoke drifting from its mouth and nose. Its chest was heaving, its tail writhing with ecstatic agitation.

  Our mate. Our mate.

  Stefan hardly dared glance down at her. She was perfect.

  A riot of blonde curls fell down over her shoulders, and her eyes were the same deep blue of the ocean he’d been soaring over just yesterday. A light spray of freckles covered her nose, as well as the pale skin of her arms and legs.

  And her curves…

  Generous and full, she looked like a goddess who’d stumbled to earth.

  And straight into the path of a bear.

  Stefan hadn’t known what was happening before it happened. The strange feeling – the tingling along his spine and the vague sense that something was different – hadn’t gone away after he’d woken up this morning. The dragon had clearly been excited about something: swiveling its head this way and
that as if scenting the air, pushing him to shift so it could stretch its wings and take off into the skies.

  He’d tried to ignore it. Maybe it was still excited from the brief moments of freedom he’d allowed it yesterday.

  But as the morning had gone on, the jumpiness had continued, and Stefan’s human side could feel it too.

  He’d still been puzzling it over and wondering if it was something he should be concerned about, when the dragon had suddenly raised its head, every sinew snapping into full alertness, flames licking from its mouth.

  Run. Go! NOW!

  As much as Stefan tried to ignore his dragon’s more irrational demands, this was a command he couldn’t resist. Despite still being in his human form, the dragon’s instincts had taken over his body entirely, jerking his arms and legs to action, propelling him through the woods at the kind of preternatural speeds only shifters could achieve. Logs, ferns, low-hanging branches were no obstacle to him as he raced through the trees, adrenaline singing in his veins.

  Go. FASTER.

  There was no question of asking the dragon why, or where. The only choice was to keep going.

  The scent of the bear drifted to him on the light breeze, picked up by his heightened shifter senses. But there was another scent as well: something heady and sweet and entrancing, like nothing he’d ever smelled before. Almost like the scent of the sky after a summer rain, when everything seemed washed clean and new. Like freshly fallen snow in winter; like dusk in fall. Like the new green leaves of spring.

  And then, Stefan had leapt over a fallen tree, turned a corner, and seen her.

  His mate.

  And the bear that was threatening her.

  He hadn’t had time to think.

  But there was nothing that could stand up to a dragon when it was roused.

  The bear had been confused at first – typically, he tried not to disturb the wildlife of these woods, when he could help it. He knew he looked like a human – but to the bear, he definitely wouldn’t have smelled like one. And a bear was an animal, reliant on its instincts. And it knew that whatever Stefan was, it wasn’t game to fight him. It had backed down, disappearing into the forest.

  Stefan had stared after it, his dragon snarling in his chest, puffs of smoke still wending their way up from its grinning jaws.

  Get away and stay away. Stay away from our mate.

  It was the first time the dragon had said the word.

  The first time the pieces had clicked into place: the scent. The crazed urgency of his race through the woods. The strange tingling sensation he had been feeling since yesterday.

  His mate.

  She was here.

  Lying on the bracken in front of him, staring up at his face with her wide, ocean-blue eyes.

  Stefan felt as if someone had smacked him across the back of the head with a two-by-four.

  But… but how?

  He had sworn he wouldn’t go looking for her. How could he, when doing so could place her in such terrible danger?

  But instead, she had come to him.

  Stefan didn’t understand how or why – only that it was true. The woman with him now was his mate. And there was no way it could be denied.

  A dragon could sense when his mate was in danger, no matter how far apart they might be at the time – or, apparently, even if they hadn’t actually met each other yet. Perhaps the bear hadn’t been planning on doing anything – but the mere fact that it had even slightly threatened his mate had been enough. The dragon’s protective instincts had exploded, wiping out every other thought in his mind but to run to her.

  “It’s Holly, by the way.”

  Her voice, sweet like honey, jerked him out of his thoughts.

  “I’m sorry?”

  He glanced down at her, and, finding himself almost stunned by her beauty, quickly looked away again.

  “That’s my name – Holly Edwards. Since we didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves back there.”

  Stefan gave himself a quick mental shake. Just because he had run into his mate at the most unexpected of moments was no excuse to forget his manners.

  “Of course,” he said quickly. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask earlier.”

  He glanced down at her again. She was leaning against his side, keeping the weight off her injured ankle. In the tank top she was wearing for the strenuous hike, the generous curves of her breasts were highlighted to perfection. Stefan swallowed heavily, looking away again.

  “I’m Stefan,” he said. “I beg your pardon for not introducing myself sooner. I suppose I… I was a little distracted.”

  Her laugh was soft and low.

  “That’s understandable.”

  For a moment, Stefan’s dragon raised its head, excitement surging through it. She knows! She knows she’s our mate! She can feel it too!

  Stefan felt dizzy with joy. She could feel the burning fire between them. She could tell what they meant to each oth–

  “What with the bear and everything,” Holly continued after a moment. “I can see how social niceties might get forgotten.”

  Oh.

  As quickly as it had risen, Stefan’s happiness deflated.

  Of course, she couldn’t know what they were to each other. If she had been another shifter, Stefan would have been able to sense it immediately. But she was a human – the most beautiful, alluring and desirable human Stefan had ever seen, but human nonetheless. She couldn’t sense their bond, or what he was.

  Stefan resisted the urge to sigh.

  If she’d been a shifter, that would have made everything so much easier. He’d never had to explain shifters before, to anyone – everyone he’d known as a child had also been a shifter, and since then…

  … Well, since then, he’d never allowed himself to become close enough to someone else for it ever to have been a necessity for them to know.

  Stefan had always thought that telling anyone – aside from the obvious fact that they’d probably assume he was crazy – would put them in too much danger. If the Lukich Clan had ever come to hear of it, then Stefan knew they’d stop at nothing to extract information as to his whereabouts.

  Maybe he was being paranoid.

  But he just couldn’t take the risk. The Lukich Clan was ruthless, cruel, and relentless in their desire to wipe every last Novak dragon from the face of the earth.

  The thought sent a cold shard of pain right through Stefan’s heart, as he looked down at the top of Holly’s head.

  To know who he was – what he was – was risky.

  How can I tell her, when her knowing would put her in so much danger?

  She was a human. She knew nothing of dragon blood feuds, or what being a shifter’s mate meant. Telling her would mean dragging her into his world – a world that could be brutal and dangerous.

  And lonely.

  If he told her and she accepted him, they would be the only two of his clan left in all the world, and they would never be able to reveal themselves, for fear the Lukich dragons would find them.

  Not to mention any children they might have…

  “We shouldn’t be too far from the cabin now.” Holly’s sweet voice broke into his dark thoughts. “Really, it’s so kind of you to help me walk all this way.” She looked up at him, her blue eyes shy. “You don’t have to come any further if you don’t want to. I don’t want to take you too far out of your way.”

  Stefan hesitated.

  Don’t leave her! his dragon howled, raising its head. She’s our mate! We can’t ever leave her side again!

  But his human reason cut through the dragon’s wild insistence.

  But you know what danger she’d be in. Could you really do that to her?

  Stefan swallowed. Looking down into her sweet, heart-shaped face, he felt a desperate tug at his heart, and he knew he couldn’t leave her. Not after he’d only just found her, and after he’d been alone for so long.

  I’m just walking her to the cabin, he told himself. She’s hurt her ankle. It doesn
’t have to be anything more than that.

  “It’s no trouble at all,” he said, smiling at her. Despite everything, she made him smile. His father had once told him that being with your mate was like having a song in your heart every second you were together. Stefan had never really understood what he meant, but now, it made perfect sense. “I can’t let you walk by yourself – you need to get some ice on that ankle and sit down. I’ll at least help you get home.”

  Holly’s eyes widened a moment, as if she was surprised, before she quickly looked away from him.

  With his heightened sense of smell, Stefan could detect the slight, warm scent of her sweat as it prickled over her skin – and could see the blush that came creeping up over her throat.

  She can feel it too.

  What Stefan’s father had not mentioned to him was just how powerful the physical attraction between mates was.

  He hadn’t been prepared for it – not in the slightest. Every touch of Holly’s skin against his own threatened to drive him wild with desire. The soft mounds of her breasts, visible beneath the tight material of her tank top, the lush curve of her hips, and the creamy skin of her arms and legs all made his mouth water with desire. Inside his chest, his dragon swished its tail contentedly, smoke drifting up from its mouth.

  She’s beautiful. And she’s ours.

  Stefan didn’t want to argue with the dragon right now. It would only revert to incoherent roaring and scrabbling if he tried to explain to it that Holly would be better off if he simply dropped her off at the cabin and then never saw her again.

  It wouldn’t want to hear it – still less would it want to understand.

  His dragon side was like having an only semi-trained beast living inside him at all times, and one that he still had to work to control. He didn’t know if all dragon shifters had the same experience, or if it was because he’d been deprived of the guidance of his clan at a young age, but sometimes, his dragon even frightened him.

  “Here’s the cabin,” Holly said as they rounded a bend in the forest trail. “I knew it couldn’t be too far.”

  Stefan couldn’t stop an impressed whistle through his teeth. The cabin was nice. He’d been expecting something a little ramshackle and falling down, like many of the cabins up in the woods here. But this cabin was fancy: someone had clearly put a lot of time and love into keeping this cabin in tip-top condition, and it was beautifully designed.