“What? Fighting?” Magnus asked, bouncing lightly on his feet. “You started it.”
“No,” Titus said, lunging forward with a right hook again. Magnus ducked, swinging out of the way. Titus spun and caught him in the shoulder. It still felt like being hit by a sledgehammer. “The fighting is fine,” Titus growled. “It’s the lying around in bed, the moping, the negative thoughts that aren’t the right way of dealing with this.”
“Then tell me, oh wise Titus, what I should do,” Magnus snapped as he and Titus faced off with one another, circling. This wasn’t the first disagreement to devolve into a fist fight, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Titus cracked his knuckles. “Have some faith. That we’re where we’re supposed to be. That fate knows what it’s doing. That maybe we were supposed to sink so we could be here at this moment.”
“Yeah, right,” Magnus said, rushing toward Titus with a left cross as Titus lunged to meet him with a powerful punch of his own.
“Stop that this instant!” a cold voice shouted.
Magnus and Titus both froze, fists in the air aimed at each other, as Aegis, the emerald dragon, came into the room.
Aegis put a hand over his face and shook his head, making his blond hair shimmer. “Barbarians. You’re all barbarians.” He waved his hand, releasing his hold on them, and they both stumbled forward, passing each other before stepping back.
Titus frowned at Aegis. “Sometimes fists are the best way for men to work things out.”
“Bullshit,” Aegis said. “We are dragons. Surely we have more elegant ways to resolve things.”
Magnus shook his head. “You prissy gemstone dragons wouldn’t understand.”
Aegis’s emerald eyes flashed. “Oh, I wouldn’t?”
“Nope,” Titus said, giving Magnus a smile of agreement.
“Don’t forget I could make you play a literal game of ‘stop hitting yourself,’” Aegis said.
“Uh…” Titus looked at Magnus. “Right. No more fighting. Anyway…”
“Yes, anyway,” Aegis said. “We have a client coming. I was coming down here to tell you when I saw you engaged in your pointless round of fisticuffs. What the hell is going on?”
“I was just telling him to stop moping,” Titus said, pointing at Magnus, who just folded his arms and shrugged.
Aegis cocked his head. “You have a point. But Magnus is about to be much busier. We have a job for him.”
Titus perked up at that, but Magnus frowned. “I can’t,” he said. “I have something I’m focused on.”
“You think I don’t know that you’ve been leaving the mansion at night?” Aegis asked with a raised eyebrow. “How stupid do you think I am? But whatever you’re looking for, you don’t seem to be finding it. So you may as well go out on this job. They requested someone who’s good with cars.”
That was interesting. Magnus felt himself perk up at that. Maybe this job could distract him until he had another chance to meet up with his mate. Maybe there was hope.
The doorbell rang, and Aegis gave them each a stern look. “I’ll take her to the office. You two get out of here. Magnus, I want you to join us in a minute, but make yourself presentable, will you? A quick shower wouldn’t hurt.”
Magnus nodded, heading toward his bedroom while Titus walked toward his.
He was almost in his room when he heard the door open and couldn’t resist peeking out to see who came in.
The scent of sunshiny flowers and engine oil hit him like the wave had on that fateful night. He took a step forward, hearing a familiar feminine voice talking to Aegis at the doorstep.
His mate was here. His mate was here.
What did he do now?
Lindy Dunn felt extremely out of place as she stared up at the huge wooden door in front of her.
As it slowly creaked open, she wondered what she was getting herself into.
Yes, the website for Rent-A-Dragon was new, and yes, their name was questionable, but she didn’t really have any other options when it came to what she needed done.
The man who greeted her at the door looked harried, with mussed blond hair and an impatient look in his green eyes. He wore a strange outfit with some kind of green blazer. As she attempted to look around him, he blocked the way.
“Are you Lindy Dunn?”
“Yes.”
“We weren’t expecting you quite yet,” he said sharply.
“Aegis, where are your manners?” another voice, which belonged to an elegant man in jeans and a yellow tunic, interrupted. “I’m Citrine. Why don’t you come in?”
“Citrine? That’s a unique name,” she blurted out, feeling caught off guard by these extremely tall, oddly pretty men.
Citrine only laughed. “I like this human. She speaks her mind.”
Human?
“Uh, am I in the right place? I’m trying to hire some extra help, and—”
“Right, right,” Citrine said, extending a hand to her as she heard a loud growl emanate from something behind him.
Person or monster?
She took a step back, and Citrine gave her a reassuring smile. “Just one of our employee’s dogs,” he said, stepping back along with Aegis and gesturing for her to come inside. “Come on in and we’ll talk business.”
She stepped in behind him and had to keep back a gasp at the house around her. Sparkling marble, large white columns, elegant antique furniture.
If they could afford this place, did they really need to run a business at all? Maybe their rates were just really high. Would she even be able to afford them? Things had been extremely tight lately, and this would probably take the last of her savings. Her father’s illness had taken the rest.
She followed Citrine and Aegis to an office to the side of the foyer. They opened the door and went in, but just before she did, she had the odd feeling someone was watching her and couldn’t help turning around to look in a completely new direction.
She gasped as she saw a huge, hulking man with tangled red hair and a fearsome, shaggy beard. She put both hands over her mouth and turned back around.
The man’s eyes had burned into her, a light green she could make out even from here, and he was oddly familiar.
But she couldn’t place exactly where she’d seen him.
When she turned back around, he was gone, and she let out a sigh of relief.
Maybe she should ask the other two men about him, but then again, he wasn’t really the weirdest thing about this place. In fact, he seemed more normal, as his wild facial hair made him seem less supernaturally beautiful than the others.
The man in the green blazer took one of the seats behind the desk and threw his long legs haphazardly over the arm of it, glaring at her with vivid, deep-green eyes the color of emeralds.
Citrine brushed his dark, shoulder-length brown hair over one shoulder and sat in the main chair behind the desk more professionally.