And where the hell had it come from?
Dante just tsked several times. “Brutish as always. It seems your kind only knows how to settle things with violence. Very well.” In a flash of light, a golden rapier appeared in his right hand, the handle inlaid with diamonds and jewels, the blade long and thin and razor sharp.
Dante cut the sword through the air in front of Liam, the blade making a whistling sound. But Liam didn’t appear even slightly affected by it.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Liam said.
“Ha, you couldn’t even finish what you started so many years ago. What makes you think you could ever end me?” Dante chided.
With a shout, Liam charged, and the loud sound of metal on metal resonated through the neighborhood as Dante parried and dodged, looking a lot less cock-sure than he had a second ago.
And Kate just watched the melee incredulously, heart racing as both men ducked and attacked and clashed.
What was happening? Was she in some kind of movie? Was a camera crew going to come out of the bushes?
She waited, but no such luck.
The street lamps hadn’t turned on yet, and thankfully, the neighborhood was pretty quiet at this time of day, with everyone inside having dinner.
But yeah, Kate didn’t know what she’d say if someone told her they’d seen two huge men with swords fighting out in front of her house.
Liam swung in a long arc, his blade moving faster than her eyes could even see, and Dante leapt backward.
And then Kate saw the gash in Dante’s shirt, a long slice from shoulder to side. And even though she didn’t see any blood, it was pretty clear Liam had rattled the intruder’s confidence.
“Damn. And I just bought this,” Dante muttered, apparently more annoyed at the gash in his wardrobe than anything else. “I’m not finished with you. I’m going to make you pay for what you did to us back then,” he said darkly.
When Liam came at Dante again, though, Dante lifted off the ground, long golden wings extending from his back as he took off into the sky and disappeared into the nearly moonless night.
The wings were almost like… a dragon’s.
And as suddenly as the man had appeared, he was gone.
Kate let out a long breath as Liam watched the man disappear into the horizon. Then, as instantly as his sword had materialized in the first place, it was gone again in a flash of shimmering light.
Dragons. Mates. Rivalries. And sword fights you’d expect to see at a renaissance fair, not on your front lawn.
What the hell was going on?
11
Kate locked eyes with Liam, who was still standing there on her porch, looking up at her nervously.
He ran a hand through his hair, and for a moment, she realized he was still just the same to her. That nice, somewhat shy guy who’d been working in her yard, shared dinners with her, tamed her dog, and then shown up to rescue her in the nick of time from the weirdest yet most threatening person she’d ever met.
Well, until Liam had gotten all up in the other guy’s face. That had been a new level of threatening. And she’d thought his confrontation with the neighbor had been bad.
“I thought you’d left,” she said, cocking her head. She still didn’t know what to say to him. And the fact that the man who’d just fled had flown out of there kind of lent credence to the whole “dragon” thing.
So if he wasn’t crazy, she was wrong to send him away. But how was she supposed to know that such creatures existed?
“I couldn’t leave,” he said. “Not when you were upset. You’re my mate.”
She shook her head. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
He tilted his head. “But you saw Gold fly away. He was definitely a dragon. Do you still not believe me?”
She opened the door for him in answer. “Come on in and we’ll talk about it. You have to be exhausted after sitting in that car all day. Your back is probably sore.”
“No. It’s strong because I’m a dragon,” he said.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” she said with a weary smile. “You can sit down and get comfortable while I get dinner, and you can tell me more about this dragon thing while we eat.”
He nodded, looking happy just to be let in again.
Tank trotted over to him, and Liam rubbed his head. “Good boy. I missed you, too.”
“It was just one day,” she said, rolling her eyes as she pulled out some leftovers to heat up. She was sure he wouldn’t mind after a day like today.
“One day away from you is too much,” he said. “When we’re mated, I won’t ever want to be away from you.”
“What about work?” she asked. “You’ll be away from me then.”
“You won’t have to work. You can stay home with me if you want. Or travel. Or move to the castle. Whatever you like.”
“How?”
“I have quite the treasure hoard,” he said. “And the gemstone dragons are happy to let me access any of theirs. We dragons help each other.”
“Sounds good,” she said.
“It wasn’t always that way, but because things are tough in the shifter world, many of us are trying to work together.”
“Okay,” she said, bringing over the reheated lasagna she’d made and setting it on the table. “So tell me everything I need to know about dragons.”
“Right,” he said. “What first?”
“That mating thing,” she said. “I really need to know more about that.”
“Well, most shifters have that in common. When they find the person who is meant for them, shifter or human, they bond with them for life. Forever. It’s a lock so intense it can’t be broken, and we tend to believe it is set by fate.”
“And you think I’m your mate?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Does that mean you don’t think I have a choice in it?” she asked, feeling nervous.
“No,” he said. “It means I need to work hard so I’m the choice you want to make. Because my happiness depends on it.”
“How does that work, though? You’re a dragon.”
“I am,” he said. “And I’m from another time. Another world compared to yours.”
“When?”
He hesitated. “I don’t need to go into specifics, but I suppose my people are comparable to what you would call Vikings.”
“Wow,” she said, leaning her cheek on one hand as she played with her lasagna with her fork. “Sounds interesting. Is that why you were speaking oddly when you first met me?”
“Yes,” he said. “After that, when I knew you were my mate, I was working hard when I was home to get better. Reading books. Watching your picture box.”
“TV?”
“Is that what it’s called?”
She pointed at her television. “That thing?”
“Yes.”
“TV.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “I’m still getting used to some modern conveniences.”
“So what else do you dragons do at the castle?”