Dragon Bites [Dragon Love 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “Colby, how are you doing?”

  If anyone could take the sun out of the bright day, it was Rick Broat. The evil side of her wanted to accuse him right off the bat. Her better half, however, realized that making accusations when she had no proof wasn’t the right thing to do.

  Slowly, she shifted to face him. “Hello, Mr. Broat.”

  He flattened his hand against his chest. “Mr. Broat? I thought we were on a first name basis. The name’s Rick, Colby.”

  “Fine. Hello, Rick. Excuse me, but I have to get going.” She started to move away but was stopped when his cold hand clasped her arm.

  “Don’t go. I want to apologize for the other day.”

  She didn’t want to face him, much less look into his black eyes. “It’s okay. But like I said…”

  “You’ve got to get going. And you don’t want to sell the ranch. Or have you changed your mind now that you’ve gotten a good hard look at the place?”

  “No. I’m more determined to stay on.” She crossed her arms, trying not to say something rude. But, damn, how she wanted to!

  “Even after your barn burned down?”

  She glared, her gut telling her he knew more about the destruction of her barn than anyone else. “Especially after my barn burned down. In fact, in one way, I’m kind of glad it mysteriously caught on fire.”

  “You’re kidding. Why would you say that?”

  “Because it gave me a chance to find out just how great the folks around here are. There’s going to be a barn raising as soon as the wood and other materials are delivered.” His face looked as though she’d painted a dark cloud on it.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Why put yourself through all the hard work, not to mention the expense that it’ll take to put the ranch in the black? Damn it, girl, sell to me while I’m offering you fair market value. I might not be so generous in a few months when you come begging me to take it off your hands.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” Again, she turned to leave, but he stopped her. She glanced down at his hand on her arm. “Please don’t touch me. Not now, not ever again.”

  He didn’t want to take his hand off her, but he relented. “I’m trying to help you.” He leaned in closer. “Listen up. If you have any sense at all, you’ll take the money and run.”

  She backed up, wanting to get as far from him as she could. Her back hit the brick wall of the store behind her. “Don’t threaten me.”

  He calmed himself, the effort visible on his face and in the cold glint of his eyes. Even after her threat, he leaned in, putting his mouth next to her ear. “You’re going to regret this. Just wait until your cattle starts coming down sick.” His chuckle turned her stomach. “If I were you, I wouldn’t go drinking any of the water on your land, either.”

  “What the hell does that mean? What’s wrong with the water?”

  A shadow fell over them, even as the noon sun still burned brightly in the sky. The shadow grew larger, different in shape, until they were both standing in the middle of the night. Her attention flicked to a spot behind Rick. Something shimmered in the air, and for a moment, she thought of the dragon she’d seen reflected in the flames of the fire.

  No. It can’t be. Dragons?

  She closed her eyes, and in that short fragment of time, Rick was yanked away from her and slammed against a wall. Darton towered over the shorter man, his eyes blazing with bits of red, his face contorting so that she was sure his skin had taken on a hint of black.

  “Darton, stop.” Alarm swept into her. Like his friends, Darton had seemed so kind, so gentle, but at that moment, she feared he would harm Rick.

  Darton blinked, and the red spots in his eyes were gone. “I heard what you said, asshole. What’s wrong with the water?”

  How could he have overheard Rick? She’d barely understood his whisper.

  “Nothing. I was just trying to scare her. To make her sell.” Rick’s mouth twisted into a challenging sneer as he gripped Darton’s fist and forced him to turn his shirt loose. “Watch what you’re doing, half-breed.”

  Half-breed? Was Darton of mixed race? Not that it mattered to her.

  “Did you poison the water?”

  She sucked in a hard breath. Would Rick go to those extremes to make her sell? Yet, if he’d torched the barn, why wouldn’t he poison the water?

  “I didn’t do a damn thing. Back off, Darton, or the clan will hear about this.” Rick pointed his finger at Darton as he eased along the wall, scooting away from Darton.

  The sound Darton made was nothing short of a growl.

  “Darton?” She took his arm as he started to move toward Rick, holding him back. “No. Let him go.”

  Another growl-like sound traveled upward from deep within him. The anger in his tone frightened her, yet how could she be afraid of him? She trusted him more now than ever before.

  Darton pulled his phone from his back pocket and hit a speed dial number. “Yeah, it’s me. Get someone out to check the lake and all the ponds on her ranch. I think Rick may have fouled them. Make sure the herd stays clear for now.” He ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket. “You shouldn’t have stopped me from wringing his neck.”

  “Do you really think he did something to the water?”

  Darton’s dark look contradicted his words. “Nah. He’s not stupid enough to fuck up the water and tell you about it. Still, I wouldn’t put anything past the bastard. But don’t worry. We’ll get it checked out. If any of the cattle or horses get sick, we’ll know who to blame. Then I’ll wring his neck.”

  “What did he mean when he called you a half-breed?” She wanted him to know she didn’t care what race he was.

  “Nothing. I’m not bi-racial.” He kept glancing in the direction Rick had gone.

  “And what are the clans? You’re not talking KKK or anything, right?”

  “Hell no.” His eyes widened. “We wouldn’t be involved in anything like that. You don’t think we’re racists, do you?”

  “Of course not. But then what did he mean?”

  “It’s like teams is all. One side versus another. Good versus bad.” He slipped his hand in hers.

  For a moment, all it took to wipe every other thought from her head was the simple touch. I want him.

  “Did you get everything done?”

  She nodded, aware that he was changing the subject. She’d let him. For now. But what he’d said didn’t make much sense. Teams? Judging by what Rick had said and Darton’s avoidance of the question, there was a lot more to it. “Yes.”

  “Good. We need to get back to the ranch, pronto.”

  Chapter Eight

  “I’ve had it with that lowlife scumbag. He needs to be stopped and stopped now.” Darton slammed his hand against the porch column.

  “Take it easy, man. You don’t want to wake Colby. She finally went to bed.” The problem was that Ed agreed with Darton. In fact, all he wanted to do was to track Rick down and torch his ass into the ground. But they needed to be careful. Flying off and attacking a Black Dradian dragon wasn’t an easy thing to do. There weren’t a lot of Black Dradian dragons in the area, but their clan was known to consist of relentless fighters who would fight dirty if given half a chance.

  “Ed’s right. After running into Rick in town, she’s been nervous as hell. Maybe we should call Melly back to the ranch.”

  “Nah. Melly’s got her hands full. Besides, Colby thinks she’s gone back home. Let’s not blow the surprise now.”

  Jax gripped the railing and stared into the night. “I think Darton’s right. We need to do something. He’s already burned down her barn, and now he’s threatened to poison her water. What more does he have to do before we take action?”

  Sometimes being the reasonable one sucked. “We informed the local council of our suspicions. We have to wait until they make a decision.” Not that he expected them to do much. In recent years, the council, consisting of members from all four main dragon clans, had been more about talk than ac
tion. “Plus, the water tested fine, and we’ve diverted the livestock away from the ponds in the meantime. He was just blowing smoke.”

  “Blowing smoke, my ass. He was tormenting her.” Jax straightened up and crossed his arms.

  Ed knew his friend well enough to know that, although Jax did his best to hide his inner turmoil, he was seething. The more they talked, the more he started to think Jax and Darton were right. They couldn’t afford to wait for anything more to happen. Plus, if the council remained the same ineffectual group that it had been lately, then what was the point?

  “I say we pay old Rick a visit.”

  Darton’s tone was low, barely more than a whisper. If both men hadn’t been dragons, too, they might not have heard him.

  “Yeah. I agree.” Jax’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. “We give Rick a warning. He does anything else, even if it’s only to try and scare her, then we’ll open up a can of whoop-ass on him.”

  Ed remained silent. They stared at him as though trying to force him to agree. He sighed, not wanting to give in, but not knowing what else they could do. “If we do this, we have to be prepared for things to go sideways. Knowing Rick, after what Darton did to him in town, he’s probably already called on some of his clan to back him up.”

  “Are you saying we can’t handle a few Black Dradian dragons?” Jax tossed a glance at Darton. “Sorry, man. You being part Red Verian balances out your other half.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Ed gave Darton a hell of a lot of credit. Being both Red Verian and Black Dradian was a sore spot for his friend. But everyone, including Ed, knew how hard Darton had worked to overcome his Black Dradian tendencies toward greed and evil.

  “What do you say, Ed? Are you with us?”

  Ed studied Jax. He didn’t have to see the red flare in Jax’s eyes to know how close his friend’s dragon was to the surface. It surprised him that Jax hadn’t already shifted. “We’re going to talk to him. Got it? Nothing more.”

  Palpable disappointment flowed from Jax and Darton. “Whatever,” answered Jax.

  Like I believe that. “Good.” Ed stood and started toward the pickup. It didn’t take long for him to realize they weren’t behind him. Crap. “What now?”

  Jax threw his body over the railing while Darton bounded down the steps. “We’re flying tonight.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Ed’s gaze slid to the second story and Colby’s bedroom. Although they’d had sex, she still slept in her own bedroom. Yet he understood. Everything was moving a lot faster than even he had anticipated. “We don’t want to risk her seeing us before we tell her.”

  “We need to burn off a little steam.” Darton was already starting to shift as scales slid over his skin. “She’s asleep, and we’ll cloak. Besides, it’ll be faster if we fly.”

  Ed ached to fly, too. His dragon roared inside him, urging him to turn it free.

  What would it hurt to fly? Most of the people of Brimstone were dragons. Even most of the humans knew they existed. They still tried to remain unseen in their dragon forms, but sometimes a dragon had to stretch its wings. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  The transformation came swiftly as it always did. Scales replaced skin. His face elongated as other body parts broke and reformed. Soon a tail swayed back and forth as he ran toward the pasture.

  The first moment in the air was always the best. He pulled his mouth back in a dragon grin and flared his nostrils, enjoying the fresh air. Wind picked his body up and soared it into the night sky. His wings stretched out as his tail became his rudder. Although his eyes were already silver in color, the world as a dragon grew more silver hued, the other colors fading away. The blue tone of his scales blended into the night, even as his ability to cloak slid over him, hiding him from view.

  He could feel the shimmer of his body. If a human happened to look up and concentrate on the exact spot where he was, they’d see the shimmer. If they stared harder, they might see the outline of his dragon body. But few humans would think to look so hard.

  Jax and Darton came up on either side of him. Although he would’ve preferred to remain silent and enjoy his flight, he could hear them speaking telepathically to each other.

  “Let’s check the herd on the way,” said Darton.

  “Good idea. We need to make sure they have enough water in the troughs,” answered Jax.

  Ed sighed. Tomorrow would be a busy day, moving the herd back toward the watering holes. But getting them away from the water today had been the cautious thing to do. If Rick had poisoned the water—an act which Ed found hard to believe even a Black Dradian dragon would do—then they would’ve found carcasses instead of cows earlier. He dropped his wing and followed Darton as he diverted to the left.

  Moving fast, it wasn’t long before they were where a small part of the cattle had been rounded up and set to feed in the west pasture. An acrid stench assaulted his nostrils.

  Fire.

  His friends didn’t have to respond. They’d picked speed, obviously having caught the smell of burning cattle, too.

  Shit.

  The bonfire brightened a large spot in the pasture. Flames licked the sky over a mound of charcoaled bodies. Ed’s gut twisted as he landed, shaking the ground beneath him. He shifted while striding toward the fire.

  “That son of a bitch did this.” Darton spoke midtransformation, garbling his words.

  “Fuck!”

  Before Ed realized what Jax had seen, Jax, still in his green-scaled dragon form, pushed off and flew through the flames. Darton cursed, shifted back, and went after his friend.

  What the fuck? And then he saw him. Rick.

  Fear mixed with the glee on Rick’s face as he pivoted around, his black scales glittering red with the touch of fire. He roared, shooting flames outward as Jax and Darton sped toward him. Before they could reach him, he pushed off the ground and soared into the air, wings spread wide, tail trailing behind him as he tunneled toward the sky.

  Ed shifted again and jumped into the air. Don’t let him get away! He didn’t need to call to Jax and Darton. They were already on Rick’s tail.

  But Ed should’ve known Rick wouldn’t be burning the cattle on his own. Just as Jax and Darton reached out, one for Rick’s tail and the other for his back legs, three dark forms zoomed in from each side. They rammed against Jax and Darton, knocking them away from Rick.

  Blindsided, his friends tumbled toward the ground. Rick craned his neck around and shot a blast of flame toward Ed. Ed ducked to the side, going into freefall to avoid getting burned. Fire by itself couldn’t harm him. But fire from another dragon’s mouth could. By the time he’d righted himself, Ed and his three cohorts were too far away to catch. Instead, he spun around and headed back to his friends.

  They landed safely, albeit a little roughly in the pasture. First Jax, then Darton, then Ed shifted back to their human forms.

  “Fucking bastard!” Darton paced off several yards then whirled around and paced back again. “He’s gone too far, even for a Black Dradian. Setting fire to cattle? What the fuck?”

  “He probably set them on fire while they were alive.”

  Ed had had the same thought as Jax but hadn’t wanted to voice it. He should’ve known his friend would. “The council will—”

  “Fuck the damn council. They’re not like the head council in Vegas.” A short flame burst from Darton’s mouth. “They’ll stick their heads in the ground and pretend it didn’t happen.”

  “Then we take it to the Vegas council.” The council of dragon clans in Vegas oversaw all the local councils. The Vegas council had always been the main and final governing body, sort of like the Supreme Court, but since Peyton Henley, the Dragoness and Queen of the Dragons had taken over, their power had grown.

  “We don’t have time. Rick and his clan will take Colby’s land long before we can get there and back.”

  “We could call them in. Get them to put a fire under Brimstone’s council.” Ed tried
to think of more options but came up empty. “They’ll see the cattle and know we’re telling the truth. Until then, though, I’m going to call a couple of the council members and see if I can get them to lend us a hand.”

  “Go ahead, but it won’t do any good. It’s our word against his.” Jax snarled. “Sure, they’ll probably believe us over him, but they won’t do anything about it. Not and risk an all-out war with the Black Dradian clan. Ed, face facts. Darton’s right. We have to handle this ourselves.” Jax’s eyes glittered with more red than green.

  “It’s not that I disagree with you, I just don’t know how we can do it.” The last thing he wanted to do was cause strife between the clans. He reconsidered. No, the last thing he wanted was to lose Colby. Losing her ranch might mean losing her.

  “We do whatever’s necessary,” Darton. “We don’t have any other choice.”

  “And once it’s done? Then do we tell her?” They hadn’t discussed how to tell Colby what they were after realizing she was the woman they wanted. Telling her they were dragons, and that they’d lose their immortality once she accepted them as her mates, would be hard. She might accept them and become their mate, or she might run off, leaving them to suffer a life without her.

  “We’ve told her we want her,” argued Jax.

  “Not in detail. Not how much we want her and not that we want her for our mate.”

  Darton calmed down, anger ebbing into irritation. “Shit. Things have gone on too fast. First things first. We take care of Rick and let the crap with the ranch settle down. Then we tell, no, we show her what we are and pray like hell that she doesn’t run away screaming.”