1
Tanner
Clara eyed me from underneath her lashes. She wanted something from me. It was the nature of the fae. Something pulsed between us - an electric connection I couldn’t deny.
At first, I thought she was my mate, but there’d been zero evidence of a mating bond forming between us. The same thing happened to Scott, but once he and Blaire came in close proximity, the bond formed quickly.
It wasn’t happening with us. Clara refused to talk about it, but it seemed more coy on her part and not genuine upset. I couldn’t tell if she cared about me or not, or if the only reason she still hung around was that I’d agreed to a favor.
A bargain Cal would have strung me up if he knew about.
Which was exactly why I didn’t tell him.
“Dragon,” Clara purred. “Your favor comes due. Soon.”
I’d been counting down the days for it. Any excuse to spend time with her, even if it was acting as her errand boy, was worth it. I needed to know if we were mates. The sooner the better. Clara was undeniably attractive. She wasn’t exactly beautiful. Exotic didn’t seem to be the right word either.
Supernatural was the best way to describe her. Her eyes were a strange mix of green and amber, and I noticed when I annoyed her, they’d flare a deep, cerulean blue.
I annoyed her a lot.
Her arms were long and golden and corded with lean muscle not grown in the gym. I’d seen firsthand how strong she was, and it had to be preternatural. Every time she shifted, the light caught on her wheat-colored hair. Clara was stunning and the dragon inside of me liked her.
Maybe a little too much. Dragons recognized predators instantly, and even though Clara looked like a young woman, the dragon knew she was dangerous. It liked that about her, too.
But as the man, I was on the fence about it.
“I’m aware,” I said, catching her gaze and holding it.
A bemused look touched her lips before she looked away. “You presume too much, dragon.”
“Can you blame me when you look at me like that?” I poured us both a beer and walked over to her table. I slid the mug over to her and pulled a chair out. Sinking down into it, I sighed. Being on my feet for twelve hours a day was wearing on me. Things were changing so fast I was having a hard time keeping up. A couple of years ago, the other dragons and co-owners of Beastly all pulled their weight equally. None of us worked more than an eight-hour shift. But that was before the possibility of mates entered our minds. When Theo met Molly, things went to hell quickly.
Then Scott found his mate and, most recently, Cal met Maggie and now splits his time regularly between the Underworld and here. I’d been picking up most of the slack and Liam, the Alpha of the Crescent City pack comes in sometimes and volunteers without us asking.
He seems like the kind of guy who needs something to put meaning in his life. As the Alpha of a werewolf pack, he was constantly fighting. Most werewolves lapped that shit up. Liam didn’t seem to like it all that much, so he’d come here whenever he could, sling some drinks around, and shoot the shit with me and the customers.
I’d thought more than once about putting him on the payroll. The other guys shouldn’t mind too much since they were busy starting families and preventing the world from ending. Or so it seemed. Ever since the gods meddled in our lives, things had been weird.
I was the last dragon standing. No mate. No bizarre potentially world-ending drama going on. I thought the woman in front of me was my mate, but I was beginning to wonder if she was screwing with me or messing with my mind.
I held onto the hope for a mate, but so far luck wasn’t shining on me. Clara wasn’t being all the forthcoming on the matter, either. When I hinted around, a coy, sly smile would tilt her lips up and then she’d ignore me.
“I need you to find someone,” she said after the silence between us dragged on.
“Easy enough.” Dragons could scent a hint of blood in the water if we needed to. I wasn’t a bloodhound, so a part of me prickled that she was asking me to be one for her.
“Then I need you to kill her.”
I was skilled at not letting emotions show on my face, but I couldn’t help the flash of surprise that fell across my expression. I sat a little straighter. “Excuse me?”
Clara waved a hand as if what she just said had no real import. The fae wanted me to take a life. “She’s dangerous to us, Tanner. She has the potential to end the dragons as we know it.”
I picked my beer up and leaned back in my seat studying her. “This all sounds overdramatic.” My voice was flat, but my heart pounded with anger. Dragons only took life when they or their mates were threatened. We hadn’t lived in New Orleans for this long without being careful.
The fae leaned forward, her eyes shining with fervor. “I’ve seen this come to pass. This woman must die or there will be dire consequences.”
“Everything has been a little dire lately, wouldn’t you say?” I didn’t know Clara enough to believe everything she spouted. I also didn’t trust her as much as I trusted my brothers and their mates. She was an unknown. A fae when many of them were extinct. Knowing for being fickle and untrustworthy. She was a being who clung to her bargains and would twist your words if you let her. “I never agreed to kill anyone, Clara.”
My brothers wouldn’t believe this because they thought I’d rushed into the agreement with her and granted whatever she wanted. Scott had never asked me the terms of the agreement, but it was no secret he thought I’d been led by the balls.
The truth was I bargained for his mate’s life, but even then I wouldn’t have bargained my own life away. I was too cautious to do anything of the sort. Also, her overreaching statements of dire consequences or the world would end as we knew it was making me wonder if she was playing us.
Her hazel eyes flashed as if she could see what I was thinking. “So far we’ve avoided any real unpleasantness because you’ve listened to my guidance.”
“I wouldn’t consider my brother’s mates and my brothers almost dying multiple times as ‘unpleasantness’.” A spark of annoyance lit deep inside me.
“You owe me a favor, dragon,” she said after a moment. “And I am calling it in.”
"You can call it in all you'd like, but we both know you're bound by the terms of your bargain. I never agreed to kill anyone, and I recall I mentioned not being forced to do something that violated my morality." I sipped my beer and eyed the fae.
She bristled under my perusal. "You will find she needs to die once you meet her," she snapped.
I lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "That may be, but I decide if she does. Not you or some bargain you're hanging your hat on."
Clara's eyes narrowed. I saw the moment she switched her tactics. I tried to never be a man who could be trapped by feminine wiles, but Clara was difficult to resist. She leaned forward, the white tank top she wore dipping enticingly to show the swell of her breasts. A long strand of wheat colored hair fell forward on her face and fell into her cleavage.
The smell of magic filled in the air. I blinked and growled at her. "Stop it," I snapped. "You think me a simpleton to be enticed with a pair of nice tits? I see those every single night at work."