She’d just need to figure out how to do it all.
Brad spent the morning working side by side with Tasha in the living room, each of them focusing on their own respective laptops.
To some, it might seem boring or completely ordinary. But to him, it was exactly what he wanted. Because it meant Tasha wanted to spend time with him outside of the bedroom. Breakfast had been the first step, but each bit of encouragement only made his resolve stronger.
His dragon spoke up. Good. I may be a little better today after last night, but I’m still impatient. I want to claim our mate. So maybe do more than just sit here and stare at a screen.
We both need to do our work, dragon. Besides, would you want a mate that constantly demanded your attention, no matter what needed to be done? This is just more proof that Tasha is good for us.
His beast grunted. At least now you’re the one trying to convince me of her. Just don’t take too long to convince the person that actually matters—Tasha.
I will, after I finish my duties.
As his dragon curled up to go back to sleep—inner dragons had little patience for trivial human things like email or typing out reports—Brad lost track of time. However, the doorbell rang and he wondered who it could be.
He stood and motioned for Tasha to stay put. “I don’t think anything dangerous could just walk up to my front door but let me make sure.”
She nodded. “Although for the future, we need to get me a baseball bat to grab if needed. Just in case you need some help.”
The fact his human wanted to be by his side to take on an enemy caused approval to flood his body. “We will. Maybe even later today. However, for now, wait here.”
Since Brad didn’t have a fancy security system—something he’d fix soon enough—he went to the door and looked through the peephole. On the other side stood the tall, dark-haired form of Ashley Swift. “What is she doing here?” he muttered as he opened the door.
He didn’t get to ask a word before the ADDA employee smiled at him and said, “Nice to see you, too, Brad. Where’s Tasha?”
He frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Not technically. But I need to have a little private chat with Tasha about some of the finer details of her staying here.”
He studied the human, annoyed that she could be smiling so easily when she clearly had some secrets concerning his mate. “That sounds like something is wrong.”
Ashley raised an eyebrow. “You do remember that I’m mated to a dragon clan leader, right? So trying to be all scary and intimidating isn’t going to really work, Brad.”
He sighed and motioned toward the living room. “She’s in there.”
“Thank you,” Ashley said as she strode right past him.
Apparently, mating a dragon-shifter hadn’t changed Ashley’s methods at all—stubborn and bold, as always.
His dragon said, It’s good she’s acting the same as ever. If she wasn’t, then I’d actually be worried.
After shutting the door, he went to the living room. However, Ashley turned toward him and raised her brows. “I need to talk to her alone. I swear on my unborn child that I’m not going to kidnap her and take her away, Brad. Just let me try to help Tasha.”
Okay, that sounded less encouraging than before.
Tasha met his gaze. “It’s okay. You mentioned you had some things to do at the Protector building anyway. And I’m sure Ashley can promise to stay with me until you get back.”
Ashley nodded. “Of course. I convinced Wes to let me stay all day, so no problem.”
His dragon murmured, She’ll be fine. We need to check in with Jon anyway and see if anything has turned up about League activities.
Brad took one last long look at his mate. “Okay, I’ll go. But promise me you’ll call my cell phone if you need me.”
Tasha smiled. “I will, I promise.”
And even though he wanted to stay and protect his mate, Brad knew this was a sort of test. Tasha would sometimes need her own space, and this was his way to prove it to her.
But he couldn’t resist going over to brush her cheek and murmur, “I’ll see you tonight then.”
She placed her hand over his and gently squeezed it. “I look forward to it.”
Heat flashed in her eyes and Brad barely suppressed a groan. Resisting his mate was one of the toughest things he’d ever done.
However, after one last caress of her skin, he grunted and exited his own house and headed toward the Protector building. Time to find out if there were any more threats to his mate or not so he could plan for every contingency.
Tasha was both relieved and anxious at Ashley’s arrival. Even though a friendly face was welcome, the ADDA employee hadn’t mentioned she was coming to visit, which probably meant something was up.
So as soon as Brad left, Tasha asked, “What’s going on? Just tell me and don’t sugarcoat it.”
Ashley snorted. “Like I would with you. After all, if you piss off the bartender, who knows what will end up in your drink later. Maybe even a side of spit and coffee grounds?”
In normal times, Tasha would tease Ashley back and maybe banter for a few minutes. But right now, there were more important things to focus on, so she frowned and said, “If I still have a bar to run, after all of this.”
Ashley’s face became more serious, as evidenced by the firmer line of her lips. “That’s part of the reason I’m here, Tasha. No matter what I do, ADDA won’t budge on you being able to run your bar from StoneRiver—they’re still at a hard no. However, I think I have a compromise that may just work.”
Pushing aside the sadness at the first part of Ashley’s words—she would deal with the hard truth later—Tasha focused on the latter half. “Which is?”
“First let me stipulate that it requires approval from David Lee first. But provided he agrees to the plan and StoneRiver gives you a tiny piece of their land to build a new place—a bar at the edges of their territory which isn’t too far from the town of Truckee or even determined people coming from Reno—then ADDA would allow you to open it and serve both humans and dragon-shifters. I’m sure there could even be a landing area for dragons from other clans, too. It’ll be like a kind of experiment for them, to see if it indeed helps bring people together or not since it’d be on dragon-shifter land and ADDA will oversee everything and not local human politicians or governments.”
While Tasha would love for nothing more than some of her determined patrons to visit her new bar maybe once in a while or the possibilities for what she could do with a fully integrated bar, Tasha was too rational to jump for joy just yet. “Part of me is excited to try. But what’s to keep the same thing from happening with the League all over again? They could just go after my new place.”
Ashley nodded. “I’ve thought of that, trust me. But if you have both StoneRiver and PineRock on your side, the League may think twice about it. My opinion is that the League idiots grew bolder with their actions over the last few years simply because no new alliances have been formed between the four dragon clans in the greater Tahoe area. But if we get two clans to agree to an alliance, and maybe hint that we want more, it could make the League a bit more cautious. After all, pissing off two clans’ worth of dragon-shifters is a little more of a deterrent.”