Cruel Daddy Dragon (Candara Dragon Ops #3)

Chapter 5 - Rufus

As I soar toward the others, my mind races. There’s so much I could be thinking about, but I keep thinking of Sarah as I fly. I keep thinking about when she snapped at me back in her house. Her green eyes were sharp and flinty, that police uniform clutching to her voluptuous form, her pretty rose lips pulled in a cute little sneer as she argued back. I love her voice when it’s strong like that. I haven’t felt shivers like it when anyone else has ever spoken to me.

And you’re married now.

For a moment, I let myself wallow in the joy the thought pools in me, but then I snap back to reality for a moment.

Stop. You’re married just to protect her. Just to protect her. No other reason.

I don’t know who I’m going to convince, but with Lena’s house appearing on the horizon, I’m going to have to be convincing and fast.

When I swoop over and land, I grab some spare clothes from a random hiding space and dress myself before heading inside. As soon as I walk in the back door of Lena’s house, beaming eyes make me recoil.

“Cyrus—” I start, but his stern voice cuts me off.

“Just explain where you’ve been all day,” he says, “Where were you?”

The Alpha stands and walks toward me again. He inhales slowly, then growls lightly.

“You smell like Eclipse,” Cyrus snarls quietly, “I thought I told you not to attack any more Eclipse members!”

“I know—but I can explain this time!” I insist.

People start to gather around us as they hear the conversation rumbling through the house in Cyrus’s carrying voice. Lena joins us first, wrapping a nightgown over her pregnant belly. There’s more movement. Milo, Kaius, and Evander join us from nowhere.

Great. I’m sure everyone will hustle to be here for this.

“Explain then,” Cyrus grunts.

I suck in a deep breath and answer.

“An Eclipse member attacked Sarah. He injected her with some kind of drug and tried to kidnap her,” I announce firmly, “I had to attack the Eclipse member to get her back and keep her safe.”

“What?!” Lena shrieks.

If anybody wasn’t here before, they’ve rushed down now—now, everyone is staring at me with intense eyes. Orion and Evander look grim. Kaius looks shocked, almost offended, and Milo looks worriedly around. Lena stares at me in pure horror. I scan the entire crowd before finally looking back at Cyrus, frowning hard at me.

“Kidnapped?” he asks, “That’s not Eclipse’s usual move. Why would they turn to kidnapping humans?”

“Forget that!” Lena screeches, cutting across Cyrus, “They injected her with drugs?! They tried to kidnap her?! Is she okay?!”

“She’s amazing, Lena, don’t worry,” I reply quickly.

Too quickly. I see Kaius react first to that, shooting a smirk at Milo. Evander isn’t part of that interaction, but he raises his eyebrows when he hears me say that.

“I mean, she’s fine—she’s not hurt,” I add on.

Cyrus glances over at my slip-up and looks at Evander, wordlessly bringing him to the front of this conversation. Evander joins him at his side, and Cyrus looks back at me.

“How did this kidnapping happen?” he asks.

“I didn’t see it in full, but from what I could pick up, she had parked her police cruiser by the edge of the forest, outside of town,” I explain, “I’m guessing she parked there to do a foot patrol around all of town and then circle back. As I was on my foot patrol, I heard a gunshot and found her in the hands of a fully shifted Eclipse member. When he saw me, he took off flying.”

“Wait,” Evander says, frowning harder, “this was in the middle of Greyson Ridge? Not in the forest or anything?”

“No,” I answer, “It was on the very edge of town, but in town nonetheless.”

Evander shoots an alarmed expression at Cyrus, then back to me.

“Why?” Evander asks quietly, “Why would they attack a human in the middle of town? Surely they know how much trouble they could get into with the Council if they were spotted and revealed shifter existence to the humans?”

“I agree… This is very weird…” Cyrus murmurs, “They may have more power in the Council than they’ve ever had before, but they’re not above the most fundamental law we have.”

The Alpha looks down as he thinks aloud, then looks back to me.

“Carry on,” he orders, “What happened next?”

“After he spotted me, he took flight, trying to get out of Greyson Ridge as quickly as he could, taking Sarah with him,” I answer, “I had to take to the skies myself to fight for her.”

“Did you kill him?” Cyrus asks.

“Sorry, no. He got away when he dropped Sarah, and I had to go down for her,” I say, “I got back down, and I found she was drugged, but she was okay. She was dozy but otherwise unhurt.”

Cyrus nods.

“Well… it sounds like that was the best anyone could have done,” he says.

“Er, there’s one more thing,” I add, a little anxiety leaking into my tone.

Cyrus didn’t miss that; he cocks his head lightly and narrows his eyes.

“Go on…” He says slowly.

“I—I thought that they might have been going for Sarah in particular because she is human,” I reply, “so I thought she’d be safer if I could imbue her with some dragon aura to protect her.”

“Meaning?” Cyrus asks.

“I married her.”

There’s a rattling gasp from onlookers. Many in the crowd look at one another. Everyone looks vaguely confused except for Kaius, who looks like Christmas has come early.

But I only worry about Cyrus’s expression. It’s completely stoic, and I have no idea what he thinks about that.

“You made this decision before informing any of us…” Cyrus states in a monotone—again, not giving his thoughts away.

“I know I should have brought everyone else into this decision,” I say, “But it didn’t feel like there was any time.”

Is that really the reason? A voice in my head murmurs, Or is it because you knew the Alpha would say no?

I cram down the voice as Evander snaps:

“Why would you do something like that before coming to meet with us?! That’s so reckless! ”

I hang my head.

“I know,” I reply.

But Cyrus doesn’t speak for a moment more. He simply looks over at Lena—his own wife—and then sighs.

“You should have consulted the rest of us before bringing another human into this with marriage,” Cyrus says, “But I can’t criticize you about being reckless without being a hypocrite.”

He looks to Evander.

“The more important thing is that Eclipse seems to have changed their plans,” he states grimly, “We need to know why and how. This is a very bold move on their part—it doesn’t seem like they’re even trying to hide anymore. If this isn’t a rogue dragon, that is. Either way, we also need to figure out why they want Sarah. Why would they kidnap her rather than—”

I know what he’s about to say, but he looks down at Lena and stops himself before he says it; she doesn’t need any more stress with her pregnancy.

Evander nods his head.

“Yeah. I agree. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next,” Evander says to Cyrus.

“Um,” I interject, making them both look at me, “I just came back to let everyone know what was going on. I told Sarah I’d be back to keep her safe overnight—I figured that the dragon who attacked her might come back since I failed to kill him.”

Cyrus nods.

“I can see that. Fine, you go guard Sarah and keep us updated throughout the night,” Cyrus orders, “Evander and I will discuss this, and we’ll come up with our own plan.”

I nod, and they leave. As soon as Cyrus and Evander have left, Lena comes over to me.

“Are you sure she’s okay?” she asks me worriedly, “Sarah has a bad habit of pretending she’s okay when she’s not.”

I chuckle lightly.

“Trust me, I know,” I laugh, “She’s proud, our Sheriff. But the one good thing about the fact that they drugged her is that I don’t think she remembers much about it.”

I put a hand on Lena’s shoulder and speak more seriously.

“But I promise, I’ll make sure she’s all right.”

Lena surveys my eyes for a moment and then smiles gently.

“Yeah,” she replies, “I bet you will.”

I don’t know what she saw when she looked at me like that, but she sounds reassured. She turns to join Cyrus. Then, she pauses and calls over her shoulder: “Oh, congrats on your sudden marriage, by the way!”

I laugh gently, and then Kaius appears by my side.

“Yes, your marriage!” he cackles, “You’re married now?! You just went and got married without any of us?! Even Cyrus had us there when he married Lena!”

“I told you,” I grumble, “there was no time.”

Kaius starts cackling, throwing his head back as he laughs.

“Oh, I’m sure!” h e replies sarcastically, “I’m sure there’s nothing else going on as to why you wouldn’t tell any of us about this!”

“What does that mean?” I snap.

“Oh, come on!” Kaius cackles, “We recognize that look by now!”

“Turns out you were the next one to mate-bond,” Milo says, appearing next to me, “And here I was thinking it’d be Orion since he was deflecting earlier.”

“Yeah! That means I won the bet!” Kaius cheers, “Evander owes me $100!”

“You bet on me being the next one to mate-bond?” I demand.

“It had to be someone,” Kaius says, shrugging, “And I was getting less sure about Evander and his mysterious admirer, so the second best bet to make some money was you!”

You bastard—!

Cyrus and Evander walk back, and we all stand to attention when they come over. Cyrus looks over at Orion, who’s distracted by a notebook he has.

“Come over, Orion. We have an announcement.”

He nods and joins the rest of us. Lena stands near us.

“We have decided,” Cyrus declares, “that we should report this activity to the Council. This is against the fundamental rules of dragon shifters, and therefore, we could find the Council as our allies against Eclipse if they agree with the audacity of attacking humans in broad daylight.”

Everyone nods solemnly.

“Evander and I will go alone to the council,” Cyrus continues, “That means the remainder of you need to protect Lena, Julie, and the map they’re making together as top priority over patrols and other tasks.”

“What about Sarah?” I ask.

The words slip past me before I can stop them. Kaius smirks and nudges Milo, who gives him a knowing smile. Cyrus nods slowly.

“Yes, Sarah will be added to our list of top priority targets to protect—at least until we can figure out why they might be targeting her,” he replies to me, “Do what you can to keep Sarah close to Lena and Julie, just so you aren’t too divided.”

“I can try and help with that,” Lena adds.

“Thanks, Lena,” Cyrus says, looking over to her with a soft smile before his face drops back into stoicism as he addresses the rest of us: “Is that understood? The girls and map must be protected at all costs. Understand?”

“Understood,” the Candara team chants back.

He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I’m actually looking forward to getting back to Sarah and protecting her. I want to protect her.

Oh no… they’re right, aren’t they? I’ve mate-bonded, haven’t I?

Goddamn it!