“Freaked out and turned into a possessive jackass?”

“Yes.” His mouth quirked. “So, I’m sorry for that. My head wasn’t on straight. But…” He took a deep breath. “I think I see things a little clearer, now. I’d like to try again. If you’ll let me.”

The waves and surf surrounded us, and overhead, the moon glowed fiendishly bright, illuminating the beach and turning Garret’s hair silver. The distant lights and sirens faded away, until it seemed it was just the two of us, on a lonely shore hundreds of miles from anything.

“I’d like that, too,” I whispered.

He relaxed, some of the tension leaving his back and shoulders.

“So, we’re okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” He moved closer, sliding his hands up my arms, sending electric tingles through my whole body. “I wanted to make certain, before I did this.”

And he kissed me.

This time, I wasn’t afraid. This time, my eyes closed, and I leaned into him, kissing him back. His arms slid around me, and I wrapped mine around his waist, pulling us closer. I forgot about Talon. I forgot the fact that I was a dragon, and we weren’t supposed to have these crazy, intense emotions swirling through us. I didn’t care that my instructor said humans were the lesser species, and that we were higher up on the food chain. None of that mattered. For this one moment, with Garret’s cool lips on mine and his arms trapping me against him, I was neither human nor dragon.

Just me.

PART II

They’re not who you think.

Riley

“We’ve got a problem.”

That was not the first thing I wanted to hear after returning from a party that, for all intents and purposes, sucked ass big time. Granted, kicking around those human yuppies was fun, if not at all challenging, as was getting under the skin of that human kid. They didn’t matter, though. I hadn’t gone to that party to beat up humans, or to threaten obnoxious mortals who didn’t have a clue. I’d gone there for her.

“Riley.” Wes came into the kitchen as I tossed my bike keys and wallet on the counter. I gave him a weary look. The gangly human looked disheveled—shirt rumpled, brown hair in disarray, normal for him. His English accent grated hard on my nerves this evening.

“Did you hear me? We’ve got a problem, mate.”

“This better be important,” I growled, brushing past him into the spacious living room. Hell, I was tired. It had been a long night.

Through the enormous windows, the moon hung low over the ocean, tempting me to leave the room and head outside, if only to get away from Wes. If I walked out to the veranda, I’d have a great view of white cliffs, sky, and eighty feet below, the pounding surf. The house was built halfway into the cliffs, and the wide, open veranda was a great launching point for those nights that I didn’t want to take my bike on the road. Not bad, for a house that wasn’t ours. The real owners were off in Europe for the summer and had needed someone to house-sit their big empty mansion. Lucky us. With a little online finagling, Wes had made certain they hired him: a responsible, middle-aged accountant with a wife and no kids or pets, who wanted to rent a house for the summer. No one would suspect the truth. Or at least, no one would come nosing around, wondering why two college-age guys were squatting in a multi-million dollar beach house.

Wes followed me into the living room. “Another one of our nests went dark,” he said gravely.

My fury spiked. I spun on him, narrowing my eyes. “Which one?”

“Austin.” The human raised a hand in a helpless gesture. “Their signal went down this afternoon, and no one is answering. I haven’t been able to contact them at all.”

“Goddammit!” Spinning, I slapped an expensive vase from an end table, sending a few thousand dollars worth of porcelain flying into the wall. Wes flinched. Heat flared across my lungs and I breathed deep, controlling the urge to Shift and blast something to cinders. “I just came from there!” I snarled. “I spent all last month setting that safe house up. Dammit! What the hell is going on?”

Wes didn’t shoot me his normal irritated look, which told me how shaken he was. “I don’t know, mate, but it’s gone now,” he said, and I shoved my hands through my hair, trying to think. Austin. There had been only one dragon in that safehouse, a hatchling I’d gotten out just last year. He’d trusted me to protect him; I’d promised I would keep him safe.

Dammit all to hell.

“We should move,” Wes added, shoving off the counter. “Let the other nests know we’ve been compromised. If we leave tonight—”

I lowered my arms. “No,” I muttered, and he looked back at me in surprise. Anger and resolve settled around me like a cold fist. The Austin nest was lost, but that just meant I had to succeed here. “Not without the girl,” I said firmly, turning around. “I’m close, Wes. She’s coming around. I can feel it. Give me another week or two, and she’ll be so fed up with Talon she’ll be begging me to take her away.”

“Right.” Wes crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. “Like the time you swore it would take a week, tops, to convince that Owen chap to join us, and what did he do? We had to spend a month in Chile after he ratted us out to TALON.”

“Yeah, but look on the bright side. You finally got a suntan.” he glowered at me, and I smirked, remembering his constantly red skin and face as we’d moved from jungle to village to jungle, always on the run. Wes did not like the great outdoors, and the feeling was mutual.