Page 17 of Brandt's Rule

“Dragons do not sit up and say ‘well, hello,” Maverik said. “They more the ‘what the fuck are you doing in my vicinity’ type.”

“Yeah, but hers didn’t. It’s kind of like she’s so comfortable with who she is she’s not in the least concerned to run across another Dragon,” Remi said.

“Either that or the other side of her could whip your ass and knows it,” Barron said.

“Isn’t that the same thing as her being comfortable with who she is?” Ronan asked.

Barron turned to look at Ronan. “Why are you here instead of school?”

Ronan grinned. “Because I’m on break. I’m here to help.”

“Then go help and stop correcting me,” Barron teased, playfully cuffing Ronan on the back of the head when he popped the rest of his food into his mouth and hurried away to get back to work.

Ronan laughed but picked up speed as he jogged away.

“So what is she?” Maverik asked, looking from Remi to Jobe and back.

“Female,” Jobe said dryly.

“Thanks. I hadn’t figured that one out yet,” Maverik snapped.

“I don’t know. I’m human. How the hell would I know?” Jobe asked.

“True,” Mav said.

“Whatever she is, it’s something I’ve never come across. You can just almost sense something else lying there, just under the surface, too,” Remi said. “There’s power there, but I wasn’t on edge around her.”

Maverik dusted his fingers off on his jeans and shook himself free of the whole thing, like a wolf shaking water off his coat. “Don’t care. Don’t matter to me. Don’t care who the hell she is, what she wants, or why she’s here. All my females are present and accounted for. Ain't a single one out there that could be looking for me, that I might happen to want to talk to. She shows up again, I ain’t here. Ain’t been here.”

“She might have a valid reason for looking you up,” Barron said.

“Don’t care!” Maverik called over his shoulder, walking back toward the structures they were building to get back to work.

“I told her to come by and maybe we could give her a job,” Remi said.

“You did what?” Maverik asked, coming to a sudden stop and turning to look at Remi.

“She’s new in town. She’s looking for a job. She’s not human. Was I not supposed to extend some kind of welcome?” Remi demanded. “I mean, that’s kind of what we do.”

Maverik’s mouth twitched as he fought the impulse to snap at Remi. Remi was right. It was what they did, he just didn’t like it because the woman was looking for him.

Brandt drove right up within twenty feet of them and got out of his truck stopping whatever additional conversation may have taken place. He stalked over to them and paused only briefly to snatch the last coffee out of the cardboard holder on the hood of Remi’s truck. He looked around for the bags of food, grabbed a burrito and walked through the group of them without acknowledging anybody.

“You good?” Remi asked.

Brandt turned and glared at Remi. He held up the food and the coffee cup. “I could have got this. Planned to.”

“Okay,” Remi said with definite attitude.

“Next time, let me,” Brandt snapped.

“Fine. You be coffee boy,” Remi grumbled.

“Oh, let him go get coffee. He likes doing it,” Barron said, defending Remi.

“I said I was planning to,” Brandt said.

“Then let people know, and how about being here on time so we ain’t starving to damn death,” Maverik said.

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