Page 45 of Tempting Her Dragons

“Fuck,” Mav spits. “How did we not know about him?”

“He’s into something,” I mutter. “He’s been hiding. Covering his tracks and his brother’s. Shade doesn’t think he’s killed before but when we killed his brother, he must have snapped and used the woman to get the information. He’s out for revenge. We have him on video. He’s tracking us, or rather, me. He has my name. We didn’t hide our path here. Finding us won’t be hard if he’s as good as we think.”

“That poor girl,” Saph whispers. “What is the plan?”

“I don’t know the area. We are at a disadvantage here, but he can’t hide his face. Our guy will try to track his movements. He can’t be left free. We have to kill him.” Saphira isn’t scared. I don’t smell it in her scent or body language. She’s sad for the girl, and I think there is something else there, but I can’t pinpoint it.

“Are you going to leave?” she asks, crossing her arms.

“No,” I rush to say. “We won’t ever leave your side.”

“Our place is with you,” Mav says. “We wait until we have the details.”

“There’s more,” I say, and they tense up. “Mom is coming. She should be here by the end of the day.”

“I knew she would.” Mav lifts a shoulder. “You know we couldn’t stop her, especially knowing about Saphira and the trouble heading our way.”

“I’m going to meet your mom,” Saphira says, and I detect a bit of panic.

“She will love you,” I say, trying to reassure her.

“I hope so.”

“She can’t stay here,” Mav says.

“My thoughts exactly,” I say grimly.

“Why not?” Saph asks.

“Firefly,” I grin. “Did you like what we did this morning?”

“Yes,” she says, flushing.

“There would be no more of that,” I say, and her eyes widen. “If Sally is willing, Mom could stay with her.”

“Sally would love it,” she says.

“Why don’t you ask her?” Mav asks.

“Alright.” She pulls out her phone. “Wait. We can ask my brothers for help with this guy.”

“They’ll be pissed we are putting you in danger,” Mav says.

“A new mating would be suspicious if there wasn’t trouble. You have to accept that this group has no secrets,” she says.

“Great,” I mutter. She hops out of her seat and gets close to my side.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” she whispers. “Helping people like you do. Never be ashamed of killing men who deserve it.” She kisses my cheek and then moves to Mav, kissing him as well. “I’m going to call Sally.” We watch her progress to her room.

“We can’t lose her,” Mav says quietly.

“We won’t,” I say firmly.

“Finding this fucker is a top priority. He can’t know about her. He’ll use it. She’s at risk.” He drops his elbows to the counter, his hands in front of his mouth as he leans.

“She’ll be protected. We will do so if we have to ask all of her family to help. We can’t let our pride get in the way. She is what is important. Shit, Mom will die for her. You know that’s why she’s coming. She’ll say she will protect her while we hunt the fucker,” I say.

“Yeah,” he says. “Are we going to let her?”

---