Page 3 of Mate For Hire (For Hire 3)

Matching Tony

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Chapter 1

“M-mate?” Lachelle kicked herself for stuttering. Her world tilted upside down and spun around. She had instant flashbacks of riding on the Merry-Go-Round as a child and hating every moment of it.

This woman, this paragon of feminine perfection, was the woman Gerard had pledged to marry when he was just eighteen years old? She was a shifter? Of course now that Gerard said it, the evidence stared her in the face. Silver eyes, she was tall, although not as tall as Gerard and the men of her species. Anyone could see the resemblance to the race of dragons.

When Lachelle’s commander had called her into the station to explain why she never reported a dragon coming to her rescue during an altercation, she thought contacting her sister for support was all she would need to do. No one told her this revelation was coming.

Not only did she have to face an entire station of fellow police officers with their hostile stares and insults over the fact that she introduced a nonhuman fiancé. She also had to deal with the humiliation and uncertainty of finding out another commanding officer was actually a dragon shifter and her man’s former fiancée.

How the heck does that work?

“Mate?” one of the men said with confusion in his tone. “Wait, she says he’s her fiancé, and now he’s saying he’s married to someone else?”

Lachelle wished the floor would open up and swallow the whole room of people, leaving her to her private misery. She wasn’t even sure what kind of expression to wear in the face of this mess.

“Why don’t we all go somewhere private?” Kelly turned to encompass Lachelle’s commanding officer, Gerard, her significant other—maybe—and his younger brother, Declan. Lachelle had the feeling Kelly didn’t much care whether Lachelle or her older sister Janessa joined them. “Charles, we can use your office.”

The officer didn’t move. He stared at Kelly. “You’re one of them?”

“Would you like to have this conversation right here?” she emphasized.

He capitulated and started toward his office. Lachelle didn’t move right away. She blinked in shock as Gerard walked off after Kelly, and every single shifter followed Declan.

Halfway across the station, Gerard stopped and turned back to look for her. She raised her chin and zipped past him. So he was forgetting about her existence already with the return of his childhood sweetheart?

“Lachelle,” Gerard said softly.

She ignored him and headed into her boss’s office to plunk down on a chair. Honestly, she should have waited until her boss invited her to sit, but her legs couldn’t hold her up much longer.

Gerard stood near her, but his entire focus was on Kelly. Lachelle couldn’t figure out what was on his mind by his expression. She never could. He was always somber and quiet. Today, even more so.

Kelly held the floor, folding arms under her breasts and accentuating them without even trying. Not that Gerard was focused there. The commander was a bit too worked up, but he seemed to remind himself that the beautiful woman standing before him wasn’t human. Every now and then, he cast her a look of disbelief. Lachelle figured he tried to put together the image of leggy Kelly Durante with the video circulating around the internet of a fire-breathing dragon.

“This can’t happen,” Charles muttered. He glared at Lachelle as if she invented the dragon shifters. “You knew about them, Waverly, and you didn’t say anything. That makes you culpable.”

“With all due respect, sir, culpable for what? I didn’t hatch the dragons.”

“Watch your mouth!”

Gerard growled deep in his throat, eyes going a stormy gray at Charles’ tone. He didn’t like when another man disrespected Lachelle. He barely held it together whenever she was upset, which forced her to control her emotions.

At Gerard’s growl, Kelly laughed and batted him on the nose. Lachelle expected her to say, “Bad dog.” Startled, Gerard quieted down.

“As you can see,” Kelly said, “there’s such a thing as dragon shifters. We’re here, and we have been for a very long time. We’re not going anywhere, but you don’t have to worry. We don’t eat people.”

Charles paled behind his smooth chocolate skin tone. He fell into his chair, eyes bulging.

Janessa spoke for the first time since they arrived at the station. She plunked her hand on her hip, sneering in disgust at Kelly. Lachelle loved her sister all the more because she could tell her big sister had already decided to dislike this blonde who thought she was hot stuff. “I want to know what Gerard is talking about when he called you his mate. Who the heck are you, other than a shifter I mean and a police officer?”

Pink stained Kelly’s cheeks. For a minute, Lachelle wondered if Janessa intimidated her. “I’m not sure this is the time or place to talk about that.”

“Oh you’re going to talk about it,” Janessa snapped. “If I have to make you.”

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