Dawn’s Desire

Banan glanced at Elena Griffin in the rearview mirror as he merged into traffic from the helicopter pad. They didn’t speak because as far as the world knew, they didn’t know each other.

It was a dangerous game they played with Elena’s life, but she was their only link to discovering what was going on at PureGems.

Banan tightened his grip on the steering wheel. To know that someone at PureGems knew the secret so carefully guarded at Dreagan left him furious. He couldn’t wait to discover who it was, and when he did, he was going to make sure it ended.

He and the others that called Dreagan home kept what they were a secret for a reason. The world couldn’t know about them. It was bad enough two human females now knew. After several millennia of it being just the men, it seemed…odd…to have females about.

And human ones at that.

But Elena and Cassie weren’t just any humans. They had the love of a Dragon King – a rare event for sure. Because of that Banan would risk his own life to keep the women safe.

Fortunately for him, he only had to worry about Elena right now. He wasn’t alone though. Banan inwardly smiled because he knew Guy was near, watching Elena. There was no way Guy would allow his woman out of his sight for long. Guy had wanted to be the one driving her, but both Elena and Banan knew in order for their carefully thought out plan to work, Guy had to keep his distance.

So Guy had relented. Sort of.

“I hope we’re doing the right thing,” Elena said in her American accent as she lifted her phone to her ear as she pretended to use it so they could talk.

Banan slowed the car to a stop in front of a traffic light and watched a mob of people walk across the street in front of the vehicle. “There is no other way. We’ve been over this.”

“I know. It’s just…” She paused and sighed. “I worked hard to get promoted to the position in London. PureGems is supposed to be a one of the top five companies in the world to work for. How would they have learned about you and the others? More importantly, why do they want to know?”

They were good questions, and ones Banan desperately wanted answered. The fact he and the others were dragon shifters had been a vigilantly shielded secret since they had sent all the dragons to another realm eons ago.

Banan clenched his jaw as thoughts of the dragons and the life he’d once had began to fill him. Instantly, he shut off those memories. He couldn’t allow them.

Ever.

He’d wracked his brain trying to determine how anyone would know what they were. Their company, and their home, Dreagan Industries, was situated deep in the Highlanders – very nearly impossible to reach.

He and the others who owned and ran Dreagan, had gone out of their way to keep what they hidden, which was difficult considering they made one of the finest scotches in all the world. But concealing who they really were had been something they’d done since the war with the humans had nearly ended both species.

It wasn’t always easy in this time of video cameras on every street corner, satellites, and mobile phones to keep the truth that they could shift into dragon from everyone. People were more aware of others, and if someone tried to hide, they would search even harder to discover just what that person was withholding and why.

Which was why they were careful not to appear as if they were hiding. They were walking on a knife’s edge, and one stumble could end it all.

That stumble had nearly happened when Elena and her boss, Sloan, had gone caving on Dreagan land. Sloan had died, and they had saved Elena in the nick of time.

Banan glanced up at she sky through the buildings cluttering London as he pressed the accelerator and proceeded through the intersection.

Anger simmered at the freedom he was denied. It had been decades since he’d dared to spread his wings and take to the sky. There had been a time dragons outnumbered people, but that time was so long ago it almost seemed a dream now.

Banan let out a deep breath. He was a Dragon King, but he no longer had any dragons to rule. They were gone. But at least they were safe.