The Dragon's Dilemma (Lochguard Highland Dragons Book 1) (9 page)

After a few beats, a fist connect with his jaw and the world went blissfully black and silent.

~~~

Holly clenched her fingers tighter over her chest as Finn’s fist connected with Fraser’s jaw.

The smacking sound filled the room before Fraser’s body went limp and crashed to the floor.

She was torn between checking to see if Fraser was all right and pushing past Finn to run out of the cottage to somewhere safe.

Finn took the choice out of her hands and moved to stand in front of her. His amber eyes were full of concern. “Are you okay, Holly?”

“I—” She paused, took a deep breath, and made her mouth work again. “I’m fine. But explain to me what just happened.”

Finn pressed his lips together before answering, “Fraser is a bloody idiot, that’s what happened.”

Holly raised an eyebrow. “That isn’t exactly helpful.”

Finn sighed. “The DDA is required to explain how you could turn out to be a dragon-shifter’s true mate, aye?” She nodded. Finn half-turned and motioned toward Fraser. “Fraser recognized you as his but didn’t tell anyone, the bloody idiot.”

Before Holly could ask a question, Lorna’s scowling face appeared in the door. Her eyes darted to Fraser and then to Finn. “Why is my son out cold on the floor? I’m sure there’s a good reason, but I’m curious as to what it is.”

“Holly is Fraser’s true mate and the bastard didn’t tell us.”

Lorna shook her head. “Idiot.” Lorna’s eyes turned kind and looked straight into Holly’s. “Are you okay, child? He didn’t hurt or force himself on you, did he?”

“No. But it would be nice if someone explained to me what’s going to happen from here.” Holly’s heart rate kicked up again. “You aren’t going to turn me into the DDA for breaking my contract, are you? Nothing happened. We didn’t even kiss. I can still do what I came here to do and try to bear Fergus a child.”

Lorna waved a hand. “Don’t be ridiculous. The second Fergus touched you, Fraser would beat his brother to a bloody pulp.”

Relief flooded her body, but she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Just because they wouldn’t force her to be with Fergus didn’t mean they wouldn’t turn her over to the DDA.
 

Holly forced her shoulders back. The action helped to give her strength to push. “You still didn’t answer my question about reporting me.”

Finn answered before Lorna could open her mouth. “Right now isn’t the time to be making promises. I told Fraser I would see what I could do, and I will. I’m more concerned about Fergus.” Finn looked to Lorna. “Is he downstairs?”

Lorna nodded. “Aye. He volunteered to keep watch over Arabella and Faye, in case an intruder had broken in.”

Finn lightly jabbed Fraser’s side with his shoe. “I rather wish it had been an intruder. That would’ve been a whole hell of a lot simpler.” Finn turned back to face Holly. “I need an honest answer, Holly. Are you composed enough to give one?”

She bobbed her head and ignored her thundering heart. “Yes. What is it?”

Finn replied, “If I can manage to transfer your sacrifice contract, would you accept Fraser?”

Holly looked down at Fraser’s face, relaxed in unconsciousness. “Will I have to deal with his dragon again?”

Finn’s voice filled the room again. “Clever lass. And the answer is yes. Since you are his true mate and Fraser is not very good at containing his dragon, Fraser will go into a mate-claim frenzy the second he kisses you. As you probably know, that means Fraser and his dragon will continue to have sex with you until you’re pregnant. The charming, flirty dragonman you know will most likely disappear until the frenzy is over since the idiot never learned to control his dragon properly.”

While her body wanted nothing more than to strip Fraser and lick every inch of his muscled body, her mind had a conscience and wasn’t ready to commit just yet. Holly met Finn’s gaze again. “And what about Fergus?”

Finn crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to lie to you. Fergus will be devastated at both his brother’s betrayal and his loss of you. Fergus had his heart set on winning you over, Holly.”
 

Holly’s heart squeezed with guilt. “I never planned for this to happen, you know.”

Lorna walked around Fraser’s unconscious body and put an arm around Holly’s shoulders. “We know that, child. A dragon’s instinct is unpredictable.” Lorna took Holly’s chin between her fingers. “This isn’t your fault. Fraser is the one who allowed this disaster to happen.”

Holly could remain silent and allow Fraser to take all of the blame. However, she’d never be able to sleep soundly until she told the truth anyway, so Holly decided to get it out of the way. “He isn’t the only one. I ignored the connection between us.” She darted a glance to Finn, but he was merely watching her without judgment, so she continued, “We nearly kissed inside Finn and Arabella’s greenhouse this afternoon.” Holly met Lorna’s gaze again. “But I really was trying to do what I was sent here to do. I never intended to hurt Fergus. He’s a nice lad and he’ll find a lass. Please just make sure he knows I never would’ve hurt him on purpose.”

Lorna squeezed Holly’s chin. “I’ll tell him myself once he cools down.” Lorna released her grip. “Speaking of which, how do you want to handle this, Finlay?”

Finn uncrossed his arms. “I’ll call Grant to come over and help carry Fraser to my cottage. Holly will stay here for the time being, in Faye’s room. That way, Faye can watch over her.”

Lorna asked, “Do you think Faye’s ready?”

Finn frowned. “The job should give her a purpose, even if it’s small. I think it’ll do Faye good.”

Holly found her voice. “You want me to stay in the same house as Fergus? I’m not sure if that’s the best idea.”

Finn shook his head. “I never said that, lass. I’ll let him cool off in one of the empty cottages before I have a chat with him in the morning. I have a job for him on the Isle of Skye, which should keep him preoccupied for some time. I was going to assign it to someone else, but with the recent happenings, I’ll give the assignment to Fergus.”
 

Lorna clapped her hands. “Right, then. Let’s set things in motion. I don’t know how much longer Fraser will be unconscious and I certainly don’t want him to wake up with Holly in the room.” Lorna placed a hand on Holly’s back. “Come, child. You can wait in my room with the door locked until everything is sorted.”

Lorna gently pushed against her spine, but Holly stood her ground. “When will I see Fraser again?”

Finn answered, “Probably tomorrow.” Finn took out his mobile phone and typed something. “I’m going to ask the doctor to come over and put Fraser’s dragon in a time out for at least a day. That way, he can have a rational conversation without his beast clawing for control.” Holly wanted to ask what that meant, but the second she opened her mouth, Finn cut her off. “Not now, Holly. I know you have questions, but they’ll have to wait until morning. If all goes to plan, you can see Fraser during a supervised visit at the surgery tomorrow.”

Lorna pressed harder and Holly finally followed the older dragonwoman’s lead. As they walked around Fraser, Holly’s training urged her to check on him.

However, Lorna’s grip moved to one of her wrists. The dragonwoman had fingers of steel.

Lorna gently tugged her arm. “Leave him be for now, hen. If Fraser wakes up before the doctor sees him, all hell will break loose.”

With a nod, Holly took one last glance at Fraser before she moved with Lorna out the door and into the hall.

She barely registered Lorna telling her how to lock the door before Holly was standing alone in the middle of a strange room.

Up until fifteen minutes ago, Holly had known what to expect during her stay with the Scottish dragon-shifter clan.
 

But now, everything had turned uncertain. If that wasn’t bad enough, she would have all night to think about what might or might not happen with Fraser. Even if Finn could transfer the contract, there was so much she didn’t know about her auburn-haired dragonman, let alone his dragon.

Her biggest concern was the mate-claim frenzy. She knew it consisted of lots of sex and a dragon-shifter’s dragon half being in charge for a good chunk of it, but she had no idea if Fraser’s dragon-half would ever stop until she was pregnant. The thought of not showering or eating for days was bad enough, but a cold thread of fear shot through her body at the image of her being tied to a bed and used like a brood mare.

No.
Deep down her gut told her that Fraser would never allow his dragon to treat her that way.
 

Of course, that wasn’t Holly’s only concern. The DDA had never explained what happened once the mate-claim frenzy cooled. Holly needed to return home to Aberdeen for her father’s sake since humans weren’t allowed to live on dragon-shifter territory unless they were a sacrifice. But she had no idea whether a dragon-shifter would allow his true mate to leave or not once the child was born.

Holly resisted placing a hand over her lower abdomen. A frenzy with a true mate always resulted in pregnancy at least once. It was no longer the case Holly might become pregnant; she would for certain.

And she could die.

She growled. Holly wanted answers, damn it, but no one was around to give them to her.

Holly clenched her fingers and started pacing to ease some of her tension. Once she was allowed to see Fraser, and provided the dragon doctor could honestly put his dragon half into a “time out,” she was going to tie the dragonman down if need be and demand some answers.

Because no matter what happened or how much Fraser’s touch made her heart race, Holly Anderson was going home as soon as her time was up.
 

~~~

Arabella MacLeod watched as Fergus paced from one window to the next, and then from one door to the next, checking for any signs of trespassing. If only Finn would hurry the hell up and tell them what was going on upstairs, then her cousin-in-law would sit his arse down and stop making her dizzy with all of his pacing.

Adjusting her position in the hard, wooden chair, she sighed. “Fergus, calm down. If it had been an intruder, Finn would’ve shouted and asked for your help by now.”

Fergus turned with a growl. Gone was the usually kind, calm expression. In its place was a snarl and flashing dragon eyes. “It’s taking every iota of restraint I have not to rush up the stairs and check on Holly.” Fergus ran a hand through his auburn locks. “This isn’t how the night was supposed to go.”

Arabella’s dragon spoke up.
In more ways than one.

Just because you think there’s something between Holly and Fraser doesn’t mean it’s true. You shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

Dragons have a sense about these things. Between the pregnancy and extra hormones, I’m hyperaware of attraction and sexual energy. Speaking of which, where’s Finn? I want him again.

Arabella mentally sighed.
As I’ve told you, no sex tonight. Today’s the first time I’ve kept anything down in weeks. I’m not going to risk it.

Finn will make us feel good.

Ignoring her dragon, Arabella answered Fergus, “Don’t start playing the ‘what if’ game just yet, Fergus. For all we know, it could be one of the clan members who left two months ago when Finn gave them the option.”

Someone in the clan had betrayed Finn by giving the Dragon Knights the codes to the back gates. The knights had wanted Arabella’s head. Once Finn and the DDA had cleaned up the mess, Finn had had enough and told anyone who didn’t support him and his mate to leave.

Every day Arabella wondered if the clan deserters would come back to wreak havoc.

Fergus growled. “That isn’t helping, Ara.”

She hated how people other than Finn would only trust her when it suited them on Lochguard. No matter how much the MacKenzies had welcomed Arabella into the clan, she was still an outsider.
 

Her dragons spoke up again.
They will learn to trust us with time.

Time is what we don’t have right now.

Needing help, Arabella looked to Faye and raised her eyebrows.

Faye took the hint and walked to her brother’s side. “Grant would’ve told me if he or the other Protectors had picked up on a possible threat. I saw him today and he didn’t say anything. I highly doubt it’s the clan deserters or an intruder, unless they’ve recruited former Special Forces to their cause.”

Fergus met Faye’s eyes. “Forgive me, sister, but you haven’t been in the loop on inside security threats for nearly two months. After this, I should pay Grant a visit. He’s in charge of the Protectors now and he needs to up his game.”

Faye jabbed Fergus’s chest. “Don’t go blaming Grant for some nonexistent threat, Fergus Roger MacKenzie. He’s been making all sorts of upgrades since the last attack.”

Arabella should stay out of the siblings’ conversation, but her curiosity burned to know more. “Since when are you defending Grant McFarland?”

Faye raised her chin. “He’s Lochguard’s head Protector. We all should be defending him.”

Interesting.
Finn had mentioned Grant being a bastard to Faye several years ago and them no longer being friends. If Arabella could tame her nausea and exhaustion long enough to ever move about the clan freely again, she would have to be more observant.

Hell, she might even try to tap some of the clan security feeds to finally figure out where Faye spent her days.

Arabella’s dragon spoke up.
If we start feeling better, we’re not walking about the clan. We’re going to drag Finn into a room, lock the door, and ride him hard.

She mentally sighed.
I enjoy Finn’s cock as much as you do, but there is more to life than constant sex.

Maybe for you. I hardly ever get to fly anymore because of the baby making us sick. Sex is all I have to look forward to.

Arabella was trying to think of how to respond to her beast when footsteps pounded down the stairs. A second later, Finn stood in the doorway with his lips pressed together and a frown on his face. Some called it his pissed off face, but Finn couldn’t frighten her. Her mate would rather take his own life than hurt her.

Arabella folded her hands over her stomach and asked, “So, what happened?”