Mating of Convenience

Chapter 4

When the door to the balcony was secured and they were inside the apartment again, Kolz cursed. He should have jumped over the railing and flown past the lower floors to see who may have overheard them. But it was too late now.

He held tight to her arm, not wanting to let her go. If he kept her close, he could protect her. Keep her safe. He inhaled her scent, using it and the gentle energy she emitted to calm his agitation.

He"d been addicted to her from the first time she"d entered the boardroom for a joint council meeting. As a new member, she"d trailed behind the other human delegates. The talks had centered, as they always did, around the dragons and their mutual problem, which was also known as "how to stop rogue dragons from attacking humans." After the meeting, when Xander had remarked on Ms. Price too, Kolz knew they"d finally found a potential mate.

From that point, Kolz stood behind Xander"s chair during the joint meetings, just like the other betas who attended the talks, but Calla was his focus, not interspecies relations. He didn"t have to attend to the discussions, so he set about learning as many details as he could about her. He noticed how her lips twitched into a faint smile when she caught him watching her, how her pupils dilated when she saw them, how a delicate flush splashed over her cheeks every time he or Xander acknowledged her…

And now, she"d come to them… And doing so had put her at risk.

"I"m sorry," Calla said as she edged toward the door, tugging her arm away. "I shouldn"t have come."

Kolz forced his fingers to let her go.

"Show us your file," Xander said. His tone was steady and calming. Almost bewitching. Kolz always suspected it was a side effect of the magic the council had imbued in him when he"d been selected as one of the Chosen. "You would not have come if you didn"t believe it to be important."

She stopped retreating and eyed them both, as if gauging whether or not to proceed. Whatever she saw must have appeased her, because she nodded.

"It isn"t much." Her words were barely more than a whisper.

"Our apartment is soundproof. At least that was one thing they got right when they built this place. If it wasn"t, we wouldn"t be able to live here in any comfort, being this close to the others." Xander motioned toward their sofa.

For one long moment, she stared at them, her gaze flitting between Xander and him. Then, thankfully, she dropped to the leather sofa. When she was seated, the alpha settled into his favorite chair. She glanced up at Kolz, as if expecting him to sit too, but he couldn"t. Impatient energy surged through him. He needed to stand. To walk. It was useless, but it made him feel more in control. And with a potential threat dangling over her, he needed some pretense of control.

"I don"t have anything definitive." She put her folder on the coffee table and flipped it open. "But I think he is selling the daughters of his influential friends to clans in exchange for dragon treasure."

Kolz surveyed the mess of papers and clippings. A sharper sense of restlessness rippled through his limbs and he turned to pace the room. As he followed the wall of windows from one end of the room to the other, she explained her suspicions. As her theory unfolded before him, Kolz agreed that something seemed… off.

"What are these girls like?" Xander asked.

"I don"t understand what you"re asking."

"Do they party? Are they particularly vain? That kind of thing," Kolz expanded on Xander"s question. They"d been together too long for him not to anticipate how his alpha"s mind worked.

"You think they are Dragon"s Tears addicts." Her gaze darted between them.

"No, we"re trying to gather information," Xander said.

"I had considered that," she said, "but everything I found suggests that they weren"t. They all seem clean. Wholesome. They"ve led very sheltered lives, which is one of the reasons that the whole boyfriend excuse is so strange. There were only girls on their social media feeds. These girls don"t appear to have any male friends, let alone romantic interests."

"How old are they?" Kolz asked, although he thought he could guess the answer.

"Between eighteen and twenty-two."

Kolz shook his head. They should have seen this coming. He glanced at Xander and knew he"d come to the same conclusion. Then Calla"s eyes widened as she realized the implication. She stared at the smiling faces of the five girls in the photos on the table.

"They were all born after the Dragon Announcement. You think they were raised for this purpose since birth… Oh, God…" She covered her mouth with her hand.

Xander exhaled slowly and dropped his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"Son of a bitch." Kolz cracked his knuckles. Investigating whether or not Jasmine Gordon had been sacrificed to the dragons had been simple. This would not be as straightforward. There were fifteen recognized clans plus countless pairs who lived outside of established clans. Dragon Country covered thousands of square miles. The task would be monumental.

He could reasonably eliminate the Mannix clan, where he and Xander spent most of their time, but that would be their only opportunity to narrow the field at this point. And hoards weren"t monitored, so there was no way to track any exchange of goods on the dragon side of this sinister equation.

Calla grabbed his hand as he walked past her again. He froze and looked at her little fingers clasped around his big hand. His body responded to her touch as if it were a caress.

"If these arrangements are decades in the making, there has to be evidence out there, right?" Calla stared into his eyes, begging him to agree with her.

"The best option is for us to follow the human side. Look at Quick and see what we can find," he said as he squeezed her hand. A relieved smile broke over her face.

"Okay, what"s our plan?"

"Our plan is for you to sit back and pretend you don"t suspect anything," Kolz said. "I"ll make some inquiries."

OurShe couldn"t be involved in the investigation. It was too risky. He wouldn"t let anything happen to her, not when she"d finally come to them. It had to mean she was drawn to them, just like they were drawn to her. Just like a true mate would be.

And protecting his mate would always be his first priority.