In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,10

spoken to Blede since the team leader had announced his decision to create a memorial for Prate, a custom antithetical to the dragons, who did not make much of a passing. The two had come to blows over the matter, in fact.

This, however, was different. If there was one thing dragons did understand, it was justice. And justice for Prate’s killer was something Rakell would accept. He texted back one solitary word.

Yes.

Then he marched into the sitting room where the two women were chatting animatedly.

“Sam,” he said quietly, addressing the woman he had just met. “I must ask a large favor of you.”

The short woman—even shorter than Laura, which was tough to achieve—glanced at him suspiciously. “Which is?”

“I must attend to something that I unfortunately must put first. I will only be gone a short while. Will you stay with Laura until I return? I should be back tomorrow. So you will have to stay overnight.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Laura started to say.

At the same time, Sam cocked her head to the side, and nodded. “I’ll stay,” she said with the same solemnness that Rakell had presented to her. “But I can’t stay overnight. I have to go in to work. I can stay the rest of the day though.”

Rakell chewed on that for a moment. He knew, especially if Blede had located the men who had tried to take Laura, that she was safe. Nothing was going to happen to her. But he still wished that someone would be there through the night. He didn’t want Laura to be alone.

“I’ll be fine,” Laura repeated. “Sam will stay the rest of the day, until she has to leave for work. You come back tomorrow, do your bodyguard shtick for a day. Then you can go back to your life. I can go back to mine. Everyone will be happy.”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t mind. I can come back in the morning too, that’s fine. Heck, I can come back after work, how’s that? It’ll be late, around midnight or one, but I can make it.”

Laura nodded, and looked up at Rakell.

He knew he didn’t have another other choice. This was the best option he was going to get on short notice.

Rakell nodded once. “Thank you. I…appreciate it more than you know. If I could find a way to do both, I would, but this is time sensitive.”

And justice must be meted out.

“I’ll be back,” he said, fixing his gaze on Laura now. “Stay with Sam.”

“Oh for the love of—I’m fine, you two,” Laura said, crossing her arms, pouting at being ganged up on.

“Do you have wine?” Sam asked.

Laura perked up immediately. “Why yes, yes I do. Are you suggesting a wine day? That sounds like the perfect way to ease my nerves.”

“I’ll have to stay sober enough to walk to work and, you know, work,” Sam said. “But I can get you drunk! And join in when I’m back.”

Laura nodded. “Sounds good to me!”

Rakell nodded, and gathered his things. The two women would be okay.

As long as he didn’t take too long.

He suspected they didn’t have enough wine.

Not my concern right now. I need to focus on Blede, and Prate’s killer.

He needed to focus on getting ready for a fight.

Chapter Seven

Laura

“Okay, Laura, there’s something I’ve been dying to ask all day, but I just haven’t had the guts yet,” Sam said, abruptly changing the topic as they settled in to the couch after a late lunch, wine in hand.

“Go for it,” she said, gesturing with her free hand. “Ask away. What is it?”

She’d only met Sam casually, during one of her early meetings with Kristin, and so the two hadn’t exactly talked much. But an afternoon of hanging out later, and Laura had been beyond grateful to have met Sam. What a wonderful human being.

“Who is Rakell? What is with the whole ‘will you stay with her’ thing?”

Laura sighed. “Rakell is…friends with Blede.”

“I know him. That’s Kristin’s new man,” Sam said, naming her roommate and best friend.

Laura shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose so. They’re from the same extended family.”

She wasn’t about to tell Sam about the dragon clans. That wasn’t her secret to share. Laura didn’t like having to lie, but she would respect the dragons’ privacy as she had done for twenty years now, ever since she found out the truth of the families on the mountain.

“Okay, but why is he here, with you? Acting like he’s guarding you.”

Laura took a sip of wine, the dry sweet liquid making