Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,45

good. “They made her into one of them. Which can only happen if the person is willing. If they want it.”

“How do you know?” she gasped.

“I saw them do it with my own eyes last night. I went looking, after I left your place.”

“But…why let a video of it get out then?” she asked, confused.

“To put fear into humanity, I think. To make us dragons appear weak and unable to protect you. And gather more support to the Church. It’s a sect within it that is helping the vampires.”

“And you… You said you were out hunting them. Is that what you do? Hunt vampires?”

Gayle shivered nervously. The landscape below helped remind her that the world was bigger than she could see at once, but that was a double-edged sword, it appeared. The world might be larger, but there were all sorts of nasty things that inhabited it as well.

“That’s a long story,” he said. “But in short, I do now, yes. Ever since the vampires came from their dimension to ours. That’s what our job is. That’s why dragons exist. To protect humans from creatures that come through.”

“So you’re going to find them and what, kill them?” she asked, unsure of the proper process for dealing with a vampire. Did they just dump them back through to their own dimension, wherever that was?

“Hopefully,” he growled. “But someone has been working against us. Even before the vampires. Trying to stop us from doing our jobs, to let things in that will attack humans.”

“What? Why would anyone want to do that?” she asked.

“I wish I knew,” Rann growled, his voice a promise of violence if he were ever to find the guilty party. “But I promise that no one will die if I am able to do anything about it. I would sacrifice myself first.”

Gayle shivered again.

She didn’t want him to do that. At all.

Because I’d miss you, Rann…

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rann

He landed in a clearing that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.

“I thought we were going up the mountain to meet your family?” Gayle asked from where she sat on his neck.

“Change of plans,” he said, not bothering to elaborate.

You don’t even know your own reasoning; that’s why you won’t tell her. You just changed course for no reason. You’re scared.

He was not scared! He was Rann, mighty fire dragon of Clan Atrox. He wasn’t scared of taking a woman back to his home! Why on earth should he be scared of something like that?

“Well, where are we then?” Gayle asked.

“Hang on,” he rumbled instead and shifted back into his human form.

Gayle ended up back on his neck. He carefully helped her down until she stood facing him. Her eyes watched his face. He waited. She frowned then looked down and rather quickly right back up to his face.

Her mouth twitched, and her cheeks went bright red.

“You’re, um, you’re naked,” she pointed out, though Rann already knew that.

“Perk of the job,” he said with a shrug, wondering where his sudden reticence was coming from. Why was he so unhappy all of a sudden?

“Rightttt,” Gayle said.

“I’m serious. This is quite normal for a shifter who has to change unexpectedly. The clothes don’t exactly survive the transition.”

Gayle snorted. “Uh-huh. Sure, sure. You just wanna strut around naked cause you look so good nude, don’t you?”

Rann lifted his eyebrows. “So you like the way I look without clothes, do you?”

Cheeks going cherry red, Gayle pouted at him and looked away. “I did not say that.”

They both knew she’d said exactly that. But Rann didn’t push it. He wasn’t feeling overly flirtatious at the moment.

Except you started it.

Confused at his own emotions, he turned and started walking out of the clearing without another word. It wasn’t that he was mad at her, but he was feeling troubled. Unsure. His confidence vanished, leaving him without a clue what to do next.

“Rann, where are we? Where are we going?” Gayle called, her footsteps loud in the silence of nature.

“Come on,” he growled, trying to hold down the bite in his voice. “Let’s get inside.”

Get hold of yourself. What is wrong with you?

“Inside?” Gayle said as she caught up to him, forced to walk faster than normal to keep pace. “In case you haven’t noticed Rann, there’s nothing here. Just forest. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Gayle was understandably getting frustrated with him—he was fast getting irritated at himself, so he didn’t blame her—and her reply had more than a bit of bark to it.

“What