of intelligence.
“Yes, Karen,” she said, the words dripping with sarcasm. “We’re still friends.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Karen gushed, rushing forward to wrap Gayle up in a hug.
It was a close thing. A very close thing. Gayle’s temper erupted like a volcano blowing its top. She could feel the steam coming from her ears as Karen squeezed her tight. The explosion should follow. It wouldn’t be hard. Take Karen to the ground and use her weight to overpower the taller woman.
Images of just that sort of situation ran through her head but, in reality, nothing happened. Gayle stood rooted to the spot, letting herself be hugged.
“We’ll get out of your hair,” Karen said, pulling back with a smile. “We’ve got reservations at Climbers anyway, and we don’t want to take up more of your time.”
Gayle stared daggers at their backs as they bustled out of her house, hand in hand, talking excitedly to one another.
“Unbelievable,” she said as the door closed. “I haven’t been dumped. I’ve been fucking exchanged.”
Karen was literally just taking Gayle’s spot in Mikey’s life. Going out to Climbers on a Friday night had been their thing, and now the two of them were doing it, as if nothing had changed?
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gayle said.
She almost fell back into the couch—at what point had she stood up? She couldn’t remember—but another thought came over her first.
“I need a drink.”
Chapter Four
Rann
The smell of singed hair and scales was stuck in his nose.
It would be there until at least the next day. A shower and new clothes wouldn’t fix it, not right away at least.
A beer, on the other hand, tasted good regardless of the smell lodged in his sinuses. Which is why Rann, along with the rest of the team, was gathered at the Dragon’s Eye Pub, the dragon bar in Five Peaks.
Not that anyone but a select few locals knew that the majority of the male patrons were actual dragon shifters. Despite the announcement several weeks back that had revealed dragons to the public, many of them still preferred to keep a low profile, hiding away from the public spotlight.
Rann was one of those. Perhaps it was a lifetime of having secrecy ingrained into him, being terrified of what would happen if someone discovered what he truly was. Or perhaps it was the desire to avoid being mobbed by quite literally thousands of people if they found out.
He’d been out to the tent cities that had arisen on the outskirts of Five Peaks, where the eager lovers—and haters—of the dragon shifters had come in hopes of seeing a glimpse of a dragon in the sky. The little mountain town had done well to keep the people outside its borders—except during the daytime when they could come patronize the various stores and shops—because nobody wanted those endless rows of tents taking up all the space in town.
Instead, several farmers had leased their fields to the town temporarily, and the masses had descended on Five Peaks.
Rann hunched lower over his beer. He liked living out of the spotlight, and the Dragon’s Eye was the perfect place to relax, and simply de-stress after the evening’s events. The bar owner was mated to a dragon from another clan, and thus would stay open as late as necessary while the strike team recovered their wits and also their pride.
It was mostly the latter which was still in low availability. None of them had died in the explosion—a fiery ball of heat wasn’t really much of a worry for the dragons, especially the fire dragons on the team. It had burnt clothing, singed eyebrows, even taken a piece of Rann’s long shaggy hair and curled it up in blackened ends, but nobody had been harmed.
They just smelled of smoke, even after a quick shower. They were also dejected.
“I still can’t believe it,” Jacen said, downing half his beer in one gulp.
“We walked into that one hook, line, and sinker,” Kladd agreed.
There was a rustling at the table as several of the others squirmed in their seats. They didn’t quite look at Rann, but he knew what they were thinking. It had been his informant, the information provided to him, that had led the team into the building in the first place.
“He’s been reliable enough until now,” Rann said, addressing the unspoken question. “But I will find him and figure out just how much my informant knew about tonight’s activities.”
Kladd eyed him for a long moment then nodded, but Rann didn’t feel like