The corner of her mouth ticked up. “Even though I like to give dragon cuddles?”
He chuckled. “Yes, despite that.” Moving his hand from her hair to her cheek, he added, “Just be careful, Janey. You are strong, confident, and clever, but you’re human. It’s not a bad thing, I rather love you for it, but you don’t heal as fast as a dragon-shifter, nor do you have the option to shift to better protect yourself.”
She nodded. “I know, but I like to think I’ve come a long way from going undercover in that pub in Newcastle.”
Jane had worn a tight dress, too much makeup, and a wig. She’d gone into a pub to try to win the trust of some dragon hunters. The incident had ended with Kai being shot and both of them being flown back to Stonefire gripped in Nikki’s talons.
Never again did he want to see a worthless piece-of-shit hunter putting a hand on his female.
His dragon spoke up. Let them try. They’ll learn their lesson soon enough.
Ignoring his beast, Kai pulled Jane up against his body. “You’re maybe a tad bit better.” He kissed her ear. “But don’t ever completely change who you are for anyone, Jane, not even me.”
She gave him a quick kiss. “Good, because I’m going to need all of this backbone and stubbornness to deal with my brother.”
“Your bloody brother,” Kai muttered.
“Oh, you like him well enough when you two team up against me.”
Kai grunted. “Sometimes. Let’s go tell Nikki the news. I’ll draw her into another room once I announce, then you can deal with Rafe. Nikki doesn’t need the stress of another row.”
Jane rolled her eyes. “I’m going to resist commenting on that.”
His dragon spoke up. Coward.
I’m not a coward. It’s a matter of efficiency to divide up the tasks.
Tell yourself that. At least we know Delia should still be safe since she left a message yesterday.
Let’s hope so. If something had been wrong, Mum would’ve heard it in Delia’s voice.
His beast stood tall inside his mind. Don’t worry, we’re better than the Welsh Protectors. They probably overlooked something. We’ll find her.
He took comfort from his beast’s words. I won’t stop until we do.
His dragon fell silent, and Kai took comfort from Jane’s presence. He patted his mate’s arse. “Good. Then let’s go. The sooner we talk to Nikki, the sooner we can leave.”
Despite the hurry, Kai kept his arm around Jane’s waist as they walked briskly to Nikki and Rafe’s cottage. Since his rather tall human was only two inches shorter than him, she didn’t struggle to keep up.
As they made their way, he remembered something. With e
verything Bram had told him, Kai had temporarily forgotten about Jane’s big launch. “I’m sorry we had to ruin your big day, Janey. I hope any new viewers will understand you missing the scheduled Q&A session this evening.”
She smiled up at him. “It’s okay. Gina will post an announcement.”
Gina MacDonald-MacKenzie was mated to a Scottish dragon-shifter and had been helping Jane with marketing and publicity. “So you had a backup plan in place?”
“Of course. Given how much Stonefire is a target these days, I had to be prepared.”
“My clever mate.”
She shrugged. “A certain male dragon-shifter likes to say how much preparation is key to success.”
He couldn’t help but murmur, “So you were listening.”
Jane snorted and lightly slapped his side. “That is a conversation we can have later.” Her face sobered. “As much as I look forward to this new chapter in my life, the strangers can wait. Delia is family. Besides, while I’d never wish for your sister to be in harm’s way, this mission will at least keep me distracted.”
“Mission, huh?”