Chapter One
Holly Anderson paid the taxi driver and turned toward the large stone and metal gates behind her. Looking up, she saw “Lochguard” spelled out in twisting metal, as well as some words written in a language she couldn’t read.
The strange words only reminded her of where she was standing—at the entrance to the Scottish dragon-shifter clan lands.
Taking a deep breath, Holly willed her stomach to settle. She’d signed up for this. In exchange for trying to conceive a dragon-shifter’s child, Clan Lochguard had given her a vial of dragon’s blood. The money from the sale of that dragon’s blood was funding her father’s experimental cancer treatments.
All she had to do was spend the next six months sleeping with a dragon-shifter. If she didn’t conceive, she could go home. If she did, then she would stay until the baby was born.
What was a minimum of six months of her life if it meant her father could live?
That’s if you don’t die giving birth to a half-dragon-shifter baby.
Readjusting the grip on her suitcase, Holly pushed aside the possibility. From everything she’d read, great scientific strides were being made when it came to the role dragon hormones played on a human’s body. If she were lucky, there might even be a way to prevent her from dying in nine to fifteen months’ time, depending on the date of conception.
This isn’t work. Stop thinking about conception dates and birthing babies. After all, she might luck out and never conceive at all.
Holly moved toward the front entrance and took in the view of the loch off to the side. The dull color of the lake’s surface was calm, with rugged hills and mountains framing it. Considering she was in the Scottish Highlands in November, she was just grateful that it wasn’t raining.
She wondered if it was raining back in Aberdeen.
Thinking of home and her father brought tears to her eyes. He was recovering well from his first course of cancer treatments, but her father’s health could decline at any moment. If only dragon’s blood could cure cancer, then she wouldn’t have to worry.
But since cancer was one of the illnesses dragon’s blood couldn’t cure, surely the Department of Dragon Affairs would grant her another few weeks to help take care of her father if she asked.
As the taxi backed down the drive, Holly turned around and flagged for the driver to come back. However, before she could barely raise a hand, a voice boomed from the right. “Lass, over here.”
She turned toward the voice and a tall, blond man waved her over with a smile.
Between his wind-tousled hair, twinkling eyes, and his grin, the man was gorgeous.
Not only that, he’d distracted her from doing something daft. If Holly ran away before finishing her contract, she’d end up in jail. And then who would take care of her father?
The man motioned again. “Come, lass. I won’t bite.”
When he winked, some of Holly’s nervousness faded. Despite the rumors of dragon-shifters being monsters, she’d followed the news stories over the last year and knew Lochguard was one of the good dragon clans. Rumors even said the Lochguard dragons and the local humans had once set up their own sacrifice system long before the British government had implemented one nationwide.
It was time to experience the dragon-shifters firsthand and learn the truth.
Pushing her shoulders back, Holly put on her take no-crap nurse expression and walked over to the dragonman. When she was close enough, she asked, “Who are you?”
The man grinned wider. “I’m glad to see you’re not afraid of me, lass. That makes all of this a lot easier.”
Before she could stop herself, Holly blurted, “Are you really a dragon-shifter?’
The dragonman laughed. “Aye, I am. I’m the clan leader, in fact. The name’s Finn. What’s yours?”
The easygoing man didn’t match the gruff picture she’d conjured up inside her head over the past few weeks.
Still, dragons liked strength, or so her Department of Dragon Affairs counselor had advised her. Her past decade spent as a maternity nurse would serve her well—if she could handle frantic fathers and mothers during labor, she could handle anything. “You’re not a very good clan leader if you don’t know my name.”
Finn chuckled. “I was trying to be polite, Holly.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Some say we’re monsters that eat bairns for breakfast. I was just trying to assure you we can be friendly.”