Brown, Berengaria - Dragons Redeemed [Dragon Lovers 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

Dragon Lovers 2

BERENGARIA BROWN

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Trudy had not enjoyed a sheltered childhood. She’d pretty much brought herself up while her mother worked eighteen or more hours a day, seven days a week, in a sweatshop, sewing clothes for two dollars an hour. She’d seen life on the streets in all its sordid detail and come to the conclusion that it wasn’t for her. She’d also decided by the age of twelve that sewing, prostitution, and crime weren’t careers she’d follow. At fifteen, she’d apprenticed herself to Larry, an elderly locksmith. The day she’d turned eighteen, he’d handed the business over to her and caught a plane to Florida where he planned to sit on the beach for the rest of his life.

But when she’d decided to hand-deliver her quotation for upgrading security at The Magic Dragon Museum, she’d thought she’d be speaking to Mallory, the manager and curator there, and possibly her boyfriend, Angus, who seemed a possessive kind of man. Trudy entered Mallory’s apartment via the roof garden to prove how useless the current security was. The last thing she expected to see was four completely naked men, three other men wearing only jeans, and a woman dressed in nothing but a baggy T-shirt, as well as Mallory and Angus.

Life on the streets had been eye-opening, and as a locksmith she’d had to rescue the occasional naked person who’d locked themselves out of their apartment, but nothing had prepared her for this.

“What the fuck is going on here? And why are so many of you naked?”

“They’re all dragon shape-shifters. This museum is their home,” said Mallory.

Trudy couldn’t see any evidence they’d been drinking, or doing drugs, but that sure didn’t sound logical to her. “Right. Okay. This is my quotation for the security. I’ll just leave it here and be on my way then.”

“Oh no you won’t. What if she’s working for Teivel?” One of the naked men, a very good-looking one with brown hair and eyes and a really long cock, grabbed her arm and pulled her against his chest.

An upbringing like hers had taught Trudy many skills other women didn’t have. She slid under his arm, twisted sideways, and rammed her knee into his balls, then stepped smartly out of his reach. “I own my own business and don’t work for anyone but myself, you pervert.”

The man was bent forward, holding his family jewels. Trudy was actually rather surprised he wasn’t curled up on the floor crying. He must be pretty tough. Or else she didn’t hit him hard enough.

Most of the people in the apartment were now talking at once. From what Trudy could understand, some of them didn’t want to tell her anything, and Mallory and the other woman were arguing she should be told the truth. Yeah, the truth would be great, but she could live without it. Right now it was time to go.

Trudy backed silently toward the door she’d entered by, but another one of the naked men, a redhead, was watching her. “Don’t sneak off. We won’t hurt you. If you come in and sit down, we’ll tell you why Mallory asked you to improve the locks here.”

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re naked? If this is supposed to be an orgy, where are all the other women?”

One of the men wearing only jeans and the woman who wasn’t Mallory were locked in a passionate embrace. Maybe it was an orgy.

“They’re naked because they just shifted from their dragon form. Go and put some clothes on, men.” Mallory spoke imperiously over the other voices and waved at a suitcase sitting against a wall that Trudy hadn’t noticed before. Trudy wasn’t very surprised when the naked men trailed over to the suitcase, dragged out some clothes, and put them on. One of the men wearing only jeans actually pulled on a T-shirt, and the other woman riffled through the bag, finally adding a pair of men’s shorts that hung down past her knees to the long shirt she was already wearing.

“This museum is a haven for dragon shape-shifters, hence the name, ‘The Magic Dragon Museum.’ They have to rest in statue form some of the time, and this is where they do that. But one of the new directors of the museum, Teivel, wants to use the shape-shifters to steal artworks from other museums. The plan is that our dragons will be hired out for exhibitions. Then they commit the perfect crime, stealing an artwork, giving it to Teivel, and shifting back into statue form. We aim to prevent him from doing this. The first step is to improve the security here, so no one can get in that we don’t want to come in.”

What Mallory had just said made a weird kind of sense to Trudy. But she’d met some pretty strange people on the streets, and none of them were shape-shifters—although a few may have thought they were when under the influence of something illegal. “I think we all agree the existing locks are useless. But shape-shifters I’m not so sure about. Why don’t you shapeshift right now for me,” said Trudy pointing at a blond man who’d stayed in the background up until now.

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Go on, Penllyn, do as the lady says,” said the redhead.

The blond dropped the jeans he still hadn’t zipped up, stepped in front of Trudy and—disappeared. She looked down at the floor, and there was a wooden statue, maybe two feet tall, solid-looking, and made of a pale wood with really pretty markings on it. Hesitantly, Trudy stepped forward a few inches, bent down, and picked him up. He was very heavy. When she turned him around and looked at his head, she could see the likeness to the blond in the shape of his face. She’d seen him do the trick, but it was still very hard to understand. “Do those wings work? Can you fly?”

“Of course they work, but not in statue form.” The voice was cross and raspy, and came from the man she’d kneed in the balls. Trudy hid a smile. It looked like she had hit him hard enough, he was just tougher than her previous assailants.

“You stay right where you are,” Trudy told the statue. “Now you,”—she pointed to the black-haired man with striking blue eyes—“why don’t you show me how you can fly.”

“You’re a feisty one to be sure. I’d like to see you in our bed someday soon,” he said. Then very deliberately, he lowered his jeans, stroking his cock as it came free.

Hadn’t any of these people heard of underwear? Although, to be fair, it was a very nice cock. Very nice indeed.

“Hurry up, Daegan,” said the redhead.

“Jealous, are you?” taunted Daegan, kicking his jeans off. He stood very still, and then he was gone. Automatically Trudy looked down at the floor, expecting to see another little statue there, only to have wings zip past her face as a dragon—a real dragon!—flew around her body and around her again and again.

“Okay, I’ve got the message. You can all turn into people again, but for Christ’s sake put some clothing on.”

Trudy walked over to the couch and sank down on it. This evening hadn’t gone at all as she’d been expecting. She’d thought she’d talk a little about the security systems that needed to be installed, maybe have a cup of coffee, and be all done in half an hour. But now her head was in a whirl and discussing security—how she earned her living—was on the backburner compared to discussing shape-shifting dragons. She was still at least a tiny bit convinced there must have been marijuana in the cookie she’d eaten that afternoon, and now she was tripping out. But then again, she didn’t think she could imagine four naked men, and dragon shape-shifters at that, even with a hallucinogen.

“It is a bit of a shock, but it’s surprising how soon you get used to the idea,” said Mallory, joining her on the couch.

“All I need to do is get the new security installed, and then I’m out of here,” said Trudy.

“Well, no, I’m afraid not. You’ve seen us and know our secret now. Besides, we think there’s a good chance you may be our mate, and we need to explore all the possibilities of that before we let you go,” said Daegan.

“No one decides when I come and go except me,” said Trudy fiercely, jumping to her feet.

“Watch out for her knee,” joked Angus.

“God yes. I still don’t know how that happened,” said the man with the bruised balls.

“People, people, calm down. Crevan, Daegan, Graegor, and Penllyn, sit down, and shut up. Jaydeline and Sinclair, tell Trudy your story.” That was Mallory being very assertive.

“Jay’s father established this museum after we fell in love, as a place where we could rest in safety. I was born a dragon shape-shifter, but Jay began as a human,” said Sinclair.

“For forty years, the system worked perfectly, and then Dad began to get old and forgetful. Teivel found out about us, and when Dad died, he stepped in as a director of the museum and is getting ready now to make us all into criminals,” added Jay.

Sinclair took over their story again. “More than that, he had the Celtic dragons block the portal so none of us could shift and escape or even plan how to stop him.”

“Actually, that’s something I don’t understand. Why did you help Teivel by blocking the portal?” asked the other black-haired man who was standing behind Mallory with his hands on her shoulders.”

“What’s your name, and why are you here?” Trudy interrupted. Then she pointed to the other man who’d only been wearing jeans when she’d arrived, saying, “And you, too.”

“Sorry. That’s Mark and William. They’re stone statues who are together with Angus and me.”

“Three of them?”

Mallory nodded. Trudy could feel her own eyes widening and her jaw dropping.

“My fierce little one, if you are our soul mate, you’ll be joining with the four of us,” said the man she’d kneed—Crevan.

“There must have been hash in that cookie. I’m seeing and hearing all this, but I’m not believing any of it,” Trudy muttered.

“There’s no need to rush Trudy into some kind of decision. First, we have to get the locks installed. Then the rest of you need to get clothing and start living as humans again. But we do need to know why you four agreed to help Teivel. Also, you must show us we can trust you not to go and tell him what’s happened the moment our back is turned.” That was Angus, being bossy, exactly the way Trudy remembered him from the first time she’d met him.

The four Celtic men looked at each other, and to Trudy it almost appeared as if they were communicating wordlessly. Finally Crevan, who seemed to be their leader, as Angus was the leader of the other group, spoke. “We come from a very small village. There’s only one industry there, and everyone is dependent on it one way or another. They either work for the company, or have a small store and their only customers work for the company, or so on. The company decided to sell out to an Asian firm who were going to close everything down and move it all offshore. The people in our village would all have had to go somewhere else to get work. Even those who have a little land. It’s poor land. You can’t live off it as a farm.”

The dark one, Daegan, took up the story. “We have assets, but nothing we could access and liquidate so very quickly. We could have helped our village but needed a few months’ warning first. This all happened in less than a week. Teivel promised to buy the company himself and keep it in our village, if we agreed to block the portal for him and tell him if any new shape-shifters arrived.”

The redhead, Graegor, shrugged. “It seemed a reasonable request. We were happy to think he was willing to help out. Of course, over the past two years, we’ve had plenty of time to realize he was the one who was buying the company all along, and he staged it deliberately to have us block the portal.”

“One of the reasons you got free so easily is we no longer were trying too hard to block it. Oak always holds the key to a portal, but we have to will it so as well.” Penllyn concluded the story.

“Do we have your solemn word you will no longer serve Teivel?” asked Angus fiercely.

The four men stood straight and tall. Each placed a hand on his heart. “I swear.”

“Good. So let’s plan how we’re going to defeat Teivel then,” said Mallory.

And Trudy found herself drawn into a long and detailed discussion about far more than security and locks, with four very good-looking men who kept sending her hot, sultry glances.

* * * *

“One of us will go home with you to protect you. My gut instinct is that Teivel already knows his portal isn’t secure anymore. With so many of us transforming again, I’d be surprised if he couldn’t tell the atmosphere has changed.”

His feisty little blonde just stared at Crevan then pointed to his crotch. “You, of all people here, should know I can take care of myself just fine.”

William and Mark both gave a crack of laughter. William tried to cover his up with a very unconvincing cough.