“The tattooed man jumped up and tackled me,” Lucas went on. “We began fighting. I realized immediately that he was a shifter too— he was far stronger than any human could be. We were struggling together, and then he shouted, ‘Roll!’ I don’t know why I didn’t think it was a trick, but I didn’t. We both rolled to the side, and a bullet struck where we had been. The man with the briefcase was firing a gun at us— at both of us.”
“But you’d rescued him,” Journey said, perplexed.
“I too was confused,” Lucas admitted. “I let go of the tattooed man and tried to disarm the man with the gun. So did the tattooed man. The gun was knocked across the alley. Then the man who had been shooting at us became a leopard and jumped for the tattooed man’s throat.”
“What!”
“And the tattooed man became a wolf.” Lucas seemed to be enjoying Journey’s surprise. “By then I had no idea who was the hero and who was the villain. I wasn’t sure who I should help, so I tried to get between them and stop them from killing each other. Then I heard sirens. Both the shifters turned back into men. The police arrived, along with a very big man in plain clothes. The police arrested the man with the briefcase. He had been conducting industrial espionage, and the briefcase contained stolen documents. I told the police I had seen fighting and had tried to intervene. Of course I didn’t mention the shifting.”
“So what was going on?” Journey asked, fascinated. “Was the werewolf an undercover cop?”
“No, he was private security. Once the police were gone, he turned to the big man and said— excuse the profanity— ‘That motherfucking wannabe hero’s a shifter! He’s the one who broke my fucking nose!’ And then he explained what had happened, in similarly colorful language.”
Journey giggled as Lucas went on, “And the big man offered his hand to me, and said, ‘I’m Hal Brennan, and this is Nick Mackenzie. I run an all-shifter private security company called Protection, Inc. Are you looking for a job, by any chance?”
“And you took it?” Journey asked.
“I hadn’t intended to. But the wolf shifter said, ‘You’re not going to put that arrogant prick on the team!’ I didn’t like his tone. So I couldn’t resist taunting him by asking Hal to tell me more about the job. The more he said, the more intriguing it sounded.” Lucas shrugged. “I suppose I was tired of traveling and wanted a rest. I thought I’d try it for a month or two. But I’ve— I had been working at Protection, Inc. for six months. It was... difficult to leave.”
“So you’re a bodyguard?” Journey asked, delighted.
“We do other jobs as well. But yes.”
“It suits you.” Journey once again saw him placing his body between her and six assassins, his sword gleaming in the moonlight. “Do you like it better than being a prince?”
“Yes.” Lucas wrapped his arms close around her. “And most of all, I would like to protect you.”
“Why do I need protection?” It had been nagging at her mind all along. “I’m a nobody— just another backpacker. But you said at the river that those assassins were after me.”
“Because...” Lucas took a deep breath. The sunlight glittered in his topaz eyes. “Journey, this may be hard for you to believe.”
“Harder than dragons?”
“Perhaps.” His serious tone made her stomach clench nervously. “Raluca and I swore a vow of honor to marry. Our marriage would seal treaties between her country and mine. If we do not marry, those treaties will be void. Many people stand to gain power or wealth by those treaties, and so have a strong vested interest in our marriage.”
Journey couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have her most personal choices have such huge repercussions. “If I knew that any date I went on might affect my entire country, I’d probably never date at all. Except that would affect my country too. You must be under so much pressure.”
The delicate skin of Lucas’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, rougher, as if he’d started to choke up. “You’re the first person who’s ever cared about that.”
He cleared his throat and went on, “However, I have a way out. The agreement said that if Raluca or I found our mate, the arrangement is off.”
“What’s a mate?” Journey asked.
Lucas’s voice dropped again, but this time she could hear that it was from passion. “My mate is the love of my life. She’s the woman I saw across a crowded room, and knew she was meant for me. Journey— it’s you. You’re my mate. You’re the woman I’ll love and protect forever, if you’ll have me.”
She looked deep into his amber eyes, and saw nothing but sincerity and love. Journey’s heart felt filled to the brim with joy, hot and sweet as dragonfire. She was too moved to speak.
He went on, “I know you’ve been lied to before. I don’t know how to convince you that I’m not another charming con man. I—”
“No!” Journey twisted around in his arms until she was sitting on his lap and facing him. She cupped his face in her hands, feeling the strong lines of his jaw and the rough stubble coming up on his cheeks. “Lucas, I know you’re honest and honorable and everything you say you are. I love you too. I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I just thought love at first sight was one of those impossible things that I was stupid to believe in.”
“Like dragons?”
“Like dragons.” She tugged his collar aside to trace the pattern of his dragonmarks.
Lucas reached out to her. His rings glittered in the sun as if he held fire in his hands. Then he put his palms on the back of her head and drew her into him.
At the first touch of his lips to hers, Journey’s blood c