Raluca and Lucas were, in fact, very distantly related, though one had to go back seven generations to find the connection. But she didn’t think this strange, large American would care about that.
“I am a friend,” Raluca said. “Please give me his home address.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the man replied. She was both annoyed and impressed at the polite firmness of his tone; Uncle Constantine couldn’t have taught him better. “I’m Hal Brennan, and I run Protection, Inc. And you are...?”
He extended his hand just as she swept into a curtsey. Both of them hastily moved to correct their error. Raluca straightened up with a jerk and stuck out her hand, but she was stiff as a robot she’d once seen in a movie. Hal hesitated, then ducked his head and shoulders in a bow that vividly conveyed how embarrassed and awkward he felt to be bowing at all.
In the silence that followed, Raluca looked for a balcony from which to fling herself. Unfortunately, there was none.
Hal’s booming laugh shook the walls. “Well, that was a disaster. Let’s try again. This time, let’s forget about impressing each other. I’m Hal, Lucas’s boss. I’m a bear shifter —”
Shocked, Raluca interrupted, “You’d tell me that? You don’t even know who I am!”
Hal gestured at her right arm. She’d forgotten that the nightgown, which had straps rather than sleeves, exposed her glittering silver dragonmarks. “Lucas told me what those meant. So I know you’re a dragon shifter. Hey, are you his ex-fiancée?”
“We did not complete our engagement ceremony,” Raluca began. Then, catching some of Hal’s informality, she said, “That is to say, yes. I am Raluca, the princess — former princess — he was to marry.”
Hal’s grin broadened. “Pleased to meet you! Lucas told us all about you. I wish I could’ve seen you jump off the balcony. That must’ve been a sight to see. Why don’t you come inside?”
Raluca followed Hal into the lobby. She was immediately struck by one of the framed photos on the wall. It showed the palace of Brandusa at sunset, with a golden dragon soaring overhead. She stepped forward to get a closer look.
“Yeah, that’s Lucas,” Hal said. “I hope you didn’t come to America just to see him. He’s on an assignment in another country, deep undercover, and he’ll be gone for at least another week. In the meantime, is there anything I can help you with? Maybe find you a hotel?”
If it hadn’t been for her years of training, Raluca would have blushed. Forcing back the hot blood that threatened to color her face, she said, “Yes. A hotel recommendation would be greatly appreciated. But also... I need a bodyguard.”
“Oh!” Hal’s rugged features instantly shifted from amusement to wariness. His body language changed as well, subtly settling into a deceptive relaxation that Raluca knew meant he was ready to fight for his life. She had seen it before, watching the dragon princes train. “Hmm. Well, you’re safe for now. No one can break into Protection, Inc. But you can’t stay here forever. Could someone have followed you here?”
“Not directly,” Raluca said. “I looked behind me as I flew. But I was tracked down once already. And given that Lucas and I parted on good terms, this is a logical place to look for me.”
Hal seemed to appreciate her reasoning. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Why don’t you have a seat? I’ll make you some coffee and you can tell me all about it.”
Raluca seated herself in an armchair. It gave way pleasantly beneath her, neither too soft nor too hard. The entire office was more comfortable than it looked, warmed to a pleasant temperature rather than air-conditioned to chilliness.
While Hal went into another room, she examined the other photographs on the walls, all of beasts in their natural habitats. (The natural habitat of a dragon, of course, was a palace.) Lucas was the dragon, and Hal had said he was a bear shifter. One photo was of a bear at a river. Perhaps that was Hal in his shifted form. Probably all the bodyguards were shifters, and all the animals in the pictures were them.
Raluca examined them one by one. A tiger stalking through a lush green jungle. A pride of lions lounging on a savannah. A snow leopard leaping across an icy abyss. A panther lying in wait for its prey. A gray wolf with fierce green eyes, leader of a pack. Which would she want to protect her? They all looked equally strong; any of them would be more than a match for a human, or several humans.
Her gaze drifted down the line, then stopped at the wolf. There was something fascinating about him. At first glance, those eyes, deep as emeralds, were filled with ferocity. But as she looked longer, she thought she saw something else beneath the anger, something that echoed in her own heart.
Loneliness, hissed her dragon. Pain.
Why would he be lonely? Raluca silently asked. He has a pack.
Her dragon answered with a shrug, a rustle of wings. I do not know the why. I only see what I see.
Hal returned with a china cup of cappuccino, which he cradled with surprising delicacy in his enormous
hands.
“Are those your bodyguards?” Raluca asked, indicating the photos.
Hal nodded, handing her the cup. “Lucas didn’t tell you much, did he?”
Raluca’s gaze lowered to the coffee. It not only had foam, but a sprinkling of brown powder atop. She wondered if the office had servants, or if Hal had actually made the coffee himself. Perhaps he had, with the aid of a machine. She had seen such things in Europe.
“Our arrangement was a matter of honor, not love,” Raluca said. “Lucas told me as much as he felt comfortable revealing in the short time we had together.”
She was mildly irritated at the way Hal smiled every time she spoke. His expression was one of amused familiarity, as if she was some relative whom he met only at holidays but whose quirks he found charming rather than annoying. He should not find her familiar. They had only just met.