Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedications

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Mailing list/newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, website, contact Carole, leave a review on ebook site

  About The Author

  Other books by Carole Mortimer

  Dragon Hearts 6

  GARRETT

  By

  Carole Mortimer

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2018 Carole Mortimer

  Cover Design Copyright © Glass Slipper Designs

  Editor: Linda Ingmanson

  Formatter: Matthew Mortimer

  ISBN: 978-1-910597-65-1

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved.

  DEDICATIONS

  My Wonderful Family

  Chapter 1

  Billie hadn’t realized until today there could be anything worse than making an enemy of both the Russian bratva and Romanian Mafia.

  Now she definitely knew there was.

  Someone, or something, much worse, she acknowledged with a wince as she ran tentative fingers down the sore and bloody gouges on her neck.

  Although quite what Grigor Pendragon was, she hadn’t yet decided.

  One minute, she had been standing in the cavernous hallway of Pendragon Castle in Wales owned by the eight Pendragon brothers, being accused of trying to kill the woman Grigor had apparently now claimed as his own, and the next, she was dangling off the ground and pinned to the rock-hewn wall with what felt like talons about her throat. The jiujitsu training she’d taken at university as one of her extracurricular activities had been of absolutely no use whatsoever in the face of all that leashed strength. Grigor’s face hadn’t looked completely human either as he growled threats at her, and his dark eyes had become…had seemed to glow a deep and dangerous red.

  Which was probably why everything had turned black and Billie had passed out.

  She had to have been hallucinating, of course. Possibly because of the weeks and months of stress she’d been living under as she tried to navigate her way through the intricacies of the Romanian and Russian London Mafia without getting herself killed by one of them.

  Which was ironic, because she was now being driven back to London by two goons who worked for Gregori Markovic, the Russian who ruled the city’s underworld with an iron fist. That iron fist belonged to his second-in-command Nikolai Volkov.

  Much like those talons had belonged to Grigor Pendragon.

  But they couldn’t have been real talons on the ends of his fingers. Nor could she have seen his too-handsome face contort into something not quite human. Or his eyes glow that eerie red. Those were the things of the darkest fairy tales. Or nightmares.

  Which was pretty much what Billie’s life had become these past few months.

  She—

  Billie looked up as one of the men seated in the front of the vehicle let out a warning shout before she was suddenly thrown sideways as the SUV turned sharply to the right. “What the—” She didn’t have time to say anything else as she was jerked forward but held secure by the fastened seat belt. All she could do was gape helplessly out the front windscreen as they veered past a dark shadow on the road in front of them before the vehicle hurtled toward the forest illuminated by the headlights.

  Once again, she was thrown forward and then back as the SUV made a violent impact into one of the trees, accompanied by the sound of metal crunching and glass shattering. The engine ceased, the silence that followed seeming almost eerie after all that chaotic activity and noise.

  Billie gave a shake of her head to clear it before doing a mental inventory of her body for any injuries. Any more injuries, because those deep scratches on her neck weren’t going anywhere soon. She would probably also have bruises later from the seat belt pulling tightly across her shoulder and chest, even if she did otherwise seem unharmed.

  The two men in the front of the vehicle didn’t seem to have fared so well. Both of them were slumped forward and unconscious over the airbags that had inflated on impact. She could hear they were both still breathing, though, so they had probably only been knocked out by the impact and airbags.

  Which meant this was the ideal time for Billie to escape and make her way back to—

  She gasped as the door beside her was suddenly wrenched open, cringing back in her seat as dimmed light from the still—amazingly—functioning headlights revealed the dark shadow of a huge man standing outside.

  Possibly the same huge man who had been standing in the middle of the road and caused the accident when the driver veered to avoid him.

  “Are you hurt?” he demanded.

  “Only bruised.” Her response was cautious as this man exuded an air of leashed power, along with the delicious aroma of spices and an insidious male musk.

  Maybe she had hit her head when the vehicle crashed, because this really wasn’t the time or place for her to be noticing anything about a man whose features she couldn’t even make out in the darkness.

  “Come on, then, let’s go,” he instructed impatiently. He reached inside the vehicle with the obvious intention of releasing her seat belt.

  Billie leaned away rather than toward him and effectively blocked him getting anywhere near unlocking her seat belt. “Who are you? And what were you doing standing in the middle of the road?”

  The man stilled. “You saw that?”

  “Well, of course I saw that,” she snapped, too shaken still to be feeling in the least polite.

  “What did you see? Not that it really matters, because you’ll be seeing it again in a few seconds,” he added with enigmatic dismissal.

  “See what again? And what do you mean, let’s go?” Her voice rose in her agitation. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t even know you.”

  “Don’t worry, you very soon will.”

  “Why does that sound like a threat?” she broached warily.

  “Look—”

  “Get the fuck away from me!” Billie warned as he leaned forward again. This man really was huge. Not only in the width of his shoulders and body, but he was also well over six feet tall and, as her Irish grandfather would once have put it, built like a brick shithouse. A disturbing combination when aligned with that heady male musk.

  The man—tank?—had long hair, possibly blond but definitely a lighter color, that grew down to those incredibly broad shoulders. Not that it particularly mattered what he looked like; she wasn’t jumping from the bloody frying pan into the fire by going off with some man she was pretty sure she had never met before and who could probably break her in half with one hand.

  He straightened in the doorway. “The way I see it, you have two choices. You can either come with me now, or you can sit here and wait for Volkov to come back from the castle. After which, you and he will continue with the drive back to London, where you will face the wrath of Gregori Markovic.”

  Nikolai Volkov. Known in the London underworld as The Wolf. He was aptly named; it was rumored that Volkov could hunt down anyone and anything for his Russian Mafia boss. Volkov had been hunting Billie on th
e other man’s behalf for weeks.

  She had stolen money from Gregori Markovic. Not for herself, but on behalf of someone else. Not that anyone was interested in hearing why she had done what she had.

  “Who are you?” she demanded. Whoever this man was, he knew altogether too much about her for him to be the complete stranger she had taken him for.

  “Garrett Pendragon.”

  Billie tensed. “One of Grigor Pendragon’s brothers?”

  There was a flash of white in the darkness as the man grinned at her continued wariness. “Yes.”

  “Oh shit,” she exhaled weakly. “Are you here to finish what he started earlier?” She was right—if this man looked anything like his brother, then he was a tank!

  “Absolutely not.” His voice grated with anger as his good humor evaporated. “And I’ll be having words with my big brother later in regard to his having dared to put his hands on you, let alone hurt you.”

  Her brows shot up. “You will?”

  “I will,” he confirmed grimly. “Although I can’t say I’m too thrilled either at the idea of your having watched the castle these past few days with the idea of harming Gayle.”

  “I was not trying to harm Gayle,” she protested indignantly.

  “I think intending to kill her under instruction from the head of the Romanian Mafia could be classified as wanting to harm her,” he disagreed.

  “I wasn’t going to hurt her,” she insisted.

  “Then why are you here?”

  “Because… I’m not willing to discuss this with you any further,” Billie mumbled.

  He shrugged. “Maybe not right now, because we’re a little short of time. But we will discuss it at a later date,” he added firmly. “If only so that I can get my Neanderthal brother off our backs.”

  She frowned. “You don’t look anything like Grigor.” Definitely in their excessive height and build, but she was pretty sure their coloring was completely different.

  “Different mothers,” he dismissed. “You probably don’t remember, but I was at the castle earlier.”

  Billie had been aware of a lot of other people standing about the entrance hall at Pendragon Castle, several of them big enough to be more of the Pendragon brothers. But none of them had stayed in her memory once Grigor had attacked her. That was one scary man. And this man claimed to be one of his seven brothers.

  “Are you coming with me, or do you want to wait for these two to wake up?” Garrett added, one of those men giving a groan as he began to regain consciousness. “After which, he will give you back to Volkov.”

  Billie released the seat belt. “Where do you intend taking me?”

  “Somewhere none of these idiots can reach you.” He stepped back to allow her to climb out of the SUV.

  Caution still held her back. “Why are you helping me at all?”

  “I’ll explain later. We need to go now,” he added urgently, head tilted back as he seemed to sniff the air.

  Sniff the air?

  What the hell was that about?

  Billie’s legs felt a little shaky once she stood on the road, but considering she could now see the front of the vehicle was completely smashed in, she was lucky to have gotten off so lightly regarding injuries. “Where’s your car?” There didn’t seem to be another vehicle in sight.

  “I don’t need one.” He swept her up into his arms. “This is the point where you’re going to see the obstacle in the road again.”

  “What…?”

  “Hold on tightly to me,” he advised seconds before his arms and body began to shimmer and change.

  Change?

  What the hell…?

  Garrett was grateful for the thick leather of his dragon’s skin as Sybil Rider’s fingernails dug into what had been his forearms but were now the front legs of his twenty-foot-tall dark metallic-gray dragon.

  She gasped. “Oh God… What are you? Put me down,” she ordered, beating her fists on his barrel chest when her struggle to free herself proved futile.

  “Calm down,” he soothed in his compelling dragon voice.

  “Calm down? Calm down?” Her voice grew shriller. “Oh my God, did a dragon just talk to me? I’m not… This is… I can’t… It’s finally happened. I’ve gone completely insane!” The last words came out as a weak groan as she collapsed in his arms, her head rolling against what had once been his human shoulder but was now the even more muscular top of one of his dragon’s front legs.

  Garrett hadn’t intended to scare Sybil so much that she fainted, but time really was of the essence. He had to get her away from here, out of Wales completely, before Volkov or any of his brothers realized she was no longer on her way back to London.

  Or that Garrett was the one who had taken her.

  Because after sixteen hundred years of being alone, with only his seven dragon shifter brothers for company, no one, absolutely no one, was taking Garrett’s fated mate away from him now that he’d found her.

  Chapter 2

  Garrett couldn’t stop staring at his fated mate as she lay unconscious on the bed where he had placed her as soon as they arrived two nights ago. She was utterly beautiful.

  He had changed back to human as soon as they arrived, and gotten the generator going once his arms were free, and then proceeded to sit beside his mate as he waited for her to wake up. He’d been concerned at first when she didn’t wake, wondered if she’d been hurt in the crash after all, but after gently examining her for broken bones, he’d realized she was just exhausted.

  After twenty-four hours of staring at her, he knew every feature.

  Her blonde hair was like spun silk, completely straight and falling to just below her shoulders. He knew from yesterday that her eyes weren’t just blue but a deep shade of indigo. Her face was pale, the skin smooth and unblemished. Her nose was small and pert, and her lips… God, her lips were every man’s wet dream, very full and a deep shade of pink. Made for kissing and other, more sensual things that made Garrett’s cock go hard.

  As for her body… Standing at five or six inches over five feet tall, Sybil’s slim but shapely body was shown to advantage in a fitted navy blue sweater and skintight black low-rider jeans. Her full breasts sat above a tiny waist before her hips flared out again. Her legs were slender and long enough for her to wrap them about his waist as he thrust inside her.

  And she smelled… God, she smelled delicious.

  Her insidious perfume of lilies and earthy female musk was one of the first things that had alerted Garrett at the castle earlier as to who and what this woman was to him.

  The second clue had been in how her voice sounded like sweet music to his ears. Even when she was telling him to get the fuck away from her, he acknowledged indulgently.

  More to the point, he hadn’t been able to compel her, which proved she was definitely his fated mate. The compulsion of a dragon shifter’s voice worked on everyone but other dragon shifters and their own fated mate.

  Sybil Rider was Garrett’s fated mate.

  Something he hadn’t thought he’d wanted until he’d seen her and heard her speak.

  Five of his brothers had recently found their own fated mates. Much to Garrett’s amusement, he’d watched both them and their mighty dragons fall victim to the mating heat and sexual lure of their beautiful mates. Human mates, when for centuries the brothers had all believed their mates, if they ever found them, would be female dragons. Which was unfortunate, because female dragons no longer existed.

  It was a belief they’d held until Nathaniel had fallen for Chloe, who was definitely human. Dylan, the scientist in the family, had done extensive tests on Chloe’s blood and discovered it had a trace of dragon DNA. The four human mates of Deryk, Dylan, Bryn, and Grigor had shown they possessed that same latent dragon DNA. No doubt Sybil’s would too.

  The woman on the bed gave a low groan, and her eyelids fluttered as she finally began to waken.

  Her nose twitched, although her eyes remained closed. “What is that strang
e smell?”

  “Well, I’m hoping it’s the hot spring rather than me!” Garrett gave a chuff of laughter.

  Those lids shot open, and Sybil stared at him blankly for several seconds before she sat up and scrambled to the top of the bed, clutching one of the pillows defensively in front of her.

  As if a pillow would be any defense against a dragon shifter!

  Her eyes were very dark against the pallor of her cheeks. “I thought you were part of a nightmare!”

  Garrett gave an unconcerned shrug. “Well, I’ve been called worse.”

  “You— What hot spring?” Her gaze moved wildly about their surroundings before settling back on Garrett. “Where the hell are we?”

  “A cave in Iceland.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s somewhere I can keep you safe.” Garrett had decided not to go to his own cave near Paris. Once his brothers realized he was the one who had taken Sybil, his cave would be the first place they looked for the two of them.

  All the Pendragon dragon shifter brothers had a cave, the one place they could go to when they needed to be alone. Which, after sixteen hundred years of existence, they often did.

  But Garrett considered his own cave was too obvious as a hiding place once his brothers started searching for them, as he knew they would, so he had opted to bring her to Nathaniel’s cave instead. It should give them a little breathing space, at least, until they decided what to do next.

  Garrett knew exactly what he wanted to do, but he already knew convincing Sybil to allow him to claim her as his mate would take some persuading on his part.

  “Iceland? But how did I—” Sybil’s lids opened so wide, the whites of her eyes showed about the iris. “You— You—” She moistened the dryness of her lips. “You changed.” Her gaze swept over him. “Into something—something— Did you become a dragon? God, I can’t believe I just said that.” She gave a shudder as she closed her eyes again.