Page 1 of Desired By the Dragon

Chapter One

Kiernan

Bad men. Bad habits. Bad decisions.

If I had a dollar for every man who’d screwed me over, I’d be almost as rich as my parents. Almost.

And yet, did I ever learn? Nope. Though, to be fair, the protective instincts that all dragons had did make me particularly susceptible to bullshit when it came to the ones I loved. Or maybe I was just kidding myself and gullible really was my middle name.

The clanging of the jail cell door as another detainee was released made me flinch. My head was pounding, my mouth was dry, and, maybe worst of all, I had a broken heart. Well, kind of — I was more pissed than anything else, and working very hard to contain it. The last thing I needed in this situation was to shift into a three-hundred-and-fifty-pound dragon and bring the building down on all of our heads.

My throat ached and I ducked my head, resting my face in my palms as I discreetly burped smoke. Who knew how long I’d be stuck here for? It had already been almost a full day since I’d been arrested. Derek certainly wasn’t coming to bail me out, considering he was the reason I was here in the first place. The perfect scapegoat for his gang’s heist.

Charming in a skeevy kind of way, Derek was just the latest in a long string of bad boyfriends. Though, it was the first time that one of my boyfriends had landed me in jail.

Okay, the second.

…Three times, tops.

But I’d really thought this one would be different. That was my problem, really. Every time it ended in heartbreak, and every time I told myself that next time will be nothing like the last. That I’ll toughen up, not wear my heart on my sleeve.

Well, this time, it really would be different. And when I next saw Derek⁠—

A long stream of smoke poured out from between my fingers and I wafted it away quickly, glancing around at my other two holding-mates. One of them was passed out, snoring loudly, the smell of cheap tequila almost suffocating for my sensitive senses, and the other had his wide back to me and his face pressed between the metal bars separating us from the cop’s bullpen.

“Hey,” he said suddenly and I glanced up as footsteps approached. “Hey, hey! I’m next. Get me the hell out of here.”

The dour-faced cop who’d approached reached out and prodded the guy away from the bars with one end of a baton, while consulting a clipboard in his other hand. “Iron.”

I stood instinctively at the sound of my human-abbreviated last name, even as my brows rose. “Someone paid my bail?”

The clanking creak of the door opening had never sounded so sweet. “It’s been taken care of.”

Ominous. Had Derek come back for me? Was this all just part of the plan? My shoulders eased and my breaths cooled as guilt stabbed at me. Had I judged him too soon? I had a tendency to spiral, and to run when things got a little too sticky, so it did sound like something I’d do.

I followed the cop as he led me out of the holding cell and down a long corridor, my thoughts swirling. Derek hadn’t set me up after all. He’d never intended for me to go down for the gang’s bank robbery. Relief made my lip wobble, so I bit it as we paused outside of a heavy-looking door. It swung open and the breath whooshed out of me.

“You can sit in here while we gather your belongings and process your paperwork.” The cop’s tone brokered no argument and I nodded stiffly, my anger returning with a vengeance.

The door closed softer than I expected and my hands curled and uncurled at my sides as I walked closer to the people waiting for me and collapsed onto the squishy armchair I’d been left, the first somewhat comfortable thing I’d sat in for almost twenty-four hours.

“Mom. Dad,” I said evenly, breaking the silence when it continued to drag on. “What the hell are you doing here?”

* * *

One of the things I hadn’t missed about my mom was her tendency to rant. For twenty minutes straight, in fact.

“So of course we have an alert set-up, because flame-forbid our daughter keeps in touch and lets us know when she’s in trouble! Bellamy received the notification that your name had been entered into the system again and we flew out.” Unlike humans, I knew they didn’t mean on a plane. “Really, Kiernan? This again?”

Lottie Ironclaw wasn’t accustomed to being interrupted, both due to her high rank amongst dragon society, and her wealth among the human. I found it was best to let her run out of steam before attempting to get a word in. And now, as she stood breathing heavily with her eyes glowing an intense amber, I figured it was my best chance.

“Look, thanks for flying out here, but I didn’t ask you to do that. I can take care of myself.”

Mistake. Mom’s nostrils flared and when she clamped her mouth shut, I knew it was so that she didn’t spew fire everywhere in the small breakout room. Luckily, her partner in crime was there to take over the shaming.

“Sweetheart, you’re our only daughter. Of course you can take care of yourself, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help you too. Or did you have someone else coming to pay your bail?” Dad patted Mom’s hand gently as he kept his eyes on me. He was probably the only person who could calm her down when she got herself wound up like this. Dragons were hot-headed creatures, pun intended, and the Ironclaw clan were no exception to this rule.

“Thanks,” I muttered, knowing the bail had likely been astronomical thanks to the crime being a bank robbery. It wasn’t exactly petty theft, though I’d been entirely innocent. Well, ninety-percent, anyway.