“I tried. Now, hurry up.”
Clicking off his phone, he took another sip of coffee. With Nikki’s assignment out of the way, he only had about twenty-five more things to take care of in the next twenty-eight minutes. Melanie always badgered him about hiring an assistant, but Bram liked the work. However, dealing with Evie’s situation was going to take more time than he’d like and he might just have to find some help.
His dragon decided to poke his head out again. Show her around. Bond with her. She’s brave but still scared.
Deep down, Bram knew that too. If he took her as his mate, her whole life would turn upside down. He knew nothing of her family or friends, and getting them onto his land was a problem. He’d been trying for months to get the okay for Melanie’s parents and brother to visit, but the British government was being cranky and bureaucratic about the law. Humans weren’t supposed to visit, end of story.
Maybe Evie could help us find a way.
His dragon had a point. To placate the beast, he said, Okay, I’ll ask her later. For now, I need to work. Go back to sleep. You need to be alert when Finlay Stewart is here. I need your intuition.
In response, his dragon hummed and faded to the back of his mind.
Right. Now, he could put things into play without any interruptions. If the meeting went well with Finn, he should start having regular teleconference meetings with the other leader within the next month or two to strategize against the dragon hunters. And if so, he needed Arabella to be ready to talk with the other leader about secure communication channels before Finn returned to Scotland.
He’d just finished sending an email to Arabella when there was a knock on the door that had to be Nikki. Not wasting time, he strode to the door and opened it. “She’s upstairs. There’s a pitcher in the kitchen you can fill with water and dump on her to wake her up. Get to it.”
Trained solder that she was, Nikki nodded and went about her task. It was only when he heard a shriek a few minutes later that he knew she’d succeeded.
And he couldn’t help but laugh. What would Evie look like all wet and angry in the morning?
Focus, Bram, focus. Right. Pushing aside his distracting thoughts about a wet, angry Evie, Bram went to work on his list of things to do. His clan came first, no matter how much he wanted to see what Evie looked like right this second.
~~~
Evie had been warm and enjoying a dream about flying on a dragon’s back when a blast of ice hit her face. She shrieked and jumped out of bed. Looking around, she saw a female with a dragon-shifter tattoo peeking out of the sleeve of her shirt. She was short for a dragon-shifter and she had black hair, dark almond eyes, and skin with a yellow undertone. She also had her arm in a sling.
She had no idea who this person was.
Evie growled. “Who the fuck are you and why the bloody hell did you feel the need to dump ice water on a sleeping woman?”
The dragonwoman arched an eyebrow. “My orders are to get you out of bed and out of the house in the next twenty minutes. It’s your own fault you sleep too soundly.”
She frowned. “Orders? Who...” Then it hit her. “Oh no, he bloody well didn’t.”
She moved to pass the dragonwoman, but she moved into Evie’s way. “Yelling at Bram won’t accomplish anything. Lochguard’s clan leader is on his way here and he has a lot on his plate. Don’t bother him.”
“Lochguard? As in the Scottish dragon-shifter clan?”
For a second, the dragonwoman’s brows drew together, and in that instant, she looked pale. “He didn’t tell you?”
Somehow, she had a feeling that telling her clan secrets was a big no-no. Evie would use that to her advantage later. “No. What’s your name?”
“Nikola. I’m your new guard.”
So, she still had a guard. She resisted a sigh as she wiped the water off her face with her sleeve. “Right, Nikola, here’s what we’re going to do. I need to learn the lay of the land here. Did Bram place restrictions on where I could go?” The dragonwoman shook her head and opened her mouth, but Evie cut her off. “You take me where I ask, and I won’t mention your slip-up. Does that sound like a deal?”
Nikola’s face turned fierce. “My orders come from Bram, not you. I always tell him the truth. Blackmailing me won’t work.”
Of course she’d be assigned a loyal guard. Still, she could be of some use. “I admire your spirit, so let’s try another approach. How about you ask Bram if I can go out today to explore since he refused to show me around? Promise me you’ll ask that, and really push for the decision, and I’ll jump into the shower without any more fuss.”
The dragonwoman hesitated, but finally nodded. “Fine. You have ten minutes to shower, so hurry up.”
Nikola left and Evie smiled. Her request might be simple, but she had an ulterior motive. As she moved toward the bathroom, she nabbed her clothes and starting humming. What had begun as a bloody awful way to wake up had turned into a way for her to not only search out the dragon-shifter doctor who could give her the answers she needed to maybe gain Bram’s trust, but she could also get under the bloody dragonman’s skin.
Yes, the dragonman was in for a surprise.
~~~