Mate For Hire: For Hire Series, #3

By Tressie Lockwood

Author's Note: This work is clean.

 

Gerard had a shifter mate who died years ago. Lachelle can deal with that. She's confident about the love she and Gerard share. Their relationship has never been better—until said mate shows up very much alive!

 

Kelly wants Gerard back, and she wants to take her rightful place as leader of the dragon shifters. What is Lachelle supposed to do when no one believes a dragon shifter can have a second mate?

 

Gerard has gone silent. Lachelle doesn't know if his love for Kelly has revived with her reappearance or if he still loves her. She doesn't know where she belongs or what she should do. Social unrest between dragons and humans is coming to a head.

 

Does a dragon go with their DNA, their gut, or their heart in the search for the truth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tressie Lockwood
• Release date: Jul 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393697145

Book preview

Chapter 1

M -mate? Lachelle kicked herself for stuttering. Her world tilted upside down and spun around. She had instant flashbacks of riding on the Merry-Go-Round as a child and hating every moment of it.

This woman, this paragon of feminine perfection, was the woman Gerard had pledged to marry when he was just eighteen years old? She was a shifter? Of course now that Gerard said it, the evidence stared her in the face. Silver eyes, she was tall, although not as tall as Gerard and the men of her species. Anyone could see the resemblance to the race of dragons.

When Lachelle’s commander had called her into the station to explain why she never reported a dragon coming to her rescue during an altercation, she thought contacting her sister for support was all she would need to do. No one told her this revelation was coming.

Not only did she have to face an entire station of fellow police officers with their hostile stares and insults over the fact that she introduced a nonhuman fiancé. She also had to deal with the humiliation and uncertainty of finding out another commanding officer was actually a dragon shifter and her man’s former fiancée.

How the heck does that work?

Mate? one of the men said with confusion in his tone. Wait, she says he’s her fiancé, and now he’s saying he’s married to someone else?

Lachelle wished the floor would open up and swallow the whole room of people, leaving her to her private misery. She wasn’t even sure what kind of expression to wear in the face of this mess.

Why don’t we all go somewhere private? Kelly turned to encompass Lachelle’s commanding officer, Gerard, her significant other—maybe—and his younger brother, Declan. Lachelle had the feeling Kelly didn’t much care whether Lachelle or her older sister Janessa joined them. Charles, we can use your office.

The officer didn’t move. He stared at Kelly. You’re one of them?

Would you like to have this conversation right here? she emphasized.

He capitulated and started toward his office. Lachelle didn’t move right away. She blinked in shock as Gerard walked off after Kelly, and every single shifter followed Declan.

Halfway across the station, Gerard stopped and turned back to look for her. She raised her chin and zipped past him. So he was forgetting about her existence already with the return of his childhood sweetheart?

Lachelle, Gerard said softly.

She ignored him and headed into her boss’s office to plunk down on a chair. Honestly, she should have waited until her boss invited her to sit, but her legs couldn’t hold her up much longer.

Gerard stood near her, but his entire focus was on Kelly. Lachelle couldn’t figure out what was on his mind by his expression. She never could. He was always somber and quiet. Today, even more so.

Kelly held the floor, folding arms under her breasts and accentuating them without even trying. Not that Gerard was focused there. The commander was a bit too worked up, but he seemed to remind himself that the beautiful woman standing before him wasn’t human. Every now and then, he cast her a look of disbelief. Lachelle figured he tried to put together the image of leggy Kelly Durante with the video circulating around the internet of a fire-breathing dragon.

This can’t happen, Charles muttered. He glared at Lachelle as if she invented the dragon shifters. You knew about them, Waverly, and you didn’t say anything. That makes you culpable.

With all due respect, sir, culpable for what? I didn’t hatch the dragons.

Watch your mouth!

Gerard growled deep in his throat, eyes going a stormy gray at Charles’ tone. He didn’t like when another man disrespected Lachelle. He barely held it together whenever she was upset, which forced her to control her emotions.

At Gerard’s growl, Kelly laughed and batted him on the nose. Lachelle expected her to say, Bad dog. Startled, Gerard quieted down.

As you can see, Kelly said, there’s such a thing as dragon shifters. We’re here, and we have been for a very long time. We’re not going anywhere, but you don’t have to worry. We don’t eat people.

Charles paled behind his smooth chocolate skin tone. He fell into his chair, eyes bulging.

Janessa spoke for the first time since they arrived at the station. She plunked her hand on her hip, sneering in disgust at Kelly. Lachelle loved her sister all the more because she could tell her big sister had already decided to dislike this blonde who thought she was hot stuff. "I want to know what Gerard is talking about when he called you his mate. Who the heck are you, other than a shifter I mean and a police officer?"

Pink stained Kelly’s cheeks. For a minute, Lachelle wondered if Janessa intimidated her. I’m not sure this is the time or place to talk about that.

Oh you’re going to talk about it, Janessa snapped. If I have to make you.

Baby, Declan warned.

She rounded on him. "What? You can’t tell me you aren’t curious. All this time, Gerard and Lachelle have been seeing each other, obviously getting serious, and here she comes?"

Lachelle’s temple throbbed. Just hours ago she and Gerard declared their love for each other. She hadn’t told her sister yet, but with the fact that she and Gerard had been living together, it was obvious to anyone who knew them they were an item.

Kelly walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds. Not until that moment did Lachelle realize the noise outside had increased—shouts, sirens, and someone saying something on a bullhorn. Did they think they had a hostage situation on their hands?

I have no problem talking about what happened during the civil war and afterward when Gerard and I ran away with a small group, Kelly said.

Gerard gasped, and so did his brother.

Charles frowned. Civil war? The civil war was in the eighteen hundreds. You don’t look older than twenty-five. You people live that long?

Kelly preened, flattered. I wasn’t talking about human history.

Lachelle stared at the man she loved. He was obviously struggling, and this time she recognized the emotion in his beautiful eyes—guilt. Her heart ached for him, but she hesitated to take his hand and offer him comfort. She’d never felt so insecure in her life, and she didn’t like it.

We need to get out of here, Declan said. My priority is to protect my people. If yours do something stupid, I won’t be responsible.

Charles slammed a fist on his desk. "Aren’t you the monsters?"

The hostility in the room jumped a hundredfold.

Now, now, boys, Kelly chided them all. Why don’t I calm things here, Gerard, Declan, and we can get together later to catch up?

Again she left out the humans in the room. Lachelle wanted to smack her.

Fine. Declan signaled to his men and then turned to Charles. Is there a back way out?

Back way? One of his men sounded highly offended, but at a look from Declan, he clicked his teeth together.

Charles led the way to the rear of the building, but when Lachelle would have gone on as well, he stopped her. Just a minute, Waverly.

She tensed. Sir?

He let the others step outside. Gerard stood near the door, keeping an eye on Charles. Her commander probably thought he was out of earshot, but the dragons had hearing that far exceeded human range.

I don’t want to do this… Charles began.

Her stomach muscles clenched.

Hand over your badge and your weapon.

S-sir?

I’m sorry. Just before you arrived, I got a call from the mayor. He’s demanding that I let you go.

Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away before he could notice. She’d wanted to be a cop for years. To get to this point and have it snatched away—no, he couldn’t be serious. And yet, her commander wouldn’t joke about her job.

I can talk to him, sir, and explain—

Explain what? That you knew about these deadly creatures? You took an oath, Waverly, and from where I’m standing you didn’t keep it.

They’re not monsters. They’re just different.

We don’t know anything about them except that they’re dangerous and powerful.

"I know."

Do you?

She felt stupid. He referred to Kelly. "I guess you’re going to fire her too?"

I’m not her boss. Either way, that has nothing to do with you. He gestured, still waiting for her to release her badge and weapon.

With a sinking heart, she turned them over. Years ago when her first fiancé was murdered, she thought nothing could ever be that bad again. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chapter 2

G erard.

He stood with his back to her, gazing out the window. They waited for the others to join them. Restaurant after restaurant had turned them away. Finally, Declan contacted a friend who lived in the city and owned a small warehouse.

The man stored furniture for his online store in