Dragon's Frenemy (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 2) Read online

  “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to track you down. Spent a lot of time finding out things about the Pack. And yet it seems like you’re always one step ahead of me. You know what I think?”

  Utopia didn’t speak.

  “I think that there is a leak in the Academy. Someone is feeding the Pack information. And I think you might know who that is.”

  Utopia swallowed dryly as she shook her head. “I don’t know anything about any of that. The Alpha doesn’t tell me that sort of thing. I stay in my lab. I do as I’m told. I don’t know anything about the Pack’s plans or what they do or do not know. I don’t know any of that sort of thing.”

  “I don’t believe you. I think you were much higher in the Pack’s chain of command than you like to pretend.”

  Utopia shuddered as he dropped the glove and looked up at her again. The fury in his eyes… it made her want to curl into a ball and beg for forgiveness. She tried to stand a little straighter. Tried not to show just how terrified she was.

  “I can’t change what you believe any more than I can change the truth. Whatever you think—”

  Cooper lunged. Utopia let out a scream that was cut off as Cooper pressed his arm against her throat. He slammed her against the wall, his lips pulling back. Sharp teeth gleamed in his mouth. He pressed her hard to the wall, keeping her pinned despite her attempts to shove him off. He was like a rock wall, and she didn’t have the strength to shove him off.

  “I’m not going to let any more good people die because of you,” Cooper snarled in her face. His words were garbled from the partial shift he was in, but clear enough to understand. “You are going to cooperate with this investigation, and you are going to tell me everything you know, or I swear I will kill you.”

  Her lungs cried out for air as he crushed her throat. Fear spiked through her body, flooding down to her fingertips. She tried to nod, to assure him that she was going to cooperate the best she could.

  But she couldn’t even do that. His arm was so tight against her neck she thought he might break it. Forget about cooperating! He was going to kill her here and now. Desperation clawed at her chest, freeing her snow leopard. She shifted in the blink of an eye, swiping her claws over Cooper’s face.

  He withdrew, howling. Utopia dropped to the floor. She gasped, stumbling as her paws got caught in her clothes. Shaking them off, she dashed for the door. Only for something huge and heavy to come down on her. A giant paw batted her across the room, and she sprang back up, turning.

  Her heart caught in her chest as the biggest lion she’d ever seen stared down at her. Cooper snarled, his eyes latched on her, his pupils black in the amber face. His red mane hung about him as he stalked forward, snarling. Utopia flatted herself, hissing up at him. He was going to kill her. He was going to tear her open. He was too angry…

  Cooper lunged, his teeth biting into her shoulder. Utopia screeched, kicking and clawing and biting. He shook her hard, and she felt the skin tearing. Equipment crashed down around her. Pain shot through her body, blinding her. White-hot agony. Her only thought was to escape. But the lion was too big. He was crushing her. Killing her.

  Then he was gone.

  The lion roared, thrashing and clawing at a scaled limb drawing him back from her. He whirled, but a dragon pinned him to the floor, its larger body keeping Cooper from getting at Utopia again. A mountain lion bounded over them and landed lithely on the floor next to her. It shifted back into Clementine.

  Utopia snarled at her as Clementine reached for her neck.

  “Easy,” Clementine breathed over the sounds of Cooper struggling against the dragon. “You’re bleeding pretty good there. Let me patch you up.”

  Utopia flatted her ears against her skull and snarled again.

  “What is—” Another woman, Erica, came into the room. Her eyes widened at the spectacle.

  Cooper stopped his struggling the instant he saw her. He lay under the dragon’s form, panting.

  “What is going on here?” Erica demanded, striding in. “Liam let him up! What are you doing?”

  Liam leaned back, letting Cooper squirm his way out from under him. Utopia tensed, but the lion didn’t go after her again. Instead, he growled low in his throat and stalked out the door. Erica glanced between them all before following him out. Utopia trembled, but when Clementine tried to move forward again, she growled. Adrenaline pumped through her. How did she know that Clementine wasn’t in on Cooper’s attack, here to finish her off if Cooper didn’t get it done?

  “Hey.” Liam knelt on the floor, gazing at her with worry. “Utopia, you have to let Clementine bandage you up.”

  Utopia let out a snort as she huddled further away. Her eyes didn’t leave Liam, though. She’d held him captive. She’d experimented on him. Would he like to see her dead, too?

  “Come here,” he said, softly, holding his arms out toward her.

  She longed to bury herself into his arms. Her chest heaved with the effort of keeping herself in this tense position with the pain rushing through her. Slowly, she shifted back to her human form. Liam smiled at her. A gentle smile that made her heart ache. Tears sprang to her eyes as she allowed Clementine to bandage her injury. All that time, though, she didn’t look away from Liam. As if he was her only lifeline.

  “What did he even want?” the dragon asked quietly. “Why was he here?”

  “I don’t know.” Clementine sounded shaken. “I was just… he said he wanted to talk to her alone.”

  Utopia pulled in a deep breath, trying to stabilize herself before she answered. She didn’t want to end up gushing tears, after all. “He thinks there is a leak. He thinks that there is someone in the Academy telling secrets to the Pack. He thought I knew, and when I said I didn’t—”

  She cut off as all the air left the room. The leak. It made sense there was one. Hadn’t she thought that for a while? There was someone here feeding information to the Pack. But if that was the case… then that meant…

  Her hands lashed out. Clementine gave a jerk and a cry, but Utopia’s hands wrapped around Liam’s collar. Her heart was going even faster than when Cooper had tried to kill her. She stared desperately at Liam, unable to speak. Fear coursed through her.

  Liam held her, his brow furrowed. Then it cleared without her having to say it out loud. Because if there was a leak here, that meant that the Pack, the Alpha, would already know about the paper she had signed. They already knew about her betrayal.

  “I will make sure we can talk to Maura at once,” he promised.

  When he tried to leave, though, Utopia’s hands clenched tighter into his shirt. She couldn’t be left alone. Logic and rules didn’t apply. She just could not stand the thought of him leaving her. Tears spilled from her eyes. After Clementine cleaned and bandaged the injuries Cooper had left on her, she stood looking between the two of them awkwardly.

  “I’ll just… go, then,” she said, hurrying from the room.

  “I need to tell Maura,” Liam said slowly. “But I will be back. I promise.”

  Utopia tried to make her fingers loosen. She couldn’t.

  Liam sighed as he helped her to her feet, keeping his arms around her. “Okay. Okay, then. Come with me, I’ll get you out of this hospital.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Liam had first taken Utopia to Maura’s office. Maura was angry with him for taking her away from the guards and showing her so much of the Academy, but when Utopia broke down in tears and explained what she feared now, Maura had softened. She hadn’t shown them anything but assured Utopia that they had very recently received proof that Aiden was still alive.

  “Please, I want to see for myself,” Utopia begged, but Maura refused.

  “Take her back to the cell,” she’d ordered Liam.

  Normally, Liam was all for following order unless it went against his morals. This time, though, he had no real reason to disregard Maura’s orders, other than he needed to make sure Utopia was alright. He hadn’t thought that Cooper was so angry a
bout the situation that he’d try to kill her! Regardless of whether he believed her about Aiden or not, for Cooper to go that far…

  Now, Liam didn’t care if it was a serious breach of protocol or not. He didn’t take Utopia back to her cell, where Cooper could find her again. No. He took her back to his apartment. Utopia sat on the couch, hardly aware of her surroundings, and hid her face in her hands.

  Liam’s heart lurched. He knew how hard it had to be. To have her son out there in danger because of something she did. Because for the first time ever she had dared to stand up against the Alpha.

  “Want some wine?” he asked in a grunt, headed to his store.

  “Please.”

  Liam grabbed the first bottle, a cheap brand that he used when he wasn’t feeling beer, but it wasn’t time for anything fancy. Utopia didn’t say anything as he opened it and poured two glasses. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard his mother muttering about having to let it breathe, but Liam ignored the advice. He didn’t care about the taste. He just wanted the alcohol in his body.

  When he brought the wine back to Utopia, she wiped her face and gave him a trembling, soggy grin. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you planned all this to seduce me. After all, wine in the afternoon? It’s so romantic.”

  Liam chuckled despite himself. “Well, you saw right through me. I mean, after you pushed me away in the woods, what else could I do?”

  “Oh, right. I’d forgotten that I was the one to push you away.” She rolled her eyes as she sipped the wine.

  Liam stared at his own glass. “I believe you. Just so you know. I believe everything you’ve told me.”

  Utopia’s head jerked up. She looked like she couldn’t breathe as she stared at him.

  “Don’t know why you’re looking at me like that,” Liam coughed, shifting uncomfortably. “I mean, this is the second time I’ve saved you, right? So it’s not like I’m just doing it because you’re a valuable information source. Not to say you aren’t and that wasn’t part of it, but—”

  The wine glass was flung from his hand as Utopia threw herself at him. Her glass fell, too, but he didn’t care about the wine spreading in a large stain on the carpet. Utopia’s bounteous curves pressed against his body and he wrapped his arms around her. Their lips met with such a sizzling passion that it felt like the whole room was getting warmer.

  He parted her lips, wanting every inch of her. He wanted her legs around his waist. Wanted her lips on every inch of him. Wanted to ease himself inside of her, to hear her gasps and moans of pleasure, to have her naked before him, to fuck her until he didn’t even know his own name. The desire was so overwhelming that he pitched off the edge, not even caring where he fell.

  But an unwanted bit of logic wormed its way into his mind. You can’t lose yourself right now. There is still a lot to reassure her about. And how do you know that she’s not just trying to lower your defenses again?

  “Fuck it,” Liam snarled as he pulled back.

  Utopia glanced at the wine stain and pulled back. Her cheeks went red as she lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”

  “What?” Liam took a moment to reorient himself before he shook his head. “No. No, it’s not you. It’s me. I just… I really wanted to not think of anything except how good it felt to have you against me. How much I enjoy kissing you. But my stupid brain.” He snorted in disgust. “My stupid brain decided that that’s not good enough. I have to think. I have to be logical. I can’t just think of how damn sexy you are.”

  Utopia still didn’t look up at him. “Because I’m a political enemy and a war criminal and—”

  “No. No. It’s because you’re afraid for Aiden. Someone just tried to kill you. I don’t know if you’re thinking clearly. And I can’t sleep with you unless I am certain it’s actually something you really want or if it’s just… circumstances.”

  “Why can’t it be both?” She retrieved the glasses. “Can’t I be feeling overwhelmed with the situation and still want to feel your skin on mine? Can’t I want your kisses because you’re the first man since Adrian I’ve actually wanted, and want them because they’ll drive these fears away?”

  It took a moment for Liam to process that. He was hardening with desire, his fires burning hot throughout his whole body. “Yeah, it can be both. Not saying it can’t be. But I gotta know for sure.”

  Utopia peered up at him and gave him a weak smile. “And here I thought you were a bad boy.”

  “I can be a bad boy without wanting to take advantage of women. I have plenty of options, I don’t have to trick anybody.”

  “You’re not tricking me.”

  Liam shrugged. “Even so. I have to be sure.”

  Tears ran down her face, and Utopia let out a huff as she wiped them away. “Sorry. It’s just been a long time since anybody has been so kind to me. I think you were kinder to me when you wanted to kill me than the Alpha ever was.”

  A surge of protectiveness enveloped him. He took both her hands into his, vowing silently that he would allow nobody to harm her ever again. She looked up in surprise, but Liam kept his gaze fastened on her eyes. She had to know that everything he said was completely true.

  “I am going to get Aiden back, I swear. This leak? It can’t be any of my team. I know them too well. And I shouldn’t tell you this, but I already have the team looking. Cooper is good at his job, but he doesn’t have the same priorities. He is supposed to gain intel, not find out where a single boy is. I’ve got Evan looking for possible locations by hacking satellites, and Stephen is working the local law enforcement, and Adam is running interference with Patrick. Eugene is looking at old files, seeing if maybe there is a pattern to how the Alpha used to move you around.”

  “But that’s not legal!”

  Liam had to laugh at Utopia’s aghast expression. “We’re meant to be off the books.”

  “But you’re not head of the Blaze Ops. If your colonel finds out…” She shuddered. “He’s terrifying. They might think that you’re the leak for helping me. Not that I’m complaining, I just… I just don’t understand why. When it can cause you so much trouble.”

  “Let me worry about that, okay?” He grinned and winked at her.

  Utopia smiled. It was the first smile he could say was absolutely genuine from her. Trust beamed from her face, and he felt it settle on him like a physical weight. Not unpleasant, not heavy. But very much there. He couldn’t let her down. He just couldn’t.

  “We should clean that up.” She gestured toward the stain.

  Liam shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I kind of like it like that, though.”

  All the same, he retrieved some dark towels. When he returned, he saw Utopia mixing water, vinegar and dish soap. When he rose his brow at her, she just shrugged and continued. Between the two of them, they had soon lifted the stain from the carpet. Good thing it was a dark carpet, though, otherwise Liam might have had to return his damage deposit.

  He poured them both wine again and sat down. “Tell me about Aiden.”

  Utopia smiled. “He’s such a smart kid. I know that all parents say that about their children, but he’s really smart. He doesn’t do very well in school, but his mind is so absorbent. He loves learning. He loves to explore and experiment and find out things for himself. You know, I still have some old college textbooks and he reads them like nothing else. And for the most part, he understands it, too.”

  “Sounds like quite a kid.”

  “He is.” Utopia’s face fell. “But the Alpha…”

  Liam flinched. He reached for her hand, ready to reassure her that he was going to make sure she got Aiden back.

  “His school program is so racist. So horribly racist. Ableist. Xenophobic. Homophobic. I’m so afraid of what that’s doing to him. I try my best to counteract it, but when everybody is telling him that shifters are so much better than humans and he doesn’t actually have any interactions with humans… Sometimes I worry that I’m destroying him in my efforts to save him. I don�
��t know what to do.”

  Liam sighed.

  Utopia gulped down some of her wine. “If it was up to me, I’d destroy everything I’ve done. Every bit of research. The way I got it is so horrible…” She closed her eyes tight. “Or maybe I’d let someone else decide that. Maybe somewhere in there is the key to eradicating diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s in humans. I am not the one who should get any sort of recognition for that if it’s the case, though. I don’t deserve anything. I don’t deserve to be a mother.”

  Liam set the wine aside, taking her glass as well. He grasped her hands in his tightly. The tears flowed thicker down her face, but he didn’t let her break eye contact. “That isn’t true.”

  “It is. If I was a proper mother—”

  “Utopia, everything you do, you do for your son. How does that make you less than a proper mother?”

  “He should never have been in that situation to begin with.”

  Liam sighed. He could see the guilt and blame spiraling around Utopia’s head. He didn’t blame her for what she felt. He knew that any words he said right now were only going to fall flat. She was too deep in her own despair. So, he did the only thing he could think of.

  He kissed her.

  His mouth captured hers, swallowing her words. He pulled her closer, drinking her in. Utopia’s muscles relaxed as she returned the kiss. Her eyes closed and Liam found himself falling deeper and deeper into her. He never wanted this moment to end. His fingers knotted into her hair and Utopia sighed.

  Their kiss deepened, the worries around them getting lost to the sensation of fire under their skin.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Utopia let herself fall back, the cushions on the couch soft and comfortable as Liam’s big body caged her protectively. She didn’t want to think about anything other than the feel of his body on hers. The taste of his lips. The heat sparking beneath her skin. She wanted nothing more than to hold him tight and have him kiss away all her fears, even though she knew it would be temporary at best.