Page 10 of Dyson (Walsh’s Lair #3)

“May I help you?” Emma smiled at the door, knowing that someone was looking at her through the little hole in it. “I’m not going to open the door until you tell me who you are.”

“Emma Walsh. We spoke the other day when I interviewed the two of you. I don’t know if you’re going to remember me or not.” She heard the door unlock then the door opened. “I’m sorry if I’m too late. I didn’t think of the time when I came here.”

“It’s fine. We were just enjoying a nice comfy bed for a change. We don’t normally take a hotel room when we have work to do, but we were told that you guys were going to let us know tonight if we got the job or not. To be honest with you, I’m thinking that with you coming here, it’s a nice way of letting us down. But hey, we weren’t looking for a job when we did this, so—”

“You have the job.” The squeal that Danielle let out was ear-bursting. The two sisters hugged and jumped on the bed like they were in preschool or something. “I’m glad I came by to tell you rather than you having to hear about it on the phone. This was wonderful.”

They both hugged her as well and encouraged her to jump on the bed as well. It was fun and enjoyable to be around this much excitement about a job. It was Shelby who spoke first.

“We were getting sick of the hit-and-miss of a job. More and more people are becoming drivers, and it’s getting hard to find a job. We’re both so thrilled to be able to work for a company. You have no idea.” After they settled down, she handed them their contracts as well as some of the perks that they were going to be getting. “I really appreciate being able to haul both ways. It costs so much to have to come back from a job empty.”

“You’ll also be happy to know that we’re going to be helping out the warehouse that’s in Tennessee. She’s going to be putting another plant up here to reach the New England states. It’ll be a lot of driving at first, but we’ll settle that down once things are in place here.” They both looked over the contract. “There is something else that you need to be aware of. The Walsh family aren’t human.”

“Yeah, we figured that out on our own. Both of us are wolf shifters, so it matters little to us that you’re not.” Danielle smiled at her. “We have a bit of magic of our own, so if you were going to tell us that we got some from this job, that would be all right with us if we didn’t mingle with our stuff.”

“I’m afraid that’s too late.” She put out her hand, and two of the faeries that she’d brought with her landed on her hand. “This is Bobin and Robin. They get to pick their names when they’re assigned to a person. They’ll be with you at all times when you’re driving. It’s not to spy on you but to keep you safe. I don’t know how much trouble you’ve had at being women drivers but these guys will help you out of any situation that you might find yourself in.”

The two women looked at each other. She could tell they were talking to one another but what they were saying, she didn’t have a clue. When they finally looked at her, she had a feeling that they did have a problem with other drivers when out.

“About two months ago now we were at a truck stop when Shelby was jumped. Lucky for her, she was a wolf, or she might not have been able to get away. Since then, we’ve had two more attacks on us, and it’s been scary. We have never had that kind of issue before. But like we said, there are more and more drivers out, and some of them aren’t as nice as the company they work for thinks they are.” She asked if they had reported them. “You have a code around truckers. You simply get back to them in a more personal way. Getting them fired only makes it worse. We took care of all three of the attackers, and we’re better off for it.”

She didn’t want to know and was glad that they didn’t tell her. It made her realize that she needed to get with the local pack and see what sort of things she might be missing by hiring shifter wolves. Or any shifter, for that matter. Did they have different rules than each other when it came to protecting themselves? Was it all right to take justice into their own hands? She didn’t know but thought that it might be best if she found out.

When she was ready to leave the two women, she made her way home. Dyson was working late at the house, and when she entered, his office lights were still on. Grandda, she was sure, had gone to bed a while ago. He was an early riser and went to bed early as well.

“How did it go?” She told Dyson that it had gone well. That they were excited to have the faeries as well. “Good. I’m assuming that they’ll be ready to start in the next couple of days. Layla told me that she has three more places where we can pick up day-old things. Also, the local grocery store is going to allow us to have all their fruit that is beyond selling. So long as we don’t sell it.”

“I wouldn’t do that. We have too many people that are in need of a boost up and selling them things that we get for them would just be wrong on so many levels. How did your meeting go with your grandma?” He told her that it went very well and that she was on board with letting the faeries help with a couple of projects that they had going on. “Good. Getting them to help with the building of the new offices for the school and the grade school upgrades will help a great many people.”

“Before I forget. Grandma invited us to have dinner with her tomorrow night. I told her that I’d ask you but didn’t foresee any trouble with that. I’m glad that we share a calendar, Emma. You’ve no idea how much that’s saved me over the last two days.” She told him that it had her as well. “Also, something else. There are some inspectors coming to the warehouse that we’re using for food distribution. I don’t think that they’ll ding us for much, if anything at all. Again the faeries are making sure that the place is in tip-top shape every hour so that nothing is going to be harmful for the people that are getting things from it.”

“It helps too that there are no mice within a hundred miles of the place.” Dyson laughed and said that did help, yes. “I need to get with the pack about some things that came up. Nothing that would involve us, but I need to understand a few things about shifters of their kind. I’m going to do the same for any shifter that we hire, but I just found out that the Pennebaker women are wolves.”

“I knew that. I’ll have to show you how to figure out the differences between humans and shifters soon so that you’re not blindsided.” She said that she’d like that. “All right. Anything else before we go to bed? I’m exhausted and could probably sleep for a month without stirring. It’s been a very long few days, and I’m ready for some downtime.”

“I am as well. We don’t have anything in the morning, so how about we turn off our phones and wake up when we want to instead of when the alarm goes off?” He thought that was an excellent idea. “Good. You should tell your family too. Just so they don’t contact you for anything other than an emergency. All right?”

Emma was actually excited to be going to bed and not having to be a slave to the alarm going off on her phone. As she was getting ready for bed, simply stripping down to nothing but her bare skin, all she could think about was how warm she wanted to be and to sleep the sleep of the dead. Her body ached to be rested. It was nearly noon when the two of them woke up. It was back to work but she felt so much better for it.

~*~

Dyson was getting his desk cleaned off when Emma joined him in his office. Grandda had left, telling him that he had a few things to look into before dinner. Whatever it was, the older man was having fun with his new ‘job,’ and Dyson couldn’t have been happier for him.

“We have the house to ourselves.” He asked where the cook had gone. “Something about a big sale on kitchenware. I hope you don’t mind but I gave her one of the credit cards you gave me and told her that if she had any trouble to call. She was about as excited as I’ve ever seen her. What is kitchenware anyway?”

He laughed. “I don’t know, honestly. I’d say pots and pans, but I have a feeling it’s a bit more than that. Dishes perhaps? I don’t know either. But if she’ll cook us better dinners because of it, then I’ll be one fat dragon but sated when it comes to food.” He could tell that she had something on her mind and waited. Talking nonsense while he waited on her. “The ground has been broken for the new warehouse that Tabby is going to be using. The faeries will go in at night and work on it so that it gets done faster. Fowler said a great many people showed up asking Tabby about the job situation.” She nodded. When she looked at him, she smiled.

“Instead of babbling, why don’t you come here, strip me out of my clothing, and make love to me?” His cock jerked in his pants. All day, he thought of ways he wanted to take his new love and that was when he realized that he had fallen in love with her. “I have this new panties and bra set on that I got yesterday while I was out with the other women. And some other pretties that I want to tease you with.”

“Show me.” He smiled when she started to unbutton her blouse. Then she spread her legs wide enough that he could see a hint of yellow silk between her legs. “I love silk. Especially when it’s on you.” He inhaled deeply. “I love the way you smell when you’re ready for me to make love to you. Also, you might want to know that you’re in heat, or whatever it’s called by dragon lore. We could create a child should you wish.” She nodded, her eyes darkening while she sat on his desk in front of him.

The blouse was opened by two of the tiniest buttons that he’d ever seen. He could see little of the treats beneath it. When she sat up a little, using his shoulders as leverage, she pulled the skirt she had on off and let it drop to the floor. Her legs opened for him, and he could see that she was wet, that she’d stained the silky material with her juices. That was what he could smell on her. Heat and pure sex.

When she slid the blouse down her shoulders, she held it over her breasts. He wanted to see her, all of her, and reached down to stroke his cock through his pants. She moaned when he scooted down in his seat and opened his fly. His cock sprang forward like it knew just where it was going to be. Deeply inside of the woman that he loved.

“I’d like to suck on your cock.” He nodded, not sure he was able to speak around his sudden need to feel her doing just that. “Would you like that? To come down my throat?”

“Yes. Come here.” She moved then, letting the blouse go, and he could see her dark nipples under the sheer material of her bra. “Take it off for me. Let me see all of you.”

When she reached behind her to unhook her bra, Dyson pulled his pants down to his knees and wrapped his hand around his cock. He was painfully hard now; precum was dripped from the tip in a long stream, and he used it to fist himself. But when she took her bra off and dropped it to the floor with the rest of her clothing, he nearly jerked his dick off when she cupped her breast and licked at the tip of her full breast.

“Christ, do that again.” She did it to both her nipples, leaving them wet with her tongue. When she moved toward him, wearing only a pair of panties and her warm flesh, he wanted to beg her to let him eat her, but she was at his knees before he could make his tongue move to form words. When her hands moved to take his cock, he held onto the arms of the chair as she licked him from root to tip. When it broke off in his hand, he laughed a little out of pure desperation. And need.

Starting at the root of his cock, following the thick vein up to the tip, she lapped at his cock, taking all his cum into her mouth. When she leaned back on her knees, he wanted to jerk her up from the floor and slam into her. Christ, his head was buzzing just thinking about what she was doing to him.

“You taste as good as you smell.” Dyson nodded not caring what she was saying so long as she finished him. When she took his crown in her mouth and sucked, he nearly came up out of the chair. “Don’t touch me, Dyson. I want to explore you without you rushing me.”

“I want to come in your mouth. On your body.” Emma nodded at him and smiled. Then she leaned over him and swallowed him down past the tightness of her throat. “Holy Christ, love, I’m there.”

He came. He might have thought that he could hold off, perhaps make it last longer but as soon as she tightened those lovely muscles at the back of her throat around him, Dyson knew it was too much. Curling his hand at the back of her head, he filled her. His cock emptied deep into her and filled again as she fucked him with her mouth.

Christ, he’d never been one to take his enjoyment before a woman, but he had a feeling that it was going to be hard for him not to with her. When he came a second time, his balls tight against his body, he pulled her up off the floor and jerked her down over his cock. The look on her face, the look of pure joy, had him taking them both to the floor and him plowing her hard.

“I want to come.” He told her he wanted her to as well. “Please, fill me, Dyson. I want to feel you come inside of my pussy. Create a child with me so that we can continue our line.”

He held her body to his. Fucked her harder than he had any woman before her and knew that she’d be sore in the morning. But the harder he took her, the more he fucked her, the more she begged him for. And when she dug her nails into his back, feeling the blood as it moved down his back, Dyson felt her body tighten around his, and she screamed out her release.

He watched her face as she came. Dyson knew for as long as he lived, the vision of her coming, her entire being releasing for him would be something that he’d never forget. Something that would keep him warm on nights when she was sleeping beside him. As he threw back his head, his own body letting go, his dragon roared inside of him. Complete. He was, and they were complete with this woman.

Dropping down on her, his body spent, he rolled to his back, holding her over him. His heart was aching it had pounded so hard. His breath was hot, his dragon letting him know that he was pleased as well. As he lay there, holding onto the woman who had come to mean more to him in the last month than any had in all his life, Dyson fell as deeply in love with his other half as he knew he was supposed to.

Waking up, he found himself on the floor alone. Hearing voices down the hall, he was just too spent to get up hurriedly and get dressed. Willing himself to be clothed, he lay there for a few minutes longer, realizing that the voices weren’t getting any closer than they were when he woke. He did, however, sit up and lean against his desk.

“Are you all right?” He laughed, his body hurting just a little when Emma asked him. He told her that he didn’t think he was ever going to be all right again. “Good, at least we have that in common. I’d love to do that again but I think we have to be more careful of being caught. I’d just gotten up when Grandda came home. I shut the door to the office and told him that you were busy with reports. We’re in the kitchen now if you want to join us. If you can, that is.”

“Making fun of a man when he’s down isn’t nice, you know?” He stood up, holding onto the desk until he could get his feet under him. He looked at his chair. “I’m afraid I’m going to need a new chair. This one suffered badly.” She laughed, and it did his heart good to hear it. “All right. I’m on my way, but I could use a large glass of something wet and cold. I think I hurt myself when I came.”

“All I can think about is that we might well have created a child for us. I love you so much, Dyson. I never knew in all my life that something like love, a little four-letter word, could feel so good when you have it for someone, and they have it for you as well.” He was humbled by her words. “Come to the kitchen with me. We’re having subs that my grandda requested. We’re just waiting for you to come join us.”

Dyson only just realized that he was starving. He wanted subs, fries, a milkshake, a pie—not a slice but an entire pie for his meal. Going into the kitchen, he was glad to see that someone had predicted that he was hungry and had two subs on a plate for him. There were also Saratoga fries too. Christ, if he kept burning energy with Emma, he was going to need to eat like this at least a few times a week.

After dinner, he made his way back to the office. He had things that he needed to look into, and Grandda wanted to go. Checking on the houses that were being built for the homeless was coming along much faster than he realized. Not only were three of them about finished up, but the things for the kitchen had been stabilized so that they couldn’t be taken out but with magic. No one would get by with stealing things from the new houses, and he was going to make sure of it. There were sleeping bags, too, until the mattresses and beds came in. Just as they were returning home, having picked up a gallon of ice cream from the grocery store, he saw Darling and David. He told Grandda.

“I seen them. Looking pretty down on their luck, wouldn’t you say?” He had to agree with him. “Oh well, no hope for it, they saw me. Don’t leave me, young man. I need to have you around so that I can hold me a great grandbaby someday.”

“Sooner than you expect, old man.” He just looked at him and Dyson nodded when he told him that they were expecting. It would be about five months for the hatchling to be born then about another six months for it to hatch.

He could see that he wanted answers and Dyson told him that they had to take care of this right now. Looking back at his daughter, there was a smile on the elderly man’s face that looked as if it could light up the world. And all it took for him to look like that was knowing that Emma was going to have a child.

“I need some cash.” Grandda said he was glad to see her, too, and he was having a wonderful day. “Like we care what sort of day you’re having. I need enough money to hire me an attorney that will get me out of this shit. Also, I’m moving into the house with you. You need a keeper, and I’m going to be keeping your shit from getting away from me.”

“I don’t even know why you’d care where my poop was coming from or why you’d want it. But you’re not moving in with us, and I’m not going to give you any money. I’m in a really good mood, Darling, and you’re not going to be taking that away from me either.” Dyson watched as David seemed to be trying to get between him and the other man. Moving in a way that blocked him, David started to fall forward just as he pulled Grandda back.

“What do you think you’re doing, knocking me around? I’ll have your ass for this, see that I don’t.” Dyson looked up at the cameras that were all along the street. The one pointed at him, and the others had only been up for a few days. “I don’t care what that says about what happened. We need money, and you’re going to give it to us before I tell everyone what a monster you are.”

“If you mean a dragon, everyone already knows that. And I’m not a monster but a very wealthy man who just so happens to be able to change into a great dragon. Would you like to see him? I can spread out for you right now if that’s what you want.” He let just enough of his dragon go to prove to David and Darling that he wasn’t joking. “It’s up to you but I’ve already had a nice dinner but would chew you two up just to have you gotten rid of.”

“That’s just disgusting. There is no way that you’re going to eat us. We’re humans, and that would be against the law.” He told Darling that he thought there were a great many people who would be thrilled if she and her husband were gone. “You think that? Well, you’d be wrong. People adore us.” Dyson stopped the next person who came out of the shop they were near.

“Hey? Do you know this couple?” The woman glared at David and looked at him, telling him there wasn’t a person in town who didn’t know about the Gregory couple. “She said that people adore her and him. Is that how you feel—”

He never got to finish. The woman was laughing so hard that she had to hold onto the wall to keep herself upright. And every time she looked at the other couple, she laughed all the harder. In just a few minutes, he’d asked four other people, and they had the same reaction. Like having to adore them was the funniest thing that they’d ever heard in their lives.

Dyson was just ready to ask another person when Darling slapped him. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt him. He was a shifter, after all, as well as a dragon. But she did draw blood, and that pissed him off. Just a little. He gave himself a talk about how he was going to be a dad soon, and he didn’t want to be in jail for killing Darling when it was born. Besides, he was reasonably sure that Emma would strangle him if he were to end up there.

Letting enough of his dragon go, he was able to get to his claws on his hand before Grandda put his hand over it. Turning to look at him, his eyes seeing him in blues and reds instead of the human that he was, he shook his head.

“She’s not worth it, Dyson. Not at all. If you want to press charges for her hitting you, I can back you up, but don’t kill her. I have a feeling that Emma would be surely angry at you.” He pulled his dragon back and felt the pain of something searing through his body.

She’d shot him. It didn’t hurt that bad; he was protected from such things, but when he fell back, taking her with him and the gun, it went off a second time, and he didn’t know where that ended up. Lying still on the sidewalk, he tried to reason with his dragon in that killing her now would be wrong.

He still hadn’t moved when the police arrived. David was on the ground as well, but he couldn’t see what he was doing. If he was honest with himself, he was hurting a bit more than he thought from a simple gun. It wasn’t until his brother showed up and Melbourne told him that he’d been shot in the chest. Too near his heart for him to just get up and walk around.

“Play it, young man.” He looked at Grandda. The man seemed to be swaying around. “You’re all right, Dyson, but play this part well.”

It wasn’t until Darling was pulled off of him that he realized that she was dead. The shot through her head told him that, as a human, she wouldn’t recover from this. As he was being told to be still, he got a look at David. He, too, had been shot.

“How are you, Dyson?” He said that he was hurting now. “Well, I hate to sound like a fool, but I’m glad that you’re hurting. I surely am.” He looked at the officer that was near him.

“I don’t know what happened. We were talking, and then I heard something pop. Did she shoot me?” The officer told him that she had shot him and he’d appreciate it if he didn’t die too. “I didn’t shoot her, sir. I swear. She came at me after hitting me.”

“We know that. Grandda here. He’s been telling us what happened. How that shot was able to go through her into her husband is one for the books. We know that she pulled the trigger, too. The gun is tight in her hands.” He asked him again how he was feeling. “I have to talk to your wife and I don’t want to have to give her any bad news. She’s a mite scary when she’s upset, you know.”

“I’ve never been shot before.” He had been, but he didn’t think anyone would believe him if he told them that it had been wartime and that he’d been on the right side of the law. “Is David really dead, too?”

Before he could answer him, he heard screaming and someone cursing at him. He didn’t move, not even when he felt Emma coming to him. As soon as she touched him, he felt better, not great, but better. The screaming person was Poppy, the daughter of the dead couple.

“She killed them. Just like I knew that she would. She killed them dead, and I want to sue her for her money.” The officer, he couldn’t for the life of him remember his name, said that it was her mother who had killed them both. “I won’t believe it. My mother was a saint, and she’d—”

“Oh, do grow up. Neither you nor your parents were all that nice. And calling her a saint should be considered a deadly sin.” The first woman he’d asked laughed a little. “You get yourself out of here before we tar and feather you. Saintly mother indeed. She was the devil herself if you were to ask anyone in this town. And you’ve been worrying that grandda of yours nearly to death since you were old enough to know what money was. Get going before I kick your ass. Damned girl. You’re just lucky that no body asked me about you. You’re worse than the two of them together. Get.”

Poppy left, but she wasn’t far when she turned back to the crowd that had gathered. With Emma holding his hand and Grandda close enough, he felt something close over him and was shocked to see Poppy pulling out a gun as well. Before she could get off a single shot, she was shot by the officer who was near him. And just like that, the entire Gregory family was gone.

The bodies were still lying on the sidewalk when he was taken away in the ambulance. He was glad that the officer was going to bring Emma and Grandda with him. He wanted them out of the way of the press when they showed up. It was a small town, but word would spread quickly, and it would be no time for some of the larger news organizations to get a hold of this. Three dead and one injured dragon would make great headlines, he thought with a little laugh.