Enter the Dragon

  Enter the Dragon

  Fire Mates, Book Four

  Lexxie Couper

  Contents

  Blurb

  Copyright

  Mating Fire

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Thank you

  More Romance From Lexxie Couper…

  First Chapter Preview: Dragon, Interrupted

  About Lexxie Couper

  Producer Reece Collier is brand new to her position on Sunrise in Sydney when a chance meeting with her fated mate threatens everything she’s worked for. Never mind that Kellan Donovan is the most gorgeous thing on two legs; her parents were a prime example of how finding your Fire Mate can ruin your life. Still, despite employing every trick at her disposal, Reece is completely unprepared for the mating fire…and just how much it makes her burn for the dragon.

  Thanks to his good looks and a koala video gone viral, firefighter Kellan Donovan is the “face” of the state’s fire brigade and rescue service. Not exactly the normal job for a dragon shifter to be sure, but Kellan loves it —but it’s seriously in jeopardy when he meets his Fire Mate, unexpectedly, just minutes before being interviewed on live TV. Hell, how is he going to control himself?

  No one said finding a mate would be easy, and Kellan and Reece have more than one obstacle keeping them from consummating their destiny. His coworker…her reluctance…a few deadly crossbow bolts…

  Dedication

  For Kelli. Who always knows what to say, and when to say it.

  HOW TO LOVE YOUR DRAGON

  Copyright © 2019 by Lexxie Couper

  Published September 2019

  Editing by Kelli Collins

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced nor used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used facetiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Subscribe to Lexxie’s newsletter The Lexxicon for up-to-date news and information.

  Mating Fire: (noun) The sudden and undeniable magical joining of two dragon shifters, experienced as carnal, sexual hunger. If the mating fire isn’t acknowledged and acted on immediately, all hell can break loose.

  1

  Kellan Donovan hated Sydney.

  Too many people, too many cars, too much concrete and steel and litter and noise. Way too many idiots, and to top off all that, an unsettling number of dragon hunters.

  Zealous bastards.

  If he could stay put in Newcastle, he would. The coastal city a few hours north of Sydney had cleaner air, sweeping skies uninterrupted by towering buildings, beaches that stretched on forever, and one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. He’d made his home in Newcastle instead of Sydney over a decade ago and hadn’t regretted the decision once.

  Of course, the fact it was easier being a dragon shifter in Newcastle helped. In a city where a person could drive to rural farmland or isolated rain forest or rolling vineyards—each within an hour—to find somewhere to shift form when the need arose made for a pretty ideal living location.

  The number of Extraho Venator in Sydney had increased to ridiculous levels since the recent dragon activity there, but Newcastle had only one utterly inept dragon hunter. The man in Newcastle seemed to make only cursory efforts at hunting the small dragon-shifter population of the area, preferring to spend his time surfing.

  Kellan didn’t blame him. In fact, he’d surfed more than one wave alongside the guy.

  Yeah, life in Newey was great.

  Sydney, on the other hand, sucked.

  Especially on a gorgeous summer day, when he wasn’t on duty, when he didn’t have to be at the station house working on the fire engine, or training the new recruits, or keeping the brigade paperwork up to date.

  But here he was. In Sydney, when he could instead be back home jogging through Glenrock National Park, or swimming some laps at his favorite beach pool, or surfing, or hang gliding off Strezlecki Lookout…

  He bit back a growl, glared at the mad rush of traffic and pedestrians jostling for space and position outside the New South Wales Fire and Rescue headquarters, and ground his teeth.

  Being the “face” of the state’s fire brigade meant coming down to the hellhole of a city at least once a month for photo shoots, interviews and other public-relations responsibilities. Today, it was a guest appearance on the country’s most-watched breakfast news program to talk about the upcoming bushfire season.

  The irony of his position in the fire brigade was never lost on him—being the “face” of a government organization tasked with putting out fires while being a dragon-shifter who could set the Central Business District of Sydney alight with a few well-targeted blasts of fire was weirdly amusing.

  “Looking good, Dono.” A firm hand smacked him on the back, and he ground his teeth again even as he tempered his dragon’s more aggressive response to the unwelcomed—but not unexpected—touch. “Ready?”

  Sliding the smirking man beside him a level look, Kellan flashed a cold smile. “Call me Dono again, Ian, and you’ll find out just how ready I am.”

  Ian Perkins let out a nervous laugh, cleared his throat and smoothed his hand over his graying comb-over . New to the position of Media Liaison Manager for the NSWFR, the man thought because he was the person responsible for arranging Kellan’s appearances, that made him Kellan’s boss.

  Kellan was one hand-slap-on-the-back away from showing him how wrong that assumption was.

  Perkins was lucky Kellan had shifted form and gone for a fly before dawn that morning prior to heading to Sydney. For some reason, his dragon was agitated in recent days. The last thing Kellan—and Perkins—needed was a lick of fire flaring from his nostril and a bladder-loosening growl rumbling from his chest.

  Then again…

  Locking his gaze on Perkins, Kellan let the softest hint of his dragon’s inner snarl slip through his human throat.

  Perkins’ eyes widened and he jolted back a step, looking around himself. “Err…did you hear…” He cleared his throat again, and let out a hasty laugh, once more smoothing at his comb-over. “Thought I just heard some kind of animal growl. Weird. Okay, so I’ve got us an Uber coming. It’ll be here in a few minutes.”

  “I’m happy to just meet you there,” Kellan suggested. “I’m sure you’ve got stuff to finish off in your office. I’ve been to the studio a few times, so I know my way around it, who I need to check in with when I get there.”

  Raising a dismissive hand, Perkins made a big show of shaking his head. “I want to go through some things with you first. The show has a new producer, and I’ve heard she’s prickly.” He frowned, looked around himself once more and tugged at his tie. “You didn’t hear an…animal or something a second ago, did you?”

  “Hear an animal? Here?” Kellan lifted a puzzled eyebrow. “In the middle of Sydney? No.”

  Perkins hiccupped out a laugh again. “Just me, ’eh? Maybe I need more coffee. Anyway, I want to check you know what you’re talking about before you go on live tele…” He petered off, cleared his throat a third time and looked at his feet.

  Most likely
due to the “are you serious” expression Kellan knew had fallen over his face.

  The Uber arrived before Kellan could say a word.

  Probably a good thing.

  The last thing the NSWFR head honchos would want was the face of the service knocking out one of their suits on the footpath outside HQ. It wouldn’t look good, especially not with Perkins being somewhere in his late fifties. And with the simmering tension flowing through his dragon these last few days, Kellan was very close to doing just that.

  “I’ll take the backseat,” Kellan said, opening the front passenger door of the SUV for Perkins. “I’ve got a podcast on accelerants I need to listen to on the way.”

  Perkins opened his mouth, thought better of whatever he was going to say, and climbed into the seat beside the driver—a young man who kept flicking Kellan puzzled looks.

  Settling into the backseat, Kellan pulled his AirPods from the hip pocket of his jeans, stuck them in his ears and closed his eyes.

  He didn’t have a podcast to listen to—when it came to accelerants, there weren’t many people in Australia who knew more than him—it was simply a good reason to be excluded from the conversation likely to take place during the drive to the studio.

  Adjusting his sunglasses on his face, he let out a slow breath and tuned out the world, focusing on the simple sound of his breathing.

  He’d spend the next forty minutes meditating. Maybe that would calm his dragon back down. It’d have to do. He had no chance or hope of shifting while in Sydney. Not in daylight hours. And as soon as the interview was over, he was heading back to Newcastle.

  “I’ve seen you on TV,” the Uber driver stated.

  Kellan pulled in a slow breath and, without opening his eyes or removing his sunglasses, fixed a friendly smile on his lips. Clearly it was going to be one of those days. “Yep.”

  “Kellan Donovan is the spokesperson for the New South Wales Fire and Rescue service,” Perkins declared. “And one of the best firefighters the service has.”

  “Yeah, you’re the guy who rescued that koala last year.” The Uber driver’s smile stretched wider. “In those bushfires up the coast.”

  Kellan dipped his head in a nod. “Yep.”

  Desperate for aid, the koala—a shifter trapped in marsupial form due to severe smoke inhalation and dehydration—had come scurrying across the smoldering ground to where Kellan stood surveying the destruction left in the extinguished fire’s wake. Kellan had knelt down and given the koala a drink of water from his own bottle and, unbeknownst to him, one of his crew filmed the moment on his smartphone and the footage had gone viral.

  Thankfully, there’d been no footage of, or human witnesses to, the poor koala slowly shifting back into his human form—skin singed and blistered by the flames and extreme heat—fifteen minutes later in the back of the Kellan’s SUV as Kellan stood guard.

  He’d told his crew he’d get the koala to a vet, took the poor guy to the hospital instead, got in contact with another marsupial shifter he trusted to come check on the guy, and then got back to fighting the fire.

  The footage of Kellan rescuing the koala, however, had been the impetus for Kellan’s fame. The NSWFR suits had contacted him after the clip hit over a million likes, deciding he was the perfect face for recruiting and educating the public, and Kellan was happy to oblige.

  Anything to bring more attention to the good work of the fire and rescue service.

  Of course, that meant conversations like this one happened more often than he’d like.

  “I thought about becoming a firefighter,” the Uber driver confessed. “But I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for it.”

  “Well,” Perkins said, grandiose excitement swelling through his voice, “let me tell you…”

  Kellan tuned him out.

  Tuned everything out except the sound of his own breathing again and the steady thump of his heart beating.

  Drew calm into his being, and let it flow through him until his dragon began to relax.

  Whatever was going on with the other half of his dual existence, he needed to settle it down. An agitated dragon wasn’t a good thing, especially during peak bushfire season.

  Do the interview, stick around for some very brief schmoozing, shake off Perkins, and get back to Newcastle. Go for a run, hit the waves.

  Yeah, that’s what he’d do. And when the moon was high in the sky, he might even go for a fly over the vineyards.

  It had been a while since he’d gone for a moonlit soar. There was something about flying in the pale light that made him feel—

  “We’re here,” Perkins’ raised voice shattered Kellan’s calm just as the Uber came to a smooth halt.

  Opening his eyes, Kellan gave the driver—studying him in the rearview mirror—a quick nod. “Thanks, mate. Five stars.”

  The driver beamed. “Thank you. If you need to get anywhere else today, let me know. My name’s Archie.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Perkins waved a hand at the young man. “We’ve got the app.”

  Kellan bit back a growl, even as he smiled at Archie and climbed out of the SUV.

  It was pretty fucking tricky staying calm around a tosser.

  Getting through the television studio’s gate security was easy. The guard working the full-body scanner recognized Kellan from the last time he’d been here. He asked how things were going up in Newcastle, and wondered if Kellan knew how the koala was doing.

  “The koala’s fine,” Perkins answered, waving another shushing hand. “Ask him how his abs are doing. I’m trying to convince him to be the month of May in next year’s charity calendar.”

  The guard’s eyes met Kellan’s.

  Kellan shook his head. “Not happening.”

  The guard laughed.

  Perkins rolled his eyes, the look he threw at Kellan almost a glare. “I’ll wear you down.”

  And I’ll fucking burn you to a cinder.

  “I’d suggest you think twice about that course of action,” Kellan said, collecting his security pass from the chuckling guard.

  Perkins scowled. “You don’t make my job easy, Donovan. You know that, right?”

  Kellan grinned and, with a quick nod at the guard, headed for the studio. “Hell yeah.”

  “Wait up,” Perkins called, a second before an alarm sounded.

  “Sir,” the guard’s voice rose above the wail, “I need you to step back over the yellow line.”

  “What?” Perkins’ stunned shout bounced around the building’s entry foyer, competing with the alarm. “What do you mean, step back? I’ve got to go with—”

  “Sir,” the guard said again, voice like steel, “step back over the yellow line. Now.”

  Kellan tossed a look over his shoulder, took in the guard’s quick grin aimed at him, caught Perkins’ indignant blusters and foot stomping, and then, with an appreciative grin in return to the guard, continued on his way to the breakfast show studio.

  Get it done, get back home, get on the waves then get in the sky.

  “Easy,” he muttered, striding into the organized commotion of the studio.

  He weaved his way through the cameras and crew, all running around doing their jobs with a charged energy he admired, heading for the area where he was to meet the producer.

  New producer. What was she going to be like? The previous one—a Brit who had to be at least sixty years old—had been easy enough to get along with, if somewhat obsessed with the way the studio lighting somehow made Kellan’s eyes look silver.

  Hopefully, the new producer wouldn’t take that much notice. His eyes were gray when human, but turned silver when he was a dragon…or when he was under extreme stress. He didn’t stress easy, not even when on live television, but there was something about the artificial studio lighting that made his eyes shimmer in a far from ordinary way.

  Maybe he should start wearing glasses whenever he appeared on TV? Maybe that would help his eyes look more normal?

  “Mr. Donovan?” a female voice called to t
his left.

  He turned, smile stretching his lips, his gaze falling on a tall woman with piercing green eyes and pitch-black hair striding toward him.

  Whoa, she’s absolutely gorg—

  His body burst into a million pinpricks of searing heat. His croi, the timeless magic of all shifter species, erupted in a tsunami of power as his inner dragon surged for release.

  Fuck.

  He clenched his hands into fists, shoving down the unexpected need to shift. Fought against it as he otherwise stood motionless, stare locked on the woman walking his way.

  Looking at him. Studying him.

  His dragon roared within, craving to take form. His blood ran hot. His cock throbbed. A feverish need to destroy the distance between him and the woman and claim her, take her, right then and there, blazed through him.

  Is this… God, is this—

  Fuck!

  Holy fuck, the mating fire was igniting inside him.

  The mystical, potent force that burned through a dragon shifter the very second they encountered their destined mate—and unmade any dragon shifter foolish enough to think they could ignore it.

  You couldn’t ignore the mating fire. It was impossible. The mating fire was predetermined by Fate, and demanded immediate physical connection. Sexual connection.

  Base, raw rutting.

  You couldn’t deny it. To do so meant slow insanity and painful death.

  The mating fire only happened once to a dragon shifter, but when it did, it changed everything. Like a smug magical force shouting ready or not, here I come…

  Fresh heat razed Kellan’s body, sinking into his core and turning his cock to a hard rod of impatient need. Head swimming with carnal lust, he bit back a groan. Or was it a growl?