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  Dragon Billionaire’s Bargain

  Dragon's Council Book 5

  Mina Carter

  New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author

  Copyright © 2017 by Mina Carter

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Also by Mina Carter

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  She should know better than to trust a black dragon. Especially a male one. Especially Nikolai goddamn Waldek.

  Adra snarled to herself as she watched the trainees in front of her go through the fight combinations she’d set them. The group was comprised of all the current blacks-in-waiting, and given that one day these men, and woman, would be one of the twelve dragons responsible for ensuring the safety of their entire race, training was brutal.

  It had to be.

  Anything less and chances were they’d be killed their first day on the job. As it was, the life expectancy for a black council member was... Adra cut that thought off. She didn’t even want to think about that figure. It wasn’t a good one.

  Closing her fist over her heart, she gave a silent salute to those who had fallen and those yet to fall in battle. Their names were inscribed in stone on the memorial behind the queen’s throne for all to see and remember. The name of her mentor, sponsor and council-seat predecessor, Jayce Colwood, was inscribed there. One day her own name would join the roll of honor.

  Blacks did not live to see old age.

  Which was why the current twelve pushed their trainees to the limit and beyond. Anything to give them the skills to survive. Survive a little longer anyway. And she was doing it all on her own today because that lazy-ass Waldek had a “business thing.”

  She hissed, her eyes on her own two trainees, Mareko and Andreas, sparring off to the side of the hall. She’d just taken them on, and Mareko was another rare female black. They were evenly matched and not holding back despite the fact that Andreas was much larger than Mareko. She nodded in approval. That was a lesson she’d hammered into them time after time. Just because a colleague was female didn’t mean she was weak or should be shielded. Unlike dragons of other colors, female blacks were often larger and more powerful than the males in their draconic forms. Not always, but often.

  She was a good example. When shifted, she was a lot bigger than some of the other blacks... but not as big as say Sawyer or that lazy asshole, Nik, who still hadn’t shown his face. She cast an irritated glance toward the door. Nope. Still nothing.

  “KEEP IT MOVING!” she bellowed when the pace of the practice fights in front of her began to slow. “WYVERNS WON’T GIVE YOUR LAZY ASSES A BREAK AND THEY AREN’T EVEN WHO YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT!”

  She walked through the ongoing fights as she watched, and each time she felt the break in concentration as the sparring pair watched her out of the corners of their eyes. She was known to randomly join a fight, making the match a two on one or worse if she pulled another pair in for a melee bout. The smell of sweat and tension blossomed on the air and she held back her grin.

  No one wanted to fight her.

  Well... no one apart from Damian’s crazy trainee, Vane, who watched her out of the corner of his eye as she approached. When he noticed her attention, he grinned and cocked his fingers. A little “bring it on” gesture. Arrogant, crazy asshole.

  “What the fuck are you two doing?” she demanded. He was fighting Blake, Damian’s other trainee, and she could tell they were biding time. “Do you think this is a fucking dance or something?”

  Both men turned as she stepped into their ring—a crudely chalked circle on the floor—and she saw the change in focus. A dangerous, intent change. Damian, their black, had trained them well. They moved in concert, in perfect sync as they faced a potential new threat. Her.

  She grinned. Too fucking right she was a threat. Possibly the biggest threat, apart from the queen herself, they’d ever face.

  “Come on then,” she grinned back at the pair. “If you think you’re tough enough.”

  It was all the invitation the male blacks needed. Vane gave a little whoop as, with barely a glance of communication between them, they launched their attack.

  Vane came in high, as she’d expected, while Blake tried to flank her on the side. She was ready for them, moving smoothly as she deflected Vane’s punch with a hard block, and pushed away before turning to answer Blake’s attack.

  His eyes widened as she not only blocked him but launched an attack of her own. She was ruthless, making him back up across the ring with rapid-fire kicks and punches. Vane tried to get her to split her focus but she spun out from her pursuit of Blake and swept a hard leg at the long-haired dragon, tumbling him to the ground.

  Around them, the other fights had ceased as the trainees flitted closer to watch. A chance to watch one of the blacks, especially Adra, in training was something none of them would pass up. She only did it occasionally, and today more to get out her frustration at Nik’s absence when he was supposed to be here training with her. She had no idea why he was allowed to get away with it...

  The tiny break allowed Blake to get his breath and counterattack. His eyes, dark with his dragon, were grim and determined. She grinned. It was exactly what she’d wanted. He swung, and she spotted the opening, moving in like lightening, up and under his arm. Her own wrapped around his neck and in less than a second she had him snarled up, arm locked around his neck and his back forced into a hard curve.

  Her fingertips stroked over the center of his chest. It wasn’t a sensual touch. It was a reminder she could punch her claws through his still-human chest in less than a heartbeat.

  Vane paused, hands loose at his sides as he watched her, trying to figure out how to proceed. His eyes shifted from side to side, looking for an opening. She grinned. There was no way he could get to her without going through Blake. She’d made sure of that.

  “Fuck!” he hissed, raking his hair back from his face.

  She chuckled and pushed Blake away. “Well fought, boys, but just remember there’s always someone better and faster. Don’t get cocky.”

  A raucous squawk filled the air, making them all freeze. The call to arms. Adra froze for a half second. She was one of the only blacks on duty today and responsible for protecting the palace while the others were south of the city running patrols.

  This meant she had to protect the palace, and the queen, with a bunch of trainees.

  “Fuck my life,” she whispered and then lifted her voice to shout. “Okay, we’re on! Stick to your pairs and follow my lead!”

  Nik hated suits. He hated boardrooms. And above all else, he hated smarmy-ass fucking lion shifters.

  “Whatever you want to call it,” he repeated with the edge of a growl in his voice. “It’s a dick move and that’s that. We had an agreement.”

  Johnson Jones, known as JJ in the circles they moved in, spread his hands, an innocent look on his face.

  “It’s just one little tenement building, Waldek.” He grinned, lounging back in his chair and showing teeth that were just a little too feline for his current human form. “No need to get bent all out of shape over it.”

  “It’s in sector five,” Nik argued, wanting nothing more than to reach across the table and yank the werelion out of his damn seat.<
br />
  His dragon within snickered and reminded Nik of the distance between them and the floor-to-ceiling windows that covered the wall behind them. Cats couldn’t fly, so kitty-cat wouldn’t be so fucking full of it if they took the quick way to the ground. Now would he?

  But he resisted the urge, knowing the rest of the men around the table—a combination of humans and shifters—would freak out if he pulled a move like that. He was the only dragon in their initiative—one dedicated to redeveloping and improving some of the most deprived areas of the city—and he knew he scared the shit out of most of them.

  Apart from Jones. Jones was a dick who didn’t know when not to push buttons. Especially Nik’s.

  “It’s in my sector,” he repeated. “I have plans for that whole area and I would appreciate it if you kept your nose out of my fucking business.”

  Jones shrugged. “I can’t help it. If I see a good deal, I have to chase it. Predatory instinct, you know?” He smiled, arrogance written all over his smug grin.

  Just a couple of steps, Nik’s dragon reminded him, feeding him images of them crashing through the glass and then dropping the werelion to plummet toward the ground. They were thirty floors up. They could catch him before he hit.

  Then let him go again.

  Nik bit back his sigh as his dragon amused itself by imagining using the werelion as a sort of yoyo. Dropping him, and catching him time after time, the shifted cat—because, faced with danger like that, he would shift—pin wheeling through the air, his fur all ruffled.

  Asshole, he shot at his dragon. No toying with the other initiative members, okay? We need to play nice.

  His dragon responded with several anatomically impossible things the initiative members could do. Nik shook his head. Where his dragon had picked that up, he had no idea.

  No... that was wrong. He knew exactly where his foul-mouthed beast had learned that. Vane, Damian’s trainee, swore worse than any marine. Obviously the two had been talking when they’d flown patrols and his attention had been focused elsewhere.

  He grinned at Johnson, but the expression wasn’t friendly and his voice had the deep rumble of his dragon as he answered, “Yeah, I know all about predatory instinct.”

  Fucker wanted a pissing contest, he’d get it. Lions might be king of the jungle, but dragons ruled the fucking sky. The smell of sweat and sudden tension in the room told him the rest of the group were wishing like hell they were somewhere else.

  Before he could add anything further, his cell pinged. The tone made him look down immediately. He didn’t believe in being tethered to the thing all the time, so normally his phone was on silent for meetings. But some things he couldn’t ignore, and an alarm from court was one of them.

  Code pink.

  The words flicked up on his screen and his focus shifted instantly. Code pink meant one thing, a credible threat in the area that required wings in the air. It was code red before Zac, their tech genius, had updated the system. He might have been a technological marvel, but his sense of humor was questionable.

  “I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. I’m afraid I have to excuse myself.”

  He was already moving, scooping up his phone and leather conference folder. Vincent, his PA, was already moving toward him from the back of the room. Nik handed him the file and phone as they walked from the room.

  “Field the questions you can,” he told the other man, a dragon as well, but a civilian, not a black. “Anything else tell them I’ll get back to them. Try not to roast Johnson,” he flashed a quick grin, knowing Vin’s dragon was just as volatile as his where the arrogant lion was concerned.

  “Of course, sir,” the PA said with a nod as they walked out onto the terrace of the meeting level. Most of the Waldek-built towers in the city had been constructed with dragons in mind with wraparound terraces and plenty of balconies to climb up or launch off from.

  “Should I reschedule your four o’clock?”

  “Please do. It gives them enough notice so they don’t think I’m a dick,” Nik said as the door slid shut behind them. Less than two steps in, he let his dragon loose, the beast exploding from his human form with a mighty roar. Used to Nik’s routines, Vin had already stepped back out of the way, so Nik’s tail lashed in front of him rather than knocking him off his feet.

  Two running steps later, Nik launched himself off the edge of the terrace. He made sure to wheel around the building, just to piss Johnson off as he read the thermals and air currents around him. He roared again, bellowing a call into the air. In the distance roars answered him, one particular higher note warming both his and his dragon’s heart.

  Adra. The sole female on the council and the sexiest thing he’d seen on two legs, or on the wing. He’d been interested in her for years, since she’d joined the council, but all his overtures had been slapped back.

  He roared to the sky again and set off across the city like a scaled, wing-born rocket. One day, he promised himself and his dragon, he would make Adra see they were perfect for each other.

  There was still no sign of Nik as Adra and the trainees surrounded the threat. A wyvern. They were smaller than dragons but just as nasty. A less sophisticated species, they were more dinosaur than anything else, with heavy, snarled skin that wasn’t scaled but leathery instead. Like a crocodile with wings and a bad attitude.

  This one certainly was, clinging to the side of a warehouse and snarling at the blacks that surrounded it. It was impossible to tell how old they were, but this one moved like a fighter, snapping its heavily armored jaws at any of the blacks if they got near.

  Why is it in the city? she asked her dragon, the two sharing a private mental pathway. It was the path she’d one day share with her mate as well. If she had a mate, that was. Not all dragons did. She just had to hope she was one of the lucky ones.

  Her dragon shoved an image of Nik front and center in her brain.

  She shoved it away with an irritated huff. Waldek was handsome but he was so not mate material. She needed stability and maturity, not some playboy billionaire businessman more interested in his stocks and shares than their life together.

  A hiss got her attention and she dipped a wing to wheel around. Blake had gotten a bit too close, trying to get behind the wyvern and force it out of the gap it had wedged itself into between two buildings. It hissed at them as they approached, red eyes watching their every movement suspiciously. She couldn’t tell if it was male or female—they all looked the same to her—and she had no idea if they were telepathic.

  Wait, I think it’s hurt, Blake called out over the common link all dragons shared. He crawled over the roof of the building nearest to the trapped wyvern. It lashed out, raking vicious saber-like claws down the tiles. Blake dodged back just in time. Yeah, look... its back leg is all twisted. I don’t think it can walk properly.

  He sounded concerned, which made Adra shake her head. The big, softly spoken dragon wasn’t usually a bleeding heart.

  It’ll still kill you without blinking, she warned him but didn’t order him to move away. He had the thing’s attention and that worked in their favor. She jerked her head, silent commands passing between her and the other trainees. They moved liked a well-oiled machine, surrounding the creature.

  There was no way they could afford to let it get loose in the city. Unlike dragons, wyverns weren’t usually shifters. They were just animals, and if they went on a rampage, the damage they could cause was horrendous.

  Just let me get close to it. Blake tried to wave them all off but the trap was sprung. The wyvern, seeing that it was almost surrounded, let out a bellow of fury and launched itself into the air.

  Adra was quick to follow, beating her wings and yodeling a war cry as she raced after the wyvern. It screeched as it was surrounded mid-air by the pack of blacks, punching out its wings to practically stand still in mid-air before it darted off in another direction. Adra was hard pressed to avoid the glittering talons as they raked through the air where her stomach scales had been a
moment before.

  The fray turned into an aerial dog fight, the smaller size of the wyvern meaning it was more maneuverable. It darted between the blacks, slicing not at the thick scales that armored their bodies, but at the more delicate wing membranes.

  Seeing one of the younger dragons about to get his wings shredded, Adra bellowed and knocked him out of the way, taking the blow across the side of her head instead.

  Agony exploded through her skull as everything went gray. She felt herself falling, the wind dragging at her wings as she plummeted, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Her body wouldn’t respond. It was like the link between her and her dragon was severed. Gone.

  A familiar bellow of rage told her Nik had arrived on the battle scene and she breathed a sigh of relief. At least now the wyvern wouldn’t get away. It didn’t matter if she fell and shattered every bone she had on the hard ground below. Or, more likely, was killed on impact.

  In a desperate attempt to kick start her body, she let the change roll over her. Her mass decreased as she folded her unconscious dragon back into her human form. The wind almost deafened her as her hair whipped around her face. She opened her eyes, wanting the last thing she saw to be the sky she loved so much.

  Instead, her view was filled by the face of Nik’s dragon as he plummeted toward her like a massive scaled rock falling through the sky, wings folded tightly against his body.

  What the fuck are you doing? she demanded as they fell. Being bigger and heavier than she was, he gained on her quickly.

  Saving your ass, beautiful. His expression was determined, filling her vision. She didn’t turn to look at the ground. She could see it looming large in the reflection of his huge black eyes.

  You’ll kill yourself, you fucking idiot! Pull up and go after the wyvern.