Page 1 of In the Line of Fire
Prologue
Damien
Asubtle scent teased my senses. It was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before—a tantalizing mixture of sweet and spicy that had my body tensing and my cock hardening. My dragon stirred inside me, his attention captured as well. It was a reaction that normally only occurred when there was danger nearby, but none of my internal warning bells were going off. It made me even more curious about what triggered the unusual response.
My focus moved away from what Carrick McMahon, a bear shifter on the council I’d chosen to serve as their head enforcer for the past decade, was telling me about his newest grandbaby. When my gaze swept the bar, I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t recognize all the faces, but that was to be expected on a Friday night.
I didn’t spot anyone who warranted such an intense reaction. None of the men were a threat, and the women didn’t elicit even a spark of interest from me. Yet the scent continued to pull at me. With an urgent need driving me, I reached out with my magic to search for the source of it. A deep growl rumbled up my chest when my attempt was unsuccessful, and it left my throat feeling singed. My dragon was pissed as fuck at being kept from the source of that elusive smell.
Carrick moved closer to me. “What’s going on? Flames are swirling in your eyes, it’s getting damn hot in here, and you look like you’re about ready to burst out of your skin.”
I always had the utmost control over my magic, but it was damn hard for me to scale it back. Whatever was happening, it was wreaking havoc with that too. Refusing to give up the search, I kept scanning the room as I answered, “I caught the barest hint of a scent, and it’s driving my dragon batshit crazy.”
“A scent?” Carrick echoed.
His knowing tone made my attention zero in on him. I should’ve been relieved that he might know what the fuck was going on, but instead, I was pissed off by the possibility he was as affected as I was. My voice was more animal than man when I snarled, “Do you smell it, too?”
“Nope.” He held up his hands in a placating gesture and took a few steps back. “If you were thinking more clearly, you’d get why that’s a clue to what’s going on.”
“Don’t fuck with me on this, Carrick,” I warned, my patience long gone before he even noticed anything was going on with me. “Tell me. Now.”
His lips tilted up in the smallest of grins before he answered, “You’re acting like a shifter who’s found their mate.”
Mate.My dragon roared to the surface at hearing the word come from the lips of a man we considered a friend, and one with a mate of his own. I’d always known that logic didn’t come into play when a shifter encountered the one fate intended to be theirs. But having never experienced it myself, I had apparently underestimated how powerful the impact could be. All it took was her scent in my nostrils, and it felt like the ground shifted under my feet. She was already the most important person in my world, and I hadn’t even laid eyes on her yet...but that was going to change damn soon if I had my way. And I would.
