High Rise Dragons, Volume One

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

T he windows weren’t clean.

Oh, Alistair DeBeque knew that Des had people for that. Well, he had a red panda shifter for that. Kumar was inhumanly efficient, but he needed to call the window washers.

They weren’t clean.

Alistair had never lived anywhere he couldn’t clean his own windows until he’d mated with Des. Now he lived in a high rise that had a launching pad on the roof and a heated pool in the basement with a sand pit to lay in and scrub his scales.

Everything he could ever want or need immediately at hand.

He put a hand on his belly, which was starting to get big now that he was in his final trimester. The windows were dirty. And his mate was not home.

Alistair sighed. When Des had been courting him, when they had first mated, things had been like a fairy tale.

The powerful businessman finding his mate among the worker bees and sweeping him off to live in riches.

They had made love every night and most mornings, Des had fed him decadent desserts with his own hand, and they had done everything together.

Then Alistair had caught pregnant, and Des had become a much more gentle lover, sitting with him and watching movies, napping with him, feeding him crackers when he was sick.

His third trimester had started, though, and Des had disappeared. He hardly ever came home, and when he did, it was just to change clothes.

He patted his belly. “Don’t worry, kiddo. We got this.” The baby was active, kicking and giving him terrible heartburn every day. And he knew it was a boy; he could hear the little voice singing to him now.

Too bad his alpha dad wasn’t there.

And the damn windows were dirty.

“Ah, Mr. Alistair. You are awake. Would you like some breakfast?” Kumar came into the room like a ghost, making him jump.

“Just some of that decaf tea and toast, Kumar. Thanks. Um, could you do me a favor?”

“Anything you wish, sir.”

He smiled at the butler, who was a sweet little man with a shock of red and white hair, his face unlined so it was impossible to tell how old he was. “Thanks. Can you get some window cleaners in?”

“Of course. I am sorry they don’t meet your standards.” Those reddish eyebrows gyrated madly.

“Oh, I just do a lot of standing around staring out of them.” He chuckled. “And now I sound like a whining whiner.”

Sympathy creased Kumar’s face. “I do not find you whiny, sir.”

“Oh good.” He laughed, stretching out his back. “All right. Toast and tea, and then I have a ton of work to do on the charity auction.”

“And I shall get the windows cleaned.”

“Thanks.” He headed to his little office, which was plush and bright and happy. He felt like a Regency novel wife, actually. Here, let me go to my morning room and do my correspondence and work on my charities while my husband is off doing what the hell ever he does all day…

“Ugh.” He sat at his desk, opening his computer. “Maybe I should email him. That way his assistant can at least tell him I’m so bored I’m ready to jump off the roof.”

He snorted at himself. “Such a drama llama. If he would ever come home, I would just tell him all this myself.”

Settling in, he opened his own emails, thanking Kumar when he brought tea and toast. Then he smiled when he saw an email from someone he considered a friend.

Lila might be an omega dragon from another clan, but their families were friendly, and they worked with the same charity.

“Meet me for lunch? I rented the back room at Luigi’s.”

He loved Luigi’s. And, while most humans would freak out at a pregnant man, if his driver dropped him off in the back, he could go meet her. Luigi’s was shifter owned.

So he shot back a text so she would know he was in, then went to change into a loose cardigan and a pair of sweats, so that way he could at least just look… chunky.

He slipped out of the penthouse, then rode the elevator down to the parking garage, where his driver smiled for him. “Where are we off to, sir?”

“Luigi’s.”

“Always an excellent choice.”

He settled in the back seat, checking his texts to make sure nothing else was going on, and thirty minutes later, they pulled up in the alley behind the restaurant.

He stepped out, grinning in at Kevin, the driver. “You should come on in and grab a plate. I’m talking charity with Lila in the back room.”

“Could be a while then.” Kevin laughed, stepping out of the car, and there was a terrible noise, a bang that made him think someone had hit a car behind them.

Then Kevin fell over, landing in the salad dressing mix of oil and water on the alley surface with a splat. His mouth dropped open, and he started around the car.

“Kevin! Are you o—Aaah!” Someone grabbed him, and he went stiff, his dragon roaring, trying to come to the surface. Which was when something metal clamped around his neck, sending shocks through his whole body.

“A magic dampening collar. No shifting for you, dragon. Come on. You have a date for lunch, and it’s not here.” A gag was shoved into his mouth.

He kicked and flailed, but the one asshole was joined by two more, and they trussed him up with zip ties before tossing him into the backseat of a car almost identical to the one he’d arrived in.

“Play nice, little dragon, and you’ll be home before you know it,” one of them said before tying a blindfold over his eyes.

And then they took off like a bat out of hell.