Chapter 3
Chapter Three
The next morning, Emily woke up to light filtering through the curtains, and she frowned before checking her phone.
Crap. She’d overslept. Dr. Keith’s clinic opened at nine, and it was already nine-thirty. She rushed to get ready and flew down the stairs. She reached the door before a male voice said, “You must be Emily.”
She shrieked and turned around to see two dragonmen who looked like mirror copies of each other, with pale skin, brown hair and brown eyes. Was she still half-asleep?
One of them chuckled before saying, “Aye, we’re identical twins. But I’m not your flatmate, my brother Roman is. I’m Ross Baillie, and sadly, I’m happily mated already. Roman here is trying to catch up to his younger brother.”
Roman sighed. “You are younger by about ten minutes.”
“Two hundred years ago, that ten minutes would’ve made a massive difference.”
“But it’s not two hundred years ago, and we’re not royalty or some such shite.”
“There used to be dragon royalty, so don’t slag off the likes of Queen Alviva.”
As the two argued about dragon-shifter history, Emily blinked. Was everyone on Seahaven so outrageous with strangers?
She cleared her throat, but they didn’t hear her. So she clapped her hands until she had their undivided attention and said, “Yes, I’m Emily. But I’m late, so we’ll have to postpone our little chat for later.”
“Oh, Daniel won’t mind. He has a young son and is often a wee bit late himself,” the dragonman she believed to be Ross said.
The other one came forward and made a shooing motion. “As your new flatmate—I’m Roman, if you lost track, as most do—I’m kicking you out to go to work.” He lowered his voice dramatically. “It’s the only way to escape Ross’s blathering.”
“I heard that.”
Roman ignored his brother and guided Emily the rest of the way to the door.
“You’ll be home for dinner, aye? We should all sit down and get to know each other.
Adam’s still who-knows-where, but Kaya and I will be here.
Ross will be busy drooling over his mate, so you won’t have to sit wondering who is who the entire night. ”
Ross snorted. “You act as if drooling over Natalie is a bad thing.”
Roman opened the door and gently herded Emily out. “Do you know the way to the surgery? Oh, look—Cam’s here. You’ll take her, won’t you?”
Dread pooled in her belly as she turned and saw Cam, jaw still like granite, striding toward them. He nodded. “Dr. Keith sent me to fetch her.”
Her cheeks heated. “I’m not a stick to fetch and throw back.”
Roman arched an eyebrow, glanced at Cam, and shrugged. “Enjoy, Emily. I think you have this handled.”
The door shut behind her, and for a few beats, she and Cam merely stared at one another.
In the daylight, his hair glinted a mixture of red, bronze, and amber. The early signs of stubble on his face were darker, though, and she wondered what color it would be grown out.
Not that she needed to see him with more facial hair. She didn’t care one way or the other.
Sure, all dragon-shifters were too attractive for their own good, but she’d become mostly immune to their genetic lotteries.
Besides, she was short and curvy, didn’t bother with makeup, and wasn’t the most outgoing of people to begin with.
It wasn’t as if he’d think of her as anything but a bothersome outsider.
Why am I even thinking about this? Ignore his good looks and focus on your reason for being here.
Cam motioned with his head. “Come with me. Seahaven is small, and whilst you could probably figure it out for yourself, I’ll give you a quick tour and point things out as we go.”
He turned and walked away, not bothering to check if she followed. Emily rushed to catch up to his longer strides.
He must’ve noticed, because he slowed down a bit, so she at least didn’t have to almost jog.
Silence stretched, but she was fine with that. After working so many years with…
No. She was determined not to think of him.
Instead, she took a good look around as they walked.
Seahaven sat nearly half a mile from the cliff’s edge, but she could still see the sea stretching out into the distance. Even with the clouds in the sky, the vast expanse stole her breath away.
Emily had grown up in and around Cardiff, and while there had been the Bristol Channel, it wasn’t very wide and most of the time you could see England on the other side.
She wished she’d looked up the names of everything in the area, but she’d focused so much on the data and supplies she’d needed for this trip that she hadn’t had time. So she asked, “What’s the name of the water there?”
He gestured to the left. “That’s Farr Bay.” He gestured to the right. “That’s Bettyhill Cove. Further to the east is the North Sea, and above is the Atlantic Ocean.”
She blinked. “That’s a lot of names.”
He shrugged. “Blame it on the mapmakers.”
Her lips twitched. “I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Then how about the explorers? Or the arrogant arses who named things after themselves?”
“Says a Scot. A lot of you are Mac-something, the son of such-and-such.”
“Touché. But doesn’t Wales name things with long, unpronounceable names on purpose?”
“Welsh is beautiful. It’s not my fault if you can’t understand it.”
Damn. There went her mouth again. What was it about Cam Alexander that made her lose her manners?
He didn’t seem upset, though, and merely said, “Fair enough. Since I struggled with the old dragon language, Mersae, in school, I’ll confess that other languages aren’t one of my strengths.”
She was about to tease that was why he grunted a lot, but held back. She could behave and needed to work on it.
Thankfully Cam pointed out the general store, small eatery, school, and a few other shops on Seahaven.
Apparently they traded a lot with the neighboring villages and towns, explaining how there were so few humans or dragon-shifters in Sutherland that they had no choice but to get along.
Seahaven helped the nearby humans with emergencies and had slowly earned their trust over the years.
The whole thing fascinated Emily. So little was known about Clan Seahaven, and she wondered how Melanie Hall-MacLeod would tell their story, if given the chance. She’d done a brilliant job with her first book about dragon-shifters, and Emily hoped Melanie would write another one soon, too.
They approached a long, single-story building set back from the rest of the clan. Cam gestured to the large, square area surrounded by high rock walls. “That’s the landing area. It’s easier for the doctor to look at injured dragons if they can land right behind the surgery.”
She nodded. “Since Stonefire’s bigger, they have a few landing areas. But Seahaven probably only needs one.”
He snorted. “You drove here and saw how uninhabited it is. Almost everywhere is a potential landing area.”
She was about to ask if the humans were okay with them landing anywhere when they reached the clinic.
Kaya rushed out wearing scrubs and said, “I’m sorry, Emily!
I probably should’ve woken you up, but Dr. Keith knew you must’ve been exhausted, and so I let you sleep.
Just know that I wouldn’t leave without you in the future, if we’re to start at the same time. ”
The dragonwoman’s pupils flashed to slits and back a few times, and Emily wondered if it was because of distress. She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. As long as Dr. Keith doesn’t think the worst of me, then it’s fine.”
“No, no, of course not. Your research papers are brilliant, according to the doctor.” She glanced at Cam. “Thanks, Cam. I’ll take her inside.”
He nodded, and before Emily could thank him for the tour, he strode away.
Kaya spoke again. “Cam has his ways, but he’d risk his life to save anyone on Seahaven. So don’t let his borderline rudeness bother you.”
“Oh, he was nice on the way here, telling me about Seahaven.” She glanced over her shoulder, at the sea. “It’s so beautiful.”
The wind blew, and she shivered. Kaya laughed. “Aye, it’s bonnie but the wind off the water could freeze a dragon’s bollocks off. Now, come on. Let me introduce you to Daniel and the rest of the staff. We’re small, but dedicated.”
And as Kaya guided her inside, Emily pushed everything else aside and focused on making a good impression.
Cam went through the motions of doing perimeter checks, watching drills of his small four-person team, and reviewing all the CCTV feeds to ensure nothing had been tampered with.
However, he struggled to focus, his mind constantly drifting back to the image of Dr. Davies’ mouth hanging open as she stared at the sea with wonder.
His dragon spoke up. This morning, Emily outshone the sea.
What are you talking about? And she’s Dr. Davies.
No, Emily is better. And don’t pretend you didn’t stare at the wind whipping her hair around her face, the cool air making her cheeks pink. She was bonnie.
Refusing to go down that route with his dragon, he said, Focus, dragon. We need to meet with Euan to discuss his upcoming meeting with Lochguard.
His dragon huffed. We’ve gone over that before, and it’s no different than in the past. You’re allowed to think of things outside of work.
I do. However, this visit will be different because it’s the first time after the birth of Finn and Arabella’s fourth child, and they’re taking extra precautions.
Through his mother, Cam had learned about the birth of Finn’s third son. Which, of course, meant Cam’s mother had merely looked at him and asked if she’d ever be a furbaby grandparent, let alone one to a child.
Not that Cam had time for pets, let alone mates and children.
His dragon sighed but didn’t say anything.
As he strode toward Euan’s home, he spotted Ross Baillie walking toward him. He waved and hoped to keep going, but of course not—the Baillie twins loved to talk.
Ross said, “Hello, Cam. Are you off to meet with the new human female again? I like her, and I think Roman might be interested in her, too. Since all the human females in these parts have rejected him, it might be his last hope at finding a mate.”