January, present day
Dmitri breathed in deeply as he entered the warehouse. The smooth, dry peat smell accented with oak filled his senses. Whisky.
It wasn’t just Dreagan’s major source of income. It was the essence of the land and the people. Every time he walked the warehouses where the oak cask barrels were stored, he felt pride in what they did.
He let his fingers trail over the barrels that had been maturing for seventy-five years as he moved down the rows. His mouth watered at the thought of sampling the Scotch. Stopping at the end of a row, he put his hand on the oaken barrel and squatted down beside it.
“Anxious, I see.”
He looked up to see Constantine walking toward him. “Aye,” Dmitri answered and straightened.
While the world might know Dreagan Industries as the global leader in Scotch sales, there was much more to those who lived on the sixty thousand acres than anyone realized.
For starters, they weren’t human. They were dragons able to shift into the form of mortals and live among them.
But as with any story, it wasn’t so cut and dry as that. Dmitri blew out a breath when Con reached him. The men at Dreagan were Dragon Kings—leaders of each of their dragon races.
As their leader, Con ensured that their true identities remained secret from the world. However, that was becoming more and more problematic.
One of their enemies—the Dark Fae—had secretly videoed the Kings in battle with the Dark. The subsequent release of said video showing the Kings shifting multiple times had caused a worldwide sensation—and brought the attention of every military and government agency around the globe.
“What’s wrong?” Dmitri asked, noting the worry in the depths of Con’s black eyes.
Con twisted the gold dragon head cufflink at his left wrist. “There’s a matter I need you to attend to.”
“Name it.”
“I’m sending you to Fair Isle.”
For a moment, Dmitri didn’t breathe. “Now isna the time for more of us to leave. Asher is still in Paris at the World Whisky Consortium. No’ to mention Anson, Kinsey, Henry, and Esther are about to head to investigate Kyvor.”
It seemed that the Kings had adversaries coming at them from all sides. The Dark Fae and humans, but the most troubling was a banished Dragon King, Ulrik.
He was the instigator of most of the things happing at Dreagan. Unfortunately, so far, Ulrik remained one step ahead of them.
“I agreed with Ryder that in order to find out who from Kyvor sent Kinsey and Esther, the girls had to go there and infiltrate the offices,” Con explained.
Dmitri still couldn’t believe that Ryder wasn’t going to be with his mate, Kinsey. Then again, as a computer mastermind, Ryder could keep an eye on Kinsey from behind his rows of monitors.
“They’re all mortals,” Dmitri reminded Con.
Con raised a blond brow. “Both Henry and Esther have sworn to aid us, and Kinsey is Ryder’s mate.”
“But the ceremony hasna been done, which means she’s no’ immortal yet.”
“No one is more aware of that than Ryder. Frankly, right now, we can use them. Until Vaughn takes care of the legal papers to get MI5 and the news crews off Dreagan, our wings are clipped.”
“I ken that. But we also know that whoever used magic on Kinsey and Esther to turn them against us can do it again.”
“Ryder will protect Kinsey, and Henry will look after his sister. Asher is doing fine in Paris, so there is no reason for you no’ to go to Fair Isle.”
Dmitri’s heart missed a beat. It had been so very long since he was last there. Would it be the same? Would he even recognize it? “What’s happening on the tiny isle?”
He hoped it was Dark Fae. He was ready to kill more of those bastards. The Kings were still cleaning up the mess those evil shites had made on Halloween across the UK.
“I got a call from MacLeod Castle today.”
That caused Dmitri to worry because, for the most part, those at the castle had remained out of the war. If they had reached out, then something must really be wrong. Thankfully, the Warriors and Druids were allied with the Kings. Each group had helped the other out several times.
“Have the Dark finally found the Warriors?” he asked.
Con gave a shake of his surfer-boy blond hair and adjusted the sleeves of his dress shirt before slipping his hands into the pockets of his pants. “In some ways, that would be better.”
Better? This wasn’t going to be good. An ominous feeling ran down Dmitri’s spine like the fingers of Fate. There was no getting out of it—not that he would even try. “Spit it out.”
“The call came from Ronnie.”
The foreboding increased, twisting until it grew into a tight knot in the pit of his stomach. “Dr. Reid? Is she in trouble? Is she on a dig at Fair Isle?”
“She’s well. Everyone at MacLeod Castle is fine. But there is a dig on the isle. Ronnie received a text from a fellow archeologist and friend about a recent find.”
Dmitri folded his arms across his chest. It was Veronica Reid’s “find” that had brought the immortal Warriors into her life, allowing her and Arran to fall in love.
As a Druid, Ronnie was able to locate hidden treasures beneath the ground, which had brought her to the attention of the Warriors to begin with.
“What find?” Dmitri demanded.
Con’s gaze was steady, his face set in hard lines. Then he delivered the killing blow. “A dragon skeleton.”