Free Dragons' Bond by Berengaria Brown

her find to her chest, and nodded. She was about to speak to the dragons then forced her mouth closed. Crevan, Daegan, Graegor, and Penllyn were here, too. She pulled the pair of dragons across the desk so they were right in front of her. Up until now, she hadn’t even realized one of them was a female. She was made of limestone too, but her colorings were more yellowy, whereas the lines on the male were more amber and bronze.
    “I’ll be back after lunch. Hopefully I can work more on you this afternoon,” she promised the female. She wasn’t willing to risk saying anymore, but Mallory wanted her to know she cared.
    Mallory ran up the stairs to her apartment, wondering what Angus had provided for lunch. She smiled. Lunch was simply an excuse. She just wanted to tell him, tell all of them, about the paper she’d found.
    A thick slice of crusty bread was waiting in her place at the table, and as she arrived, Angus served a bowl of delicious-smelling soup and carried it to her. “Yum. Pumpkin soup,” she said. Then she laughed as he brought the serving bowl of soup over for himself.
    “Your bowls are too small,” he rationalized, cutting himself two thick slices of bread.
    She inhaled the rich, spicy fragrance of the soup then ate. So much for not being hungry. She seemed to do nothing but eat around these men. Maybe it was all the sexy exercise she was getting lately.
    But after several mouthfuls, she pulled the sheet of paper from her jeans pocket and said, “Read that. It explains so many things.”
    “Hmmff?” Angus looked at her.
    “Just read it.”
    At first Angus’s spoon moved smoothly up and down from his bowl to his mouth as he read. Then it stopped midway as he concentrated on the paper. “Tanner had a daughter.”
    “Who fell in love with a shape-shifting dragon.”
    “So he established this museum as a home for her and a hobby for himself forty years ago. And everything worked perfectly until someone discovered his secret.”
    “I’m betting that someone was Teivel, or a person who told Teivel,” interjected Mallory.
    “But where is his daughter now? Why didn’t she come forward when he died? Is she in hiding, or too scared, or what?”
    “She’s a limestone dragon sitting on the desk in the back storeroom with her husband. You didn’t tell me humans could become dragons. And I’m betting she can’t shift back, because Teivel or someone is blocking her from making the change.”
    “Those damn oak dragons! Were they near her?” Angus dropped his spoon and stared at Mallory.
    “Yes, they were. And they are now, too, since I moved them out into the back storeroom when I couldn’t find their provenance. But there would have been a couple days between when I put Tanner’s daughter and her husband out there and when I moved the oak dragons out there. I wonder why she didn’t shift then.”
    “We can ask her. After lunch, bring her up to your office. Tell her you’re going to do her paperwork, so Crevan and his cohorts don’t get suspicious. Hopefully, when she’s that far away from them, she can shift and tell us what’s going on.”
    “You’re assuming she’s the victim here. What if she’s on Teivel’s side and tells him about you?”
    “You’re a smart woman. I hadn’t thought of that, but of course parents argue with their children all the time. But why after forty years?”
    “I think I need to keep going through that filing cabinet this afternoon to see if there’s anything more about her. If everything seems genuine, I’ll bring her up this evening. Well, her and her husband. I guess I need to keep them together.”
    “In that case, wait until almost dark before you bring them, so Mark and William will be here as well for backup in case the two of them are working for Teivel.”
    “Good plan. You three need to tell me about humans becoming dragons, too.”
    “All right. I’m not avoiding the issue. I just think all three of us need to be present for that