Free Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) by Anna Lowe Page A

some developed rivalries, most accepted one another. Witches, though, were seen as outsiders — as different, the way vampires were.
    Her chin dipped. Did he really want to hear her family history? Shit, it looked like he did. She decided on the short version and resolved to keep emotion out of it.
    “My mother is a dragon. Her first mate was a dragon, too, and they had my sister, Kaya.”
    Tanner nodded but didn’t say a word. Barely breathed, it seemed.
    “But he was killed in a battle, and a few years later, my mom, well… She hooked up with a warlock for a little while. My father.”
    Tanner’s inscrutability terrified her, but she plunged on. Surely he wouldn’t reject her for parentage she couldn’t control?
    “The dragon half of the family refused to accept him, and eventually, he left.” She forced her voice to be steady as she tried to skip over the bitterest memories. Her mother’s tears, her father’s angry glare when he’d left. The loneliness she’d felt as an outsider in her own family. The only one who’d loved her unconditionally was her mother’s father, the wisest, kindest dragon who’d ever lived. He was the one who’d encouraged summer visits to her father, saying,
Family is family
and,
Who knows? You might learn a thing or two.
    And she had learned. A hell of a lot, in fact, though she’d never had the propensity for magic her witchfolk cousins had. Just as she’d never had the full powers of her dragon kin.
    Jack of all trades.
Her grandfather would smile and pat her head.
    She used to tack a few bitter words on under her breath.
Master of none.
She couldn’t fly, and she was only a second-rate witch. What good was that?
    The spoon shook in her hand, so she put it down. Slammed it down, practically, and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the voices that taunted her in her head.
    You can’t even fly.
    You can’t even do a proper spell.
    You’re a mutt, you know that?
    Then something warm and strong closed over her hand, and all those thoughts turned tail and fled.
    “Hey,” Tanner whispered, stroking her skin with his thumb, looking at her in a completely different way.
    She blinked until the scratchy sensation in her eyes went away. Then she rattled on with the story like an out of control train, because words were better than tears, right?
    “I spent some time with my grandfather before he died, and he told me all the old dragon stories.” There were hundreds of them, stretching back over eons, back to the beginning of time. Tales of knights and castles and battles fought and won. Tales of great prizes and brave deeds. She fought to stay focused as she spoke because it was all too easy to picture long winter nights in a cabin with Tanner and a crackling fire, where she could recount all of the stories from beginning to end.
    “My grandfather had only seen the Blood Diamond once — as a child, before it was stolen by vampires in World War II. He said his only regret was that he’d never been able to track it down.”
    “Blood Diamond?” Tanner’s eyebrows went up. “I thought that was a vampire thing.”
    She snorted. “They wish. The name comes from the story that the dragon who found it originally washed it with a drop of her own blood. That’s what gave it that special tint, that shine.” She nearly squinted, picturing the gem when she’d held it up to the moonlight in the penthouse she’d broken into. The brightest, clearest, most precious diamond she’d ever seen.
    “I spent a long time researching the Blood Diamond, trying to track it down. And for ages, I came up with nothing.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “Until one day, out of nowhere, I came across an ad for an auction.”
    Tanner pointed at her as if he knew exactly what she was talking about. “The auction here in Vegas a month ago?”
    “Exactly. An auction advertising incredible riches brought to light for the first time.”
    “Including the Blood Diamond,” he said.
    “Including the