A Dragon's Treasure

2. The Whitlock Heir

LUKE

The dragon, now a man, barreled into the house like a bruiser in every sense of the word, like he knew how to throw a punch and dared anyone to ask for a demonstration, like an angry mutt fighting to establish dominance, like he could stain another's existence forever.

Luke found his voice underneath a pile of sadness. "Hey! I don't know who you are or who you think you are, but you're not welcomed in this house."

For the first time in a week, since he found out about Iris's surgery complications, Luke Whitlock was wide awake.

"And you fail to realize," the dragon hissed, grabbing Luke by his collar before slamming him against the front door. This guy either had a thing against Luke or a thing against doors. Probably both. "I'm not asking."

He was so close, the heat from his body burned Luke's eyes. Smoke seeped between the dragon's lips and from his ears. Luke grabbed his wrist, prying at it in vain. Behind the dragon, Luke caught the eyes of Kostas, the pixies, Astrid, and all the other creatures looking horrified and shaking their heads and hands to ward him to stop.

Luke ignored them.

Scowling, he snapped, "My grandmother wasn't a thief!"

This dragon just sneered. "But she kept secrets, didn't she?"

Luke's jaw tightened at this stranger throwing around accusations and insults. On today of all days. He was so angry, which was an odd change from utter misery and Luke wasn't sure how to wear it anymore. 

"Cassian Alwyn," someone spoke up, Iris's lawyer. "If you have a question about the Whitlock Estate, you should go through me and put Luke down, immediately."

Cassian turned without removing his hand. Luke struggled more, but it was like fighting a pillar crushing his chest. "And who are you supposed to be, vampire?"

Luke's eyebrow raised. He could tell from across the room?

She smiled, the only one not intimidated by the dragon or maybe just the only one who didn't show it. "Molly Evans, the lawyer."

"Just another term for blood sucker."

"Hilarious. Didn't know dragons had a sense of humor."

"Only the best ones."

"This is stimulating stuff," Luke muttered, yanking at Cassian's wrist. "But do you need to keep choking me?"

Cassian snapped another fierce look at him, his eyes narrowing on every inch of his face and the attention made him flush. In return, Cassian rolled his eyes and let Luke go. He landed on his jellified legs and his back landed hard on the door. Whimpering, Astrid came racing to his legs, throwing her arms around his leg and crying into his knee. "Luke! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, Astrid," Luke whispered and patted her head. "He's more bark than his bite."

He said it quiet enough for just her, but from the way Cassian glowered at him, he must've heard. Luke averted his eyes from the dragon to the lawyer, who placed her hands on her hips. "I was going to wait to read the Will, but obviously you can't." Her dark eyes grazed the crowd. "I'll only need Luke and Astrid for this. Lord Alwyn as well, if he insists."

When Luke took a step, so did Cassian and they bumped into each other. They stopped and Luke stared up at him with a huge question mark written across his face. He was so tall and so fierce. Out of all the people he had met, this one was the only one closer to being a beast.

#

CASSIAN

Luke.