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bsp; Bram paused and finally said, “Tell Aaron he’s not welcome home until your clan is safe again. If you agree, of course.”
“I can keep him locked in a room…”
Bram grinned. “Under normal circumstances, I’d agree with your way of thinking.” He sobered. “However, you need his help. Trust me. Once Aaron knows I’m serious about the assignment, he’ll focus. Just make sure not to go overboard with asserting your dominance.” She opened her mouth but he beat her to it. “It has nothing to do with you being female. You’ve kept your clan together for a few years. You clearly have skill. Aaron’s father tried to use dominance to scare him and his mother into submission when he was a child. It still affects him today.”
Her dragon spoke again. That explains a lot.
She ignored her beast. “He isn’t going to like that you told me about his father.”
“I’m trusting you with this, O’Shea. You’ve been dealing with males your whole life and are more than familiar with their egos than most, especially since assuming leadership. Handle Aaron as one of your own and everything will work out.”
“I’ll try. But you’re still sending someone else?”
“Aye, Aaron’s usual Protector partner is out for a bit since his mate just had a baby boy. I think I’ll send Sebastian Randall. He’s young, but determined and grounded. He’s taken orders from a female before, so he shouldn’t be a problem. He also knows Brenna well since they served in the army together. I’ll let you know once Sebastian is on his way.”
“Thank you. And I promise that once this is taken care of, I’ll keep up my end of the bargain.”
Bram wanted one of her clan members to pretend to defect and seek out the dragon-shifter traitors hiding out in the Scottish wilderness. That way they could infiltrate the group from the inside and take them down.
Bram replied, “That is a long-term plan, and your clan member would have to wait a few months anyway since we can’t have too many dragons joining at a time or it’ll make the rogue dragons suspicious.”
“Then if there’s nothing else, I need to prep my clan for the challenges and/or attacks I know are coming.”
Bram nodded. “You’ll succeed. Maybe once you do, we can finally meet in person, on an equal footing. Then I could convince Brenna to come home and maybe one or two of your clan members to foster on Stonefire.”
“It’s a possibility, but let’s deal with all of the crap brewing here first. Besides, Brenna is in no rush to return. Not even your charm will change her mind, I think,” Teagan replied.
Bram snorted. “I’m not surprised. There are too few female dragon-shifter role models. I hope you’ll groom her into a fine female who might one day take over leadership here or even there.”
She wanted to bottle up Bram’s acceptance of a female leader and scatter it over Ireland, or even the world. However, that was impossible. Only hard work and strength would keep the others away and possibly change hearts and minds. “Thank you, Bram. I’ll check with you in a few days. I hope my report on Aaron will be better then.”
“I have faith in you, O’Shea. See you then.”
Her screen went black and she leaned back in her chair.
She hoped Bram was right about Aaron. She had done her homework on him before he’d visited her clan the first time. He was capable, most everyone liked him, and he’d recently interacted with two of Northcastle’s Protectors in Scotland. On paper, he should’ve been exactly what she needed to assist Glenlough with reaching out to Clan Northcastle.
The reality was proving quite different.
Knowing his past did help her understand him a little, even if Bram had been a bit vague. Maybe she could steer him toward being more involved and trusting her, all without revealing she knew about his father’s actions in the first place.
Her beast grunted. We’ll do fine. He’s not the first dragon-shifter to have a less than happy past. Once you fix him, you might see him as I do and want to kiss him.
Just no. Both to the kissing and fixing him. All I need are his skills as a Protector and his former contact with Northcastle.
You can believe that if you wish.
Her dragon’s hints told her more than she wanted to know about how Aaron Caruso could play into her future.
However, she would figure out how to deal with that later. For the moment, she needed to prepare for the attacks she knew would come. She only hoped another civil war amongst the Irish dragon-shifter clans wasn’t brewing.
Chapter Three
Aaron sat in a chair outside a small jail cell used for minor offenses. Inside it was a sleeping twenty-something male. The younger dragon-shifter had apparently started a fight that had destroyed some property and was cooling off until morning.
All night Aaron had sat in the chair with nothing but coffee to keep him awake. He wasn’t sure why they’d taken his mobile phone since there wasn’t much of a threat in the small room that would require his attention and focus, but the long night had given him a lot of time to think, as well as plenty of chances to argue with his beast.
His dragon spoke up. Do you agree with my line of thinking now?
