Cato: House of Flames (Dragon Guardians Book 4) Read online

  He had to get into the city as quickly as he could to begin wooing Penelope immediately. He had watched all the romantic movies and studied them relentlessly as he had told the others to do. But now that it was his turn, he was at a complete loss.

  All he wanted to do was charge up to her and demand that she relieve the pounding, growling, screaming insistence of the dragon inside him. What he wouldn’t do to make it stop and to regain control of his mind.

  Cato was known for his thoughtful intelligent nature. And now he was just a fuzzy muddled mess. How could he ever woo this woman in the state? It would be impossible. He drove as fast as he could, pulling out onto the freeway.

  “Bethi,” he said to the AI through his mental link. “Scan the road for police. I need to get to the city as fast as I can, and the last thing I need is to be pulled over.”

  “You’re clear for the next fifty miles,” Bethi said.

  Cato pressed his foot into the accelerator and pulled into the fast lane. With both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road, he charged down the freeway as fast as he could. He had almost run into a farmer back on the road near the mansion, and he wasn’t going to let anything like that happen again. He had to stay focused. He had to stay clear. But his dragon would not relent.

  “Mate, mate, mate!” It screamed, screeching like the banshees of Baldos One.

  He palmed his eye, groaning. When he almost drifted into another lane, he grabbed the steering wheel and blinked repeatedly until he could gain enough control of himself to not kill anyone.

  He had not shifted into dragon form, for fear of what the beast might do if he had gained control over the body. No, that was not something he would let happen. He had to stay in his bipedal form, where his higher intellect had dominion. There was no way he would relinquish control to the beast.

  “Police cruiser in two miles,” Bethi said.

  Cato slowed to the speed limit as he approached the city. Soon he was making his way into town and driving off on an exit ramp. He drove along the city streets, following the map to Penelope’s location.

  “Approaching the main branch of the Seattle Public Library,” Bethi said. “Parking is on your right.”

  He pulled into the parking lot, drove up three stories, and found a spot. Grumbling, he climbed out of the Lamborghini, slammed the door closed and charged to the front door of the library.

  With teeth clenched and his head pounding, he examined the first floor of the library, looking for signs of the woman who was causing him all this trouble.

  “Where is your IT department located?” he asked the information desk.

  “Head of IT is on the second floor,” the clerk told him. “But IT has private offices. You can only see her by appointment.”

  “I’d like to make an appointment,” he said.

  “You’ll have to call her and make the appointment yourself,” the clerk said. “That isn’t my job.”

  Cato frowned and turned away, charging up the stairs to the second floor. Sunlight streamed into the library from a wall of windows, illuminating the books and the faces of the patrons. On the second floor, the window was lined with trees and plants that added a fresh greenery to the scene.

  Usually, Cato would be quite happy to be in a place of learning, where the wisdom and knowledge of the species was housed. He loved libraries. They were one of his favorite places in the universe. But today, all he felt was angry and disgusted at himself and everything else.

  He approached the information desk to ask about Penelope. The librarian behind the counter looked up at him over her reading glasses and pursed her narrow lips. Her thin mousey blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun and her white button up shirt had a tiny yellow stain on the collar that had probably been from mustard at lunch. The compulsion to scrub the mustard stain right off her shirt was nearly irresistible.

  “Does Penelope Baptiste work on this floor?” Cato asked in the politest tone he could possibly manage.

  “Oh yes,” she said, her voice tight and clipped. “Penelope’s office is on this floor.”

  “I need to speak with her,” Cato said.

  “You have to make an appointment, young man,” the woman said.

  “I don’t have time for that,” he said. “It’s an emergency.”

  “An IT emergency?” the woman asked, glancing at the phone.

  “Yes,” he said, trying to come up with a feasible lie. “It’s about your Internet security.”

  “Who are you with?” the librarian asked him.

  “I’m with the broadband company,” he said.

  “Where’s your uniform?” she asked.

  “I’m a consultant,” he barked. “I don’t wear a uniform.”

  He was in fact wearing a pair of khaki shorts, Converse tennis shoes, and a button down short-sleeved shirt. She looked him up and down and frowned.

  “I’ll tell Penelope you’re here,” the woman said, picking up the phone.

  “Thank you,” Cato said, trying to think of what he would say when she finally came out.

  “Penelope,” the woman said. “There is a young man here to see you. He says he’s with the broadband company. Yes. He said it’s about Internet security. Well, I don’t know. Okay good. Thank you.” She hung up the phone and let out a deep sigh. “Penelope will be right out.”

  “Good. This is very important,” he said.

  A moment later, a shadow of movement caught his eye between the stacks, and a picture of loveliness came walking toward him from between the aisles of books. His heart nearly stopped, and his dragon ceased its growling for half a second. Cato thought that he was having a heart attack and he might die. He gasped for breath, feeling his knees begin to buckle when Penelope approached him and cocked her head to the side. She offered him her hand.

  “Hello,” she said in a questioning tone. “I’m Penelope Baptiste. You’re with the broadband company?”

  “Yes,” he said, taking her hand. “I’m a freelance consultant who works on Internet security. I was running diagnostic protocols on the library system and found some disturbing anomalies.”

  “What kind of anomalies?” Penelope asked in a sharp tone.

  “It appears user information is leaking from the library system.”

  “That’s not possible,” Penelope said flatly, crossing her arms.

  “Oh, but it is,” Cato insisted.

  “How do you even know this?”

  “I work with the broadband company. I have access to your routers.”

  “I’m going to need more information.”

  “That’s why I came here today,” he said. “To give you more information.”

  She shook her head at him, dumbfounded. She didn’t believe him. Nor should she, he was talking nonsense. But he could tell she was concerned about the library security and was willing to speak with him just in case what he was saying was true. He had to go with that for now. Whatever he needed to do to be close to her. His dragon was slightly soothed by her presence. Instead of growling and screeching, it was cooing and purring. The incessant repetition of the word “mate” did not cease, but at least the mind-numbingly loud roaring had subsided.

  “I can show you if you could allow me access to your network,” he said.

  “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” she said, frowning. “You seem a bit unprepared.”

  “I came as fast as I could. There was no time to waste.”

  “This is a public library, not a nuclear power plant,” she said. “I’m not sure why you’re so agitated. But I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  His dragon reared up inside his mind, threatening to tear his entire psyche apart if he let her go. Penelope turned away and Cato thought that everything would be lost. But he saw a stray hair on the back of her sweater. As quickly as possible, he plucked the hair from her sweater and tucked it in the front pocket on his shirt.

  “I’ll be back,” he said. “And I’ll bring my research with me.”
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br />   “You do that,” she said waving at him without turning to look back.

  He gritted his teeth. He had made a bad impression. She thought he was an idiot or possibly insane. Now he had to go home, get one of his laptops, and have Bethi create something to back up at the crazy story he had just told her.

  At least he had found a DNA sample. Now he could prove or disprove once and for all that she was his fated mate. And maybe, if he proved she was not his mate, his dragon would leave him alone, and he could go back to his normal life. But if he she was his fated one, then he had a whole load of other trouble to deal with. He clenched his fist and tried to behave like a polite human being, which, of course he, wasn’t. He was angry dragon.

  Chapter 5

  “Back so soon?” Kian asked as Cato charged through the front door.

  “Where has he been?” Dax asked.

  “I don’t have time for this,” Cato said, rushing past them and down the stairs to the spaceship. “I have work to do.”

  Kian followed him into the ship as Cato began assembling computer equipment and fabricating a believable cover story using the ship’s AI and 3D printers.

  “What are you doing?” Kian asked.

  “I am running a mating analysis,” he said dropping the hair into a testing plate.

  “I understand that part,” Kian said, staring at Cato as he unplugged his human computers from their connections with the ship.

  “I have to go back. I have to come up with something believable. Unlike Aiden, I can think ahead when it comes to protecting my mate. I don’t plan to be sleeping in the rain.”

  “I heard that,” Aiden said, walking down the stairs.

  “What do you want, Aiden?” Cato said, gathering his computers onto an antigravity tray that he could take back to the car.

  “Dax said you were acting crazy. I needed to see it for myself.”

  Cato turned to Aiden and growled, bearing his teeth.

  “What do you plan to do, Cato?” Kian asked.

  “I’m renting an apartment across from her, and I am fabricating a job that will allow me to interact with her on a daily basis.”

  The 3D printer finished his IDs, and Bethi finished creating evidence of the bogus information lost from the library’s Internet servers. Cato breathe a sigh of relief as he shoved the ID in his pocket.

  “You’re going to a lot of trouble for a woman you don’t even know is your mate yet,” Aiden said, crossing his arms and smirking. “Weren’t you the one who has been the most adamant about waiting for the mating analysis?”

  “That is irrelevant,” Cato said, taking his antigravity tray of computers up the stairs.

  Aiden and Kian followed behind him into the living room where Dax, Winnifred, Aria, and Everly were all sitting around playing with baby Ember. Dax chortled. Everly asked him if he was okay. Aria sang a few notes of her magical song, bolstering his power. Kian asked him if he needed anything. And Aiden grumbled something under his breath that Cato couldn’t hear. Arms crossed, Cato frowned at them.

  “I understand your concern,” Cato said. “But it’s unnecessary. I am perfectly capable of conducting myself in a calm and professional manner. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to make my mate believe I’m with the broadband company.”

  He left the mansion and loaded his equipment into the back of the SUV. It was a more reasonable car for an IT consultant. The Lamborghini may be less believable.

  “Hey,” Everly said, standing in the doorway holding Ember. “That’s our favorite car.”

  “There are plenty of other cars,” Cato said, yanking open the driver side door.

  Everly turned and disappeared into the house and was replaced in the doorway by Kian.

  “Are you sure everything is all right?” Kian asked, approaching him.

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” Cato asked.

  “All of us have been affected by the mating impulse.”

  “I can’t be sure that is what I’m experiencing. Not until I have a completed mating analysis!”

  “It is,” Kian said. “Trust me.”

  “Perhaps. But I am capable of controlling my impulses.”

  “We all thought that. Until it happened to us.”

  “I’ll be fine. My mate will be fine. I have a plan in place that will allow me to be close to her and continue my research. Each time one of us finds our mates, we learn a little more. It should be much easier for me than it was for the rest of you.”

  “Well, if you need anything,” Kian said. “Don’t hesitate to let us know.”

  “I have this under control,” Cato said reaching out to close the door.

  “All right then. Good luck.”

  Cato pulled out of the parking lot and sped down the driveway. He was back in town shortly after, unloading his things into the furnished apartment he rented across the street from Penelope’s home. He had time to spare before Penelope got off her shift. So, he prepared his computers, his ID, and his cover story before driving back to the library.

  He approached the same information desk he had been so rudely rejected from earlier that day and flashed his fake ID.

  “I need to see Penelope Baptiste about information leaks from the library’s computer system,” he said to the librarian at the information desk.

  The woman rolled her eyes and picked up the phone. “Penelope, that guy with the broadband company is back.”

  “Penelope says she’ll be right out,” the woman said to him, hanging up the phone.

  A moment later, Penelope emerged from her office and strode down the stacks toward him.

  “You were right,” Penelope said, shaking her head. “I did a complete rundown of our dataflow through the Internet, and I did find some evidence of leakage.”

  Cato had made sure to have Bethi leave digital evidence that Penelope could find. It was already paying off.

  “I tried to find the source of the problem myself,” she said. “But every time I dug deeper, I couldn’t actually find where the leak originated.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of. I’ve brought my equipment. I’ll have to reconfigure your routers.”

  “All right,” she said.

  “I need to see your main hub.”

  “In the basement,” she said. “Come with me.”

  She led him downstairs into a room full of servers and watched him as he went about fixing a problem that had never existed in the first place. He had alien technology millions of years more advanced than humans. But pulling it off with her watching over his shoulder proved to be challenging.

  “You’re updating our security protocols?” she asked, staring at his laptop screen.

  “Yes,” he said. “Right after I reset all your routers.”

  “I still don’t understand how this happened.”

  “Even the best of the best can make mistakes.”

  “I never make mistakes,” she said, crossing her arms. “Not like this.”

  Cato felt bad that he had made her question herself. But it was the only way he could think of to get close to her. He’d lied when he was back at the mansion with the other dragons. He’d come up with his excuses in the moment. And admittedly, they weren’t the best.

  “It’s all fixed,” he said, closing his laptop. “There shouldn’t be a problem now. I’ll continue monitoring the situation. I’ll let you know if I see any further issues.”

  “Well, I’m glad you caught it before it got worse.”

  “That’s why I’m here. You may see me in the library over the next few weeks. It is easier for me to monitor the new security protocols from inside the building.”

  “Great,” Penelope said as they took the elevator back to the main floor.

  “I’ll be going now,” he said, stepping toward the front door.

  “Could you possibly teach me what you’re doing?” she asked. “I’ve never seen code like that. Except…”

  A rush of panic rose in his chest. Had he just exposed himself? Penelope had hacke
d into his computers, she’d seen his code, of course she would recognize it. The lure of spending more time with her it was greater than his need to keep the secret of his origins.

  “Yes. We could meet up later if you’d like,” he said.

  “I’m off now,” she said. “You could come back to my place.”

  Chapter 6

  Penelope wasn’t in the habit of asking men back to her apartment. But Cato’s code was magnificent. It almost reminded her of what she had seen in that database she’d hacked. But that wasn’t possible was it? She was suspicious, but she needed to know more about his code. Her curiosity overrode everything else. When she’d first encountered him, she thought he was a crazy person off the street. A hot, sexy, crazy person. Until she’d analyzed her systems herself and found the leaks he had been talking about. When he came back to the library later that day, she was relieved.

  As they walked across the street and caught the bus to her apartment, they chatted casually about work and their lives. And she looked over at his face in the dim light of the bus as the sun set over Puget Sound. Cato was not only supremely intelligent, immensely talented, and somewhat mysterious, he was also drop-dead gorgeous. A combination that made Penelope weak in the knees. Bringing the weird broadband guy home to talk about code counted as a date, right? She’d have to ask Candice in the morning.

  They went upstairs to her apartment and she opened the door to let him inside. She had mace in her drawer and her cell phone set to speed dial 911 in case he really was a psycho. But she was a grown-up, she could bring someone like Cato home with her if she wanted.

  “Excuse the mess,” she said stepping over yesterday’s newspaper.

  “You have a nice place,” Cato said looking around.

  “I inherited it from my great aunt. My sister and I used to live here together.”

  “Used to?” Cato asked.

  “My sister’s been missing for a week. I reported it to the police almost immediately. And then twenty-four hours later, and again the next morning. Within forty-eight hours of her disappearance, they closed her missing persons case, claiming that she had decided to drop out of society. It’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard. My sister would never do that.”