“What’s going on?” another woman called from behind the two strangers. She pushed forward, stopping to stare in surprise at Rowan and Sophea. “Sorry we’re late. Drake insisted on checking the boat for demons before he let me aboard, which is silly because I could have told him that there weren’t any here.”

“Hello, standin’ right next to you,” a large black dog said, plopping his butt down next to the latest newcomer. The dog tipped his head to consider Rowan. “Wow. New dragon. And a mate, huh? Did I miss any hot mate-claiming action?”

“What on the good green earth is that?” Sophea asked in a near shriek, pointing toward the cluster of people.

Rowan was having a hard enough time trying to keep all the wyverns under his intense scrutiny without having to explain to Sophea that some demons choose to pick nonhuman forms, as the dog clearly had.

As it turned out, it wasn’t the dog she questioned.

“Hi, everyone, we’re here! Connie and Bee will be right along. Did we miss any of the good explanations of what happened? Jim! Long time no see, buddy. Excuse me, Mr. Drake. Miss Aisling, would you mind scooting just a smidgen to the left? Connie got me this fabulous new set of solar-powered wheels and what with the cup holder and solar array, it has a bigger footprint.” A disembodied head sitting on a radio-controlled jeep rolled forward, the joystick control within easy reach of the head’s mouth.

Sophea stared at it as it stopped in front of the crowd, her eyes doing a remarkable approximation of bugging out in horror. “What. Is. It?” she asked in little panting gasps.

Rowan took the chance that the wyverns were not going to try to steal her from him and glanced down. “It’s a head.”

Sophea pinched his arm. “I can see it’s a head, silly.”

“Then what was the purpose in you questioning me?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Can’t you see I’m busy trying to keep all those wyverns from jumping on you?”

She turned to face him. “I asked because it’s not a sight you see every day, now is it? I mean, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a disembodied head riding around in a toy jeep. No, I lie, I can count on one finger!”

Rowan was confused by the ire in her voice. He frowned at her to let her know that he didn’t appreciate her distracting him when he was doing the important job of keeping her from being stolen by all the wyverns present.

“And furthermore—wait, what? Who’s going to jump me?” She stopped looking annoyed and switched to confused. “Is that why you’re being ‘Mr. I’m Going to Stand in Front of You’? Because if it is, you can just knock it off. I’m not a weakling who needs to be protected. I’m mostly a dragon, remember? I kicked a demon through a window.”

“Whoa now,” the demon dog said, backing away from where it had been sniffing her knees. “Let’s have none of that sort of talk around here.”

“It is my job to protect you,” Rowan said, self-righteousness all but oozing from him. He waved a hand at the still-growing number of wyverns and their mates gathered at the entrance of the cabin. “I don’t know most of these people. Do you? No, I didn’t think so. Therefore, I am fully within my rights to protect you from them.”

“I don’t need protecting,” she objected, waving at the mass of wyverns just waiting to pounce on her. Or so it seemed to Rowan. “No one here cares one hoot about me.”

“Oh, we care,” May said, smiling. “But not the way that Rowan evidently thinks.”

“Most certainly not in that manner,” Gabriel agreed, his gaze narrowed on Rowan. “Ah, that would explain much.”

The other men were examining him in the same manner, which made Rowan feel itchy, annoyed, and oddly antagonistic. He thought seriously of treating each and every one of them to a sound beating.

“Indeed,” the wyvern named Drake said, nodding. “A new dragon.”

“A new wyvern,” the man with the blond woman said. “That makes it even worse.”

“Much worse,” Gabriel said, with yet another nod, and a somewhat sympathetic smile. “And if Sophea is his mate—”

“We’ll be lucky to get out of here without him challenging us all to physical combat,” Drake finished.

“Is that a slur?” Rowan asked, his desire to get rid of the wyverns almost overwhelming. “Because if it is, you’re on. All of you. At the same time if you like.”

“What the hell, dude?” Sophea asked, pulling on his arm until he glanced at her. “What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like the world’s biggest ass?”

“Don’t blame him. It’s not really his fault,” May told her. “Wyverns get this way about their mates when they’re new—the mates, not the wyvern—and in Rowan’s case, he’s got both things going against him.”

“I don’t fight women,” Rowan told May, her attention to Sophea generating the direst of suspicions. “But if you have designs on Sophea—”

May laughed at the same time that Sophea whapped him on the arm. “Right, that’s it. It’s bad enough you acting possessive when you have absolutely no right to do so, but to extend that idiocy to May, of all people, is just beyond enough. Stop it. Stop it right now, and continue to stop it in the future.”

“Hiya,” the head said in a chipper voice, smiling up at Sophea, and thankfully for Rowan’s peace of mind, distracting everyone from staring at her. “I’m Gary. It’s Gareth, really, but no one ever calls me that. You’re a dragon, too? Everyone is a dragon these days. Or at least a mate of one.”

“I have every right,” Rowan told Sophea. “It’s my job to protect you.”

“First of all,” Sophea said with an odd expression on her face. It was as if she couldn’t make up her mind whether to laugh or to yell. “Your perception of rights is way off base. Just because we’ve done the sheet tango doesn’t mean I’m suddenly helpless.”

“Rowan, there you are! Hello, you must be May and Gabriel. We haven’t met before, but I’ve heard about you from Aisling and Ysolde. I’m Bee, Rowan’s sister. And I assume you know Constantine?”

Rowan’s eyes narrowed on his sister’s wyvern. He didn’t particularly like the man, especially his habit of calling him the Dragon Breaker. “Bee. What are you doing here? This is Sophea. She’s my mate.”