Releasing the Dragon Read online

  “Michelle?” she somehow managed to say, though her throat suddenly wanted to lock up. The three women confronting her were the same ones who had made her life so miserable all those years ago. And to Annie, they all looked exactly the same.

  Michelle was still slim and blonde—in addition to her horns and tail she was wearing a scarlet dress with a plunging neckline and an elegant little diamond tennis bracelet to match the teardrop diamond at her throat. The women on either side of her were similarly thin and pretty—making Annie suddenly feel more plus-sized than she had in a long time.

  “That is you—right Annie?” Michelle peered at her, as though not quite certain in the dim room. “It’s hard to tell without your braces and glasses. But it seems like we used to call you something else—what was it?” She put one finger to her perfectly sculpted chin as though deep in thought.

  “Yes, it’s me,” Annie said tightly.

  “Well, you’ve changed some since graduation,” Bella Jenkins remarked, tossing her long black hair over one shoulder.

  “Well we all have, haven’t we?” Kristy Smithers giggled. “Don’t tell but I’ve put on a few pounds.”

  “Oh me too—isn’t it awful?” Michelle widened her eyes dramatically. “I mean, I’m actually a size four now—and you know I was a two in high school.”

  “I got up to a size eight when I was pregnant with my first little girl,” Bella confided in hushed tones of someone admitting a shameful secret. “Of course I lost it all again the minute she popped out,” she added quickly. “Breast feeding, you know. Takes the pounds off in a flash.”

  “Better a size eight than an eighteen.” Michelle Prouty’s eyes flickered over Annie’s figure and she suddenly felt every bit as beach-ballish as she had back in high school. “But then, not everybody can keep their figure. You know what works for me? Cross Fit. I tell you girls, my hubby Doug and I are absolutely addicted to it. I go every day after I leave the office. Did I tell you I just got made the regional director of sales?”

  Annie felt like she was suffocating. She had to get away from her old tormentors—every minute she spent with them made her feel fatter and uglier and more and more worthless.

  “Well, it’s been nice seeing you again but I need to go,” she began, starting to edge away.

  “Oh, I remember what we called you now!” Michelle Prouty’s voice trilled out above the nostalgic music playing in the background. “It wasn’t Little Orphan Annie, it was Little Oinker Annie—isn’t that right?”

  Annie wanted to sink into the ground. From all directions, heads were turning. Just like it had in high school when she called out the cheers, Michelle’s voice carried amazingly well.

  Just then a well-dressed man with light brown hair came up and put his arm around Michelle.

  “Hi, Honey-bunch,” he said, kissing her on the ear affectionately. “I heard you from across the room. What’s going on—you found an old friend?”

  “Something like that.” The sneer on Michelle’s perfect face was unmistakable. “Girls, this is my better half, Doug—he owns Douglas Manufacturing up on Stickler road.”

  “Oh, I see my Barry over by the bar,” Kristy said and waved. “Barry, over here! I want you to meet Michelle’s hubby.”

  “My Brad just went to call the nanny and make sure everything is all right with baby Madeline but he’ll be back soon,” Bella announced.

  “What about you, Annie?” Michelle Prouty turned wide, innocent eyes on Annie who still wanted to die. “Did you bring a significant other tonight? Or are you all alone—just like you were in high school?”

  Annie felt sick. She’d lain awake many nights as a teenager, thinking exactly what she would say if she ever had the nerve to speak up to Michelle Prouty. She’d imagined cutting remarks and stinging insults that would pay the other girl back for every bit of misery she’d caused. But now all her carefully planned barbs seemed to have deserted her, along with most of her self-confidence. She no longer felt pretty and competent and in control of the situation. Instead, it seemed like she was suddenly back in high school unable to fight back against the other girl’s nasty remarks.

  “I…” She cleared her throat. “I, um…”

  “Don’t tell me you’re here all alone tonight,” Michelle remarked, opening her eyes even wider. “Why, that would be so sad, especially since I made sure to put on the invitation that spouses and significant others were welcome to come.”

  “I…I don’t…” Annie didn’t know what to say or how to get away. Just like back in high school she was paralyzed with shame and self-loathing. “I just…”

  “She is not alone. She brought me.”

  The deep, rumbling voice was strangely familiar and suddenly a long, muscular arm encircled her shoulders. Looking up, Annie saw the huge Kindred from her dreams—Drugair of the Drake Kindred, she reminded herself—standing right beside her.

  “Oh…” Michelle murmured, her eyes going wide for real this time. For once, she seemed to have nothing to say and Kristy and Bella were similarly struck dumb.

  “I am Drugair—Dru for short, as I believe you humans like to say,” the big Kindred went on in a conversational tone. He held out his hand to Doug, Michelle’s husband who took it uncertainly. From the wince on the other man’s face as they shook, Dru’s grip was very strong.

  Annie still didn’t know what to say but she couldn’t miss the contrast between the big Kindred and Michelle’s husband. Dru was huge and muscular and even in the darkness his black eyes seemed to glow with some inner light. His uniform gave him a certain dashing air which was much more exciting than any boring business suit. In short—he looked amazing next to the nondescript Doug.

  Like some kind of male model, Annie couldn’t help thinking. She’d been frightened of him when they first met, which had definitely kept her from noticing. But now she saw how his fierce aura of strength shone out, marking the big Kindred as a warrior, not just a businessman like Michelle’s husband.

  For a moment she felt a powerful sense of pride that he had claimed her in front of all these awful people but then she tried to push it back down. After all, she still didn’t know his intentions. Better to reserve judgment until she found out what he wanted from her.

  “You…are you a Kindred?” Bella managed to say at last in a breathless voice. “From the Mother Ship? I mean, you’re so tall and strong and…”

  “I am a Kindred, yes.” Drugair—or Dru as he had introduced himself—nodded.

  “And you’re with Annie?” The sneer in Michelle Prouty’s voice was impossible to miss.

  “It is my pleasure and my honor to claim your former classmate as my own,” Dru rumbled. “Annie is the most beautiful female I have ever met.”

  “Really?” Michelle wasn’t even trying to keep the disbelief off her face. “Well, I guess to each their own. Human guys like their women fit, right Dougie?’ she cooed at her husband.

  “Human tastes have always been a mystery to me,” Dru remarked, before the other man could answer. “They seem to enjoy bedding females who are far too thin to be attractive. Some might even call them bony.” His eyes flickered dismissively over Michelle’s lanky figure and her low-cut red gown. “Such females are called hic’thors on my home world—the name refers to a flightless bird whose internal bone structure or skeleton can be clearly seen through its bedraggled feathers when it gets wet.”

  “What?” Michelle put a hand on one bony hip “Are you calling me one of those hic-things? Are you insulting me?” She turned to her husband. “Dougie, I think he’s insulting me. Do something!”

  “Um…” Her husband cleared his throat nervously and took a step back from the huge Drake Kindred. But he needn’t have worried.

  “Naturally I was not insulting you intentionally—any more than you were insulting my female on purpose,” Dru said smoothly. “I was simply making you aware of our cultural differences. Human males seem to like skinny or skeletal female anatomy while males of my kind enjoy luscio