The last thing was mostly from his inner dragon. No matter how much Viper fought with his dragon, he wouldn’t let go of the idea that Callie was their mate. It couldn’t happen. It wasn’t meant to be. He was a dumb enforcer, and she was... a damn princess in the tower.
“Is she okay?”
He hadn’t heard Reichardt approach. That wasn’t good. He couldn’t even guard her properly.
“She’s scared and cried before I left. I don’t know what to do with crying females.”
Reichardt placed his hand on Viper’s shoulder. “None of us do. Females, especially human ones, are emotional creatures. Just hold them and tell them everything will be okay.”
“Valorie was calling her when I left.”
“There you go. Valorie will make her feel better.”
“Maybe.”
“I didn’t realize you had feelings for the librarian.”
“I barely know her.”
“With true bond mates, our dragons seem to know immediately. What does your dragon tell you?”
He snorted. “My dragon wants to claim her immediately.”
“Let me give you a piece of advice. A happy dragon makes for a happy life.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a happy wife makes a happy life?” Viper asked, confused.
“Same difference.”
Viper snorted. “I’m too busy ensuring the safety of our people to worry about what my dragon wants.”
They began walking around the building, listening and looking into the shadows. It reminded Viper of the times on Drakonia when Reichardt took Viper under his wing and help with his training. He owed this male more than he could ever repay.
“Are you planning to watch over her the whole night?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been up fifteen hours already, having come off overseeing repairs on the western pasture. I’ll have someone relieve you in a few hours so you can get some rest. I’m sure you’ll want to come back in the morning when the security company arrives.”
“I hate to leave her, but I would like to be here to make sure that everything is secure. I don’t feel comfortable walking away without ensuring her safety,” Viper admitted.
“It bothers me that a rogue has come into my territory and singled out a human female. We have been established in this location for decades and we keep our scent markers on the borders updated regularly. Do you think Dyson sent this rogue to test our defenses?”
“I’ve thought about that. This male didn’t have any scent on him, so if he had been in close contact with Dyson, I think I would have picked it up. Dyson’s rogues breached our defenses once before, but he was present when they did it under his orders. This rogue came after a female for his own purposes. He was marking her as his to warn us off.”
Reichardt grimaced. “I heard about what the rogue did in the female’s bedroom. It’s a violation of her space. He couldn’t know for sure that we would be there. Only Valorie and a few of the other human females from the ranch visit the library.”
“He wants to claim Callie for his own. I have no doubts about that.” Viper’s inner dragon let out a growl of displeasure.
Reichardt fought back a smile. “Your dragon doesn’t like that idea.”
“Neither of us wants this rogue anywhere near Callie.”
“Then we’ll do everything we can to make sure she is safe,” Reichardt reassured him.
Chapter 8
Callie tossed and turned all night. She didn’t even sleep in her own bed, though she had new sheets on it. She wished she hadn’t turned the spare bedroom into her personal office. Grabbing a pillow and sheet from her closet, she went to the large comfy sofa in the living room to sleep. However, slumber evaded her. The thought of what the guy did made her sick. If Viper hadn’t been here, she might have walked in on the guy and there was no telling what would have happened. More thoughts of all the different possibilities came to her overactive imagination, ensuring that she would not fall asleep.
Somewhere around five in the morning, she gave up and took a quick shower. First, she made sure that all the doors and windows were still secured, then she locked the master bath door just in case. Normally, she loved taking long hot showers. It was her go-to method for relaxation after a long day working in the library. It wasn’t really the library itself. She could spend hours and days lost in books. It was the people who came in to use the library. They could be demanding of her time, asking questions and wanting her to pull everything for them instead of searching for what they wanted.
Callie always believed half the fun of coming to the library was the searching. Her uncle and aunt made it a game for her, like a treasure hunt. They would tell her the name of the book, the author’s name, or even call out the Dewey Decimal Classification Number. She would go in search and when she came back in under a minute, she always received a reward—candy, a new toy, or her favorite, a banana split.
That’s what she tried to do whenever she had a group of kids visiting. She made up games so the kids would associate the library and books with fun. It was one of the best lessons she had learned from her aunt and uncle because it worked every single time—with kids. Adults grew out of
