"I want Raven. No, no, no." Her hysterical screams
got louder and louder until a security officer raced over to
Raven, pulling the little girl by her wrist behind him. "I'm
going to have her ride back here with you."
Raven slid onto the back seat and scooted over for
the little girl. For the first time Raven got to see what a
pretty thing she was even with her blond ringlets flattened
against her head and her face blotchy from tears. Cleaned
up and smiling, she probably shattered little boys' hearts all
over the place.
Surprise overtook him when she scooted closer,
rested her head on his chest, and wrapped her thin arms
around him. Silent sobs shook her slender body while two
security agents slid into the front seat of the hovercar. The
driver flashed them a brief look before taking off.
Raven muttered nonsense words as he stroked the
golden head, trying to figure out where along the way his
night of debauchery had turned into a baby-sitting
assignment.
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CHAPTER TWO
As they walked into the security station, Raven
didn't understand all the stares sent his way until he
realized he didn't have his hat and glasses anymore. He
must've left them back in the alley. Raven hoped the
onlookers weren't transmitting his image across the
galacticnet.
His agent would have puppies.
Man-eating puppies.
The security officers led them to a room with four
chairs and a table—an interrogation room—though Raven
hoped they weren't going to use it as such.
"Want something to drink? A cookie?" one of the
officers asked.
"Want a cookie, sweetheart?" Raven asked the little
girl. She shook her head. "Maybe some water for us both."
After all that crying, she needed fluids.
A moment later they were given two glasses of
water.
"I'm Officer Baines, and this is Officer Trewel."
Trisha looked at them with distrust but didn't say anything.
Then the questions began. The two security officers
listened intently to her story after determining her name
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was Trisha Lily. She haltingly told of a trip with her
grandmother to watch Raven's performance, a trip that
ended badly when, while returning to their hovercraft,
bandits shot the little girl's grandmother for refusing to give
up her purse. At least her story cleared Raven of any
wrongdoing.
"What is your connection in this?" Officer Baines
asked Raven.
"I came by the alley and heard her crying. When I
saw the situation, I called you."
They turned their attention back to the little girl.
"Where's your mother?" Trewel asked.
"She's dead," Trisha said. Her voice sounded cold
and distant as though what had happened in the past didn't
relate to her. Raven noticed that, while her voice had a
toneless robotic sound, the water sloshed from the slight
tremor of her hands. It had been a harrowing night for her.
"How did she die?" the officer continued.
Trisha shrugged. "It was when I was little."
Raven held back a grin at the mature tone in her
voice. When she was little couldn't have been more than a
few years ago.
The officers persisted.
"Where's your father?"
Trisha shrugged. "I don't have one."
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"Did he die too?"
The little girl shook her head. "No. Mommy didn't
tell him I was born. She said he didn't want kids."
Raven saw the officers relax a little. A man who
didn't want his daughter was at least someone they could
track down.
"Do you remember his name?"
Trisha nodded solemnly. "Prince Kaemon."
The officers laughed.
"Sure he is. Prince Kaemon is gay; I doubt he's your
daddy," Officer Baines said, not unkindly.
"Don't completely discount it," Raven advised. "A
lot of gay men try out women first. A DNA sample will
confirm if she's telling the truth."
The officers exchanged looks. Officer Trewel
cleared his throat. "All right. Let's run a test. We have the
entire royal family in the system in case of kidnapping. It
will be easy enough to check her DNA."
The burly officer left the room and came back with
a small box. "Lick your finger and press it against the
scanner."
Raven watched with fascination as the officer
opened the box, exposing a blue scanning screen. He loved
those forensic shows on the net.
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Trisha licked her finger and placed it on the screen.
After a few minutes, there was a loud beep and two names
showed up on the screen.
Mother: Leona Linnett, listed on birth record,
probability 100%
Father: Crown Prince Kaemon Dragonspear,
probability 99.999%
No other matches found.
Raven looked at the girl with new eyes.
She was half dragonkin.
Trisha must have felt him watching her because she
looked up at him with a wary expression.
"Do you not want to be my friend now?"
"What?"
"Nana said people are afraid of the dragonkin."
Raven wrapped an arm around Trisha and gave her
a sideways hug. "Never be ashamed of who you are. I don't
live on this planet so I don't know how people feel about
dragonkin, but it makes no difference to me."
Officer Baines gave Trisha a reassuring smile. "The
dragonkin are a protected sect of society. Since most of the
royals are dragonkin, it is considered a privilege to be one.
Her grandmother probably wanted to protect her from
being taken away. Even if the prince didn't want her, the
king would have since his chance of having another
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grandchild is small."
Raven gave her a quick smile. "See, you are
wanted. We'll have you with your father in no time."
"No!" Trisha clung to him, sobbing. "I want to go
with you."
Raven sent a panicked look towards the officers.
"Why don't you come with us to help escort her to
her new home? That might ease the transition," Officer
Baines said with a rueful smile.
"Fine." Raven sighed. This was definitely not how
he had planned his evening to go.
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CHAPTER THREE
Prince Kaemon paced the foyer waiting for a girl
supposedly his daughter. How could he have a daughter
and not know? Shouldn't his dragon senses have kicked in
to let him know another person with his DNA walked the
planet?
Thank the dragon goddess for the man who'd found
his daughter.
"Sit down, Kaemon." His father, King Avin, waved
a hand towards a bench beside him. "She'll be here any
minute. You seem excited. I thought you didn't want
children."
The prince spun on his heel and glared at his father.
"Not wanting a child in theory is not the same as not
wanting a child once born. If I'd been aware of her birth, I
would've participated in her life."
Fury ate away at Kaemon. The fact that he could
barely remember the woman who gave birth to his daughter
didn't take away from the fact that she'd stolen those years
from Kaemon. Years he could've spent bonding with a girl
who had his blood pulsing in her veins. If the mother
weren't already dead, he would've killed her. The idea of
having someone to carry on the family name caused an odd
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combination of joy and anxiety.
The sound of a hovercar pulling up outside had him
spinning towards the door. He held himself in check as a
servant stepped forward and opened the front door.
Kaemon ignored the mildly reproving look he received
from the elderly servant. This was his one chance to meet
his little girl for the first time.
Three men stepped through the doorway. One was
holding the hand of a little girl who clung to him like a
lifeline. A pretty thing with long blonde hair and big brown
eyes flecked with green.
Dragon eyes.
As a female, she'd never shift, but her eyes gave her
bloodline away.
The officers approached, bowed low to his father
first and then to Kaemon.
"I'm Officer Baines, and this is Officer Trewel," the
sandy-haired man said, waving a hand towards his partner.
"Officers." King Avin gave a genial nod. "Thank
you for finding her and bringing her to her new home.
Good evening, Trisha," he said gently to the little girl.
"This isn't my home," the girl piped up, glaring at
the men surrounding her. "My home is downtown. It's a
white house with green trim."
"Don't you want to live here?" his father asked the
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girl, waving a hand to indicate the enormous stone
entryway. "Haven't you always wanted to be a princess in a
castle?"
"No." The girl stamped her foot.
"Now, Trisha, you're going to hurt the king's
feelings," a smooth voice drawled. To Kaemon's
astonishment, the girl immediately subsided. She flashed a
guilty glance towards Kaemon's father but didn't say
anything more. Kaemon took his first good look at the man
standing beside her and his heart stuttered in his chest. As a
prince he had dated many beautiful men, but none of them
were as breathtaking as this one. The world dropped away
as he looked into a pair of impossibly gorgeous blue eyes.
In the back of his mind, Kaemon thought the other
man looked vaguely familiar, but he just couldn't seem to
come up with a name to go with the beautiful face.
"Do you have a name?" he asked.
"Oh, sorry." The man gave a graceful bow to each
royal. "I'm Raven."
Kaemon's throat went dry as recognition jolted
through him, and for the first time in his life, he felt star-
struck. The most famous dancer in the galaxy stood in his
foyer holding the hand of his previously unknown
daughter.
"I-I'm Prince Kaemon."
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Raven flashed him a wide smile that exposed a pair
of deep dimples. Kaemon had seen that smile on more
news stories than he could remember. He blamed his
excitement over meeting his daughter for not recognizing
the bachelor of his dreams. More than one jerk-off fantasy
had featured the gorgeous man before him.
Yum.
Visions of licking the dimples and sampling the
man's flavor flashed through Kaemon's mind. His dragon
stirred within. They both wanted this man.
Badly.
The gorgeous man was talking, but it took a
moment for Kaemon to yank his attention from Raven's
lush lips to focus on what he was saying.
"I only came to make sure Trisha made it here
safely. I'll be going now. It was nice to meet you both."
Raven bowed again and tried to free his hand from Trisha's
tight grip.
Kaemon's dragon growled at the thought of the man
leaving.
The little girl screamed, an ear-piercing screech that
brought a smile to the prince's lips. It looked as if they both
had the same idea: keep the pretty, pretty man.
Kaemon rushed forward, trying to appear every inch
the concerned parent. "No. Mr. Raven, I think you should
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stay at least one night. Trisha has had a traumatic day, and I
think she would do better if she had someone familiar
around her."
Not to mention Kaemon knew he'd sleep better if
his bed included the sexy dancer.
Trisha stopped screaming and gave Kaemon a
watery smile before turning back to the hunk she was
clutching like a lifeline. "Raven, please stay."
Obviously a soft touch, the dancer gave Trisha's
hand a gentle squeeze. "All right, sweetheart, I'll stay for
tonight."
"Thank you, officers. We'll take it from here."
Kaemon nodded to the men. "Let us know if you learn
anything further about the case." Despite the happiness
both he and his father felt over getting Trisha in their care,
there was still the fact someone had killed her grandmother.
However Kaemon felt about the deceased woman, she had
been important to Trisha.
The officers left after agreeing to keep him updated.
"Hello, Trisha. I'm Prince Kaemon, your father."
She gave a polite curtsy, still clutching Raven's
hand.
"Say hello," Raven told her.
"Hello," she said in a sweet soprano.
Her voice was quite pleasant when she wasn't
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