The Dragon Spy (The Lone Shifters Book 1) by Michele Bardsley Page A

wealth and her position as a respected society matron, she always had time and energy to make those who had nothing feel as if they had everything. She was beloved in both the dragon and human worlds.
    “Have you heard anything about Jessica lately?” It was the question he always asked. With the exception of his mother, he was forbidden from dragonkind, and visiting her skirted this side of impropriety. These days, he’d devoted himself to his mother’s favorite cause, that of StarSky Charities, an organization that catered to many different needs in both the human and paranormal worlds. She’d started it after his father passed away, pouring her grief into action. Garrett had been a mere hatchling when Riles Stone died from a brain aneurism. While dragons were generally long-lived, practically immortal, even their kind could be susceptible to rare conditions.
    Throughout the centuries, images of his father faded into vague recollections—the sound of deep laughter, the smell of pipe tobacco, the tip of wing helping to steady his own. His mother mourned her departed husband every day, and Garrett sometimes felt like her grief was a separate living beast she shared her life with. This latest scheme, like so many in the past, was yet another distraction from the loneliness she felt.
    “I’ve heard that Jessica is somewhere in America trying to find herself.” Syneca looked at him, her lips pursed. “Will you try to find her?”
    “So she can suffer the penalty with me? No.”
    “Garrett, any fool who believes the pain of losing the love of your life fades with the passage of time … oh, that damned fool has never really loved. “ She looked at him. “I want the same for you. I had wonderful years with your father, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything in world. I want true love for you, too.”
    An old conversation. His mother believed so deeply in affairs of the heart that she had paired him with Jessica in hopes they were possible soulmates. He’d scoffed at the idea. What would he know about true love? The only mistress he’d ever enjoyed was thievery, and she was a clever, seductive one, at that. Of course, he could not deny his mother and father had experienced a rare love, but that did not mean he would be so lucky. Not even his brother Liam had married the woman of his heart. His lifemate had been carefully selected for breeding, nobility, and a host of other factors designed to keep royals, well, royal.
    Why did he feel like his mother had ulterior motives? Syneca did not keep secrets. She believed telling the truth stymied the most vicious gossip. If someone hid nothing and admitted all, the world lost interest. Scandal was only scandal if the people involved lied, covered-up, and cowered behind their untruths.
    Mother placed her own brandy glass on the table by his chair then knelt beside him. Her hand grasped his knee; he noted the fine trembling in her long, pale fingers. The only jewelry that glittered was the simple gold wedding band. “It’s important, Garrett. You know what Giselda’s Egg is?”
    “It was created by the first dragonwitch, an object of magic and beauty that purportedly gives power to the one who holds it,” he recited from the texts he’d read as a schoolboy. He pulled his lips into a smile, though he felt more like growling. “And…it’s a myth. There is no discernable proof such an object exists.”
    “Ah.” She patted his knee and rose, gliding to the fireplace to stare at the blaze. “This myth, my son, has been located. It’s in Las Vegas, Nevada.”
    Garrett sipped on his brandy as he thought about what his mother told him and what she wanted from him. There was no question that he would go to Las Vegas and steal the damned thing. His mother could ask him for the moon and he would do everything in his power to snatch it from the sky. He owed her too much not to help her. She had never given up on him even when everyone else had turned their backs. Not