Hot Blooded by Donna Grant Read Free Book Online Page B

no’ black as Hayden’s, but they’re dark. It’s the shape of them as well, and her hair color.”
    â€œI’ll be damned,” Con whispered.
    The Warriors had all been mortal once, and if they tried, many of them could trace their families through the centuries. Tristan himself had been a Warrior before he was beheaded and reborn as a Dragon King.
    â€œWe have to tell Hayden,” Tristan insisted. “He’d want to know.”
    Ryder slowly nodded. “It might be a good idea. He isna a part of Dreagan, and he’s her family. She doesna have anyone else.”
    â€œShe has her mother,” Con broke in.
    Laith found all of their gazes on him. “Since when did I get voted the one to look out for her?”
    â€œThe moment she ignored me for you,” Ryder said with a sly smile.
    Laith was eager to see her again, excited to hear her sexy voice, and impatient to touch her. And wholly confused as to why he was enormously happy that she chose him. “She just buried John and is learning he’s no’ the man she thought he was. She’s going to need someone. Let’s bring in Hayden.”

 
    CHAPTER
SIX
    Iona sat at the kitchen table staring out the window to the woods beyond. She was supposed to take an assignment next week, but oddly enough Iona found she wasn’t ready to leave Scotland.
    The decision had come in the long hours of the night as she stayed awake looking at the ceiling. After all that she learned about her father, she couldn’t leave yet. It wasn’t because she couldn’t sell the land. It was because she needed the time at the cottage to reconcile who her father really was.
    Iona sent off a quick text to Abby, her contact with the Commune, declining the next assignment. Iona had never refused a project, but it seemed the right thing to do. She wasn’t even sure if anyone declined the Commune. It wasn’t like she or any of the other employees spoke to each other. She knew of some, but for all she knew, her refusal could mean she was fired.
    That made her grimace, but it wasn’t like it would be the first time. She always managed to land on her feet no matter what life threw at her. Oh, she might stumble a bit, but she refused to fall. She would survive whatever came next.
    Iona looked down at her teacup, noting that it was no longer warm in her hand. She sat back with a sigh. She probably should call her mum and tell her about John. Every time Iona thought of talking to her mother she got heartburn. Her mother was as high maintenance as they came.
    On her fifth husband, Sarah was in Morocco. The marriage wasn’t even two years old, and already her mother was talking divorce. The one thing her mother never did was work—at anything. Whether it was a job or relationships, the moment things began to get difficult or demanding, she was gone.
    Perhaps that’s why Iona worked twice as hard at everything. Iona had known the truth about Sarah for a long time. However, Iona always assumed her parents’ marriage crumbled because of her father not handling their money correctly and leaving them poor, as her mother had always claimed.
    Iona looked around the cottage. There wasn’t extravagance, but everything was nice and clean. And neat. Obsessively neat—just as she was.
    Her mother? Just the opposite. Iona learned to do laundry at the age of nine because she’d had no clean clothes and Sarah didn’t know how to work the washer. The cleaning then fell to Iona soon after, as did the cooking, shopping, and bill paying.
    Iona felt that her mother had needed taking care of because she was so distraught over the divorce and loss of her beloved husband who had wronged her.
    Was it all a lie? Had Sarah fabricated everything?
    She refused to think about that as she rose from the table and changed out of her PJs into jeans, a tee, and hiking boots. After running a brush through her hair, she quickly wound a