Loved by the Dragon Collection Page 23

  “She’s smaller than he is. She’s barely putting a dent in him, look,” Marcy murmured. Fires flared and lightning flashed in the waning twilight. Saul exhaled a mighty breath that left stars in Chloe’s eyes, releasing a storm of jagged bolts that seared Brigid’s red flanks.

  She’s beautiful. Even as a dragon, she’s beautiful. But she isn’t the one he wants. All of that beauty and it’s wasted on a black soul, Chloe thought as she squeezed beside her friend to watch. She held her breath and remained glued to the small glass pane in the sturdy wooden door.

  “Get her, Saul. Get her,” Marcy said under her breath. “Kick her fucking ass.”

  Both girls cheered him from the safety of the house and seemed to give Saul the motivation he needed. His talons ripped down Brigid’s ribs. She reared back and made her prompt exit from the battle, quitting the field by placing yards between them. Saul advanced on her, but Brigid quickly scurried to keep the massive stone fountain between them. Her actions lent a hilarious resemblance to two kids using a parked vehicle to stave off an after school fight. It was the most ridiculous thing Chloe had seen in years.

  “That thing gestating in her gut should never see the light of day!” Brigid shouted. Her labored breaths continued as she licked her wounds. Ash-colored flight feathers dangled from her wings, glistening wet with blood.

  Too bad Saul didn’t rip them off completely.

  “It will. That is my child. Come near my mate again uninvited and I will finish what I began this eve, Brigid. I will skin you. ”

  Brigid’s wild, amber eyes flicked between Saul and the door. They narrowed when she saw Chloe spectating. Then something sinister happened.

  She smiled. A smile on a dragon’s face could be a truly fascinating thing, or it could be terrifying. Saul often smiled when she stroked his stomach, pet his wings, or even when she sprawled upon his softer underbelly and slumbered to the slow rhythm of his powerful heart. She lived for it and treasured his elation, but Brigid’s toothy grin terrified her.

  “Hear me now, human waif. In accordance with Draconic Law, I challenge you to a duel to the death. The winner takes Saul as her mate.”

  “And what if I don’t accept? You can’t make me fight you.”

  “That is where you are wrong, human. You carry a dragon’s spawnling in your gut, and thus you also have a dragon’s blood in your veins. Your bastard has legitimized my challenge.”

  Saul’s growl raised the fine hairs on Chloe’s nape. His motionless figure towered between the two women, an intimidating presence covered in Brigid’s blood and little of his own. “I will die before I allow you to harm a hair on Chloe’s head.”

  “Then die and take those within your household to their deaths as well, knowing they will leap to your defense and suffer for it. I will have you or no one shall.” A plume of smoke drifted out from between her sharp fangs. “But if you and your bitch kneel to me now, I may allow her to remain as your consort. Warm her bed when I have no use for you.”

  Chloe thrust open the door and moved onto the stoop. “I won’t share him.”

  “Then you accept.”

  “Chloe, don’t acknowledge the challenge. This is unprecedented, she cannot make you—”

  “Once the Conclave declares your union to be invalid, I will fuck him every night as you watch. You will have my scraps and the mere honor of licking his cock clean once I have finished. Or will you fight like a woman?” Brigid’s forked tongue snaked over her lips, as sinister a gesture as her terrifying grin.

  Impulse swept Chloe into their world, and left her incapable of voicing more than a single word. “Yes.”

  ***

  “Okay, there has to be a way you can get her out of this, right?” Marcy sat beside Chloe, rubbing her shoulders while Saul paced a groove in the priceless Persian rug decorating his library floor. He wore jeans without a shirt, revealing the jagged wounds decorating his shoulders and back. Most of the injuries inflicted by Brigid’s claws and sharp teeth were already in the early stages of healing. Mahasti said he wouldn’t recover completely until he hibernated a day or two underground.

  “No. No. The acceptance of a challenge remains binding until death.”

  “She’s pregnant. She got upset in the heat of the moment and her hormones made her say something stupid. There’s no way anyone can expect her to fight a giant fire-breathing dragon like this. What’s she supposed to use anyway? Her bare hands against that bitch’s skin? Would they make her fight if she were a dragon like you?”

  “Pregnancy is no excuse to escape a fight among our kind. While I did fight Brigid, I would not tangle with a brooding female wyrm for any amount of treasure,” Saul said. “However, Chloe is not a dragon.”

  “Perhaps we can use this to our advantage. Chloe is human. She has a human’s thin skin. No claws. A fight between her and Brigid is suicide,” Leiv said. The bear shifter sat on the floor while Mahasti perused the pages of an ancient tome beside him.

  “If she had only listened to me,” Saul growled. “We would not face this problem.” The anger in his voice made Chloe wince and flinch back.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to make things worse.”

  Saul’s failure to answer her cut deeper than any knife. He became all business, the suit-and-tie executive of Drakenstone Studios instead of her husband. “I will appeal to the Conclave. Call in allies; those who can be trusted. Perhaps they will call off the fight once we plead our case.”

  “And if they can’t? Or won’t?” Marcy asked.

  Saul dragged his palm down his face. “If Chloe refuses to fight, then the Conclave will attempt to execute her for breach of her verbal contract. Anyone who defends her will be dealt a similar fate.”

  “Wow, you guys are really strict,” Marcy said.

  The dragon shrugged and settled heavily into his desk chair.

  “If I’m going to die then I’m going to die. Would they at least allow me to wait until the baby is born?”

  “Unlikely. As I said, the Conclave may view our child as a threat to draconic values. Our traditions have always… discouraged human and dragon relations.”

  “Now we know why. If a dragon can impregnate a human, it means there’d be a lot of race mixing going on,” Marcy muttered.

  Like her friend, Chloe viewed the events with mixed fascination and horror. She feared what was to come, but each minute of conversation yielded something new about Saul’s world.

  “Who am I kidding? The Conclave will never reverse Chloe’s acceptance,” Saul growled. “There is only one solution. I must kill Brigid. If I move swiftly, they will believe I have acted on my own, and the Conclave will be without reason to discipline the rest of you.”

  “Saul, no,” Chloe spoke up. “ No. ”

  “Here!” Mahasti suddenly called. “I have a solution.” The genie rose from her seat on the floor and crossed to Saul. He met her halfway and looked down at the pages.

  Then he laughed. A deep, mirthless laugh filled with resentment. “Of course. This surprises me none.”

  Chloe’s eyebrows rose toward the top of her head. “What is it?”

  “Mahasti, you know as well as I do that I no longer have it,” Saul said.

  “What is it?” Chloe asked again. Her voice shot higher as they continued to talk around her, ignoring her. Saul gestured with one hand toward the open pages, muttered an incoherent utterance and thrust the book away from him in frustration.

  “Appeal to him for its return, Saul. Now is not the time to become frustrated,” Mahasti said.

  “She is right, friend. We will contact him. Talk. Tell him what is the matter and perhaps he will allow Chloe to borrow it,” Leiv said. “You cannot make this decision alone.” />
  “You have forgotten one very important thing: it is a fairytale. Its magic is a fucking legend, ” Saul scathed.

  Saul rarely swore, despite his claims of inheriting the awful habit from his wife. Marcy and Chloe exchanged curious glances. “Dragons are fairytales too,” Marcy pointed out, fear for Chloe prompting her to speak. “What’s happening? Please tell us.”

  “Don’t ignore us like we’re not sitting here. Tell us what’s happening!” Chloe cried out.

  Leiv and Mahasti said nothing, but their intense gazes suggested the two had a way of conversing without voicing their thoughts out loud. Chloe had wondered about them for a while, convinced her knowledge of Mahasti’s supernatural powers didn’t scratch the surface.

  “Saul, tell her,” Leiv urged.

  “Fine,” the dragon growled. “It was once your desire to meet other dragons, Chloe. It seems that you will receive your wish. Mahasti, contact Watatsumi. Tell him I would like to discuss our most recent transaction.”

  “Of course.”

  “Watatsumi?” Chloe repeated.

  “One of my father’s oldest comrades. I traded him a very special gift five years ago from my father’s hoard,” Saul said, his dry tone an unconcealed sign of his displeasure.

  “What’d you trade him?” Marcy asked.

  “A sword.”

  Marcy snorted. “So, like, what? Excalibur or something?”

  “No, Marceline. It was the sword Ascalon, the relic of Saint George, and I foolishly traded it away.”

  Chloe’s mouth fell open. “You mean, the actual sword from the stories? The one he used to kill the Welsh dragon or whatever the damn story says?”

  “The sword used to slay my very own grandfather among many other dragons in our history. I loathed my grandfather’s legacy and wanted no reminder of his uncivilized behavior, so as you can imagine it took little convincing for me to part with it. When Watatsumi named it as his price, I accepted the offer… and now Chloe’s survival depends on its return.”

  “Do you think he’ll give it back.” Will he help us? Chloe prayed that he would.

  Saul’s expression had never looked so grim. “Let us hope so.”

  Chapter 13

  Chloe stretched upon the cool sheets, enjoying her preferred state of nudity whenever she slept beside her slumbering dragon. Her reaching fingers encountered only open air.

  “Saul?” she whispered, before jerking upright in the jade bed. The absence of Saul’s body heat spawned an initial moment of fleeting terror until her eyes adjusted to the pitch black surroundings. Since Brigid made her challenge two nights earlier, he’d been edgy and moody in their bedroom. With hopes of soothing him, and herself, Chloe had suggested sleeping deep below the estate in his hoard.

  I can see perfectly in the dark now. When did that happen? The answer eluded her. Like many other subtle changes to her body, it had crept in to take her by surprise.

  After dragging herself from bed, Chloe pulled on her silk robe, belted it in front, and padded barefoot over the smooth polished floor. She found Saul easily in the main house, but he wasn’t alone. His voice carried down the hallway from the library. With the door ajar, she picked up the incredulity in his guest’s voice.

  “This is madness, Saul.”

  “Have you come to dissuade me from my path as well?”

  “Why would you pursue such a foolish endeavor for a half-breed and a… a human? Please. Listen to reason, my friend. Consider these choices. I came this eve hoping to find these stories were lies wrought by a bitter shrew. To know that you risk infuriating the Conclave over—”

  “My child, Teo. My cub and the mother of my cub are worth my life and any other sacrifice I may pay to protect them. I will not oppose the Conclave outright, but I will plead to them for aid.”

  The other man sighed. “I did not travel such a distance to argue with you.”

  “Then let us not argue. Celebrate with me. I am soon to become a father, and if I recall, you once told me you’d beat me to the task long before Brigid submitted.”

  “How could you celebrate when—?”

  One of the dragons sniffed. The other mimicked him and inhaled.

  “We are not alone, my friend,” the stranger said.

  Following a brief pause, Saul spoke up, “Come in, Chloe. Teo does not bite.”

  “I find the taste of mortals unpalatable.”

  Chloe nudged the library door open completely and stepped inside, thankful she donned a robe prior to tiptoeing around the estate.

  Teo’s green eyes startled her, bright and bold within a face that reminded her of Central American natives. While Saul’s golden blond locks fell in sleek waves, his friend had glossy, pin-straight ebony hair down past his shoulders.

  “Teo, allow me to introduce you to Chloe.” Saul wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her in close. His lips touched her hairline, imparting the relief she’d sought since waking alone.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Chloe. Your beauty is indeed as radiant as Saul proclaimed in his letters. I am Teotihuacan, but you may call me Teo for short.”

  “Happy to meet you, Teo.” Chloe pasted a polite smile to her face then turned to gaze up at her husband. “You wrote about me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Fair point,” she muttered. “So… uh. Did I interrupt something? You both look a little stressed. Do I need to leave before any fire-breathing happens?”

  “No, señorita. Hardly. Saul is my oldest friend, a brother to me. We were merely having a discussion about his troubles and… the best way to deal with the matter.” Teo’s green eyes lingered on Chloe, too intense to bode well for the topic of their prior conversation. His scrutiny made her feel like a bug.

  Chloe shivered and chafed her hands down her arms. It didn’t help. With only a thin silk robe to cover her, she felt exposed to Teo’s occasional wandering glances. Did he find her attractive, or was he merely sizing up the mortal?

  “Saul, would you fetch my Snuggy? I’m freezing.”

  “Of course.” He kissed her cheek and left the room, preferring not to interrupt Mahasti for every minor request.

  A minute of awkward and uncomfortable silence passed. Teo made no effort to speak with her and, in fact, barely even seemed to acknowledge her presence.

  “You don’t approve of me, do you?” Chloe asked bluntly.

  The handsome dragon jerked his green eyes back to her. They dropped to her tummy and gradually rose to her face. “I have nothing against you personally, señorita.”

  “Just against humans in general? My name is Chloe by the way.”

  Teo frowned. “I came here this evening to convince a good friend to do what is right.”

  “Which is?”

  “To send you away for your own safety, of course. If you go, Saul lives, and you and your… child will also survive this ordeal.”

  This prick, she thought, smoldering on the inside. “You speak as if my baby isn’t good enough.”

  Teo held both palms out toward her. “Please. I meant no offense.”

  The change in attitude took Chloe by surprise. She stared at him and maintained a distrustful distance. I wonder if the males are the only ones who learn manners. Saul makes it sound like their females are all a bunch of catty bitches. “You have immaculate manners for a dragon, you know. Compared to Brigid. I was beginning to wonder if Saul was the exception and not the rule.”

  “I may not approve of the choice Saul has made, but I will not disrespect you in his home.”

  Well, there’s that much at least. Chloe sighed. “Do you know Brigid well?”

  Teo snorted. “Sh
e is known by many. A beautiful and cunning dragon.”

  “If you admire her so much why don’t you go court her?”

  The toothy grin Teo flashed unnerved her. “I considered it once, but her temperament does not suit my preferences for a mate.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What are your preferences for a mate? After meeting Brigid for the first time, I wasn’t sure if it was her personality or a… dragon thing.”

  Teo’s warm chuckle reassured her. It was rich and warm, his mannerisms as relaxed as his bronze friend. Saul kept excellent company.

  Marcy would lose her mind over seeing him. He looks like an Aztec god. I wonder if dragons like him and Saul are where all of those myths and stories come from. “Come on. Tell me. What are other female dragons like?”

  “I pursue another black dragon of a more subservient nature—”

  In only a few words, he dashed her positive outlook toward him. “Subservient? Really? ” Chloe groaned. He’s probably like a draconic Freddy. “Is that what you’re into?”

  “I prefer a quiet existence — a pleasurable one without the noisy distractions Saul finds endearing.”

  “Uh huh. So what do you do then? Live in a cave?”

  “An island.”

  “Oh. Well that must be sort of nice. Sandy beaches and all the surf you can handle.” And now I’m making small talk with a dragon. Frustrated with the awkward situation, Chloe sighed and glanced at the door. “Are you going to help us or not? I know you don’t owe anything to me, but I care about Saul.”

  “I can see that. I believe you care, but if he chooses to oppose the Conclave, he has no chance of survival. They are many elder dragons, more powerful than he and I could ever hope to become in your mortal lifetime.”

  “Then give us another option!”

  Teo flinched. “The sword, if tales are true of its power, is the only way a mortal could even hope to try and win. Try , señorita. It is no guarantee that you will triumph.”

  Maybe it was his doubt, or maybe it was the condescension snaking into his tone, but Teo’s words incited the worst of her anger. Common sense warred against rising fury, until her temper surged like an irrational tide. “My fucking name is Chloe, not señorita.” She stepped forward and poked her index finger at Teo, jabbing him hard in the center of his chest. “What kind of fucking dragon are you? You want a subservient woman but you’re not man enough to stand by a friend who needs you?”