Loved by the Dragon Collection Read online

  “You'll always have a place here with us, Marcy, if you ever change your mind. Even if that doesn’t happen, don’t be a stranger.”

  “I won’t, I promise.”

  Marcy left the building feeling lighter. Her substantial savings and numerous talents meant she didn’t need to worry about work right away, but she didn’t want to get lazy either. Between all the contacts she’d made at Teo’s resort and a few from work, she was confident she could build a small clientele base. Going into business for herself was a longtime aspiration, and it had taken cleaning up Teo’s tangled accounts to make her realize she could handle it.

  Her apartment was quiet when she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Too quiet, almost. The bright, open space felt barren without her best friend there living with her.

  At least I can turn her old room into a dedicated office, she thought.

  The ring of the phone broke the depressing silence. Marcy smiled faintly down at the Caller ID window, wondering if Chloe’s new abilities included knowing when someone was thinking about her.

  “Hey, Chloe,” she answered. “Recovered from your vacation?”

  “Are you kidding? Astrid is ready to go back for another glass bottom boat ride.”

  Marcy laughed. “Those were fun, I agree.”

  “So how are you doing?” Chloe asked. “You never called and said you were coming back home.”

  She heard the worry in her friend’s voice clear as day. Marcy swallowed thickly, tears threatening to well in her eyes. “A lot happened, chica.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Starting at the beginning, Marcy let it all spill out, from Teo’s back and forth behavior to his threat the day she packed her bags.

  “So I left. I asked Mahasti not to mention anything to either of you.”

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Chloe whispered into the phone. “I’ll be right there. She’s bringing me now.”

  Before Marcy could hang up the phone, Chloe was there in a puff of jasmine-scented smoke, tendrils of the genie’s magical essence wafting through the apartment. The two friends met halfway and collapsed against each other. Their limbs tangled in a tight embrace and they sank to the couch where Marcy wept against the other woman’s shoulder. Uncontrollable sobs shook her body, and through it all Chloe held her tight.

  “He… he didn’t even care I was leaving. He didn’t say please. Instead of asking to come with me, he threatened to make me stay like I was another gem in his treasure pile.”

  “I promise you, Marce, everything you feel, he experiences double.”

  “What makes you think so?”

  Chloe hesitated. “I knew to call you and check on you because… Teo called Saul. He’s devastated and blames himself for trying to pressure you. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “What did he say to Saul?”

  “I didn’t eavesdrop in on the call, sweetie, so I can only repeat what Saul told me. Apparently dragons have their own bro code, because that’s all he’d say.”

  “Figures. Shit. I don’t know if I did the right thing anymore. I don’t want to second guess myself but now I’m home, none of this feels worth it. I was happy with him.”

  “It isn’t too late to go back to him. Saul told me he never once considered not taking me back after I ran him away the way I did. It takes a while for a bond to break.”

  “No, Chloe. He isn’t Saul, and I’m not you. I’m not the one in the wrong here. Why can’t he love me for me without wanting to permanently change me?”

  Chloe sighed gently and smoothed her hand up and down Marcy’s back. “Do you remember what I said about being pregnant with Astrid?”

  “You said it was worth it.”

  “To me, it was. But if you don’t want to do it, Teo needs to respect your choice. You did the right thing for you , Marcy. Teo, Saul, and even I realize that.”

  “Then why do I feel so awful?”

  “Because of the bond, and because you have feelings for him that transcend that bond. Everything about loving them is… it’s more intense than anything I ever felt as a human. You feel awful because… I think you’re experiencing his pain, too.”

  “It sucks,” Marcy blew her nose into a tissue. “It’s like he only wants me if I’ll pop out babies. God forbid he be attached to a plain, unspecial human.”

  “Oh sweetie, there’s nothing unspecial about you.” Chloe squeezed her again. “Maybe the problem is you’re both looking at it in absolutes. You won’t consider a child and he wouldn’t consider a bond without one. Maybe… you both need a compromise.”

  “Like what?” Marcy asked, sniffling. “I feel like an idiot for crying. I didn’t even cry over Matt or anyone else. What’s wrong with me?”

  “Marce. There’s nothing wrong with crying and letting out emotion.”

  The Latina nodded her head and scrubbed her cheeks with one wrist. “Okay. A compromise. How do you compromise on something like this?”

  Chloe smiled sadly. “See things from his point of view and give him the chance to see things from yours. You said it best, girl. You’re only 34. Maybe five years or ten years from now, you’ll feel differently. Maybe you won’t. Ask him if he’s willing to accept a compromise and take it one day at a time. Don’t walk away from each other for days and waste what precious time you do have.”

  Eventually, the tears subsided and left a dull ache in Marcy’s heart. She sighed and looked down at the picture frame on the coffee table. In the photograph, Marcy was attempting to flash her most alluring smile while Teo held her close for the camera. She hadn’t noticed until later that he was smiling. It was a faint, fragile thing, no doubt his attempt to maintain a straight face.

  She’d made him smile on their date. She’d made him smile so many times after. Marcy would never forget the elation on his face in the moments after their bonding.

  “Do you want to come home with me tonight?” Chloe asked.

  “Yeah. I don’t want to be here alone. I’m so fucking tired of being alone,” Marcy admitted, shaking her head sadly. She’d been lonely ever since her best friend in the world moved away, and no amount of teleporting to see her was enough to make up for the distance in their friendship.

  “Why don’t you move in with us? We have the room and Saul won’t mind. Astrid would be overjoyed to have her tía with her every day.”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Give it some thought. Mahasti?”

  “I am here,” the genie’s voice whispered into the room.

  “Take us home.”

  The djinn magical transport didn’t leave Marcy as dizzy as it usually did. Or maybe it was because her head was already pounding and heavy from her cry-fest. They appeared in Chloe’s solarium where golden beams of sunshine angled through the floor to ceiling windows and warmed Marcy’s cool skin. Potted plants in multiple varieties added colorful splashes to the bright, feminine space.

  “Chloe!” Saul’s voice boomed, a telltale sign of drawing power from his dragon half. “Chloe! Come quickly!”

  “Just a sec, hon!”

  “Hurry or you’ll miss it!”

  “Go on, chica, I’m right behind you,” Marcy encouraged. Chloe hurried off to the next room and soon she was squealing in excitement and calling for Marcy to join them.

  “All right, all right, I’m coming.” Swiping the last tear streaks from her face, Marcy crossed the room to join her friends. “Now what’s so — oh my God!”

  A small dragon, roughly the size of a German Shepherd, chased a ball across the playroom floor. Astrid’s soft skin was golden in color, brighter than her father in his dragon form. Pin feathers lines her small wings, interspersed with small tu
fts of pale white down. Saul beamed proudly while Chloe had her hands clasped over her mouth, joyful tears streaming from her eyes.

  “Oh I wish I had my camera,” Marcy whispered, afraid to ruin the moment. Within seconds her wish was granted and her photography bag materialized at her feet.

  Having a djinn around really is handy. Geez.

  “How? When?” Chloe asked her husband.

  “A few moments before you and Marceline arrived. I was about to call,” Saul replied. “A true dragon shifter and unique among my kind.”

  “She’s gorgeous.” Marcy snapped a few quick photographs as Astrid pounced a stuffed dragon. The miniature dragon abandoned her toy and approached Marcy, sniffing.

  “T ía smell like me!” Astrid cried. She nuzzled in close against her aunt.

  “Nope, I’m still me,” Marcy quipped. “Can you sit over here and let T ía Marcy take pictures of you for your photo album?”

  Astrid posed long enough for Marcy to take several pictures, and then the excited child bounded outside onto the balcony. Saul intervened before she tried out her developing wings. He caught her by the tail and promised flying lessons after her feathers grew in. They all spent the rest of the afternoon playing until, exhausted, Astrid shifted back and asked to take a nap. She curled up on the loveseat and drifted off.

  “What did you mean by unique?” Chloe turned her questioning gaze up at her husband. “St. George was a halfling like her.”

  “Indeed he was, though I am uncertain if he ever took dragon shape. Watatsumi might know,” Saul replied. He rubbed his chin and appeared deep in thought. “Beyond that, I have never heard of a gold dragon among my kind, my love. It will be interesting to discover what abilities she develops as she matures.”

  “Is your dragon council gonna be okay with that?” Marcy sank back against the cushions and tucked her feet up.

  “They have come to a neutral standpoint regarding Astrid.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “What he means to say is, they’re claiming to be okay with it since Astrid is being raised by a dragon. Hopefully it keeps her from growing up to become a dragon-hunting monster.”

  Marcy glanced at Astrid. “She couldn’t hunt dragons without the sword, I thought.”

  “Yeah well… about that,” Chloe began. Her eyes shifted to her husband.

  “Watatsumi insists we should give the sword to Astrid on the day of her 25th birthday,” Saul explained. “He has foreseen something, and assures me all shall go well as long as Astrid receives it.”

  “Right. That’s not ominous at all,” Marcy said.

  Saul chuckled. “Welcome to our world.”

  Chapter 13

  Marcy couldn’t rest. She tossed and turned in bed, enduring a difficult sleepless night. When rest didn’t come, she kicked off the sheets, grabbed a book from the shelf, and began to read.

  Chloe and Saul must be asleep by now… She sighed. It wasn’t the same, the time long past when she could knock on the door past midnight and intrude on her friend to talk. As much as she enjoyed the comfort of living with her best friend, she felt like she’d imposed on them. To make up for it, she had taken up babysitting duties to give Nuri and Chloe a break. Caring for the half-dragon child gave her a chance for introspection.

  Would it be horrible to become a mom?

  Could she live up to the standard her own mother had set?

  Chloe was right. Living her life in black and white absolutes was the fast track to missing out on new experiences. Teo wasn’t the only one at fault — she’d shut him down without even hearing him out.

  On top of her heartbreak, Marcy was also experiencing the worst case of generalized anxiety she’d ever suffered since graduate school. She paced in her room, did lunges across the floor, then struggled through half an hour of yoga before she surrendered the attempt to de-stress. The site of her mark from Teo ached where his teeth had left a deep purple bruise.

  Weird. It hasn’t bothered me since he did it.

  Helping herself to the kitchen, Marcy brewed herself a steaming tumbler of tea. She snagged two cookies from the jar on the counter on her way outside to the veranda. With sunrise a few hours away she was determined to stay up and capture the splendor on film. At least her insomnia would be put to good use.

  “Marcy, hon?” Chloe appeared when she reached the bottom of the tumbler.

  “Yeah? I thought you’d be asleep.”

  The blonde shook her head then leaned out of the door to smile at her. “Not yet, but there’s a visitor for you.”

  Marcy’s breath caught in her chest. She didn’t need Chloe to tell her who was there, she knew. Her heart had been racing for the last five minutes, pounding at an unrelenting pace.

  “Marceline, may I join you?”

  “Yes.” At that moment, Marcy realized the anxiety she experienced belonged to Teo, as it was written all over his face. He wrung his hands together and hung at the open doorway, the very example of a contrite dragon.

  “Teo…” I want to be with him forever. I don’t want a human lifetime with him. I want more. I’ve been the one who’s scared, Marcy realized. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks and she quickly tried to wipe them away.

  “I have been miserable without you, Marceline.”

  “You have?”

  Teo took a hesitant step forward. “Of course. You are my mate and my actions drove you away. You were in the right to leave.”

  Admission of wrongdoing ranked high with saying the word please. Marcy rarely, if ever, expected to hear such a thing, and yet Teo freely spoke the words, without coercion.

  “Teo, I’m sorry.” She closed another foot of space between them.

  “Why do you apologize when I wronged you? I urged you to make a choice you were not ready to make.”

  Marcy smiled sadly. “I wronged you, too, when I fibbed. I do want… I do want to be with you for a long time, but I’m afraid we’ll be doing this for the wrong reasons. I want to make a baby because it’s something we both want, when we’re both ready.”

  Teo took both of her hands, lacing their fingers together. The palpable relief on his face touched Marcy to her soul. “Okay,” he agreed.

  “Okay?” She arched a brow and wondered if she was hearing things.

  He nodded. “I accept. I will accept any choice you make, my love. Your years may be a drop in the bucket for me, but I would take that over a life that is dry and void of you at all.”

  “Before we discuss anything else, I need you to tell me something, Teo. You were a complete jackass to me the first time we met. Why? What did I ever do to you, and why did you change now?”

  A flush crept into his bronzed cheeks. “I have a confession, my love. When we first met that fateful day in this very house, my heart recognized you immediately.”

  “What?” Marcy’s voice cracked.

  “I knew then you were fated to be mine and I acted poorly because of it. I was insulted a mere human woman snared my heart as no dragon ever had.”

  “So you were an ass because you wanted me?”

  “Yes,” he answered without excuses. “I behaved childishly. When you came to the island, I was happy to have another opportunity to make things right between us. You’ve shown me humans can be trusted… and loved. I forgot for a moment when I realized the Galways were stealing from my foundation, but I never meant to hurt you.”

  Marcy could hardly believe her ears. Five years wasted because he had been too proud to take a risk on her. At first, fury churned in her gut, but then she remembered what Chloe has said and tried to look at it from Teo’s perspective.

  He had lived countless years, aware of his superiority over the hapless humans. Finding himself year
ning for one must have come as a shock. Choosing his lifetime mate wasn’t as easily done as picking up a car off the lot. He had taken his time to consider it.

  “And you disappeared on me at the island,” she continued. “Can you promise not to take off again?”

  “Should I need time away to think, I vow on my ancestors that I will tell you first.”

  Marcy closed the remaining distance between them. “So what happens next?”

  The proud dragon lowered himself to one knee and held out a small black velvet box. Marcy’s heart stopped, or at least it felt that way. Warmth rushed through her, fire coursing through her veins, but she froze on the spot, unable to move.

  “Marry me, Marceline.”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff,” she whispered, her voice tremulous.

  “Marriage may mean nothing to dragons, but you are everything to me. I will do things the human way, because nothing else matters if you are far from my side.” Teo’s solemn features gazed at her from his lower position. “And if you should choose against bearing a child for us, I vow to value every precious second fate gifts to us.”

  He opened the box and once again Marcy caught her breath. She struggled with remembering how to breathe, each little gasp quick and shallow. A salty tear slid down her cheek and caught against the corner of her mouth

  Nestled against a white velvet cushion was the most stunning, heartfelt ring she had ever seen. A Tahitian black pearl gleamed in the center of a setting resembling a hibiscus flower, each petal studded with pale pink diamonds. The platinum band slid onto her finger - a perfect fit.

  “Yes,” she mouthed, too overcome with emotion to find her voice.

  Chapter 14

  Saul’s yard had been transformed into an outdoor cathedral, complete with rose covered arches and a grassy aisle lined with potted orchids. Guests would be welcomed to take them after the festivities, a small gift from the bride and groom.

  Marcy fretted over her reflection. As far as she was concerned, she had the best hair stylist and makeup artist in LA. Mahasti’s work was flawless, perfect to the last detail.