Dragon Vanquished: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 4)

by Zara Stark

  Copyright (C) 2018 by Zara Stark and Sara Stewart

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First edition: February 2019

  Cover art by Sara Stewart

  Edited by Clovermango Editing

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Dragon Triumphant

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To all those who never give up, even in their darkest hours.

  Epigraph

  “Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier, I have seen worse than this.”

  -Homer, The Odyssey

  “Love is friendship set on fire”

  -Jeremy Taylor

  “Good fortune is the best of all mistresses.”

  -Alexander Dumas, The Three Musketeers

  Chapter 1

  “Do you know the rules of Tartarus?” Tar asked softly, which seemed odd considering how deep and raspy his voice was. Tar was larger and more densely muscled than Cobalt, his head shaved instead of long braids and twists. Their large size was their only similarity, his silhouette was enough to remind me of Cobalt and make my heart burn in my chest.

  “Never been to the slammer myself before but if television has taught me anything. The gist is don’t drop the soap, don’t make too much eye contact, anything can be a shank if you sharpen it…” I continued to drawl, trying to ignore the pain in my heart.

  Tar held a hand up to stop me, his facial expression closed off, the fleeting moment of tenderness completely gone and forgotten. Good, I preferred it. He might have helped me out of my jam with the Concilium but I sure as hell wasn’t about to be BFF’s with this jerk. Not when he was locking me up in his prison.

  “This was a prison built for gods. There is no escape. This prison hurtles through a pocket of space outside of the normal dimension. In four cycles, enough time for me to get a good boost of power, we’ll deposit you back in your time, inside the prison is a lawless place, survive a month and then you’re home free,” Maybe I had been spending too much time with Raiden recently. The lightning dragon was a master strategist and of reading people. Something was off about what he said. I could almost hear the lie in his words. Why would he lie? I decided to play along, maybe I was reading too much into it. After all, I was exhausted and experiencing the terrible separation from my guys. I refused to call it a loss, loss implied it was over and done, that I would never see them again.

  “Wait, prison god dude,” I yelled, shaking my head rapidly back and forth. “I can’t go back to my time period right now, I need to stay here while the heat dies down from the Concilium and I can go find my dragon guys.”

  “Your optimism was endearing at first but now it’s just frustrating,” He sighed. “They aren’t ever going to be your guys again now that they’ve got their draconic forms back. Since the dawn of time, the Concilium has been doing this to dragons who reach their thousandth battle and none have ever regained their rationality back after being turned into beasts.”

  “Never tell me the odds!” I quoted and Tar gave me a scathing look. ”Really? Not a Star Wars fan? I truly am in a bad situation.”

  “Bad situation? I saved you. The Concilium wasn’t going to take you prisoner after that fantastic display of power. They were going to rip you to shreds.” He growled at me. You would think an immortal god would have a control on his temper.

  I shivered at the thought but didn’t let it show. “Then why save me? Why let me stay here and deposit me back to my time? Why bring me to this prison? Who are you?”

  “I’m Tartarus, the God of Imprisonment and my prison is aptly named Tartarus. You might have heard of it?” He sneered at me.

  “Like the Underworld?” I asked. “As in Hades?”

  “Yes, Hades/Pluto/Osiris/Arawn/Mictecacihuati whatever you would like to call him. He doesn’t come here, he just sends the worst of the worst my way. Dead or alive. The stronger the prisoner, the more power I receive. So I have invited many strong warriors on the Concilium’s bad side to reside here. Many thrive in a place like this and don’t want to leave. Some like you are just vacationing in the Underworld. I don’t mind really, strong little thing like you, I’ll get a nice power boost from having you here.“

  “I forgot my sunblock,” I whispered, still shocked.

  He shook his head. “You won’t be needing it, this is a place of darkness, nothing like your Judeo-Christian fiery horror show, just stone, and dirt, no hellfire, and demons to torture you. It’s the prisoners you need to watch out for.”

  “Oh yay,” I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. There was no way I was going back to my time without my Aurelius’ dragons. I couldn’t just go back to my normal life, leaving them to a dreadful life as mindless creatures.

  Tar just gave me an annoyed look and held out his hands. “Your cards and dice, Octavia.”

  I glared at him.

  “Hand them over or I’ll dump you right into the Concilium’s headquarters. Test my nerves again and I’ll truss you up in a bow for them as well. They’ll be returned to you as soon as you leave,” He told and I sighed, reluctantly pulling my cards and dice from their holster and handing them over. I knew one more thing about prisons, cards, and dice were just about the only fun prisoners got to have. I could figure out a way to steal some dice from a fellow inmate. I would prefer not to hand over my cards that Cobalt made for me but I might be able to steal them back. Or convince Tar, or Tartarus now that I learned who he really is, to give them back to me. What did it matter to him if he dumped me back in my time or let me stay in Ancient times?

  Tar walked me into a room, large torches hung from the casting shadows onto the already dark stone walls. He led me to a large armoire and pulled out swaths of dark fabric in varying shades of grays from smoke to charcoal.

  “What no old times black and white striped prison pajamas? Not even neon orange?” I asked in a mocking tone.

  Tar gave a scathing black look, he looked like he was already very tired of me. Good, maybe he would be more inclined to let me loose sooner than planned.

  “I could let you stay in your armor, the prison gets quite cold, shouldn't take long for someone of your dainty human constitution to freeze to death,” Tar met my eyes, lifting one dark eyebrow. “I hear hypothermia is quite the terrible way to go, not that I would know.”

  “Hard pass on hypothermia,” I yanked th
e dark fabric from his arms.

  “I'll leave you to get dressed. Hurry up, if you're not done in ninety seconds I'll go about my business and leave you to find your own place to stay,” He growled, turning around. As quickly as I could, I peeled off my leather armor and traded it for silk. The soft fabric felt so good on my skin, I could have moaned from the sensation but one shouldn’t moan in prison or around strange men. Another prison rule.

  “I’m done,” I told him.

  “Follow me,” Tar took off down a dark corridor and I had to run to keep up with him.

  “Wait just a minute, big guy,” I huffed at him. “Short legs versus long legs. It’s an unfair battle!”

  He didn’t slow down and I struggled to keep up with him.

  He led me down a dark corridor until we came to a glowing wall of purple light.

  “Are you ready? Once you pass through this light it’s official,” It sounded like a rhetorical question but I answered anyway.

  “I don’t really have a choice do I?” I grumbled.

  Tar turned over his shoulder, his face blank, and shrugged. “Not really I suppose.”

  I followed him through the wall of purple light, a shiver running over my body. We didn’t pause, heading down another dark hallway until we stopped in front of a cell bathed in pale sickly blue light. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust but when they did I noticed a naked woman peering at us through the bars with a flirty smile on her face.

  “Oh Tar, I love when you come to visit me,” The woman smiled, her tone both flirtatious and threatening at the same time. I gasped when I realized it was Mab. From Team Faerie and Team Steelsong with Cobalt. She must have noticed I was there too because her eyes drifted to me.

  “Well if it isn’t the Aurelius’ little human,” She eyed me up and down. “You’ve seen some better days.”

  I gestured around to the prison around us. “You too.”

  Mab threw her head back and let out a cackle of a laugh that seemed more like a deliberate attempt to show Tar the curve of her throat and bare her breasts to him rather than genuine humor.

  “Control yourself, Mab,” Tar sighed. I looked up at him and noticed his body stiffening and how his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed hard. He averted his eyes to try and not look at her.

  “Boring. You never want to have any fun,” Mab pouted.

  “I’m not supposed to be any fun, I’m your jailer,” Tar grumbled. “I’m not a dragon, I don’t like to share either.”

  Mab laughed again, this time sounding genuinely amused. “I’m your prisoner. You’re my jailer. There are all sorts of fun scenarios we can explore there. You’d be my only right now at least. My roster is empty, no players to fill my slots.”

  “With you dragons, it’s all the same. Males searching for a female to cling to and females trying to turn every man they meet into one of theirs,” Tar scoffed at Mab, still very obviously not looking at her naked body. He was making it way too obvious, he wanted to look at her so badly, the desire was oozing off of him. “I’m a God, you failed experiment. I’m far above your station.”

  I gasped, I wasn’t the one he was pissed off at and even I felt talked down to. I fixed my eyes on Mab only to see her smile remaining the same.

  “I like a challenge,” Mab crooned to him, not deterred in the least. I now saw what she was doing. This wasn’t some desperation or genuine attraction to Tar. This was literally boredom. I hated to admit it but I had done similar things when I was younger. Being with someone or pursuing someone out of sheer loneliness and boredom.

  From the rigid posture and clenched jaw of Tar, I wonder if he knew the same. She didn’t truly like him for him, he was just something to cross off her bucket list.

  I patted his shoulder and shook my head. Tar glanced down at me as if he would rather be anywhere but where he was then.

  He unlocked the cell and forcibly shoved me inside and slammed the cell shut, leaving without a word.

  I turned to look at Mab and put my hands on my hips. “Look cellmate, if you’re wanting to be prison wives, you’re going to have to get me really good and wasted on toilet wine first.”

  “As pretty as you are, for a human at least, hard pass,” Mab sneered at me, she turned away and watched Tar’s retreating back.

  “Yeah, even drunk I don’t think I could do it, I’m all committed now and what not,” I chuckled.

  Mab snapped her head to look back at me and nodded at the four dragon marks on my neck and chest. “What did you do to get put in the slammer and away from your males?”

  Before I could answer, Mab, let out a dramatic sigh, sliding against the bars. I rolled my eyes, I was supposed to handle this drama queen for ten days?

  “You know I always fancied your Aurelius dragons before you came along. I liked to entertain the thoughts that I was there female, to feel so important and safe. Cherished I guess would be the word. I’m not so interested in Cobalt’s appearance or even Raiden but I’ve always had a soft spot for Azar and especially Nevada. You would think I would have been jealous when you showed up but I just want to give you a round of applause for hooking those four strong males.”

  I couldn’t help it. I burst into laughter.

  “Don’t laugh, it’s true. You got the four most difficult males who are all completely different from each other, totally obsessed with you.”

  “Obsessed? That doesn’t sound right. Enamored maybe?”

  “No, definitely obsessed. Before you joined their team, everyone always heard them discussing this mysterious Octavia. Octavia this, Octavia that, what’s Octavia doing right now do you think? They were definitely obsessed with you. That’s why it’s so hard to believe you’re here alone. What’s going on?”

  “We hit our thousand, they freed them. Turned them into dragons and unleashed them on the world,” I sighed. “They lost their emotions and feelings and rationality, all that’s left are the mindless beasts that humans think they are.”

  “Those bastards,” Mab growled.

  I nodded. “That’s why I can’t just hang out here and wait for him to deposit me back in my time, I’m not saying I’m unappreciative of being safe from the Concilium but I can’t just let my four loves go.”

  “Tar is a God, what do they understand of love? Nothing,” Mab shook her head. “I think he means to tell you that dragons are immortal and unless they are slain, they would still be lingering in your time period.”

  My heart skipped a beat. They had never told me they were immortal. That kind of seemed like an important thing to tell someone before entering into a serious relationship! I was a mortal human and they were immortal dragons. How had this come up? This wasn’t just an omission on their part, all four of them had been keeping this from me. A few days ago, all together, I would have been angry, enraged and betrayed but all I could feel was a bone-deep sadness.

  Mab placed on an arm around my shoulder. “I wasn’t suggesting to do the same.”

  “I know they wouldn’t survive. I don’t know what time you’re from, you sure don’t sound like an Ancient Roman woman. But there is no way for the giant creatures they became to hide all over Europe. It’s crowded full of people and every inch is watched by satellites and radar.”

  “I was born in the nineties, in a lab,” Mab sighed. “I was sold to the Concilium, there was never any hope for me even if I had won a thousand battles, they would never let their favorite experiment go but the others need to hear this. Other warriors have hit their thousandth and we’ve never heard from them again. Of course, if you had just been freed why would you linger where you were enslaved? We weren’t surprised that no one took the time to say goodbye but some of us are surprised that no one has ever written to us.”

  “Yeah,” I bit my lip.

  “Look, I want to help you. Not just for the guys, I don’t know if you can ever get them back to the way they were before if it is reversible but I know what you must be planning,” Mab told me.

  “Oh do you?�
�� I turned to look at her.

  “You want to take the Concilium down, you’re smart. You had planned to live happily ever after with your four males. How would you do that if the Concilium came calling for your little half-human, half-dragon babies? You’re a smart woman, surely this concept isn’t totally new to you. You’ve thought of it right?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “Raiden and I had discussed it but we were at a loss on what to do about it. We realized that in the year I was taken, there was no Concilium. They didn’t exist anymore and that at some point, someone had destroyed them. But it doesn’t matter, does it? Because the Concilium of now will just pull dragons back through time to use when they wish.”

  “That is a conundrum, so it’s not just the Concilium that needs to be destroyed but the Contract between the warlocks, Gods, and dragons,” Mab sighed, she let go of my shoulder and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. “Thinking of this is giving me a headache.”