Dragon Fever: Limited Edition Holiday Romance Boxset

by Serena Meadows

  “If you expect it, then it’ll happen.” Jordan stepped toward him and took his boot from the stirrup. Shaking his leg, she then inserted it back in. “Now, think relaxing thoughts. Breathe deeply if you have to. He will mirror you. You think relax; he will relax. You think bolt, he’ll bolt.”

  “He’s reading my mind?” Neil blinked.

  “In a way, yes.” Jordan touched the saddle. “He can feel your body through all this leather and rawhide.”

  “Oh.”

  “That’s another reason horses can either be dangerous or as gentle as a kitten. It’s trust in you as his leader, or no trust in you as a predator.”

  “But I am a predator.”

  Jordan grinned. “Be his leader, and you won’t be. Now just ask him to walk on.”

  This time, Neil visibly relaxed and the gelding responded to his legs and cues. Grinning as he felt the change in the horse, Neil said, “I see what you mean. I can feel him now; I can feel what’s he’s thinking about me. He understands now that I won’t hurt him.”

  Jordan frowned. “It usually takes years to understand a horse’s thoughts.”

  “Maybe because I’m sort of an animal, too.”

  “Mommy, are we still going on the picnic?”

  “If I can trust Neil not to fall off.”

  “If I fall off, it’s no big deal,” Neil commented. “It’s him kicking my head off that worries me.”

  “If you can communicate with him on a deeper level,” Jordan replied, watching the gelding’s body language, “then you can ask him not to.”

  Neil closed his eyes and bowed his head, and Jordan rolled her eyes. “C’mon, predator, Caitlyn and I need to saddle up.”

  Neil grinned and rode the horse out of the round pen. Trusting the quiet gelding not to bolt with Neil on board, Jordan turned her attention to saddling another horse for herself and Jumper for Caitlyn. She already had packed a lunch in saddlebags, and they lay near the barn.

  As Neil rode around the area, Jordan tried not to fret over taking him up the mountainside on his first time in the saddle. Hoping he could indeed communicate with the gelding in a way she could not, she swung into her saddle as Caitlyn climbed up into hers.

  “Come on, Axel,” Caitlyn yelled and reined Jumper’s head around.

  Letting the pony’s shorter legs set the pace, Jordan kept turning in the saddle to keep a watchful eye on Neil. He grinned back, still aboard the very calm and happy gelding

  After thirty minutes along the trail, what she saw shocked her when she turned around. Neil’s hand on the reins was loose, his seat in the saddle steady, and he moved with the gelding’s motion as if he’d been riding for years.

  “How do you know how to do that?” she demanded. “No one learns to ride that quickly.”

  Neil pointed at the horse. “He told me.”

  Okay, now that is just too weird. A dragon that can talk to a horse.

  Caitlyn overheard and stopped Jumper to also turn around. “Did you tell him you won’t eat him, Neil?”

  “I sure did, little one.”

  Content, Caitlyn kicked Jumper onward, leaving Jordan to shake her head. “Tell him to pass that information on to the others,” she said, her tone caustic.

  “I did.”

  They reached the big meadow an hour later, a place that Jordan had loved to come to when she was a kid. Cattle had grazed on it the previous year, and there were still cow pies, dried and broken, here and there. Caitlyn slid down from Jumper without grabbing his reins, something Jordan had never been able to get her to be responsible about.

  “Caitlyn, you want Jumper to run off?”

  “He won’t.”

  Caitlyn ran around the meadow, picking wildflowers, while Axel trotted behind her, sniffing at everything. With a sigh, Jordan grabbed Jumper’s reins as he grazed on the tall grass, then loosened his cinch. Neil dismounted with more grace than Jordan thought he should have, and, watching how she did it, also loosened the gelding’s cinch.

  “They won’t wander,” he said, as she tied Jumper and her mount’s reins to a tree.

  “It’s a long walk home if you’re wrong.”

  Neil shrugged and tied his mount, then spent a moment rubbing the horse’s neck. Jordan heard him murmur to the gelding, and in a flash, she was back on the road, gazing down at him as he muttered thickly in a strange language. The same language he spoke to the gelding in now.

  “Is that your native tongue?” she asked.

  Neil nodded. “He seems to respond to it.”

  “I taught him to speak English.”

  “Maybe you did,” Neil replied with a grin. “But I suspect he’s bilingual.”

  Unable to halt it, Jordan snorted laughter and pulled the saddlebags down. “You are something else,” she said.

  “Yes. A dragon.”

  She spread the tablecloth on the tall grass, and Neil helped her set out sandwiches, slightly crushed chips, and bottles of water. “Caitlyn,” Jordan called. “Lunch.”

  Caitlyn ran back, Axel galloping alongside, flowers clutched in her small hand. “Mommy, look what I found.”

  “Very pretty, baby. Now you’ll have to make sure Jumper doesn’t eat them.”

  “Neil, tell Jumper not to eat my flowers.”

  “Okay, little one.”

  Feeling happiness and contentment for the first time in a long while, Jordan ate her sandwich and gazed up at the perfectly blue sky. Absently wondering why she felt so happy, she realized what it might be. She no longer had to fear Knox, and she rapidly fell headlong toward being in love again.

  Watching Neil talk to Caitlyn, observing as he listened to her with a seriousness Knox never offered her, Jordan smiled inwardly. He’s a natural dad. Knox talked to her in baby talk; Neil talks to her as though she is a valued person. “I brought cookies for dessert,” she said, digging into the saddlebag.

  “Mommy, we didn’t bring anything for Axel,” Caitlyn complained.

  “Oh, yes we did.” Jordan brought out a small packet of dog food. “Here, give him that.”

  Caitlyn happily poured the dog chow on the ground, Axel gobbling it up as though it were prime steak. She laughed. “As long as he’s included, he’s happy.”

  Neil grinned. “He’s a good dog. Perhaps my people should have them.”

  A sudden thought came to Jordan. Proof that he’s really not talking to the horses. “If you can communicate with horses,” she said slowly, “why can’t you communicate with him?’

  “But I can.”

  “How?”

  Neil gestured, helpless. “The same way. With my mind.”

  “Let’s see it then.”

  Shrugging, Neil looked at Axel. Busy dining on his chow, Axel suddenly stopped eating and looked at Neil. Jordan held her breath, as, in a very strange fashion, Axel, leaving food on the ground, ambled toward her and licked her face. Stunned, Jordan stared, fending off Axel’s busy tongue.

  “You told him to do that?”

  “I asked him to do it,” he replied. “I hate being ordered around, so I asked him to stop eating for a moment, walk over, and give you a kiss. He was happy to do it.”

  “Axel, you are so special.” Caitlyn wrapped her arms around his neck as he wandered back to his unfinished lunch.

  “I can’t believe it.” Jordan wiped dog saliva from her cheek.

  Neil shrugged. “I can shift into a beast not much different than they are. It stands to reason I can communicate with them. It just took a little practice at making myself understood.”

  “You did it almost immediately with the horses.”

  “They were more open to it than Axel,” Neil said with a slight frown. “I’m not sure why.”

  “I want to see the dragon,” Caitlyn said, her sandwich in her hand.

  “And I am feeling the need to fly.”

  Neil stood up and strode away. Fascinated, Jordan watched as he walked a short distance across the meadow, and where he once was, the reddish gold dragon now stood.
Neil flared his wings and took off, flying toward the sky. Breathless, she watched his aerial performance as he dove toward the ground with his wings folded only to bank across the meadow before climbing again.

  Caitlyn laughed with delight, clapping her hands while Axel licked his paws and the horses dozed. Endlessly fascinated, Jordan watched with no little envy as Neil climbed so high against the sun, she barely saw him. Then he folded his wings and dropped, growing larger and larger in her sight before he shot across the meadow at nearly Mach speed.

  For nearly an hour, he flew, performing an aerial dance high above. At long last, he flew serenely to the ground and furled his wings across his back. He ambled toward her on four legs, his tail lashing back and forth, his pale gold eyes lit with happiness. Caitlyn ran to him, not able to get her arms around his legs the thickness of tree trunks.

  “You looked like you had fun,” Jordan commented, also walking to him.

  Neil dipped his muzzle in a nod, and only then did she realize he didn’t talk while a dragon. “You don’t speak in this form?”

  For answer, he tilted his head back and roared, flames shooting from his jaws.

  “I guess that’s a no.” Jordan wiped the sweat from her brow. “That’s cool.”

  Reaching her hand up, Jordan caressed his huge head, seeing the Neil she knew and was beginning to love gazing at her from his eyes. He lowered his head, permitting her to rub and scratch the horns that jutted from his huge skull.

  “Mommy, put me on Neil.” Caitlyn lifted her small arms to be picked up.

  Jordan looked into Neil’s eyes and witnessed his quick wink. “All right, but there’s nothing to hang onto, baby.”

  “Neil won’t let me fall.”

  When Neil turned and lowered his serpent-like neck, Jordan lifted Caitlin and set her there. Caitlyn squealed in delight as Neil ambled around the meadow, the little girl clinging to his neck like a tick. Axel followed after them, barking, delighting in the new game while Jordan watched.

  “I’m letting my kid ride a fire-breathing dragon,” she muttered, unable to halt her grin. “After this, her pony is like nothing.”

  “She loves you.”

  Jordan leaned against Neil’s shoulder after Caitlyn had gone to bed, cuddling with him on the couch.

  “I’m feeling the same for her.”

  Neil drank the beer Jordan had brought him and she gazed absently at the movie on the TV with hers in her hand. “I just don’t understand how she got attached so fast.”

  Lifting her head, she gazed into Neil’s eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, Neil, it’s not that I disapprove. I don’t. I just don’t understand it.”

  Under her head, his shoulder rose and fell as he shrugged. “I’m not an expert,” he replied, “but I think little children are like animals. They work off of their instincts. It’s like how well she gets along with Axel, for instance. It’s as though they are of one mind.”

  “That’s true enough, I suppose.”

  “Caitlyn looks at the world as a complete innocent,” he went on. “Not altered by experience or prejudice. Animals, even dragons, have minds that work the same way.”

  “You are really making me look at the world differently,” Jordan told him.

  “Am I? It’s not my intent.”

  Jordan chuckled. “But it’s a good thing, Neil. I’m glad to see my animals from their perspective.”

  Axel emerged from Caitlyn’s room, his body language informing Jordan that he was anxious. He panted, gazing back toward her room, then whined. He looked at Jordan, walked a few steps toward her, then walked back to Caitlyn’s room. She stared at the dog, confused, but Neil bolted upright.

  “Axel says that master took the baby,” he snapped. “He’s worried.”

  Before Jordan could move, Neil was up and gone, rushing with fluid dragon grace and speed toward Caitlyn’s room. Axel barked, following him, and Jordan, more confused than ever, trailed after.

  “Master took Caitlyn?” she called. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Neil almost bowled her over. “She’s gone,” he snarled, a thick roar in his voice. “Her window is open.”

  Stunned, Jordan instantly knew what had happened. She felt sick and fell to her knees, unable to weep through her shock. Knox was Axel’s master. His master belonged there, so Axel would make no objections to his being there or taking Caitlyn

  “Knox. Knox took her. He’s the only one who could come in without Axel attacking.” Jordan broke into sobs. “Oh, my God, Axel knew him and would never in a million years hurt him.”

  “That doesn’t mean I won’t.”

  Neil ran out the door and vanished.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Neil switched forms and instantly took to the air. Obviously, Axel knew his former master and let him into Caitlyn’s room when he’d permit no one else. Caitlyn, knowing that was her daddy, would not scream or cry, or even fight.

  But I’ll make you scream, Knox. Neil growled low in his throat as he flew low over the land, searching. You will scream until your lungs burst.

  Knox must have a vehicle, he knew. Yet, as hard as he listened, he did not hear the roar of an engine. No headlights gleamed in the darkness along the road. Neil thought back. If Knox took Caitlyn, it might have taken Axel a little while to figure out that things were not supposed to be like that. Say, Neil wondered, Axel waited thirty minutes before wandering out of her room, worried and anxious that his small charge was not where she was supposed to be.

  That would mean Knox had a greater head start than he first thought. Putting on more speed, and gaining altitude, Neil gazed ahead and to all sides, searching for a vehicle. Surely, Knox wouldn’t risk his daughter’s life by driving without headlights.

  Then, he saw them. Not heading toward town as Neil had first thought but driving fast toward the mountains. Like a sudden light in his mind, Neil saw Knox’s plan. Head for the mountains, away from people, cops, and anyone who might be able to stop him. Hide with his daughter until he could sneak across the northern border and vanish.

  Banking left toward the tall mountains, Neil flew hard and fast, trying plan after plan in his head and discarding them all as dangerous for Caitlyn. Catching up to the speeding truck, watching it bounce over ruts on the uneven dirt road, Neil slowed his pace to match it. He knew Knox could not possibly know he was there yet saw no plan he could implement that involved crashing the truck and keeping Caitlyn unharmed.

  Neil wasn’t big enough to pick the truck up in his talons and carry it until he figured out what to do. But any plan that involved flaming Knox and the truck also imperiled Caitlyn.

  Wait a minute. Why do I have to crash the truck? Why not peel open the door, and pluck her out?

  Grinning to himself, Neil flew lower until he was right over the truck’s cab. Resting his rear end in the bed, his tail flying out beyond it, he set his left front leg on the cab’s roof. Of course, he caved it in; no truck could withstand his weight. Folding his wings, he reached with his right talons and yanked the passenger door off.

  Letting it fly behind him, he reached in and found Caitlyn.

  “Neil!” she screamed as he plucked her neatly from the seat.

  Spreading his wings, he let the night wind catch him as the truck roared on, now careening dangerously back and forth along the narrow road. Beating his wings gently, Neil gained altitude and held Caitlyn close against his chest, watching as the truck slammed into a pile of rocks.

  Bye, Knox.

  Neil banked back toward the ranch, Caitlyn both crying and laughing as she felt both terror and wonder at her first dragon flight. Listening to her chuckle and cry, Neil cradled her as he flew back to the ranch, and to her waiting, anxious mother.

  Jordan paced the yard as Neil flew in, Axel following at her heels. Not wanting to alarm her by simply flying in, he flamed and caught her attention immediately. Circling a few times, he dipped his right wing and banked down, settling to the ground on his haunches. Using his wings to bal
ance himself, he carefully set Caitlyn down on the grass.

  “Oh, baby,” Jordan cried, sobbing as Caitlyn ran into her arms.

  “Mommy, did you see? I was flying. Neil made me fly with him, did you see?”

  Sitting on his haunches, Neil watched the reunion of mother and daughter, Axel jumping around the two and barking. Listening as Caitlyn recounted her flight, her excitement at flying overshadowed her kidnapping. But then, that was her father who took her, not a stranger, so perhaps it wasn’t as frightening to her as it should have been.

  “Hey, baby,” Jordan said, wiping her face with her fingers. “Daddy took you?”

  “Yeah, Mommy. He said we were going to Canada.”

  Over her head, Jordan looked up at Neil. “If it weren’t for you, I might not have ever gotten her back.”

  “Daddy said we’d come back for visits.”

  Jordan stroked her blonde hair, trying to find a smile. “Listen, baby, it’s late, and you need your sleep.”

  “I don’t want to sleep, Mommy.”

  Neil shifted back to two legs and strode toward them. “She’s a bit hyped up for sleeping,” he murmured as Jordan flung her arms around him. “Let her get her excitement out.”

  “You’re probably right,” Jordan admitted, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “Let’s go in. What happened to Knox?”

  His arm around her shoulder, Neil steered her into the house, Caitlyn clinging to Jordan’s hand. “He crashed his truck, but I think he’s all right.”

  Jordan locked the door, something he hadn’t see her do since his arrival, and as he took Caitlyn to the sitting room, he knew she went around the house locking the other doors and windows.

  “He’s on foot,” Neil told her gently, with a tiny smile, when she walked back in, “and a long way from here.”

  “I’m paranoid now,” she said, picking Caitlyn up and snuggling with her on the couch. “I will stay that way. I was so scared I’d lost her.”

  Neil went to the kitchen for beer and returned with two bottles. “Maybe this will calm you.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jordan rocked Caitlyn as though the child were in need of comforting, sipping from her beer. “So, you liked flying with Neil?” she asked at last.