Dragon Protectors: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  “If I tell you what I know, you have to do the same for me,” Sawyer said. “Have you been working with Vander, too? Are you part of The Order?”

  The inquiries were only confusing Anders further.

  “Vander? The Order? What the hell are you talking about? Vander is a dragon?”

  “No! I—I mean, I don’t think so. He runs The Order, and he claims he once knew a dragon, but…” Anders inhaled sharply.

  “You’re not making any sense,” he told her softly. “You need to take a deep breath and explain what you’re talking about. How do you know that they are coming for us? What makes you say that?”

  “All of the fires in New York were in properties that one of your family members owned through one of your corporations. The dragons are coming for you, Anders.”

  “Are you sure?” he demanded, his eyes growing wide. He had no reason to doubt that Sawyer knew what she was talking about; it made perfect sense.

  “We need to get you somewhere safe before they find you,” Sawyer insisted. “We’ll figure out a plan to stop them. I’ve done it before, and—”

  “No,” Max growled, appearing in the hallway, his eyes glowing amber as he began to shift into his inner beast before their eyes. “It’s too late. They’re already here.”

  Anders opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the earth-shattering shriek of dragon calls filled his ears.

  A flash of fire ripped through the ceiling and pierced the wall inches from Sawyer’s shocked face.

  “Anders!” she screamed, her olive face opaque with fear.

  And Anders didn’t remember a thing after that.

  17

  Another flame jolted through the hallway, and Sawyer cowered, but not before the scene transformed terrifyingly before her eyes.

  The brothers had transformed into the creatures she had fought so hard to destroy, their bodies enlarging into scaly, giants as she watched in horror.

  She buried her face in her hands, the feral cries swimming around her head, and suddenly, she was lifted from her spot on the cold floor into the air.

  Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream, she chanted in her head as she slowly opened her eyes. Her shirt hung from the jaws of the monster with whom she had shared not only her bed, but her innermost thoughts and fears as he sped through the halls of the castle, dodging steady streams of fire that brought down the castle walls without effort.

  Through her peripheral vision, she saw Max, now fully converted into a massive leathery creature, leap upward through a fresh hole in the roof and lunge, squealing toward another dragon circling the area.

  As Anders continued to run, dangling her from his glistening silver teeth, she wondered where he was taking her for his kill.

  It wasn’t until she was tossed onto a second-floor balcony that she realized he had brought her to safety, and a flood of confusion rushed her body.

  He’s a dragon. They kill. Why didn’t he kill me?

  Sawyer crouched along the stone wall and peered out to watch as Anders flew off to join his brother, disappearing from her limited view. She fell back, hearing another round of battle cries as more fire rained on the castle, but it was far enough away that she was unaffected by the smoke and debris.

  I have to get out of here, she thought, petrified, but there was nowhere to go. If her car was still intact out by the drawbridge, she would certainly be seen by one of the dragons before she got anywhere. She couldn’t outdrive their superhuman speed. She was stuck there until one of them found her and ended her life.

  Another high-pitched wail filled her ears, and Sawyer realized that she was not alone. Cautiously, she raised her head just as an iridescent snout appeared over the balcony wall, sneering perversely. It was neither Anders nor his brother, and Sawyer knew that this dragon was fully intent on killing her, just like the dragons she had tracked before.

  Slowly, as if dealing with a rabid dog, she ambled to her feet, hands extended as if to ward him off. The beast sniffed the air around her, and suddenly, Sawyer got the feeling she was dealing with a female dragon rather than a male.

  The creature tipped her head to the side, and Sawyer continued to back away, watching the blinking yellow eyes of the slightly smaller dragon before her.

  “Hi,” Sawyer whispered. “I’m not your enemy. See?”

  A long, forked tongue lashed out and licked the sweating snout as Sawyer struggled to maintain her calm.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” she continued in an almost singsong voice. “See? We’re friends.”

  For a second, Sawyer thought the dragon was going to let her go, but a gush of wind swept over her face, and a huge, black shadow appeared. He was bigger than her, but still smaller than Anders and Max.

  He looks like the one I killed, Sawyer realized, freezing in her spot as the two dragons seemed to communicate telepathically. They’re almost the same. They’re part of the same weyr.

  She shoved the irrelevant thought from her mind and seized her chance to run, noting the long gaze between them. Whirling, she bolted across the balcony, but before she could take two steps, she was flying through the air, unfettered to anyone.

  Airborne, she watched the female’s face whizz by. For a strange, impossible moment, Sawyer thought she saw remorse in her eyes. She landed with a thud, a thorny scale piercing into her leg, and it took her a moment to realize she was on the back of the black dragon.

  A sick sense of déjà vu struck her, and in her mind’s eye, she was not in a castle in England. She was in a cave in France, clinging to the skin of an almost identical beast. On the floor was Jericho, unmoving, his lifeless eyes watching as she struggled for her life.

  “Let her down!” The voice was unearthly, terrifying, and coming from Anders, who towered above, trying to find his opportunity to pounce among the flapping wings.

  Sawyer held fast, her eyes widening with terror as Anders tried to swoop in, but the black dragon exhaled, the blast of fire sending her lover back against the sky. The black dragon shook violently, trying to unhinge Sawyer from where she had dug her nails into his crinkly skin, but she would not let go.

  The garrotte. I have the garrotte in my back pocket.

  But there was no way for her to grab it—not without pummeling to the floor. All she could do was hope he would tire himself out and be still long enough to allow her to grab it.

  “Esme, stop him!” The words were strange, made odder by the surreal voice, but the female dragon raised her majestic head and stared up at Anders, who had reclaimed his spot above them. “Esme!”

  With a primal scream, the female dragon jutted upward, flailing her wings in a flurry of motion, and the black dragon froze.

  Now! Sawyer thought. She snatched the garrotte from her back pocket, the device teetering dangerously close to falling, and by the time she had extended it, encircling the black dragon’s neck, it was too late for him to fend her off. Using her feet as leverage, she yanked the wooden handles back and pulled with every ounce of power she could muster, feeling the rip of his leathery flesh as she tore it away.

  The terrible sound of blood gurgling filled her ears, and Sawyer shut her eyes closed, not wanting to see the gruesome mess of the decapitated dragon as he thrashed. Her grip turned her knuckles to white knobs, but she did not release him until the head came clean from his body.

  There was no time to react, to absorb the fact that she had stolen yet another life; her body was again being raised into the air, this time on the back of her lover, who darted into the graying sky above. There were half a dozen dragons still in the throes of a fiery battle, but somehow, Sawyer could sense that the worst was over.

  She fell forward, tears streaking her face as Anders whisked her over the treetops, landing her in a clearing away from the fighting and chaos. Gently placing her on the ground, he turned his head toward her, saffron eyes glittering as he bowed before shooting off into the rain.

  “Wait!” she screamed after him, but he was already gone,
leaving her in a pile of pine needles, scared and scarred.

  “He’ll be back for you.” Sawyer jumped, falling backward as an elderly woman walked toward her, her kind eyes glowing as she nodded reassuringly.

  “Wh-who are you?”

  “My name is Ruby. My cottage is this way. Come, I’ll make you some tea.”

  “I—I can’t!” Sawyer choked. “Th-there’s—I can’t!”

  “You can’t help them,” the older woman told her patiently. “This is a fight that only they can resolve amongst themselves. It started a long, long time ago. Nothing can be buried forever.”

  Sawyer shook her head, still wary of the woman. “Are you one of them?” she whispered.

  Ruby laughed. “Goodness, no, but in a way, I am responsible for them.”

  “You made them this way?”

  “Not me,” Ruby explained. “An ancestor of mine. Seven centuries ago.”

  Sawyer thought of the story Vander had told her, and she gaped at the witch.

  “How can this be?” she demanded. “With spells and magic and…” She trailed off, unsure of how to even finish such an insane idea.

  “It was a different world then,” Ruby replied quietly. “There were truer believers, and the earth itself was not as corrupted. Things were possible then that simply are not now.”

  Sawyer stared at her for a long moment. “You couldn’t change them back?”

  “They wouldn’t want it if I could,” Ruby answered with confidence. “They are immortal and powerful. At least, the princes are. The others… well, they were an abomination, a mistake. Their poor breeding made them all unstable and reckless.”

  “Why? How? I don’t understand.”

  “Come with me, child, and I will explain it all to you,” Ruby said, turning away. “It’s about to rain.”

  No sooner had she spoken than fat drops hit her face and head. Sawyer looked back into the sky, slowly trailing after the witch, and Ruby laughed without turning around.

  “Don’t worry, love. He will come back for you. You are his mate, after all.”

  Sawyer stopped walking. “What did you say?”

  Ruby turned to smile at her. “Why are you surprised? You’ve known it all along, haven’t you? You are fated to be with Anders Williams. He is your protector, your saviour. Not to mention he’s easy on the eyes and richer than all the gods combined.”

  “He’s a dragon,” Sawyer whispered. “I can’t be fated to a dragon.”

  “And yet you are,” Ruby tittered, pivoting to lead the way across the field.

  And Sawyer realized that the witch was right.

  No matter who Anders was, she was in love with him.

  She was just going to have to find a way to not hunt him or his weyr in the future.

  18

  Darkness had fallen by the time the battle ended, the Northmen having fled for safety, weakened by the unexpected arrival of all the princes prepared for battle.

  Max was left to explain to their overwrought father what had happened while the others wrangled the females back, led by Esme and Delilah.

  “We had no choice, our lords,” Delilah sighed. “They threatened the children, and there were five of them. If we had known they lacked our power, we could have stopped them, but our intention was to keep the children safe from harm.”

  “You did nothing wrong,” Titus assured them as Cassius rounded up the children who had not been swept up with the Northmen. The women explained that the dragons had turned some of the boys into soldiers for their cause, but the princes were unconcerned by the revelation.

  “They will still never be as powerful as we are,” Marcus said. “Even with our best boys. They will never be strong enough.”

  “But they are getting braver,” Anders warned. “This has kept them at bay, but for how long? We have to kill them.”

  A heavy silence fell over the courtyard.

  “How did she know how to kill them?” Marcus asked, looking about, as if realizing for the first time that Sawyer was not among them. “Who told her that? What does she know about us, Anders?”

  “I don’t know exactly, but I think she’s been onto this weyr for much longer than we have. She will be a benefit to us. She’s already been a benefit to us.”

  “She’s a mortal,” Esme warned. “She can’t be trusted with our secret.”

  “What would you have me do?” Anders snarled, his blue eyes flashing. “We live by a code. She is not a threat to us unless she becomes one. There’s nothing we can do unless she tries to hurt us. Anyway, there have been other mortals whom we have trusted.”

  “Ones who know how to kill us?” Esme barked back.

  “She’s not going to hurt you, Anders,” Max volunteered. “She’s in love with you. Go to her now. Your work here is done.”

  Anders looked at his brother warily but nodded slowly. Whatever waited for him in that clearing, he couldn’t avoid it. He needed to see Sawyer face to face, no matter how painful the result.

  “Stay in touch,” he told his family before shifting, soaring off into the rain splattering down upon them from the sky. It was black when he landed where he had left Sawyer, but she was not there any longer, and his heart filled with dread and disappointment.

  She didn’t even wait for me to come back. She would rather brave the woods alone at night than look me in the eye.

  He couldn’t blame her, not really. She was apparently a dragon slayer, someone sworn to protect the mortals from the likes of him. He could not fathom the betrayal she must have felt knowing that he was one all along. On the other hand, she had never asked.

  That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard, Anders thought to himself. And I’m a lawyer.

  Above his head, thunder crashed, and a streak of lightning lit the sky. He saw a form along the tree line, and his heart stopped.

  “Sawyer?” he yelled. “Is that you?”

  Heart hammering, he started toward the shadow, the darkness making it impossible for him to see the hand in front of his face. But as he moved, another spark of lightning showed him he was headed in the right direction. And that Sawyer was headed toward him, too.

  He felt her even before he touched her. When he did, a buzz of electricity charged through him, and he pulled her toward him, his lips grazing the wet of her cheek. A part of him expected Sawyer to pull back from his embrace, but when she didn’t, he felt his pulse quicken, and he braved a soft, slow kiss to her mouth.

  There was a slight hesitation, and he felt a pang of regret in his heart.

  “You’re safe now,” Anders muttered, his hands encircling her face. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

  “I know,” Sawyer breathed. “I—I’m trying to process all this, but it’s just so crazy.”

  “It is,” he agreed, squeezing her close. “And I know you’ve committed yourself to fighting my kind, but we’re not a danger to you. Not me, and not my family.”

  “I know that, too,” she sighed, and he could feel the race of her heart beneath the damp clothes clinging to her body.

  “Tell me what you want me to do, Sawyer,” Anders said, “and I’ll do it. If you want me to find a way to change who I am, I will.”

  Sawyer’s body tensed, and she drew her head back. He could see only the whites of her eyes in the blackness. “You would give up being a dragon to be with me?”

  “If it meant I would lose you otherwise? Of course I would.”

  “You would forsake all that power?” she choked. “For me?”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?” Anders asked, slightly amused. “You are worth so much more than you have ever given yourself credit for. I don’t want to lose you because of something I might have the ability to change.”

  “You can’t change who you are,” she murmured. “And I would never ask you to do that for me.”

  They held each other, listening to the sound of the rain hit the trees in a sweet, wet melody.

  “We can’t tell Vander about you,” S
awyer said. “His obsession with this is becoming unnerving.”

  “Vander is like you, then? He kills dragons?” Anders asked.

  “He’s the one in charge,” Sawyer said. “He has a lot of knowledge that can help us track the other rogue dragons, but we must never let him know about you or your family.”

  “I can agree with that. You’ll have to tell me how you and Vander came to know one another one day,” Anders remarked dryly.

  “It’s a long story, but we can never speak of what just transpired. I think I just killed his lover. He will never forgive either of us.”

  Another silence fell between them.

  “I didn’t know there were female dragons.”

  “Of course,” Anders said. “There are children, too. When the curse fell over the castle, it affected everyone in its walls.”

  “Including the prisoners in the dungeon,” Sawyer concluded. “I know. I spoke with a witch.”

  “Opal?” he demanded, his brow furrowing. “Is she still alive?”

  “Ruby.”

  Anders wracked his brain to place her. “I don’t know her.”

  “It doesn’t matter. She filled me in on what happened over there all those centuries ago.”

  “I see,” Anders said, unsure if he did see. “Do you understand better now?”

  “Not really,” Sawyer replied, half laughing, but there was sadness in her voice.

  “What can I do to make this easier for you?” Anders asked urgently. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s possible,” she mumbled.

  “If there’s one thing I have learned about being alive this long is that anything is possible. Tell me.”

  Sawyer inhaled shakily. “I want to become a dragon, too,” she murmured.

  “Oh…” Anders’ arms grew tighter, his hold on her almost suffocating. “We have looked for a way to do this forever, Sawyer. We’ve traveled all over the world, speaking to sorceresses and gurus. We’ve dealt with every denomination of religion and every crackpot conspiracy theorist on the planet. Whatever Opal did to us seems to have died with her.”