Dragon Protectors: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  Sebastian’s face was buried in her hair, and his body was pressed to hers. Winter could feel him trembling. Her heart broke in half, wanting so badly to take his pain away, but she couldn’t allow herself to enable that sort of behavior where he was getting in her face because of something she had no part of. The compromise she made so that he didn’t think she was going to bail right then and there was to rub his back a little as he held her.

  “Can we sit down and talk?” she asked in the same soft voice she had used before.

  Peeling back and nodding, Sebastian quickly wiped his face with one hand and took one of hers gingerly with the other. They sat side by side on her small couch, and Sebastian kept a hand on her knee. There was a hovering silence, one that told her he was waiting for her to say something. Winter didn’t say a word, waiting for him to come to her with what was going on in his head. As the silence progressed, Sebastian nervously began bouncing his leg and scratching his neck.

  “I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry, and that that kind of behavior is not acceptable in the slightest. Especially when it isn’t you that did anything,” he eventually blurted out in a single breath.

  “Well, I must agree,” Winter nodded. “Can you at least tell me now what happened?” She assumed he would have wanted to loop her into whatever was going on that was so big, he had lashed out and gotten in her face.

  Once again, Sebastian wasn’t looking at her. Winter stared at the side of his head, waiting for him to turn back in her direction. The paranoia that he was playing some form of elaborate joke on her sat heavily on her chest.

  “I can’t,” he finally admitted. “I… I can’t yet. It’s family stuff, and that isn’t something I want to drag you into right now.”

  “I can respect that,” Winter assured him. “However, do not come to me like that. I’m fine helping you calm down, but making me cry can’t be what finally gets through to you.” She knew her words were taking a little dig at him, and while Winter felt bad about that, some part of her knew he needed an emotional reminder not to do that again; to boil what had happened down into one, blunt sentence so that he would think about it in case the same situation ever arose again.

  Sebastian was sitting on the edge of the couch, covering his mouth with his hands and bouncing both legs. Winter didn’t dare touch him. It wasn’t as though she thought he would strike her or anything of the sort—emotionally, he just seemed like a fragile piece of porcelain. The lump in his throat was so large, she could hear him swallow. He looked over to her with tender, emotional eyes.

  “I’ve had things happen today that I had never anticipated coming to fruition. Some of those things made facts about my past and who I was come up. I felt like my old self, and for the longest time, I despised who I used to be…” His voice trailed off in a way that said it wasn’t that he didn’t have the words; it was that he didn’t want to say them. “I just have a lot on my mind and plate right now, but the last thing I want it to do is ruin what we’re starting to build. I hate to ask this so soon into getting to know one another, but will you please be patient with me? Please, just until I have the time to figure… everything out.”

  Winter had never been a nosy person. In most instances, in fact, she would prefer not to know what was going on in people’s lives unless they explicitly told her themselves. Digging at someone to get them to open up felt like prying, and the last thing she wanted was people prying into her life.

  Not knowing what it was Sebastian was going through that was messing with him so much, though… Winter couldn’t stomach it. She actively had to fight off the urge to beg or plead to know what was going on. It wasn’t for the sake of knowing, but because she cared about him and couldn’t cope with the worry of it being something serious. She would have to have the trust in him to come to her.

  “Of course.” Winter nodded. “I just want to know you’re okay and for you to know that I’m here for you. We’ve only known each other for a short amount of time, but…”

  She hadn’t noticed herself lowering her head until Sebastian’s hand cradled her jaw and lifted her face to look at him. He gave that same intense stare that she had experienced in her dream, like he was seeing into the very pit of her soul. The cloudy feeling returned to her head, only that now it was partnered with a low vibration that hummed throughout every cell of her body. It was close to the sensation of passing out, from what she recalled, but she stayed on the cusp of it. A feeling that was exciting in a way, experiencing something she never had before.

  His thumb stroked her cheek, and he leaned in closer. “There are some things in life that are out of our control. Like—”

  “Like loyalty to family?” she asked, her voice distant and dreamy,

  Sebastian was caught wildly off guard. “How did you know what I was going to say?” he asked in a whisper, as though someone would overhear.

  “I… I…” Winter stammered to find the words, but before she could fully formulate a sentence, the weird headache lifted. It was such a relief that Winter put a hand to her forehead and sighed out of satisfaction. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember.” Sebastian deflated a little but nodded.

  “It’s okay.” Still holding her face, his thumb trailed across the perimeter of her bottom lip, and Winter almost wished he hadn’t. Vivid images of her dream flashed across her mind like a strobe light, playing each moment like its own picture, forever captured in the hardware of her memory. “You’re an amazing woman, Winter,” Sebastian hoarsely spoke. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t control myself earlier. That was a side to me that I never wanted you to see. I don’t mean to keep apologizing for it, but…”

  He continued rambling, though his sincere apology seemed to become a buzz in the background as the images rushed at Winter. She could see them, herself and Sebastian, kissing and grabbing one another, gasping, panting, moaning, his back muscles flexing. Winter couldn’t believe what was coming over her, especially at a time like that. After how increasingly peculiar yet passionate the last few days had been, she was a firecracker waiting to explode.

  Winter couldn’t stop staring at Sebastian’s lips. He was still rambling when, without any warning, she closed the distance between them and pressed a deep, sensual kiss to his mouth. He actually groaned from pleasure, melting his lips into hers and sliding his hand from her face to the back of her head. Winter was lost in the feeling of his skin, looping her arms around his neck and pulling herself closer to him. That kiss was exactly what they needed. No longer was Winter worrying about how little time she had known him or what the public might have to say about the emotions they held for one another. None of that mattered. Kissing him was a lifetime of built-up stress, angst, and loneliness coming out for the person she had been waiting for without ever realizing that she was. It was the same for him, he didn’t have to express it.

  Just as their breathing quickened, Sebastian’s hand slid down her back, and Winter began to move into his lap, his hand gripping the back of her head. She could feel his lips begin to purse. The next thing Winter knew, she was sitting on the couch, and Sebastian was on his feet. His fingertips brushed his lips as he stared down at her. Winter’s heart was pounding in her ears, not only from all the excitement, but the abrupt change in Sebastian’s behavior, yet again.

  “I-I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think that it’s anything you did. That was wonderful, and I enjoyed every millisecond of it. I’m just… I’m still worked up,” he grumbled through gritted teeth. Sebastian let out a long breath before he spoke again. “I could kiss you all night, Winter. I want to… I just… I have to go. I need to get my head straight and really think about things. Please understand.”

  Admittedly, Winter was defeated, but she did her best not to show it. He had been going through a lot that day, and it wasn’t exactly fair for her to throw herself at him in a time when he was so vulnerable. Standing with him, she walked him to the door. Sebastian’s pace was extra slow, obviously wanting to stay and enjoy his t
ime, but he wasn’t entirely in the moment, and it wasn’t fair for her if he wasn’t present. At the door, as he finally passed through the doorframe, he turned back to say goodbye to her. With a weak smile on his face, Sebastian leaned over and pecked Winter on the lips.

  “I like that you were bold and made the first move.” Winter turned every shade of pink imaginable, which in turn only made Sebastian smile brighter and kiss her again. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  “Before you go,” Winter interrupted, peering up to him with rounded eyes. “I know that this is probably silly, but… This stuff you have going on… it doesn’t pertain to me, right?”

  Sebastian hedged for a moment, maybe shocked by the question, and shook his head. “No, the reason I’m having issues right now is not because of you. You’re a very complicated piece to the puzzle of my life, but this started with the man that helped create me.”

  “Oh, yikes, I’m sorry,” Winter frowned. “If you ever need to talk, I’m here.”

  With the exchange of a final hug, Sebastian went about his way. Locking her door, Winter paced to the living room and sank down onto the overstuffed armchair. She was overwhelmed by such a short visit. Even in their first encounter, she had never felt something so intense in such a small window of time. He had gone from hot to cold and back to hot before simmering to being lukewarm. It was enough to make her dizzy. Winter tried her damnedest to comprehend anything about her and Sebastian, but every time they got together, she became more confused and yet somehow even more sure about their… their… She had no idea what to call it.

  Trying to drown out the phantoms of emotions the visit had left, Winter turned on her stereo, sat down with her homework, and did her best to focus.

  11

  Two Weeks Later

  Dark circles were a permanent accent on Sebastian’s face. Every day was cyclical. After just an hour or two of sleep, he was woken up by one of the warriors to begin training, hike, spar, hike again, shower, time with Winter, and then Osric would keep him out as late as he saw fit to track down those rebels.

  Trying to fight joining the Warriors’ full training routine had been pointless, with both Carlyle and Osric insisting on it. Their reasoning was that if he was a great fighter after over a thousand years of no major fighting, then think about how phenomenal Sebastian would be if he trained in the meantime. Any point he tried to make was disregarded before it ever left his mouth, because if both of their minds were made up, then there was no way around it. He couldn’t keep going the way he was; he was running on empty and could fall asleep just from sitting in a chair for a few minutes.

  Winter was the only thing keeping Sebastian in the realm of sanity, but that wasn’t to say it went without issues. Their bond was becoming more and more apparent in ways that words couldn’t describe, but they could look at the other and know they were feeling the same thing. It scared Winter, and reasonably so. She was trying to juggle school, work, and him. While Sebastian didn’t contribute any financial stress to her life, he knew that he was bound to take up quite an extraordinary amount of her thoughts. Then there were all the questions she either asked or kept just beneath the surface, to where Sebastian could tell something was bothering her. He knew exactly what the problem was: overall communication.

  There was no way to make Winter understand that it was for her own good that she couldn’t know much about his life just yet. Osric and Sebastian were closing in on the location of the rebel hideout, and any of them could come after her to try and get leverage. Winter was also bothered by how he never went into detail about his family, as if he wanted to keep them a secret, when in reality, Sebastian didn’t want to lie to her and make up something until he knew she was ready. He was patient with this aspect of their relationship, knowing that her heart was in the right place. Since she was kept in the dark over the real explanation as to what was going on with them, Winter was seeking out answers by trying to learn more about him. Any time she asked a question that he could answer without making up any lies about who he was, he gladly did and tried his best to be as detailed as possible.

  As days progressed, however, Sebastian was in trickier and trickier situations with the rebels, often making narrow escapes. The biggest problem surfacing in his life was that the more he trained, the more he fought, the more like his old self he became. At first, he tried to fight it off and remind himself of the words Lucia had shared and the memories he and Winter were making together. Just like he had feared, they were band-aid solutions. It started out gradual, being frustrated no matter how long he sat and concentrated on them; not even his happy places such as the bookstore and the museums could console the flickering annoyance before they grew into a blistering rage.

  As anger carried over into his home life and his time with Winter, Sebastian still tried to work on himself and do his best not to get mad at people, but rather get the frustration out during sparring. He was trying to find ways to cope and managing to hold some level of success, at least to the point that he wasn’t lashing out at Winter. He had to communicate his mood with her, afraid that if he didn’t and she happened to press the wrong issue or say the wrong thing, he would freak out.

  The night the switch went off in his head was the one when he and Osric had attacked a house they believed to be one of the rebel leaders’ houses. Instead, it was a close associate of theirs. When Osric let Sebastian take the lead in literally beating the information out of the guy, once he started, he couldn’t stop. As he was punching him, it was like Sebastian—the one that had taken Winter for strolls in the park and helped her with a philosophy paper—was sucked into a black abyss. The only one left to sit in the pilot’s seat was the same cold-blooded, rageful, and disassociated monster that had existed before Lucia.

  It had taken Sebastian hours to get back in control of himself, smashing anything and fighting anyone that was in sight of him. Within just an hour of his rampage, he was in his dragon form, howling guttural noises into the night sky. It had taken Osric and eight of his men to get Sebastian down and keep him there. He was once again half beast, in just the two and a half weeks he had been training. Fighting had undone all the work that Lucia had put into him and he had upheld in her memory.

  Sebastian was ashamed, no longer trusting himself around other people. He stayed locked away in his room except for training. Even then, no one man would go against him. He had calmed down, but everyone being so afraid of him was perpetuating the fear in him that he was not to be trusted. If his own people, who could very well defend themselves, couldn’t face him alone, then how could he possibly go see Winter?

  Her texts and calls haunted him, but Sebastian did not have it in himself to face her. How could he look her in the eyes, see her for what she was, and explain that he had failed her? After a few days, Sebastian turned off his phone and tossed it into his nightstand drawer. He had no need for it, people knew where he was. The Dragon’s Den, he heard staff and his cousins call it. His destruction in one night and his own reputation was enough to utterly isolate him. The conclusion that Sebastian reached from all of this was that he was supposed to be that way—more dragon than man.

  Early one morning, it was the turn of Weston, a cousin of his, to wake the dragon. He threw open the curtains, and golden rays of sunlight illuminated the room in a beautiful orange hue. Sebastian grumbled from his bed but merely tossed the blanket over his head. Weston approached the bed, calling out to him. “Come on, man. Time to get up. The group wants to leave in about twenty minutes.”

  As slow as the dead would rise from the grave, Sebastian rolled his way to the edge of the bed and stood with his posture slumped. He was only going through the motions at that point, his spirit crushed by the weight of the Kingdom. If it hadn’t been for this sudden uprising and Osric forcing him to return to fighting and stealing him away every night to fight—and forcing him to train all day so he could do it even better the next time—Sebastian would have had the time and effort to put into himself and W
inter. Only a week into the slump, he had already lost sight of any hope. That had been gone since the moment he had slipped back into his animalistic state.

  Dressing for the run and skipping breakfast, Sebastian headed straight for the trail, uncaring when the others were heading out. At least he could say that exercise gave him some form of release. Whenever he started thinking about Winter on his run, he felt like he could go three times as fast. His mind, at times, would place her at the finish point, and he’d run to her, though getting to the top was always bittersweet, to say the least.

  Sebastian finished the hike and took a different route back down to the arena, not wanting to talk to any of the warriors. There had been enough tension between them because of how fierce he could get. How could anyone be jealous of him? Of the power he contained? He didn’t need all that power, nor did he want it. As the group of men entered the court, they panned out and looked among one another.

  “I don’t have to spar,” Sebastian called over. “I could just be done with all this, you know.”

  “When we’re so close?” Osric hissed from behind.

  “You’ve been saying that we’re close the entire time I’ve been helping you with this,” Sebastian growled.

  “It’s not even been three weeks, Sebastian. You know these things can take time.” Osric assured him in a tone so condescending, Sebastian wasn’t sure if he meant it to be or not. “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic for having put less than three weeks of your life to help protect the Crown and our people?”

  “A little dramatic?” Sebastian cackled. “I would try and tell you to put yourself in my shoes, but you can’t. Not even the first dragon shifter is as strong as me. Everyone is terrified of me. I can’t go near anyone without them flinching!” his voice boomed, echoing in the distance like thunder.