Curse Marked: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Marked Series Book 1)

by Rinna Ford

  I got up on my feet and felt something I didn't recognize growing out of my sides. It took me a moment to realize that they were large, leathery wings. I flexed them, then beat them up and down a few times to see how they worked; only lifting off the ground for a moment. Then, before I had a chance to check anything else out about my new form, I felt my body change once again.

  I shrunk and shifted until I was back in my human form, my body collapsed in a heap on the ground, as all strength completely left me. A blanket was wrapped around me and strong arms lifted me up.

  “It’s all okay, Firecracker,” Dev told me as my eyes began to droop, the movement of his walking lulling me to sleep. “It’ll all be okay now.”

  Chapter Nine

  I was sitting in a field of wildflowers surrounded by trees. It was the same field from the picture of my mom and me when I was a little girl. Thinking it was a memory like the ones I had of Xander every night for the last month, I looked around for my mom, but she wasn’t there.

  I stood up and as I lifted my foot to take a step out of the flowers, I heard a deep voice behind me. “Hey, sweetheart.”

  Startled, I quickly turned around to see my father standing right behind me, a happy smile on his face.

  “Dad?”

  His eyes softened and his smile got even bigger. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.”

  I smiled in return because this giant of a man was my father. I’d always wondered about him, but since learning about his death I’d mourned the fact that I’d never get to meet him. And yet, here he was.

  “Dad, this isn’t a memory, is it?” I asked.

  “No sweetheart, it’s not,” he replied with a chuckle. “Now that your powers have awakened, you can talk to me in your dreams.”

  My eyes widened. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Dragons are a very unique kind of shifter,” he told me, “we’re the only kind of shifter that is considered to be a mythical creature for a very good reason. It’s because we have our own special brand of magic that none of the others do. I won’t get into it all right now because I can tell that I’m already overwhelming you,” he chuckled again, “but just know that one of the things we can do is communicate with our ancestors through our dreams.”

  I stayed quiet for several seconds while I let that sink in. “So you’re saying I can talk to you whenever I want? As long as I’m dreaming?”

  “Yes, Emelia, whenever you’d like. I’ll always be here to talk to you, to help you whenever you need it.”

  I smiled at the thought. I was so out my depth with the whole supernatural thing, and I was especially worried about the idea of shifting into a dragon when I had no one who could specifically help me with it. Sure, Ainsley was a shifter himself, but he was a wolf, not a dragon. Some of the things would be the same, but it was really like apples and oranges.

  “You know,” my dad said and looked around the field, “I chose this place because it was special for our family. You and your mother would meet me here and we would spend all day together, where no one would see us. This is my heaven. And now that I can share it with my baby girl again, I’m pretty much the happiest person that ever existed.” My eyes filled with tears as he spoke and I threw myself into his arms. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there to help guide you as you grew up but know that I never left you, even when things looked the darkest. I was always there.”

  I pulled away so I could see his face. I began to speak, but my body began to feel a little tingly.

  “Daddy, what’s happening?” I asked with a look of confusion.

  “Emelia, you’re waking up.” A look of panic crossed his face and he set me back down among the flowers. He bent over and held onto my biceps so that we were face to face. “Quickly, I need to tell you something before you go.”

  I nodded my head in understanding. “Okay, Dad. I’m listening.”

  “What I’m about to say may sound like a couple of fortune cookies, but just go with it, okay?” I nodded my head as the tingles became more pronounced. “You are more important than you realize, sweetheart. You are meant for great things and don’t ever forget that. Are you still with me?” I nodded my head even though I felt completely lost. “There’s more. Stay with me, Emelia. Trust your feelings and don’t let the prejudices of others dictate your happiness or what is best for you. People are coming that want to help you, and they’ll need you as much as you need them. Let them in, and you won’t ever regret it.” He let go of my arms and took a step back. “Even the one with the accent.” My dad smirked.

  My eyebrows scrunched as I tried to piece together what he’d just told me, but then the tingles began to get worse.

  “I love you, sweetheart,” my dad said with a sad smile, as he and the field of wildflowers faded from view.

  My eyes fluttered open, revealing the bedroom I stayed in at Devlin and Ainsley’s cabin. Realizing that I was alone, I carefully sat up, holding my head in my hands and tried to remember my dream. How was that possible? My father was dead. How could I talk to him, even if I did turn into a mythical creature from time to time?

  I felt a slight rumbling in my head that wasn’t there before, and the rumbling seemed to grow with my doubt. Shaking my head and trying to ignore it, I decided to write down my dad’s parting words, because even if he and the dream weren’t real, they seemed to be important.

  I jumped off of the bed and began looking through the nightstand. There was a small pad of paper and a pen in the bottom drawer, and I quickly wrote down what I could recall. As I finished and stood up, there was a light knock on the door that I didn’t expect.

  I dropped the notepad as I quickly turned around to see Ainsley's smiling face peeking out from behind the door. “How are you doing, sugar bear?” he joked and opened the door all the way, letting himself in.

  I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out, calming myself further. “Ainsley, you scared the shit out of me,” I chided, and sat back down on the bed.

  “Sorry, sweet pea. I heard you get up so I thought it would be safe to check in on you.” He plopped himself next to me on the bed. “So really, how are you feeling? You had an eventful night and early morning.”

  I scoffed a laugh. “You could say that. We’ll talk about that in a bit, but there’s something else I need to tell you about. Well, you and Devlin. Where is he?”

  “He’s in the study. Do you want me to go get him?” Ainsley rose off the bed and began walking toward the door before I could answer.

  “No,” I told him. “I’ll go downstairs with you. I feel like I need to stretch my legs.” I stood up and began rubbing my chest. The rumbling was beginning to give me a heartburn-like feeling.

  “What’s the matter?” Ainsley raised his eyebrows in question.

  “Oh, just this weird feeling I’ve had since I woke up. It feels like heartburn right now. Do you think Dev will have something I can take to get rid of it?” My eyebrows knitted together as the feeling became more uncomfortable.

  “Ooooohhh,” Ainsley chuckled. “What did you do to piss off your dragon already?”

  “What do you mean, my dragon?” I continued to rub my chest, but the pain wouldn’t go away.

  “That’s one way your beast lets you know that she is upset with you for something you’ve said, or done, or thought....”

  “I didn’t…” I paused for a second when we were halfway down the stairs when I realized I doubted the dream of my dad. Was my dragon letting me know that it did indeed happen? The heartburn slightly faded away, and I got my answer. “Huh,” I said and continued down the stairs and into the study, a confused Ainsley trailing behind me.

  “Emelia, how are you feeling?” Devlin asked. “You’ve been asleep for about a day and a half, so I’m sure you’re starving.” He rose from the chair behind his desk and walked around it. He wrapped me in a warm hug, and it reminded me of the hug I got from my father when I thought I was dreaming. The rumbling intensified as th
e doubt crept back in, but I sent calming thoughts toward it, making it recede back within me. Devlin pulled away from me and gave me a puzzled look.

  Sighing, I removed myself fully from his grasp and walked over to the couch, plopping down onto the cushions. “Dev, something happened while I slept, and I need to talk to you and Ainsley about it,” I told them.

  “Okay,” my uncle said slowly, and lowered himself into an armchair, “go ahead.”

  I sighed again, trying to figure out how to start. It seemed so strange. “When I was asleep, I dreamed of my father,” I said.

  “Was it a memory?” Devlin questioned. Ainsley joined me on the couch.

  “No, my dad said it wasn’t. In fact, he told me that because I’ve found my dragon, I could communicate with my ancestors. It’s part of the magic that we have.”

  Devlin jumped up and began searching through books on his bookshelf. “That’s incredible,” he breathed. “It’s nothing I’ve ever heard before, but not entirely impossible. Dragons are known to have incredible power.” He continued searching.

  I looked over to Ainsley to gauge his reaction. “What do you think?” I asked him. “You’re a shifter. Have you ever heard anything like that?”

  “No, but dragons are notorious for being secretive. It makes sense, I guess.” He shrugged his shoulders and sat back against the couch. “And your dragon was angry with you?” I nodded my head. “Did you doubt that the dream walking actually happened?” I nodded my head again. Ainsley sighed. “Well, there’s your answer. Your dragon knows it to be true, and didn’t like that you didn’t believe in her power.”

  Is that right? I thought the words inside my head. A low, aggravated rumble was my only response, confirming it. Well, shit. My head was a busy place on a normal day, and now I had something else in there judging my every thought, word, and action. I hoped my dragon and I would be able to see eye to eye soon because I had enough on my plate already.

  “Okay, I believe it,” I said aloud. And, I did. I closed my eyes and remembered the way the breeze felt as it whipped through my hair. I remembered the way my dad smelled when he hugged me tightly. It was a woodsy scent with a bit of campfire smoke mixed in. It all had to be real.

  I opened my eyes and smiled. I would be able to talk to my father. I could get to know him and learn from him. I may be an adult, but a girl will always need her dad, even if I didn’t remember him.

  I looked over at Devlin who was busy taking books off the shelf and looking through them before putting them back again, obviously not finding the right one. He looked a bit frustrated, and that made me chuckle. Devlin wasn’t my father, but he looked out for me. He looked after me from afar until he was able to watch and protect me as the homeless man I knew at the shelter. I looked up to him and loved him as if he were my father too because, in a way, he was. He may not have been my biological father, but that didn’t matter.

  I loved him because of all those things, but I loved him most because even though I got to meet my real father, he didn’t feel angry or threatened by it. He was comfortable in my affection for him to know that there was room for both of them. And, he was right.

  I stood up and crossed the room to where my uncle was standing at the bookshelf. His back was to me and as he reached up to grab another book, I wrapped my arms around his waist, making him stop mid-reach and lower his arm.

  “Hey, what’s all this about?” he smiled and turned so he could hug me back.

  “I just wanted to say that I love you, Dev. And thank you for always being there for me.”

  He paused for a moment and hugged me a little tighter. “Of course, Firecracker, anytime. One of my greatest joys in life has been my ability to watch you grow up. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more, but I was always there.”

  “I know,” I replied.

  We were still locked in our embrace when I felt another pair of arms wrap around us. I chuckled as a tear rolled down my cheek.

  “Aw, group hug!” Ainsley cried, making me laugh even harder.

  In that moment, I realized how truly lucky I was. I’d had quite a few hardships in my life, and they were more than what most people, human and supernatural alike, have had to go through, but that made moments like this all the more sweet.

  Chapter Ten

  While Devlin cooked supper that evening, Ainsley agreed to go for a walk with me. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt the need to be outdoors.

  “Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes, so don’t go far,” Dev told both of us, but gave Ainsley a pointed look. Ainsley rolled his eyes and smiled because Dev knew him all too well. He tended to find any excuse he could to be outside. It must have been a shifter thing,. “After dinner, Emelia, I’d like to test your caster abilities, if you’re feeling up to it.” Devlin then said, his attention turning to me.

  I nodded my head. “I feel okay,” I then began to bounce on my feet in anticipation of being outside. Apparently, Ainsley wasn’t putting his shoes on fast enough for me. “I’ll meet you on the front porch,” I told the wolf shifter and left before he could respond.

  I paced back and forth along the length of the porch for several minutes, until the need to go into the woods became too great to deny. Telling myself that I wouldn’t go very far, I ran down the steps and out into the forest. I ran straight for several yards then turned left, following the path that led to the creek that I often jumped across during my runs.

  I stopped once I reached the water’s edge and bent down to stick my hand in. I moved my hand back and forth in the cool water and realized that this was exactly where I wanted to be. It was where I needed to be. I didn’t understand it at all, but after talking with my father in my dream, I decided to go with whatever felt right. My dragon happily rumbled in my head, letting me know that I’d made a good decision.

  “Mate,” I heard a deep voice whisper.

  I jumped up and twisted around to see a man straight out of my memories. My lips slightly parted as I took in his large frame and chestnut-colored skin. His black hair was cut close to his head, and his sable eyes shone brightly behind long lashes. His mouth turned up in a sensual smile, and I wanted nothing more to feel it against mine. In a word, he was beautiful. He was also the same person I had been dreaming about for the last month, my childhood best friend, Xander Liu.

  “Mate,” he repeated, taking a step closer. My hand twitched with a need to reach out to touch him, but then I remembered that his father was the one that told the Council about my first shift so I stayed still. It was obvious that Xander didn’t realize who I was, he only thought that I was his mate. “Don’t you feel it?” he asked. “I’ve been waiting for the need to find you.” He took another step closer. I had to ball my fists to keep from reaching for him.

  Just as I was about to reply, I heard Ainsley scream, “Emelia!” Xander and I both turned our heads toward Ainsley running straight toward us, a look of sheer panic on his face. He jumped over a large rock, and while he’s in the air, he shifted into his wolf, his clothes shredding to pieces. He landed several feet away from us and took up a position right beside me, growling menacingly at the intruder.

  Xander crouched in a defensive position, his expression burning with fury. I could see his hands growing into claws and his teeth into rows of sharp fangs. He made a dangerous rumbling sound and I knew the situation would get so much worse if I didn’t try to do something to stop it.

  I stepped in between the two holding my hands out. “No! Stop!” Ainsley growled even louder making Xander do the same. “Ainsley, back off! ” He took a step back but didn’t relax his position. “This is Xander! It’s Xander Liu!” I told him. “You don’t want to do this!” I turned my attention back to Xander, but like my wolf friend, he wasn’t backing down. Fed up with the whole thing, I yelled at him, “Xan! So help me! If you try to hurt my uncle, I’ll rip you a new asshole!”

  Xander's eyes cut to me and furrowed, confused at my outburst. "How do you know who I am?" he asked, straighteni
ng ever so slightly. I could tell that he wanted to ask more but didn't for some reason.

  "That's hard to explain," I told him, "and I will if you just relax and shift back."

  "I will if he will," he replied, nodding his head in Ainsley's direction.

  Ainsley's growl deepened and he inched closer. "I don't think my uncle is comfortable with that idea." He barked loudly in agreement.

  "I'm her mate!" Xander screamed at Ainsley as if that would change things. I rolled my eyes but noticed that Ainsley's growling became quieter. Surprised, I turned my head so I was facing him. He was still growling, but I could tell most of the fight had left him.

  Sighing, I turned back to Xander. "Look, he's very protective of me, but he's my uncle. I don't see him relaxing enough to shift back right now. So please, just help me out and lose the half-dragon look you have going on. It will help out the situation, I promise." Xander slowly shook his head. "I guarantee it would help ease the tension, and he's not going to hurt you if you don't hurt us."

  "I would never hurt you," he quickly replied.

  "For various reasons, he doesn't fully believe that, even if you are my m-, m-, mate." I stuttered that last word, finding it a hard thing to say, let alone believe. I thought I'd never have a mate because of my half-breed status. But, I couldn't deny the pull I felt toward him. I wanted to be near him, to see his smile, and to tell him all my secrets. It was definitely a new feeling for me.

  "Do you?" he fired back. "Do you believe I'm your mate?" He looked hopeful and a little nervous to be asking me. I might feel that way too if I were in his position.

  I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, nodding my head. "I do."