Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5

by Emilia Hartley

  Her voice was level and cold, as if she could separate herself from the guilt that she felt despite what she’d said. It did feel as though all of this were her fault, but she couldn’t tell anyone. She couldn’t risk the dragons here seeing her as weak, as something to lay all the blame on, or her role at the Embassy would never work. No one would defer to her for answers, for help. Because, that was the only reason she was here, she told herself. She’d only come to the States to build this Embassy. There was no other reason for her to be here.

  Luc staggered to his feet and lurched out the door. He would return to his normal self once they found Marc. She hoped that the silent and reserved half of the duo was okay. She couldn’t imagine how they would lose a whole dragon, especially one like Marc with their feathers and bright scales, unless he was taken or hurt.

  She hoped it was not the first because she’d had enough of that. She’d had enough of wars and uprisings in her life. If anyone thought they would try to overthrow the largest American family, they had another thing coming. She would find them and squash them before anything could happen.

  At least, that’s what she told herself as she followed Dane and Luc. They backtracked to the entrance of the Territory, a place she’d driven through only minutes ago. Somewhere, she scanned the forest with fresh eyes, Marc was hiding.

  This wasn’t a game. The spark of mischief in Luc’s eyes had been burned away. She knew that kind of fierce love. She was half of another person, one she’d left back home. This time, she reached out and gripped Luc’s hand. It was comfort. It was solidarity.

  They would find his brother.

  “Luc. You will take to the skies with me.” Dane’s gaze slipped over to Liana. She stood straighter. They both knew she would not fly. Yet, she was fast. “You can see more if you stay ground bound. Send up a firebolt if you find anything.”

  “Ground bound.” Liana couldn’t help but laugh at the phrase. It rolled off the tongue far too easily, like a bouncy ball escaping the small hands of a child.

  In turn, both Dane and Luc cracked a small smile.

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  Chapter Six

  Liana loved running. It made her feel like the wind, untouchable and invincible. What could stop the wind? Liana leapt over fallen trees and jutting rocks, careful to keep an eye on the unfamiliar landscape. It felt a little like home, but she couldn’t let that lull her into carelessness. One tumble and she’d risk a broken limb, leaving her to heal or to wait for someone to come along and carry her back to the center of the Territory.

  The world here was relatively flat for the first twenty minutes. Then, she noticed more rocks budging their way out of the earth. They got bigger and bigger until they created hills and mounds upon which trees grew. A familiar scent wafted to her on the breeze and her heart leap.

  Dane and Luc were going to be relieved, she thought. As long as Marc was in one piece. She hadn’t thought that far. She hoped he was still alive. Even if he was unconscious, she would carry his heavy form all the way back to the center of the Territory if she had to.

  Liana didn’t want to see the even-headed leader lose his cool like that again. It angered something inside of her that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She didn’t look too closely at the emotion for fear of what it might uncover. She was doing perfectly fine without whatever lay beneath it.

  The breeze moved around her and her eyes were drawn to a rocky outcropping that grew out of the ground. As she came around the corner, she saw a familiar form leaning against the rock, legs sprawled out before him.

  For a moment, she feared the worst.

  “Shit,” Marc breathed when he saw Liana approach. It was only one word but it conveyed a million things all at once. It conveyed relief. It conveyed fear. It conveyed anxiety. His face was lined with all sorts of emotions, ones that she didn’t have time to pick apart.

  All she knew was that she was relieved to see him in one piece. She told herself it was because she didn’t have to drag his body back to the center of the Territory.

  She opened her mouth to yell at him for not returning to the center of the Territory sooner when she noticed the dragon in question paced outside a small, rocky outcropping. A dark hole marked the entrance to a narrow cavern, one that Marc never strayed too far from. Marc paused and turned his gaze back to the entrance.

  “A great number of odd things have occurred today,” he said. “I would have called, but getting hit by lightning, even when in your dragon form fries your electronics, apparently.”

  She gave him a questioning look, eyebrow raised. How did that even work? No one bothered to look too closely at the magic that allowed dragons to change shape at will, often replacing clothing and personal items when the human form returned. She’d always assumed it truly was a replacement created by magic, but if his cell phone had been fried, perhaps she was wrong.

  Marc sucked in a breath and began to relay everything that happened since the storm.

  Of course, the storm had followed Isaac, Marc acknowledged. They should have known it would track him away from its normal course. Storms sought the dragon out like he was a lightning rod. They would have known if only they’d bothered to check the weather forecast. Then, they could have tucked Isaac into the convertible with Dane and Liana and the world would have been right again.

  But, Marc seemed kind of grateful that they hadn’t. Even if lightning had struck him from the sky and the traces of it still bruised across his skin in lines much like the roots of a tree, Marc didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he knelt beside the entrance to the tiny cave.

  “When I fell from the sky and hit the ground, I was in my human form. I struck my head on one of these rocks and was out for quite a while. It was this one who pulled me out of the storm and shared her food with me.”

  Liana’s lips formed a question that never left her mouth. She knelt beside Marc and summoned a small flame to her hand, letting the blaze inside her warm the two of them in the cool forest. The light in her hand flickered inside the small cavern and washed over a tiny form. It took a moment for her brain to recognize the shapes. A tiny, heart shaped face. Thin arms wrapped around knobby knees. Little toes covered in dirt.

  Her heart stuttered inside her chest.

  The head perked up at the sight of her light. A hand rose to cover the child’s gaze.

  Liana pulled back and met Marc’s eyes. He shrugged, anticipating her question. He knew as much as she did. The monster inside her writhed with anger. It wanted to tear apart whoever had abandoned the small child. It wanted to claim blood on her behalf. But, Liana told the thing inside her to hush.

  Now was not the time for anger and revenge. The child didn’t need revenge. It needed safety. Instead, Liana laid flat on her belly and stuck her head inside the cave’s entrance. The flame in her hand was a soft glow, one that the child’s eyes would adjust to. Liana used her other hand to cushion her chin.

  She’d been this scared child once. She’s been without her parents, alone in the world. Yet, she had one thing the child did not. Liana had her brother, Rhys, to scoop her up and love her.

  “My name is Liana,” she began. Her flame nervously danced over her fingertips like a tiny dancer.

  The child’s eyes were entranced by the dancing flame, so she encouraged it. She lifted her fingers and let it fall from tip to tip in a show, something she’d only done out of boredom before.

  “I came all the way from Wales,” Liana informed the child in a conversational tone. “I flew here to live with some friends of mine. It just so happens that you helped one of those friends.”

  She should have sent a fire bolt into the sky, should have called Luc and Dane down with the flare. She had a feeling the small child would not have been too keen on the big, angry men. Luc was still seething from everything that happened and Dane was reeling from stupid feelings of inadequacy.

  They’d all made a simple mistake. No one had died for it. Instead, that
mistake had led them to find another life in need of help. Perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps it was fate.

  Liana laid her head on the ground like she might take a nap, averting her gaze to a rocky wall. Beyond her burning hand, she heard a small scuffle of rock against rock. She froze, not daring to move for the fear she might scare the child back into the corner.

  Little fingers touched her skin and she stilled. She fought the urge to pull back her flame for fear of startling the child. But, what happened next amazed her. The fingers closed over the flame in her hand, but the child didn’t cry out.

  Instead, Liana looked up to find the child cradling the flame in her tiny, cupped hands. Liana felt her eyes grow wide and forced a soft smile to her lips. The flame hovered over the child’s skin and made her wonder. What had they found?

  Now lit by Liana’s flame, the child became clearer. Her body was unbearably thin. Liana could not tell if the girl was five or ten, from the size of her. It made her heart ache in a way she did not want. She pressed her forehead into the cold ground and fought back the warmth inside her chest. She would not grow attached to this small thing.

  The child most likely had a home. She most likely had parents searching frantically for her. They would coax the girl out and send her to loving arms. That was all.

  But, as her forehead pressed into the ground, Liana felt tiny fingers push the tendrils of her hair back. The child uncovered Liana’s face and she let her head fall to the side and saw the smile on the girl’s face.

  They were two of a kind, two lost souls.

  “Will you come out of the cave with me?” Liana asked, her voice as soft as she could muster. She was amazed at how easily the gentle voice came to her. It felt at odds with the person she’d become.

  The child’s eyes darted to the entrance beyond her. Fear was clear on her face, but Liana reached out and grasped the fire in the girl’s hands.

  “Don’t worry. I will protect you.”

  The child met Liana’s eyes and Liana noticed the slight flare of the girl’s nostrils taking in her scent. The little girl swallowed, a small motion, before nodding. Liana had to shimmy backwards on her stomach to get out of the cavern entrance. Cool air greeted her face like a breath of nature. She leaned back on her haunches, avoiding Marc’s gaze. Instead, her eyes were trained on the cavern.

  Would the little girl come out? Would she trust Liana?

  They waited a long moment. She was afraid the girl would never come out. She felt her heart sink and she hated herself for it. Liana shouldn’t have expected the child to trust her. She should have simply reached in and dragged the girl out so they could take her to safety, even if that meant kicking and screaming.

  Then, they heard a soft scratching sound and looked down to find a small head appear in the cavern entrance. Liana felt her heart lighten and sucked in a breath. The girl stilled, taking in Marc with wide eyes full of fear until she remembered who he was. It passed when Marc stepped away from them and the girl darted out of the cave. She crashed into Liana’s chest.

  The two of them rocked back and Liana’s arms instinctively rose to wrap around the girl’s fragile frame. The two stayed like that for a while, huddled into one another. How had this girl come to be in a cave, half starved? Where had she come from?

  Would Liana bear to part with her when that time came?

  Finally, she remembered her job. She reluctantly pulled an arm away from the child and let loose a thin, bolt of flame into the sky. It snaked through a small opening in the canopy above them and fizzled in the open air. It was hard to tell from the ground if the other two dragons saw her flare.

  She didn’t bother searching the skies. Liana placed her arm back around the tiny form currently hanging on to her for dear life and tucked her head over her like she could shield her from the world. Smells of earth and body odor assaulted her senses, but Liana didn’t pull back. The monster inside her shifted nervously. They both knew what this was.

  It was weakness.

  Even if Liana didn’t want to admit it. Instead, she thought of all the ways she could be strong while they waited for Dane and Luc. She would shield this small being from the worst of the world for as long as she had to. She would keep it safe and happy.

  Two heavy thuds echoed in the forest. The child in her arms jerked away in fear, but Liana reached out and held on to the child’s hand. Her grasp was soft and she hoped her face was, too.

  Luc crashed into Marc, enveloping his twin into a broad hug that should have crushed a lesser man. Marc groaned in his grip, still feeling the effects of being struck by lightning. It was a miracle the man was still alive.

  The girl watched this all with wide eyes as she inched closer and closer to Liana’s chest until she could fold herself back into Liana’s safety and watch everything from there.

  ***

  His heart stopped.

  Not because Marc was in any way hurt. The dragon looked a bit rough, his clothing torn in places and a map of bruises crawling across his skin that were slowly fading from his dragon fast healing, but he was on his feet and coherent and that was all that mattered.

  No, Dane’s attention was swallowed by his mate kneeling in the dirt with a small child wrapped in her arms. He felt his heart beat once, a huge thud that pushed all the air from his lungs. It was a vision he didn’t deserve. It was something he’d never imagined.

  Liana twisted and looked up at him. There was a war in her eyes. Shadows tried to push back the maternal instinct she felt with the child clinging to her, but she didn’t let go. She gave the little girl a place to find sanctuary.

  And, yet, neither were his. Liana may be his mate, the lifetime partner the universe promised him, but she still hid behind her walls. He had no claim to the woman, nor the child she held in her arms. It was still out of his reach, still a thing he wasn’t sure if he deserved.

  After a long moment, he was able to tear his gaze away from his mate and looked to the two dragons standing off to the side. He had an idea of what happened, from the storm to the bruises on Marc’s skin, but beyond that he was confused. How did the child factor in? Where had she come from?

  Marc shrugged in response to his unasked questions, reading his leader’s expressions.

  “I think we should all be getting home,” Dane suggested. “I think everyone here needs a lot of food and a good night’s rest.”

  Liana turned to whisper to the form in her arms. He couldn’t hear what passed between the two of them, but saw the barely perceptible nod that made Liana rise to her feet. She carried the small girl in her arms as she moved toward them, her fingers smoothing the girl’s stringy hair.

  How had Marc and Liana found a child in the forest of his Territory? Where had the girl come from? Liana fell in step beside him and he felt his heart warm. He wanted to snake his arm around her lower back and pull her in, walk as a family, even if it was a fallacy.

  Liana didn’t even like him and the child was clearly not their own. She would have a family of her own looking for her. The most probable solution was that the girl got separated from her family while camping. It happened from time to time. Silly people thought it would be smart to spend nights on the edges of the dragon territory and tell the story for the rest of their lives.

  He never once dreamed anyone would bring their children. Of course, his family was not dangerous. They were not the threats the humans should have been wary of, so, perhaps, they found it to be a relatively harmless experience. But, they should have been scared. There were more dragons in the country other than his family.

  It took them the better part of an hour to return to the center of the territory, the place where a few homes had cropped up around his. Some of his dragons had spread themselves out over the territory, preferring peace and quiet. Others, liked the safety in numbers and chose to roost a little closer than Dane would have preferred, but he didn’t turn them away.

  Beside his simple cabin home, there was a stack of modular homes made from old
shipping containers, with broad glass windows and sliding, metal doors. Marc and Luc broke away and veered toward the modular home where Isaac watched from a window upon high. Dane could see the guilt carving lines into his dragon’s face. The three of them would work this out. It wasn’t truly Isaac’s fault that storms liked to chase him.

  Dane had other things to worry about in that moment.

  The heavy, wooden door closed behind Liana and the child, wrapping them in as much privacy as they could get here. Without direction, Liana found the living room and sank into the plush couch, neither of them caring about the dirt clinging to their bodies. He wanted to go over and curl up beside them, but he diverted his feet toward the kitchen. He’d been away for a while and his kitchen was sorely lacking in stock.

  The best he could find were a bag of unopened chips and a box of cheese crackers. It brought to mind Rhys’s awful joke while Raphael held Liana’s life in his hands. Dane’s fingers tightened on the box, crushing its contents. He could have helped her, if the red dragon hadn’t stopped him. Maybe then, she would appreciate him more. Maybe then, she would see his kind of strength and reevaluate her own.

  Something touched his back and he spun. His breathing was fast, the box of crackers forgotten. He nearly struck out, but saw Liana’s face and froze. The child was no longer clinging to her, but there was dirt smudged down her cheek and down the stomach of her clothes. She didn’t seem to care, not in the least. She looked up at him with questioning eyes.

  Marc was safe and alive. Liana was safe and standing here, in his own home, with him. He had to let go of what happened and move forward. The past was gone, but the future was wide open.

  His hand reached out, hovering over her waist, but she dipped before he could touch her. His heart sank. She grabbed the forgotten box of crackers from the floor, studying the crunched exterior before meeting his gaze. He wanted nothing more than to spin her around and pin her to the counter while he devoured her mouth. He wanted to claim her here in his sanctuary, where no one would bother them.