Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5

by Emilia Hartley

  This was her life now. She looked down at herself, at Griffin. They were both covered in blood. At least, his wounds had healed. There were only vague scars left. Her hand hovered over them. They were pink and glossy, when every other time he’d been wounded she saw smooth and unblemished skin.

  How hurt must he have been for his body to heal so poorly? She worried about the wounds she couldn’t see. Had his muscles repaired properly? Or would he be stunted, unable to move properly for the rest of his life? More so, she worried about his mind.

  She fell back onto the bed, laying on her side as she took in Griffin’s profile. Bumble still slept on Griffin’s shoulder. The cat purred loudly and constantly, eyes open like he’d kept vigil all night. She scratched Bumble’s head in thanks, promised him a can of tuna, and reached to touch Griffin’s cheek.

  As much as she tried to protect herself, she loved him. She felt special, like she got to witness a part of him that no one else had ever seen. Griffin had to be so many things for his family, a soldier, a guard, a pillar. When he was with her, Griffin got to be the man he truly was. Just a bit messy and full of heart.

  His future mate would be a lucky woman, Lilah thought. She moved to get up but was stopped when Griffin caught her hand. Her heart flipped in her chest. His brows crashed together as he forced himself into a sitting position. Bumble yowled at the inconvenience, but then settled for Griffin’s blanket covered lap.

  Lilah said nothing for a long moment. She couldn’t find it in herself to tell him she planned on leaving. Guilt over the pink scars crisscrossing his skin was heavy in the pit of her stomach. He had to understand that it was her fault. He probably wanted to throw her out already.

  She had shifted and managed to fly decently well, so her short training was probably finished. There was no reason for her to stay.

  Hanging her head, she managed to tell him Jasper had visited. “He took one look at you and took off like a bat out of hell. A gilded bat.”

  She expected Griffin to laugh, but when she looked at him, his lips were parted in what looked like surprise.

  “I didn’t expect…” Griffin mumbled. He hung his head and his platinum hair fell over his face.

  Lilah couldn’t help but lean into him and push his hair behind his ear. She found tears gathering in his downcast eyes. When he looked up at her, he managed a wobbly smile. Unable to walk away from him, she crawled closer and wrapped herself around him. He clutched her tight.

  “I didn’t think Jasper cared,” Griffin whispered. “I thought I was nothing but a pawn to him. But he still cares. He still cares about all of us.”

  “He needs his mate,” Lilah said. “If his mate will speak to him, then maybe Jasper won’t seem so distant. Maybe Grove will feel more like a home and less like a battlefield.”

  “A dragon is better with his mate.” Griffin pulled her into him, holding her tight. He rested his chin atop her head.

  She felt something inside her stir that was not her beast. It coiled and uncoiled in her stomach, pulling taut like a line that connected her to something else. To Griffin. She didn’t know what that meant or how she should even begin to interpret it. Perhaps it was because he helped her become the shifter that she was.

  Griffin didn’t change her, but he had been the one to help her come to terms with what she was. The only reason she’d been brave enough to fly was because of him. She owed him so much.

  “Looks like I have to make a call to the bank,” he murmured. “I think I owe you seven figures.”

  Lilah jerked back to stare up at him. He grinned, despite the blood that coated his face and matted his hair. There was happiness brightening his features.

  “You flew yesterday. Am I right? I’m pretty sure I remember being caught like a damsel in distress. We had a deal. I would drop seven figures into your bank account if you learned to fly.”

  “That was a joke,” she warned him. “I didn’t want you to actually do it.”

  “Don’t lie. We both know you wanted the money. Now you can go on and do whatever you want with your life. Family curse be damned. Not that curses exist.”

  This time she pushed away from him completely. Her jaw ached and she realized she was clenching it. “Don’t make fun of me. The curse is real. You and I both know it. Why else would you have been hurt this bad?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because my cousin declared war over a woman who doesn’t want him? That seems about right.” He sobered, teasing nature gone, and reached out to touch her arm. “You can’t blame yourself for what happens to me. I am Jasper’s second in command. When bad things happen in our mountains, I will be in the middle of it. Getting hurt is part of my job.”

  He would not have been hurt this bad if she wasn’t around. If her curse had left him alone, he wouldn’t be riddled with scars. She couldn’t understand why he refused to see the truth.

  His hand slid up her arm to cup the side of her face. She leaned into his touch, even though she knew she had to cut herself off at some point. If she allowed herself to sink into him every time he was near, she would never be able to leave. Then…then his mate would arrive, and her heart would be shattered.

  “You’re just going to have to get used to it.” His brows lowered and then he sighed. “For the time being, at least. Hopefully this war ends soon. I can’t imagine it will go on forever. Jasper’s mate can’t camp in the mountains for the rest of her life.”

  “What’s the point? I could leave and save you worlds of pain.”

  Griffin grabbed her and hauled her into his arms. Bumble scrambled away, skidding on the wood floor before disappearing. Griffin laughed, soft and low so that it rumbled in her chest from where their bodies touched. To lose this was going to kill her. She wanted to sink into him and tell him she would love him forever.

  But, it wasn’t…

  “You’re my mate. There’s nothing you could do that would hurt me. Curse or not.”

  There was a brief moment, where her heart hung suspended in time, while she processed what he’d said. The tugging sensation in her stomach grew sharp. It pulled her further into Griffin’s touch.

  “You can’t be serious,” Lilah whispered, but deep down, she knew it too.

  Of course, she knew. Her beast had. The creature had mentioned it the day before, during the fight. Lilah had been too afraid for Griffin to realize what her beast already knew. Her joy was brief and bright before it crashed to the ground.

  “I’m just going to make a mess of your life,” she mumbled. The curse would see to it.

  “This curse business has to stop. I’ll buy however much sage you want to burn if it will make you feel better, but no amount of spiritual cleansing will get rid of something that isn’t there.” He pulled back to meet her eyes. “It’s easy to blame all the bad things in your life on a curse, but I don’t want you to blame yourself for everything that happens. You have done nothing to hurt me. You are innocent. Do you hear me?”

  She struggled to breathe. But her mother had told her. There was evidence of the curse throughout her entire life. Yet, the more she thought about it, she found the reasoning behind every instance she’d blamed on the curse. The crash at the intersection when she was younger had been a faulty clutch. It’d stalled the car.

  She lost her jobs because she was horrible at being on time, not because the curse moved the clock hands on her. The eviction notice was partly her sister’s fault. Vivi swept into Lilah’s life to drain her of funds and leave her empty handed.

  Perhaps Griffin was right.

  He didn’t give her time to think too long on it because he nuzzled her neck and all thoughts vanished. His lips found the mark he’d made on her neck and shivers racked her body.

  “Let’s go shower. I wonder if it’s large enough for the both of us.” His hands slid over her naked body to awake desires she’d tried to lock away. Now that she knew they were mates, she didn’t have to.

  They rolled out of bed,
slowly. Lilah looked back at the ruined bed. It would have to be torn apart, the bedding thrown away. She would buy something new. It would be a welcome distraction from the war outside their doors.

  The shower offered another kind of distraction. Griffin brought her to a screaming orgasm that every dragon for miles probably heard. Each thrust reminded her of the truth living in her core, in her soul.

  They were mates.

  It was a strange way to discover true love, but they had.

  No curse would have ever allowed her to find true love. It would have broken her, defeated her. She’d thought her run of bad luck had been leading her to an awful end, but as she took in Griffin and all the ways he smiled when he saw her, she realized where her luck had been leading her.

  Sure, it’d been a rough journey, and she didn’t want to have to go through it again, but she’d made it somewhere great. This was not the work of a curse. The only curse was the one she’d clung to whenever something awful happened. It’d made her see the worst in everything when there was good to be found.

  Lilah was ready to let go of any notions of a family curse.

  Her future was her own, now.

  ***

  There was a knocking on the door, frantic and demanding. Lilah looked to her mate. Dread hit her stomach like a box of rocks. Without answering it, she knew who would be on the other side. Vivi had found her once again.

  Someone in town must have mentioned seeing Lilah with Griffin. Vivi could have easily pried the information out of anyone.

  Griffin snatched another chip laden with guacamole from the table before standing. Lilah wanted to call out to him, to warn him not to answer the door, but she found herself unable to speak. Guilt roiled inside her. She couldn’t hide from her sister forever.

  She followed Griffin to the front door, almost trying to hide behind him. She had to remind herself that she could face her own sister. Vivi wasn’t going to invade her life again. Lilah was going to draw a line and stand by it. Vivi would have to figure out how to live without stealing from her big sister all the time.

  The face on the other side of the door was not the one Lilah expected.

  “Let me in,” the woman demanded. “I can’t face Jasper yet.”

  She shoved her way past Griffin and into the house. Fury burned Lilah’s skin. While the woman wasn’t Lilah’s sister, she wasn’t a friend, either. She was a rude stranger who smelled of dragon. Her hair was greasy, tied in a braid, and there were smears of dirt on her face like she’d cried and wiped the tears away with muddy hands.

  The woman looked Griffin up and down. “You’re looking okay.”

  Griffin scowled at the woman before meeting Lilah’s gaze. They were obviously both confused.

  The woman sighed. “Where is Mina? I need to speak to her.”

  “Hold up,” Lilah snapped. “You can’t barge into my house and make demands. Who are you? Why are you here?”

  Fear lined the woman’s face and had her shifting her weight from foot to foot. Lilah had not spent much time in town since her change, so she didn’t know if she would have come across the woman’s scent in town. She was starting to feel like this was not a regular resident of Grove.

  “You’re Jasper’s mate. Aren’t you?”

  Griffin’s head shot up at Lilah’s words. His eyes were wide.

  The woman clenched her hands. “I don’t want to be, but yes. I’m your king’s mate. I felt…I felt his anguish over what happened to you.” She gestured to Griffin. “He was hurting, and I felt it all. I knew he would do something stupid if I didn’t do something. I was halfway to his door before I panicked and ran over here.”

  There was shame in the way her brows drooped. She looked to Lilah, as if to ask for forgiveness.

  There was no good way to handle this. The woman’s presence would draw Jasper back to the house, but he would also break down the door if he thought they were trying to hide her from him.

  “My name is Cora Matthews. I’m a quartz dragon.”

  Griffin cocked his head. “Did you just say quartz? That’s not a real thing. I’ve never heard of that.”

  She cast him a wry look. “Just because you’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it can’t exist. I’m rare and that’s exactly why my clan wants me back.”

  Lilah could hear her gulp from where she stood. Cora was afraid of her own family. Why else would a woman hide in the shadow of a man she feared for as long as she had. Lilah held out a hand and beckoned Cora deeper into the house. Griffin would tell his mate she was crazy, but they had to start somewhere.

  She ushered Cora into the bathroom and left to gather some clean clothes while Cora showered. Griffin cornered her in the bedroom.

  “I can hold Jasper off, but not forever. He’s going to tear the house apart to get to her, like I tore his Jaguar apart.”

  Lilah smiled. “That’s her problem. I’m going to use some of that money you gave me to hire movers. Thankfully my stuff is already packed.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, as though he was trying to read what she was inferring. Then, they widened. “You want to move out?”

  She nodded.

  Griffin was silent for a long moment. He regarded the walls of the house, Jasper’s guest house, before he grinned and gave her a nod. “It’s about time I got a place of my own.”

  Bumble meowed in agreement.

  Lilah closed the space between them and tugged on his shirt, bringing him down for a kiss. She couldn’t believe this sexy man loved her. She couldn’t believe he was all hers.

  “It’s about time we got a place of our own,” she corrected him.

  He leaned back with feigned surprise. “Does this mean you’re going to unpack your boxes finally?”

  This way, Cora could hide in the guest house while Jasper courted her. It gave them the space they would need while Cora remained nearby. Jasper wouldn’t need to scour the skies looking for his hidden mate. Though, it did mean the war was coming to Jasper’s doorstep.

  The enemy dragons would figure out where Cora was the moment Jasper stopped surveying the mountains. They would realize Jasper knew where Cora was, and they would follow the trail back to Jasper’s house. Lilah shuddered, thoughts of her curse slipping into her mind.

  She gritted her teeth and shoved the thoughts away. They no longer served her. She would not blame every event in her life on a made-up curse. She wouldn’t shoulder blame for this war, either. Especially when it brought the house and guest house to the ground.

  Thankfully, Lilah and Griffin would be somewhere else by then.

  ***

  It took Jasper a bit longer to figure out who was in his guesthouse than they expected. Perhaps it was the mingling scents of every metallic dragon and mate who helped Lilah and Griffin move that blinded Jasper to Cora’s presence. But when he did figure out where Cora was hiding, he made quite the display.

  The great gold dragon hit the ground and sent a quake through the earth before shifting back to his human form. Gold filled his heated eyes as he marched toward the front door of the guest house. Lilah’s breath caught when Griffin inserted himself between Jasper and the door.

  A fight broke out. Jasper threw the first punch. The tussle was like a well-practiced dance. For every move Jasper made, Griffin could read it and respond. There were a few times that Jasper feinted in one direction and hit with his other fist. Griffin snarled at the ploy and fought to control both of Jasper’s hands.

  Lilah’s beast roiled beneath her skin. It wanted to get out and fight, help protect their mate. She was still surprised by the word every time it crossed her consciousness.

  Mate.

  Forever love.

  Griffin.

  Somehow, Lilah managed to keep her beast from launching itself at Jasper. She didn’t know the first thing about fighting and didn’t think attacking the king of the mountain was a great place to start.

  When Jasper realized he wouldn’t br
eak through Griffin, he let loose a howl. Lilah watched the door behind her mate, but it never opened. Wherever Cora was, she didn’t acknowledge the sound of pain ripping out of Jasper.

  Had it been Griffin making that sound, Lilah wouldn’t have been able to stop herself. She would have run to his side in the blink of an eye. She’d already done it once before. But Jasper was not Griffin. Their king had revealed the broken side of himself. Cora must have known there was a fracture between man and beast.

  Cora said she could feel Jasper’s torment. Whatever stood between the mates was thin, nothing more than a personal conviction, because their bond ran deep. Lilah could not feel Griffin’s emotions or his physical pains. The sensation was foreign to her.

  “Give me my mate!” Jasper howled.

  Griffin cocked him in the jaw. At first, Lilah thought Jasper would collapse. He stumbled back, chin up from the impact, and wavered. Then, he slowly leveled his fiery glare at Griffin.

  “Just cut your shit before you burn down both houses and no one has anywhere to live,” Lilah snapped.

  She almost slapped her hand over her mouth, appalled at what she’d just said and who she’d said it to. Jasper’s glare turned toward her, but she didn’t move. He wouldn’t hurt her. So, she stood by her words. She raised her chin and met his gaze in defiance.

  Before either could say anything, dragons filled the air above them. They touched down, one by one. Fear slithered through her, cold and undeniable. Griffin slid in her direction. It comforted her, but only a little. Every interaction with these beasts ended in disaster. First, one had changed her. Then, they’d hurt Griffin so bad he couldn’t fly. She’d had to catch him.

  Now, they were deep in Jasper’s territory.

  Griffin twined his fingers with hers. She looked to him and her heart settled. No matter what happened, they had each other. And no matter how Cora taunted Jasper, she was now in their protection. No one was getting inside that house.

  She only hoped Cora knew that.

  The door to the main house opened and Ryker and Mina appeared. Ryker’s growl rumbled the fountain between him and the enemy dragons. The largest beast turned and growled back at Ryker, a warning.