“Only a few more stops,” he muttered, hand on the gear shift.
“It looks like today has been a success,” Cora noted. “Why do you sound so apprehensive now?”
“I saved Mina’s family for last.”
Cora remembered what he’d told her of Ryker’s mate, how the woman had been trapped in a made-up hierarchal system by her family. Jasper planned to tell the wayward shifters what it truly meant to be part of his clan. If they didn’t like it, they could leave.
The house was in town, the front porch overgrown by wild flowers and weeds. A trellis at the side of the building was leaning precariously toward the neighbor’s fence. Cora’s hand was on the door handle. She pulled it back and told herself she had nothing to worry about. Jasper was the king of the mountains. No chromatic dragon was going to challenge him.
This meeting would be uncomfortable for both parties, but not dangerous. The only dangerous meeting would be facing Cal once again. Cora had no doubt that Jasper could take Cal, but that her mate had been holding back for some reason. Whatever Jasper was thinking, she couldn’t tell. His thoughts were his own.
Which, of course, was eternally frustrating when her thoughts were so open during their dreams. She did not have a sentient beast inside her that could stand between her thoughts and Jasper’s demon.
The door of the house creaked open, drawing Cora’s attention back to the present. The narrow opening revealed little save for a white beard. From where she sat, she watched Jasper’s back stiffen, each of his muscles coming together into a tight knot. He cared far too much for his family, even those who were new, who he didn’t know all that well.
Cora reached to roll down the window only to discover that it was a power window. There was no crank to bring the glass down between them. Her only option, if she wanted to better eavesdrop, was to open the door. Slowly, she pulled the handle. The door popped open and a rush of cold air greeted her.
“We need to talk about your behavior,” Jasper growled. The threat in his words was obvious, radiating off him.
The door slammed shut in Jasper’s face. Her mate sighed and glanced back over his shoulder at her. By now, she had the door partially open. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. She gave in and stepped out, slowly joining Jasper.
“That went well,” he muttered. “I can save a bank from failure, but I can’t get one shifter to talk to me.”
“Don’t catastrophize the situation. You’ve gotten every other shifter to gladly meet with you. This guy,” she said as she took in the house, “is clearly a worm.”
“I think we need to make a distinction. You mean worm as in earthworm and not wyrm as in wingless dragon.”
Cora snorted. “We could make him a wingless dragon if he continues to cause harm in your clan.”
“Spoken like a true queen.”
Jasper stepped away to peer around the side of the house, leaving Cora processing what he’d just said. The word sat in her mind like a stone. It was never what she wanted. She hadn’t been angling for the title or trying to prove herself. In the end, she was going to leave.
She had to.
No one would be safe.
Her scales would always mark her as a commodity to be taken. Yet, Jasper spoke of her like an equal. She was not a valuable item, but the person he turned to for help, for love. The thought made her chest tight. No amount of measured breathing eased the tension in her chest. It stuck there until Jasper appeared at the other corner of the house, having gone all the way around, she assumed.
He must have noticed the strange look on her face because he moved to her immediately, his reason for being here forgotten as he touched her elbows.
“Are you alright? We can leave if you don’t want to be here.” His touch was steadying.
But she pulled away, putting distance between herself and the golden king. He did his best to hide his hurt, but Cora glimpsed it right before she turned around. Guilt coiled around her and squeezed tight.
She desperately wanted to stay. Not even as Jasper’s queen, but as one of his shifters, as part of his clan. There were a few bad spots, she thought as she glanced at the house they stood outside of, but already she could tell Jasper’s clan was a family. It was a feeling she hadn’t realized she’d been craving.
“I’m here for you,” he said, without touching her, without pulling her closer, without stepping into her space. “When you need me, I’ll be here for you.”
Only when he passed her did he touch her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder, fingertips lingering as if he couldn’t bear to tear himself away now that he had her. But, he did, and he turned to the front door again.
His big fists banged against the frail wood, sending a resounding gong through the neighborhood. After maybe ten minutes, people were peeling back their curtains to watch what was going on. Some disappeared, uninterested, while others reappeared with drinks or snacks, like they wanted to watch the old chromatic dragon get what was coming to him.
Finally, the door swung open. “What in blazing hells do you think you’re doing?” the old man snarled.
Jasper towered over him. She could feel the gold dragon’s heat radiating off him. It slapped her in the face and sent the old man reeling back.
“I need you to pass on the word that your system of domination is at an end. No dragon of mine is any better than the next. Do you hear me? We are all equal and anyone who thinks to treat another shifter otherwise will have to answer to my beast.”
The blood drained from the man’s face. His hand gripping the door shook.
Good, Cora thought. She liked Mina. The small dragon shifter was sweet and understanding, far more patient than any other dragon Cora had ever met. Mina had kept Cora’s secret and let Cora approach on her own terms.
Though, Cora was wishing she’d come to the metallic dragons sooner. Maybe then a lot of trauma could have been avoided. Lilah would not have been changed and forced into a new life. The buildings…
Cora could not have done anything about them. She was already hiding beneath Jasper’s wing when that happened. It proved that her proximity to Jasper only served to further infuriate Cal. The man could not give her up. He would destroy anything in his way until he possessed her again.
There was one way that would keep him from taking her, but Cora wasn’t sure Cal would honor it. If she married Jasper, then she would be his dragon wife. While Jasper told her that was not a tradition among them, it was one among her people. Cora didn’t know if it would be enough to keep Cal at bay, though.
She feared he would try to take her no matter what vows she made. She could kneel at the altar of God and offer her loyalty and still Cal would drag her back home. Cora was tired of it. Tired of the fighting and the worrying.
Her life was fraught with fear, singeing her every nerve ending until she felt burnt out. Only her time with Jasper had done anything to heal those fraying ends. His secret smiles, easy humor, and his generosity was a balm.
“If I hear that you’re treating anyone like they’re beneath you or beholden to you, then I will pay you another visit. Until then, have a good day.”
She only caught the corner of his grin, but it was charming with an edge of monstrosity, his beast flashing in his amber eyes. He turned and held his hand out to guide her back toward the truck. But that wasn’t enough for the old man.
“You think you can lay down your law while you risk all our lives for a bitch?”
Cora’s blood ran cold. She tripped and stumbled. Jasper caught her before she could hit the ground. The heat rolling off him singed the hairs on her arms. He turned his ire back toward the old man standing outside the door now.
She grasped Jasper’s sleeve. The old man wasn’t wrong. This was her fault. She silently begged him to let it go, to walk away.
But he didn’t, pulling away from her and marching back toward the old man. His gray beard fluttered on the wind as he jerked back from Jasper. She expe
cted her mate to unleash his furious heat on the old man, but he didn’t.
“Do you think we should turn our backs on those who need help? Ah, yes. You’re more the kind to walk on the backs of others.” Jasper’s voice was a low and ominous growl. He hadn’t yet touched the other man, but she could see his fists shaking at his sides.
Jasper turned down a dirt road. The truck bounced along stones and over holes. Cora held onto her seat while a maniacal giggle bubbled through her throat. She grinned, from ear to ear, unable to figure out where they were going. Outside, naked trees and dense evergreens blurred past. The air smelled of pine and snow, a refreshing scent that eased her concerns.
Grove was seducing her.
There was no way around its charm and beauty. There was no ignoring the people who called it home and how inviting they were to someone like her. Cora had brought trouble into their lives. There was a war slowly encroaching on the small town, and yet no one treated her with disrespect. That could have been because of Jasper’s presence, but she didn’t think so.
No one actually blamed her. If anything, it felt like some of his metallic dragons blamed Jasper. She reached across the space between them and touched his hand. She didn’t take hold of it or lay any other kind of claim on him, but just wanted him to know that she was there, too.
He turned his hand over so that her fingertips played over the calloused skin of his palm. She traced the pads of rough skin and tried to surmise his history from them. Of course, she could tell nothing from them. She was no witch, able to peel back the veil to see beyond reality and into the past.
She was just Cora, the crystal scale dragon. Truth be told, she was more than a little annoyed that her regal scales didn’t come with any kind of magic. Maybe then all this trouble would be worth it.
“Your touch is like magic,” Jasper said.
Her head jerked up. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. How could he enter her mind while they were awake? He’d only even been able to delve into her thoughts during their dreams.
He looked down at her fingers on his hand. “When you touch me, my beast is at peace. He isn’t trying to fight me for dominance. I’ve never found solace like that before without seeing the bottom of a glass bottle.”
“The whiskey?”
He nodded. They turned onto another dirt road, this one curving around a group of trees before they fell away to reveal a crystalline blue lake. The truck bounced to the end of the road before he turned to face the lake and put it in park.
Cora took it all in, every breathtaking sight. Snow from the other night still hung onto the low evergreen branches and perched on the naked branches of the other trees. The clouds overhead were reflected on the lake’s surface, gently gliding by.
“This is the kind of place kids go to make-out,” Cora noted, sliding her gaze over to Jasper.
He laughed, relaxing into his seat. “You’re not wrong.”
Nervousness crept in and made Cora pull her fingers away from his hand. She suddenly didn’t know what to do with herself. Not because she wanted to leave the make-out spot, but because she feared how badly she wanted him.
Crossing that line meant no going back. She couldn’t allow herself to touch him, to be touched by him, and then leave. It didn’t work that way.
“I’ve never brought anyone here,” he confessed. “The only reason I know about it is because Ashton and Makenna used to hide out here all the time. They were lucky. They found each other early.”
“You can’t tell me the girls weren’t fighting each other to get to you,” Cora teased.
Jasper was beautiful in the ways only ever seen in the movies. His cheekbones shimmered with the gold of his beast’s scales. His eyes were limitless, taking in every small detail and making her feel cherished. Though that might have been saved for her, considering she was his mate.
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m the big, strong, and silent type. I scared most of the girls away when I was younger.”
She leaned back against her door. “You don’t frighten me.”
Not anymore, she should have added. At first, she’d been terrified of him. The longer she spent in his presence, the more she learned about him. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so surprised that others found him frightening. She had, herself.
“Why didn’t you bother to convince anyone otherwise?”
He popped the seat back so that he faced the ceiling. Cora hated that his attention was no longer on her. She wanted to crawl atop him and force him to look at her. That would mean touching him, straddling him. The urge was there, growing from a whisper to a scream in the back of her mind.
Mount him. Mark him.
Cora bit her lip and did her best to wait for him to respond. Maybe if he spoke more, if she listened to the sound of his voice, then she could fight back the urges tearing her apart.
“I didn’t have a reason to show anyone who I really was. They didn’t want to bother so I didn’t bother with them. It would have been a waste of my time.”
“Would it? To have people you love? Even if they weren’t your soul mate?” Cora had left behind so many good people. She’d had friends in her old clan. While they couldn’t protect her from the life she’d been handed, they helped make it manageable. They’d kept her sane.
“Obviously that time of my life is over.” His eyes flashed with a spark of life and a smirk ghosted across his lips, there and then gone. She figured he couldn’t sustain it with the exhaustion of the day still clinging to him. “What I have now is all I’ll ever need. My idiot cousins, my clan…you. If you decide to stay.”
She went rigid. How could he have known?
“You need to stay out of my mind.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need to read your mind to see that you’re hesitant.”
Like hell would anyone call her hesitant. She climbed over the gearshift and into Jasper’s lap. His eyes snapped open and his hands went to her hips. Heat filled those amber orbs, turning them into molten gold. Only for a second. His beast rising to say hello before sinking back inside to let them speak.
But she was done with words. Cora was about to burst. Her lungs were tight, throat constricted. Deep down in her core, she ached for more than just friendly banter. It could have been the mate bond making itself known. Or, it could have been Cora’s true affections for the man between her legs.
She didn’t yet know how to separate the two. All she did know was that she needed him.
The way his hands slid up her waist, hesitantly brushing her breasts, told her that he felt the same. She leaned forward, pressing her breasts into his hands. His breath came fast as he explored her body. There was still a layer of knitwear between them—and a bra—both of which frustrated her deeply.
Before she could take either off, Jasper’s fingers grasped the back of her neck and pulled her down to him. His kiss was intense, a build up of every moment they’d spent apart all condensed into this single expression. She let her teeth drag against his lips, over his tongue. He growled into her mouth, clearly hungry for more.
His fingers twined in her hair as she pulled back to look him in the eyes. There, she saw the man he wanted to be, the one he was working toward. Not just for her, but for his people.
“You can leave, but you should know I will follow you to the ends of the earth,” Jasper growled.
She scowled at him. “That’s not fair.”
Her words were breathy as his fingertips left burning trails down the back of her neck. He let his hand glide over her shoulder before he grazed her jaw with his thumb. It was like he couldn’t stand to not touch her, and she was okay with it. In fact, she reveled in it.
“I will go wherever you go. I will protect you from everything that hunts you.”
The vow struck a chord in the universe. It rang out and made Cora hold her breath, waiting like something magical was about to happen. But something magical had already struck them. The mate bond
, though she’d yet to give it the full weight it deserved.
It was finally knocking, begging for her attention. Jasper had given himself over to it. His efforts to find her should have already shown her the lengths he was willing to go. But no, he reminded her as he held her that he would turn over the earth itself to make sure she stayed safe.
Cora slid her hand up his throat, gently wrapping her fingers around it until his pulse hammered beneath her thumb. His breath caught. She lowered herself again until her lips grazed his. When she pulled back and he tried to reach for more, she held him in place.
“I don’t need you to protect me,” she whispered into his skin.
His growl was hungry. She answered it with her own greedy kiss, still holding him down. He didn’t seem to mind, or perhaps he liked it, because he gripped her ass and rocked her over his engorged cock. It rubbed places long left untouched and brought a gasp to her lips.
Suddenly, they were wearing far too much clothing. She hurriedly shrugged off her vest and ripped her sweater over her head. Jasper’s eyes raked over her bare skin, over the tattoo that graced her left ribcage. Now that they were naked in the light of day, she could no longer hide anything from him.
“Now, what is this?” His voice was filled with wonder. When his finger grazed it, a shudder raced up her spine and pulled her scalp taut.
Cora knew exactly what he was talking about, exactly what lines his fingers traced. It was a tangle of old Norse runes that twirled between branches, flowers, and hidden bird skulls.
“It’s an homage to my ancestry,” Cora said, breathless from his physical attention.
Jasper took the time to trace each and every rune he could find. She grabbed his hand and led him to the last one, nearly hidden among the decorations.
“It looks like a script. What does it say?”
“It’s an appeal…” She arched her back and swallowed a groan as his hand slipped over her hip and down, between her legs. “An appeal to myself.”
He brushed the folds between her legs and the sensitive parts hidden there, drawing a gasp from her. She reached for the ceiling, for the handle over her door, trying to hold on while sensation threatened to carry her away.
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 62