by Sophie Stern
It was incredible to see.
For so long, Felix had only seen witch’s destroy things. He’d never seen them heal. Certainly, he’d never seen anyone heal anything or anyone the way that Tabitha had.
The lion left, running away, and Tabitha kept walking. She was intent on reaching the castle, he knew, and he didn’t blame her. She was on a mission. She probably felt like Felix had abandoned her on purpose, but he hadn’t.
He hadn’t known he was a shifter.
He dropped to the ground behind her. He was silent, but she was a trained mage. She stopped walking immediately.
“You’re back,” she said, spinning around. “Why?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but only a roar came out.
“Change back to your human form,” Tabitha told him. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him. “I can’t understand you as a dragon. Then again, I’m pretty sure you know that.”
He knew it, but he realized all of a sudden that he didn’t know how to change back.
Calm down, his dragon whispered to him. You can do it. Give yourself a moment.
He took a deep breath, trying to force his body back into its human-sized package, but nothing happened.
Tabitha stared at him for a minute, and then she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Oh shit,” she mumbled. Then she dropped her hand. “Oh shit,” she repeated.
Yeah.
Felix kind of had the same feeling.
“You don’t know how to change back, do you?”
Embarrassment washed over Felix as he looked at the woman he thought was his mate.
No, he didn’t know how to change back.
He didn’t have any idea at all.
The expression on Tabitha’s face changed from surprise to concern, and she stepped forward.
“Wow,” she whispered, “I feel like a real dick.”
She did?
“I thought you were holding out on me, Felix. You weren’t, though, were you? You didn’t know you were a shapeshifter at all, huh?”
He shook his head.
No, he hadn’t known, and he was completely embarrassed about this. He should have known. Everything about him indicated that he should have known.
After all, what kind of a man didn’t realize he was actually a shapeshifter in disguise?
“It’s okay,” Tabitha said, coming closer to him. She looked up at him, craning her neck to see him better. In his dragon form, he towered over her.
When she looked at him like this, he actually believed her. He thought she must be right: that it truly would be fine. She was a mage, after all. Maybe she knew how to help him.
He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he found they were climbing anyway as he looked at her.
“Take a deep breath,” she said. “Close your eyes.”
He did.
“Now, picture yourself as a human.”
He did.
“Now, imagine that you’re doing something fun and wonderful, like running through a big, open field.”
He did.
“Think of the wind on your face.”
Felix thought of the wind.
He could practically smell the fresh air on his face as he thought about all of these wonderful things, all of these wonderful experiences.
Only, he didn’t change back.
He was still in his dragon form.
He looked down at himself, and then at Tabitha.
“Hmm,” she said, cocking her head. “Strange. I was certain that would work. Oh well,” she added. She waved her hand in his general direction and whispered some words he couldn’t quite make out.
Instantly, he felt himself falling onto the grass. She had successfully transformed him back into his human shape, and he was falling back to Earth. He landed on his ass and looked up at her. She stood there smiling, and then she shook her head.
“You got me, Felix. I thought you left me.”
“You thought I abandoned you,” he clarified.
“I thought that. Yes.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now. You’ve never shifted before, have you?”
No, he hadn’t.
He had never shifted before in his life.
Somehow, it hurt too much to say it out loud, so he just shook his head.
“Hey,” she dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed him, pulling him close. “It’s okay, Felix. It’s okay.”
He didn’t cry, but he did hold her for what seemed like a very long time. It was nice to know that he was safe with her. It was nice to know that they could protect each other here.
“Ursula kidnapped me,” Felix said, pulling away and looking at her.
“What?”
“She stole me from my family when I was four years old, Tabitha. That’s why I know the island so well. That’s why I didn’t know I could shift.”
Tabitha stared at him, and there was so much on her face: horror, anguish, confusion.
Sadness.
Fear.
“Felix, she stole you?”
“Yes,” he nodded.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Tabitha reached for him, cupping his face. He knew what she was thinking before she said anything else. “I’m going to get revenge for you, Felix. I’m going to get revenge for both of us.”
“You don’t have to,” he said.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I do. Do you believe in mates, Felix?”
He hadn’t before. His inner-dragon hummed quietly in the background of his mind, and Felix nodded. Yes. He believed now. He believed in mates. He believed in her.
“Yes,” he said. “And I believe you’re my mate.”
“I think you’re mine, too. When we made love, it did something incredible to me.”
“More incredible than causing me to turn into a shapeshifting dragon?”
Tabitha laughed.
“Look,” she held her hands up and produced a small blue energy ball. She laughed and made another one, and then another. Then she started to juggle.
“You have incredible power,” he commented.
“Not usually. Mages usually need to recharge like, constantly, and we’re always trying to find ways to do that. Now it seems like having sex with you gives me the strength I need and, as far as I can tell, this strength lasts for hours and hours.”
“Incredible,” he murmured.
He watched as she played with the energy orbs she’d made, and then slowly, one by one, they disappeared.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
“What is it?”
She reached for his hands and held them.
“She’s dead,” he told her. “Ursula is dead. I killed her myself.”
Chapter 15
That really wasn’t what she’d been expecting him to say.
She thought that Felix might say something like, “I want to marry you,” or “I think we should be together for always,” and he kind of had. He’d admitted that they were mates, and that was as good as a marriage proposal in the paranormal world.
Only, Felix had admitted something else. He’d admitted something she hadn’t planned for.
“She’s dead,” Tabitha repeated.
All of this time.
All of this planning.
It had been for nothing.
The witch was dead, and Tabitha hadn’t gotten to kill her.
“Dead,” Felix repeated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know if I could trust you,” he said, “and I wanted to find out what the monster was that you said she had.”
“The monster...”
“I think that’s me, too,” he admitted. “Everyone called me Dragon when she was alive. I never knew why.”
“She had her own pet dragon,” Tabitha shook her head. “And you killed her. How?”
“Is that important?”
“I’ve been hunting her for six months, Felix. Please. Gi
ve me this.”
“Poison,” he told her.
“You poisoned a witch?” Tabitha raised an eyebrow.
“It was easy. She had come back from a journey. Apparently, that was when she killed your people,” he swallowed, pausing for a minute. Then he pushed through. “She was weak, and her defenses were down. I offered her a glass of wine to help her ‘recover,’ and then when she was further weakened from the poison in the drink, I killed her with a sword.”
“Wow,” Tabitha was surprised. Then again, he hadn’t exactly held back when he’d been fucking her. He hadn’t shied away from shoving her against the wall of the cave and sliding his cock into her.
A guy who fucked like that was definitely capable of incredible violence if he wanted to.
He certainly deserved to make his move, and he had.
“You aren’t angry?”
“Angry?”
“I feel as though I stole your quest from you,” he said sheepishly.
Tabitha shook her head.
“The bitch is dead. That’s all I care about.”
To her surprise, she meant it, too. She didn’t have to kill the witch. She didn’t have to worry about anything at all when it came to that. In fact, she didn’t even really need to see the castle, but she still wanted to. She wanted to see where it had happened.
“I’ll show you,” Felix said.
“I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud.”
“You didn’t,” he said. “I can just tell.”
He stood, taking her hand, and they walked the rest of the way to the castle in silence. When they arrived, he led her up the stone steps to the house where his freedom and his childhood had been stolen away from him. Tabitha could feel the pain and sadness radiating off of Felix, and she stopped and turned to him.
“We don’t have to go inside,” she told him.
“It’s okay.”
“Really,” she shook her head. “We don’t.”
The castle, despite only being vacant for six months, was already in shambles. Even from the entryway, Tabitha could see that dust had taken over the castle. A few windows were broken. There were no insects crawling around, but as Ursula’s magic faded from the island, there would be.
“Felix, come with me,” Tabitha said on a whim.
“Come with you?”
“She’s dead. We’re both safe. We’re both free from the witch. Come with me. We can...”
Well, they could do anything.
Their search for freedom from the woman who had claimed their lives was over. They could go and leave. They could go search for Felix’s family. They could do whatever they wanted, but they should go, and they should do it together.
He was her mate, after all. She’d do anything for him.
“I can’t.”
“You can’t?”
Her heart fell as she realized what he was saying. They might be mates, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough for him. For this.
“It’s not what you think,” he reached for her chin and tilted her head up.
“Then tell me.”
“I want to be with you more than anything else,” he said, “but I can’t leave the island. Physically, I can’t leave. She put a spell on me, a hex, I suppose, and I’m stuck here.”
“I’ll help you find your freedom,” Tabitha said right away.
“Is that what you do, little witch? You complete one quest and start another?”
“Is that okay?” Tabitha whispered. “That’s what I want, Felix. I want to help you. Even if we never find your freedom, though, I’ll stay with you.”
“I can’t ask you to stay.”
“You aren’t asking me. I’m offering.”
She was offering him everything she had: her heart, her hope, her life. He was the one she was meant to be with. She could tell.
They may have only just met, but Felix was everything she had ever hoped for, and she knew that no matter what challenges they might face as they lived together, trying to survive, it was going to be worth it.
He was going to be worth it.
“I love you,” she said. “It may be crazy, but you are my mate, Felix. I’ll stay by your side no matter what.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered.
Then he reached for her, tugging her into his arms, and he kissed her. She melted against him, once more surprised at the power that radiated off of him. Now that she knew what these sensations were, she could feel her magic growing stronger as they kissed, and she knew that no matter what fate had in store for them, they would face it together.
Tabitha and her mate had done what so many people couldn’t do: they had found each other. They had unlocked their destinies. They had found one another in a world where people spend decades chasing some sort of hope and freedom.
They’d done it.
They were going to get their happily ever after no matter what it cost.
Epilogue
“What do you mean, you’ve found them?” Declan Monster looked around the room at his brothers and mother. The four of them were sitting in the tiny treehouse home where Declan spent most of his time.
“I mean,” Brian said, tapping the map on the counter in front of them, “I found the group of islands Dad was exploring when he disappeared.”
Raya’s breath caught. Declan, Brian, and Christopher looked over at their mother. They knew she’d spent years searching for Felix. He’d disappeared when he was just a little boy, and they were in their 30s now.
Still, she’d never given up hope.
The three brothers knew that their mother had never stopped searching or hoping that Felix would be found. It was only recently that they’d learned they even had a brother, though. At Brian’s wedding, Raya had revealed that Felix not only existed, but that he was still lost.
“Dad went to the Mages of Kunzite. Mom told us that,” Brian said, looking at the map in front of him. “They live here.”
“Lived,” Declan corrected his brother.
“They were killed about six months ago,” Christopher said sadly, shaking his head. Declan swallowed hard at the thought. They suspected the witch who had kidnapped Felix had been responsible. At least, that was their suspicion.
She was a very powerful witch indeed, and she was capable of covering her tracks. That was evident in the fact that Raya and her husband had not been able to actually kill or capture the witch. Mom had told them the witch’s name – Ursula – and the three brothers had taken things from there.
The Monster Brothers weren’t exactly known for sitting around and letting the world pass them by. They ran one of the biggest security firms in the country, and money wasn’t an issue when it came to getting things done.
They’d learned that when you weren’t afraid to flash your money around, that also meant it was easier to get what you wanted in a shorter amount of time.
Right now, what they wanted was to find their brother.
“Right,” Raya nodded. Declan reached for his mother’s shoulder and touched her gently. He was worried about her. Admitting that Felix existed had taken a lot out of her. She had revealed to her sons that their father had gone missing not on a hunting trip, as she’d always told them, but while he was hunting for their brother.
Dad had never stopped searching. He’d met the witch once. That was how he’d learned her name was Ursula. He’d fought with her, struggling, and he’d stolen the necklace that contained his brother’s essence. Raya had worn the necklace ever since, and as long as it glowed, they knew that Felix was alive.
“There’s a group of islands to the north of Kunzite,” Brian continued speaking. “There are three islands grouped close together. Nobody goes there.”
“Why not?” Declan asked.
Christopher shrugged.
“Weather’s bad,” he said. “Also, there’s nothing there.”
“Or is there?” Declan looked closer at the map Brian had spread out for them to see. If the Monster brothers were correct
, then Felix could be on one of those islands. It had been years since Dad had disappeared, and the chances of Felix still being alive were probably low.
The necklace didn’t lie, though, and it still glowed.
Only, Mother had been worried about it. The necklace had started to fade about six months ago, and she was worried that something was wrong with Felix. After she’d told the triplets – Brian, Christopher, and Declan – about the necklace, they’d immediately started searching for the Mages of Kunzite and for answers.
They’d been too late to save the mages, but they might not be too late to save their brother.
“Hang on, Felix,” Declan muttered, looking at the map. “We’re coming for you.”
Felix and Tabitha’s story continues in book two of the DRAGON ENCHANTED series.
Get your copy here.
Author
Sophie Stern writes vampires, cowboys, werewolves, dragons, and fairy tales. Her books feature deliciously wonderful characters and deliciously naughty adventures. If you enjoyed Dragon Enchanted, you may like one of her other romances, such as Dark Favors or The Feisty Librarian.
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Thank you so much for reading.
Books
Other books by Sophie Stern
HONEYPOT DARLINGS
HONEYPOT BABIES
DRAGON ISLE
THE FABLESTONE CLAN
DON’T DATE DEMONS
POLAR BEARS OF THE AIR FORCE
DARK FAVORS
SAVORED
Sophie’s books are available wherever eBooks are sold.
The Bear’s Virgin Darling
Did you enjoy this book? Do you want to read more stories about paranormal creatures and the humans who love them?
I have six books out that take place in Honeypot, Colorado and that feature sweet, sexy, and sassy shifters. Check out a chapter from The Bear’s Virgin Darling now. Then consider reading one of my other stories:
The Bear’s Virgin Darling
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