Hakona: Dragon Warrior (Scifi Alien Dragon Romance)

by Jamie Phoenix

  But she had some bravery left in her, and she gathered it up and let herself out the back door of the house, walking through the thick grass and kudzu to avoid being seen by any of the neighbors.

  It was at least three miles to the bus stop from the house, but she was determined now. Slinging her duffel bag onto her back, she set off.

  An hour later, Holly had paid for her bus ticket with the change from her purse and was sitting in a seat, heaving a sigh of relief. The whole time she’d been walking, she’d been so sure that Dante was going to drive up and order her to get back in the car. She’d been even more afraid that she would do it because she wasn’t strong enough to stay away from him.

  But it hadn’t happened, and now she was on the bus heading away from the city. The bus didn’t go more than thirty miles away, but once she got somewhere else, she could figure out where she was going.

  She rested her head against the window, letting the cool glass soothe her heated skin. No one looked at her or talked to her, and she was glad for that, glad that she didn’t have to talk or interact with anyone else.

  All she wanted to do was leave all of this behind her and find somewhere else to be. Somewhere she could belong that wouldn’t end up crushing her spirit in the process. Where people would be friendly to her and understand her and help her.

  It seemed like too much to ask, and she wiped at her face when she realized she was crying.

  Honestly, at this point she would just settle for somewhere where she didn’t have to be afraid all the time. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask.

  Chapter 2: A Local Attraction

  In the small town of Honey Ridge, there were few attractions. The people who lived there had either been born and raised there or had escaped the chaotic life of the city to move somewhere quiet and peaceful. It was very much like one of those small towns on television shows where everyone knew each other and people walked from place to place more often than not.

  It had the standard places to go, a coffee shop, a couple of restaurants, a library, schools, but what made people come visit was the diner.

  The Golden Horde wasn’t really what people expected. For one thing, the name made it sound like it was a pub or a strip club instead of a little hole in the wall diner with an apartment above it.

  People who knew nothing about it came to look at it for the name alone, needing to see what in the little town could be named so extravagantly. When they found out it was a diner, and not a very fancy one at that, they were disappointed, but that was before they got a look at the man behind the counter.

  Artemis McClain was an extraordinary man even before you got up close to him. He was large, for one thing, over six feet tall, and muscular. He definitely wasn’t the kind of man someone expected to be behind the counter of a diner or in the back making burgers. He was incredibly attractive, as well, with richly tanned skin and inky black hair that he kept cut short.

  When you got closer, the unusual things about Artemis became clear. His emerald eyes that seemed to glitter and gleam like the actual gem. The faint scale patterns that curved over his forearms and down to the backs of his hands. The way his pupils seemed almost reptilian.

  No one that extraordinary looking could be human, and it didn’t take people long to figure out that he was a shifter, and one of the rarest kinds, at that.

  Dragon shifters were limited in the world, the last descendants of a once proud and populous race that had been hunted and captured until near extinction. They could trace their bloodlines back to ancient times, every one of them, and so most of them occupied high and lofty positions in society.

  Several members of the government were dragon shifters, and several more were the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world. They had money and power and good looks and the ability to have whatever they wanted.

  And there was Artemis with his diner.

  So it was that, almost more than the fact that he was a dragon shifter, that made people so surprised to have him in Honey Ridge. When he’d first moved there, Artemis had to work hard to convince the people that he wasn’t there to buy out and develop their little town, but was instead just looking for a quiet place to settle down.

  Apparently most dragon shifters didn’t do quiet or settled.

  Buying the diner didn’t do much to convince people that he was serious, either, but once he’d started fixing it up, and they saw that he was keeping it as a diner and not planning on turning it into a strip mall or anything, they started to warm to him.

  Now he was pretty much a fixture in the town. He was a tourist attraction just like the caves in the next city over. Come to Honey Ridge and get served pancakes by a dragon. They didn’t put in on billboards, but it was a close thing.

  For the most part, Artemis didn’t mind. He was an easy going sort of person, which set him apart from others like him even more, and if people wanted to come and stare at him or pepper him with questions, then that was fine. As long as they bought more than a cup of coffee and let him run his business, they could sit and stare all day as far as he was concerned.

  And some people did.

  Not his regulars, though. By now, they were more than used to him.

  It was a busy Thursday morning, but then mornings were always busy. A lot of the residents of Honey Ridge worked in Woodbury, the closest city, and so they piled into The Golden Horde just after it opened to get their coffee and breakfast sandwiches to go for their commute. Artemis always had the usuals ready for his regulars, serving them with toothy grins and bidding them drive careful.

  They were always so grateful that his tip jar was near full by eight o’clock.

  Eight in the morning signaled the second rush, when all the high school kids who didn’t eat breakfast at home came streaming in, and today was no exception. Most of the tables by the window were filled with juniors and seniors, chattering about prom and the quickly approaching end of the school year.

  “Hey, Art!” called one of them, a girl dressed in a cheerleading uniform. “Can we get refills right quick?”

  Artemis laughed and brandished his coffee pot. “If you come up here and get them,” he called back. “Your legs work just fine, Pamela.”

  The kids laughed and filed up one by one to get their to go cups refilled before they headed out the door to school.

  For the most part, his days were similar. People came in on their lunch breaks and ordered their usuals, and he and his staff kept the burgers and sandwiches and soups coming. He made small talk with the regulars and smiled patiently for the newcomers and their gawking.

  It was a day full of tourists and people passing through, apparently because by two in the afternoon, the usual lunch rush hadn’t died down yet, and the tables were packed with people who he didn’t recognize.

  A young man in a blazer with jeans, sunglasses on his head and a phone in hand made his way up to the counter when Artemis emerged from the back with a BLT and fries and set it before Annie, the young woman who ran the flower shop.

  “So. You’re him, huh?” the young man said.

  Artemis gave him an amused expression. “That depends entirely on who you’re referring to. I’m only me.”

  Annie and a couple of others that he knew at the counter chuckled, used to the way that Artemis teased the gawkers.

  “Yeah,” the young man persisted. “You’re you, but you’re him.”

  “Are you a sphinx?” Artemis asked. “Because you seem to be speaking in riddles, and I’m not sure I understand what you mean. I was never very good with sphinxes.”

  His mouth fell open. “You’ve met a sphinx?”

  The people at the counter were full on laughing now, and the young man looked bewildered, so Artemis took pity on him, shaking his head with a flat expression. “No,” he said. “If there are any sphinxes in the world, they certainly don’t reside in Honey Ridge. And I’m not that old. I’m only a dragon shifter, not a true born dragon. There aren’t any of those left.”

&nbs
p; “Ah ha!” the young man cried. “So you are him. The dragon guy.”

  “Guilty as charged. Were you going to order something? Because that’s one of the rules.”

  “What?”

  “It is,” Annie piped in. “If you’re going to stare at him and ask silly questions, then you’ve got to order something. Something more than a cup of coffee,” she added when the young man opened his mouth.

  He closed it again and made a face. “Okay,” he said slowly. “What’s good here.”

  “Everything,” the regulars at the counter chorused, and Artemis laughed richly.

  “Uh,” the young man said, looking around. “I’ll have a ham and swiss with onion rings?”

  Artemis nodded, liking the nosy youth more now. “Coming right up. I suggest you get your questions in order. I’m a busy man.” He winked and then headed off to put the order in.

  The Golden Horde closed whenever Artemis got tired and the lull between customers was longer than half an hour, usually around eight or nine. He yawned and stretched, cracking the bones in his back and sent his few employees home. There weren’t many of them, mostly college students who temped in the summer and over winter break, but they were invaluable, and he paid them well and treated them better.

  Once the diner was empty, he collected the day’s trash and headed out to the dumpster in the quiet alley behind the diner, whistling under his breath as he went.

  It was no problem at all to sling the two full garbage bags into the dumpster and then shut the top, and the clang of hard plastic on metal almost drowned out the soft whimper from the other side of the dumpster.

  Artemis frowned and listened, not moving for a second. His nostrils flared, checking for the scent of a wounded animal, but all he smelled was trash and human, which was normal. But there was definite rustling, and so he leaned over, pupils wide in the near darkness as he looked.

  There, huddled in the corner between the dumpster and the wall was a woman. She was small and looked terrified, and even in the dying light, Artemis could see bruises on her. She was dirty and looked like she’d been out in the heat all day. There was a duffel bag by her side, and she was holding onto the strap of it tightly.

  “Hello, there,” Artemis said, his deep, rumbly voice as soft as he could make it. “This isn’t a very clean place to hide.”

  The woman squeaked and glanced up at him, eyes wide. “I...I…” she said, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry.”

  The poor thing seemed ready to burst into tears, and Artemis frowned harder. “You don’t have to be sorry. You’re allowed to hide behind my dumpster if you want, it just doesn’t seem like the best place for you to be right now. It’s getting dark. Is there anyone you need to call?”

  That seemed to terrify her even more, and her eyes went impossibly wider. “No,” she nearly wailed. “Please don’t call anyone. Please! I...I’ll leave. I’ll go somewhere else. Just don’t call the police.”

  “I didn’t mean the police,” Artemis rushed to assure her, wanting to stop the panic and the acrid scent of fear. “I meant...your parents? A friend?” She started shaking her head before he could even finish his sentence, so he assumed that was out. And honestly it made since. This woman looked like someone who had run away, and of course she wouldn’t want to call anyone.

  He’d never seen her before, so he was willing to bet that she wasn’t from Honey Ridge. How she’d ended up behind his dumpster was a mystery, but one thing he knew was that he wasn’t going to just leave her there.

  Slowly he stretched out a hand to her, frowning when she flinched. “It’s alright,” he said slowly. “I won’t hurt you. I just thought you might like to get up off the ground. You can come in, and I’ll make you something to eat.”

  She looked skeptical, leaving Art to wonder just who had been mistreating this girl so much. “I won’t do anything,” he promised. “You don’t even have to come in, just. I can’t, in good conscience, leave you here in the middle of the night. This is a safe town, but anything could happen.” He hesitated for a second and then continued. “And you’ll be safer from whoever you’re running from if you come inside.”

  That seemed to be enough to get her moving, and she pushed herself to her feet, ignoring his hand.

  Artemis smiled at that. Standing, the top of her head barely reached his shoulder, and she seemed smaller with the way she was hunched into herself. He recognized that posture as being for protection, and so he didn’t try to touch her, just motioned for her to follow him as he led her into the diner through the back door.

  It was quiet and the lights in the dining area were off, chairs already on the tables, but the kitchen lights were still on, and he opened the refrigerator and stuck his head in. “Have a seat,” he said, motioning her towards the small, two person table across from the griddle. “What would you like to eat?”

  “Oh,” the woman said, voice soft. “You...you don’t have to… I don’t want to be a burden.”

  “You aren’t,” Artemis said. “I was going to make something for myself anyway. Does a burger and fries sound alright?”

  She nodded, eyes still large in her pale face as she looked around the kitchen. Artemis could see her better in the light, and the bruises on her arms stood out from her skin in stark relief. She was pretty under the dust and dirt, though, hazel eyes and dark hair, fine boned and delicate looking.

  His protective instinct flared up instantly, but he stomped it back down. She wasn’t his to protect, and she clearly didn’t trust him.

  Artemis busied himself with making the food, humming to himself as he worked, putting two large hamburger patties on the griddle and getting the frier ready for the fries. He glanced at the woman out of the corner of his eye, watching her watch him warily. She was perched at the end of the chair she was sitting in, fingers still wrapped tight around the strap of her bag, looking like she was ready to bolt at any second. “My name is Artemis,” he said after a bit. “This is my diner. The doors are locked, so you don’t have to worry about anyone coming in.”

  His words seemed to reassure her, and she relaxed a bit, letting go of the bag and sitting back in the chair. “I’m Holly,” she said after a few minutes.

  “Holly. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Artemis replied. “You don’t have to answer this, but like I said before, you’re clearly running from something. Do you need help?”

  She looked at him, but didn’t say anything, so Artemis assumed she wasn’t going to talk. That was fine. He’d feed her and then see if she wanted to stay the night and then let her go about his business.

  The kitchen was quiet except for the sound of him cooking, and when the food was ready he brought it to the table along with two glasses of water. Holly gulped down half of her glass before she even touched her food, looking embarrassed.

  Artemis politely kept his attention on his plate, and not on the way she was eating like she hadn’t had a good meal in days.

  He had plenty of questions about where she’d come from and what she was running from, and more to the point, what she intended to do, but it didn’t seem right to ask them. The need to keep her safe was strange, but the longer they sat there, the more he felt it. She looked so alone and so scared, and he just couldn’t bear it.

  Just when he was resigned to her not saying anything, she spoke again, voice soft and eyes trained on her plate and the scattering of fries she had left. “I don’t know what I need,” she said. “I...I left my home because I couldn’t stay there anymore. I just couldn’t. It was awful there, and… I got on a bus this afternoon and rode it to the end of the line and then walked until I found this place, and I was so tired. I didn’t mean to end up here, and I didn’t know it was your dumpster, I thought it was just an alley, and the food smelled good. I just wanted to sit down for a bit, but then I fell asleep and when I woke up it was night time, and I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t go back. Please don’t send me back.”

  Her words came out in a jumble, tumbling ov
er each other in the rush to leave her mouth, almost as if she was afraid she’d lose her nerve if she stopped talking. Artemis just listened patiently, mind already working.

  “I’m not going to send you back,” he said. “That wouldn’t be my place anyway. I don’t know where you’re from, but it looks like you definitely shouldn’t go back there if this is what you look like from running away.”

  She blushed at that and looked away.

  “Hey,” Artemis said. “It’s not your fault.”

  “You don’t know that,” Holly mumbled, and her eyes were slowly filling with tears.

  “Yes, I do. It’s never right for someone to hurt someone else. I don’t care what the situation is. If you’re being hurt against your will, then they’re in the wrong. Not you. Understand?”

  Holly blinked and looked up at him, nodding quickly. It was obvious that she didn’t really want to talk about it, though, and he wasn’t going to force her. Instead he got up and cleared away the dishes, dumping them in the sink to deal with in the morning. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  “W-where are we going?” Holly asked, looking afraid again.

  “Upstairs. I live up there, and you can have the couch until you figure out what you want to do.”

  She didn’t move, staring up at him like he had three heads. “I...I don’t have any money or anything to pay you back.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Artemis replied. “It’s not a problem. I’m not asking you to pay me back,” he clarified, so she wouldn’t think he wanted her to pay him in something other than money because that was definitely not the case.

  Holly stared at him for a few more seconds and then got to her feet, hefting her bag. Artemis almost offered to take it for her, but instead just smiled and flipped off the lights in the kitchen and then opened the door that led up to his apartment.