by KD Jones
Drake
Book 3 in the Dragon Warriors Series
KD Jones
© 2018 KD Jones
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Blurb
Drake, second-in-command to the dragon shifter king of the West, has been tasked to investigate rumors that their enemy is hiding in the Philippines. As always, he will serve his people. Though he expects danger, battles, and other surprises, he isn’t prepared for the toughest challenge of his life: a flame-haired female who makes his dragon roar with need.
Emily Campbell loves teaching underprivileged children on a small island in the most beautiful place she had ever seen. Her three-year teaching contract is almost up. She wants one last adventure before she has to head back to the United States. Her wish comes true in the form of a tall, dark, and sexy stranger. One night in his arms leads to more than she expects:
A world of danger, sexy dragon shifters and a love that will either set them free
or be their doom.
Chapter 1
Drake, in his dragon form, flew high in the sky above the clouds. He enjoyed how the wind under his wings flowed over his scales. He knew he would have to be returning to the large ranch where most of his clan lived. His goal for this day had been to escape for a little while. It became disheartening watching the newly mated couples and their happiness. It only made him feel edgy and lonely.
He had once made a promise to a young pretty dragon shifter female named Fena. Then an enemy alien race attacked their home world—Drakonia. To save their people, the mages opened a portal for them to escape to a new planet called Earth. He was supposed to meet his Fena at the portal, but she never made it. He went in search of her to find she had died. Her home had collapsed in on her. Fena’s father had told him with his dying breath that Fena would want him to live, so Drake went through the portal to the new home for his people.
Unfortunately, the new planet proved to be more primitive than what they had been used to. Over the many centuries, his people kept separate from the humans, not trusting them completely. Fewer and fewer Drakonians mated and bred dragonlets. In time, his people began to slowly die out. A long life without finding mates took a terrible toll on them—and on him.
Returning to the ranch the clan’s king, Reichardt, had purchased for their home in Dragoon, Arizona, he landed behind the barn. He shifted to his human form and trudged into the barn to the stall where they kept clothing.
Drake dressed in the jeans and T-shirt he had folded on the bench. He pulled the little figurine that he had fashioned in remembrance of what he lost on Drakonia over his head. It hung down on his chest hidden beneath his shirt. He wanted to keep the memory of Fena, which was why he kept the figurine close to his heart. Sometimes he forgot the color of her hair, the color of her eyes. His dreams of her started to fade and he hated that the most.
He needed a new purpose for his life. All he had done since coming to Earth had been to serve his king and his people. Thoughts of having a family of his own filled him with longing. A year ago, he would have thought it impossible. But now that two of his fellow dragons, including his king, had found a true mate in humans, all his people garnered hope. Unfortunately, none of the humans he met thus far aroused his dragon.
As he walked out of the barn, one of the dragon warriors approached him. “The king would like to speak with you.”
He nodded as he continued toward the large ranch house. Entering the main entrance, he continued down the hallway toward the king’s office. At the closed door, he knocked and waited.
“Come in.”
Opening the door, he entered then closed the door behind him. “My King, you asked to see me?”
King Reichardt sighed. “Drake, you know you don’t have to call me king, especially when we are alone.”
“It’s a habit.”
“One I wish you would break. Sit,” Reichardt motioned for him to have a seat on the chair across from his desk, “I have news from Queen Arena.”
“She has been unusually quiet since you mated with Gema,” Drake commented.
Reichardt shrugged. “She rules all of Asia. She’s busy. Besides, our time together was only companionship for two lonely souls. Our dragons tuned each other out. Anyway, she reported sightings of Dyson near the Philippines. Her people made quick work of searching but they feared tipping him off to their presence, so she pulled them out. We discussed sending one person in who may be able to go undetected.”
He thought over what Reichardt told him. “One person would be no match for King Dyson and his remaining followers.”
“Don’t call him that. He no longer bears that title after his mass killings and exposing us to humans.”
Drake sighed. “It’s a habit, but I’ll work on it.”
“The person we send is only to get confirmation of Dyson’s presence, not to fight or confront him. He may not be there himself after suffering such severe wounds at our last encounter. Do you have anyone you would recommend for this mission?”
“I’ll volunteer to go,” Drake told him.
Reichardt smiled. “I hoped you would say that. It’s why I asked you first.”
“I can shift and leave as soon as it gets dark.”
“Actually, I want you to take a plane. It’s a fifteen-hour flight but traveling as a human will help cloud your identity. Dyson would have people looking for dragons in the air.”
Drake felt sick at the thought. “Fifteen hours in a small metal plane with a bunch of humans is not my idea of fun.”
“Mine either but I do believe it will be the safest way to go on this mission. If you don’t want to, I’ll ask someone else.”
Drake glared at his old friend. “You know I’ll go.”
“Yeah, I just wanted to give you a way out.”
“You’ve gone soft in your old age, My King,” Drake said.
Reichardt growled. “I’m not going soft.”
At that moment, his mate, Gema, a short dark-haired female, came into the office with their baby and the man’s stern expression melted into love and adoration. Drake laughed as he got up and left. He couldn’t imagine how wonderful it would be to have what his friend had, and he wanted it.
Chapter 2
Emily laughed at her student’s joke said in English. They had come a long way since the beginning of school. She would miss her students and the little town in the municipality of Santa Ilocos Sur Philippines. It had been her home for the past few years.
She’d come to this town in a teaching abroad program. Her three-year contract about to end, Emily would be going back to the United States in a matter of weeks.
Emily did miss her country. A few of her friends she had kept in touch with looked forward to her return. It just wouldn’t feel the same, not after her aunt died. The only immediate family she had, her father Colonel Campbell, wanted her to live with him in Florida, but they had not gotten along after her mother died when Emily had been a teen.
Her father loved her, but he had been absent most of her life. Her mother raised her on her own. They had moved about from place to place because her father had been in the military. Her mother did her best to keep them together as much as possible and to make sure Emily had a home. When her mother died, her father lacked the mentality and capability of being a single parent.
If sh
e were honest, she didn’t make it easy on him. She’d been bitter about having to move from base to base during her childhood. She could never keep friends and always had to work extra hard to catch up to other kids in whichever school she went to next.
Her mother tried to make the best of it and covered for her father’s absence. Mary Campbell had been the best mother anyone could’ve had. She’d been kind, patient, and made everything seem like an exciting adventure.
When she came into her teen years, she saw the toll it took on her mother. When her mom was diagnosed with cancer, she fought the best she could, but in the end, the cancer took her from this life and from Emily.
Her father, the great Colonel Peter Campbell, managed to be present for the first time to attend the funeral. At sixteen, she had no self-restraint and told him exactly what she thought of him. After several failed attempts by him to bond with her, he finally allowed her to move in with his sister Aunt Dee Dee in Georgia.
Emily would get the usual once-a-month phone call, presents shipped for Christmas and birthdays but her father rarely visited, and she never went to Florida to see him. It hurt too much. Whenever they were in the same room, there would be awkwardness between them. She feared it would always be that way.
Sighing, she looked out the classroom window. She was now twenty-seven years old—an adult. She saw things a little differently. Maybe the time had come for her to forgive her father and try to repair the damage to their relationship while they could.
She watched as the children hugged their parents that picked them up, and a pang of longing hit her. Emily had always wanted a real home and family of her own. A place to put down roots where she didn’t feel the need to move.
The few friends she made in college had married and settled down with families of their own. She longed for that, always had. When she thought about how her own life turned out, it hadn’t been that different from her father’s life. Emily had moved away for a job. Just like her father. Never would she have thought that would be how she turned out.
Shaking her head at her self-realization, she turned her thoughts to something more positive. In a few more months, her contract would end, and she would return to the United States. Her friend Angel said she could stay with her and her family until she got a teaching job and a place of her own. Maybe then, she would be able to find a nice man and settle down.
That sounded...unexciting really. What she wouldn’t do for one more adventure before she went home. A thrilling escape that would make a memory to take home with her.
Chapter 3
Drake hated flying on man-made transportation. Though he did enjoy the attention he received from the stewardesses. If he had more time, he might be able to share sex with one of them.
He had never involved himself with human women. Some of his kind attempted to mate with humans, but to no avail. Their dragons didn’t respond to humans and sharing the dragon fire would kill the human. Too many human deaths would bring attention to Drakonian presence. At that point, it was forbidden by their leaders to attempt such a thing.
Now, for some reason, things were changing. Two separate dragons fully mated with human women, sharing their dragon fire and breeding little dragonlets. His people had hope for the first time in centuries that their race would not die out. He might one day find his true mate, something both he and his inner dragon desperately longed for.
Once the plane landed at the Vigan Airport in the municipality Santa Ilocos Sur Philippines, he grabbed his bag from overhead and exited the metal contraption. Once outside, he looked at his surroundings. The airport consisted of a building the size of a corner store and a few plane hangars. Planes landed on a very short landing strip.
A bus stop, not far, took people to the different areas. He would start his search in Vigan City. Dragon shifters in a small city would be hard to overlook. Then he planned to search the mountains.
He hated the bus ride more than the plane ride. His height and muscular build towered over most of the local inhabitants, made sitting in a tight space nearly impossible. Instead, he stood, holding on to the silver bar overhead.
As a warrior, Drake trained to gather information on a region or the enemy. He would scout ahead and come back to report his findings. Glancing around at those on the bus, he summed up that many were underprivileged, but at the same time, appeared to be happy enough. Mothers kept their children in their seats and the children made up games to play on their travels.
A clucking sound behind him had him glancing back at a young boy of maybe six or seven holding a small crate in his lap with a chicken inside who did not look pleased at all. The little boy looked Drake up and down with awe in his eyes. Compared to small him, Drake towered like a giant.
Finally, the bus reached the stop in Vigan City where he got off and headed to the Plaza Hotel. He loved the Spanish architecture and handmade furniture. He paid in cash and grabbed a few of the travel guides and a map of the area. Once in his room, he threw his bag on the bed, stepped out to the balcony, and made a call to King Reichardt.
“Hello.”
“My King, I have arrived.”
“Call me Rei, you know that.”
Drake smiled. No matter how many times Reichardt tried to get him to use the nickname, he always refused. Not that he cared about proper royalty etiquette he just liked teasing his good friend.
“I’ve checked into the local hotel in Vigan City. I’ll search this province first since the rumors reported sights in this area. Then I’ll move on to the next.”
“Good, keep me informed, and if you need more cash, I can wire it to you.”
They discussed not using any form of credit card because Dyson could use that to track them as well. “I will keep you updated. It’s daylight right now, so I’ll walk the streets on foot. Once the sun goes down, I will shift and fly over as much of the city as possible. My gut tells me they prefer the mountain region over the city.”
“Good plan. One more thing, try to take a moment to enjoy things.”
That surprised him. “What?”
“My mate tells me I am riding my warriors too hard. She suggested that I order you to take a moment or two to have dinner, enjoy local fare, take in the view of a new location and experience the culture.”
He felt speechless for a moment. “Does she not realize how serious Dyson on the loose is?”
Reichardt growled over the line. “She does better than any of us.”
Shit! Reichardt’s mate had been snatched by Dyson and his warriors, put in a dungeon and would have been force bred by Dyson himself if Reichardt and their own people hadn’t saved her.
“I’m sorry, My King. I didn’t mean any insult to your mate.”
“You’re forgiven. I reacted the same way you did, but my mate explained how important it is that we continue to live our lives to the fullest. If we stop, then we allow Dyson to win.”
“That’s...accurate,” Drake admitted.
“I know, shocking, isn’t it? I mated a kind and insightful female.”
“Let her know I will make sure to eat a full dinner tonight after I shift and search the area first.”
“Be careful, Drake. I don’t like that you are so far away with no backup.”
“I will take every precaution. I’ll call you tomorrow before I leave for the next area.”
“Very good.”
He hung up the cell phone and put it in his back pocket. Pulling out the map, he looked at everything, memorizing every street and every turn. He’d been good at that. Once he knew the general layout of the area, he would have no problem getting around.
Fifteen minutes later, he left his hotel and strolled along the cobblestone streets. Horse drawn carriages traveled by even though cars parked along the street. The outside buildings had exposed brick and many vendors set up their tables just outside their shop. He felt like he had stepped back into Spanish history.
A multitude of smells surrounded him. Fish from the market, perfumes, and
cafes swamped him. Those strong scents would be a great way to camouflage dragon shifters, but he couldn’t imagine Dyson and his warriors being this close to humans. They would attract too much attention. As shifters, especially from another planet, drawing unnecessary notice could be detrimental to their safety.
A new scent came to him from the other side of the street, and his inner dragon sat up to pay attention. Searching the crowd, he spotted a human female, long red hair—the color of dragon fire—pulled into a ponytail. She was shapely, wearing a sleeveless sundress. He couldn't see her face or eyes because she had on large sunglasses.
He found himself moving across the street. Drake heard her speaking the native language llocono. He didn’t speak it, but her voice sounded musical. His dragon growled in pleasure at the beauty of her tone.
Drake walked past her while she talked to a vendor. He inhaled deeply taking in her scent and his cock immediately hardened.
Mine. His inner dragon whispered. What the fuck! It couldn’t be his long-awaited mate. Here? In this place? The timing was all wrong.
Mine...ours. His dragon insisted.
He wasn’t one to argue with his dragon. Drake moved against the nearby building to keep himself hidden. Just as she passed by, he stepped in front of her and they collided. He reached out to hold her waist and steady her. At their touch, every instinct in him told him that she belonged with him.
Chapter 4
Emily was glad she decided to come to Vigan City for the weekend. It seemed like stepping back in time. She always found a good deal with the vendors. She wanted to buy a few souvenirs for herself and a scarf would be perfect for her aunt. Her hand trailed over other items and stopped on the brim of a hat. It looked like something her father would wear from time to time.
For some reason, she couldn’t walk away from it. It had been a long time since she sent her father any gifts. He never failed to send her a card for her birthday, and even now, he would ship her a Christmas present.