Dragon Beloved: A Reverse Harem Dragon Mythology Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 3)

by Zara Stark

  “Wow, you really got a power-up, didn’t you?” I grinned at him and he pulled me into another icy hug. “Holy crap, you’re freezing.”

  He released me and grinned at me. “A price I’ll pay to be powered up for our last fight.”

  The other three Aurelius’ came over to us.

  “We did it, one more battle and we’re out of here,” Azar grinned, I couldn’t believe the look of utter joy on his face. My heart panged for him, ten years they had been fighting for their lives and they were almost done. I was complaining about my eleven and my poor guys were coming up on a thousand. It really put everything into perspective.

  Pain in my chest drew me out of my thoughts. Another quarter of the dark eye on my chest disappeared. Only one little corner of an eye left and I would be free.

  We were crowned with our laurels and led out of the arena.

  We spent the whole night on cloud nine. Dancing and laughing, having a great time. How could we not? Tomorrow we were going home! Everything we had worked for was coming to fruition. We went to bed early that night, we couldn’t wait for tomorrow. Even more stoic Cobalt and Nevada had grins on their faces all night.

  There was only one battle today. Us! Our team walked right into the arena from the outside. Excitement practically thrummed in the air, it was palpable, you could feel it. All of my nerves were gone, replaced by excitement. I never thought I could be excited for a battle to the death but here I was. Ready to fight and kill. I had popped out of bed that morning and hadn’t even bothered to try and track down some coffee or showered. I would shower when I got home! Back to our time period! I could imagine the central A/C in my house now and refrigerated food and pizza! I was going to order a pizza and park myself on the couch for the rest of the foreseeable future.

  Going home had suddenly become very real, just five creatures stood in the way of getting us home. There was no doubt in my mind that we would win this time. Nevada and Azar were still juiced up from absorbing power in our last fight. Cobalt seemed stronger than ever, probably just as enthused as I was with a toothy grin on his face. Raiden had been out all night absorbing the power from the electrical storm the night before. We were powered up and ready to kick ass!

  I eyed our competition, immediately recognizing Ciardha from our first tournament-winning battle. He was a shadow dragon, his twin had been a light dragon. His pale hair and black eyes complimenting his handsome face drew my eyes right away. He was hard to miss, even with the weird creatures on his team. One was absolutely horrifying, a man’s profile and standing on hind legs but it had a deer-like head complete with antlers but not. It had a largely elongated muzzle like a canine, not like a dog or wolf but more coyote-like. Its arms were long and skinny, extending twice as long as they should. Black-tipped claws capped every finger and the creature’s legs were two-toed hooves, the torso was gaunt, I could count the creature’s ribs from across the arena. It had a crazed, hungered look in its eyes, milky white blue eyes that were vacant and not very present, like a zombie. It didn’t have an apparent gender.

  I glanced at Nevada on one side of me and then to Cobalt. Nevada had been acting strangely all morning. I wasn’t sure what his problem was. I knew he had stayed up all night and had discovered something big. I just hoped whatever it was, it wasn’t bad. I nudged Cobalt and pointed to the creature.

  “Wendigo,” Cobalt grunted. “Fast and hungry for human flesh. Good luck.”

  I pinched his arm and he chuckled in response. “Rude.”

  “Please welcome! Team Bumblebee! If they win this match, they will hit their thousandth win! This four dragon team has dominated this entire tournament! Their fifth member has grown exponentially in her few tournaments!” The Announcer began and the crowd lost it, cheering louder than I had ever heard them cheer before.

  “Their competition is fierce today! Team Maneater! Leading the team is Ciardha Sgailean leads their team, he had faced off against Team Bumblebee before and barely survived! But his vendetta might just give him an edge, Team Bumblebee did kill his twin brother! This three dragon team is rounded out by a cu sidhe and a wendigo!” The crowd gasped at the announcer’s commentary.

  We gathered around Raiden, ready for our plan of attack. Raiden’s mouth stretched into a wide grin. “Guys, this is our last pre-battle huddle.”

  “Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ll miss it,” I told him, crossing my arms.

  “Me neither,” Azar huffed, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m ready to get this the hell over with. What’s the plan?”

  “Ciardha can slip through Octavia’s shields,” Raiden started.

  “That sounds inexplicably dirty for some reason,” Nevada tapped his chin and Raiden rolled his eyes.

  “This is our last strategy huddle and you’re being a sarcastic asshole?” Raiden sighed. “I don’t know why I’m even surprised.”

  “Can we continue sometime before the battle starts?” Cobalt growled.

  “Yes, Nevada is going for Ciardha, freeze him before he can do any lasting damage. The wendigo is the second big problem, it looks stupid but they’re actually quite intelligent and cruel, they enjoy playing games with their prey. It will gun for Octavia, not only is she human, she smells delicious,” Raiden looked at me and I shrugged.

  “Sorry, I can’t really help my deliciousness?” That sounded weird to my own ears. “Do you mean delicious sexy or delicious as in prey?”

  “Both?” Raiden told me, making me cringe. He must have noticed my expression because he whispered. “Sorry.”

  Then he turned to Cobalt and continued to tell us his plan. “Cobalt is going to be busy this battle. Despite how different they look and the fact that the wendigo has no other form, they are technical types of shifters. Weak to group eleven metals. Can you handle both the cu sidhe and wendigo?”

  Cobalt nodded. “Of course.”

  “If you go for anything, it’s that wendigo. I’ll go for the water dragon, obviously, taking him out first and then going for the fire dragon. Octavia, this battle you’re all backup.”

  Part of me wanted to complain that I was just back up but a more dominant, intelligent part of me internally yelled ‘yay!’

  The starting horns rang and we sprang into action. A crack of lightning shot through the air, Raiden’s bolt hit the water dragon across the arena. The man collapsing instantly. One down four to go but that brief moment of victory was gone before I could truly celebrate the wendigo’s empty gaze met my eyes. A shiver ran down my spine, its irises were a milky white but the outer part of its eyes were completely black and sunken in. It licked its jaws with a long forked tongue. It launched itself in my direction.

  “Holy shit!” I screeched as Cobalt jumped in front of me, the skin on one of his arms rippled, turning a pale silver color. Cobalt smashed his silver fist into the wendigo’s face, sending the creature flying backward.

  “I got you, Tavia,” Cobalt didn’t wait for the wendigo to get up, he transformed his silver fist into an ax and sliced down on the wendigo. The wendigo’s eyes flew open and it snapped its jaws at Cobalt, latching onto his normal arm. Cobalt screamed, turning that one is silver as well. The wendigo ripped it off and quickly started to eat it. The ax wound in its neck healed the more of Cobalt’s arm it ate. Cobalt stumbled back from the wendigo and regrew his arm. It took a lot of energy from him to regenerate. I looked around the arena. Nevada was sparring with Ciardha and Azar was fighting the fire dragon and Raiden was fighting what had to be the cu sidhe, a large hairy man in a kilt.

  I pushed Cobalt behind me and glared at the wendigo. It had just finished eating Cobalt’s arm and was no slurping up the blood from the dirty ground. It turned my stomach, that thing apparently didn’t care that Cobalt wasn’t human.

  “Are you okay, Cobalt?” I asked him, his arm had grown back but it was a raw pink color. I didn’t think he’d be able to use it right away.

  “Very disgusted,” Cobalt grunted. “I didn’t know it could eat dragon meat.”


  “Stringy?” I asked. “Tasteless?”

  “Magically potent,” Cobalt sneered, flashing me his sharp teeth. “Fuck”

  “Fuck indeed, that has to be the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” I told him honestly.

  “Really? You had a threesome with Azar and Nevada and this is the most horrifying thing you’ve ever seen?” Cobalt laughed and I joined him.

  “Ha-ha, very funny,” I glared at him for a minute.

  “Hey, could you still turn your detached arm to metal?” I asked out of the blue as the idea struck me. If silver was toxic to wendigos, the nasty creature had just had a very large helping of it. Cobalt stared at me and blinked a few times, deep in thought.

  “I don’t know, I could try,” Cobalt grinned.

  The wendigo finished up drinking the spilled blood and turned its eyes back to us. It looked right past Cobalt and eyed me with a deep, horrifying hunger. I guess dragon meat didn’t really compare to human meat.

  I grabbed Cobalt around the waist and shoved my hand into my holster, ready to use my number two die if I needed too. If my idea didn’t work, I was going to shoot us into the air to get away from that thing. My brain was already working on a backup plan for our back up plan too, if this didn’t work, I would flag Nevada over and see if he could freeze the creature into place. Or Azar but that might just piss it off.

  Cobalt held his hand up in the wendigo’s direction, trying to turn his detached arm into metal. The wendigo ran toward us. I braced myself, waiting to use my die.

  “Coba?” I gasped as the wendigo closed in on us, it was so fast.

  “I’m trying, I think I got it but the metal poisoning can take a while,” Cobalt grunted. I squeezed him to me tight, even with a newly regenerated arm and in a lot of pain, I knew Cobalt could handle himself but I was very protective of him. “We need more time.”

  The wendigo was closing in on us, close enough for me to smell its rancid breath and see Cobalt’s blood staining its sharp teeth.

  Cobalt gripped my arm with his functional hand, ready to tug me out of the way but I forcibly shrugged him off. I was going to protect him this time. The wendigo snapped its jaws open, so close I could hear the bones pop as it gaped wider and wider. It was going try and swallow me up in one terrible, large bite. If this was how I was going to die, I hoped it would choke on me.

  I twirled the die in my hand.

  “Not yet,” Cobalt growled in my ear. “Only use that die as a last resort. You’ll reveal that you and Nevada are the ones who broke into the Atrium Libertatis.”

  “I don’t care, I’m not risking our lives over that,” I snapped back.

  “I’m willing to, I’m not going to risk our freedom over that stupid decision you and Nevada made.”

  “Really? You’re bringing this up now?” I groaned at him. I was about to say something else when the wendigo let out a moaning growl. Its eyes rolled in its head, locking onto mine, pupils shrinking into sharp points.

  “I think it likes you,” Cobalt crooned.

  “If the wendigo doesn’t kill you, I will,” I turned to look over my shoulder at Cobalt and stuck my tongue out at him, making him grin.

  A crackling sound drew my attention away from Cobalt, I looked back just as Azar pulled his fist out of the wendigo’s skill, still alight with fire. I shoved the die back into my holster and stared at Azar in shock. Where had he come from?

  The wendigo dropped to the ground, its head caved in, smoking from the fire.

  “Hey, maybe stop flirting and actually kill the monster?” Azar laughed. “Oh wait, I did since you were slacking off.”

  “Where’ve you been?” Cobalt snapped at Azar.

  “Killing the earth dragon and the cu sidhe and now your wendigo too, you’re welcome,” Azar smiled.

  The wendigo’s limbs flailed, still reach for me. Its head lolled to the side and it stared up at me, terrible, desperate hunger in its eyes.

  “Caving in its skull with your fire fist won’t kill it, that’ll just slow it down. It’s determined to get a taste of Octavia and it won’t give up until its dead,” Cobalt told Azar.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” Azar smiled, stepping over to Cobalt, he smacked Cobalt’s newly regenerate arm. “Looks like you got into a fight with a sandblaster.”

  “Don’t fucking touch me,” Cobalt glared, only making Azar laugh harder.

  “So do all of your attachments grow back? Like, say the wendigo bit your dick off instead of your arm?” Azar asked and I couldn’t help it, I joined in on the laughter.

  Cobalt sighed, rolling his dark eyes at us. He turned his other arm into metal and stabbed the wendigo right in the same spot that Azar had punched through its skull.

  The haunting light died from its eyes and I breathed a sigh of relief. The crowd cheered. They certainly had a love-hate relationship with us but surely the Wendigo was just as creepy to them as it was to us.

  Azar let his fire go out and knelt down to look at the Wendigo. “Damn this thing is creepy, creepiest thing I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen Cobalt naked in the shower.”

  “Why were you looking?” Cobalt sneered.

  “Creepier than a platypus?” I asked. “Those things are creepy!”

  “Aw, no” Azar stood up, shaking his head, sending auburn and copper hair flopping about. “They are super cute.”

  “Did you know that they are venomous?” I told him.

  “What? That’s crazy!” Azar laughed. “They can poison you?”

  “No, they’re venomous! If you bite it and you die, that’s poison. If it bites or claws you and you die, that’s venom. They have a back claw thingy,” I explained, Azar’s face was fascinated but Cobalt couldn’t look any more bored.

  “Do you think there are platypus shifters out there somewhere?” Azar asked.

  “I hope not, I’d rather fight another wendigo than a platypus let alone a platypus shifter,” I shook my head.

  “Absolutely ridiculous,” Cobalt mumbled under his breath, shaking his head.

  “I think as long as you don’t go to Australia you’ll be fine, that’s where all the platypus, dingo and kangaroo shifters live,” Azar told me.

  “No thanks, won’t be vacationing there anytime soon.”

  Cobalt opened his mouth to say something, probably to chastise our ridiculousness but the crowd went wild. All three of us looked around frantically, finding Nevada and Raiden standing over the corpse of Ciardha.

  “Oh my Gods,” Azar gasped, squeezing me into a tight, bone-crushing hug. “We did it, we made it to a thousand.”

  I held Azar tight, tears of happiness streaming down my face.

  Chapter 9

  Giddiness coursed through me. We won! We were going home! The nightmare was over!

  Two robed men placed golden laurel crowns upon each of our heads and slowly the crowd in the seats dispersed, leaving our team and a large gathering of Concilium members. I grabbed Raiden’s hand and smiled up at him. He returned my grin and my heart melted, I hadn’t seen such a light-hearted happy smile on his face since before they left me ten years ago. A decade’s worth of stress and tension seemed to pour off of Raiden. His mission was over, he had gotten us through our battles successfully.

  The Concilium approached us en masse and spoke to us with their strange multiple voices once more. Were they going to send us back home now? I honestly didn’t care if I left behind all of my beautiful dresses and few belongings I had back in our castelli, I was ready to go home! Modern technology here I come!

  “TEAM BUMBLEBEE, YOU HAVE WON A THOUSAND BATTLES AND SHALL HAVE YOUR DRAGON FORMS RETURNED TO YOU,” The Concilium spoke in one loud voice, rocking the stone of the Colosseum and shaking the earth beneath our feet. “YOU ARE FREE.”

  Tears welled at the corners of my eyes, we were free. We were going home! I couldn’t help the happiness that rushed through me, happy tears streaming down my face.

  I looked over my shoulder and smiled at Azar, happy tears
were streaming down his face and he had a wide toothy grin. Even Cobalt was smiling for once, his usual gruff expression was gone and replaced by a look of relief. My gaze shifted to Nevada and I met his dark eyes, he was still giving me that strange look, like he didn’t know me. No--it wasn’t that, it was worse, he was looking at me like I was an alien or some strange creature he had never seen before. For a moment, my happiness went on pause. What had Nevada read in that book? He said he had discovered something and now I was wondering if it was something bad. He mouthed ‘later’ to me and I swung back around. The Concilium still stood before us, their faces oddly blank. A feeling of unease passed through me. I always trusted my gut and my gut was telling me that something was off here.

  Altogether, the two dozen or so warlocks performed a series of sharp hand gestures and the air around us sizzled with a sickly pale blue magic. Tendrils of magic twisted and turned in the air around us, reaching closer and closer to us. The waves of magic bounced off of me and curled around my four dragons. Raiden tried to let go of my hand but I squeezed his much large hand tighter, lacing my fingers through his.