Royal Mate

by Juniper Hart

  Ember scowled. “I wish you’d remember me. I know it must be hard for you to see me again after all these years, but I wish you’d at least remember something.”

  She felt a little guilty. Her hard expression softened. The guy was obviously earnest. Crazy? Yes, probably. But earnest? Oh, yeah. He thought he was telling the truth, and she’d seen his throat heat up. Something was obviously not human about him, but she wasn’t ready to think about that yet.

  “So, in your world, am I also a dragon?” she asked.

  “No. You’re a human.”

  She checked the clip in her gun. It was there. They were good to go.

  “Well, that’s good. I’ve always felt like a human. So, what now, dragon boy?”

  He looked at her with a glint of marveling in his orange eyes. He had a strong jaw and Sarah was willing to bet he had washboard abs under that shirt.

  He asked. “How are you not freaked out by this? I thought you’d be freaking out.”

  “I’m freaking out,” she said honestly. “Oh, trust me. I’m not happy with this. But I can freak out later when I’ve had time to absorb what just happened.”

  “I can take you somewhere safe,” he said. “But you’re going to need to do what I say, no matter how strange it might sound.”

  She almost said, I don’t need protecting. Then she thought about it. Yeah, she did. She needed protection. She didn’t know Roland and she didn’t know Marilla, and she really didn’t know why someone would be out to kill her. She spent her days making coffee and kept to herself most of the time.

  Ember seemed liked he truly wanted to help, and that he was genuinely concerned for her welfare. Her instincts said to trust him. Sarah hated to rely on people. Hated it—from group projects back in high school to group organizations as an adult. She just worked better by herself. As much as it unnerved her, she couldn’t do that. She would be lying on the ground just inside her doorway, just a shredded pile of Sarah without Ember’s warning. Who knew what else was out there?

  Slowly, she nodded her head. “Fine. But, please, tell me what’s going on.”

  “Of course.” He grinned at her. He turned his head and for a brief second, she caught a glimpse of his teeth. His canines were much sharper than they should have been.

  “C’mon, Goldie,” he said, still smiling. Abruptly, he froze. “Uh-oh.”

  “Uh-oh?” She didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Load your gun,” he ordered. His demeanor changed, from cool and collected, to intense, almost animalistic. “Now. It’s going to take too long for me to call for back-up. I should have called the EDJ the moment I knew about Roland.”

  “The EDJ?”

  Ember responded curtly, “Yes. The Enchanted Department of Justice.”

  She made a mental note to ask him to explain what the meant, but in the moment, his tone made her feel like she would do anything he said. Sarah loaded the gun, which felt big in her small hands. “What’s going on?”

  He sniffed. “They’re here. They must have sent a cleanup crew.”

  “Start making sense!”

  The moment turned to chaos.

  Something shot through the window, shattering the glass around where the word Marilla was still visible. It flew straight for Sarah. Ember’s hand shot out and caught the thing—a steel arrow, quivering about six inches from the side of her head.

  “Go!” roared Ember, shoving her towards the door. “Go, now!”

  Startled by the sudden movement, she almost wiped out, slipping on the clothes strewn about her room. She was a talented athlete, so she managed to get her feet under her before she got through the door. She could hear something breaking through the glass. When she turned, her eyes widened as fear took hold of her body.

  Two beings came through the window, but they weren’t like any animal she’d ever seen and they weren’t humans—not by a long shot. Sarah’s brain refused to validate what she saw. The creatures were tall, bulldog-like beasts with jutting fangs, but they wore cotton-ribbed tank-tops and jeans.

  Both were holding bats with blades, knives, and bits of broken glass sticking out of them, which they swung at Ember. Ember suddenly looked very small next to the gigantic creatures. One of them whacked Sarah’s ceiling fan with his forehead, accidentally. As Sarah watched with horrified surprise, a third beast crashed through her bedroom window and clawed his way in.

  Ember ducked, and the first swing of the huge baseball bat missed him. A loud, thunderous sound came from Ember. What was the point in that? Sarah couldn’t see the benefit until crackling, white hot flames came from his throat, bathing the beasts in fire.

  “Fucking dragon!” roared one, covering his eyes with his thick, hairy forearm.

  Sarah had been staring in horror, standing still with her mouth agape. She snapped herself out of it and jerked the gun at one of the beasts. After lining up the sights on the creature’s burly chest, she popped off a couple shots.

  To Sarah’s credit, she didn’t miss. The bullets streaked straight into the huge beast’s fatty skin, sinking deep and vanishing from sight. The beast snarled and came after her with the bat. She yelped and scampered back into the kitchen, still shooting him time after time.

  She was vaguely aware of a transformation overtaking Ember over by her couch. One second, he was there in his tailored suit, and then he was gone. A dragon took his place.

  A sleek, red, scaled, freaking dragon. He was the size of a truck, and he hardly fit in her living room.

  The dragon was fast. He pounced onto one of the big men, taking both of them down. Sarah was so stunned that she almost missed the beast in front of her swinging at her with that cruel bat. She ducked at the last second. The bat zipped over her head and smashed into her cabinet, ripping it off the wall. Her foot caught on it and she fell.

  The creature was on top of her in a second, squeezing into the space between the wall and the island. She kept shooting him until the gun in her hands started clicking helplessly. She scrambled back, looking for something to throw at him. Her hands found something on the counter that seemed solid and she launched it, hoping it would do some damage.

  A box of Shredded Wheat whacked the beast in the face. The box broke, dumping frosty white dust on him.

  “So, you’re her.” His voice was deep and guttural, like a pig if a pig had suddenly gained the power of speaking. “I’m going to skin you and—”

  That’s as far as he got before something hit him in the back of the head. He froze, blinked once, and fell forward like a felled oak tree. He hit the bar stools. They crumbled like tinfoil under his frame.

  Ember, no longer in dragon form, was standing behind him with a wild look in his eyes and a bloodied bat in his hands. The bat looked outrageous in his normal hands. His was no longer wearing a suit jacket and his red shirt was ripped across the front, exposing rock-hard chest muscles. His spiky hair had been roughed up and his throat seemed to be glowing with heat from the inside.

  He dropped the bat and hurried over to Sarah, taking her hand and leading her out of the remains of what used to be a cute kitchen. Her legs shook from the adrenaline.

  “We have to get out of here,” he urged. “Are you okay?”

  He took her face in his hands and looked her up and down, checking her face for any injuries. “Did they hit you?”

  “N…n…no.” Her chin was quivering despite her best efforts to keep it still. “Wh…what were those things?”

  “Orcs,” he replied. He slid a hand down her lower back and guided her towards the outside of the building. Her heart pounded. Part of her wondered if she was going to pass out.

  They reached Ember’s car. He whipped out his keys and unlocked the doors. He opened the door for her like a gentleman. Why her brain isolated that fact at that moment, she might never know. It was all she could do to bring her mind back to normalcy. Had he just been a dragon?

  She had been attacked by orcs. Whatever orcs were.

  And a dragon saved her.r />
  She finally got her wits about her. Ember was driving fast, continually checking his rearview mirror for anything suspicious. He reached over with his right hand and placed it on her knee.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be this way.”

  4

  Sarah sat in stunned silence, not speaking for several minutes while Ember weaved in and out of traffic. She’d left her wits back at her apartment. The funny thing was that her landlord would show up in the morning for the rent, probably mad like always. She’d always wanted to get revenge on him. She’d been an excellent tenant. She always paid on time and she hadn’t missed a payment, but for some reason, the guy had it out for her.

  Well, looks like she was going to get her revenge after all. That would be an interesting one to submit to the insurance company. She could imagine how that conversation would go.

  Hi, my building has sustained some damage.

  Okay. What caused it?

  It appears to be three large men with tusks.

  Can I provide you with the number of a psychiatrist, sir?

  She looked over at her companion. Ember had been telling the truth after all. He was a dragon.

  Oh, God. She felt a headache coming on. She was still holding the gun despite having no bullets. The creepiest thing was that those men hadn’t come for Ember. They’d come for her. Ember had called them a cleanup squad. If the dust thing at her door didn’t kill her, they had been there to finish the job.

  This Roland guy was an asshole.

  What had she even done? Sarah was a good girl. Sure, she was a bit of a rebel. She didn’t like the slow lane. Sometimes she snuck food into movies. But that was about as bad as she got. She wasn’t involved in any illegal acts. She hadn’t hurt this guy, as far as she knew. But then again, if she was being honest with herself, she had to come to grips with the fact that none of the last hour made sense.

  All she’d wanted to do was go home after a long day and forget the smoothie guy. Her biggest concern had been talking to Jamie about her love life. Little did she know her life would have taken such a dangerous turn.

  Now she was zipping through darkened streets in a car more expensive than most houses. A dragon was sitting next to her that said he knew her from a past life. The craziest thing was that she was starting to wonder if he was telling the truth.

  “I think there’s been a mistake,” she finally said as street lights whizzed by her window. “I’m not the woman everyone thinks I am. I’m just a normal girl. I’m totally human. I’m not an orc and I’m sure not whatever you are.”

  “You’re not a normal girl,” he insisted. “You just don’t remember. I’ve looked for you for one-thousand years. I knew I would find you one day.”

  She glanced in the mirror at the traffic behind them. Nothing. Just a line of cars. “How old are you? Thirty at the most? You haven’t been looking for me for one-thousand years.”

  “I’m immortal.”

  “Ah. Of course.”

  “I’m telling the truth,” he said sternly.

  “So you’ve said,” said Sarah with a shrug.

  He made a noise. At first, she thought he was sighing, but when she looked over he was grinning.

  “You’re still stubborn. Open your mind, Sarah. I’ll prove it. You have a birthmark on your ankle.”

  She slid her hand down to her ankle. “So? Anyone could know that.”

  “You don’t like the color pink.”

  “Lots of girls don’t.”

  He had a mischievous look. He had her, and he knew it.

  “You were afraid you didn’t have an imagination as a child, so you practiced trying to imagine stuff for hours by yourself.”

  She felt a shiver go through her body. “I’ve never told anyone that in my life. How did you know that?”

  “You might not have told anyone in this life,” he said. “But you told me in one of your last ones.”

  She covered her face. “I’m crazy. That’s the only explanation. I’m crazy.”

  “True, but this is also happening.” There was just the slightest hint of amusement to his voice. “It’s okay. You’ll start to remember.”

  “I’m starting to question my sanity,” she replied, still with her hands over her face. “Not anything else.” She peeked through her fingers. “Seriously, I never told anyone that. There’s no way you could have known.”

  She watched Ember, trying to quell the fear deep inside. She knew him. She’d watched him in the stage of sleep for the past twenty-four years. He was the creature from her nightmare. He was the beast. She’d see a flash of red scales and then she screamed, night after night, week after week, year after year. When she’d first seen him in the apartment, she’d been stunned. He was her nightmare. But, she felt safe. Did dragons have a power to use glamour on people, forcing them to do and believe things?

  What had he done? Why did she scream when saw him? He looked nice and she had to admit she was attracted to him physically. But then again, there was something tickling her subconscious, that child’s fear. She’d always assumed it was just a stupid dream. She’d had another one with guerilla fighters. She’d mixed up gorillas with guerillas in her mind as an eight-year-old when her parents had taken her to see Planet of the Apes. Every time the newspaper said something about guerilla warfare, she was convinced the apes were taking over.

  But the dragon dream wasn’t like that because the person she dreamed about was sitting in the car next to her. She wanted to find out more, but she didn’t want to outright ask, ‘Why do I have nightmares about you?’ She had to be stealthy.

  She asked, “Why now? Why did you all come today?”

  “I finally tracked you down,” he told her. “I’ve been following you from lifetime to lifetime, but each time, Roland beats me to you.”

  She grimaced. “You mean Roland kills me each time you find me?”

  Ember looked out the window, away from her. His youthful, handsome face suddenly looked terribly old and pained. “Every time. And every time, I try to find you in your new life. This is the first time I’ve beaten him to you.”

  “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

  “I saved your life.”

  She opened her mouth to reply, but realized she didn’t have a good response.

  “Huh,” she said awkwardly, hating that she’d said it, and then wondering why she cared. “If I’m not a dragon, and I have no powers, why are you, and this Roland guy, so interested in me? Why aren’t you more interested in an immortal?” she asked.

  “Well, once upon a time, you loved me. And, I still love you.”

  “Love me? You don’t even know me!”

  “I’ve known you for a millennium.”

  “Why not give up? Obviously, I keep dying. It’s never going to last.” The thought gave Sarah shivers.

  “You can be immortal.”

  “What, you’d put a spell on me or something?”

  He cleared his throat. “No. Nothing like that. You’re my mate. We were married.”

  “Wait, what? First, you tell me I’ve been reincarnated and now I am your reincarnated dead wife? How exactly will that make me immortal, because, obviously, it hasn’t worked so far.”

  “When you become pregnant by my seed, you will become immortal.”

  There was a pause. “No. Just no. I think I might have misheard you.”

  “I think you probably heard me right. To make you immortal, I’d have to choose you as my mate, which I’ve already done. I can only have one mate in my lifetime. Then, the next step to immortality is pregnancy.”

  “That’s convenient,” she said bluntly.

  He laughed.

  “What?” she asked, a little self-conscious.

  He kept laughing before placing a hand on her thigh. “I’m just so glad to hear your voice again.” Was his voice cracking? “I’ve spent so many years trying to find you…and now you’re here!”

  She almost pushed his hand aw
ay, but didn’t. He moved it before she could do anything anyway.

  “Who’s this Roland guy?” she asked. If she was going to be scared of him, she was going to figure out if there was a good reason for it. Sure, Ember was a dragon and he showed up in nightmares regularly, but maybe there was just a misunderstanding, right? Maybe she was screaming at something else in the dream. It wasn’t probable, but what he said was true—he had saved her life. She wasn’t sure about anything else, but she knew without a doubt that he wanted her alive.

  “He’s my cousin,” Ember admitted. “He was always jealous of me and my brothers. My father is the Dragon King, and he always wanted the powers bestowed upon me and my siblings.”

  “Really? Tell me more, because this just keeps getting better!” Sarah said, sarcastically.

  Ember scowled, and continued, “Well, this might sound strange.”

  “Right, because everything you’ve said up to this point is completely rational.”

  Ember laughed. “My father was once mortal, but he fell in love with Gaia, also known as Mother Earth. The world was happy and they were truly perfect together. But then my dad started to age. He wasn’t immortal like her. So, she had a spell cast on him by a powerful sorcerer to make him immortal and give him the power to transform into a dragon. He was the first dragon, and she was our mother.”

  “Pretty sweet deal,” Sarah said.

  She hadn’t quite made up her mind on Ember. Good or bad? Only time could tell. Until then, she would act like he was an ally. If he was a villain, it wasn’t like she could do much against him. He was a dragon. A big accomplishment for Sarah was successfully shooting a wadded-up ball of paper into the trashcan from across the room. She wasn’t prepared to go up against him.

  “Well, it was a sweet deal except for Roland. He is my mother’s nephew. His mother is a goddess. Some refer to her as Selene or Luna. But, she is not as powerful as my mother. Roland is immortal, but he doesn’t have the power that we have. He shifts into wolf form, and he was the first of his kind—a human-wolf hybrid. Although werewolves are powerful, they’re not as powerful as dragons.”