Amelia stared at the bowl, thinking about her mom’s words. She looked at Mason, who was staring at her, his light blue eyes all lit up, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. This bowl was like their mating bond. It felt different; maybe a little worn and patched up, but just as beautiful as it had once been, and maybe even better.
“Thank you, Laura,” Mason said, finally breaking the hushed silence. “It’s gorgeous.”
Laura stood up and dusted her hands on her thighs. “We’ll take care of Cassie for now. Why don’t you guys go and enjoy some quiet time together?” She winked at Mason.
Amelia narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the two of them, but before she could say anything, Mason stood up, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up. “Let’s go for a walk.”
She let him lead her back into the woods, content to just walk behind him. They walked out for a good twenty minutes, until they came to a small clearing. Amelia breathed in the clean air and wrapped her arms around him from behind. He turned around and kissed her forehead.
She looked up and noticed the frown on his face. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” But she could feel the tension in his body. “I’m just, you know, worried about Cassie.”
Amelia leaned her head on his shoulder. She knew what he’d been thinking about. Yesterday, Moynahan gave them some news: Jenna was being held in prison and it wasn’t looking good. The cases against her and Doug were solid, not to mention, because of their involvement with the mob, the case was now a federal one. There was a chance she could be put away for at least twenty years.
“I don’t know what to say to Cassie.” He hugged her tighter. “About everything. I don’t want to hide anything from her; she’ll figure out she’s different, eventually. But I don’t want to hurt her either.”
“You’ll work it out,” she said. “Just be honest with her. Kids are resilient, you know? And Cassie is an amazing girl.”
His lips curled up at the corners. “She is.”
“And whatever happens, I’ll be here for you both. Always.” She lay her head on his chest, listening to the beating of his heart. When she heard it pick up a little faster, she chuckled and looked up at him. “Are you scared or something?”
“Well …” He took a deep breath, and then took her hand. She frowned when he pushed something into her palm.
“What’s this?” Looking down, she saw that he put a crumpled napkin in her hand.
“Open it.”
Seeing the red ink staining the paper, she chuckled. “Where’d you get this old thing? I thought I’d lost it.” She did as he asked and unfurled the napkin in her hand. It definitely was the sketch of the house she made, but she saw something new had been added at the bottom. Scrunching her eyes, she read the words there and gasped. Written in blue ink were the words, “Will you marry me, Amelia?” Slowly, she looked up at him. “Mason?”
“I know it’s not a ring,” he said sheepishly. “I can’t afford one right now, but if you’ll have me as your husband, I promise you I’ll give you that house one day.”
“Yes. Oh, yes.” She said it without hesitation, because she already knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
Mason lifted her up and pressed his lips to hers, and Amelia sighed against him. The warmth of their bond flowed and tightened around them, and she’d never felt more loved and cherished than at that moment. Her bear glowed with happiness, and she felt his animal sigh contentedly. She didn’t want the kiss to end, but eventually she pulled away. “Who knew?” she asked.
“Tim and Cassie, of course. And your parents. I asked them for their blessing the first moment we were alone. Your mom had to run to the bathroom to cry.”
“Ha!” She remembered that from the other day, when they all had dinner at Rosie’s. Cassie said she wanted to grab a coloring book she left in the car and so she went to go get it with her. When they came back, she thought Laura’s eyes looked puffy, but her mom had given her an evasive answer when she asked if she was all right.
“Let’s go tell everyone,” Mason said, after giving her one last kiss.
They walked back in the direction of the cabins but took their time as she wanted to savor the moment some more and keep it to herself. But, as they neared the lake, Amelia felt her bear’s hackles raise. Mason stopped suddenly, a soft growl coming from his lips.
“We have company,” he said, his eyes glowing. Amelia knew her eyes were lit up too, as her bear was nearing the surface, ready to fight. This was it. The reason she came back. If the intruders harmed a hair on any one of her family’s head, she would strike.
Large shadows flew overhead and the winds shook as they passed by. Amelia thought they might have been helicopters or jets, but the loud shrieks and the flapping of wings told her what it was. She looked up. No, those definitely weren’t Uncle Hank, Matthew, Jason, or Sybil. “What the hell?” She knew there were other dragons in the world, but they had never ventured into Blackstone.
If Mason was worried, he didn’t show it. His Navy SEAL training was kicking in and he was as calm as the cool waters of the lake. “We’ll creep up on them and assess the situation.” He gripped her hand tight as they moved in.
She followed close behind him as they walked back toward the cabins. As they got nearer, she peered over his shoulder, then frowned at the sight that greeted them. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting; a fight in progress maybe, but not this.
Five men were standing in a semicircle in front of Uncle Hank, but he wasn’t in a defensive position or even under attack. In fact, he stood confidently, his arms crossed over his chest as he spoke. Matthew and Jason stood behind him, their postures just as assertive as their father’s. Everyone—the shifters at least, the humans and the kids were thankfully and noticeably absent—was there behind them, ready to defend their family.
Behind the five men around Uncle Hank were another four men, lined up in a row, though they didn’t seem to be trying to defend themselves or in an attack position. In fact, if Amelia didn’t know any better, she would say they looked like they were showing off. One of them wore a bright white suit that looked out of place in the middle of the woods.
No one noticed Amelia and Mason as they crept up and joined their family.
“What’s going on?” Amelia whispered to Sybil. “Who are those men? Where did they come from?”
Sybil kept her eyes on her father and the other men. “Apparently, they’re the Dragon Council.”
“Dragon Council? I didn’t know you guys had a council.”
“Neither did I.”
“What do they want?”
Sybil glanced at her father, then back at Amelia. “Some sort of alliance. I don’t know. They—the five guys with Dad—just kind of … appeared out of nowhere. They had some sort of cloaking tech,” Sybil explained.
“And the other four?”
“The Dragon Council called them the Alphas of the different clans or something,” Sybil continued. “They asked permission to enter our territory, and Dad said yes. They flew in and landed. And—get this—when they shifted back, they had their clothes on.”
Amelia was shocked but seeing all those men dressed strangely and in clean clothes like they didn’t just trudge through the forest, it wasn’t an impossibility. Unsure what to say next, she remained silent, but tuned in to listen to the rest of the conversation.
“…And so, Hank Lennox, Blackstone Dragon, we thank you for granting our five Dragon Alphas permission to land in your territory.” One of the Dragon Council members, a tall, thin man wearing a silver robe, bowed his head. “And now—”
“Four,” Hank interrupted.
“Excuse me?”
“You have four Dragon Alphas,” Hank pointed out.
The man turned around, then did a double take. “Where is His Highness?”
The Dragon Alpha in the white suit scoffed. “He must have fallen behind.”
“You know those weak little wings of his,” another one m
ocked.
The thin man turned to another council member, a bald man wearing a leather vest and pants. “Where is your prince?”
The man’s eyes grew wide. “I-I-I don’t … I mean …” He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead. “Maybe he—”
A loud whooshing sound broke through the air. It sounded like—waves? Very big waves, it seemed like.
Everyone turned their heads toward the lake as the water began to rise and rush up. Something very large was moving in the lake, churning the water. Someone gasped audibly when an enormous winged creature leapt up and flew into the air. It was probably as large as Uncle Hank in dragon form, but it had a long body covered with blue and green scales, thin, bat-like wings, and a tail with a fin. The creature stayed airborne for a few more seconds, then dove back into the water.
“What the hell is that?” Mason said. “A snake?”
“A dragon,” Sybil said.
The water went quiet and the air was still. Suddenly, a figure rose out of the water. A tall, hulking man began walking up the shore. He was wearing only leather pants and his arms were covered with tattoos that looked like scales. He looked confident and self-assured as he strode toward them, as if he were walking down a fashion runway, not out of a lake.
“Finally,” one of the dragon council members said.
The bald man cleared his throat and stepped forward. “May I present, His Royal Highness, Prince Aleksei of the Northern Isles, Jarl of Svalterheim, Dragon Protector of the—” He let out an undignified squeak as the prince pushed him aside. “Your Highness? Where are you going?”
But Prince Aleksei kept walking. He strode past Hank, Matthew, Jason, and the Dragon Council. Amelia’s bear rose up in a defensive position and she felt Mason’s polar bear do the same as the dragon shifter came closer. Prince Aleksei didn’t pay attention to them. In fact, he didn’t look at anyone else. His gaze was fixed on one thing—or rather person: Sybil.
“Hello, mate.” His smile was almost feral when the words came out of his mouth.
Mason put his arm protectively around Amelia and leaned down close to her ear. “What the heck is going on?”
Amelia looked over to her friend. Sybil’s face was inscrutable and her body remained frozen to the spot. “It looks like things are about to get interesting in Blackstone.” This probably wasn’t what the she-dragon had in mind when she’d pined for mate. But, if her friend could be even half as happy as Amelia was with Mason and Cassie in her life, well, she was ecstatic for what was in store for Sybil.
It’s not the end!
The story continues in
The Blackstone She-Dragon.
Available September 26, 2018
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Dear Reader,
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But we are near the end.
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Preview: The Blackstone She-Dragon
Unedited and subject to change
Sybil Lennox’s eyes fluttered open as she heard her alarm clock make its familiar ring-ding-ding sound. She reached over to her bedside table and turned it off.
“Hmmm ….” She sighed audibly as she sat up and stretch. What a strange dream. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes some more. Her dream was … she shook her head. She couldn’t remember the details, but she remembered feeling really good. Like she was floating in a body of warm water.
Her inner dragon agreed. Whatever the dream was, it had been amazing. The creature inside her was content to just laze around in bed, but Sybil was not going to lie down and do nothing this weekend.
I’m so looking forward to today. After all, it was the last weekend of the summer and they were having the annual Lennox-Walker barbecue at Blackstone Lake.
Sybil glanced over at her clock again. It was eight a.m. on a Saturday, but she didn’t mind waking up early. It would give her a chance to clean up her apartment, have a cup of coffee and get ready for the barbecue. She was already half-packed as they would be at Blackstone lake all weekend. It was going to be so much fun, and she was looking forward to spending time with her parents, brothers, and the rest of the family.
She hummed to herself cheerfully as she got showered, dressed, and finished packing. By the time she heard the knock on the door, she had already put her three bottles of sunscreen into her bag and zipped it closed.
“Auntie Sybil!” Grayson Mills-Lennox greeted when she opened the door. The five-year-old boy raised his chubby arms up at her, and she obliged by picking him up.
“Hey, Squirt.” The scent of bear cub filled her nostrils, and her inner dragon glowed with happiness as it recognized the child. Sybil’s animal was protective over children, and probably one of the main reasons she decided to be a child welfare advocate. “Ready for the lake?”
“Oh boy, am I ever!”
“Grayson,” Georgina, Grayson’s mother and Sybil’s adoptive brother’s wife, warned. “You’re getting too heavy to be carried like that.”
“Aww, Mommy, Auntie Sybil can take me. She’s strong, like Papa and Pop-pop.”
Sybil laughed. True, as a dragon shifter, she did have enhanced strength, even in human form, which was why she was alway extra careful. “You are growing real big, Grayson.” She put him down. “How much mac and cheese have you been eating?”
“Lots!” the boy said proudly.
“We should get going,” Georgina said. “Luke is waiting for us outside.”
“I’m all ready,” Sybil proclaimed. “Are you excited for the weekend?”
“Oh boy, I am. Papa said that we’re going to go swimming, and then have barbecue and ….”
Sybil let the boy ramble on as she locked her door and then followed mother and son down to the first floor where Luke’s shiny new truck was waiting in the driveway of her apartment complex. She opened the rear passenger door and helped Grayson inside before climbing in.
“Hey Luke.” She squeezed his shoulder as she moved into the back seat.
“Sybbie," he greeted back using his favorite childhood nickname. “Did you lock your door?
She rolled her eyes as she strapped Grayson into his car seat. “Yes.”
“And you have the timers on your lights?”
“Uh-huh.” She patted Grayson on the head, then put her own seatbelt on.
“And you changed the batteries on your smoke detector?”
“Seriously? I’m a dragon, remember?”
Luke’s tawny gold eyes stared back at her, dead serious. “Which is why I’m asking. Do you remember when you were eight and you—”
“Shush! That was years ago.” She put her hand up. “Fine. Yes, mom,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “I changed the batteries last week.”
“Good.” He nodded and turned to his mate. “Ready?” Georgina nodded and Luke put the truck in gear, then drove out to the main road.
Georgina glanced back at Sybil. “You know he’s like this because he cares about you right?”
“And because you live in a dodgy neighborhood,” Luke added, looking at her from the rearview mirror.
“It is not dodgy,” she said defensively. “It’s quaint.”
“
It’s dodgy,” Luke insisted.
Sybil huffed. “It’s near work, which means I save on gas, plus it’s what I can afford on my salary.” Her apartment complex was located in the less-affluent part of Blackstone, but it was also accessible to the highway that led to the next town. Although the Child Welfare Service Office was located in Blackstone, her office actually served the entire county and most of her cases had her traveling into the surrounding towns.
“You could live at the castle,” Luke pointed out.
“So could you,” she shot back. Although Luke grunted and turned his attention back to the road, she saw the smile at the corner of her lips. Her brother had always told her how proud he was of her, that she didn’t just turn out to be a rich, spoiled heiress, but instead, wanted to make her own way in life.
“He just wants you to be happy and safe,” Georgina said. “Right, Luke?”
“You need someone to take care of you,” Luke said.
“Excuse me?” Sybil said, trying not to raise her voice.
“You know what I mean.”
Sybil sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You, Jason, and Matthew spent most of my teen years scaring off any boy who came near me, and now you’re complaining that I don’t have a boyfriend?”
“I don’t want just any boyfriend for you,” Luke grumbled. “You should have someone who will respect you and treat you right. Then maybe, I might stop worrying about you.”
The Blackstone She-Bear: Blackstone Mountain Book 7 Page 15