Waking the Dragon

by Rinelle Grey

  © 2015 by Rinelle Grey

  www.rinellegrey.com

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  About the Author

  Blurb

  When his centuries long slumber ends abruptly, dragon prince, Taurian finds himself in a whole new world. Now, pursued by an ancient enemy, he finds his survival depends on the human woman whose presence woke him.

  Karla is irresistibly drawn to the half-naked man she discovered in an ancient chamber. But when he starts claiming to be a dragon, she’s sure he’s crazy. The sensible thing to do would be to drop him off at the nearest police station.

  But she soon finds out that dealing with dragons is never that simple.

  Waking the Dragon is part 1 (16,000 words) in a new paranormal romance serial set in a small outback town in modern day Australia. Part 2 and 3 are out now, and part 4 is coming soon!

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  Chapter 1

  Were his eyes...golden?

  Karla blinked.

  That wasn’t even the strangest thing about them—even more bizarre was the fact that the pupil was a narrow slit, like a cat’s eye.

  People with gold eyes did not arrive in Mungaloo’s biggest rock and gem store. Ok, its only rock and gem store. In fact, very few people at all came in and she certainly hadn’t been expecting anyone at this time of the afternoon. She discarded her phone on the counter. This was a welcome distraction from her last text message conversation with Bruce. She gave her full attention to the customer. If that’s what he was.

  "You must see this." The stranger extended a perfectly manicured hand and opened it to reveal something small and golden.

  As an archaeologist, the object caught her interest almost as readily as his strange eyes. Nestled in his palm was a small gold medallion, hammer markings indicating that the stylised image of the sun had been sculpted by hand. If it was a fake, it was a convincing one, but there was no way it was from the Australian outback.

  “You have to go out to the Dragon Scales and see for yourself.” Karla couldn't tear her attention away from his intense eyes. There was something captivating in their depths. “There is a centuries old chamber there where I found this. You never know what other relics might be there.”

  Karla shook her head, confused. “The Dragon Scales?” What was he talking about? An artifact like this hadn’t come from around here. Surely he had to know that.

  She tried to let him down gently. “It must have been dropped by someone, there are no artifacts of that kind in the Australian outback. The Aboriginal people were hunter gathers, not builders.”

  “I found it out by the Dragon Scales. There’s a chamber there, I tell you.”

  His voice was desperate. What did he want from her?

  “You have to go and find them before the mining companies destroy them.”

  Ahh. Karla grimaced in sympathy. That was the issue. She’d never met the owner of the area that was about to be mined, there weren’t any houses there, just a strange rock formation of sandstone weathered into a lumpy pattern, but she now had a reason for his strange behaviour.

  “Is it your land?” she asked sympathetically. “I'm sorry, but you need real evidence of an archaeological site to halt a mining contract. They’re never going to believe something like this.”

  “Karla? Is there someone there?” her father called. She heard his footsteps coming in from the residence out the back of the store.

  “Please, just go. You will see.”

  The man pressed the medallion into her hand, closing her fingers over it, his intense eyes capturing and holding her attention.

  She couldn't look away. And somehow, she couldn't say no. “I'll see what I can do.”

  Then he was gone.

  Her father entered the room, pushing his reading glasses up onto his head and holding a sheaf of papers in his hand. The hopeful expression on his face indicated he was looking for a distraction. Anything to save him from finishing his taxes. He looked around the room, as though he expected to see someone hiding behind one of the shelves. “Who were you talking to? Was there a customer?

  Well, this would certainly provide a distraction.

  “Some crazy guy who said he found this out by the Dragon Scales.” Karla held out the medallion. “Said there was a chamber there, and that we needed to save it before the mining company destroys it.”

  Her father dumped the tax receipts on the counter and pulled his glasses back down. Taking the medallion from her hand, he examined it carefully, turning it this way and that. Finally, he handed it back to her. “You should go check it out.”

  “I don’t know.” Karla hesitated. When she’d been staring into the man’s odd eyes, she’d been almost convinced that it was worth checking out at least. Now reality was reasserting itself, and the very idea seemed ludicrous. “He’s obviously nuts. This isn’t from Australia. He’s faking evidence, hoping to stop the mining company. Lord knows, we’d all like to be able to stop them, but no one is going to believe a story like this.”

  “That medallion looks genuine to me, but you’re the expert.”

  “Well, it certainly isn’t from the Australian outback.”

  “Nothing would surprise me about the Dragon Scales,” her dad said. “I’ve always said that place just can't be natural. There has to be something more going on out there. What if you're the one to discover that it's not really the simple rock formation the geologists say it is?”

  Karla bit her lip. Why wasn’t she surprised that her dad was ready to swallow up the man’s crazy story? The hopeful tone in his voice was almost enough to sway her, but she hardened her heart. This was a pipe dream cooked up by the stranger.

  Her dad had had plenty of years to check out the apparent mysteries of the site, ones that had led to her family moving to Mungaloo years ago. She couldn’t blame him for not spending time out there when her mother had become sick. Instead of exploring the countryside, her father’s time had been taken up with her mother's appointments and medical tests.

  She could understand that he hadn’t had the heart to go in the years immediately following her swift death. But she’d been gone for twelve years now. His fascination with the Dragon Scales was what had dragged them out here–their eleventh move in fifteen years. Then when her mother died, he just seemed to lose interest. That was what she found hardest to understand

  It made it all seem like such as waste. All the changes in schools, all the things her mother had given up for him to follow his dream. All of it meant nothing in the end because he apparently hadn’t really cared at all.

  Karla turned the medallion over in her hand, not really seeing it. Tears blurred her eyes. The memory still hurt. Her mother’s gentle face faded into an image of the man’s swirling golden eyes, and his voice. ‘Please.’

  The word echoed strangely in her head.

  She had told the man she would check it out. If she didn’t, she’d always wonder if there hadn’t really been something there. And if she could prove, once and for all, that there was nothing out there, nothing worth bothering with, then maybe her father would move on.

  Then she’d only have to figure out why she couldn’t.

  “You’re not just going to ignore this and head back to England, are you? What if this turns out to be a huge find? You could really make a name for yourself with something like this. Do you really want to leave it to someone else?”

 
His words were tempting. What archaeologist didn’t dream of a find like this, if it was real?

  No, this was his dream. His path. Not hers.

  “You could always go and check it out for yourself,” Karla held out the medallion to him. “You could be the one to discover if there is something strange about the Dragon Scales. Isn't that what you always wanted?”

  A shadow fell across her father’s face. “It's not my area of expertise. I thought the mystery was geological, but it’s beginning to sound like it’s more up your alley.” His denial was too quick to ring true.

  Why? Why had he just given up everything he’d wanted when her mother died?

  Maybe Karla needed to figure out this mystery. If she could help her father move on, maybe she’d be able to herself.

  “Or are you just going to ignore this in your hurry to get back to that hoity-toity boyfriend of yours?” Her dad held out his fingers and moved them in a parody of polite gestures, and Karla knew that he meant it as a joke. It still stung. She never went rushing back just to be with Bruce, even when they had still been together.

  Her father hadn’t asked why she’d come to visit so suddenly, when she’d only been here a couple of months ago. She hadn’t told him that Bruce had broken up with her. Certainly not that it had been because she hadn’t been able to give him an answer to his marriage proposal.

  At twenty-seven years old, it wasn't like she was rushing into anything. She’d worked long and hard to get to where she was in her career, and though there was still plenty of room for advancement, she loved working in the field. Her relationship with Bruce had fitted in perfectly. He was busy himself, managing his estates, and had never put any demands on her time. He understood her absences for work, and never objected to them. He was steady and reliable, and he would certainly never get in the way of her achieving her dreams. His proposal hadn’t even come as a shock. They’d been together for four years. Why couldn’t she just say yes?

  Because she hadn’t been able to make the words come out.

  When he’d finally realised that her stunned silence wasn’t going to lead to a ‘yes’, Bruce had been understandably hurt. He’d told her that if their relationship wasn’t going anywhere, they might as well end it. Karla had been so dazed, she hadn’t managed to argue.

  She’d fled here, the only other place she knew.

  Why, she had no idea. Even though she and her dad had lived in this house together for five years after her mum died, the place had never really felt like home. It was functional—it gave them privacy and safety and a home base—but to Karla, it had always lacked that something that would have made it into more than just a house.

  That something her mother had always managed to create everywhere else they’d ended up. Her mother had walked around the house, whistling quietly, sweeping bare boards, sewing curtains and cushions, and filling the house with delicious smells. Stuff she’d never noticed until the day it was gone.

  She’d done it all so cheerfully too. Karla never would have guessed that underneath all that happiness, was an unrealised dream. She’d known her mother had dropped out of her music course at University to follow her father, but she’d never even considered that her mother might have regretted it. But apparently she had. In the final few weeks, her mother had asked what she was going to do at university. Then had murmured so quietly that Karla had to lean in closer to hear her that she wondered what would have happened if she’d finished her music degree.

  And her father dared to scoff at her for going home to Bruce?

  He’d never even met her boyfriend. He knew nothing about him. “You don’t get to have a go at Bruce until you come over to England to meet him.”

  “Why didn’t you bring him here to meet me?”

  Why didn’t she? Not this time, obviously, but why hadn’t she brought him before? Bruce had hinted that he would like to meet her family a couple of times in the last few years, but she’d been evasive.

  The truth was, she couldn’t imagine him here, riding down the main street of Mungaloo in her dad’s dusty ute, or sitting around the faded old melamine table on the mismatched chairs to eat sausages. Bruce wouldn’t be comfortable here, even for a visit.

  And her father would never be comfortable in Bruce’s home in England, with the antique furniture that had been in his family for generations, or the manicured gardens.

  The two of them had nothing in common.

  Was leaving her dad what was really bothering her? She loved her father dearly, and she knew he missed her as soon as she left to go home to England. But she couldn’t live her life doing what was right for him. She had her own life.

  Maybe this thing with the Dragon Scales, even if it was phony, was just what her dad needed. Something to give him an interest outside of the small, quiet, store. “Why don’t you come with me to check things out?” she pushed. “You might spot something I don’t notice.”

  Her dad shook his head. “I don’t close up early. There could be customers.”

  What a lame excuse. It was only a couple of hours until closing time anyway, and Gav was right next door, often watching the store when her dad ducked out. Karla had thought it was a lack of interest, but he was actively avoiding the Dragon Scales. Did he feel guilty for her mother’s lost dreams too?

  Karla hesitated, but there was no point in pushing him. When she found nothing of interest out there, he’d just be disappointed. Maybe what she really needed to do was prove that, then he could get on with doing something more useful with his life.

  “I’ll go by myself then. Can you help me pack the ute? There’s a couple of hours of daylight left. If I’m going to do this, I need to go tonight, I won’t have time before my flight in the morning.”

  They worked in silence to load up the truck with extra water, dried food, and some excavation tools in case she needed them. The Dragon Scales was only an hour’s drive away but the roads were long and lonely, with no phone reception if she broke down.

  “It should only take me a few hours to discover that there’s nothing there. I should be home in time for dinner.”

  “If you’re not, I’ll ring Gav and we’ll start a search party,” her dad joked.

  Like that was going to be necessary. There wasn’t anything out there but a few lumpy rocks.

  Karla gave him a peck on the cheek and stepped up into the driver’s seat.

  Chapter 2

  Parking the ute in the dubious shade of a stunted, windblown tree, Karla stepped out of the air conditioning and grimaced at the intense heat. Even at this time of the afternoon, it still hadn't dissipated. Better get this over with as quickly as possible.

  She stared at the stacked fence panels and excavators blocking the view of the plains. Looked like she’d arrived just in time. The fence was due to go up any day now. Until then being here wasn’t trespassing, was it?

  Not that there was anyone here to see. Shrugging, Karla walked past the mining equipment and stared out across the Dragon Scales–a huge flat area about the size of a football field, covered in raised stone shapes about the size of dinner plates. The beauty of the area hit her immediately, like it always had. The rocks undulated, like the imprint the waves left in the sand on the beach, except they were more uniform. It really did look like the scales of some giant dragon, striking and majestic. Bittersweet memories rose, of the first time her dad had brought them to see them, before they had even moved here. He'd told her mum that a geologist had decided that they were the result of wind turbulence as it whistled between the two peaks to the west.

  He hadn’t believed it.

  Personally, Karla preferred the story she’d heard whispered by some of her friend’s younger brothers and sisters. They always whispered that a dragon had buried his head in the sand to avoid the glare from the sun and been turned to stone, and the sand had slowly covered it over until only the imprint of the scales remained.

  She shook her head. She wasn’t here to be admire the view. She needed to check
out the area quickly so she could be home before dark. Grabbing a bottle of water out of the ute, she began to trek around the edge of the scale pattern. She couldn’t quite bring herself to step on the pattern itself. It was too perfect to be casually stepped on.

  Despite her scepticism, she was glad she had come. Something about the completely wild and untamed nature of the area struck a chord in her. There might be some amazing places in the UK, but nothing like this.

  She analysed the formation as she went. It was strange how it was an isolated area. The uniform oval of rock was surrounded by unremarkable reddish sand and stunted grass, with no sign of other rocks in the immediate vicinity. An out of place feature like this, especially one so uniform, could, in theory, be man-made, but there were no marks that might indicate carving or any other sculpting method she knew of.

  Everyone knew about the Dragon Scales. If there was something unnatural about them, someone would have discovered it before this. But they weren’t even considered unique enough for the area to be declared protected from the mining that was about to begin. The formation was just too small, and the coal too valuable. Karla grimaced.

  Half way around the rock, curiosity got the better of her, and she squatted down to examine the shape more closely. Each ‘scale’ was almost uniform in size, with one curved edge. The edge seemed to be almost overlapping the stone underneath. Were they one piece or different rocks? She picked up a stick and scraped at the edge, but she couldn’t even find a gap.

  Her eye roved over the scales, a niggling feeling that there was something she was missing teasing at her brain. Suddenly, she saw what her dad must always have seen. It was too perfect. Natural features were defined by their irregularity. But there wasn't a rock out of shape.

  Excitement bubbled up in her chest. Could there be some truth to the golden eyed man’s claims?

  She squashed the feeling ruthlessly. She didn’t believe in fairy tales. She believed in facts, and even though something seemed strange about this place, none of that proved it was anything more than it had always been.