Red Says the Dragon

by Sophie Stern

  "I should like nothing more than to rule my people with you by my side," she whispered. "But if you do not want to go, then I will stay with you. You are my everything, Sanguine. You are all I have ever wanted, needed, hoped for."

  Sanguine wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest. She could hear his heart beat and knew, in this moment, that it beat only for her.

  He wasn't much of an emotional dragon. He wasn't much of a romantic. He had captured her and stolen her away, but he hadn't counted on falling in love with her. The Princess of Naga was the one who could push Kel out of power and reclaim her throne. She was the one who could rule over her people. She was the one who could save them.

  She could bring peace.

  It was only her.

  "I will come with you," he told her, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Kaira grinned.

  "Edward, you may return," she called out.

  The knight appeared in the doorway and walked into the room, waiting to hear what Kaira had to say. Part of him feared she would order Sanguine to kill him for daring to disturb their time together, but the rest of him hoped that he had been right about her, about both of them.

  He hoped she would return to Naga.

  "Knight, we will come with you," huffed Sanguine. Kaira nodded in agreement.

  He looked from Sanguine to Kaira, then back again. Edward dropped to one knee and bowed his head before them.

  "My King," Edward said to Sanguine.

  "My Queen," he murmured to Kaira.

  Then Edward stood and looked at Kaira.

  "You will make a beautiful dragon queen," he told her.

  Sanguine quite agreed.

  Author

  Sophie Stern is an erotic romance novelist who lives in the Midwest with her husband. She loves hearing from readers! Please feel free to connect on Facebook or leave a review with your thoughts on the story.

  Stepdragon

  Want more dragons? Check out Stepdragon: a standalone novella from Sophie Stern, now available on Amazon.

  Buy it here: Stepdragon

  1.

  Victoria hung up the phone and tried to get her hands to stop shaking. She stared at them for a moment, willing them to stop, but they wouldn't. She had just received the worst news of her entire life and she wasn’t sure what to do next. Nothing could stop the pain welling up in her stomach or the tears that were perched on her eyes, ready to pour over.

  Victoria’s mother was dead.

  Her mother, her beautiful mother, was gone. Worst of all, Victoria hadn’t been there when she died. She hadn't even known that her mom was sick. Victoria’s stepfather, Matt, had called to ask her to come to Dragon Isle for the funeral and for the reading of the will. Victoria needed to be there, he said, not unkindly.

  This was her duty.

  Victoria stared at the phone for a moment and thought about what Matt had just told her about Mom’s death. She had died a peaceful death after a battle with cancer. She hadn't wanted Victoria to know, Matt had told her. She hadn't wanted her to worry.

  It was typical for her mother, and Victoria wasn't entirely surprised. Though she and her mother kept in touch, neither one of them was particularly open about their personal issues or battles. Neither one of them said anything that might make the other worry. It was just something they had always done. Whether it be out of kindness or a strange sense of love, Victoria wasn't sure.

  But now Victoria didn't have much of a choice. She had to visit Dragon Isle to settle her mother’s affairs, to go to the funeral, to learn about the life her mother had lived while Victoria was away.

  And to be honest, it frightened her horribly.

  “When are you leaving?” Lindsey, Victoria’s calm and ever-caring roommate, placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. Though Lindsey had never understood Victoria’s aversion to her mother’s dragon clan or why she wouldn't visit her mother, Lindsey had never pushed Victoria to explain.

  “Three hours,” Victoria told her roommate. “So I need to get packing.” She stood and headed toward her bedroom. Lindsey trailed close behind.

  “I’ll help you,” her friend said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  Victoria fought her tears, knowing they would start falling at any moment. Once they began, she wouldn't be able to stop them. That much was for sure. Lindsey, ever the compassionate one, seemed to understand. She had lost her own parents a few years prior and though she didn't talk about it much, Victoria knew that she missed them.

  Victoria pulled out a tattered duffel bag and began throwing clothes inside. Lindsey stood to the side and silently offered the important items that Victoria would have otherwise missed: things like her toothbrush, hairbrush, and panties.

  “I’m sorry,” Victoria said finally. “It’s just a lot to take in.” She sat on the edge of her bed and stared at her hands. “After all this time, I finally have to face my mom’s world. I finally have to face her husband. I finally have to face her stepson.”

  “He’s your stepbrother,” Lindsey told her softly. “And your stepfather.”

  “Not anymore,” Victoria looked up at her friend. “Now they’re just the family my mother used to love before she died.”

  “What happened to you?” Lindsey asked gently. “Why do you hate the dragons so much?”

  In nearly five years of living together, it was the first time Lindsey had dared to broach the subject with Victoria. It had always been something that Victoria was very sensitive about, something she had always been nervous to talk about.

  “I don’t hate them,” Victoria said finally. Lindsey looked surprised. She had never heard Victoria say anything nice about the world of shifters. Though she herself didn’t know much about shifters, she always assumed that Victoria had some deep-rooted hatred that stemmed from her childhood.

  Then again, maybe that was the therapist in her. She’d been studying to be a counselor for years and was almost finished with school. Though Lindsey would never admit it to Victoria, she found her roommate to be especially fascinating when it came to childhood issues.

  “I’m jealous,” Victoria said after a minute. Lindsey couldn’t have been more surprised. Jealous? Of the shifters? She had a hard time imagining why. Though the world was slowly becoming more accepting of dragon shifters, there was a long way to go. Many shifters still kept their identities a secret for their own safety. There were plenty of people who wanted to see a national dragon database or, to Lindsey’s horror, to see all shifters tagged and monitored at all times.

  “Why are you jealous?” Lindsey asked.

  “When I was little, my dad died. I grew up without him. He never got to come to my dance recitals and he never got to take me to father-daughter dances. I was always the odd one out. I was always alone.” Victoria paused and took a deep breath. “A shifter doesn’t have to feel alone in a crowded room. He can just go away. He can just go fly. He can go be free to explore the world on a whim, and it’s beautiful.”

  Victoria looked almost whimsical as she thought about it.

  “I feel like it’s not fair. When I feel alone, the only thing I can do is write.” She nodded toward her stack of notebooks. Victoria had been working on writing a novel for years now, but she still hadn’t managed to finish it. She couldn’t get the ending right.

  “So your entire reason for not wanting to be with your mom was jealousy?”

  “Not the entire reason, but part of it. I just didn’t want to get hurt. I was there to see my mom struggle to make ends meet my entire life. I was there to see her try to balance being a single mom with having her own life. When she met Matt,” Victoria hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words. “He was different. He saved her. I wanted to give her a chance to have a new life without me in it, to be herself for once and not just ‘Victoria’s mom.’”

  Lindsey nodded slowly, finally starting to understand her roommate, shocked that the girl was finally opening up after all this time.

  “Besides,
” Victoria stood up and started to grab more clothes to shove into her duffel bag. “I wanted to go to college and get a good job. I wanted to make sure that if I ever got married and my husband died, I’d be able to take care of our kids.”

  She turned away so Lindsey couldn’t see the tears threatening to pour over again.

  She had admitted a lot to Lindsey.

  But she hadn’t admitted that part of her feared she would never find someone to love her.

  Part of her feared she was too broken to be loved.

  Read the rest of Stepdragon on Amazon!