by Sophie Stern
Kellen shifted back to his human form and stood there, staring at her. He looked weird in his naked human form. He was nothing like Declan, who was tall and beautiful and handsome. Kellen just seemed...gross.
How had he managed to survive this long? She wondered how nobody had killed him before. She wanted to. That was what Zoa wanted. She wanted to kill Kellen so he couldn’t hurt anyone else, but she was just a human, and her heroes were up in the night sky.
“And it’s you,” he sneered.
“Why did you come for me? I don’t want to go back with you.”
“I don’t remember asking your opinion. You’re mine, you little bitch. I own you.”
Before, she would have cowered. She would have cringed when he spoke such harsh words, but Zoa was different now. Declan had healed her body physically, but he’d also started the undoubtedly long process of healing her heart. She didn’t have to bow to someone like Kellen now because she had someone who loved her.
She had someone who believed she was his mate.
Zoa was aware of the fact that the dragons were still fighting. When were they going to realize that the real fight was happening on the ground beside the treehouse? Zoa and Kellen were at the very edge of the clearing. If any of the dragons looked right at this particular spot, they’d see her, but Kellen was still in the darkness, cloaked in the shadows.
“How did you find me?” Zoa asked. She wasn’t going to argue about ownership. She was, however, going to try to keep him talking as long as possible.
“I had your savior followed.” Kellen seemed proud of this.
“Then you came here.”
“Then I came here,” Kellen agreed. “Now it’s time for us to go, pet. You had a break from your cage, but you’re going right back.”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong, or have you forgotten what I am?”
Once again, Kellen shifted into his snake form. He was big and hideous. He was larger than a normal snake would be. While she had loved playing with tiny ringneck snakes as a kid, Zoa found the idea of even looking at Kellen to be repulsive. Most snakes were beautiful creatures. He was not.
Zoa took a step back so she was more clearly visible to the dragons. Oh, she wished they would stop fighting and just look. If only they could see her down here and know that Kellen was here. He was right here. She closed her eyes and wished.
“Come on, Declan,” she whispered.
Even if she screamed, the dragons wouldn’t be able to hear her. The sounds of the battle were too loud. One of the dragons was tossed from the air and landed in a tree. The branches cracked and splintered, but the dragon itself appeared to be unharmed. He righted himself and got up and hurried back to the sky.
Kellen hissed, but said nothing. Zoa had figured out that they couldn’t talk in their animal forms. No matter what type of shifter they were, they couldn’t speak when they weren’t human. That was probably a good thing, because Zoa didn’t want to know what Kellen was going to say.
Suddenly, from above, one of the dragons managed to breathe fire.
“No!” Zoa cried out even though she knew it didn’t matter.
They couldn’t hear her.
Zoa didn’t think all of the dragons could breathe fire, but one of them had. Its breath hit the top of the trees around her, almost burning her. The scent of burning leaves filled the air, and it reminded her of autumn. Long ago, burning leaves meant evenings around a bonfire.
Now it meant she was in danger.
They were all in danger.
She glanced over at the treehouse. Was it okay? If it burned down, Declan would be devastated. So far, it remained in one piece. She wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before one of the dragons fell and landed on it, crushing it. If that happened, the fight would only escalate because it would move out of the air and onto the ground.
The fire started to spread, and it brought her attention back to what was happening in front of her. Kellen slithered closer, and then in one, quick movement, he wrapped around her legs. She was bound, frozen in place. He hissed at her, watching her carefully.
Why was he looking at her?
Oh, he wanted to scare her. He was a sadist. She knew that. Now she saw that what really excited this asshole was seeing her afraid.
Well, too bad.
She wasn’t scared anymore. Not of him. She was doing just fine without Kellen in her life. She’d find a way out of this, but she was going to have to do it on her own. The Monster brothers were distracted, trying to fight off the dragons who were trying to save them. It had been a clever ruse, she thought. Kellen had come up with the perfect plan for separating all of them.
Too bad it wouldn’t be enough.
A tree branch fell, still burning, and Zoa stretched out, trying to grab it. Kellen squeezed her tighter, but she forced herself to keep trying. The branch slid through her fingers, but she tried again. Kellen wound himself around her body once more.
Now he was wrapped up to her waist. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to die.
“You got this,” she told herself.
Zoa knew that she had to get out of this. She had to find a way to be free. She wanted to believe that everything Declan and his brothers had said was true.
She wanted him to be her mate.
She wanted the happy ending.
“Fuck you,” she screamed out as loud as she possibly could. Her voice filled the night air. One of the dragons closest to her noticed, and gestured for the others to stop. The fighting ended instantly.
Zoa wrapped her hands around the branch, grabbing it tightly, and brought it back to Kellen. Then she pressed the fiery branch to his snake body, burning him. He hissed, instantly shifting back to his human form.
“You bitch!”
He’d been busy focusing on her, though, and he’d forgotten to watch out for the chaos unfolding in the air. The dragons had stopped their fighting. Now they were landing all around them, coming in for the kill, and suddenly, a shadow fell across Kellen. He looked around to find himself surrounded by nearly a dozen dragons who were staring at him.
Zoa breathed a sigh of relief.
It was over.
She was safe.
Nothing was going to happen to her now.
“No,” he said, taking a step back. “No, it’s not what it seems. She hurt me. I was trying to save her, and-”
He was cut off by a huge dragon that stepped forward. The creature towered over Kellen, making him appear very small. Beside the dragon, Kellen looked weak and afraid.
Zoa had noticed that Declan and his brothers were identical in their dragon forms, but she knew perfectly well that this one was him. She could sense him. She just knew that it was him.
Some people might not be able to tell the identical shifter dragons apart, but Zoa could. She didn’t know whether it was because they were mates or whether it was because his eyes were the same even in this form, but she knew.
It was him.
Declan stretched a talon out and, almost so quickly that Zoa didn’t know it was happening, he sliced Kellen across the throat. Kellen Brotella instantly fell to the ground, dead. He hit the dirt with a loud thump, and then Declan shifted back at once and looked at Zoa. He reached for her, grabbing her shoulders. She looked away from the body and back to Declan. He had killed Kellen.
The snake was never going to bother Zoa again.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she nodded quickly. Then she looked at all of the other dragons. Oh, they were so big, and they were so beautiful, and they’d all stopped fighting at the same time to make sure she was okay. How wonderful was that? “He set a trap,” she said quickly. Zoa tried to get all of the words out as fast as she could. “He set a trap for all of you. He said there was a dragon in trouble and to come here, but it was only so he could try to get me again.”
“He captured her,” Declan explained to the other shifters. “I saved this human
from Kellen’s house, and he came here to seek his revenge on me.”
“What a piece of shit,” one of the shifters changed back into their human form and looked from Declan to Kellen and back again. “You need help disposing of the body?”
“Yes,” Declan said. “If you’d all be so kind. Thank you for coming out here tonight, and I’m sorry for those of you I fought. Except for...”
His eyes searched the crowd until they locked on the light blue dragon.
“Except for you,” he said.
The dragon shifted back and instantly dropped to his knees.
“I’m so sorry,” the dragon said. It was a man. He looked young: maybe 17 or 18. He didn’t seem old enough to have been mixed up in something so terrible. “He told me the missing girl was his daughter and that she was in terrible danger. I didn’t know he was the true villain. Please spare my life. I understand if you won’t, but please...”
He sniffed.
He actually sniffled.
“My mom’s gonna kill me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Declan said. Zoa was surprised that he was showing mercy, but she was proud. The man had obviously been a victim, just as she had.
The dragons started moving. One of them retrieved Kellen’s body and a few of them flew away with it to destroy it. At least, Zoa hoped they were going to destroy it. She wondered just for a second if the dragons were going to eat it. Was that something that dragons did?
She didn’t really want to know.
Christopher shifted back and quietly started talking with the blue dragon kid, while Brian accompanied the other dragons to get rid of Kellen. Zoa was shaking, and Declan wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“Are you okay?”
“I was scared,” she whispered. “I didn’t want him to hurt you.”
“You were so brave. I’m sorry I didn’t save you.”
Zoa knew that he was sad she’d had to fight for herself, but that was only because he didn’t see that he had saved her. He’d rescued her from Brotella. He’d saved her from that mansion. Then he’d given her the chance to save herself when he came back for her.
“But Declan,” she whispered, “you did.”
He had.
Zoa kissed Declan again, and this time, her kiss held more than just lust. It held a promise. This was the dragon who had saved her, and this was the dragon she was going to love for the rest of her life.
No matter what.
Epilogue
One Month Later
Declan held his mate, kissing the top of her head. She was wonderful. That was what he thought of Zoa. He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to find someone who made his heart sing like this. No wonder his mother had always sworn up and down that finding your one true mate was important.
If he’d known he would feel like this, he would have gone searching for Zoa years ago.
His parents had been lucky to find each other at a young age. Now Declan was the age his mother had been when he and his brothers were born. He was still young, but his parents had been younger, which meant they’d had many wonderful, incredible years together before his father passed away unexpectedly.
“I love you,” he whispered.
Zoa fit perfectly in his arms and in his heart. Ever since he’d met her, his world had been different. He had been different. At first, Declan thought he was the one rescuing Zoa, but he’d quickly realized that it was the other way around. She’d saved him just as much as he’d saved her.
Maybe more.
Zoa had been eager to stay on Sapphire Island with Declan, and he was thrilled to have her living with him. He and his brothers had offered her a job at the company as their new accountant, and Zoa had accepted. She was just as good at accounting as she’d promised that she was.
Now, as they snuggled in his treehouse, he wished quietly that his brothers would find the same hope that he had. Would Brian and Christopher be able to find love? Would they be able to feel as content and as happy as Declan did in this moment?
Brian was a hardass who was always focused on work. He never gave himself time to breathe, much less relax. When he wasn’t at work, he was thinking about work. When he wasn’t thinking about work, he was asleep.
Then there was Christopher. Declan worried about his brother more than he should have. When was Christopher going to realize what was right in front of his face? The woman of his dreams was right there, practically begging him to notice her, but he didn’t.
Declan wasn’t sure whether Christopher was scared or just dumb, but he hoped his brother would figure things out soon. They deserved to find their happiness, just as Declan and Zoa had found theirs.
“I love you, too, my dragon,” Zoa whispered. She wiggled against him, and he moved his hands over the soft pink pajamas. She was still wearing the unicorn pajamas he’d given her when she first arrived, and they still looked just as perfect on her as they had that first day.
Now, Declan couldn’t help but feel a rush of happiness when he held Zoa. She really was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, and he planned to spend the rest of his life showing her just how special she was.
She was everything.
CHRISTOPHER SAT IN his office and stared at the computer screen in front of him. Five more minutes, he told himself. Five more minutes, and then he’d shut everything down and just go home. That was what he needed. He needed to go home and take a hot shower and go to sleep. He didn’t need to be spending any more time at the office than he already was.
The truth was that she was here, and he never focused well when she was. He didn’t know what it was about her that drove him so crazy, but anytime the soft little human walked into his office, his inner-dragon would start begging to roar.
He couldn’t have that.
He needed to stay focused and driven. His clients needed him. His employees needed him. Hell, his brothers and his mother needed him.
But he needed her, and he wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do about that.
It was nearly midnight when she knocked on the door. He knew even before she called out that it was her. He could fucking smell the vanilla-scented perfume she was wearing. Did she know that it was his undoing? Did she know that every single time she was close he wanted to grab her and kiss her?
“Christopher?”
“Come in,” he said gruffly. She was the only person he’d see at this late hour. They were both workaholics, to a certain extent. Then again, maybe they were both only working so late because they knew the other was.
When she stepped into the room, it was like everything in the world stopped. He couldn’t hear a single thing except for his heart pounding and her high-heels clicking as she made her way across the floor. She stopped in front of his desk, and she smiled.
“I was hoping you were still here,” she whispered.
Then she smiled, and Christopher thought his heart was going to explode. She wasn’t his mate. She couldn’t be his mate. He didn’t even believe in mates. That type of thing happened to his brothers, but not to him.
Only, she was perfect.
And she was heaven.
And he adored her.
“I’m still here,” he whispered, clearing his throat.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
The End
Find out what happens next in Naughty Dragon.
Author
Sophie Stern writes vampires, cowboys, werewolves, dragons, and fairy tales. Her books feature deliciously wonderful characters and deliciously naughty adventures. If you enjoyed Untamed Dragon, you may like one of her other romances, such as Dark Favors or The Feisty Librarian.
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Thank you so much for reading.
Books
Other books by Sophie Stern
HONEYPOT DARLINGS
HONEYPOT BABIE
S
DRAGON ISLE
THE FABLESTONE CLAN
DON’T DATE DEMONS
POLAR BEARS OF THE AIR FORCE
DARK FAVORS
SAVORED
Sophie’s books are available wherever eBooks are sold.
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