Dark Heat

by Donna Grant

  “Hurt?” Con asked with a frown. “Cassie, he’ll heal. Tristan hasna fully mastered all that he is. Hal and the others are as old as time itself. They can handle themselves.”

  She wasn’t convinced, especially when Tristan landed several more strikes against Hal and the others. And then it was over as quickly as it had begun.

  As Tristan lay in human form, naked in the snow, she let her mind absorb the fact that Hal was as old as time itself. It seemed impossible, yet after seeing men shift into dragons, believable.

  When Tristan shifted, Hal and the others shifted as well. Cassie longed to go to Hal, but she knew Con wasn’t finished with her.

  While Rhys and Guy took Tristan’s arms and draped them over their shoulders so they could walk away, Hal remained with his back to her.

  Slowly, he turned and looked right at her.

  Cassie put her hand to the window, hoping to let him know she might be afraid, but she wasn’t running away.

  “He can no’ see you,” Con said.

  She dropped her arm and looked at him. “I’ve yet to run screaming from the room. I assume there’s more you want to try and frighten me with.”

  “There’s much more, Miss Hunter.”

  Cassie resumed her seat and waited.

  “We are bound to this place,” he said as he took his chair. “We can leave for a few weeks and sometimes a month at a time, but always we must return.”

  “Why?”

  “Verra long ago, some humans began to hunt dragons. Several dragons were killed. Because we were meant to protect both, we Kings stayed our hand.”

  “Was that wise?”

  Con shook his head. “Looking back, probably no’. One of us, Ulrik, thought the same as you. When he came seeking my approval to find the hunters, I refused. Ulrik took it upon himself to avenge the dragons that were killed. His retaliation started the verra war I was trying to avoid.”

  “Is that why you hate humans so much?”

  “I doona hate humans.”

  Cassie raised a brow in question.

  After a moment, Con continued. “It wasna just the war. I could’ve stopped Ulrik easily enough and punished him for disobeying. But he had fallen in love with a human. She used her influence and kept pushing Ulrik into more and more battles.

  “What Ulrik didna know was that somehow she was communicating with his silver dragons and having them attack settlements, killing women and children.”

  “Oh, God,” Cassie said, feeling sick to her stomach as she pictured the events in her mind.

  “Every dragon has a King, and every King answers to me. Ulrik was a friend, though he was closer to a few others, such as Hal. I was prepared for those loyal to Ulrik, those who had wanted to fight with him to find the hunters, to balk when I issued the order that we find and kill Ulrik’s woman.”

  “Did they?” she asked.

  Con sat silently for a moment. “Nay. We cornered her easily enough when she left Ulrik’s stronghold. I didna know she was on her way to meet him. My sword was the first to strike her. Every King then pierced her skin.”

  Cassie didn’t have to hear the rest of the events. She knew. “Ulrik discovered what you’d done.”

  “Aye.” Con rose and walked to the fireplace where he squatted and placed another log on the fire. “His rage was uncontrollable. My plan was to tell him what his woman had been about, but he never gave me time. He used his Silvers to attack the rest of us.

  “The battle was immense. Many humans lost their lives because they happened to be in the way. And then more joined the hunters and killed the wounded dragons before they could heal. It was utter chaos. And we had only one option left.”

  “Which was,” she urged when he paused.

  Con rose to his feet and turned to her. “I used my dragon magic to take away Ulrik’s ability to shift or talk to his Silvers. We caught some Silvers and caged them in the mountain there. And then we sent the other dragons to a different … place … where they could be safe.”

  “Why didn’t you go with them?”

  “Ulrik might be immortal and human for all intents and purposes, but he’s still a Dragon King. His rage and need for revenge fester even after all these millennia. He had to be watched, for the sake of mankind. With the bound Silvers in the mountain, the only way to keep them caged is with dragon magic.”

  “You mean the Kings. It’s why you can’t leave, right?”

  “Aye.

  Cassie exhaled sharply and looked out the window where she’d seen Hal shift into the splendid green dragon, and then shift back again to human form.

  “Why tell me all of this? I thought you wanted to scare me.”

  “I did,” Con said with a chuckle. “But I observed you watch Hal when he shifted. You were concerned for him, even though I saw a spark of fear in your eyes. I told you I’d tell you our secrets.”

  “And you did. What do you want me to answer?”

  “My question from before. Do you love Hal?”

  Cassie thought about her life before Hal, and how he had changed everything. Even with him being not quite human, she couldn’t imagine her world without him in it. He made her laugh, he awakened passion inside her she hadn’t known was possible.

  “Yes. Yes, I love Hal.”

  “Can you face him in dragon form?” Con asked softly.

  Cassie licked her lips and stood. “Yes.”

  Con walked to his office door and took the handle. “I’ll warn you, when a dragon finds his mate, there’s no going back. If you have any doubts, now is the time to voice them. If you go out there and confront Hal in his dragon form, he will claim you forever.”

  “Not forever,” she said as she realized he would go on without her. “I’m not immortal.”

  Con didn’t say anything until he opened the door. “Prove to Hal you want to be with him. But I caution you, Cassie, if you run away from him, if you hurt him, I’ll make you suffer.”

  “You mean you’ll kill me.”

  He smile was cold and deadly. “I doona kill humans. You’ll have your life, but no one hurts one of my Kings and doesna feel my wrath.”

  Cassie walked out of the office and to the painting of Hal. She gently touched the green dragon. “Take me to Hal,” she told Con.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTEEN

  Hal didn’t bother to put on any clothes. He’d known Cassie was watching him with the others as they tried to rein in Tristan. He hadn’t wanted her to see him like that.

  He’d have shown her differently. But as usual, Con had to have his way.

  Hal put his head in his hands as he sank onto a boulder and squeezed his eyes shut. Anyone seeing a dragon for the first time would have to be witless not to be scared out of their minds.

  And Cassie had seen five of them.

  Fighting.

  “Fuck,” Hal muttered.

  He knew he’d lost Cassie. It ate at his soul to realize she was probably halfway back to Arizona by now, with Con helping her board the plane.

  For the first time in a very long time, Hal hated Constantine. Why was it so bad for one of them to be happy? What was wrong with feeling?

  “You act as if she’s gone,” Rhys said as he tossed a pair of black jeans at him.

  Hal caught the jeans before they could hit him. “To a human who thinks dragons are no’ real, what do you think she did when she saw us shift?”

  “Why don’t you ask me?” Cassie questioned from behind him.

  Hal jumped to his feet and whirled around. There stood Cassie, her hands buried in the pockets of her oversized tan coat with Con behind her.

  It took everything Hal had not to go to her and pull her into his arms, to feel her softness against him and just hold her.

  “Con told me everything,” she said into the silence. “I … well, I saw everything.”

  Hal was afraid to say anything and frighten her off, but he had to know. “And you’re still here?”

  “Yes.”

  Con
stepped around Cassie and gave her a brief nod. “There’s one final thing I need from you and Cassie, Hal.”

  Hal turned his gaze to Con. “What?” He’d do anything as long as Cassie stayed near him.

  “Shift.”

  Anything but that.

  He’d wanted her to know who he was, what he was, but he saw the thread of panic and hesitation in her beautiful dark eyes. She’d seen him from far away, but up close and personal was something completely different.

  She looked ready to bolt at any moment, as if she wasn’t sure about any of them. Where there had always been trust and acceptance in her gaze, now there was indecision.

  How Hal hated that. Maybe keeping the secrets to himself had been the best plan. Then he’d have her. Her acceptance of him as part dragon didn’t seem to matter anymore.

  “Hal,” Con urged.

  Cassie licked her lips, her smile shaky as she said, “Go ahead.”

  He released his hold on the jeans. In less time than it took for the pants to hit the ground, he shifted. He lifted his head and stood as tall as he could in the low ceiling of the cavern.

  Through the emerald green dragon eyes with their sharp eyesight, he saw Cassie’s eyes widen as she took a step back. As much as Hal wanted to turn away, he didn’t.

  She wanted to see him as a dragon, so he would show her everything.

  He blew a breath out, the force of the wind making her dark locks billow around her. Hal transferred his weight, and the sound of his talons scraping against the rocks was loud in the silence.

  And to his amazement, she came toward him.

  * * *

  Cassie hadn’t realized the immense size of Hal until he stood before her. The green scales were even more beautiful up close.

  The scales grew finer and less thick on his neck and tail, but on his broad body they were dense and hard. On the end of his long tail was an axelike extension that she had no doubt could cleave another dragon in two.

  His thick limbs had three splayed digits on each foot with long claws that gave her pause. The semitransparent green crest that ran from his shoulders to the tip of his tail only made him look more intimidating, as if he needed any help.

  With his emerald gaze watching her, she could see Hal in them. His mouth was shaped so that it looked like he was smiling, and his fine, sharp teeth were there for all to see.

  But she also saw the sadness, the doubt in his eyes.

  She took a step toward him and he stretched out his large green wings the same instant he moved back. Cassie sucked in a breath when she saw the wings up close. Just that small movement stirred the air so that she nearly lost her balance.

  “You’re beautiful,” she told him. “Yes, I admit, it’s scary to see you like this, but to know dragons are real … It’s incredible.”

  She stroked his front arm, feeling the hardness of his green scales. His head gave her a gentle nudge, and she found herself smiling up at him.

  Her hands shook as she caressed down his long muzzle to his oval nostrils. Fear mixed with excitement the more she touched him.

  She was scared shitless, but she was determined to prove to him—and Con—that she cared enough to weather whatever they threw at her.

  “You’re a dragon shifter. A Dragon King,” she whispered. “Of all your secrets I thought you had, this wasn’t one of them.”

  The scales beneath her hand began almost to shimmer. She watched, mesmerized, as the dragon faded and Hal stood before her once more.

  Cassie’s hand dropped to her side as her gaze locked with Hal’s pale blue eyes.

  “You didna run,” he murmured.

  She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. He’d been afraid she’d leave. Everyone always left her. No one had ever worried about her leaving.

  “No. I didn’t leave, and I won’t. Not until you tell me you don’t want me anymore.”

  “That willna be happening,” Hal said as his eyes darkened with desire.

  Con cleared his throat where he stood with the other three Kings. Cassie had no idea where Tristan was, and didn’t care.

  “Before the two of you head off for some private time,” Con said with a grin, “There is something else Cassie needs to know, and something Hal needs to be reminded of.”

  Hal sighed loudly. “What might that be?”

  “Dragons mate for life.”

  Cassie looked from Hal to Con and then back to Hal. “But I’m not immortal. I’ll die and leave him to find someone else.”

  “Nay,” Hal and Con said in unison.

  “Now I’m confused,” Cassie said with a nervous chuckle. “Would someone care to explain?”

  Hal stood naked before her and opened his mouth to talk, when Con spoke over him.

  “It means, Cassie, that you can be bound to a Dragon King. As long as your King lives, so shall you.”

  Her head could hardly wrap around what they were telling her. “What is this binding?”

  “Think of it like a wedding ceremony,” Hal said.

  A wedding. They were talking eternity, and he’d yet to tell her he loved her. But then again, she hadn’t even admitted to herself how deep her feelings for him went.

  She had to be sure, because if she bound herself to him, it was forever. There was no divorce.

  “Children?” she asked.

  Hal looked away.

  “A few Kings were able to get their wives with child, but no’ a single babe was carried to term. I doona believe we were meant to have families,” Con said softly.

  Cassie had always thought she’d have two children. She’d pictured holidays with her kids many times in her mind. Leaving cookies for Santa, picking costumes for Halloween, hunting eggs for Easter, and pretending to be the Tooth Fairy.

  When she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, she found Hal watching her quietly. He had yet to say anything, as if he were waiting on her.

  “This happened between us very suddenly. Are you sure?” she asked him.

  One side of his mouth lifted in a smile. “I know what I feel, Cassie.”

  “Then tell me.”

  His brow furrowed for a moment before he closed the distance between them and covered her mouth with his. He tongue slid between her lips and he kissed her deeply, soundly.

  Completely.

  Every ounce of his feeling was put into the kiss. Every need, every want she felt as keenly as if it were her own.

  When he ended the kiss, she clung to him to keep upright. She forced her eyes open and found herself drowning in his moonlight blue gaze.

  “I love you, Cassie. I can no’ imagine life without you, nor do I want to try. I know it’s a lot to ask, but will you bind yourself to me so we can spend eternity together?”

  She swallowed as her mind struggled through all she had learned that day. “I knew the first time I saw you that you were different. Now I know why. I didn’t want to think or hope that I might be falling in love with you, and when I knew I was, I couldn’t stop it.”

  “But?” he asked when she paused.

  “But … I don’t want to live without you either. How can I know something with such certainty in so short a time?”

  “Because it’s right,” he murmured before he kissed her again.

  There was a loud whoop as someone shouted, “It’s about fekking time we have something to celebrate!”

  The kiss was cut short as they both began laughing. Cassie looked at the men around her. Rhys, Banan, and Guy were talking amongst themselves as Con stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face.

  “He approves of you,” Hal whispered in her ear.

  Cassie chuckled and rested her head on his chest. “The only one I want to approve is you.”

  His arms tightened around her, and Cassie found herself smiling for the first time as she thought of her future.

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  A month later …

  Cassie might not have seen every inch of the
caves, but she had seen all there was of the distillery, the mansion, and even the sheep and cattle farms.

  Since she’d agreed to bind herself with Hal, she’d spent every waking moment at Dreagan, Duke right beside her. Hal had somehow found her lost luggage and gotten everything moved to the mansion within a day.

  She stood in her room in the mansion and looked in the mirror and smoothed her hands down the dark green velvet gown she wore. The dress was simple, but she thought it suited.

  The sleeves were long and clung to her arms. The bodice was cut into a low vee and showed off her breasts as the material hugged her to her waist. From there, the heavy material draped to the floor.

  She lifted her skirts high enough so she could slip on the black stiletto heels. Her hair was left hanging down her back, with only the sides pulled away from her face.

  “Come in,” she called when someone knocked on her door.

  Con poked his head inside and smiled when he saw her. He closed the door behind him and nodded. “You look verra beautiful. Hal will love the green.”

  “I hope so. I chose it because it’s his color.”

  “Hal said you had no changes to your suite of rooms?”

  She looked at the huge room. There was a giant four-poster bed, a couch and two chairs situated in front of the fireplace. There was a separate, smaller room where their clothes were kept.

  Hal had brought in a vanity table for her, even though the mirror and lighting in their connecting bathroom would have been enough. And then there was the other living area with two couches and a large flat-screen TV.

  “There is nothing I’d change,” she said.

  Con cleared his throat. “Cassie, it’s been a long time since one of my Kings took a mate. I didna ever expect it to happen again, but I have no’ forgotten my duty.”

  “Duty?” she asked with a frown.

  He moved his arms from behind his back to present a small black box that he handed to her. “This is a token of thanks from me for bringing such happiness to Hal. I apologize for being so harsh in the beginning.”

  “You were protecting Hal. I knew that then, and I know it now. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”