Submerge (Apalala Clan Book 3)

by Dzintra Sullivan

  She didn’t say anything. Instead, she looked back to the ocean as she tucked back under his arm.

  “Can I call you Elyse? Or do you prefer Doug?”

  She shrugged. “I haven’t been called Elyse since my parents… died. It was only used by those who were family and loved me unconditionally.”

  “You haven’t been loved since then?” Ladon asked tentatively.

  “No, I would rather be alone than be forced to live up to the unrealistic expectations of an entitled man. Men generally don’t like strong women anyway. They run when they work out I won’t take their petty games.”

  “Games are for children, not for lovers.”

  “Some games are fun, just not ones that end up with me being left, hurt, and alone. It’s not worth it. This is as close to a date as I’ve been on in well over four years.” Elyse laughed awkwardly. “As for your question, I think Doug is fine…” She saw the disappointment in his eyes as she sat up. “You have to earn Elyse.”

  “Seems fair. Gives me something to work for. Also, if you think this was a date, it wasn’t. When I do take you on a date….” He looked deep into her eyes, a dominant flicker in his eyes, one she knew and responded to instantly. “When I do take you on a date, you will know. I don’t date lightly.”

  “We will see.” Her eyebrow cocked with interest.

  “Elyse?”

  Elyse turned to the voice, surprised that anyone else was out and about just after midnight. She saw Jenna walking toward her with a shocked expression on her face.

  “Oh, hey, Jenna.” She got to her feet. “Didn’t expect to see you here, or anyone for that matter.”

  “I can see that.” Jenna looked over at Ladon, her eyes wide with fear as they flickered between Ladon and Elyse. “Why are you with one of them?”

  Elyse looked back at Ladon and shrugged. “Them? Like men? I was just sitting and talking.” She started to explain, then realized she didn’t have to and straightened her spine. “What does it matter what I do? We’ll be on our way, g’night to you, Jenna.” Elyse took Ladon by the hand, her fingers entwined with his as she started to walk away with him in tow.

  “Them…” Jenna said firmer. “As in a dragon.”

  Ladon froze as Elyse stopped looking back at Jenna. “A what?”

  “Dragon. He is a dragon.” Jenna stepped back a few feet. “He is a beast with an unruly temper. At any moment his real form will spring free, and he will tear us all limb from limb in a fiery battle. You are holding hands with the enemy.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Jenna, this is Ladon.” She turned to look up into his eyes. “He is my new…” Ladon’s breathe caught as he waited for her word choice. “Friend,” she said with a soft smile.

  He’d take that.

  “He has lured you with his charm. Dragons are the worst for it. Just when you’re at your most exposed, they spring forth and kill with unabandoned hunger.”

  Where had this nut case come from?

  And where was she getting these crazy-assed facts from?

  Ladon hadn’t eaten a human in… well... forever. He looked at Doug and said, “Want to just get out of here?” He needed to get her away from this woman as soon as possible. When the time came for her to know what his true form was, he wanted to be the one to tell her, not some whack-a-doodle.

  Elyse looked at Jenna then back at Ladon. “Yes, please.”

  They had only taken a couple of steps when Jenna shouted, “You have left me no option.” Ladon turned just in time for the bullet to lodge in his shoulder, the impact sending him backward onto his back.

  Elyse screamed as she ran to his side. “Ladon? Ladon?” Flicking back to Jenna, who was walking up to them both calmly reloading her weapon. “What the hell? You shot him? You actually shot him?”

  “It’s not a him, it’s a dirty, filthy beast. I will protect humans the way I have been trained, just like your parents did. Dragons must be killed no matter how pretty the packaging they come in. It’s kill them or be killed by them.” She stood over Ladon, aiming the gun in the center of his forehead. “I want you to see him in his true form before I kill him, Elyse.”

  “Nooo…” She threw herself across his chest. “Stop. Phone an ambulance for God’s sake. Jenna, I can’t believe you just shot a man.”

  “Dragon,” she corrected her.

  Ladon shook his head and got to his feet. Elyse helped him, her mouth open in awe of this man who had just taken a bullet to the shoulder and was standing like nothing happened.

  “Just stay still, Ladon. I’ll phone an ambulance,” Elyse said.

  “I’m fine. No need.” Looking down at Elyse before returning his glare to the hunter.

  “That’s how you’re going to play it, is it?” Jenna said smugly. “You won’t change for you…” she swung the gun toward Elyse, “… then maybe you will for her?”

  “Leave her out of it, hunter. You want me, take me. She’s out of bounds.”

  “You think you’re so smug. She needs to see you... the real you.” Jenna pulled the trigger.

  Elyse’s body flew back at least three feet with the impact. Ladon felt the dragon launch from his chest. The woman he loves, the woman he had been given as a precious gift from the goddess had just been shot. The dragon needed to protect her at all costs. Ladon had no chance of pulling him back now. Ladon grimaced as the beast forced a hard and fast transformation. The tearing of flesh and breaking of bones were painful when done with this speed, but Ladon’s dragon wanted out, and it wanted out now.

  “There it is… come out, come out, dragon.” Jenna’s reaction was dark. “Who would have thought it only took a shot at a human to bring him out.”

  “What was that about?” Elyse said as she stood up, dusting off her legs from where she had hit the dirt hard. “You shot me?”

  “How are you alive?” Jenna asked with a slow tilt of her head. “I shot you directly in the chest.”

  Elyse looked down at her chest. There was a small round hole in Ladon’s jacket with a matching one in her shirt underneath. Yet, not a single scratch on her. Not even a red mark where it had hit her. She was unscathed. Elyse looked up at Jenna, her brow creased as she struggled to get her head wrapped around what was happening. A thud beside her made her turn her head, gasping as she looked into the ice-blue eyes of a large dragon. They were eyes she recognized in a body she didn’t. The scaled beast stood easily ten feet from shoulder to clawed foot. Add on the head and tail, and it was one massive ocean-colored dragon.

  “Ladon?” she whispered. The beast nodded. His eyes lowered as if ashamed of what he was. “Oh…” Her word carried on a breath.

  “I won’t miss this time,” Jenna screeched as she raised the weapon once more and aimed it straight for Ladon’s head. Ladon’s dragon spun, his tail connecting with the gun and flicking it out into the black abyss that was the ocean.

  “I think he has other plans,” Elyse said in awe of how quickly the beast had moved, and yet never inflicted a scratch on Jenna. Even though it was Jenna who was threatening to hurt him first.

  “How are you even still breathing?” Jenna screamed at her. “I don’t get it. It’s just like that night all over again.”

  “That night?” Elyse asked. “What night?”

  Before Jenna had a chance to answer, Ladon’s dragon lumbered to the cliff’s edge, glancing back over his shoulder, his eyes full of pain at how the night had turned out. A puff of defeat escaped his nose as he looked back out to the black ocean, leaping off into the night’s inky darkness. Only the splash moments later told Elyse he had made it to the water.

  “Look…” she turned back to Jenna, “… I’m not even going to pretend I understand what is going on here. I mean you shot me, you actually shot me. Yet, I have no mark?” Elyse’s head was swimming with information, none of which made any sense to her. She needed time to think this all out. “Jenna, hear me clearly. You hunt him down? I’ll hunt you down. Understand?” Jenna nodded as if she was looking at a ghos
t. “I need time to work this all out before anything stupid happens.”

  Elyse took a breath so deep it pushed her lungs to breaking point. Wrapping the jacket—his jacket—tightly around her undamaged chest, she walked home in complete silence.

  Elyse opened the door, slowly blinked her eyes as she walked to the sofa, leaving it open. Kylee followed her in having heard what happened last night, she was tentative as to what she was going to be walking into. The guys had all decided she should come alone, that she was the least threatening of them all.

  “How you doing, Doug?” Kylee asked softly as she sat on the edge of the chair. Looking around, she saw at least five different mugs of coffee in various stages of consumption. The laptop was open, and her Warcraft character stood motionless, kind of like Doug was right now. A half-eaten apple lay on the floor where it was obviously dropped and not picked up.

  “I’m okay,” Elyse said as she pulled up a knitted rainbow-colored blanket over her knees.

  Kylee looked at her. Doug’s hair had been pulled up at some point in the night but was now hanging half entangled in a hair tie with the rest falling around her face. She was wearing Ladon’s jacket, obviously her scaled pseudo brother had been a gentleman at some point last night.

  “Yeaaah, I’m kinda getting the ‘I’m fucked up’ vibe right now.”

  Elyse suddenly sat up like a switch had been flicked, and her animation kicked in, her eyes wide as she stared at Kylee. “I got shot last night. Shot. Like…” sticking her finger through Ladon’s Jacket she was still wearing, then looking back at Kylee, “… shot.”

  “I heard.” Kylee sat back in the chair, relieved that Doug was still present in the day, just obviously still thinking over last night’s developments.

  “Did you?” Her head tilted. “Oooh, of course, Ladon.” Her fingertips feathered lightly down the length of the jacket she wore. Her thoughts went deep for a flash before she flicked her eyes back to Kylee. “Did you know, he… um…” She rubbed her eyes, trying to find the word without using the word sitting on the edge of her tongue. “He—”

  “Yeah, I know.” V had given her permission to be as open as she felt she needed to be. Volos had pulled her aside and apologized for his outburst the other night. Kylee had politely told him to go fuck himself, and she would not be moving back in. However, for the sake of Ladon and the clan’s safety, she would help with Elyse. V acknowledged she would want more than simple words to prove his regret for the disrespect he showed her and gratefully accepted her help. Kylee made Payton listen as he agreed to her being able to do as she saw safe to do, that he trusted her judgment, and would back her no matter what.

  V had reluctantly agreed under the pressure of his mate’s stare.

  “So, it’s true?” Elyse asked. “I’ve been sitting here all night wondering if someone had slipped some drugs into my drink at work.” She looked directly into Kylee’s eyes. “Are you?”

  Kylee’s hands shot up as she laughed. “Fuck, no, completely human. The only beast springing from this body is my inner bitch, and she looks exactly like me, just meaner.”

  “Phew.” She exhaled. “I don’t know what’s fact and fiction right now.”

  “I know how this feels. I felt the same when I first learned about the brothers.”

  “Brothers?” Elyse’s mouth made a circle as she realized Ladon had brothers. And if he was, then they were… “All of them?” She shook her head as she heard the ludicrousness of her question. “Of course, all of them. It’s a family thing, I’m guessing.”

  “It’s a species thing.”

  “Oh.” Her mouth made that same circle shape as she took in the information. “Are there lots?” Kylee nodded to her question, so she asked another. “Is he okay?”

  “Ladon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Physically, yes. Although he is terrified that you will now see him as a monster,” Kylee said calmly. “I can remember the first time they told me. It was like an entire world I never knew about suddenly opened up to me. I was horrified at first, but as my best friend is mated to the leader, I had to make a choice. Be part of their world or lose the sister of my soul.”

  “Wait… what?” Elyse held her hands up. “Mated?”

  “Yes, part of their culture dictates that should another scent them,” Kylee was being selective of her words now. If Doug made her own connections that’s fine, but Kylee wasn’t going to dictate anything. “That, the one who scents is deemed the perfect match for their soul. It’s a gift from the goddess to the clan’s people. It’s the single most golden rule, once scented, it’s for life.”

  “Scented?” Elyse frowned. “Like dogs who smell butts on the street?”

  Kylee burst into laughter as the visual of the brothers all running around sniffing asses on the streets danced in her head. “No.” She struggled to breathe past her chuckling. “It’s far sweeter than that. I haven’t personally scented any of them, hence, why I am associated as a sister. However, my best friend?”

  “The one mated to the leader?”

  “Correct.” Kylee nodded and continued, “Her name is Payton, and she said she smelled chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream whenever she was near Volos.”

  “Oh, like really sweet?”

  “Yup. Tor’s mate, you met then when we first came in, and you were making the cocktail, remember?”

  “Tor, big guy, bigger tipper.” Elyse nodded.

  “Bigger jerk sometimes, too. However, his mate smelled lemon tarts.” Kylee grinned. “It’s bizarre, but apparently it’s the true sign of finding your mate.”

  “Sounds all very weird, but then again this whole situation is weird,” Elyse said more to herself than to Kylee. She sat back and rubbed her temples in small circles.

  Kylee just watched. She knew the penny would drop sooner or later.

  “Wait…” She sat upright. “No…” She looked to Kylee, the panic bursting across her face in an explosion of epic proportions as she connected the dots. “Are you saying that…” she started to ask. “No, can’t be… him and me?” She flopped back on the sofa with her hands across her head. Silence descended on the room for a few minutes before she sat up again and looked at Kylee. “Ladon… I smelled cheesecake.”

  “I know.”

  “There wasn’t any cheesecake around, though.”

  “I know.”

  “That means—”

  “Afraid so.” She shrugged.

  “But…” Elyse exhaled heavily. “Okaaay… um…”

  “Ladon is a great guy, you’re super lucky.” Kylee smiled warmly.

  “Take me to him,” Elyse demanded all of a sudden. “I need to see him.”

  Kylee wasn’t ready for this. Not sure what to do, she pulled her cell phone out. “I’ll give him a ring and see if he can come here.”

  “No, take me to him. You know where he is, right?” Kylee nodded, so she continued, “Good. Take me to him.” She got up and walked to the door catching a glance of herself in the hallway mirror and groaning. “Maybe give me ten minutes to shower and change.

  “As you wish. I will phone to let them know you’re coming.”

  “I’ll be back in ten.”

  Elyse vanished into her bedroom as Kylee dialed Volos’ number.

  “Yes?”

  “She wants to come to Ladon. Not him to her… her to him.”

  “Okay, you know how to do it. I’ll have Jo meet you at the shore with the boat. Let’s not drop her in the ocean completely yet.”

  “I’ll be there in thirty.”

  “Okay.”

  Kylee hung up and waited.

  This day had the potential to go ballistic, and she had front row seats.

  Elyse had no idea how this was going to pan out. She just knew, no matter what, she had to see it through to the end. Jo had picked her and Kylee up at the shore in a cute little speed boat and taken them out into the North Sea. Her eyes kept flicking to Jo. He was Ladon’s brother which meant he was one th
em too. Elyse didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, but she couldn’t help sneaking a look whenever she had a chance.

  They eventually stopped at one of the caves far offshore, and after Jo had docked, they got out, and she followed them inside.

  Elyse walked into a magnificent cave structure. Her breath was stolen as she looked around at what looked like a busy metropolis hidden from view. As she descended, the corridors kept snaking off into rooms filled with people. There was a common area, which from the peek she had on the way past, had places to eat, sit, and what even looked like a small park area where she could hear kids giggling.

  “I can’t believe this is all down here,” Elyse said in awe as her eyes wide with discovery continued to take in all the glory that was the clan’s home.

  “Yeah, the guys certainly look after their people. Nothing gets left out. Of course, they do get help with the setup, but that’s for another day’s discussion.” Jo kept on walking in, but Kylee stopped just short of a large opening. She looked at Elyse. “Okay, the guys are all in there. You sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “No, not at all, but I know it’s something I have to do.”

  “Okie-dokie, you still going by Doug?” Elyse nodded firmly making Kylee grin. “I like it. Let’s go.”

  Kylee turned and walked in with Elyse following her inside. Her mouth dropped open as she saw the opening led to a massive office. Two-thirds of the way down was a large dark wood desk with one of the brothers behind it. Elyse assumed it was Volos by the way he sat, definitely posturing as a leader would. Perched on the desk’s edge was a woman who was classically beautiful. Volos’ mate, obviously, she thought. Surrounding the desk was various types of seating from a sofa to stools and some recliners. It looked like a mismatch, but with them all in the same deep blood-red color, it looked perfectly planned.

  Everyone from the party was there. She couldn’t remember all their names, but she never forgot a face.