Forever Fated Mates: A Shifter Romance Collection

by Meg Ripley

  “Yes.” Varhan’s voice trembled. “It’s working! Oh, praise be to all the spirits that watch us from above!” He clapped his hands gently.

  “Can we see anywhere else?” Kaylee asked, desperate to find out more about this place.

  “I’ll try.” Varhan rubbed his hands together and pressed them to the floor. The circle of vision beneath them started to shift slightly.

  Movement caught Kaylee’s eye just on the outer edge of it. “Wait. What’s that?”

  Julian sucked in his breath. “It can’t be.”

  But Kaylee knew. She had already known as soon as she had seen it—or rather, them. A small flight of dragons careened though the air near the summit of the mountain, their scales glistening in the sunlight. “Varhan, is there any chance that what we’re seeing is taking place at a different time? I mean, this is happening right now, right?”

  The wizard swallowed audibly before replying. “As far as I can tell, yes.”

  “Incredible,” Julian whispered.

  Kaylee felt as though she could float there above Charok all day, but the universe had other plans. The herbs in the silver bowl had burned down to a slow smolder, but the celery seeds began popping from the heat. Ash tumbled over the side of the shallow container. Kaylee instinctively took a slight step back, still squatting near the center of the circle, but it wasn’t enough. The obsidian stones that surrounded the bowl began cracking and splitting, sending shards of black stone into the air.

  “Something’s going wrong,” Varhan said. “Get back, quickly!”

  The three of them scrambled out of the circle. The vision beneath them had changed completely, a white, swirling mist obscuring the beautiful scenery that’d been there only a moment ago. Kaylee’s heart thundered in her chest. “What do we do to stop it?”

  “There are a few things I can try, but I’m not sure,” Varhan admitted, large beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “The spell was designed to only last for a few minutes. It should just wear itself out and stop, but I’m not sure what’s happening here. I’ll get my book.”

  Kaylee had never felt so helpless as she watched the mist change. It turned from white to red to a deep blue, and it began spinning so fast that it formed a vortex at the center. To her surprise, the bowl and the remnants of the stones fell right into it. A rising wind was now flowing through the room, rifling the open books on the tables and whipping her hair around her face. “I think we need to get out of here!”

  “Not yet!” Varhan shouted over the noise. “I can’t just leave it! I don’t know how far it will go!”

  Kaylee looked to her father, who nodded grimly. She understood. While she was no wizard, an out-of-control spell could be a very dangerous thing.

  The door to the library flew open, but not because of the wind. Jake filled the doorway, his eyes wild as he took in the scene. Naomi was just behind him, clinging to his arm. “What the hell is going on in here?”

  Nobody took the time to explain. It was too much to put into words when a whirlpool of air and magic and who-knew-what-else had opened up at their feet. Instead, Varhan moved around the circle to Kaylee’s side and handed her his spell book.

  Kaylee took the ancient journal in her hands, feeling its cracked leather cover and smelling the stale paper. The wizard poked his finger over her arm at a spell. “Read it! Out loud!”

  “Shouldn’t you be doing this?” she yelled, trying to hand the book back. The wind rushed loudly in her ears.

  “No time for modesty!” he insisted. “Read! And don’t stop until I say so!”

  Kaylee could hardly hear her own voice over the gale that tormented the room, but she did as she was told. The verses he’d indicated were written in the same odd writing as the original spell, but the words were different. Kaylee paid little attention to them as she let them flow from her lips.

  As soon as she was done, Varhan shook her elbow. “Keep going!”

  The vision at her feet that had become a real thing so quickly terrified her, so she allowed herself to get lost in the words. Her tongue brushed the roof of her mouth and slid across the backs of her teeth as she spoke. She didn’t stop the spell even to breathe in, reciting the words with every movement of her lungs. She closed her eyes. Varhan’s hand on her shoulder kept her rooted as she spoke, and soon enough, she felt her father on the other side.

  A gasp from her mother made her open her eyes again. The mist now looked as solid as water, and it spun so fast, it made her stomach churn. The downdraft in the center had now lifted upward, and a dragon came shooting out of it. The beast nearly hit the high ceiling before he caught himself on one of the heavy wooden timbers. Three more came after it.

  Varhan bent forward and touched the portal with the tip of his wand, and in an instant, it froze back into the hard, wooden floor that it had been originally.

  6

  Archard shoved the rest of his clan behind him and spread his wings, feeling a ball of fire building in his chest. It had been a normal day on Charok when the sky had opened up and sucked them through a long, winding passage full of light that made his stomach turn. Now, he had no idea where he was or why, but he knew he didn’t belong there.

  “Who are you, and what do you want with us?” he demanded.

  A man stepped forward, holding his palms out and grinning from ear to ear. “I can’t tell you how happy we are to see you!”

  This fool was clearly of no consequence, but some sort of magic had happened to bring them there. Archard craned his neck toward the little old man on the other side of the room, who was trying to dislodge a stick from the floor. “You! You’re a wizard! Are you all wizards?” It was the first conclusion he’d come to, considering this confined, stifling place they were in. Only a wizard would put them in a place like this.

  The smiling man flicked his arm, shifting his hand into a clawed one for a moment. “We’re dragons, just like you are. Well, Varhan is a wizard, but I promise he’s on your side.”

  “Get out of the way!” This came from Callan, who slid his dark brown reptilian form around from behind Archard. He approached the strangers, quickly morphing into his two-legged self and reaching out his hand just as his claws and scales transformed into fingers and nails. “I apologize for my cousin’s behavior. We just haven’t seen any other dragons in a long time.”

  “Callan…” Archard warned. What he said was true, but just because they were dealing with fellow dragons didn’t mean they were safe.

  “It’s quite understandable. My name is Julian.” The man shook Callan’s hand. “This is Varhan, my daughter Kaylee, my wife Naomi, and my son Jacob.”

  Archard’s eyes glanced around the room at each person Julian introduced, but they swung immediately back to the one named Kaylee. With her deep brown hair and brilliant emerald eyes, she greatly resembled her father. Unlike him, though, she looked slightly horrified. Archard focused on her dark pink lips and felt his scales ripple. Perhaps she was a wizard, as well, because he felt as though she’d put a spell on him.

  “It’s very nice to meet you,” Callan enthused.

  Now Lucia came forward. She touched Archard reassuringly with her wing before shifting into her human form as well. “I think you’ll set our minds at ease if you could explain what’s happened.”

  Archard didn’t like the idea of his clan putting themselves at risk like this. They didn’t know these people, and the four of them were all they had left. Still, he wanted to hear their side of the story.

  Varhan gave a final yank at his wand, and the flames inside Archard prepared to leap forward, lest he put another spell on them. But the wood snapped, and the wizard hit the floor with a hard thump. He examined the splintered stump in his hand. “Ah, damn.”

  This was enough to break the tension in the room for many of them, but Archard wasn’t ready to put his guard down just yet.

  “Easy there, big boy,” Kieran whispered from his side. His silver scales had melted into warm skin and a shaggy beard, and his d
ark eyes looked into Archard’s with sympathy. “There’s not enough room in here for all your rage.”

  “Fine.” It took a lot of effort and several deep breaths, but Archard folded his wings into his back. The strong reptilian legs stretched while his neck shortened, and he shook his head as his face took on the shape of his human configuration. He ran a thick hand through the dark hair that replaced the spikes on the back of his head and suddenly felt self-conscious as he noticed that Kaylee was still watching him.

  “This is a little difficult, because I’m not entirely sure myself of what’s happened,” Julian explained. “You see, we came from Charok two decades ago, just as Tazarre cast his spell. Varhan helped us. My son was born here, and I brought my daughter here while she was still growing in her egg. We were simply trying to see what things were like over there, but something went wrong with the spell.”

  “I warned you there would be some side effects we couldn’t predict,” Varhan grumbled as he got to his feet with Kaylee’s assistance, dusting off his robe. “While I can’t explain what went wrong, I did the best I could do to fix it. I used another spell I’d been considering, but I wasn’t sure what it would do. Apparently, it brought you all here.”

  “But where is here?” Archard demanded.

  “Earth,” Kaylee answered, and her voice pierced straight into Archard’s heart.

  She was too beautiful, and he’d never seen anyone quite like her. He wanted to shift back, and the skin on the back of his neck flipped over into scales. He gritted his teeth against each other to regain control. Clearly, if she was part of whatever spell that had brought them there, then she had some sort of power. So why did he feel the need to dart across the room and separate her from the rest of these strangers?

  “As far as we can calculate, our planet is on the opposite side of the galaxy from Charok,” Varhan said gently. “It’s a long way unless you have the right spell.”

  “You’re saying that you escaped before the Great Curse?” Archard asked. “You abandoned us while everyone was dying? You ran off to another planet and left us?” He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around this foreign planet they were supposedly on, but the idea left a distinct sense of disgust at the base of his spine.

  “I promise you, I had a very good reason for going. I’ve spent my entire life since then wishing there was something I could’ve done to save everyone. But there was very little time,” Julian explained.

  “And my resources were limited, unfortunately,” Varhan added.

  Lucia nodded. “I think we can understand that,” she said in her calm and diplomatic voice. “And I think there’s much more for all of us to talk about. But I have to admit that this spell and the idea of being on a different planet has left me feeling rather overwhelmed. This is going to take some time.”

  “Of course!” The woman named Naomi jumped forward. She was, as far as Archard could understand, Kaylee’s mother, but the two women looked nothing like each other. “Perhaps we should start with giving you a tour of our home. It’s big enough, and I think we can find accommodations for all of you.”

  Archard took a solid step forward. “What I’d prefer is for you to send us back,” he asserted. “We never asked to come here.”

  Julian glanced at the wizard, who rolled his shoulders uncertainly.

  “Ah, you see, that might not be a very simple thing.”

  Archard’s blood thundered in his ears. It was a very human reaction, and one that he didn’t prefer to experience. It was easier to handle these situations as a dragon, and his body certainly wanted to be back in that physique, but there simply wasn’t enough space in this room for them all to shift back. “Are you telling me we’re stuck here?”

  The corners of Varhan’s mouth stretched down toward his wobbly jaw. “I’m afraid so, at least for now. But I promise you I’ll get working on it right away!” he added quickly.

  “I know it’s hard to understand right now, but you should really give Earth a try,” Julian said. “There were several other dragons who came through with me, and we’ve all adjusted very well. It’s quite a pleasant place once you get used to it.”

  Archard wasn’t so sure. He didn’t want to come here, and as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t going to stay any longer than he had to. “I want to go back as soon as possible. I can’t just leave my entire world behind.”

  “I know it’s difficult right now, but be patient. It’ll be all right.” Julian led the way out of the room, the rest of the dragons following him.

  Archard brought up the end, seething inside. It was easy for Julian to tell him to be patient. He’d come to this place of his own volition. But Archard had duties back on Charok, ones that he couldn’t just abandon. Nobody there would understand that, though, not even his own family. He stepped out into a hallway, which made him even more uncomfortable than the library had.

  “For what it’s worth, this really wasn’t what we intended.”

  He whirled to find Kaylee at his shoulder. Standing right next to her like that, he could see that she was only a few inches shorter than him. Her dark curls tumbled around her shoulders, and she still looked as breathless as she had when they arrived. He studied her face, feeling as though he’d seen her somewhere before. “I’m not sure it matters.”

  “Suit yourself, but I just want you to know that we meant no harm. I’m looking forward to finding out more about your world. Well, technically it’s my world, too. Just not in the same way.” They followed the others down the hall, and Julian could be heard at the front of the line giving a grand tour of the place.

  “It’s not your world at all,” Archard insisted. “I can see already that you live completely different lives than we do on Charok. I can barely even tell that you’re a dragon.” He hadn’t realized it until he’d said it out loud. Dragons always knew each other, even if they’d never met before. It was an instant knowledge that reached their brains, and though he didn’t know the science behind it, he knew it to be true. Kaylee was more human than dragon, yet there was something else inside her as well.

  She tipped her head up ever so slightly, her eyes narrowing. “There aren’t many opportunities to shift in this world. We live among humans who don’t know about us, and we’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Are you seriously telling me that I can’t even be who I am here? That I can’t fly and hunt and do…everything else dragons do?” He’d gotten too close to her, his body only a few inches away from hers, and his mind had turned in the wrong direction. Archard should be concerned with his freedom and his future, yet he was suddenly much more interested in grabbing Kaylee and dragging her off through one of the numerous doorways around them so they could be alone. It was a strange feeling, and one he knew he shouldn’t be having.

  “There’s a lot you can do,” she replied patiently, obviously having no idea what he was really thinking. She glanced down the hall, where the rest of the party was turning off into a large room and leaving them behind. “It’s just that over the years, a lot of us have gotten out of the habit. Bad things could happen if we’re discovered, so we have to be discreet. But it’s not so bad, really.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Archard snarled. Now that the rest of them were out of earshot, he was having a harder time controlling his body. The most difficult part was that he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do. Part of him wanted to keep this beautiful woman safe from anything that might harm her, and the idea that they were surrounded by humans who wanted to do just that made his blood boil.

  The other part of him knew that someone was going to have to step in and make sure Kaylee was safe from him. The longer he stood here near her, watching the way the shades of green shifted in her intelligent eyes and studying the warmth and tone of her skin, the more he wanted to wrap his arms around her waist and crush her against his body. Even the way her mouth moved when she spoke, like the words only existed because she allowed them to, was hypnotizing. If they were somewhere else and
in a different situation, he might not have bothered to control himself at all.

  Kaylee crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow, her lips tightening. “Fine. If you want to be grumpy and negative about this, then that’s your problem.”

  “What?” He’d gotten so caught up in the energy that crackled between them that he’d nearly forgotten everything he’d said.

  “I know this can’t be easy on you,” she replied, her voice impatient. “I can’t pretend to know exactly what you’re going through, but I’m doing my best. You won’t even let me be nice, so maybe I should just stop trying.” Kaylee brushed past him and stormed down the hall to join the rest of the group.

  Archard watched her go, any argument dying on his lips. Earth was going to be quite a challenge.

  7

  Kaylee’s body ached. She was so tired that her eyelids threatened to close as she helped her mother clean up the kitchen, but she knew she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. The evening’s events had been far too exciting.

  After Julian had shown the new dragons around the house and assured them numerous times that they were welcome to stay, Naomi had prepared a large dinner and Jake had added the extra leaves in the dining table. It was like the family reunion that Kaylee had never realized she’d longed for. Lucia made polite conversation, always thanking their hosts and commenting on how delicious the food was. Callan was fascinated with the new world and asked questions about everything, which kept the conversation going long into the night. Kieran was quiet, but his eyes were wise and it was obvious to Kaylee that he observed everything going on around him. Every now and then, he’d cracked a dry joke that was funny, no matter what planet they were on. Archard had been another matter, but she tried to ignore him as best she could.

  Naomi took a dirty plate out of her hand and smiled. “You look dead on your feet.”

  “Something like that,” Kaylee admitted. “I just can’t stop thinking about it all. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but I can’t say I’m unhappy that it did.”